Tag Archives: television

touching stories about children

Posted on October 24, 2012 by admin| Comments Off

and not the benevolent, emotional kind of touching.    one story is from the uk, and the other from the us.  let’s start across the pond.

meet jimmy savile.  he is pictured above.   he was a long-time british disc jokey and tv show host.  he hosted a make-a-wish type show called jim’ll fix it and a music chart show called top of the pops.

he is sometimes described as having a ‘peter pan’ type of personality.  this reminds of how michael jackson was also described, and in fact, described himself.

he died almost exactly a year ago.  after his death, allegations of child molestation and rape were made against him by many victims.  last december, a segment about the horrible allegations was produced about him, and the bbc declined to show it.  now they are having to answer a lot of questions.

it’s almost hysteria now, with each day bringing new allegations to light.   he may have had producers and assistants procure little girls for him to molest – at least that’s one allegation.  apparently he abused many young women and children at the bbc offices.

now, the bbc is investigating nine of it’s employees for sexual abuse of various kinds.  not just that they facilitated jimmy savile’s abuse, but that they engaged in it themselves as well.

the allegations against savile are piling up, almost comically fast.  the number ’4oo’ has been bandied about.  some have speculated that he was a member (or the center) of a child abuse ring.  this ring is thought to include doctors at hospitals where savile volunteered.   he was so involved in ‘charity work’ that he was given free reign – even keys to buildings where he supposedly gained access to mentally ill and even infirmed children.

it just keeps getting worse and worse, this story.

personally, savile appears to have been a major prick.  he was prone to angry outbursts, difficult to work with and very fickle.  he was always ‘on’, portraying this aloof, often antagonistic persona.

there is one interview in particular where savile seems very hard to deal with.  it’s a one off documentary show called ‘when louis theroux met jimmy savile‘.  the full length episode was on youtube as recently as two days ago, but now i can’t find it.  i linked the title to a torrent for the episode, which you can download in as much time as it’ll take to read this entry.

louis theroux is a british documentarian who works for the bbc.  he has a quiet, disarming style.  he tags along with subjects and allows them to reveal themselves – like the great nick broomfield does, but without a real agenda and not as aggressive.

in the episode, as he spends time with savile in several locations, louis can hardly ask any question that gets a straight answer.  anything louis says is contradicted by savile, even simple observations like louis’ marvelling at the beautiful countryside.   savile is gruff and gives little.  early on in the documentary, when louis asks an innocuous question in the car, savile says something about suing him and ‘taking a few quid off him’.  it’s downright odd.  and this was 12 years ago.

he is intensely passive aggressive.  at one point, when louis leaves the room, he says some snarky things about louie to the camera,  as though louie wouldn’t see the footage?  i wonder who did he think he was performing for?

at another point, savile has twisted his ankle while running.  they go to the hospital and his leg gets a small cast.  instead of calling family or friends, savile calls a photographer to take pictures of him mugging in a wheelchair.

savile also confesses to louie theroux that he’d never had a single girlfriend his entire life.

below, see the entire documentary exposure:  the other side of jimmy savile.  hopefully this video stays up, because i don’t think the bbc can get youtube to pull it.

the other story i’m going to share is closer to home and involves the boy scouts.

scouting was started in 1907 by lord robert baden-powell in the uk.    the idea that grown men want to volunteer to help boys develop skills and character seems quaint and altruistic.  but then again,  for an adult man to go into the woods and spend time with boys he’s not related to does seem a little strange for one to want to do, too.

i was in scouting very briefly as a kid.

i was a chubby kid in 4th grade or so, and this kid (i think the scoutmaster’s son) kept teasing me and calling me names.  every time he saw me he said something.  i couldn’t take a drink from the water fountain without him saying something mean about me.   after a particular meeting we were playing football in the field next to the church where the scout meeting was held.   i could only take so much teasing and i just pounced on him.  i beat his ass pretty good for a fourth grade fight, and i was not allowed back.  so much for me and scouting.

that robert baden-powell himself may have been a pedophile has always been rumored.   you can google around a bit for yourself, and there are a couple of books that point to evidence.

there’s always been something a little odd about scouting, in this way.  and recently they finally came out with some stuff that confirmed a lot of people’s suspicion about the negative potentiality of the scouting model – that pederasts might be attracted to it.

they released over 14,000 pages of up-to-now secret files detailing the instances and problems with this issue.  the boxes containing the documents are below:

that they are called the ‘perversion files’ is kind of perverted itself, but it’s a spot on name.

like the catholic church before it, the scouts covered up abuse for years.  like the jimmy savile story noted above, allegations were whispered and then covered up.  people were moved around.  at least some were prevented from being active.

but how many stories like this do there have to be?

i can’t imagine being sexually attracted to children.   i guess in that i am fortunate.  i’d sooner slam my balls in a door, it’s that abhorrent to me – whether it’s little boys or little girls.  but there are those among us who, for whatever reason, have this compulsion.

what i take from reading these horrible stories is this:  you are not responsible for what turns you on.  you often cannot help that.  what you do have control over, however, is that you do not act on that impulse if it hurts or harms someone else, or if that person cannot consent.

both of these stories are still developing.  i can’t imagine how awful the details will be.

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you’ll never walk alone…

Posted on September 6, 2012 by admin| Comments Off

jerry lewis has always interested me.  as a little kid, i saw some of his comedy and it was the kind of thing that might appeal to an 8 year old.

as i came to get into film as an adult, i loved his turn in martin scorsese’s the king of comedy, which also features one of robert deniro’s greatest performances as the fame obsessed rupert pupkin.  there were several films he did as a writer/director that are quite interesting, including the bellboy, that i think are really important apart from what they ended up being.

it was during the production of the bellboy that lewis began to use video cameras and television monitors as a director so that he could review the film making as it happened.  before this, directors would mostly have to wait until film was processed and watch ‘dailies’.   this technique, called video assist, added an important dynamic to film making that has been used in just about every movie production since.

there’s another film of his, the day the clown cried, which is also very interesting.   it’s a ‘lost’ film, because it is unavailable.  but it was finished and certain copies do exist.  i’ve heard harry shearer (purportedly one of only a few people to ever see the film in it’s entirety) recap the story of viewing it with jerry lewis himself at lewis’ house.  it’s the story of a clown who works at a concentration camp.  his job is to lure frightened children into the gas chambers.  lewis wrote and directed the film and financed it himself.

i am not sure if he won’t release it because it’s disturbing or because he thinks it’s not good.  the film was completed in 1972.  maybe one day he will, or he’ll die and perhaps it will surface.  it’s the thing of legend to us cinephiles.

anyways, jerry lewis is a legendary comedian (though perhaps not to a lot of people’s taste), a decent actor, an important film maker and, if you’ve ever seen him interviewed, alternately nutty, goofy, blowhardy, self-important and grandiose.

and then there’s the telethons.

for some reason, jerry lewis got involved with the muscular dystrophy association in the 1950s and began raising money for them.    i do not think that anyone in his family has the disease.

and in the 1966, he started what would become a tradition – hosting a nearly 24 hour telethon to raise money for the muscular dystrophy charity.  celebrities from all walks of showbiz, and people from all over the country would take part either in los angeles or las vegas, or at satellite locations all over the country.

they would have a cutaway to local news people in these satellite centers.  local celebrities would show up.  people from various companies and civic organizations would bring giant, novelty checks and in a monotone, nervous delivery announce the amount.   i assumed our local news anchor must have known jerry lewis.  what must that be like, i wondered?

people would man telephones.    you’d see them behind all the activity plugging away, talking to people.  there’d be the occasional banter with the head phone person.  it was always delightfully awkward.  there was a giant tote board where they’d announce how much money they’d raised so far.  they were fighting an awful disease, and the money would go for a cure.

as has been discovered, muscular dystrophy is hereditary.  so, i suppose if people who had the trait would adopt instead of making more children, that would suffice.  but the heart wants what it wants, i suppose.  and so the disease and the telethon keeps going.

this was really my first exposure to jerry lewis.  my family, and particularly my grandmother, thought jerry lewis was a great man for doing this telethon.  it was only after the telethon exposure did i ever see one of his goofball movies done under hal wallis.

for a while, i only knew him as the telethon man.  i remember us kids would go in and out and play, but we’d always come back to the telethon.  eat something, back to the tv.  go to sleep.  wake up…. is it still on?  sure enough.

ed mcmahon was often present, often seemingly drunk.  my favorite part were the late night escapades.  jerry often had to be either drunk or a little high off pills because things could get a little sketchy.  i remember an adult once someone waking me up to watch a particularly goofball segment and we rolled on the floor with laughter.

we weren’t just making fun.  when they would roll out some kid in a wheelchair who would tell his story, we would get quite sad.  sometimes we’d pick up a phone and pledge ‘just 5, 10, or 20 dollars’.  we were 10 years old.  what would happen is that a week or so later we’d get a thing in the mail asking us to send in the donation.  of course we had no money.

i imagine some people would get that form and send in more than they pledged, but as it turned out, a lot of people were like us kids watching the telethon.  we meant well.  we sure wish we had money to give.  but when the form came to submit the check, we’d just toss it and bury our grief in the metal garbage cans outside.

jerry lewis hosted this telethon from 1966 t0 2010.  then, it was abruptly announced by both the muscular dystrophy association and jerry lewis that he would no longer host the show.  the show got immediately shorter.  it was cut to six hours in 2011, then a pre-taped thing this year that was only three hours long.

the reasons for jerry lewis’ departure were never made clear.   while he did have some health problems, he’s actually better now than he was 10 years ago.  he did the telethon when he was sick, when he was as fat as a ballon because of pulmonary fibrosis.  it’s kind of strange that nobody has given a reason he is no longer involved with it.

labor day was originally picked for the telethon because tv stations in the 60s and 70s had nothing going on during that time slot.  this was a huge block of time that they simply donated, an act that, in this increasingly corporate climate, they are probably less likely to be able to make anymore.   maybe jerry lewis, as is his custom, didn’t want to compromise style or length or make significant changes.

i guess there will never be a proper telethon again.   that’s probably for the best…. but it made for some interesting tv.

below, see a reel of blooper-ish material from the many telethons:

here, see an interesting on-air reunion of jerry lewis and dean martin that frank sinatra staged on the telethon.  what these two guys were, went through and did to each other, is a great story unto itself:

and finally, see jerry lewis sing his trademark sign-off song for the telethon, you’ll never walk alone.

good night, jerry.

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a shooting in colorado

Posted on July 23, 2012 by admin| Comments Off

it’s late thursday night/early friday morning.   it’s another big budget comic book movie opening.  the movie screens just after midnight to squeeze all the juice and hype out of it that can be had.  the smaller theatre is packed.  there’s a certain type of movie-goer who wants to be first to see the new ‘thing’, whatever it is.  they almost always turn out in droves.   the highly anticipated movie is playing and the crowd is lost in their cinematic experience.

in the darkness, from the front of the theater, a rolling and hissing sound occurs.  then a shot into the air.  then shots into the audience.  it’s mayhem.  many are dead and dozens more are wounded.

it’s a stupid tragedy.   a nut with a gun.

each time this happens the reaction is predictably banal.   one part of society wants to blame the gun.   another wants to blame the media the shooter might have consumed – film, tv, pornography, whatever.  certain factions of the media will look into the person’s background to try to find some deeper, more nuanced culprit.  they are all big on blame.  they want to point a finger like the gun itself was pointed.  i don’t know what the point of that could be.

why would someone kill and hurt so many people randomly?   people ask the question like there is an answer that would satisfy.

the theories abound:  was he acting out a movie or something, playing out some script he had made in his head?  the media and the public react almost like they are going off of their own script.  they run with stories of: what precautions are being taken to ensure this doesn’t happen here?  are local moviegoers staying home instead of going to the movies because of the tragedy?  was the killer influenced my movies and comic books (we’ll tell you what your kids might be reading at 11!)?  were his parents intolerably cruel to him?  was his bullied?  did he ever get laid?  why did he dye his hair?  what kind of car did he drive?  and on and on.

they report it as though there is some combination of media, trauma and personality disorder than can drive someone to kill random people in the biggest possible number.

after 9/11, we settled in for a long campaign of security bullshit in the name of freedom.  and though airport security has proven itself in this country to be ineffective, we still put our toiletries in bags, take off our shoes, and surrender our liberty temporarily to people at the airport who want to look at infra-red pictures of our naked bodes, just before they run the back of their hand over a woman’s tits or a guys crotch.

in the wake of this awful event, many people will call for increased security at movie theaters,  like this is likely to happen again and again.

we live in a fear based and safety obsessed culture.  whenever anything happens that is negative, an effort is made to stop that bad thing from ever happening again.  it starts small – bicycle helmets and metal detectors.  but taken to the extreme, our hunger for surety and safety leads us slowly to less freedom and a kind of paralysis.

we also live in an increasingly narcissistic, individual-driven culture where the self is all and everyone’s point of view has to be catered to.   the shooter in this case is no different.  when i was young and feeling lost and miserable, it never occured to me to kill anyone else.  it was always a suicidal instinct.  in the wake of shootings like this, i wonder if the self-centered culture we’ve crafted makes this a last resort.  the postmodern suicide is inverted, and you therefore try to kill everyone else.

the shooter in this case was james holmes.

some reports have him acting out a ‘joker’ persona as he’s been in custody.  is this surprising or satisfactory?   of course he’s playing a role.  he’s playing the role of a mad killer, because he is one.   he’s imitating the worst of crazy behavior, maybe because he’s nuts and maybe because he thinks that’s what a mad killer is supposed to do.  i’m sure he’s played out even the scenario he’s in now a 1000 times.  i wonder if it’s going like he hoped?

here’s a gallery of his pics:

 

a lot is being made in the media that they can’t find his twitter or facebook accounts, as though his being on social media is a given.  he probably deleted or deactivated any accounts, for whatever reason, before the violence.  but maybe not.  curiously, his adult friend finder account was created just this month and wasn’t deleted.  he looks like a total goof.  maybe this was intentional.

not being able to find his social networking stuff, the experts started to weight in on what this could mean:

“it’s certainly unusual. data suggests that 95 to 98 percent of people holmes’ age are on social media,” dr. megan moreno, of university of wisconsin-madison school of medicine and public health, told CBS News.  as for that other 5-to-2 percent, moreno, highlighted a link between extreme internet use – or lack of use – and depression.

do you see what the ‘expert’ said there?  if you use too much internet (and i guess social networking), you are likely to be depressed.  but also, if you use too little, you might also be depressed?

the assumptions here are ridiculous.  first, that he didn’t just deactivate or delete his stuff before he wanted to go apeshit is something you don’t know.  second, that if you are a human being, you must, in some way use social networking.  third, that your main use of the internet is likely social networking.  and fourth, that some degree of social networking is necessary to be mentally healthy?  meh…. i dunno.

my point is – stories like this are a problem.  they dissect meaning and motive on a molecular level looking for those aforementioned ‘answers’ which do not exist.  in helping people to deal with the grief and sadness, they endorse precautions which aren’t necessary and only serve to reinforce that fear, that grief.

perhaps the coverage of these shootings makes future shootings more likely to happen.  the angry loner who might otherwise just be a passive aggressive dick in life or hurt himself can make the leap from turning his self loathing outward rather than inward.  slowly, the fantasy of doing something awful and achieving infamy feeds his ego and helps him forget how crazy he must actually be, or how much he truly hates himself or life itself.

the media has made a big deal about how he dropped out of medical school, that he may have been living off a national institutes of health university grant, that he booby trapped his apartment, that his hair was dyed a comical color and that he ‘planned’ the mass murder.

whereas the story of the victims and their lives give our grief a name and a measure of the true humanity of the situation, the details they feed us about the killer give us some measure of control, some degree of safety.  we can look at him and say, like i said in the sierra newbold blogs, that he is not us.  it isn’t us that did this awful thing.  we can feel comfort in the fact that we are nothing like him.  and though i do think there’s some measure of an outward, destructive impulse inside us all, of course we aren’t like him.

of course this is an aberration – that’s why we are talking about it so much.  if the movie went off without a hitch, save for the fact that a kid tripped on the stairs in the dark, we wouldn’t mention that if we were in the theater itself, because that happens a million times a day.

that this is so appalling, that we feel the need to pointlessly dissect every aspect of it is proof that this is not the norm.  it is not a trend.  it’s just an awful thing that happened because of one asshole.   the curious part is that he gave himself up and is still alive to be ogled like a diseased zoo animal.

i’ve visited the denver and specifically the aurora, colorado area a lot.  denver is one of my favorite cities.  some pics from the area can be found here, but given my photographic inclination, they are probably largely just of random people.    it’s the only connection i can find to the area to share, and i can’t find the ones i liked the most that i took earlier….but there’s the link anyways.

the shooter had his first court appearance today.  i wonder if he was drugged, or if he’s trying to appear out of it.  maybe he is just downright mentally ill.  he bobbed his head and blinked a lot, like a moronic champion.  i took a screenshot on my phone and made him into a painting, since he appears so clown-like.

james holmes at his first court appearance, if claude monet was the courtroom sketch artist

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an american family – cinema verite – real life

Posted on June 5, 2012 by admin| Comments Off

this entry is about the birth of ‘reality television’ in the form of the pbs series an american family, albert brooks’ hilarious send up of the whole idea in his film real life, and the hbo film about the making of the pbs series, cinema verite.

the whole thread starts in 1971 with the loud family,  of santa barbara, california.

a pbs producer named craig gilbert approaches several families in affluent southern california, and hits upon the loud family.

it has a handsome patriarch in the form of bill loud.  he makes a ton of money selling equipment to mining companies.   the wife is a sweet, somewhat neurotic but very smart and pretty lady named pat.

they have five children, who run the whole gamut of personality types:  lance, kevin, grant, michele, delilah.

they were a picture-perfect family, from the outside.  but there were cracks in their family long before the intrusion (i use that word deliberately) of craig gilbert and the cameras.

bill traveled a lot for work.  he fooled around.  he was the type of womanizer who didn’t hide it well – even when cameras were rolling.  his wife was tolerant of it to an extent, but growing ever tired of it.

the children were aged 14-20 during the filming, so it was an already stressful time to begin with.

what did not help matters in the family was that the show-runner craig gilbert was instantly infatuated with the wife, pat.  instead of being a fly on the wall, which is really impossible when filming is involved, he became a part of the scenario and a part of the problem.

it’s been said that he counseled pat to leave her husband.  that perhaps, he told her things her husband told him in confidence.   and on and on.

what is evident with the loud family is that, if a camera crew is present (or even if cameras are planted and you know it), you will act differently.   you will alter your behavior and you will try to edit your words to appear in the best light possible, usually.

a film whose real-life characters run contrary to this idea is the great documentary capturing the friedmans, which i will review soon, having rewatched it recently.  in this film, the sons in the family run audio and sometimes video at family fights.   the honesty is both apparent and bewildering.

when an american family aired, the series got a lot of attention.  it had never been done before.  the family broke up during the filming.  pat decided to divorce while the cameras were rolling, actually rehearsing how she would confront bill.  the oldest son lance would come out as gay.

lance loud would become the most interesting and artistic of the family.   he heaed the band mumps and would become a gay activist and writer.  he died of aids in 2001.

the thing about an american family is that it’s on the order of 12 hours long.   i sat through all of it in the course of a week.  i don’t imagine most people would have the time or patience for it.  even edited, the shot-on-film footage is repetitive and boring.  i understand there’s a two hour version of ‘best of’ type scenes that probably is much more worth a look.

an american family was shot in the latter half of 1971 and aired a few months later.   seven years later, the legendary comic albert brooks was making his transition from stand-up and constant talk-show guest to film maker.  he chose the idea of the loud family for his first film, a fake documentary about the making of a simliar series.  he called it real life.

his film is satiric, ironic, insanely funny and amazingly prescient.

having read accounts of how the filming of an american family went, brooks went straight to the ideas that people will act differently when cameras are rolling, and that anyone filming anything wants a spectacular result – and in the absence of anything interesting or worthwhile happening, that observer will meddle, insert himself, and generally create havoc, disaster and invariably, a kind of comedy.

real life is one of the more important movies in movie history for me just for the bravery of ideas is represents.

but it’s also hilariously funny.  the film opens on a town meeting.   albert brooks plays… well, albert brooks.  but of course it is not albert brooks.  he is not playing himself.  he’s playing a parody of himself.

he’s a full of himself producer with big ideas for this small town.  he wraps up the town meeting by singing them a song he ‘wrote on the plane’, although he has the music department from a tv talk show to back him up and totally rehearsed.  he’s dressed like a lunatic and like any lunatic, he’s in love with the truth of his mad ideas.  he actually waltzes off screen.

from the opening day of filming where he introduces the crew to the family  (“here’s a teamster, this is a camera guy, here’s another teamster, it’s a union thing…”), he is not just filming the family but creating an often false narrative because his studio bosses need more story.

the film is wildly entertaining.   almost immediately, the presence of the camera is an issue.  the father is played by charles grodin who is playing the perfect role for charles grodin.  the wife makes a pass at the producer.  the kids are out of control.  it’s great fun and it’s good social commentary.  real life deserves it’s own dissection on this blog.   for a first film, it is remarkably rich with ideas.  it’s tremendously funny and so perfectly satirical that it is almost a capsule of all the great ideas he would come to manifest more articulately in his later, more popular films, like modern romance, defending your life and lost in america.

i think real life is a masterpiece that hasn’t gotten it’s due.

in 2011, hbo films produced cinema verite, a narrative film about the making of an american family.

it has a great cast.  james gandolfini plays craig gilbert.   the loud parents are artfully portrayed by diane lane and tim robbins.

the film is pretty much by the numbers, but gives a pretty good picture of what must have been happening behind the scenes.

the entire film belongs to diane lane, who proves how great an actress she really is when she gets to leave her top on and has good material to work with.    almost every scene belongs to her character and the film is based from her point of view.

this seems fitting.  the point of view of pat loud was the only real anchor for the original pbs series.  this has much to do with the principal concerns of craig gilbert rather than what might have actually been happening.   but i guess that’s what was wrong with an american family in the first place.   well, that and maybe the idea that people probably shouldn’t constantly be filmed and scrutinized….

now, if you’ve ever doubted the wit and genius of the great albert brooks, see his trailer for real life below.  it’s in 3-D, even.

and below, see a teaser trailer for cinema verite.

and below – a short collection of clips from the original series an american family:

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album a day: stan freberg presents the united states and greatest hits

Posted on May 24, 2012 by admin| Comments Off

ok.  so far it kinda seems like i’m only listening to vintage, novelty stuff.  so far that’s true, because it’s what i have on my iphone loaded.  soon as i burn through the stuff i’ve put on my phone that i’ve yet to truly listen through, i’ll get to the suggestions i’ve gotten and some stuff that’s more current and perhaps, to some people’s minds, substantial.

although, left to my own devices, i tend to listen to music so vintage it’s technically antique.  just my natural habit – which i’m trying to overcome briefly with this experiment.

today’s album a day was stan freberg’s greatest hits and yesterday’s was stan freberg presents the united states of america.

stan freberg is still with us.  he is currently working in advertising.

he was born in 1926 and after high school started doing voice over work for warner brothers on cartoons.  he has a great singing voice and can do many characters – and he got started right out of high school.  he’s also wildly funny and intricately satirical – whether in his recorded material, his conversation and even in his advertising work.

starting from doing this animation voice over stuff, his career became wildly diverse and interesting. he was in a few movies, over time.  he had a comedy radio show called that’s rich and besides that he has been in and out of radio a lot during his career.  he was an emmy award winning puppeteer on time for beany, which at the time was a very popular show.

he got into advertising quite early on.  this was due to some of his radio ad-libs and bits becoming popular enough to become permanent campaigns for companies involved.   he had a sardonic, informed and satirical form to his humor, and in the advertising arena it was quite revolutionary.   some of his commercials were parodies of other, hum drum commercials.   his body of work is quite something.  his personal stamp and often his voice are on everything he is involved with.

in short, stan freberg’s humor is amazingly inventive and charmingly funny.  if it hits you right, there’s nothing better.

as to the records i listened to today and yesterday:  greatest hits was mostly parody songs.  great stuff.  his take on elvis’ heartbreak hotel was probably my favorite, but i wouldn’t call anything here mediocre.

as for stan freberg presents the united states … i don’t think i’m overstating it when i call them comedy masterpieces.  it’s sassy, quick stuff that is at times broad but then so subtle and intelligent a moment later that it pays off for everyone.  truly amazing stuff.

below, listen to take an indian to lunch.  it’s a bitingly funny look at politics and race manipulation through the framing of the pilgrims and the indians.

below is a clip of stan in the 1970s on the dick cavett show, complaining about how talk shows over book their guests.  it’s not him singing, but it’s still quite fun.

check out this simple, but effective and funny commercial for cheerios featuring a nice lady with a headache…

in the commercial below, ray bradbury doesn’t know what these people are up to, and he NEVER mentioned prunes…

and finally, the famous jeno’s pizza roll commercial which is a parody of a stiff and stuffy commercial for lark cigarettes…

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