I finally found a book I've been looking for a long time...

It's a book by Donald Bain about late night talk show host Long John Nebel. It has an Introduction by Jackie Gleason. I had to get the book from the Beverly Hills Library.

Nebel was King of Talk Radio back in the 60's and 70's. I never listened to him as I was too young to be aware, but you can find his shows in the collections of others who recorded them and archived them for the internet.

He really was the Art Bell/George Noory of his day and just had some amazing guests as regulars.

The book is good and I think could make an interesting movie.

I got a call from my Brother and my Niece did have her baby on my Birthday. She's suppose to be a cute lil' baby... I'll just have to wait and see. I'm sure she is tho'.

One of my heroes, Oscar-winning film producer Saul Zaentz, is bringing Middle Earth to the stage.

Can Hobbits dominate Broadway for 18 years like Cats did? British producers are hoping a bunch of furry-footed Hobbits can tap into the same musical magic.

The lavish musical adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which is expected to kick off in London's West End in 2005 will be the place to be if you want to be labeled a geek and gay.


The stage show starts just at the end of Peter Jackson's big-screen blockbuster trilogy--meanwhile, the Kiwi helmer has already moved on to another classic King Kong. Can't wait!


The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers have grossed over $650 million in domestic box office receipts. The Return of the King is slated for a December release.

Playwright and lyricist Shaun McKenna will write the book and lyrics, with music being composed by Stephen Keeling and Bernd Stromberger. McKenna and Keeling previously collaborated on failed musical Maddie, based in part on the 1985 movie Maxie starring Glenn Close and Mandy Patinkin. Remember that one?


Puppet producers Kevin Wallace--formerly linked to Andrew Lloyd Webber's production company Really Useful Group, which produced Cats, and Oscar-winning film producer Saul Zaentz, who counts The English Patient, Mosquito Coast, Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest among his credits.

Zaentz has owned Tolkien Enterprises and rights to the movie since 1976 and was a producer on the 1978 animated version of Rings.

Remember "Zaentz can't Dance" by John Fogerty? He's that Zaentz!

I spent the day at Bob Hope Square...

It's actually the Intersection of Hollywood and Vine.

The Library of Congress now has half-million Hope Jokes, courtesy of Bob Hope. Hope, who turned 100, but more likely 103 on my Birthday, has his jokes filed at the nation's top library.

Visitors can touch a computer screen to sift through digitally scanned images of more than 85,000 pages of jokes, some with Hope's penciled notations, all indexed by subject.

They are the virtual contents of Hope's famous "joke file" � rows of filing cabinets lovingly maintained in a fireproof vault next to his North Hollywood home, not far from where I live.

Hope donated the 500,000 or so jokes, and memorabilia dating back to his vaudeville days, for an exhibit that opened three years ago in the library's Jefferson Building.

The jokes are the work of more than 100 writers employed by Hope. He performed many on radio or TV or in live appearances; others didn't make the initial cut but were set aside for future reference.

Checkout the Library of Congress exhibit: Bob Hope!!!