Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

Also: bigass The Songs of Bacharach and Costello out Mar. 3:
https://www.elviscostello.com/the-songs-of-bacharach-costello/

Even better from where I sit:

https://realgonemusic.com/collections/upcoming/products/dionne-warwick-the-complete-scepter-singles-1962-1973-3cd-set

Huey 'Piano' Smith :(

Yeah, damn shame but what a life!

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/new-orleans-rock-n-roll-pioneer-huey-piano-smith-dies/article_1a451915-0f9f-5e14-a98d-c1372185dc62.html

Rest in power to a legend there

I always thought he was, like, a 1940s swing/jump blues guy who lucked into a couple of hit records at the dawn of the rock 'n' roll era, so I assumed he'd died in the 80s or something.

Raquel Welch, 82.

https://www.tmz.com/2023/02/15/raquel-welch-actress-model-dead-dies-82/

RIP. Was just watching Bedazzled last night. Be careful of the prickles!

Watching The Last of Sheila the other month was a treat. (And learning she and Herbert Ross did not get along, well then.)

https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/rendered/medium/poster/5.5/8/break/images-medium-5/flareup-us-poster-raquel-welch-1969-everett.jpg

Too bad she’s not holding a horribly distended guitar for the full effect.

Beyond iconic growing up.

I interviewed her some years back, and this is what she had to say about the iconic "One Million Years" poster:

I always felt, when I analyzed that poster, that it had such a primitive feeling to it. People called it a bikini, but what it was was something made out of animal skin, and torn. The stance itself was totally different from any of the sex symbols we’d had up until that point. This was a much more athletic, aggressive woman. I’m fighting for my survival, ready for some kind of adversity coming over the mountain. I was primitive woman. I was the anti-Marilyn. I was part of the next generation of women who would be much more forthright.

She deserves to be better known by me, but according to Letterboxd I've only seen her in four movies: 100 Rifles, Myra Breckinridge, Naked Gun 33 1/3, and Legally Blonde (I didn't mark it as "watched," but I have vague memories of seeing bits of The Magic Christian on TV when I was young). A lot of her work seems very sixties-specific, for lack of a better term. She is also credited as appearing in The Flintstones: Hollyrock a Bye Baby (1993), in which I can only assume she played "Rock-el Welch."

I remember buying two posters at a local fair in the early '70s--the One Million Years B.C. poster, and a Paul Newman poster. My generation of straight men is being very careful about the words they choose on social media right now. I just messaged a friend that, as an adolescent, she was the most sexual woman I could even fathom--and then I remembered that she actually made a movie called Fathom. And now I'm going to shut up.

Another quote from my archives:

We had to get up at some ungodly hour and drive out into the middle of nowhere. I remember box lunches, and that it was snowing. I got terribly sick, because everyone else was all bundled up and I was out there in the middle of nowhere, on the top of this volcano in the Canary Islands, and it was really rugged to be out there every day. The rock was all sharp, and you could get cut. It was so uncomfortable. I had the most fun when we went back to the studios in London to do the fight sequences. But when I got off the plane the world was just a different place. Apparently that still of me had gone out from location. All of a sudden everyone knew who I was!

That costume used to shift around a lot, because I had to go into the water with it, and it would get stretched out and dry funny. As the movie went on, it seemed to get draped more provocatively each time. Some of the censors were apparently writing telegraphs in. "Ms. Welch’s costume is shifting this way and that way."

Once again, Brigitte Bardot smiles at the sky and lights another Gauloise in her pool cabana

One of the more bleak but funny details of in Steven Bach's Final Cut is United Artists' enthusiasm for an ultimately unrealized project wherein Welch was going to do her first proper nude scene.

She deserves to be better known by me, but according to Letterboxd I've only seen her in four movies: 100 Rifles, Myra Breckinridge, Naked Gun 33 1/3, and Legally Blonde (I didn't mark it as "watched," but I have vague memories of seeing bits of The Magic Christian on TV when I was young). A lot of her work seems very sixties-specific, for lack of a better term. She is also credited as appearing in The Flintstones: Hollyrock a Bye Baby (1993), in which I can only assume she played "Rock-el Welch."

You've never seen Fantastic Voyage!?!??!

her muppet show appearance is a vivid memory from my childhood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojegHx3LfE4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyiALn0e3P8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E24qwHLQNUM

With the giant spider? Haven't clicked yet.

yep! also w miss piggy, and with fozzie

Interesting that they did the Peggy Lee signature tune “I’m a Woman,” given the history of Miss Piggy being based on Peggy Lee, in fact named Miss Piggy Lee before Peggy Lee threatened to sue.

But Raquel… I mentioned it here recently but check out her 1970 TV variety special called Raquel! for some jaw-dropping concepts in choreography and visions of the future.

Her Seinfeld episode showed she had a great sense of humour about herself.

Was just listening to "One's On The Way" by Loretta Lynn (written by Shel Silverstein), and noticed that Welch was the last of the celebrities* namechecked in it to die.

*The others being Liz Taylor, Jackie O, and Debbie Reynolds.

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/02/15/spencer-wiggins-dies-obit-memphis-soul-music-history/69907734007/

Memphis singer Spencer Wiggins recorded soul for Fame and Goldwax labels and gospel for others. Was beloved by soul fanatics in UK, Italy, Japan, and in Memphis and New Orleans, but was never a big star. RIP

raquel in very "space is the place" mode here

RIP Raquel Welch. Her 1960’s TV special is a welcome addition to any YouTube gathering. pic.twitter.com/Hs7QCG7KKt

— Nicholas Verso (@NickVerso) February 15, 2023

Raquel Welch and her legendary Space Dance pic.twitter.com/YZVrZcJ9EC

— Nicholas Verso (@NickVerso) February 15, 2023

(clips retweeted by sometime-ilxor mc zirconium's project moonbase account)

My friend, the cartoonist and comedy club host Paul Jay aka Eugene Cheese:

https://beyondthejoke.co.uk/content/13123/eugene-cheese-dies

god how can i see the last of sheila in the uk it sound intersting

Sorry to hear about your friend, Ward

Thank you Alba. I'm hoping he makes the Guardian's 'Other Lives' column at least.

You've never seen Fantastic Voyage!?!??!

Nope! I'll get to it one day.

Thank you Alba. I'm hoping he makes the Guardian's 'Other Lives' column at least.

They can also upgrade to a regular obit if the person is deemed particularly noteworthy - we managed it for my friend’s dad across all the papers (he also wound up with a lovely slot on Last Word on R4).

link please?

The Guardian:

https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2009/oct/01/john-wild-obituary

Last Word:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mrzf9

Aw, I was relating a Eugene Cheese/chuckle club/Lee Evans tale over the weekend!

xp Amazing, thanks, Suzy! I didn't know any of that---

Super Sky Point to Tim McCarver, who played 21 years in the big leagues before becoming one of the most prominent announcers in the game. 100% chance he greeted St. Peter with a Bob Gibson story before reuniting with his old friend. Maybe they’ll have a bullpen today. #RIP pic.twitter.com/ZW4D7pSNyj

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) February 16, 2023

Stella Stevens, Starlet of the Sixties and ‘Nutty Professor’ Actress, Dies at 84

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/stella-stevens-dead-nutty-professor-1235328909/

she was, as i've mentioned in other threads, my first moment of heterosexual realization at age 8 or so

Ann-Margret, happily still alive.

Damn, scared me for a moment there.

My best "found something stashed in a book/magazine" story is about how 10-something years ago I bought a huge lot of '60s Playboys on eBay, and found in one of the issues the unlisted bonus of a folded pin-up of Stevens from an issue of either Variety or the Hollywood Reporter, plus a personally autographed glossy headshot--both of which had seen better days, but it was still pretty cool.

Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu, in the Turkey earthquake.

Oh no. RIP Stella, what a babe. Interesting (to me) that she was in a relationship with guitarist Bob Kulick for nearly 40 years (he died a couple of years ago).

Yes, interesting to a few of us.

Also the "married at 15, kid at 16, divorced at 17" thing.

seeing word that Richard Belzer may have passed. no official reporting yet that I can find

A bunch of dorks on twitter are clouding the issue saying it's a hoax, but Belzer's irl friends are tweeting condolences and sharing thoughts about him, and I'm inclined to believe they have better sources than the usual "it's a hoax!" posts.

RS is reporting it now.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/richard-belzer-comedy-legend-law-amp-order-svu-detective-john-munch-dead-obit-1234682788/