Amanda LePore – The WOW Report

December 7, 1949– Tom Waits:

“I’ve always been afraid I was going to tap the world on the shoulder for 30 years and when it finally turned around, I was going to forget what I had to say.”

He is decidedly not gay and most assuredly not everyone’s cup of tea, but not only is he a favorite at my house, taking up a large section of the “W”s in my CD collection, Thomas Alan Waits is the songwriter of a certain ditty that I wish to have played at my memorial service. Readers and husband, take note.

Academy Award nominated and Grammy Award winner, Waits has been one of my most influential musical artists because he has continuously created music outside of fad or fashion. His tunes are off-road adventures taken into the further beyond… way, way gone. Mixing and mashing, songs both sonic and sensual, musical traditions both new and old, rhythms both mouth-made and sampled from his own instruments. He is equal parts Stephen Foster, Cole Porter and Bob Dylan.

Waits’ songs are musical portraits of egregious, nefarious, seedy people and locations. They are musically complex and lyrically sophisticated considering the territory that he covers. Among the many versions of his songs done by other artists, some of my favorites are Jersey Girl as performed by Bruce Springsteen, and Downtown Train as sung by Rod Stewart. One of my favorite Jazz artists, the great Canadian songbird, Holly Cole, released an entire album of Waits cover versions, Temptation (1995), which is simply terrific. Actor Scarlett Johansson’s musical debut album, Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) features covers of 10 Waits songs and it is shockingly fine. Who knew?

In 2011, Waits was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. He is also included among the 2010 list of Rolling Stone‍ Magazine’s 100 Greatest Singers, and he is included on the new 2017 list of the magazines ’s 100 Greatest Songwriters Of All Time.

Waits has never had a commercial hit. Most of his songs are best known in recordings made by other people. He has a huge fan base, but rarely tours. His razor-sharp wit and lyrical prowess have put him in a category by himself. Just what that category is remains unclear. Waits has a voice that sounds as if it was soaked in whiskey, aged in the smokehouse and then run over by a 1954 Chevy pickup truck.

He has worked as a composer for movie and musicals and acted in films, including Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993) and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). He also starred in Jim Jarmusch’s Down By Law (1986) and Coffee And Cigarettes (1997). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack for the underrated One From The Heart (1981). Waits wrote and performed the music for Bunny (1998), which won an Oscar Best Animated Short Film.

Waits has been a supporter of LGBTQ Rights for decades. I remember one of the first big benefits ever held in support of gay people, A Star Spangled Night For Rights at the Hollywood Bowl in 1977, had a bill that included Lily Tomlin, Richard Pryor, Bette Midler and Waits. This was so long ago, LGBTQ wasn’t even an acronym, and many of you probably had not been born.

I have been listening to Waits for 45 years. I have many favorite Waits songs, but this one means so much to me that I want to leave this world with it as my soundtrack. If you’ve only been a passing listener to Waits, I highly recommend spending an evening with your favorite drink of choice (the harder the alcohol the better) and his The Heart Of Saturday Night album from 1974 for a start.

Waits lives with his wife and collaborator, Kathleen Brennan in Sonoma.

So, here’s the song to play when I have kicked the bucket. Don’t forget. I am going to hold you to it.

I’m leaving my family
And leaving my friends
My body’s at home
But my heart’s in the wind
Where the clouds are like headlines
On a new front page sky
My tears are salt water
And the moon’s full and high

And I know Martin Eden’s
Gonna be proud of me
And many before me
Who’ve been called by the sea
To be up in the crow’s nest
And singin’ my say
Shiver me Timbers
I’m sailing away

The fog’s lifting
And the sand’s shifting
And I’m drifting on out
And Ol’ Captain Ahab
Ain’t got nothin’ on me
So come on and swallow me

Don’t me follow me
I travel alone
Blue water’s my daughter
And I’m gonna skip like a stone

And please call my missus
Tell her not to cry
My goodbye is written
By the moon in the sky
And nobody knows me
I can’t fathom my stayin’
And shiver me timbers
I’m sailing away

And I’m leaving my family
And I’m leaving my friends
My body’s at home
But my heart’s in the wind
Where the clouds are like headlines
On a new front page sky
And shiver me timbers
I’m sailing away

Tom Waits, 1974

1) Fake Friends

Ever thought of hiring someone awesome to hang out with you to impress your friends? Or maybe need to hire a significant other for your trip home to see the parents? Maybe you just want to look cool with “your posse” on Snapchat? Sounds a lot like something you saw on an episode of your favorite show during ABC’s TGIF, right? But if you live in Japan, this could be a reality because you can hire FAKE FRIENDS!

Skip forward to Fake Friends @46:31

Resistor of the Week – Billy Bush/Patagonia/Silence Breakers

But why? Listen in to find out!

Skip forward to Resistors of the Week – Billy Bush/Patagonia/Silence Breakers @50:05

Listen in at 3:00PM EST and again at 3:00 PST (6 PM EST) on SiriusXM! Or listen whenever you want on the SiriusXM App!

And be sure to give your ears the gift of THE WOW REPORT on Radio Andy SiriusXM EVERY Friday.

Do something this weekend that makes YOU go WOW!!!

We’re still recovering from the WOWies last night!

We know you’ve been waiting for it, so we’re sorry it took so long… here’s the official list of WINNERS for the WOWie Awards! The polls were crazy! The races were tough… but ultimately these are the people that came out on top!

Couldn’t be there? Don’t worry, we’e got this amazing recap and ANOTHER amazing recap too! Read those and THEN…

Check out the winners below!

From “13 Ghosts”, William Castle Productions, via YouTube

December 9, 1902– Margaret Hamilton

I was shocked to read that tweet from POTUS dissing Hamilton. A year ago, he tweeted: “Very rude and insulting of Hamilton to treat our great V.P. Mike Pence to a theater lecture. Couldn’t even memorize lines.” That seemed so unnecessary. She was an accomplished and interesting woman, even if she was not a ten. I don’t blame her for booing Pence . The idea of flying monkeys offends his deeply held religious beliefs.

One of my favorite films of the early 1970s is director Robert Altman’s Brewster McCloud, which on initial release, I saw in the theatre multiple times. Brewster McCloud is a film about flying, and it pays homage to Margaret Hamilton’s iconic character of the Wicked Witch Of The West. In the film, Hamilton plays a wealthy woman who is crushed by a large birdhouse. As the camera pans down her body, you see that on her feet are those Ruby Slippers.

Hamilton was an exceptional character actor who never asked for more than $1000 for her work, for fear she would price herself out of a film role. She had a career that lasted five decades, with more than 70 films, but we all remember her best for a certain green-skinned witch in the MGM classic The Wizard Of Oz (1939), which is one of my top films of all time. TheWizard Of Oz did not bring Hamilton fortune, but it really did bring her forever fame. Despite the attention, not much happened for her career after the excitement over the film’s initial release died down. It wasn’t until the 1970s that her career blossomed once more as she was rediscovered by a whole new generation of film fans

As spokesperson for Maxwell House Coffee, Hamilton created a character, Cora, an elderly shopkeeper with that no nonsense New England charm. The ads proved very popular and Hamilton was once again in the spotlight that she deserved. Cora was so popular that she even had her own cookbook, with Hamilton’s image on the cover.

MGM, via YouTube

I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Hamilton. As Almira Gulch, the busybody who stuffed Toto into the picnic basket, or the Wicked Witch Of The West, Hamilton brought her characters to life with her expressive crusty features and her crisp voice with its rat-tat-tat clear enunciation.

Hamilton’s line from The Wizard Of Oz: “I’ll get you, my pretty… and your little dog, too!” was ranked 99th in the American Film Institute’s The 100 Most Memorable Movie Quotes. Her son, interviewed for a special DVD edition of the film in 2005, commented that Hamilton enjoyed the line so much she would use it in real life. Her character is ranked Number Four on the American Film Institute’s list of the 50 Best Movie Villains Of All Time, making her the top female baddie.

Wizard Of Oz (1939), MGM screen-grab via YouTube

Believe it or not, she appeared in The Wizard Of Oz for a total of only 12 minutes, but what an impact she made. Yet, Hamilton really suffered for her art. During shooting of her exit from Munchkinland via a trapdoor’s drop, the special effect flames failed to work properly and Hamilton received second-degree burns on her face and hands. She spent six weeks recovering in the hospital and at home for another six weeks before she could return to the set, where she refused to do any scenes that involved the fire effects for the rest of the filming. The producers used a stand-in. Hamilton:

“I didn’t sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. I returned to work on one condition no more fireworks!”

MGM producer Mervyn LeRoy asked for cuts to some of Hamilton’s scariest scenes, worrying that they would frighten children too much. Hamilton:

“I was in a need of money at the time, I had done about six pictures for MGM and my agent called. I said: ‘Yes?’ and he said ‘Maggie, they want you to play a part on the Wizard’. I said to myself, ‘Oh, Boy, The Wizard Of Oz! That has been my favorite book since I was four years old.’ I asked him what part, and he said: ‘The Witch’, and I said: ”Which With?’ and he said: ‘The Witch! What else?'”

Hamilton went on to work with some of her favorite The Wizard Of Oz co-stars again. The great Frank Morgan, who played Professor Marvel and The Wizard, had no scenes with Hamilton in The Wizard Of Oz, but she had already played his housekeeper in Saratoga (1937). She has a fun turn with Judy Garland in Babes In Arms (1939) as a society woman with schemes to send the group of kid actors to a work farm. She played the comically tough-talking sister of Jack Haley (The Tin Man) in George White’s Scandals (1945). Hamilton and Ray Bolger (The Scarecrow) worked together again in The Daydreamer (1966), and together on Broadway in the musical flop Come Summer (1969). Little known tid-bit: Hamilton was reunited with a bunch of her former Oz cast members when she served as host for Flying Monkeys On Ice, an all-simian skating revue in Vegas.

Hamilton was one of those working actors who took roles wherever she could find them. She continued to find work in television doing daytime soap operas and prime time series, including a stint as Hester Frump, Morticia Addams’ mother on The Addams Family. (1965–68).

Hamilton eventually returned to the Broadway stage where she began her career. She had a supporting role in one of my favorite forgotten musicals, Goldilocks (1958), opposite Don Ameche and Elaine Stritch. She was in a popular revival of Show Boat (1966), plus as Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! (1968) at Lincoln Center. I saw Hamilton in her final stage role as Madame Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim’s musical A Little Night Music.

Hamilton loved kids. She was a teacher before her acting career, and she was an advocate for causes protecting children and animals. During her Hollywood years, Hamilton served on the Beverly Hills School Board.

Hamilton lived in NYC for most of her adult life. She had an apartment in my most very favorite of NYC neighborhoods, Gramercy Park, in a building where she had actor James Cagney as a neighbor. She took her final curtain call in 1985. She was 82-years-old when she left this world. Hamilton’s Wicked Witch Of The West scared a lot of kids through the decades, but in real life, she seemed to have been a real sweetheart.