Let Yourself Go

It was a surprisingly nice morning when I finally dragged myself out of bed. Oh, it was still sunny, hot, and humid, but it wasn't quite as hot or as humid as over the weekend. I had a simple breakfast of Life Cereal, green tea, and blueberries while watching the Astaire-Rogers movie Follow the Fleet.

I've rented this one from the Haddon Township Library before. This time, there's no doubt about whose show it is. Astaire and Rogers' names are over the credits, and they're the ones with most of the big numbers, including her "Let Yourself Go," the classic challenge duet "I'm Putting All My Eggs Into One Basket," and the dramatic tour de force "Let's Face the Music and Dance." Enjoying the show are Harriet Hillard (better known as Harriet Nelson) as Rogers' shy schoolmarm sister-turned-singer, Randolph Scott (looking a bit more comfortable than he was in Roberta) as the Navy officer chasing her, and wisecracking chorus girls Betty Grable and Lucile Ball in small parts.

I finally made it to the laundromat around quarter of 12. Perfect timing. There were a few people when I came in. When I left, the place was pin-drop quiet. The Price Is Right was especially cute today. They're celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, and went the Let's Make a Deal route by dressing everything from the set to the contestants to Drew Carey 70s-style. The lady who won the Showcase Showdown wore a sequined pant suit and had a huge Afro ponytail. All of the models had Afros of many colors and glittery bell-bottomed pant suits. An actor from The Love Boat introduced one of the Showcase Showdown prize packages.

I was delighted to see a treat in my mailbox when I arrived. The two Three Stooges Collection sets I picked up on eBay last week had arrived! I found Volume 5 and 6 with free shipping from a seller in Florida. Volume 5 features the final Curly shorts, where he was sick leading up to a nasty stroke that finally forced him into retirement. The second half of that volume and Volume 6 brought his and Moe's older brother Shemp back into the fold as his replacement following a successful solo career in shorts at MGM and elsewhere.

While a lot of people insist that all of this shows, in truth, none of of the turmoil is really that visible on screen. Since fans online seem divided on the Stooges' historical shorts, I decided to give them a little love this afternoon as I put my laundry away and ate leftovers for lunch. "Fiddlers Three" and "Squareheads of the Round Table" give Moe, Shemp, and Larry a chance to rescue fair princesses in a medieval setting that's pretty well-done for low-budget short subjects. The spooky "The Hot Scots," where the Stooges have to solve a mystery in a Scottish castle, is even better.

Curly rejoined Larry and Moe for the western "The Three Troubledoers" and the horror spoof "A Bird In the Hand." "Three Troubledoers" brings the trio to the aid of pretty Nell (perpetual Stooge damsel in distress Christine MacEntyre) when bandit Blackie kidnaps her father and uses him to blackmail Nell into marriage. "Bird In the Hand" has the Stooges as incompetant wallpaper hangers who run afoul of a mad scientist. He wants to transfer a human brain to his gorilla's head...and decides that Curly's is the perfect specimen! (And other than Curly talks a bit slower and "Woo woos" less, I really couldn't tell he was that sick.)

Work was busy for most of the evening, right up until shortly before I left. It's the beginning of the month, with all the fun that implies, and we're getting close to one of the major holidays of the summer. Thankfully, other than getting tired, I really didn't run into too many problems. I was in and out.