Dearly Departed Newsletter – 07/23/2020
Hi everyone,
How are things? Safe? Sound? Sane? Sick of being asked? If you have any one of these left you’re probably ahead of the game, all things considered. The bar is set pretty low right now, so even if it’s a cheap victory, take it. take it. take it all.
On that happy note, let’s talk about the new video I made in Detroit. I visited my family and took a few hours out of my trip to retrace Gilda Radner’s steps in Michigan. (My family is used to me so it’s ok.) There are also some LA sites because everyone ends up in LA. Gilda Radner was brilliant and I LOVE her. If you’re from a certain generation, Gilda was a big part of your life and pop culture. I hope you like it because Gilda deserves to remembered.
I made another video this week, and this one is very personal. My Aunt Mary served the United States Marine Corp in World War II. Her Squadron wrote Walt Disney and asked if he would design a patch/insignia for female Marines to wear on their uniforms. He made the patch (which looks like Jiminy Cricket) and it ended up in my possession, for that I am thankful. In this video I visit Mr. Disney’s grave with the patch and I read the original request from my Aunt’s bunkmate, and I thank him myself. Please check out the story here.
We have a new Dearly Departed Podcast out! In this episode we tackle one of the greatest movies of all time—Grease. If you don’t like Grease, you still might enjoy this. Grease is the only movie I can think of where a 33-year-old (Stockard Channing) played a 17-year-old. You’ll also hear about Craterface in a gay bathhouse that was in Jay Sebring‘s old salon. If it’s trashy, you know I’ll dig it up. You can find the Grease podcast, along with all of our podcasts, here.
Mike Dorsey, my partner in the podcast, has been collaborating with me for a long time. We made a documentary called Six Degrees of Helter Skelter, which has gotten a lot of good reviews (thank you!) and led to Quentin Tarantino contacting me to consult for The Movie. Even though the documentary has been out for a while, it still gets attention. Screen Rant voted our movie #8 of the 10 Best Cult Documentaries. So we’ve got that going for us. Which is good. I think.
Speaking of The Movie—because there is always more—the cars are for sale. THE CARS ARE FOR SALE. Both Rick’s Cadillac and Cliff’s Karmann Ghia are hitting the auction block next month, which happens to be my birthday month. Hint, hint.
Do you watch the Autopsy show on REELZ? It’s a show where they talk about what killed a celebrity by going through the autopsy report. Honestly, the show could be five minutes long but they strrrrrrretttttttch it into an hour by going over biographical details that they very feebly try to tie into the death. Like, Mr. Movie Star fell off his bike at the age 9. I’m going to investigate to see if his injuries helped cause his death four decades later … no, the skinned knee had nothing to do with the fact that Mr. Movie Star was a raging alcoholic and had liver damage. Soooo…. Dr. Hunter usually holds up the autopsy report to prove that he can read and in a recent episode the autopsy report in question was clearly printed off the Find a Death website. How do we know? BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T BOTHER TO BLUR OUT OUR WATER MARK!
Score one for the team! See what the cool kids are doing. https://findadeath.com/
This weekend on the EPIX channel they are starting the mini-series I worked on called, get this, Helter Skelter! I know! I honestly think this is gonna be great. They’ve chased down a lot of people who haven’t been interviewed before and, as I understand it, 1960’s Los Angeles is very well represented. I’m looking forward to it. But then, I looked forward to Jaws: The Revenge and the X-Files reboot.
As you know, we love a good real estate listing. And this one might make you pop your clogs. Clutch your costume jewelry everyone … because The Golden Girls house is for sale. It’s listed for a mere $3 million in Brentwood, which is such an exclusive neighborhood that a has-been football star can kill his ex-wife and get away with it. It is also a custom-built house because no one in this neighborhood would dare live in tract housing. It has four bathrooms, one for each Golden Girl and suitable for Golden Showers to make the ladies positively glisten. If someone could buy this for me before HGTV buys it and sinks their “fangs” (I could have, but I didn’t) into it, I would be much obliged. Thank you for being a friend.
Finally, the Marilyn’s Hollywood Tour this year had to be cancelled because of Covid-19 so we can’t take anyone out for real. But Elisa with L.A. Woman Tours, who hosts the Marilyn’s Hollywood Tour, is doing a virtual tour instead. She is co-hosting with another tour guide, April Clemmer, and on the bright side you don’t have to be physically in Los Angeles this year to get your Marilyn on. It’s on August 8 at 10:30 am Pacific Time. To get a ticket, check out the link here.
Elisa Jordan from L.A. Woman Tours deserves a lot of credit for these emails. Like almost all of it. If it weren’t for her, you wouldn’t be hearing from us regularly. I’m grateful to her and I absolutely recommend her tours. She’s a top notch historian.
Stay safe until we meet again.
Love,
Scott and the Dearly Departed Team
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