Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Of Christopher Lee and Heavy Metal Carols and an "Addams Family" loss~~~~

Hello Darklings,

I've been outside and with Brian's help we've been making sure things are secure and won't get blown away. 

On the Christmas lights well we'll just have to chance it, there has been talk by our weather man of very strong winds up to 60 miles an hour coming with the next storm front.  That will make for a miserable commute.

Of course those protesters who blocked the 80 Freeway last night on the going home commute didn't do any good nor laying down on the rail road tracks as a train was approaching, fortunately the Engineer was going slow enough that he could stop before anyone got hurt, but blocking the railroad right of way is a Federal Offence as I understand it, and although the California Hywy Patrol has no objections to a peaceful demonstration, doing it on a high speed freeway endangers them as well as the drivers, being hit by a car or truck is equal to falling off a 5 story building.

These people are not using any common sense and while the free way was jammed up a woman went into labor, a man had a heart attack and another man had a stroke, with that I do not consider those demonstrations as being peaceful but life endangering.  No just no common sense at all.  But then Berkeley has never been the city of common sense, not from my personal experience.

But now onto a holiday treat----

Christopher Lee now 92 years old has just released a Heavy Metal Christmas album titled " Darkest Carols, Faithful Sing"   he says at his age every day is a blessing and a joy and he's doing it by doing things he loves doing.  I think I'm going to buy a copy just for the fun of it, because that is what an Elder Goth would do.

I mean think of it Darklings, the Grand old man of Gothicness, and frightening films, doing Heavy Metal Christmas Carols?  How perfectly Dark!  Now if he would just record the 13 days of Halloween it would be perfect!

But on the sad side I've just found out that we lost Ken Weatherwax who played  "Pugsley" of the "Addams Family" T.V. series,
I'm reproducing the article here I was surprised to discover who he was related to as well......

The Hollywood Reporter     December 7, 2014 9:00 PM

Ken Weatherwax, Who Played Pugsley on TV’s 'Addams Family,' Dies at 59 (Report)
Ken Weatherwax, who played the pudgy son Pugsley on the 1960s ABC sitcom The Addams Family, has died. He was 59.

Weatherwax died Sunday from a heart attack, his niece, Shanyn Vieira, announced on Facebook. Later, TMZ reported that he died in his California home and that there will be two funerals, one for the family and one for the fans.
Weatherwax starred as Pugsley, the reserved, insect-eating son of Gomez and Morticia Addams (John Astin and Carolyn Jones) and the brother of Wednesday Addams (Lisa Loring), on the campy Filmways Television sitcom.
Based on the New Yorker comic strip by cartoonist Charles Addams, The Addams Family spent just two seasons (1964-66) on ABC but aired for years in syndication. It also spawned a pair of Barry Sonnenfeld movies in the 1990s that had Jimmy Workman playing Pugsley.

A native of Los Angeles, Weatherwax also appeared in toothpaste commercials and on a 1964 episode of Wagon Train. After The Addams Family ended, he tried out for other roles but didn’t land anything, saying he was a victim of typecasting, he told Bill O’Reilly in a 2008 interview.

He also said kids in school hassled him for playing a character named Pugsley.

“Frankly, I didn’t deal with it very well,” he told O’Reilly. “I was kicked out of like six or seven schools and went into the service [the Army] at the age of 17. I did kind of draw a lot of fire from that.”

Later, he played Pugsley Sr. on a 1977 Halloween Addams Family movie for NBC and reportedly worked as a grip and set builder in Hollywood.
Weatherwax’s aunt was dancer and actress Ruby Keeler, who starred in such famed 1930s Warner Bros. musicals like  “42nd Street”, and his uncle was Lassie’s trainer, Rudd Weatherwax
His other brother is actor Joey D. Vieira, who starred as Porky Brockway on a Lassie TV series of the 1950s and had small parts in such films as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) and The Patriot (2000).
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It's sad that he's passed on but hopefully with the internet and conventions he found some measure of contentment with the new generations who discovered the "Addams Family"

And now back to checking a few more things on the house before the storms come.

Later Darklings

Rest in Peace "Pugsley"




4 comments:

  1. Do let us know whether you enjoy Mr. Lee's album, if you decide to buy it.

    "with that I do not consider those demonstrations as being peaceful but life endangering." --Agree wholeheartedly with what you said. They're all acting like idiots (but I don't think it's an act!)

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    1. I agree Patricia I don't think its an act at all. Heaven help us if this is the people who will make future decisions for this planet. If so then we as civilization are doomed!

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  2. Rock on, Christopher Lee! I'll be checking out that album as well, thanks for the tip!

    And Rest in Peace, Pugsley. We'll miss you.

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  3. I have Christopher Lee's first "metal" album:) I just saw a video for the Christmas one yesterday. That man! That voice! Love!

    I hope you all weathered the storm and all is fine.

    I had not heard that "Pugsley" died. So sad.

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