Johnny Hoffmann

Johnny Hoffmann Eulogy

Johnny Hoffmann

I haven’t mentioned celebrity deaths in my feed ever. Today, I break from that tradition. On Sunday, we lost one of Milwaukee’s finest musicians. A man that was an institution in the Milwaukee German-American community. He was known on both sides of the Atlantic with his music being as at home on a phonograph in Augsburg or cassette player in Kenosha equally. 

Johnny Hoffmann was a family man, a friend, a musician, and a tradition all at once. My parents had “Johnny” (as most people referred to his band “Johnny Hoffmann and the Herzbuben) play at their wedding. Had I ever married, you better believe they would have played mine. During my formative years, Milwaukee was awash in talented musicians in the region with bands like Sterne der Heimat, Austrian Trio Grande, the Red River Boys and so many more but Johnny….well, he was something more than a band. He was the German-American community. He was the tradition.

Johnny Hoffmann & the Herzbuben

Two vocalists. Two accordianists. A brass and woodwind section. Drums. Traditional music. New music. Music that only Johnny could play. For decades, Johnny and his band (and their wives) would travel throughout the city to play every weekend (frequently multiple times) at events indoors, outdoors, festivals and dances. His set list was well known as were the tunes. I especially enjoyed their version of the Peanuts Polka and always made a point to dance that one whenever I heard it, even when I was by myself in the basement of the Schwabenhof tending the coat room…which led to more than one startled patron retrieving their overcoat.

Johnny Hoffmann

As traditional as they were, Johnny also introduced music he found overseas, bringing back music like the Chicken Dance and Zillertaler Hochzeitsmarsch to thrill local audiences. His band always followed his lead and he didn’t lead them wrong. His traditional “Continental” style music also made a home in other European ethnic communities locally…he would play Italian and other European neighbors events with equal skill and appreciation.

Johnny was more than the band leader, the entertainer. He was always in a jovial, happy mood when I saw him. Always had a joke ready and always generous. Name an event Johnny played that did not have a raffle prize of one of his prized albums or cassettes. I often heard my contemporaries say “Oh, Johnny again” but I noticed his albums never were “re-donated” to the raffle. Not so with the countless bottle of booze I’d distributed between choruses of “shake the bag” over the years. No, even if you had the album, you knew someone who would love it. Who would cherish it. As we all love and cherish Johnny and his music.

At the end of the day, Johnny brought joy and romance at every performance. With his departure, we’ve all lost a little. And some of us, those of us who knew him…well, we’ve lost a lot.

Johnny Hoffmann at German Fest

I had the honor to interview Johnny TWICE on the Stimmung Stunde radio program that I hosted. Below are clips from that program.

03/27/1999 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Button Box
03/27/1999 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Intro
03/27/1999 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Part 1
03/27/1999 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Part 2
03/27/1999 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Part 3
03/27/1999 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Part 4
08/03/2002 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Herz Schmerz Polka Live
08/03/2002 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Part 1-Musette Box
08/03/2002 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Part 2-Name of the Band
08/03/2002 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Part 3
08/03/2002 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview clip: Part 4
08/03/2002 – Johnny Hoffmann Interview – Entire Show

TONY KHAN ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE RING OF HONOR

TONY KHAN ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE RING OF HONOR

— Video Library, Brand Assets, Intellectual Property from Independent Professional Wrestling’s Most Prestigious Promotion Purchased Under New Partnership with Tony Khan —

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AMC NETWORKS LAUNCHES BOOK PUBLISHING ARM

AMC NETWORKS LAUNCHES BOOK PUBLISHING ARM WITH FOUR NEW FAN-FOCUSED, ORIGINAL TITLES

AMC Networks Publishing to Launch Two New Books Based on Popular Series — Shudder’s Creepshow From Cartel Entertainment and Greg Nicotero andAcorn TV’s Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries – And Two New Comic Series,Including Nights of Lono By Kirk Hammett and Marcel Feldmar and Brenden Fletcher’s Oubliette

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Dead On Movie Reviews – February 22, 2022

Originally aired on 2/22/2021

Netflix just revisited the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise and to say there is a WIDE VARIETY of opinions would be an understatement. We also talk some shop talk regarding Horror Realm, a rare 80’s flick and a brand new movie about someone going underwater in real estate in a totally new way.

Tonight’s Reviews:

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Dead On Movie Reviews – February 22, 2022

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) Trilogy

The most maligned of the Universal Classic Monsters is probably The Creature from the Black Lagoon. He was last to the scene, directed by the same director that made giant spider movies like Tarantula, and was an original property. He wasn’t involved in any of the monster mash-ups and never scared Lou Costello. On top of all that, the Gill Man had only three, that’s right, only three movies made.

  • The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
  • Revenge of the Creature (1955)
  • The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

I came at the Creature in a kind of roundabout way. In the 80’s, a local UHF station was promoting that they were going to show the sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon in FULL 3-D. The movie was called Revenge of the Creature with John Agar (also from Tarantula), Lori Nelson and Ricou Browning as the swimming Gill Man. I put on my red and green glasses and got prepared for full anaglyph 3-D mayhem.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Come on in. The water’s fine.

Now, this may not have been the first time I saw the movie or the Gill Man, but to me, it seemed like it was. The 3-D was surprisingly good on our 19 inch Panasonic color TV as I recorded it with our Sharp (front loader…not a top loader!) VHS for me to watch, approximately 300 times. I just fell in love with the movie. I loved the cameo by Clint Eastwood. I loved the stilted line readings. (Agar sounds like he is reading ad copy for a radio spot with every line and Nelson is even more extreme.) Most of all, though, I loved those great underwater sequences with fish swimming every which way and cattle prods coming right out of the screen. 

So later, I visited the original The Creature from the Black Lagoon (flat) and realized that it was a much better movie…even without the 3D. So then the hunt was on. I had to find it in 3D! Eventually, I did, and it was everything I hoped. Gorgeous Julie Adams was cute enough on the flat version, but she was MADE for 3D! The scene where she swims above the Gill Man immediately showed me where Steven Spielberg got the inspiration for the similar shots in Jaws. I loved the movie and realized something else…

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Do you see my sandwich down there?

This might be the only “classic” Universal Monster movie that actually still has some scares in it. Yes, it is completely dated. But due to its familiarity and lack of any real rules, it seemed more dangerous. More untamed and wild. More chilling.

Frankenstein was some green dude with radio control knobs on his neck. Dracula was an Eurotrash aristocrat that went around giving girls hickies. The Wolf Man was not in control of his situation at all and went through a male menstrual cycle from hell. The Mummy…that dude was a lame medical experiment with bandages.

Naw. The Gill Man. That was the guy. He was scary. He was unbelievably fast (underwater). He had strength on par with Superman. He had razor sharp, blade like claws. 

And he liked the ladies. And Julie Adams…she was a lady and then some!

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
What’s all the fuss about?

But all these years, I never saw the third, and final, canon Black Lagoon creature feature: The Creature Walks Among Us. The first act of the film is actually pretty darn good, and Leigh Snowden was a fetching addition to the Gill Man Girls (wasn’t that a CW television series?) but it goes horribly awry when then take the fish out of water. This change to what made our damp demon so creepy in the first place…it just kind of took all the joy out of watching this eco-warrior go to town on unscrupulous types wanting to cash in on the fishman.

The first two films are still classics and if you watch them back to back, you basically have King Kong as done by the Little Mermaid. And what can be wrong with that?

The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Grade: A

Revenge of the Creature

Grade: B+

The Creature Walks Among Us

Grade: C

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) Trilogy

Shudder Acquires THE CELLAR

SHUDDER ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF THE CELLAR,

STARRING ELISHA CUTHBERT AND EOIN MACKEN, AHEAD OF FILM’S WORLD PREMIERE AT SXSW FESTIVAL

From Critically Acclaimed Writer/Director Brendan Muldowney, The Cellar Will Stream on Shudder April 15 with a Day-and-Date Theatrical Release Through RLJE Films

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Universal’s 110 Year Celebration

My last “Universally Loved” column was a review of the 1970’s Centennial TV miniseries. Just like that film, which actually covered much more than 100 years, I’d like to look at Universal’s 110th Anniversary.

There weren’t really any details of what this would consist of, so I decided I would look at the 110 years of Universal and make some suggestions how they could celebrate.

By the way, the 110 year anniversary stone is Pyrite. Be sure to get some today.

Open “Fourth Gate” early

Epic Universe
Epic Universe

Epic Universe, Universal’s now under construction fourth gate at their Florida Theme Park campus, is set to open in “2023.” This is the park that is rumored to have a Nintendo themed area along with possible lands including another Harry Potter land and a possible Universal monsters area (where I would like them to rebuild “Jaws” and “Kongfrontation” thank you very much).

If  they were to open this area early to tie in with the 110 year celebration, I think Universal fans like I would proverbially lose our minds. I know this is a stretch, but I put it here for wish fulfillment.

Re-release the good stuff

Universal truly has some awesome back catalog out there, and I’m always up for a trip to the cineplex to take in Jaws on the big screen again, but you can’t always get that to happen.

I propose a 110 year celebration area on Peacock (particularly since cinemas are still on the ropes with this whole pandemic deal yet). What would you put in there? Easy. One film from each year they’ve operated. Some of the old silent stuff is really tough to come by and I can see cinephiles like me crawl through there with two movies a week.

At minimum, you could pick ten movies from each decade. That way some of their stacked years, you could pick a few and fill in some of the weak years. It’s a thought.

By the way, IMDB has a horrible list out there of the 110 best Universal films, but I literally started throwing up with how it erred toward recency in every case. Why would you list Furious 7…like at all? You can find this pile of cow dung at https://www.imdb.com/list/ls051501794/

Send out stuff to Uberfans that have columns about their studio

This is completely self serving but you get 0% of what you don’t ask for.

Enhance WWE offerings

Since selling their network to Peacock, WWE has been taking it easy with self made productions. Here’s the pitch.

110 years of Universal. 110 wrestler Royal Rumble.

Yeah. You know you love this idea.

Royal Rumble
Royal Rumble

An NBC special about their history

Before you say, “Well, that’s self serving,” please refer to my idea two up from here. I’m kidding.

Think about it. Disney constantly pulls the ABC lever. When they have a new ride at one of their attractions. When they have some Marvel flick coming out. If they added a second mint on your pillow at WDW’s Polynesian Village. You know you are watching it if one of the Hough siblings is hosting it. Or some goofus from a tween show Disney is trying to push. Or both.

They generally pull these out at Christmas. ABC has about 33 of these specials around Christmas. NBC? They trot out the Today show people to host the Rockefeller Center Tree lighting. Now, I love that tree lighting and the time I went out there to see it is still one of those “bucket list” things I got to do in my travels across this ball of dirt orbiting the Sun. Still…it’s that and the Macy Day Parade. Yes, I know they do the live Musical thing, but they never seem to promote ANYTHING during that special.

black and white unk unk unk
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

My idea is simple. Place a person-to-person call to one of the experts bopping around TCM and put together a clip show of some of the finest moments of their history. Again, you could make multiple episodes over multiple nights and then drop the whole thing in your special area on Peacock. You could even tell folks, “If that clip grabs ya, go check out the film available this year on the ‘cock.” 

I want them to abbreviate that name so we can say stuff like, “That early Hitchcock film wasn’t doing to well on our streaming service, so we had to pull it off the ‘cock.”

Peacock. Hitchcock. Hey, there’s a thing, too!

I am now avoiding a joke I thought of about Hitch’s unhealthy relationship with a blonde star of his…her name was Tippy. You see how this can all be balled up together.

This is below me. Moving on.

Merge NBC.com and Peacock

Peacock
Peacock

Why the heck do they have two streaming services? What the hell?

And we should totally call it “the ‘cock.”

Or we could name it like every other streamer and call it Peacock+ when it merges.

Ew.


I give these incredibly awesome ideas to Universal free of charge…well, unless you do what to send me some free stuff. I still have some wall space that I’m saving for the perfect item. Let’s get on that Universal!

If you can’t get this all done this year, let’s start the prep for the 111th Anniversary!

Universal’s 110 Year Celebration

Glass (2019)

If you watch Glass critically, you might believe it is about the power of belief. If one believes they can do extraordinary things, they can. I posit, however, that theme was played out in Unbreakable and, in more thorough fashion, in Split. These predecessors look at that thought closely, but I believe that much like the character this film, M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass, is actually making you believe that is the plot, but it sneaks in a twist.

I just had to reference Robot Chicken in an M. Night Shyamalan review.

Jackson is smooth as…you know

This is a story about secrets. When you get down to it, all comic books are. This series of films have been about how comic books mirror the real world and in this way, it truly exposes that everything in life hangs on secrets.

This film is a sequel to Unbreakable and Split, but almost separately, not as a trilogy. Truly Unbreakable and Split are both standalone films, and this just draws them together. One of the tough things about all three of these movies is they have a twist ending so it is tough to discuss them except in the abstract. So here we go: the unusually gifted characters from the previous films all meet up in this film in a hospital for the criminally insane with a doctor (played by the horrendous Sarah Paulson, my key beef with the film) who believes she can cure them. 

A three sided triangle of dysfunction. Is there even a hero?

As with the previous films, it is built on suspense and tension keyly constructed through dialogue scenes that capture and engage the audience despite the fact that not very much happens on the screen.

If you think that makes it dull, I would need to disagree with you.

Unlike this director’s other films, he scores the film throughout without all the brooding silences that punctuate much of his work. It is not pulpy or adventurous, but somber and haunting which helps set this aside from other films of this particular genre.

Bruce finally acting like he isn’t broken

Even telling you the genre is a spoiler, for Jiminy’s sake! Sheesh!

Above all else, it is the performances that shine here. Bruce Willis turns in one of the least “weary” films he’s done in ages. While it doesn’t sparkle quite like his earlier work, it does partner well with his earlier film. Samuel L. Jackson does his normal high level of performance here as he continues to show his dramatic range has not dissipated through the years. However, it is James McAvoy that gets the showy part(s) that he reprises. He is equal parts chewing the scenery while grounding it with a gritty anger that seems to drive the character(s) striving to get into the light.

The first film really focuses on belief. It is key the characters believe the unlikely events unfolding to drive them forward. The second film is about hope and empathy which draws out humanity. This film, ultimately, is about the power of secrets. It’s about the power of while they are kept and the deadly force at which they can be revealed. 

And this reviewer is working hard to keep those secrets, while wildly encouraging to see this film and it’s two precursors. This is a wonderful capstone to those earlier films. I still believe I like the first best, but they are all constructed with high quality and ultimately entertain and invite the audience to ponder.

Grade: A-

Glass (2019)