James Niebar passes away
Bruce Calvert
alt.comedy.laurel-hardy passed away this morning. He also just published an
excellent book on Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. For more information,
see
http://www.silentcomedians.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=478&highlight=
--
Bruce Calvert
--
Visit the Silent Film Still Archive
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com
JLN
well!
JN
(no, I am not a ghost!)
Bruce Calvert
news:1187112863.4...@i38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
Sorry, Jim. I was just forwarding the information from the
SilentComedians.com message board. I'm glad that you are still with us.
William Hooper
wrote:
This is terrible news. He was such a fixture of alt.movies.silent .
It doesn't seem real, as if I could still hear him posting.
R.I.P., James.
The Mighty Favog
Hark! I think I hear him too!
--
Bill Anderson
I am the Mighty Favog
William Ferry
condolences to his family and friends.
--
Yours for bigger and better silents,
William D. Ferry
"Bruce Calvert" <silentf...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:vClwi.668$5Q5.267@trnddc05...
William Ferry
This is a mixed blessing:
1. I'm embarrassed that I didn't read the rest of the thread
2. I'm glad Jim is still with us
3. My condolences still go out to the loved ones of the other Jim Niebar
--
Yours for bigger and better silents,
William D. Ferry
"Bruce Calvert" <silentf...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:g5mwi.4356$jU4.3599@trnddc02...
William Hooper
I could never tell this story while he was still alive, because he
never stopped being horribly embarassed about it, but it shows how
generous he was:
In about 1973, Gaylord Carter was touring around with his Flicker
Fingers shows & I met James at the Louisville Loew's where Gaylord was
playing "Sparrows". James was one of those people who liked popcorn,
a LOT of popcorn, & liked a lot of butter with it. He gave these
complex directions to the guy at the concession stand, having him fill
up the bottom of this huge popcorn tub with butter, then put some
popcorn in, then another pint of butter, some more popcorn, etc., it
took forever.
Then we went up to the balcony (theatre organs sound best there
generally), James sits in an aisle seat, & parks this huge tub of
popcorn in the aisle next to his seat. About 20 minutes into the
movie, this little kid comes galloping down the balcony aisle, sure
enough, trips over the popcorn, & he & the popcorn latch together &
tumble down about 6 more rows.
Instead of doing the normal thing, i.e. just acting like you had
nothing to do with it, James jumps up, & runs down to the kid who is
bawling now & solidly covered from head to foot in a thick coating of
popcorn butter slime. So James is trying to quiet this kid down, is
asking around to find a parent, of course there's no parent anywhere
there, the people in the balcony are getting ticked off.
He says he ought to at least clean the kid up, but doesn't want to
take him to the restroom where the kid may be embarassed. I tell him
I remembered seeing a janitorial sink down front, at the foot of the
stairs in the dressing room tower, & they shove off. I saw them going
down the side aisle on the floor, past the curtains, into the door for
the dressing room tower at the side of the screen. Sure enough, about
2 minutes later mom comes around looking for the kid, & I tell her
where they went.
It was later learned that what happened after that & before the
screaming started was the kid climbed into the janitorial sink, turned
on the water, took off all his clothes in the sink, washed off all the
popcorn butter by himself. Then James realized there was nothing
there to dry him off, or dry the kid's clothes off (which were now
soaking in the bottom of the janitorial sink).
So he looks around, sees on the other side of the staircase the air
handler room through a half-open steel grid door. It's got this huge
fan with a guard made of chicken-wire like stuff in front of it, &
James thinks, hmm, I'll just blowdry the kid in front of this fan.
They go in there & James holds the kid up in front of the fan. Mom
comes down the stairs, turns, & sees in this scary mechanical room
through the grid door some strange man holding her child up like he's
about to throw him into this giant meat chopper. She starts screaming
her head off, runs to the door, pushes instead of pulls, & it locks.
Up in the house, blood-curdling screams start echoing through the
theater & just don't stop. Gaylord Carter stops playing, turns
around, the movie stops, the house lights come up, & I'm already
running down the aisle on the floor towards the dressing room tower.
The fire marshall who had been on stage during this is right in front
of me, we get down there & mom & the kid are both screaming, have
their fingers through the grid door trying to dig through to each
other, & James is standing there on the other side of a locked door
with this dripping wet naked child in front of a mammoth scary chopper
thing trying to explain what's going on. The staircase starts to
pile up with people running down, nobody can get through the crowd to
get somebody with a key. It's bedlam for about 25 minutes.
After the door got unlocked & we went to a dressing room with the
cops, fire marshall, manager, mom, the kid, & some other folks, we got
it all explained. They got the picture underway again at some point,
but we didn't get out until about 90 minutes after it was *over*.
Gaylord Carter. It was probably a good show.
We'll miss you, James.
The Mighty Favog
That is the funniest thing I've heard all day. But when I'm gone, if
somebody ever tells a story that embarrassing about ME, it'll likely
bring me back from the grave to take my revenge.
How about you, James?
jln...@yahoo.com
> I could never tell this story while he was still alive, because he
> never stopped being horribly embarassed about it, but it shows how
> generous he was:
>
> In about 1973, Gaylord Carter was touring around with his Flicker
> Fingers shows & I met James at the Louisville Loew's where Gaylord was
> playing "Sparrows"
(snip)
I was in jr. high school in 1973, pops!
JN
Kingo Gondo
Wherever Niebaur is, I hope he meets up with Doc Daneeka.
William Ferry
("Everything is funny as long as it's happening to somebody else."---Will
Rogers)
--
Yours for bigger and better silents,
William D. Ferry
"William Hooper" <rotoflex...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1187120355.5...@q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
R H Draney
>
>Am I alone in thinking this would have made a great two-reeler?
>("Everything is funny as long as it's happening to somebody else."---Will
>Rogers)
No, you're not alone...I see Charley Chase as the star....r
--
"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!"
"You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!"
silentcomedians.com
Earlier today, I received an email from one of my members pointing me to
the post on the Laurel & Hardy newsgroup. Of course, it looked as if it
was sadly a firsthand account from Jim's wife.
I got this information during the later part of my lunch break, and
unfortunately I believed it to be true. So I had to post the news to the
other members of the site.
I hope this is just a case of mistaken identity, because I can't imagine
anyone pulling a prank to this degree.
In some sort of perverse way with these unfortunate circumstances, this
does show how much the film community does care about Jim. If anything
good comes out of this cruelty, I hope it is that.
Jim, I can't tell you how happy I am this news turned out to be false,
continued health and happiness...
Sal
SilentComedians.com
Bill Coleman
I know, I am the
member of the silentcomedians.com who forwarded the info from
alt.comedy.laurel-hardy
to that board I feel very bad about it...especially as I am not a heavy
poster.
I can only say that I would've been more cautious in forwarding the original
post except that in another, unrelated message board I belong to, a very
long-time, noted poster did abruptly
and unexpectedly pass away just a month ago. So I guess I was sensitive
about the subject.
Bill
"silentcomedians.com" <in...@silentcomedians.com> wrote in message
news:Aeudne6-erqZrV_b...@comcast.com...
jln...@yahoo.com
wrote:
> First I have to say what a relief it is to have Jim still with us.
>
> Earlier today, I received an email from one of my members pointing me to
> the post on the Laurel & Hardy newsgroup. Of course, it looked as if it
> was sadly a firsthand account from Jim's wife.
Well, since my wife actually did die (in 1987) that would have been a
neat trick (I do not even know a person named "Louise").
Thanks for the kind words from everyone, but you're all still stuck
with me.
JN
Stacia
>I hope this is just a case of mistaken identity, because I can't imagine
> anyone pulling a prank to this degree.
It's pretty common on Usenet for someone to post a fake death notice.
If I'd seen the original post about the triathlon, though, I'd have known
it was a hoax ;)
Just kidding, Jim. I pretty much flipped when I first saw the subject
line a few minutes ago.
Stacia
jln...@yahoo.com
> On Aug 14, 2:29 pm, William Hooper <rotoflexSPAMT...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I could never tell this story while he was still alive, because he
> never stopped being horribly embarassed about it, but it shows how
> generous he was:
>
> In about 1973, Gaylord Carter was touring around with his Flicker
> Fingers shows & I met James at the Louisville Loew's where Gaylord was
> playing "Sparrows".
I re-read this today because I thought it was so funny the first
time.
So in 1973, when I was all of 15, we met in Louisville, a place I
still have never been.
>James was one of those people who liked popcorn,
> a LOT of popcorn, & liked a lot of butter with it.
This is the only part you got correct about me except for the butter
part. I do not like theater butter so I always have my popcorn plain
with salt (too much salt, according to friends, but my blood pressure
is 118 over 65 so I don't fret about it).
(snip)
> We'll miss you, James.
indeed
JN
Michael F. Blake
Now I have to give back that $10,000 check to STAR magazine! Here I
thought I had made an easy buck saying his death happened while he was
enjoying a hot tub moment with Britney!
Thanks a lot, Jim!! :o(
Michael F. Blake