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First Album You Got – Day 5 – 30 Day Smothers Brothers Challenge

My answer for this is the same as Day 3. Very first one in any format was the Sibling Revelry on cassette. First vinyl was Purple Onion. Not only my first albums but also my favorites 🥰 And I share how I got each one of those in that post. And since I showed the front covers of those albums also on Day 3, and I didn’t want to use the same picture again, I decided to share the back covers this…

Favorite Routine – Day 4 – 30 Day Smothers Brothers Challenge

I have a non-musical one, and a couple musical ones. The non-musical one is probably is not a surprise. “Mom Always Likes You Best” (and it’s variants) 🤣. I am the oldest of 4. So of course I can really relate to the type of sibling bickering that is in the routine. But what I didn’t think would happen, or was possible, was that it would become even funnier. After I became a mom of 2. My…

Favorite album – Day 3 – 30 Day Smothers Brothers Challenge

There were a total of 12 albums released. During the 60’s, 11. Years later, in 1988, a “Best Of”. And all of them I love to bits. But which one is my favorite? There’s two. Sibling Revelry: The Best of the Smothers Brothers This one which is pretty much like it sounds: a compilation of routines from their albums that are tops. I got the cassette version as a birthday present from a family…

Did you ever see them in concert? – Day 2 – 30 Day Smothers Brothers Challenge

I don’t go to concerts very much. In fact, I think the last time I went to one was to see the Smothers Brothers. And they retired in 2010, so that gives you an idea. But I saw them much more than all other concerts combined (John Denver in ’85, Janet Jackson in ’90, and David Byrne also in ’90… I think that’s it, 😂). So how many times? I don’t remember. I lost count. But there were a few that…

How did you become a fan? – Day 1 – 30 Day Smothers Brothers Challenge

So there I was in 1986, a 13 year old kid, flipping TV channels on our TV in our family room looking for something to watch. And then I see them. It was on the Nickelodeon channel during a block of shows called Camp Nickelodeon (shortly later to be renamed Nick at Night). It was a black and white sitcom that I had never seen before – “The Smothers Brothers Show”. And two guys who (I thought) I…

The 30 Day Smothers Brothers Challenge

I know this is more niche than my Charlie Chaplin one. And even more niche than the Doctor Who challenge. For example, some of you might be thinking to yourself: “Who the heck are the Smothers Brothers?” In a nutshell: Tom and Dick Smothers are real life brothers and from 1959 to 2010 they performed as a musical comedy team, with Tom on acoustic guitar and Dick playing double bass. Both of them…

Day 30 – Favorite piece(s) of memorabilia that you own – 30 Day Charlie Chaplin Challenge

And now, the last one! I have been a fan for about 30 years now, and while I have not constantly been buying things, I have gathered a nice assortment, and stories to go with them. Below are not all the things I have, but the ones that mean the most. “Chaplin: His Life and Art” by David Robinson The first thing, and still one of my top things, is a hardback copy of David Robinson’s “Chaplin,…

Day 29 – Favorite Documentary – 30 Day Charlie Chaplin Challenge

I have two. My answers will not be surprising to long time Chaplin fans. The Gentleman Tramp and Unknown Chaplin. Gentleman Tramp is a biography, and Unknown Chaplin is a “behind the scenes” doc. I baffled my family growing up with the number of times I have watched these. And I have baffled my kids equally as much. “Mom, you’re watching that again?“ Like his films, these docs are fun and…

Day 28 – Favorite fiction book – 30 Day Charlie Chaplin Challenge

I have not read many (well, there’s some “non-fiction” books…but I digress), but one that I have had fun reading is “Shadow and Substance: My Time with Charlie Chaplin (A Novel)” by Gerry Mandel. I have read it 3 or 4 times. Summary is that it takes place in the late 1990s and it’s about a guy named Cooper whose a huge Chaplin fan, who been hired to work on a documentary on Chaplin. And who…

Day 27 – What film would you recommend to recruit a fan? – 30 Day Charlie Chaplin Challenge

That depends. Have only a few minutes? – Kid Auto Races Into history? – Shoulder Arms. Or (the sort of a sequel) The Great Dictator Into political/social issues? – Easy Street, The Kid, Modern Times, Monsieur Verdoux, A King in New York Want a good cry that tears your heart out and rips it to shreds and stomps it on the ground? – The Kid, Limelight Romantic? – The Immigrant, The Gold Rush,…

Day 2? – Favorite story about him told by someone else

Oh, my goodness, where to start…. Charlie’s oldest daughter, Geraldine, tells wonderful stories about her dad. My favorite: taking the family to a restaurant and eating a fish while grossing out his kids. Sydney, the Trouble Maker Another one is one I don’t know where I read it from but it takes place during his exile in Switzerland. Brother Sydney would come over to visit his nieces and…

Day 25 – Favorite story about him, told by him – 30 Day Charlie Chaplin Challenge

His whole autobiography is full of great stories. Traumatic childhood, going to America, making a huge success in movies, etc. One story I really liked is a good example of what it was like to be super famous to an extent that no one had experienced before. With the popularity of movies, going from a fad to a international medium, Charlie was one of the first people to experience it. He tells…

Day 24 – Favorite scene – 30 Day Charlie Chaplin Challenge

Okay, I have a whole bunch that I love (does every scene in his movies count?), but narrowing it down to just two. The first one I have mentioned before (Day 6 – Favorite First National): From “The Kid” (100 years old this year! Huzzah! Soundtrack that Chaplin wrote is 50 years old this year! Huzzah again!). Below is from the official Chaplin YouTube channel (I was so happy when they uploaded…