Old Movies

Monday, Aug. 14, 2006 - 1:46 a.m.

Here's a passing of note; if you are a fan of old movies like I am, you'll recall who this is:

Ken Richmond, the 6-foot-5, ripple-armed wrestler who for decades was seen striking the gong that heralded the opening credits for dozens of films produced by the J. Arthur Rank Studio in England, died on Aug. 3 at his home in Christchurch, on England's south coast. He was 80.

The cause was a heart attack, said Mr. Richmond's friend, Chris Saunders.

The famous "golden gong'' never rang for Mr. Richmond, however. It was actually papier-m�ch�, and as he often joked, "If you hit that gong, you would have gone straight through."

It was in 1954 that Mr. Richmond was paid a one-time fee of �100 - about $280 at the time - to bare his chest, grease his body and take a slow, delicate swing at a gong about five feet across.

Actually, this fellow still exists.

Whenever I have a migraine, he's right inside my head, and the gong is REAL.

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Great guns, I saw FOOTBALL on television over the weekend.

Not only that, I saw Al Michaels and John Madden on NBC. I knew Madden left, but I was very pleasantly surprised to see Al had joined him.

I went looking to see how this happened, and I found out that one of the things given by NBC / Universal to ABC / Disney as part of Al Michael's contract buyout were the rights to Oswald, The Lucky Rabbit.

Oswald's considered to be the long-eared, pie-eyed, round-faced predecessor to Mickey Mouse that Walt Disney had to leave behind when he quit working for Universal Studios in the late 20s.

And, of course, there are already players out with injuries, just like five months ago during exhibition baseball.

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Finally, I enjoyed this little gem from T-Shirt Hell.

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Okay, there you go. Have a nice Monday.

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