"Radical" Russ Belville's List: The New Viper Hour

• The irrepressible performer Mickey Rooney, who died April 6 at 93, began appearing before audiences at 15 months in his parents’ vaudeville act, singing “Pal o’ My Cradle Days” while sporting a tuxedo and holding a rubber cigar.
• So launched a nine-decade career of unapologetic scene-stealing — he could sing, dance, play drums and do pathos, pratfalls and impersonations — that once made him the top box-office draw in the world.
• A fixture before the cameras since the silent-movie days, he was a perpetual dynamo who endured an astonishing series of reversals and revivals — honorary Oscars, has-been-dom, bankruptcy, Broadway success. Mr. Rooney appeared in more than 300 films and TV programs, in addition to his work in radio, recording, nightclubs and commercials.
• His fame reached its pinnacle in the late 1930s and early 1940s, propelled largely by his role as Andy Hardy in the popular “Hardy Family” film series about the growing pains of an all-American teenager. The Hardy films earned more than $75 million for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios at a time when movie tickets cost about 25 cents.
• Mr. Rooney was often paired with Judy Garland — considered his equal in charisma and ability — in vibrant “let’s put on a show” musicals such as “Babes in Arms” (1939) and “Girl Crazy” (1943), many featuring indelible songs by the Gershwin brothers or the team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
• After World War II — he was a decorated Army veteran — his stardom collapsed. He was reckless in his personal behavior, appearing drunk and combative in television appearances.
• Starting in the 1950s, Mr. Rooney turned to character roles that showcased his range: a helicopter pilot in “The Bridges at Toko-Ri” (1954);  Anthony Quinn’s boxing trainer in “Requiem for a Heavyweight” (1962); and a has-been horse trainer in “The Black Stallion” (1979).
• “I've been short all my life,” he wrote in his memoir “Life is Too Short.” “And if anyone wonders what my dying wish will be, they can stop wondering. That will be easy. I'll just tell them, ‘I’ll have a short bier.’ ”

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• A Few Words about Dr. Funk
    By Derrick Bang
   
    Like most so-called overnight successes, Vincent Anthony Guaraldi -- who forever described himself as "a reformed boogie-woogie piano player" -- worked hard for his big break.
   
    The man eventually dubbed "Dr. Funk" by his compatriots was born in San Francisco on July 17, 1928
• Guaraldi began performing while in college
• sometimes with the Chubby Jackson/Bill Harris band, other times in combos with Sonny Criss and Bill Harris. He played weddings, high school concerts, and countless other small-potatoes gigs.
• His first serious booking came at the Black Hawk, when he worked as an intermission pianist ... filling in for the legendary Art Tatum. "It was more than scary", Guaraldi later recalled. "I came close to giving up the instrument, and I wouldn't have been the first after working with Tatum".
• In 1955 he put together his own trio -- longtime friend Eddie Duran on guitar, Dean Reilly on bass -- and tackled North Beach's bohemian hungry i club. He also returned to studio work that year, making his recorded debut as group leader
• National prominence was just around the corner. Inspired by the 1959 French/Portuguese film "Black Orpheus", Guaraldi hit the studio
    with a new trio -- Monte Budwig on bass, Colin Bailey on drums
    -- and recorded his own interpretations of Antonio Carlos
    Jobim's haunting soundtrack music. The 1962 album was
    called "Jazz Impression of Black Orpheus", and "Samba de
    Orpheus" was the first selection released as a single.
    Combing the album for a suitable B-side number, Guaraldi's
    producers finally ghettoized a modest original composition
    titled "Cast Your Fate to the Wind".
   
    Fortunately, some enterprising Sacramento, California DJs turned the single over...
   
    ...and the rest is history.
   
    "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" became a Gold Record winner and earned the 1963 Grammy as Best Instrumental Jazz Composition.
• The jazz pianist's association with Charles Schulz's creations actually had begun the year before, when Guaraldi was hired to score the first Peanuts television special, adocumentary called"A Boy Named Charlie Brown "

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• Guaraldi's smooth trio compositions -- piano, bass and drums -- perfectly balanced Charlie Brown's kid-sized universe.
• "A Charlie Brown Christmas" debuted in December 1965
• That first special also shot Guaraldi to greater fame, and he became irreplaceably welded to all subsequent Peanuts shows. Many of his earliest Peanuts tunes -- "Linus and Lucy", "Red Baron" and "Great Pumpkin Waltz", among others -- became signature themes that turned up in later specials.
• On February 6, 1976, while waiting in a motel room between sets at Menlo Park's Butterfield's nightclub, Guaraldi died of a sudden heart-attack. He was only 47 years old.
   
    A few weeks later, on March 16, "It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown" debuted on television. It was the 15th, and last, Peanuts television special to boast Guaraldi's original music. He had just finished recording his portion of the soundtrack on the very afternoon of the day he died.

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