Darryl's Novel “The Secret Feast of Father Christmas” (just in time for the holidays!)
Darryl's Storytelling Seminar “Story Magic”
Sweden House!
Darryl did some research after we talked: “I found out it was a chain that started in Duluth, Minnesota, and spread to several locations in Florida, but went under before it expanded much further. The flagship restaurant actually opened as:”
“[They were located in] Tampa/Clearwater, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and from what I read, Orlando may have been the last of them, opening in 1973. Which means they ran that ad enough during my last year here that it stuck in my cranium forever. Alas, that TV ad seems to still be lost to the mists of my mind. Orlando location was on Lee Road, where one post says that a medical building now stands. Original location in Duluth, 2 more in Illinois, fourteen total in Florida, all closed by 1980. Another post on a Florida memories site says that the Lee Road location became a Chuck E. Cheese. What a world.”
[ EXTRAS ] Maude Abortion Episode
It turns out I was wrong… I though it was 1976, but the controversial abortion episode of “Maude” was from Season 1, Episode 9, and its original broadcast date was November of 1972. 1972! A FULL DECADE BEFORE THE “FACTS OF LIFE” EPISODE! It was a 2-part episode, and here it is in its entirety on YouTube. (SIDEBAR: In these early episodes, they aged Rue McClanahan to look more like Maude’s BFF since Rue was about a decade younger than Bea Arthur.)
[ EXTRAS ] “The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage” is available at Amazon. I have the audiobook on Audible, and I look forward to starting to listen to it soon!
“Too Clever By Half”
I researched and found that there doesn’t exist a play called “Too Clever By Half.” BUT there was a revival of Aleksander Ostrevsky’s 1868 play “Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man” ... which was retitled “Too Clever By Half” seemingly only for this revival/translation done in 2013. Otherwise, I can’t find anything else with that title.
