Word: smashes
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DIED. "BUFFALO BOB" SMITH, 80, revered TV icon and host of the medium's first smash hit, The Howdy Doody Show; in North Carolina. Starting in 1947, the avuncular would-be cowboy (along with his famous marionette) cheerfully presided over Doodyville U.S.A.--home to such goofy characters as Clarabell the Clown and Flubadub. Howdy Doody ran for 13 years, partly a result of Smith's respect for his fans ("You can't kid a kid"). Among the show's contributions to the pop lexicon: the "Peanut Gallery" (his studio audience) and--sorry, Bart Simpson fans--"Cowabunga...
Soul Asylum is just as known for its one smash hit, "Runaway Train," as its lead singer, David Pirner, is known for having once dated actress Winona Ryder. At the height of Soul Asylum's popularity, "Runaway Train" was so famous that the band was invited to perform it at the White House for President Clinton. Sadly, after its grand entrance onto the music scene, Soul Asylum has not been able to produce another best-seller: David Pirner and Winona Ryder have long since broken up, and the band seemed to fade into obscurity...
That metaphor may be a bit of a stretch, even for Disney, but after seeing Beauty and the Beast: The Musical, the stretch may be worth the exercise. In the self-proclaimed "Smash Hit Musical," Disney works hard to prove that, as with everything else, it can put on a really pretty show with many dazzling special effects and less than 10 percent new material. Hey, if it succeeds in one form, one needs only alter the package a little to make it instantly popular again, right? While one would hope that this isn't true...
...which makes this IPO a strikeout for true investors and a smash for Jacobs. He keeps essentially all voting rights and pockets enough cash to go shopping finally for the pro football team he's wanted ever since the Cleveland Browns fled to Baltimore two years ago. What do the buyers get? A stock certificate that says all-stars Sandy Alomar and David Justice work for them now. But of course we know that athletes work for themselves. So all that the shareholders really get is a fancy sheet of paper that may or may not develop collectible value. There...
...foreword to the catalog claims that it is "possible to admire Edward Burne-Jones as the greatest British artist of the 19th century, after Turner and perhaps John Constable." One may demur at this, but the show is bound to be a smash hit with the American public, not just because it is full of the yearning sentimentality that has flooded into real life today--for there is a connection between Burne-Jones' semisacrificial English virgins, each one a Flower Beneath the Foot, and the emetically mawkish victim-cult of the late Princess Diana--but because its artfulness evokes intense...