British children's author-illustrator Raymond Briggs has died at age 88.




Best known for 1977's Fungus the Bogeyman, 1978's beloved The Snowman, and 1982's harrowing nuclear war tale When the Wind Blows, Raymond's work was a fixture of children's reading material back when I was in middle school.

The Snowman sold almost 6 million copies and was turned into a Bafta-winning animated television film in 1982; the film was also nominated for an Oscar. Since it's first broadcast on Boxing Day 1982, it has been shown on TV every Christmas since, which gives you an idea of its perennial popularity.

For me, his defining work was When the Wind Blows, which was also turned into an animated film, with a theme tune by David Bowie no less! It's the tale of an elderly couple, who live a mundane life in the English countryside, as the world outside teeters on the brink of nuclear war. We see them preparing for the coming Armageddon by following the advice in the British government's controversial Cold War leaflet, Protect & Survive...and there's some absolutely rapier sharp lancing of the government's well intention, but ultimately ridiculously ineffective advice by Briggs. Once the "big one" drops, we see the bewildered couple slowly dying of radiation poisoning for the remainder of the book. It becomes an intensely bleak story, but it's also a very moving tale. It certainly made a huge impression on me as a 12-year-old.

RIP to "The World's Toughest Man,"

"Judo" Gen LeBell....



Let's see Chuck Norris fight in a pink gi!

LeBell was quite a character; AAU Judo champion, professional wrestler/promoter, stunt man/actor, fight trainer, winner of one of the first recognized MMA fights, and all around raconteur and nutjob, who allegedly taught Steven Seagal a lesson in boasting.

LeBell was born Ivan gene LeBell and his mother, Eileen Eaton, was THE promoter of boxing and wrestling at the Olympic Auditorium, in Los Angeles. Gene used to hang out with the wrestlers, at the gym and said he wanted to learn and his first teacher, Ed "Strangler" Lewis (world champion, in the 1920s, controlling the title with promoters Billy Sandow and Toots Mondt), who asked him if he wanted to learn "freestyle," greco-roman," or "grappling." LeBell asked what that was and Lewis said a little bit of everything and even more, not allowed in the others. That lit up LeBell and he started "rolling" on the mat, learning from experienced "hookers" (submission specialists with extensive knowledge of crippling holds) and "shooters" (top amateur wrestlers, skilled in classic catch-style wrestling) and judo players. Lebell would go on to win the heavyweight and overall divisions of the AAU judo championships, in 1954 and 1955, at the age of 22. However, the money to be made was in pro wrestling, especially since his family controlled THE key arena in Los Angeles.

LeBell was rarely high on the card, as a wrestler, as he was involved in running the promotion and mostly wrestled in under card matches or in opening matches as the masked Hangman. Otherwise, he was involved in creating the finishes of matches, managing the box office, training guys, conducting locker room interviews (when host Dick Lane grew tired of it) and even commentary, after a while. He did get a few title bouts, since he was a favorite of Lou Thesz, the NWA world champion, in the 30s and 40s. They even did a match where Lebell appears to win the title, then gets disqualified when he celebrates and knocks down the ref, preventing him frim winning the belt.

One of LeBell's jobs was to act as the "policeman" for the promotion. The policeman is the guy who maintains order with the wrestlers, ensuring they follow the directions of the booker and the promoter. If a wrestler tried to call his own shots, against the promoter's wishes, he might find himself suddenly booked in a match with LeBell, knowing that it would get painful, quickly. One notorious incident was in 1963. African-American wrestler Bearcat Wright was a big star for the promotion and had been booked to defeat "Classy" Freddie Blassie for the WWA World title (so named after the promotion had broken away from the National Wrestling Alliance, in a dispute and called themselves the World Wrestling Associates), but was then supposed to drop the title to Edouard Carpentier, who would drop it back to Blassie. Wright was arguably the first African-American "world champion" (long before Ron Simmons or The Rock) and refused to drop the belt. He was booked to face Blassie in a match and went out to the ring to find that his opponent had been changed to Gene LeBell. He refused to get in the ring and left the territory.

As a stuntman and actor, leBell had a long list of credits, including The Green Hornet, where he took bumps for Bruce Lee. There is a story that Lee had been a little rough on some of the stuntment and LeBell was placed in there to teach Lee a lesson; but, they never actually got into a fight, as they got along well and LeBell started teaching Lee grappling techniques (which he later showcased in the opening of Enter The Dragon). This was heavily fictionalized (to the point of being insulting to Lee) in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

LeBell appeared in and did stunts in such films and tv series as Adv of Ozzie and Harriet, Burke's Law, The Green Hornet, Batman, The Beverly Hillbillies, Blacula, Black Samson, The Rockford Files, Kojak, Walking Tall, The One and Only, Kung Fu, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Remo Williams, Rush Hour and Out For Justice.

LeBell also taught grappling and submission wrestling to police departments and some noted martial artists (aside from Bruce Lee), including Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis (the karate champion), Bob Wall, Benny "The Jet" Urquidez and UFC Women's champion and WWE wrestler Rhonda Roussey. He also trained mainly wrestlers, who worked the LA territory, including Rowdy Roddy Piper (mainly because he drew so much heat people legitimately tried to kill him).

On the set of Out for Justice, so the story goes, star Steven Seagal was bosting that his akido technique made him impervious to chokeholds. LeBell supposedly challenged him to prove it and when Seagal said, "Go! LeBell proceeded to choke him out, causing him to lose control of his bowels. The story has been repeated often, though LeBell has never outright confirmed it (by made allusions that it was true) and even Seagal's bodyguard has insisted they did have a brief sparring thing where Lebel did a leg sweep on him, after Seagal elbowed him in the groin. Seagal claims LeBell made it up; but, there were witnesses on the set and no one has supported Seagal's claim, that LeBell fabricated the story.

On the seamier side (as if being a promoter's muscle wasn't shady), LeBell was arrested and charged in connection to a 1976 murder of a private investigator. He was cleared of the murder charge but was convicted of being an accessory, for driving the vehicle for the killer. The conviction was later overturned, upon appeal.

The pink gi you see in the photo was LeBell's trademark. He originally wore a traditional white gi, in competition; but, a laundry error, before a tournament, left him with no time to get a replacement and he was stuck with the one that went into the wash with a pair of red shorts. A crowd in Japan reacted poorly to the color, as it was seen as an insult, though they grew to respect his prowess on the mat. Later, LeBell answered the challenge from boxer Milo savage, with the pair facing off in what is generally considered the first modern MMA fight, with boxer vs wrestler. LeBell was supposed to face another boxer, but a switch was made with Savage, who had an amateur wrestling background. LeBell was barred from kicking or takedowns below the waist (similar to Greco-Roman wrestling) and Savage would wear a gi (but wore a karateka or karate version, which was tighter and harder to grip). leBell claimed he also applied vaseline to the lapels to make them harder to grip and loaded his boxing gloves. The first 3 rounds were close and Savage demonstrated he had been trained to defend against judo throws. LeBell succeeded in taking him down and started looking for choke opportunities, as he believed Savage wouldn't easily submit to a jointlock. In the fourth round, he succeeded in getting a choke on Savage and rendered him unconscious, so there was no doubt who won.

Years later, LeBell would act as referee for the infamous Muhammad Ali-Antoni Inoki boxer vs wrestler bout, in which Inoki was barred from kicking from the standing position and several other techniques and mostly resorted to kicking Ali's legs, from the mat. The Match was considered to be a major bore and lost money, though the story goes that Ali originally agreed to lose to Inkoi, in a worked fight, then reneged and wanted a "shoot" fight, with extensive rules to equalize things.

You can see LeBell here, as the champion, in the finale of the Henry Winkler film, The One and Only (which featured several LA wrestlers, including Chavo Guerrero Sr and Roddy Piper)....

Yeah, Motown was a huge part of the 1960's music scene and the Holland-Dozier-Holland team wrote so much of it. So many great songs R.I.P.

Dozier was a heck of a performer in his own right.

Big Motown fan here (though I love the rougher, rawer sound of Stax/Atlantic just as much). Lamont Dozier was, of course, a tremendous pop and soul songwriter, and as part of the Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote far too many stone cold 60s classics for me to list here. I've seen him interviewed in at least a couple of Motown documentaries and he always came across as a nice fella. Shame to hear of his passing.

This morning, it was being reported that Anne Heche was not expected to survive and was on life support while her organs were being checked for donation viability (she is a registered donor). Now I'm seeing reports that she has passed on. RIP.