I must need a memory upgrade, because I can never remember where I have seen an actor before. For instance, last night I was watching The Producers (1968) and just couldn’t place the actor that played the Director. I had to come home and search the internet to find that he was none other than Christopher Hewett, better known as Mr. Belvedere to some.

Christopher Hewett was born on April 5, 1922 in Worthing, England. He started acting in Broadway and was in such plays as My Fair Lady, The Unsinkable Molly Brown and Sleuth. He appeared in a few movies in the 50s and 60s and in 1968 he appeared in The Producers. He was cast as Mr. Roarke’s sidekick in the final season of Fantasy Island (1983-84). He was given his own series in Mr. Belvedere and had that role from 1985 to 1990. His last role was in the series California Dreams in 1994.

Hewett was a life long bachelor and a devout Catholic. He had diabetes and complications from the disease caused his death on August 3, 2001. He was 79 years old.

Now that I have told you all about David Seville, here is a little about Alvin and the Chipmunks. The Chipmunks were the creation of Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. Bagdasarian went by the stage name of David Seville. He created three Chipmunks and named them after the executives of Liberty Records (the original record label). They were: Alvin Bennett (the president), Simon Waronker (the founder and owner), and Theodore Keep (the chief engineer).

The Chipmunks were a huge success and had a number of recordings. Unfortunately, Bagdasarian died unexpectedly in 1958. His son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. took over in 1980 as David Seville and the Chipmunks have appeared in numerous cartoons, movies and albums. The voices for the Chipmunks are voiced by Bagdasarian, Jr. and his wife, Janice expect for the 2007 film were the Chipmunk voices were provided by Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney. This film marked the only time that a Bagdasarian did not provide any of the voices.

The technique used for the Chipmunk voices is now called chipmunk-voiced. The technique involved recording the voice onto audiotape at half the normal speed. When the tape is played back at double speed, the voice appears a full octave higher in pitch, but at normal tempo. This technique was also used for the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz.

After watching many clips from YouTube on my laptop computer of the Chipmunks, this one is my favorite from the original cartoon series:

Since it is close to Christmas time, we have pulled out our Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas CDs. They are favorites of the kids and I used to listen to the same ones (of course, on vinyl) back in the day. This got me to thinking, whatever happened to David Seville?

David Seville’s real name was Rostom Sipan Bagdasarian. He was born on January 27, 1919 and was of Armenian descent. Bagdasarian appeared on Broadway in The Time of Your Life and later wrote a song with his cousin William Saroyan for Rosemary Clooney.

In 1956, down to his last $200, Bagdasarian spent $190 on a tape recorder that allowed him to change the speed of the recording. Under the name David Seville, he recorded ‘Witch Doctor.’ This led him to record ‘The Chipmunk Song’ with The Chipmunks. He won two Grammy awards with this recording.

Bagdasarian took bit parts in movies and then provided the voice of David Seville in the short-lived animated series The Alvin Show in 1961. On January 16, 1972, Bagasarian died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 53. In 1980, his son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. decided to revive the Chipmunks and took on the voice of David Seville, Alvin and Simon. His wife, Janice Karman, did the voices for Theodore and the Chipettes.

Here is the original ‘Witch Doctor’ recording:

My daughter (and millions of teens in the United States) are anxiously awaiting the release of the Twilight movie based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer. The movie is basically a story about both good and bad vampires and a girl, Bella, caught in the middle. There are four books in the series, so look for more movies in the future. My daughter and I will certainly be sitting in theater seating on November 21st!

I heard the sad news today that Michael Crichton has passed away. I loved his books. Some of my favorites were Jurassic Park, Timeline, Congo and State of Fear. He was also the creator of ER (television series). I didn’t realize that he also director the movie Westworld in 1973.

I have always been in love with old hand pumps. You know, the kind that people used to have in their yards to draw water from the well before faucets were invented?

Here is one that is really cool looking. It is even in front of an old homestead house:

Here is a smaller one that looks like it would fit over a sink:

I bet those early settlers were thrilled to have pumps instead of using the hold bucket and pulley system!