Thursday, February 17, 2011
Obscurity of the Day: Rich and Famous
Hample was engaged by two competing syndicates, so on King Features' Inside Woody Allen he chose to work under a pseudonym at first, using his real identity on this feature for Field Enterprises.
Rich and Famous had a good gimmick with its tale of would-be entertainment mogul Bruce Rich. The endless parade of offbeat acts he represents gives the strip plenty of room for comedy. The problem, I think, is that Bruce is such a lazy good for nothing, and borderline cruel to his doting wife Daphne, that he's a complete turn-off. He really has no redeeming features, and he's not even an amusing ne'er do well. He's just off-putting.
Hample undoubtedly would have preferred to make a success of this feature, being lock, stock and barrel his own, rather than the other feature where he was in the comedic and financial shadow of Woody Allen. But it didn't take long to figure out in which basket his eggs would do best. Rich and Famous started on November 1 1976, and seems to have pooped out less than five months later, on March 12 1977.
Labels: Obscurities
