People who like to fume about the manner in which Disney changed beloved classics are often ignorant of history, not to mention the realities of show business.

In 1921, Harry Houdini started his own film company called - wait for it - the Houdini Picture Corporation.

People who like to fume about the manner in which Disney changed beloved classics are often ignorant of history, not to mention the realities of show business.

I detest flying anywhere. Left to my own devices, I'd never leave my keyboard.

Besides, we weren't made to battle villains, because there weren't any. No nation, creed, or race was any better or worse than another; all were flawed, all were equally doomed to suffering, mostly because they couldn't see that they were all alike. Mortals might have been contemptible, true, but not evil entirely. They did enjoy killing one another and frequently came up with ingenious excuses for doing so on a grand scale-religions, economic theories, ethnic pride-but we couldn't condemn them for it, as it was in their mortal natures and they were too stupid to know any better.

I may cut my coat to follow fashion, sir, but not my conscience.

If you want to see what stage comedians did to get laffs a century ago, watch the 1910 'Wizard of Oz.' I hope you have a high tolerance for pratfalls.