Who Is Bijou Bob?

Back when this blog was initiated, we began a string of posts written by “Bijou Bob”. In fact, the articles published here have been written by a number of people working on the Matinee at the Bijou series. So … who IS Bijou Bob? Well, now might be as good a time as any to introduce the Bijou inner circle who, together, write as Bijou Bob, and who work tirelessly behind the scenes to create the sequel series.

The team is comprised of a handful of talented TV veterans who were part of the original series, combined with an extended group of film and media experts and enthusiasts...and yes, as you will see, there is a Bob involved. (Careful readers will recall that in our post “Bijou Bob Answers Back" we showed Bijou Bob as a monkey at a typewriter. Actually, we don’t have a typing monkey on our staff, but when we get funded we mean to acquire one.)

Let’s meet the Bijou Bob crew, beginning with members of the original team:

BOB CAMPBELL
Bob is co-creator and producer of the original series which aired on PBS from 1980-88. He is a former front-row kid, a lifetime film buff, and recognized as a leading authority in classic American movie history and content. In addition to the Matinee series, Bob created and c0-produced an anthology film series called The Uncle Sam Movie Collection. Producing credits include a Disney series called The Fabulous Fleischer Folio, among many others. Bob grew up in southern California and has lived in southern Oregon since 1977.

SAM HARRISON
Sam directed seasons 4 and 5 of the original Matinee series, and returns to helm the sequel. He's a graduate of UCLA’s Theatre Arts Film School, with over 30 years experience directing, producing and writing over 200 film and video productions. Having enjoyed directing the likes of Ned Beatty, Rip Torn, Aldo Ray and James Mason, Sam is looking forward to the opportunity of working with our talented host, Debbie Reynolds. Sam and his wife Jeanne reside in Carmel, California.

RICH MENDOZA
Rich created “At the Bijou” the theme song for the original Matinee at the Bijou, and is currently composing a new theme song to be performed by Ms. Reynolds. Rich left Grey Advertising Worldwide in 1999, after serving 20 years as VP/Associate Music Director, to launch his own music production company, Amazing Tunes. In addition to writing and singing on hundreds of jingles, he’s very active in childrens’ television. Among the shows he’s written for are Schoolhouse Rock (ABC), The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (Nickelodeon), The Book of Pooh, PB&J Otter and JoJo’s Circus (Disney). His work in advertising and tv have given him the opportunity to work with the likes of Johnny Cash, The Muppets, John Malkovich and Mike Nichols. (You can read Rich’s reminiscences of working with Rudy Vallee in an earlier post.) In addition to his maestro role, Rich is an executive producer on the series this time around and manages The Bijou Blog.

MARK DuMOND
Mark is president of The Chudwig Group, Inc., which owns Matinee at the Bijou. He, along with Bob and Peter Bedell, are producers on the sequel series. Mark is an Emmy award winning producer, director and writer, and was a director and producer of The Uncle Sam Movie Collection series. He recently completed a 20 year career as general manager of what is now known as Pilot Rock Productions, one of the Pacific Northwest’s premier media production facilities. Mark recently launched Media Du Monde, Inc., a media production company based in the Seattle area. He and his wife Sheri live in Renton, Washington.

TOM WINMILL
Tom is a Chudwig Group principal and an executive producer of the sequel series. He is a successful marketing executive, and a producer of The Uncle Sam Movie Collection series. Tom is the sales and marketing director for COBI Digital HD. He and wife Debbie are longtime residents of Ashland, Oregon

RON HALL, GREG LUCE, CONRAD SPROUT
Founder-owners respectively of Festival Films, Sinister Cinema and Hollywood Select Video, each is an executive producer of Matinee at the Bijou and brings to the series a lifetime of knowledge and experience in locating and acquiring rare cinematic treasures - many of which will be showcased on upcoming episodes. Ron was profiled in an earlier entry, and we will have much more to say about Greg and Conrad in future posts.

PETER BEDELL
Pete is a multi-talented editor and video artist, with decades of multi-media experience. In 1995, the Matinee series underwent an extensive makeover for a domestic re-release and international distribution. Pete produced a new opening sequence and edited the re-release versions. Currently he operates a Discreet “Smoke” High Definition post production suite at Medford’s COBI Digital HD, where much of the production of the sequel series will take place.

LARRY ADDINGTON
Larry art directs the print and online presence of Matinee at the Bijou, and often weighs in on other creative and biz aspects of the show. He’s a supremely talented artist, designer, architect and musician and runs his own venerable artistic design business called 20/20 Design, based in Ashland, Oregon.

Remembering Rudy

Rich Mendoza, who wrote the theme song for the original Matinee at the Bijou series, still has some very distinct memories of his experiences with Rudy Vallee, the crooner of the tune. Here are some of his thoughts, more than a quarter-century later:

“When I first phoned Rudy to introduce myself, he’d recently been invited OFF a mid-day talk show on WGBH/Boston. He was touring the provinces with his one-man show and the TV appearance was part of his P.R. efforts. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the first singing telegram, which had been sent to him from Boston to New York. The talk show producers outdid themselves to welcome him. Before bringing him out as a guest they had a small group of dancers and singers perform a medley of some of the songs he made famous, decked out in Yale letter sweaters and carrying megaphones. No doubt Rudy should have been honored, but apparently he was not in a sunny mood. As soon as he was seated the hostess asked “So... how did you come to be identified with the megaphone?” Rudy scowled, then snapped “How come EVERYONE ALWAYS asks me the same STUPID question?” The hostess looked at the camera and ad libbed “We’ll be right back.” After the commercial break, Rudy was gone.

This may have been a lucky break for me and the rest of the Bijou gang, as Rudy was feeling quite sheepish about the whole thing and was as eager and cooperative as I could have ever hoped. A few weeks later, the tracks to “At the Bijou” recorded, I was ready to fly to LA to meet him and record his vocals. In our conversations he’d mentioned that the thing he missed most about NYC was the cheesecake. When I pulled in to Silvertip, high atop Rue De Vallee (known to the hoi polloi as Pyramid Place) to introduce myself in person, I had with me a pineapple cheesecake from Balducci’s that I’d brought across the country with me. He was enormously pleased and thus began a thoroughly enjoyable relationship which lasted until his death in 1986.

He was a world of fun, a gracious host and extremely professional in the recording studio. That’s not to say that I never got to see the legendary Rudy Vallee temper, but his explosions were hardly worth taking personally as they were as short-lived and empty of intent as they were colorful.

Bob Campbell, one of the original Bijou producers, and I were invited to the Vallee manse that week for dinner. After dinner, Rudy honored us with a private performance of his one-man show, in which he reminisced about his fascinating life. This was an extraordinary production as Rudy, busy as a one-armed paperhanger, ran the slide projector, the video playback, the cassette player and the sound system, just as he did when performing the show in public.

Bob, thinking about a future TV project, inquired whether Rudy would be interested in having his life story produced for television. HBO and Showtime were very new networks at the time and did not have a lot of experience yet in creating original content. Perhaps they’d be open to the proposal. Well, the fuse was lit. Rudy, obviously annoyed and getting more so every second, had already given much thought to such a prospect and he made it clear that his life story wouldn’t be on cable, it would be on CBS and Robert Redford would play the lead. (Rudy, to my knowledge, was never accused of having a problem with self-esteem. In fact, his tennis court was on top of a building devoted entirely to a museum to himself. Reportedly, after seeing it, Frank Sinatra quipped: “Gee, I wonder who lives here.”) Bob, trying to dig his way out, but only getting in deeper, offered that the timing might be right for such a project as nostalgia seemed to be experiencing a surge of popularity. “F*** NOSTALGIA!” explained Rudy. “F*** NOSTALGIA!, F*** NOSTALGIA!,“ he continued, further clarifying his earlier point.

While Rudy may not have been particularly frightening when he was angry, he proved to be absolutely terrifying when in a good mood. The next night Bob and I, and Rudy and his wife Eleanor, were going to have dinner at a local Chinese restaurant before heading to the recording studio. Rudy was in high spirits and he insisted we take one of his two Connecticut police wagons to the restaurant, Rudy not only driving, but also being in charge of the lights and sirens. Somehow we survived a journey that at times made Space Mountain seem tame, but Bob remembers vividly drinking in every detail of Los Angeles as it flew by, thinking that he meant to experience life to the fullest if these were to be his last few minutes on earth.

To say that Rudy was the most colorful character I ever met would amount to damning him with faint praise."

Rich Mendoza is currently writing the theme song for the new Matinee at the Bijou, to be performed by Host Debbie Reynolds. Rich is founder of Amazing Tunes. Check back here for more updates as we get closer to hitting the airwaves.

A Bijou Flashback

TV shows are produced mostly in Los Angeles, New York and Canada. So how did a television series from Oregon become one of the most popular shows on PBS? The tale spans a quarter century. Matinee at the Bijou first hit the tube in 1980, when two entrepreneurial film junkies from Oregon pitched the idea to PBS. Their vision was to bring back the pre-1960 movie matinee experience exactly as it was, when the trip included a cartoon, short, serial and feature. PBS embraced the concept and Matinee At The Bijou became one of the network’s top rated series throughout the 80s, sometimes rated among the top ten shows on PBS.

Bob Campbell, one of the creators, acquired the rights from his partner in 1982 and shepherded the series through five consecutive seasons. In the mid 90s, TV Matters, a Netherlands-based company, acquired the broadcast rights to the original episodes, gave the series a makeover, and re-edited the original 80 shows into 52 fresh episodes for a second time around on select PBS stations. Two new serials were added for the new versions and audiences once again raved and returned for more.

Fast forward to 2006. PBS has given the green light to a sequel series and is assisting in the search for show sponsors. Campbell has reunited much of the original team, including the director, editor, and songwriter – and added three distinguished film collectors with substantial film resources and access to rarely seen gems. (There will be more about these gentlemen in a future post.)

Best news of all is that the great Debbie Reynolds, the star of Singin’ in the Rain, is joining Matinee at the Bijou as our host. Ms. Reynolds will also be singing the new Bijou theme song, penned by Rich Mendoza, who wrote the original Rudy Vallee theme. Our fully digital Oregon production house (COBI DIGITAL HD) is geared up with all the latest HD technology and work is underway on the film selection process, production design, and spreading the word that BIJOU IS BACK.