When I heard that Les Blank had died, I went over to Lincoln Center, to the film library, to watch the two Les Blank films I think of most often, “Gap-Toothed Women” and “In Heaven There Is No Beer?” ...

There’s a cautionary tale to be found in A Poem Is A Naked Person, the unreleased Les Blank film about musician Leon Russell. Blank, who had started to make a name for himself for his short films, was ...