....." Gone With the Wind", Now Under Assault for Confederate Imagery
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Supream Court seems to have picked Hillary? Is this payback for not picking Gore? Married to a cop?...check below
 |
| What the wives say....click below! |
...The Supreme Court just gave Hillary the White House!
All we see now is a bunch of GOP candidates choosing up sides on the court’s issues. Most of them making asses of themselves.... can you say Donald Trump?
You don’t see that on the Democrat side do you.
That doesn’t mean it’s right it just adds to the confusion of too many also ran Republicans trying to win the White House....an most of them mouthing off about something which is very private between two or more people and should stay that way. the only quiet and considered candidate on the right was Jeb Bush but he can’t beat Hillary and nobody else can either....not even Biden should he decide to jump into the fray.
Drudge searches desperately for the right, right winner but he won’t find it. They’re aren’t any.
And speaking of Jeb Bush...why are some of the national media trying to focus his candidacy not on what he did in two terms in Florida as a good Governor...but something dark about past business stuff. They aren’t doing that with anyone else.....and believe me there are enough dudes running that some of them probably have bigger “business” problems to explore than Jeb.
Well...it’s going to be a long year until NEXT November 2016.
__________________________
10 Realities Of Being Married To A Police Officer
Next time you see a cop....think about this....
click below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-wilson/married-to-a-police-officer_b_7557596.html?ncid=newsltushpmg00000003
stanmajor@aol.com
Monday, June 29, 2015
Hospital fire in Effingham....WCRA my first job? empty the wastebaskets...but I was in radio!
My Dad woke me up one night "Stanley there's something wrong on the north side. Let's go have a look."
We got to within about 2 blocks of the hospital...the stench was
brutal..and we could exit the car and walk to where we could see the
fire. I begged Dad to take us home....I wanted nothing more to do with this scene. instant repost
On the left is the park where I played catch with my Dad everyday. One the right (in rear) was open patio (now closed) where I slept for a week after being struck by abut 30 bumble bees in the woods. I would only eat red raspberries!
Lived there from about 1948 or so thru high school.
____________________
 | ||
| where's it at? |
 |
| the 2 Interstates my Dad as Chief Highway Engineer helped design. |
I-57 comes from Chicago goes south
I-70 comes from Indianapolis goes west
 | ||||
| My first job at the movie theater.....look closely on the right and that's the cafe where they had the best coconut cream pie ever! | MORE COMING |
___________________
My 50 + years in radio began in my bedroom in our small house in Illinois...when I was in the 7th or 8th grade.
After my Father arranged a visit to our local radio station WCRA I had the bug and fixed up my own control board with wooden dials and buttons for my “lets pretend broadcasts”. I used one of Mom's candlesticks as my mic!
Edward R. Murrow was my hero so I mainly read new stories from the local paper into the wooden mic. Several years later while still in high school I was signing that station on each morning and signing it off after school...the real one that is. I also emptied wastepaper baskets and made a whole $20 a week! But I was in radio...working seven days a week. It was great.
My ambition then was to make it to a big Springfield, Illinois station WMAY. I skipped that one and was program director of a Chicago station at age 24. I did make it onto the airwaves at WMAY in 69-70...but from Saigon as a correspondent for NBC News!
________________________
Stan sings a country hit...live with a c & w group in the studios of WCRA...during their show.
can’t remember the name of the song...Faron Young I think...but I sang it on WCRA radio Effingham my first radio job....my only singing appearance!
sorry...not recorded! You didn't miss much.
WHEN YOUR TIME IS UP...IT'S REALLY UP. READ THIS TRUE STORY WHICH YOU WON'T BELIEVE.
_____________________________
When I was in high school in Effingham, Illinois back in the early 50’s...there were two men who were the “great intimidators” in town. The one I dealt with the most was the high school basketball and baseball coach who’s name escapes me(thank goodness). Whops...it just came to me...Coach Martin, I believe.
He was a big man...and his claim to fame was he played for the St. Louis Hawks basketball team for a few years. He wasn’t too good and you can tell by the fact he ended up coaching in high school.
We’ll get back to the coach in a bit...the other great intimidator in town was the manager of the local movie theater. His name as I recall after all these years was, I think, Mr. Strom...or something close to that. But no kids called him that...they had nicknames for him. Most of the time he was a son of a bitch to work for or even know.
He gave me my first job which was part time usher at the theater. I got that job basically because my resume at the time consisted of winning a movie theater contest by writing about Superman. They gave me free admittance for one summer.
As usher I was allowed to charge kids who came in after the ticket window had closed. Obviously some of that money never to got Strom and when he caught an usher doing it it was hell.
I pocketed a few bucks and got caught and he fired me but not until he screamed all kind of stuff at me...a teenager...easily intimidated.
But the real story here is how nasty Mr. Storm got HIS comeuppance.
He drove a big Cadillac convertible and one night he was coming back from St. Louis on old route 40...which paralleled the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad tracks.
Strom was driving east toward town...and a freight train was going west. As if by an act of God...a wheel on one of the railroad cars busted off and flew into the air and landed in the driver’s seat of Strom’s car! Needless to say there wasn’t much left of mean Mr. Storm.
When your time is up...it’s really up!
Now to coach Martin.
I started working at the local radio station in my junior and senior years in high school. But I liked sports and in middle school was first five basketball and I even made the high school football team for a couple of years. But baseball was my favorite...and I got on the high school team (barely) because they needed pitchers and I wasn’t bad. Also it was my last chance to win a letter and get a jacket and you know that’s a big deal in high school. There was one more cut to be made by Coach Martin before the actual season began.
He named me starting pitcher for an exhibition game against our crosstown rival the St. Anthony Bulldogs.
Pitchers only worked three innings at a time in the pre season and in my three innings not one St. Anthony Bulldog got a hit or on base. I was great...no curve ball but all the times I played catch in the park across from our house with my Dad and my older buddy Jim Parker(now a lawyer) paid off.
The next day Coach Martin put up his final list of players and my name was missing. I couldn’t believe it! Three no hit innings and getting cut.
Well...back to the radio station... and by the way the coach was not happy about that job and word got back to me that he cut me because he thought my head was getting too big.
Well...in later years I was sad I never got a lettermen’s jacket
I thought after making it to NBC News as a war correspondent they might invite me back and present me with one but it never happened.
stanmjor@aol.com
HEY VLAD..just send a few divisions into Syria and Iraq and watch the head choppers FLEE
 |
| RUSSIAN SOLDIERS IN SYRIA |
.....So Vlad, since you brought this up.....I have a plan for you to become the "savior" of Europe.
Since both Obama and Cameron are wimps and won't send the divisions of troops in against ISIS why not send YOUR divisions in?
There is NOTHING scarier to the average head chopping crazy than Russian troops.
Send them into SYRIA...then IRAQ....and watch how fast the crazies flee that part of the world!
BE SURE TO ORDER YOUR RUSSIAN TROOPS TO DO SOME REALLY HORRIFIC
THINGS SO THAT THE PRESS GETS THE WORD OUT.
"THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING...THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING" WILL BECOME A FAST AND FAVORITE SLOGAN AND... WAVE BYE BYE TO THE BAD GUYS.
YOU have the West worried you may become buddy buddy with Greece if you help her out...$
Now they can worry about YOU getting the respect and good will from the REST of Europe.
Serves the wimps...Obama and Cameron right.
And the 82nd Airborne divisions STILL sit in their barracks waiting for some kind of orders to move out somewhere.
Here's the story that started it all.
click below:
http://rt.com/news/270301-isis-initiative-coalition-damascus/
stanmajor@aol.com
Sunday, June 28, 2015
ISIS chops & chops...and laughs at the U.S. and England! Chops off women’s hands for using cell phones !
on this blog!
Islamic State chops off women’s hands for using cell phones
HERE'S MORE GOOD NEWS ON ISIS WITH YOUR AM COFFEE Obama!
Islamic State Attack In Northeast Syria Displaces 60,000, UN Reports
RUSSIA SPEAKS
"Initiative is in ISIS hands’, coalition airstrikes not enough to win" – Kremlin
click here:
http://rt.com/news/270301-isis-initiative-coalition-damascus/
Turkey Considering Sending Troops Into Syria To Fight Syrian Kurds, ISIS: Report
TALK TALK TALK...WHERE ARE THE TROOPS. THIS GUY CAMERON...SOUNDS LIKE OBAMA AND DOES NOTHING TOO!
Where’s the SAS?
Cameron...you and Obama make a real pair of wimps.
You have to fight to save the freedoms both our nation’s enjoy...even in strange lands.
Get the troops OUT of the barracks and into the fray.
You have to protect our freedoms..just as you would protect you family...friends and finally all the people.
Yemen is a good beginning. Take over there (after being invited of course...must keep the civil liberties assholes happy). Use Yemen as a base for all your operations in the middle east...clean it out first then go from there.
I DON’T WANT TO SEE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF READY TROOPS SITTING AROUND DOING NOTHING. GET THEM INTO YEMEN, IRAQ, SYRIA....and the other nations where this crazy sick bunch of bastards chop heads off and laugh about it. The 82nd Airborne can get the last laugh!
JUST SEND EM IN.
Do it now!
Tunisia attack: David Cameron calls for fightback against intolerance as 30 Britons confirmed dead
stanmajor@aol.com
Saturday, June 27, 2015
RADIO HERE I COME! First radio job...empty the wastebaskets! & The St. Anthony Hospital fire..
My Dad woke me up one night "Stanley there's something wrong on the north side. Let's go have a look." We got to within about 2 blocks of the hospital...the stench was brutal..and we could exit the car and walk to where we could see the fire. I begged Dad to take us home....I wanted nothing more to do with this scene. Lived there from about 1948 or so thru high school.
____________________
| ||
| where's it at? |
|
| the 2 Interstates my Dad as Chief Highway Engineer helped design. |
I-57 comes from Chicago goes south
I-70 comes from Indianapolis goes west
| ||||
| My first job at the movie theater.....look closely on the right and that's the cafe where they had the best coconut cream pie ever! | MORE COMING |
___________________
My 50 + years in radio began in my bedroom in our small house in Illinois...when I was in the 7th or 8th grade.
After my Father arranged a visit to our local radio station WCRA I had the bug and fixed up my own control board with wooden dials and buttons for my “lets pretend broadcasts”. I used one of Mom's candlesticks as my mic!
Edward R. Murrow was my hero so I mainly read new stories from the local paper into the wooden mic. Several years later while still in high school I was signing that station on each morning and signing it off after school...the real one that is. I also emptied wastepaper baskets and made a whole $20 a week! But I was in radio...working seven days a week. It was great.
My ambition then was to make it to a big Springfield, Illinois station WMAY. I skipped that one and was program director of a Chicago station at age 24. I did make it onto the airwaves at WMAY in 69-70...but from Saigon as a correspondent for NBC News!
________________________
Stan sings a country hit...live with a c & w group in the studios of WCRA...during their show.
can’t remember the name of the song...Faron Young I think...but I sang it on WCRA radio Effingham my first radio job....my only singing appearance!
sorry...not recorded! You didn't miss much.
WHEN YOUR TIME IS UP...IT'S REALLY UP. READ THIS TRUE STORY WHICH YOU WON'T BELIEVE.
_____________________________
When I was in high school in Effingham, Illinois back in the early 50’s...there were two men who were the “great intimidators” in town. The one I dealt with the most was the high school basketball and baseball coach who’s name escapes me(thank goodness). Whops...it just came to me...Coach Martin, I believe.
He was a big man...and his claim to fame was he played for the St. Louis Hawks basketball team for a few years. He wasn’t too good and you can tell by the fact he ended up coaching in high school.
We’ll get back to the coach in a bit...the other great intimidator in town was the manager of the local movie theater. His name as I recall after all these years was, I think, Mr. Strom...or something close to that. But no kids called him that...they had nicknames for him. Most of the time he was a son of a bitch to work for or even know.
He gave me my first job which was part time usher at the theater. I got that job basically because my resume at the time consisted of winning a movie theater contest by writing about Superman. They gave me free admittance for one summer.
As usher I was allowed to charge kids who came in after the ticket window had closed. Obviously some of that money never to got Strom and when he caught an usher doing it it was hell.
I pocketed a few bucks and got caught and he fired me but not until he screamed all kind of stuff at me...a teenager...easily intimidated.
But the real story here is how nasty Mr. Storm got HIS comeuppance.
He drove a big Cadillac convertible and one night he was coming back from St. Louis on old route 40...which paralleled the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad tracks.
Strom was driving east toward town...and a freight train was going west. As if by an act of God...a wheel on one of the railroad cars busted off and flew into the air and landed in the driver’s seat of Strom’s car! Needless to say there wasn’t much left of mean Mr. Storm.
When your time is up...it’s really up!
Now to coach Martin.
I started working at the local radio station in my junior and senior years in high school. But I liked sports and in middle school was first five basketball and I even made the high school football team for a couple of years. But baseball was my favorite...and I got on the high school team (barely) because they needed pitchers and I wasn’t bad. Also it was my last chance to win a letter and get a jacket and you know that’s a big deal in high school. There was one more cut to be made by Coach Martin before the actual season began.
He named me starting pitcher for an exhibition game against our crosstown rival the St. Anthony Bulldogs.
Pitchers only worked three innings at a time in the pre season and in my three innings not one St. Anthony Bulldog got a hit or on base. I was great...no curve ball but all the times I played catch in the park across from our house with my Dad and my older buddy Jim Parker(now a lawyer) paid off.
The next day Coach Martin put up his final list of players and my name was missing. I couldn’t believe it! Three no hit innings and getting cut.
Well...back to the radio station... and by the way the coach was not happy about that job and word got back to me that he cut me because he thought my head was getting too big.
Well...in later years I was sad I never got a lettermen’s jacket
I thought after making it to NBC News as a war correspondent they might invite me back and present me with one but it never happened.
stanmjor@aol.com
Friday, June 26, 2015
Moms should be carful about taking cell phones away! & Chris' music stream from LA
UPDATE:
I posted this some months ago. Now we have perhaps the first example
of how addictive cells are to people...especially kids!
click here ((new story)
http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2015/03/23/http://www.gonavy.jp/CVLocation.html12-year-old-girl-poisoning-mom-over-iphone-raises-serious-societal-questions/
(former post)
Inquiring minds want to know:
click here ((new story)
http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2015/03/23/http://www.gonavy.jp/CVLocation.html12-year-old-girl-poisoning-mom-over-iphone-raises-serious-societal-questions/
(former post)
Inquiring minds want to know:
...has anyone committed suicide because their cell phone is gone...shut off or whatever?
I
get the distinct impression we are going to see a brand new disease...
NOT from use of a cell too much...but for utter despondency in having it
no more! I mean...how can life go on?
-----------------------
Son Chris in LA is working for a music management company. He has been setting up a stream....and picking the music played.
click here:
Dashradio.com/gpen
my email:
stanmajor@aol.com
...SAVE YEMEN...SAVE THE WORLD Now that, Obama, is a real legecy!
instant repost PEOPLE ARE DYING AND STARVING.... WHILE WE SIT ON OUR ASS!
The
nation's humanitarian crisis has severely escalated with 31 million
needing aid as fighting intensifies, officials warned Wednesday.
AP
 |
| 82nd Airborne...just sitting on their ass! |
 |
| Navy Seals swim while people die |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Big Red 1...lets parade while people are dying & starving! ____________________________________________________________ | stanmajor@aol.com |
too much tv video .......& click to see the most beautiful photos you will ever see!
When I was with NBC News 5 in Chicago and manning the assignment desk (loved it!) for a day or two...I was reminded by the boss man...Walt...not to send more than one crew into any part of the Chicago west side or south side if anything happened.
That’s after all the tv stations had gotten together and decided sometimes THEY were causing more reaction to a news story because of their notable presence.
With the recent problems in Ferguson, Mo. and elsewhere I’m not sure that restraint is still practiced today.
Anyway this post is not really about that.
This post has to do with the continues showing on the screens of the culprit who shot up the church...making him kind of a teen druggy celebrity if you will.
I don’t like showing dastardly sick people who commit heinous crimes and then become famous because of tv primarily. The showing of these people going into court or coming out (only place tv can get such shots) again and again of the same shot 10 seconds is sickening and needs to end.
This weird kind of celebrity can influence others of the same ilk resulting in copy cat attacks which might not have happened if there wasn’t so much of the footage of the event(afterwards of course) and the crazy who did it.
Caution in this would be voluntary....but it should be seriously discussed in the television news industry.
____________________
These photos are the BEST I've ever seen. Grab a glass of something and click below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/16/iphone-photography-awards_n_7593722.html
stanmajor@aol.com
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Islamist flag raised..over French factory!
Time to move out the troops, Obama! Take over Yemen...set up headquarters...feed the people.
At French Factory!
Decapitated head hung on fence...
Covered with Arabic writing...
Multiple wounded in explosion...
Islamist flag raised..
Decapitated head hung on fence...
Covered with Arabic writing...
Multiple wounded in explosion...
Islamist flag raised..
Listen up Generals and Obama.
I have a simple plan to take over Yemen without a shot being fired.
Are you ready? Here we go.
The Navy Seals are airborne and will be dropped in areas AWAY from the border of Yemen...i.e. several miles FROM the actual border.
They will have fancy night vision capabilities..and other equipment to that nature
They will hide...lie in wait until the members if the 82nd airborne are dropped into the “inside” border of Yemen....let’s say about ten miles into the country...maybe more.
So you have huge paratroop battalions dropping into Yemen. Enemy soldiers will be fleeing like mad.
They will move quickly (actually run like hell) across the border...and guess who’s waiting for them.
Boom...bang dead Isis soldiers lying all over the place..with the Seals picking em off like you wouldn’t believe!
Simple enough for you. Only shots fired...the Navy Seals picking em off one by one.
End threat to Yeman. That took about an hour!
Your Welcome.
Even the “Wolf” would like this one.
stanmajor@aol.com
The Ghosts of Mafia past came to visit
I was startled out of sleep by two guys standing over my bed.
They didn’t look familiar.’
“Major...I’m Meyer Lansky........and this is Mr Siegel (don’t call him Bugsy!)”
I won’t sir...it’s nice to met both of you.
“We’ve seen what’s going on over there in Europe with these crazy’s chopping off heads and stuff...
‘Sounds like something I’d do...chuckled “Bugsy.”
We thought we might be able to help by offering some of our men to Mr. Obama. Seems he doesn’t know how to win a war...so we’d like to help him out.”
“They usually know how to hurt people too...and I’m sure some of those crazies over there would be running like hell if they knew some “organization” men were after them!”
Good idea sir...I’ll pass that along.
Then Siegel said...”how are things in Vegas. All those new hotels sure look nice”
Oh yes Mr. Siegel....you wouldn’t believe the inside of those places...I haven’t been there for some time...I’ve got to visit!
I used to work in a radio station in the rear of YOUR Flamingo sir. Betty Garble sunbathing by the pool...Harry James in the lounge...Frank Sinatra at the Sands. You guys really knew how to put on shows!
“And make money...Siegle added..don’t forget that!”
Right...money making machines out there then.
“Well Mr. Major pass on the info for us”.....and as they turned I asked Lansky...
Mr. Lanskey did you know Neil Rogers and I used to joke about you walking your dog?
“He smiled...oh yea...we thought it was funny too!”
and off they went...Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky... two of the biggest crime figures ever...in this country.
I tried to get back to sleep.
stanmjor@aol.com
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
......... save Yemen....save the people....send the troops NOW !
AP
|
| 82nd Airborne...just sitting on their ass! |
|
| Navy Seals swim while people die |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Big Red 1...lets parade while people are dying & starving! | stanmajor@aol.com |
Can't get away from NAM !
fun & thrills in Vietnam...from our friend Hal
.....How The Bear Got His Name
It was common practice for teams to go into the bush with the intent of taking a potential intelligence source prisoner. The object was to take that target alive and get the team extracted alive as well.
Once such operation reportedly took place in the Central Highlands. Rumor has it that it was the basis for one segment of John Wayne's "The Green Berets".
An ambush was set up on a route normally used by the NVA & VC to infiltrate personnel. The SF team set up along the trail waiting for a small party moving through the night. The importance of the travelers, as well as their route and dates in transit would usually been established by MACV intel sources.
A unique type of ambush was set up. It consisted of 2 men armed with standard weapons with each carrying an additional silenced Colt Woodsman .22 pistol.
Claymore mines would be set in place as well.
When the bad guys entered the ambush area, the target was easily identified. A .22 caliber round was silently fired into the target's calf muscle. As expected, the target fell to the ground in pain and the others in the group gathered around him.
At that point, the claymores, which had been set up to fire at an angle above the wounded target were fired and his traveling companions were no longer a threat to the mission.
The target was bundled up, medicated and bandaged to avoid leaving a blood trail. One of the SF team threw him on his back and the race was on to get to the Skyhook extraction before the bad guys got organized.
In this instance, the first extraction point had to be abandoned due to heavy enemy activity. In spite of successfully avoiding the NVA & VC known to be in the area, it was over 24 hours after he was captured before the 4th alternative site could be reached.
Trying to keep him medicated, but not dead was made difficult during the travel time. Too much medicine and he would be nothing more than an unmanageable lump of bones. Too little and he could make enough noise to be heard by those
trying to find him and a the SF team.
In the last 2 hour stretch of carrying him, one SF team member got smacked in the eye by a tree branch. There was no permanent injury, but Doc rinsed his eye out with clean water and put a patch over the eye with the ever present and useful green tape.
While covering that last stretch of trail to the extraction point, the
prisoner began talking. His mouth was covered with gauze to muffle sound but still allow him to breathe. When the man with eye patch who was carrying him tried to tell him to shut up, the target continued to babble in something that was obviously not Vietnamese. The guy carrying him resorted to growling
menacingly over his shoulder at the prisoner which unexpectedly kept him quiet for several minutes at a time.
Upon reaching the Skyhook pick up point, just before the line lifting balloon was inflated and sent skyward, the prisoner became restless and again tried talking. His country boy escort sat down on him and growled ferociously one more
long time. The prisoner froze where he laid and did not make another sound.
One of the other SF team members, a fellow country boy looked at the scene, met the gaze of the prisoner sitting team member, noted the steam rising off of his teammate and recited the following:
"He's an old, blind bear
Alone in the winter wood
With only the smell of his breath for comfort.
Too mean to die
And too old to care,
But show some caution,
He's still THE BEAR..."
The extraction went as planned and the team made its way to the next LZ where they were soon heading back to their base via Huey limousine.
Rumor had it that the target turned out to be a Chinese advisor.
thanks again , Hal
---------------------
Stan Major....NBC News.....Saigon
click below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyKFVa3TL9g
stanmajor@aol.com
thanks again , Hal
---------------------
Stan Major....NBC News.....Saigon
click below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyKFVa3TL9g
stanmajor@aol.com
If you had to sit for long hours next to a woman considered the most beautiful on the planet...what would you talk about?
 |
| Elle McPherson.....earlier & now at 50! |
86,000 views
on this blog
 |
| Still Super at 50 |
A reader of this blog....in response to my chance “encounter” with
Julia Roberts at the Dolphin at Disneyworld....passes along this very
interesting tidbit from his travels. We’ll just call him “Hal” as he
desires anonymity:
Stan:
Got a similar item in my life.
Years
ago, I spent several hours on a flight from Sydney to LA sitting and
talking to model Elle McPherson. Wasn't sure who she was at the time,
only knew she was gorgeous, friendly & looked familiar. After
landing, she thanked me for
being
so kind and making the flight more enjoyable. Fifteen minutes later, I
saw her photo on a magazine cover. My jaw dropped like anvil falling off
of a blacksmith's stand. And not one shred of proof that I'd ever met
her and flown
across the Pacific with her (& a few dozen other people)
thanks Hal, great story. I always considered Elle THE most beautiful woman in the world. Till Kate came along.
----------------------
and
on the subject of models..one afternoon on my Philly radio talk show
Cheryl Tiegs dropped in for a visit. She was touting a camera...Canon or
something and doing interviews about it.
During the commercial breaks she proceeded to take my Nikon 35mm and
started taking shots of me. I’ve still got some of those shots and will
try to get them screened for this blog in the future.
....she was a delight...down to earth and of course...a knockout!
-------------------------
stanmajor@aol.com
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
The great Ernie Kovacs....and Harry Caray with the Cards (before the Cubs)
 |
| Ernie Kovacs |
If you take that long..long boat to Europe...the Army will fly you back!
They
don’t make you do the seasick routine going AND coming back. I think
this has something to do with them trying to get you to re-up but with
me...I was done.
I was ready now, to get on with my life... thank you. I did my two years.
My wife Ruth met me when we landed in New Jersey. She had left our three year old daughter, Kathy, with her family back home.
WGEM
in Quincy, Illinois was where I had worked for about a year before the
Army so they were required to hire me back. The boss,Joe Bonasinga,
said he would have done it anyway...he liked my work.
Joe had his hands full when I was there before. TV had come to
Quincy and we were racing the other main outlet(CBS) to get our TV
channel(NBC) up and running. We beat them...but it was funny.
We went on the air with our tv programming before the competition by
one day...but we had NO audio...NO sound! We ran NBC programming all
evening but not a word could be heard. It was fixed the next day.
Also we had been short staffed because of the huge cost of the TV
start up and whoever was on radio playing records had to make sure the
radio was covered with long music selections because that person (me
mainly) had to be in the tv booth for the half hour and hourly breaks of
about a minute each. There were times the music ended before I got
back to the radio side. It was a real education for all...learning
about television by actually running a station.
My favorite tv show was the crazy Ernie Kovacs program. Ernie had
this bit where he would do something really nuts right at break time
because he knew announcers were going live across the country and so
each week one had to either not look at the screen or watch it and try
to control yourself because Kovacs WAS that crazy. He just wanted to
“break up” every booth guy on the net.
He got me one time because I was not aware yet of his gimmick at
the breaks. He made this bit famous...sitting in a tree and sawing the
limb he was sitting on off just as the cue was given. So I watched
Ernie in the tree and heard the network announcer say “this is NBC..the
National Broadcast Company.
I was about to open my mouth (the engineer had already opened my mike) when I saw the tree trunk fall over and Ernie smiling...sitting in the tree limb! Great early tv special effect.
It
got me good...I never made it through that 30 seconds of copy...and I
guess a bunch of live booth announcers across the nation did the same
thing. That was Ernie Kovacs.
Edie Adams...His wife was “hot” (before the phrase was discovered)
“Why don’t you pick up a Muriel and smoke it sometime”
Check her out in It’s a Mad Mad Mad World flick
Years later...the boss...genial Joe Bonasinga would be at the radio
convention at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago where we ran into each other
in an elevator. He took me aside and told me how proud he was of me and
another WGEM alum Fred Briggs...both NBC News correspondents!
________________________
Baseball broadcast legend Harry Caray and open mics...
Baseball broadcast legend Harry Caray and open mics...
I was a disc jockey at WGEM Quincy, Illinois back in the Harry Caray/St.Louis Cardinals era....long before the Cubbies.
About
an hour before game time the St Louis engineer(s) would often test
Harry and Joe Garagiola’s mikes and then leave them open.
oh boy!
Harry was great at play by play...the best EVER in my opinion. But he did have an eye for the ladies.
When he spotted one in the stands that impressed him he’d shout over to Joe:
“Look that the boobs on that blond would ya!”
It was fun for any anyone listening in cue (off the air we hope) on some 150 or more stations each day!
To paraphrase Harry Caray’s famous home run cheer:
“It might be...it could be...it is...a buxom blond!”
He WAS the best!
stanmajor@aol.com
stanmajor@aol.com
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