01/12/07
About this time each year I think back on the year we have just completed and what, if anything, it meant to me. As I am sure it is with most of my readers, some years are better than others, but they all have had something good going for them sometime along the course of the twelve months involved.
One thing I think the advent of a “new year” means to most of us, especially those of you who are in my age group, is that we have made it through another year and are still around. While that may not sound like a major achievement to some, I assure you I would much rather that be the case than the alternative.
Some well known people who had influence on us in one way or another aren’t as fortunate as we are and don’t have the opportunity to look forward to 2007. All too often in this fast-paced world we live in we may not even hear about it when someone who influenced our lives passes away. A retrospective of parts of our lives can be experienced by remembering these people and what they meant to us. Please take a moment and remember these folks with me.
One of the smoothest and most romantically seductive voices I have ever heard belonged to Lou Rawls. You just have to wonder how many people got laid while listening to his music. To paraphrase his own words, “You’ll never find…” another voice like his. He died on Jan. 6th.
I don’t know if it happened “In the Midnight Hour” or not, but Wilson Pickett passed away Jan. 16th. I have a feeling “Wicked” Pickett is probably hanging out with “Mustang Sally” in the “Land of 1,000 Dances” right now.
One of the hit TV shows of the 60’s was, “The Munsters” (I was more of an Addams Family fan, myself) and one of the main characters was “Grandpa Munster”, the Bela Lugosi wannabe, played by Al Lewis. While children of the 60’s (and those who watch re-runs on TVland today) will remember him in that role, there are those us who still remember him as Officer Leo Schnauzer in the original “Car 54 Where Are You?”. Grandpa Munster got a wooden stake through his heart on Feb. 3rd.
1969 brought us one of the hottest family singing groups around, The Cowsills (they were the white Jackson 5). And while they had such forgettable hits as “Indian Lake” and “The Rain, the Park and Other Things”, they had a #1 hit with me with their version of “Hair” (from the Broadway musical of the same name).
Gimme head with hair
Long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming,
Streaming, flaxen, waxen
It is also an incredibly trivial fact that the TV show The Partridge Family was patterned after the Cowsill family. On Feb. 18th The Cowsills’ lead singer, William “Billy” Cowsill, passed away.
Did you ever get a speeding ticket? Did a derogatory name come to mind that you really wanted to call the police officer as he wrote up your ticket, but you knew better than to say it to his face? Who hasn’t wanted to refer to a cop as Barney Fife at one time or another? After all, it’s the ultimate name for over-zealous incompetence. The man who not only created the character, but became synonymous with the name Barney Fife, Don Knotts, died this past Feb. 24th. He won’t need that one bullet anymore.
My first recollection of Darren McGavin was of him starring as Capt. Grey Holden in an old (1959) TV show called “Riverboat” (his sidekick, Ben Frazer, was played by some totally unknown kid named Burt Reynolds…I wonder whatever happened to him?). The name of the riverboat was the “Enterprise”….Hmmmm, I wonder if William Shatner knows about that? The next thing I remember McGavin in was one of my all-time favorite shows, “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”. I loved this show because every week it involved a new and different monster. But, by far my favorite role of his was as the major award winning, constantly cussing “The Old Man” in 1983’s “A Christmas Story”. Ralphie and Randy’s “Old Man” died last Feb. 25th, but his memory will live as long as I have that movie to watch.
While I am aware that Bob Keeshan (Capt. Kangaroo) was the original Clarabell on the Howdy Doody Show, the man who played the horn honking, seltzer squirting clown the longest was Lew Anderson. Throughout the entire 2,343 show run of the program Clarabell never uttered a word until he said the final words on the last show as they signed off for good. On May 14th Lew “Clarabell” Anderson said, “Goodbye kids” one last time as he signed off for good. The entire peanut gallery mourns the loss.
In 1964 a new type of TV show debuted that would take the teenage world by storm. “Shindig” was an instant hit with those of us who knew all the live acts (Beatles, Stones, Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, etc. etc. etc.) that performed each week. While the big names changed from week to week there was a regular cast of Shindig characters as well. Jimmy O’neill was the host, the Shindig Dancers were a bunch of babes who Boogalooed and Shingalinged every week (movie actress Teri “put ze candle back” Garr was one of the original Shindig Dancers), while the house band was led by a very young, always grinning, gap-toothed organ player by the name of Billy Preston. Preston went on to fame and fortune with a great solo career and was such an accomplished musician he was known as “the fifth Beatle”. That’s him playing keyboard on the Beatles’ hit, “Get Back”. On June 6th Billy Preston moved on to that great rock and roll band in the sky.
Moose, the canine actor who played Eddie on “Frazier” died on June 16th at age 16. That’s 112 in dog years.
You really have to be an oldie and not necessarily a goodie to remember that in 1956 a TV game show (the precursor to today’s Deal or No Deal) called “Treasure Hunt” was a big black and white (the TV picture not the people) hit across the country. Keep in mind that this was a time when the big grand prize offered on a TV game show was a washer and dryer. It was hosted by a rubber faced Catskills comic named Jan Murray. On July 12th Murray passed away at age 89.
Also in July the creator of two-fisted, tough-as-nails detective Mike Hammer, Mickey Spillane died. While I have enjoyed the books Spillane wrote, I liked his Miller Lite Beer commercials even more.
If you could choose to die doing the one thing you love to do more than anything else, what would it be? I honestly think “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin would have picked exactly the way he went out on Sept. 4th. I can remember several years ago when my son, Jason, told me about this crazy Australian guy on TV who wrestled crocodiles and snakes. I took his advice and checked him out. I liked Steve Irwin from the first time I saw him. He had an obvious joy for life and loved what he did to make a living. We should all be so lucky to find what makes us that happy.
Several other notable people passed away in the last twelve months. Actress Shelley Winters, “Jaws” author Peter Benchley, sportscaster Curt Gowdy, Dennis Weaver of “Gunsmoke” and “McCloud” fame, Buck Owens is a pickin and a grinnin in Hee Haw Heaven, singer Gene Pitney, boxing champion Floyd Patterson, Aaron Spelling who was to blame for “Mod Squad” “Love Boat” and “Beverly Hills 90210”, Red Buttons who never got a dinner, talk show host Mike Douglas, actor Glenn Ford, basketball coach Red Auerbach, journalist Ed Bradley, actor Jack Palance, M.A.S.H. director Robert Altman, the Godfather of Soul James Brown, and of course former President Gerald R. Ford.
I write this Ramble every year. I don’t do it as a downer or to remind us of those whom we will miss. I write it as a reminder of some great people who have affected our lives in some (usually positive) way. When I think about most of the people I have named here I have good thoughts and their memory makes me smile. Please join me in remembering those who aren’t with us anymore and who have influenced our lives in a positive way, whoever they may be and whether they were famous or not. Hopefully, someday someone may remember us in this way, too.