Update 2-20-07

Hi,

Notes, news, and information.

First, from Robin Feit Baker:  I'd appreciate your mentioning this worthy cause in our newsletter on behalf of my daughter Lindsey and my son-in-law Jaime.  Please take a look at their website when time allows.
    http://www.active.com/donate/hfdwhv/hfdlmarcus
   
    Next, from Peter Rosen:  What better networking group than this?  One thing I haven't seen is trying to help each other in career stuff, unless I missed it.  Believe it or not, I'm still loving what I have been doing and now am moving into a more focused time of my career evolution.  I do executive coaching, not fixing broken executives, but helping successful executives be more successful.  A few years ago, I aligned with a well-known coaching group and was doing coaching on the side of my full-time human resources roles because I enjoyed it and made a few extra bucks.  Now I am looking to do this as my main career passion and just wanted all of our friends to know that.  You can find a little bit about me and my work at http://www.marshallgoldsmith.com/.  Thanks for allowing this shameless commercial announcement.
   
    From Donald Faber:  As an avid student of drawing in my youth, I was addicted to watching Jon Gnagy on TV (and, of course, purchasing his boxed sets of tie-in related artist's materials). For anyone with similarly fond memories, be aware that many of Gnagy's old shows are now available to watch via youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Gnagy
   
    From Zelda White Nichols for Ryki Zuckerman – My husband and I lived in Orchard Park (just south of Buffalo and home of the Buffalo Bills) back in the '70’s.  We moved to New Jersey the day the Blizzard of '76 began.  What was really amazing was it had snowed or flurried for approximately thirty-five days before the blizzard hit, so there was already a good accumulation on the ground.  We left Orchard Park and arrived in New Jersey safely, only to receive a call from our moving company saying their truck was stuck in Buffalo as all the roads had been closed.  It was two weeks before they were able to leave, food was being dropped by helicopter for livestock, and I have a  picture showing snow above the top of a sliding glass door.  I’m curious to find out if this year is even worse than that was.  Ironically, we were only in New Jersey for six months before another company move put us up in Massachusetts, and we were there for the Blizzard of '77 which was almost as bad.  I am totally done with winters.
   
    From RoseMarie Cassillo:  Thought this information was worth passing along.  There's a big change coming on March 11, 2007.  Know what it is?  This is bound to take a lot of people in the United States by surprise.
        Starting in 2007, daylight-saving time begins on Sunday, March 11, not the first Sunday in April as has been the case for twenty years.  In August 2005, Congress changed the law to lengthen daylight-saving time by four weeks so we can save energy.  And instead of going back to Standard Time on the last Sunday in October, we'll now "fall back" on the first Sunday in November, which is November 4th this year.
        Not everyone is thrilled with the change.  The airlines in particular are perturbed, reports The Washington Post, as they are scrambling to make sure that countless automated systems will change the time on the clocks at just the right moment. If those systems fail, your flight will be delayed.  Banks also need to program their ATMs to change the time on March 11th.  Your computer (provided the software is fairly current) and cell phone should both update automatically since they get that information from the Internet and service providers' networks respectively.  Still, Microsoft has already issued a warning for users of its older products, including Windows XP SP1 and Windows NT4, that the clocks will have to be updated manually.
   
    From Stu Borman:  From the photos I've seen of you, Rich, I've noticed that you're kind of overweight and need to go on a diet.  Only kidding.  You're one of the anorexic among us, aren't you?  I've noticed that Barnet Kellman is on the svelte side as well.  I'm very weight conscious.  But I digress.
        Hope everyone's well.  Regards to all.
   
    From Marc Jonas:  What about The Merry Mailman, Ray Heatherton, who was on channel 9?  His daughter was the Serta Perfect Sleeper girl, Joey Heatherton.  Who could forget her?
   
    [Rich -- What exactly did Ray Heatherton do?  I can't remember.  Did he just introduce more Three Stooges episodes and old Farmer Gray cartoons, like "Officer" Joe Bolton and "Uncle" Joe Bova?  The main thing I remember about Heatherton, other than his daughter's Playboy spread, is his theme song:
        I am the Merry Mailman.
        Singing so merrily.
        I'm so very glad to be
        Your merry, merry,
        Merry, merry,
        Mailman.
    Now isn't that useful?]
   
    From Amy Lieberman:  I had lunch last week with three people from the class of '67, plus one from the class of '66.  We did a whole lotta reminiscing.  Wow!  Mostly because of contacts made through the weekly update.
   
    A casual question from someone else:  I was wondering who our Chicago members are?  Also, do we have any Louisville, Kentucky, members who might want to get together for dinner?
   
    A series of notes from Emily Kleinman-Schreiber, run not-so-seamlessly into one:
        Whether the district keeps the schools open tonight or not, I hereby declare tonight's Alumni Association meeting canceled.  We'll meet again in March, on the third Thursday, March 15th.  By then, spring will be right around the corner!
        For those of you in the warm/hot climates of the south and west, the wind here is howling, the roads near my home, at least, are a sheet of ice, and the temperature is in the teens.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
        Several of you have sent me notes in which you've told me that "the Alumni Association has been busy doing good things."  It makes me feel good that our hard work is being noticed and appreciated.
        As in the past, I'm attaching the January minutes, which were ably prepared by our secretary, Robbie Brill Birnel.  As you read them, please note the asterisk at the end.  A lot happens in one month, and the minutes don't reflect what happens post-meeting date.
        I want to thank those of you who did send in donations for the Veterans StandDown.  That's been overwhelmingly appreciated by Patrick, the Vets, and me.  Don't stop now.  If you haven't given already, there's still time to do so.
        I know that several classes send the Association's minutes on to your classmates.  I'd appreciate it if you would wait until the minutes have been approved by the Board before you do that.  I'm seriously thinking of doing the same.  That way, everyone will receive them after any corrections are made, not before.  How do you feel about that?  The January minutes now won't be approved until the meeting in March.
   
    Related, from Claire Brush Reinhardt:  The Alumni Association meeting this month on February 15th was canceled due to bad weather.  We will meet again in March, hopefully when the weather is better.  Hope all of you in the northern regions are keeping warm, and those of you who are lucky enough to be down south are appreciating the fact that you are not up north!!

    Finally, the rest of the information mentioned last week, perhaps way too much about the man we knew as Captain Kangaroo.  This was researched by both Joanne Shapiro Polner and Emily Kleinman-Schreiber:
        Better known to millions of viewers as the original Captain Kangaroo, Long Island native Bob Keeshan first came to national prominence as Clarabell, the Clown on the Howdy Doody TV show (1947 - 1952).  Bob was born in Long Island, but moved to Forest Hills, New York, shortly after his birth.  He had a happy childhood, living with his immigrant father, mother, younger sister and two older brothers.  His mother died when Bob was only fifteen, and this deeply impacted him -- without the influence of a school guidance counselor, Bob would have stayed mired in his grief.  Instead, in his eighteenth year, he began working for NBC in their page program.  A page was a low-level gofer, giving an individual an "in" at NBC, and giving them time to find where, if anywhere, they belonged at NBC.  Before Bob could discover this for himself, World War II interrupted.  Shortly before his eighteenth birthday, Bob joined the Marines and underwent basic training.  After the war ended, Bob returned to NBC to finish his time as a page, working for Bob Smith during the day and attending college at night -- he was planning to become a lawyer.
        Bob Smith was a popular radio personality of the day, doing both a program for adults and a morning program for children.  With the advent of television, NBC asked him to copy his children's program to a new TV show, "Puppet Playhouse."  Bob Keeshan followed along, having graduated from a page to a low-level employee at NBC, still working for Bob Smith.
        Due to a blizzard, Keeshan missed the first filming of "Puppet Playhouse" -- but most other people didn't.  The children's show set viewership records, and was quickly expanded and renamed after the lead puppet character -- "The Howdy Doody Show."
        On "Howdy Doody," Bob Keeshan’s tasks were initially fairly menial -- handing out prizes to children (the "Peanut Gallery"), and quieting the youngsters when they weren't supposed to be heard.  However, a producer saw Keeshan on tape, and was upset at having a "normal" person on camera, since the show was supposedly a circus.  So, it was shortly afterward that Bob Keeshan became a clown on camera for the first time.  Accounts of the creation of the character differ, but what is not contested is that Bob Keeshan became Clarabell Hornblower, a silent Auguste clown who communicated via twin bicycle horns mounted on a box -- and inside that box was a bottle of Seltzer water.  Clarabell was swift to use that on numerous cast members, but most commonly on "Buffalo Bob" Smith, followed by a comedy chase through the studio.
        Bob Keeshan continued playing Clarabell until 1950, when he was fired -- for the first time.  Buffalo Bob Smith was a musically inclined person and wanted that for the Howdy Doody show as well, but Keeshan couldn’t play an instrument and seemingly couldn’t learn.  There were other reasons he was fired as well:  some parents complained that the seltzer chases were getting the children too excited just before dinner, and Clarabell was the scapegoat.  So in June of 1950, Keeshan was replaced by a new Clarabell, Gil Lamb. This Clarabell seemed to be everything that Bob Keeshan was not -- theatrically trained, a dancer and a mime.  His Clarabell was gentle and shy, where Keeshan’s was aggressive and prone to misbehavior, much like a petulant two-year-old child. 
        The children of America immediately recognized the quiet, skillful, polite, taller, thinner newcomer wasn’t the real Clarabell, and Bob Keeshan was rehired shortly afterward, to resume his impulsive, Seltzer-spraying ways.  That lasted until Christmas week, 1952.
        Numerous things combined to bring problems to a head -- long hours (in addition to the show five days a week, there were numerous promotions to be done), work conditions, and the perception of low pay (although Bob Keeshan was receiving $600 per week at this time, a large sum for 1952).  Along with three of his coworkers, Keeshan acquired an agent who represented all four of them -- and all four of them were soon no longer employed by NBC.  Accounts differ as to whether they quit or were fired, but in either event, Bob Keeshan was no longer Clarabell the clown.  This time, he was successfully replaced in that role, and "The Howdy Doody Show" continued for several more years.
        Several of Keeshan’s colleagues thought that this was the end of his foray into television.  After all, he couldn’t sing or play an instrument, he was untrained, and really not qualified as an entertainer.  They couldn’t have been more wrong.  For Bob Keeshan had not been idle during his years working with Buffalo Bob Smith. As he is quoted in the book Say Kids, What Time Is it? (an account of "The Howdy Doody show and highly recommended):  "I learned so much from Bob Smith.  His sense of timing was awesome: I have that sense of timing now.  He taught me things about timing, about putting a show together, back-timing a show -- everything I used on "Captain Kangaroo."  One of the reasons that "Captain Kangaroo" was such a success is that it ran so smoothly, and that happened because I ran that show with all the talents that Bob Smith taught me.  He is my father in the business.  I give him one-hundred-percent credit for my success, because I would not be here today if I hadn’t learned all the technical aspects of the medium from him.  I put what he taught me to work on "Captain Kangaroo," and we ran for thirty years."
        His personal life had not been idle, either.  He met and married his wife, Jean Laurie, in 1950 and began working for his father-in-law, an undertaker, temporarily.  But by August 1953, Bob Keeshan was back on the air, doing a new children's show, "Time for Fun," playing the role of Corny the Clown -- a clown who spoke.  Later that same year, in addition to "Time for Fun," he began "Tinker’s Workshop," a program aimed at preschoolers, where he played the grandfatherly Tinker.  This soon led to the most successful children's program of all time, and the most popular character that Bob Keeshan ever created -- Captain Kangaroo.
        It had a very loose structure, built around life in the "Treasure House" where the Captain, whose name came from the big pockets in his coat, would tell stories, meet guests, and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets.  The show was live for its first four years, and was in black-and-white until 1966.  In 1981, CBS shortened the hour-long show to a half-hour.
        Bob Keeshan went on to great success as Captain Kangaroo for nearly thirty years. Even on his new series, Bob Keeshan couldn’t quite escape from clowning.  He created another silent clown character, the Town Clown, in that venue as well, and later began lecturing and writing.
        "Parents are the ultimate role models for children," he said. "Every word, movement and action has an effect.  No other person or outside force has a greater influence on a child than the parent."  When Fred Rogers, the gentle host of "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood," died last year, Keeshan recalled how they often spoke about the state of children's programming.  "I don’t think it’s any secret that Fred and I were not very happy with the way children's television had gone," Keeshan said.
        In 1987, Keeshan and  Lamar Alexander (former Tennessee governor, currently a U.S. senator) co-founded Corporate Family Solutions, an organization that provided day-care programs to businesses around the country.  In 1990, Bob Keeshan was inducted into the Clown Hall of Fame for his portrayal of Clarabell the Clown.
        Bob Keeshan died on Friday, January 23, 2004, after a long illness.  Keeshan’s wife, Jeanne, died in 1990.  He is survived by a son, two daughters and six grandchildren.  Keeshan, who moved to Vermont in 1990, had remained active as a children's advocate, writing books, lecturing and lobbying.  He frequently criticized current children's TV shows as too full of violence.  And he spoke wherever he went about the importance of good parenting.  In the TV season of 1997-1998, an all new "Captain Kangaroo" was attempted, starring John McDonough.  Keeshan was invited to appear as "The Admiral," but after seeing sample episodes declined to appear or have any association with it.