Update 2-27-07

Hi,

Several people wrote in last Tuesday afternoon, asking if there'd been an update.  I try never to skip one without telling you in advance, so if you haven't gotten an update, please write me.  The usual reason is that there was an enclosed link in the update, so the note's been diverted by your virus software to your spam folder.  For that reason, I hadn't been including links, but then no one complained when I started to, so I kept it up.  I've also noticed that when the update is particularly long, it often gets bounced back by some people's servers.
   
    In more interesting news, Allen Moss writes:  Moss in Maine with some information in answer to the question "What else did Ray Heatherton do?"  Ray, along with Alfred Drake and Mitzi Green, became Broadway sensations -- all at the ages of sixteen or seventeen -- when they starred in the Rodgers and Hart classic, Babes in Arms in 1937.  The show ran for almost 300 performances, which, in those days, was an unqualified hit.  Alfred Drake went on to originate the role of Curly in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma in 1943, and Mitzi Green did some movies and television before retiring very early in her career.  Ray Heatherton actually lived on good old Long Island for the latter part of his life, and aside from the Merry Mailman, I believe he did other television shows and performed on the dinner theater circuit.
   
    [Rich -- as I wrote Allen:  That's interesting about Heatherton's early career.  But the question is an example of my lack of communication.  I actually meant, "What did Heatherton do during the show?"  Did he just introduce cartoons and stuff, or did he have an actual show like Captain Kangeroo's.  Also, does anyone remember which cartoons and short films were connected to which hosts?  Where did we see The Three Stooges?  Where Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, or Our Gang?  And are there others I'm forgetting?  I'm not really nostalgic, more trying to figure out what pieces I've lost of my brain.]
   
    Allen wrote back:  Go to http://www.tvparty.com/, a fabulous website for all us baby boomers.  There is a very long article on Ray Heatherton and his years on the "The Merry Mailman," as well as other articles about all our other favorites.  This would probably save some e-mail time for both us and all the other Falcons who are interested.
        I do remember that Abbot and Costello had their own television show, which costarred Hillary Brooke, a grade B actress known most famously for her role as Jimmy Hunt's mom in the classic Invaders from Mars from 1953.  She was a very tall, svelte actress who you can spot in some minor movies of the early 1950s, but who really made it big in lots of television series in the late 1950/1960s.  I believe the Our Gang comedies did not have a host, and I think they were first on Saturday, then on Sunday mornings and just "came on" interspersed by commercials.  On Sundays, the replays of the old Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials of the late 1930s came on after the Our Gang comedies.  Those old Flash Gordon serials have now been released on DVD but have not been remastered.  It is pretty rough going even for the most die-hard baby boomer like myself.
        The films are in pretty bad shape, but no worse than the fantastically cheesy sets, ridiculous costumes and wild overacting by all concerned.  But, that said, there is nothing like them and will never be again.  Check out that site mentioned above.  It is really fantastic and offers a wealth of information.
   
    Related, Robert Fiveson wrote:
   
    I am the Merry Mailman,
    Ding dong my bell will ring,
    And this is what it brings
    A letter from your Grandma to say she's coming to stay
    And close your eyes for the big surprise
    It's a package for you birthday.

        (I could be wrong about some of this because it's totally from memory.)
        Also, as regards clowns that were too violent:  Anyone ever go through the "fun" house at the end of the steeplechase ride at Steeplechase Park?  You popped out on a stage, and there were two clowns.  One had a clap stick and the other one -- the midget with the bloodshot eyes and sour breath -- had a friggen cattle prod!  Oh what fun for that audience, as the little sadist chased me around with that cattle prod.  Someday, they will discover midget skeletons in the crawl space of a home I lived in as a boy.
        And how about these shows:  "Charlie Farrel's Racket Club," "Oh Susanna!," "Mr. Peepers," "Topper," and my favorite, "Our Miss Brooks?"  And what was that show with the monkeys that all wore clothes and moved their lips as though the trainer had just smeared peanut butter on them so they would "talk."  They reminded me of midgets!
   
    Jerry Bittman wrote:  When RoseMarie Cassillo wrote "big changes are going to occur on March 11th," I thought that she meant that was the day when Peter Rosen turns sixty.  Hey, Peter, just think about this -- in another six years your age and height in inches will be identical.
        I remember meeting Rosen in Little League.  He was the tallest kid on the team.  Then he started smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, and chasing girls, and poof, that was the end of his growth spurt.
        Another story which isn't so funny:  Yesterday, I was referring to a woman who works at the local gym as "a girl."  Cindi is actually forty-five years old.  I guess when you get to be our age, a forty-five-year-old woman seems like a girl.
   
    From Ryki Zuckerman, in answer to Zelda White Nichols' question about snow in Buffalo:
        First of all, the big blizzard that got national media coverage was in 1977, not 1976, though maybe there was a lot of snow that year also.  This January was the 30th anniversary of that event.
        Secondly, all that recent snow this year has been:  1)  south of Buffalo in "ski country," and 2) in the Oswego area, near Syracuse, which gets a lot more snow annually, statistically, than Buffalo, but for some reason -- perhaps Johnny Carson's old jokes -- doesn't have our reputation.  This year, aside from the "surprise storm" in October, we haven't had much snow by our standards, but we have had twenty-three consecutive days of temperatures below freezing and below average.  Today it's 43 degrees, and it will be downright toasty for a few days at least.
        By the way, the October storm left only two feet of snow, compared to blizzards of eight feet in the past.  It was devastating because the trees hadn't lost their foliage yet, and with the added weight of the snow, they came crashing down, bringing down utility wires. Thus, 300,000 people were without power.  It also seems the power company can't just turn the power back on after such a storm.  It has to extricate the fallen limbs and repair the power lines one-by-one.)
        Finally, Zelda, how long was it before the moving company was able to deliver your furniture?
   
    Unrelated, from Zelda White Nichols:  Following in Peter Rosen's footsteps regarding career moves, I am going to take this opportunity to announce that I am looking for a new business partner.  I co-own Southern Spirit Gallery in Denton, North Carolina.  We are a fine craft and art gallery representing southern artisans, predominately those in North Carolina.  My current business partner has announced that she will be retiring in the next six months due to health issues and a desire to travel.  If anyone is planning on relocating to North Carolina, which is one of the fastest growing states -- temperatures will be in the 60s this week for all you cold northerners, and we have no snow -- and is interested in the arts, or if you know of anyone in this area, please give me a call.  My home number is:  336-798-0008, and the gallery number is:  336-859-9797. Also, my website is:  http://www.southernspiritgallery.com/  Thanks.
   
    In answer to another question asked last week:  So far, none of our alumni seem to live in Chicago or Louisville.
   
    Finally, four short notes from Emily Kleinman Schreiber:
        1.  One of the teachers I didn't know at South has died.  The funeral for Bernice Sklar, a Family and Consumer Science and Home and Career Skills teacher at South, North, Memorial, and Central High Schools in Valley Stream, will be on Wednesday, February 28th at 10:00 AM at the  Boulevard-Riverside-Hewlett Chapel at 1450 Broadway, Hewlett, New York 11557.  Memories, cards, or notes may be sent to
    Irwin Sklar, 1390 Broadway, Hewlett, New York 11557 (516) 295-1996 or to the Sklar's children:  daughter  Stephanie Kaufman, 202 Woodside Drive, Hewlett Bay Park, New York 11557 (516) 295-0470, or son
    Robert Sklar, 92 Thompson Avenue, Oceanside, New York 11572 (516) 536-0646.
        2. Patrick Yngstrom has received $995 from South alumni to be used to support the Nassau County Veteran's StandDown.  That is fantastic!  Today, he sent me an e-mail saying, "Thanks again for all you did."   What I did was send out the message, but you're the ones who answered it.  So thank you.  And if anyone else wants to send a donation, Patrick's address is:  1624 Chapin Avenue, North Merrick, New York 11566.
        3.  Please let me know if you have read the Alumni Association autumn newsletter, which I sent out a few months ago.  It's important for me to know how many of you I'm reaching since we're not sending out a hard copy version.  We just don't have the resources at this time.  So please write back and let me know if you're receiving and reading it.  Thanks.
        4.  Back to nostalgia -- my Dad's first car was a sleek, black, 1948 Pontiac, the two door model.  I guess that was a good year.   We got the car and the TV / record player console that year.
   
    [Rich -- Note:  I incorporated the autumn newsletter into one of the fall updates, so if you've read this, you've read that.  That's about 150 people, but I'm not sure of the overlap between the newsletter mailing list and this one.]