Update 9-1-10

Hi,

There never is an easy way to say something like this, so I'll just go ahead:  Ken Ulric's brother Gary just died.
    Gary was sixty, so that probably put him in the class of '68.  His son was about to get married, and Gary was also about to marry again, so the death was unexpected.  Obviously, our best to Ken and his wife Laura.

And it's not that deaths of people we didn't really know are any easier to accept than those of people some of us knew, but here's some news about some folks we kind of knew through early television.  We either saw them directly or experienced their work.  All these obituaries are excerpted from The New York Times, and the full obituaries are online.

Edward Kean, Chief Writer of ‘Howdy Doody,’ Dies at 85
In the days when television sets were rare and children gathered each afternoon at the neighborhood house in which one of those big, boxy black-and-white sets stood, “The Howdy Doody Show” was one of the biggest draws, and a blessing for mothers making dinner.  “It’s the type of show that could be responsible for the sale of lots of sets,” Variety said in 1947. “In the middle-class home there is perhaps nothing as welcome to the mother as something that will keep the small fry intently absorbed, and out of possible mischief, for an hour.”  The program, Variety added, “can almost be guaranteed to pin down the squirmiest of the brood.
    ”For the next eight years, as televisions became standard furniture in home after home, no one was more responsible for pinning down those squirmy children than Edward Kean, who died on August 13 at 85.  “Eddie Kean was Howdy’s chief writer, philosopher and theoretician,” Stephen Davis wrote in his history of the show, “Say Kids! What Time Is It?” (Little, Brown, 1987).  The book’s title is taken from the show’s opening line, to which the gaggle of youngsters in the Peanut Gallery would scream, “It’s Howdy Doody time!” as Howdy, the chubby-cheeked marionette in dungarees and cowboy boots, and his flesh-and-blood mentor, Buffalo Bob Smith, took the stage.  Mr. Kean wrote “almost every line spoken and every note sung,” Mr. Davis wrote, adding that he “came up with every major creative decision, story line and character on ‘Howdy Doody,’ material today imprinted on the brains of my generation.
    ”With Buffalo Bob, Mr. Kean wrote the lyrics to the show’s theme song, “It’s Howdy Doody Time,” sung to the tune of “Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay.”  It was Mr. Kean’s idea that Howdy should run for president in 1948. After Howdy extolled the virtues of democracy, the campaign drew nearly 60,000 requests for campaign buttons.  Although he didn’t make the puppets, Mr. Kean conceived many of them, including the cantankerous Phineas T. Bluster and his harebrained lackey, Dilly Dally. He also named Clarabell the Clown, Princess Summerfall Winterspring and Flub-a-Dub.

Gloria Winters, Perky Star of Wholesome ‘Sky King’, Dies
Gloria Winters, who personified youthful, clean-cut American innocence in the 1950s children’s television series “Sky King,” died on August 14 at her home in Vista, California, just north of San Diego.  She was in her late 70s.
    “Sky King” was a contemporary western about an Arizona rancher and pilot, the title character, who ran into the likes of jewel smugglers, bank robbers and gangsters.  Ms. Winters played Sky’s blond, baby-faced, perky but earnest and unfailingly helpful teenage niece, Penny, who often became involved in the adventures.  She played the role in 72 episodes from 1952 to 1959. (Kirby Grant, who played Sky King, died in 1985.)

Jackson Gillis, Prolific Writer of TV Drama, Dies at 93
    Cops and detectives, doctors and lawyers, spies and cowboys, heroes, superheroes and semi-superheroes.  These are staples of television drama, and one of the unsung people who stapled them was Jackson Gillis, a prolific slogger in the trenches of television writing whose career spanned more than four decades and whose scripts put words in the mouths of Superman, Perry Mason, Columbo, Wonder Woman, Zorro, Tarzan, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, Jessica Fletcher and, in a manner of speaking, Lassie.

In happier news. Barbara Blitfield Pech sent a long article about American delicatessens. Here's an excerpt. If you want the whole thing, please ask Barbara. and if you need her e-mail address, it's on the still relatively freshly updated class e-mail address. The link to that is usually at the bottom of every week's update.
    From Barbara:  Many of the most famous Jewish eateries serve what has become known as kosher-style food -- traditional Ashkenazic fare that is not prepared in accordance with the laws of kashrut.  For example, the establishments may not use kosher meat or may not keep meat and dairy products separate.
    Even New York’s Katz’s Delicatessen, the New World’s very first deli, is only kosher-style.  Today, Katz’s is much the same as it was when it first opened its doors in 1888 across the street from its present location on Houston Street on the Lower East Side.  Here, you enter, take a ticket (which serves as your order tab) and go directly to the counter, where foot-long salamis are suspended overhead, to have a taste of the pastrami or corned beef before making your selection.  The renown of Katz’s and other New York Jewish delis is such that some tourists insist on including a lunch stop at a deli-restaurant on their itinerary.
    There are also many certified kosher restaurants in New York and other large cities.  Ben’s Kosher Deli and Restaurant -- open on Shabbat -- is in nine locations.  The first opened in the Garment District in 1972.  Ben’s is famous for its kishke and chicken in the pot.
    Mendy’s Kosher Delicatessen has only been around for 15 years but has established itself as the largest purveyor of kosher meals per day in New York. Its popularity grew after it was featured on Seinfeld several years ago.  And following the trend in kosher restaurants, sushi is now a popular item on the menu.  With six locations (though the one at Grand Central Station is dairy), you do not have far to go to find one.

Speaking of the links at the bottom of most weeks' newsletters, the other usual link is the class photo site.  A few week's ago, Allen Moss had trouble accessing it, and Stu Borman gave helpful advise.  This week Henry Gabbay also had trouble with the link, and Stu again gave advice.  The best advice seems to be patience, but it's worth having that to see the pictures.
    Evelyn Roedel Read may have already sent Stu a short series of photos she sent me.  Coincidentally, several of the photos include shots of a different Gary Ulrich than Ken's brother, one presumably in the same class as Evelyn, 1959.  Meanwhile, Amy Lieberman checked out the photo of Bill, the Good Humor Man.  I've got to get a better copy of that photo and try to run it through Photo Shop.  Presently, Bill looks pretty washed out.

Robert Fiveson also sent the Senior Citizen Riddle Test again.  It seems he wants to make sure we all continue to have our senses.  Here's one of the questions, which I may have run the last time Robert sent this quiz:
    You're driving a bus that is leaving on a trip from Pennsylvania and ending in New York.  To start off with, there were 32 passengers on the bus.  At the next bus stop, 11 people get off and 9 people get on.  At the next bus stop, 2 people get off and 2 people get on.  At the next bus stop, 12 people get on and 16 people get off. At the last bus stop, 5 people get on and 3 people get off.
    Question:  What's the bus driver's name?

Finally, Evelyn Roedel Read also wrote about what she's been doing.  Just reading this makes me tired.  But feeling healthy.
    From Evelyn:  I've been keeping busy making puree (8 1/2 quarts so far), V-6 (8 1/2 quarts concentrated), V-11 (9 quarts concentrated), and V-13 (9 1/2 quarts concentrated).  These all come from my wonderful collection of all kinds of tomatoes.
     I may have written that I have a 2'-high, raised-bed planter, shaped like a 16' X 16' capital E, plus some 20-gallon tubs of zucchini, acorn squash, peppers, pole beans, and pole cucumbers.  These pots line the fence that keeps out those hungry groundhogs (woodchucks).  There's also dill, basil, parsley, 9 blueberry bushes, and a white seedless grape vine.
     This gardening is the best medicine!  Plus, with all that homemade vegetable juice I'm drinking, I'm sure I'm getting more than my 5 daily servings of veggies.  My mother would have been proud of me!  Pass the Worcestershire and the hot sauce, please!

[Rich -- I had to ask Evelyn what V- 6 through 13 were.  I'd only heard of the commercial V-8.]

Evelyn replied:  Each batch of juice comes out different but good!  In my juice with the tomatoes, I add Romaine, cucumbers, celery, onions, garlic, red/green peppers -- preferably red -- carrots, zucchini, parsley, basil, and beets.  I looked on a can of V-8 to get ideas.  I count the parsley, basil, and other herbs as vegetables although they really aren't.  The number after the V represents the number of different ingredients and helps me know which batch of juice it is.

The South '65 e-mail addresses:  reunionclass65.blogspot.com

The South '65 photo site:  picasaweb.google.com/SouthHS65

Rich