Funny Man

“My mind is a raging torrent flooded with rivulets of thoughts cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.” Hedley Lamarr, “Blazing Saddles”

The inside jacket for Patrick McGilligan’s new biography of comedian Mel Brooks, “Funny Man” reads: “He was born Melvin Kaminsky on his family’s kitchen table in Brooklyn, New York, in 1928. Mel was a mischievous child whose role was to make the family laugh.  But beyond boyhood, and after he reinvented himself as Mel Brooks, the laughs that came easily in the Kaminsky home proved more elusive.”  Brooks is perhaps best known for a string of hilarious movies, including Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein(both released in 1974), and the smash Broadway hit (a favorite of Toni and me) “The Producers” (2001-2007).  Gary football star Alex Karras played Mongo inBlazing Saddles and uttered the line,“Mongo only pawn in game of life.”  Brooks was a writer for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows” during the 1950s and still getting laughs on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” 60 years later.

 Alex Karras in "Blazing Saddles"

My wittiest friend I had was David Malham, who, like Mel Brooks, could imitate others’ facial expressions and gestures.  He often told endearing stories about his Assyrian-American mom, and his personal anecdotes often poked fun at itself.  In one he made a TV appearance on the Jerry Springer show as a grief counselor and discovered his pin-striped suit’s coat and pants didn’t match. Terry Jenkins had a great sense of humor, and on the day friends were attending a service celebrating his life I thought of him often.  In IUN’s library lobby a girl was imitating her little sister’s funny way of waking. I said, “I can do that, too” – something Terry would have done – and got them to laugh.

In the car I heard a long set from 1972, when WXRT first came on the air and the year of the Watergate break-in.  I have been tuning in to 93.1 FM since the early Eighties, which qualifies me as a long-time listener. In quick order came songs by Jethro Tull, Little Feat, Todd Rundgren, Loggins and Messina, Harry Nilsson, plus two with drug references, the Allman Brothers Band’s “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More (leave your mind alone and just get high)” and “30 Days in the Hole” by Humble Pie. I can’t recall ever hearing Nilsson’s “Coconut,” about a brother and sister getting a belly ache from a lime and coconut concoction.  On a.m. radio that year, top hits included Don McLean’s “American Pie” and the soul classics “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers and “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green. My favorite White Sox, Dick Allen, had two inside-the-park home runs in the same game!  “Joker’s Wild” debuted in 1972. Three year-old son Dave loved hearing Jack Barry yell “Joker, joker, JOKER!”with increasing excitement.  Before long Dave actually understood how the game was played and got good at it.

Mike Olszanski insists on calling May 1 Labor Day, as around the world it is commemorated as International Labor Day. On May 1, 1886, workers in Chicago and other industrial cities demonstrated for an 8-hour day.  Spring celebrations date back to Roman times and often feature dancing around a maypole.  Old girlfriend Suzanna Dienna Murphy wrote:

Who is old enough to remember May Day traditions? We hung little so-called nosegays of flowers on our neighbors’ front door handles made of bouquets put through a doily and then ran so it would be a surprise. There were also of course Maypole dances with colorful ribbons extending out for girls in beautiful flowing dresses to hold and dance. It was very dreamy and sweet. The college where my Grampa taught Philosophy and Religion classes, Beaver College, always had such a celebration. That was in Glenside Pennsylvania. There was always a reception afterwards. I remember wearing a pastel dress and while gloves and a hat, even when I was very little. For some reason I also remember little decorated sugar cubes that had flowers on top. I have not seen those in many years.

Bishopstone Church, Sussex, England

Reacting to a photo of my bowling team (Electrical Engineers) on Facebook, Ray Smock wrote, “You can fix my wiring anytime.” It took me a few seconds to get the joke.  Jef Halberstadt, who worked at Bethlehem Steel with Terry Kegebein (their lockers were next to each other), asked about our name.  When the team formed 60 years ago, all charter members were electrical engineers at Gary Sheet and Tin, the name of the Cressmoor Lanes league where we bowled until three years ago, when we switched to Mel Guth’s Seniors at Hobart Lanes. At the bowling banquet I managed to get daughter-in-law Delia’s Uncle Phil Vera to take a selfie with me; he also sent one with uncles Larry Ramirez and Eddie Lopez, plus Jaime and Melody Delgado and jokester Angel Menendez.

NWI Times correspondent Joseph Pete sought information about Gary’s Memorial Auditorium, which opened in 1927, closed in 1972, and was badly damaged by fire in 1997. Scheduled for demolition to make way for a 38-unit senior and middle-income housing project, the five thousand-seat facility housed high school basketball games and graduations, wrestling matches, concerts, and speaking engagements by visiting celebrities. I compared its sad fate to the still functioning, 80-year-old Hammond Civic Center. Pete used this quote from our interview:

 Truman gave a “give ’em hell” speech there in 1948.  Frank Sinatra sang there for a Tolerance concert during a famous school strike over integration in 1945.  Half the white students had walked out of Froebel High School, and he performed to get them to go back to school.  Bobby-soxers came in from Portage and other outlying communities to hear him.  It was a big national story that was covered in Life magazine.

Joe Van Dyk, Gary’s director of redevelopment and planning, vowed that historic features will be preserved, including limestone, cornices, the keystone, and other ornamental hallmarks.

 Times photo by Kale Wilk

After I posted the article on Facebook, Paul Kern noted that he attended his first basketball sectional there in 1969; and George Sladic commented that his late wife’s graduation ceremony took place there.  Connie Mack-Ward had this warning:

 Demolishing what remains of this building & disturbing the soil immediately around it will release microscopic histoplasmosis spores into the air--the building was found too dangerous to enter by a feasibility consultant at least 30 years ago, because it contains a large amount of bird excrement, which contains the spores, as does soil which has contacted it.
  Histoplasmosis in humans is very minor, like a little cold, so rarely diagnosed and treated, but the scars it often leaves in the eyes (not visible without special examination) can leave one blind, and the scars can become active or bleed years & even decades later, again causing blindness.

 

Mayor Pete Buttigieg made the cover of both Time and New Yorkmagazine.  The unlikely gay presidential candidate named a dog Truman inspired by the thirty-third President’s quip: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”He told Time: “The idea that we just sort people into baskets of good and evil ignores the central fact of human existence, which is that each of us is a basket of good and evil.  The job of politics is to summon the good and beat back the evil.”  Trump, who unfailingly does the opposite, blasted the decision of the Kentucky Derby stewards to disqualify apparent winner Maximum Security for endangering other horses and riders by an illegal lane change, calling it an example of “political correctness.”  Grumpy Trump is unhinged.

After many days of rain, the weekend was glorious.  I did some bush trimming and eradicated numerous dandelions.  When I was a kid, Vic paid me a dime for every 50 dandelions I pulled up by the roots.  More fun was capturing night crawlers before fishing trips, especially after a downpour. Using a flashlight, I’d pounce on those popping out of the ground before they could wiggle back into their holes.  You could feel them struggling to get free from your grip.

At Memorial Opera House we saw the delightful musical comedy “La cage aux Folles,” starring Andrew Brent and Thomas Olsen as an aging gay couple who perform in a review as drag queen and owner/master of ceremonies.  Old friend Patti Shaffner played Jacqueline, a café owner hoping to perform in the gay revue. Seeing guys dressed as female dancers reminded me of seeing “Kinky Boots” in Chicago.  Originally a French play, “La Cage aux Folles” opened on Broadway in 1983 and enjoyed another successful run 28 years later.  Dick Hagelberg knew Olsen from the Northwest Indiana Symphony Chorus; afterwards, Olsen was with an entourage at Pesto’s Restaurant. 

New York Times Sunday magazine highlighted 25 songs“that matter right now,” beginning with Bruce Springsteen’s oft misconstrued “Born in the U.S.A.,” which he performed without accompaniment in “Springsteen on Broadway.” Beforehand, he told of grooving at shows starring Walter Cichon and the Jersey Shore band the Motifs and that Cichon got drafted and never returned from Vietnam. When the selective service board summoned Springsteen, he succeeded in evading being drafted, certain he’d meet the same fate. He told the audience: “I do sometimes wonder who went in my place. Because somebody did.”