Our Daily Dead

NY Times
Louis Nye, a ubiquitous comedian who became a fixture on early television for playing an unctuous advertising executive in a Steve Allen sendup of Madison Avenue, died on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 92.

The cause was lung cancer, said his son, Peter.

Mr. Nye appeared on everything from “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “The Love Boat” to the HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” But he was best known for his work with Steve Allen, whom he met in an elevator and apparently never expected to hear from once he got off.

The call came, though, and soon Mr. Nye was playing Gordon Hathaway, an exuberantly boastful man in a suit and tie who always seemed to be standing on his toes, smiling so brightly that his teeth sparkled as if he were in a toothpaste commercial. Mr. Nye’s salutation - “Heigh-ho, Steverino” - became something of a national catchphrase in the 1950’s.

Mr. Nye appeared in what were billed as man-in-the-street interviews that Mr. Allen conducted with him and other regulars on the program, including Don Knotts, Bill Dana and Tom Poston.

Mr. Nye was so closely identified with his signature phrase that he recorded an album called “Heigh-Ho, Madison Avenue,” which skewered advertising agencies, market research and the post-World War II society made famous by Sloan Wilson’s novel “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.” On the album, Mr. Nye appeared with a group called the Status Seekers in such songs as “The Gray Flannel Blues,” “The Ten Commandments of Madison Avenue (Plus Big Bonus Commandments)” and “The Conspicuous Consumption Cantata.” (Exactly how Mr. Nye’s shibboleth is spelled is something of a question. When it turned up in the title of one of Mr. Allen’s many books, it was “Hi-Ho Steverino!: My Adventures in the Wonderful Wacky World of TV.”)

“He was the suave, pretentious, smug country club braggart, that, in spite of the pretentiousness, you had to like because democratic nations like America need people like that to make fun of,” said Robert J. Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University. “Gordon Hathaway was to Steve Allen as Frasier was to Frasier’s dad. Frasier was always this guy we liked to dislike for looking down his nose at us.”

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1560545216/ourdailydeadc-20/002-8775021-2086417?%5Fencoding=UTF8&camp=1789&link%5Fcode=xm2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0848815122/002-8775021-2086417?v=glance&n=283155&camp=1789&link%5Fcode=xm2

For American’s sitting around their black-and-white TV set, eating a sumptuous meal of formally- frozen TV dinners
, on their TV trays
, Louis Nye was a familiar figure on the
Steve Allen Show. As the self-absorbed-look-down-my-nose-at-you-I’m-just-too-smooth-type, he was the character Americans–while eating watery roast beef, grey flannel turkey, or soggy fried chicken, runny mash potatoes, and sad little green peas—loved to resent, but made them laugh. We’ve this function is fulfilled by anyone one on the McLaughlin Report
or anyone from the GWB inner circle
. Ah but life was simpler in the 50’s when one of life’s great mysteries was what exactly was that crusty stuff in the little dessert tray, and whether or not you could get a glimpse of underwear (always white; always cotton) during a “duck and cover drill.”
(Not that we ODDones are old enough to remember such things—we only read about them in our parents’ diaries.)

What’s a shibboleth
?

ODDquote-of-the-day comes from David R. Henderson, writing in the Wall Street Journal (we use it to line the floor of our parrot cage, but we don’t read to them) about Aumann and Schelling winners of the 2005 Nobel Prize in economic sciences
for their work as game theorists
:

…one of the most important principles in game theory—indeed, in life—is to handle any interactive situation well, you must put yourself in the shoes of the person you’re interacting with.” Are you listening, hello, hello…

Oh go eat your fish

LA Times
Jerry Juhl, the Emmy Award-winning former head writer for the Muppets who provided much of the heart and soul to Jim Henson’s iconic troupe of fleece and foam puppets, has died. He was 67.

Juhl, who also co-wrote most of the Muppet feature films and wrote for “Sesame Street” during its early years, died of cancer Sept. 27 in a hospital in San Francisco, said Arthur Novell, executive director of the Jim Henson Legacy. Juhl, who was semiretired, lived in the Northern California town of Caspar.

Juhl co-wrote “The Muppet Movie,” which marked the Muppets’ move to the big screen in 1979. He later wrote the screenplay for “The Muppet Christmas Carol” and co-wrote “The Great Muppet Caper,” “Muppet Treasure Island” and “Muppets From Space.”

He also served as head writer and creative producer on the award-winning “Fraggle Rock,” Henson’s 1983-87 TV series about a race of small creatures that live underground.

“So much of the humor, irreverence, caring and heart that has been central to our work for 50 years began with Jerry Juhl,” Henson’s daughter Lisa, co-chief executive of the Jim Henson Co., said in a statement. “He was — in many ways — the real voice of the Muppets and of every project from the Jim Henson Co.”

With apologies to Kermit the Frog
, we bring you today’s headline and also the news that Jerry Juhl, famed writer for the Muppets has died. Miss Piggy is said to have gone into seclusion, Burt and Ernie have had a huge spat (as is often known to occur during times of extreme grief—we turn on one another.) Big Bird has gone shopping (no question, one can spend one’s self out of significant situational depression
). Link Hogthrob is flying the Swinetrek
colors at half-mast. No joy abounds in Fraggle Rock
.

Today’s ODDassociation: Did you know there is an annual bicycle ride in Iowa called “Swine Trek?”

Muppet creator Jim Henson
had somewhat of an ODDexit in that he refused treatment for pneumococcal pneumonia
because of his belief in Christian Science
. Reminds us ODDfellows of the quote from Boston reporter, whose name we are too lazy to look up. During an early controversy about Christian Science and traditional medicine, he said, “If scientists practiced more Christianity, and Christian Scientists practiced more science, then it wouldn’t matter who took care of the patient, as long as you had a good nurse.”

Henson wanted to create puppets for adults. Check out the Muppet Shows with Elton John
and Alice Cooper
, and we ODDones bet you cookie ( cookie!
) that he succeeded.

We’re not sure how Henson would react to some other puppetry for adults, particularly a couple of Australians who do remarkable things with gender-specific appendages
.

Finally, we are ignoring the death of Louie Nye. Check back tomorrow.

How did they teach you to be just a happy puppet dancing on a string?
How do you manage to speak, your mouth a frozen grin? A dullard strung
On
The wire. When the master’s gone you hang there with your eyes and
Your
Limbs so lifeless
~10000 Maniacs

p.s. The official Muppet web site
bites big time (cookie or otherwise).

LA Times
Robert Hanson, the last surviving member of the storied Memphis Belle B-17 bomber crew, which was the first to fly 25 bombing missions in Europe during World War II, has died. He was 85.

Hanson, the radio operator of the famed aircraft, died Oct. 1 in Albuquerque of congestive heart failure.

The exploits of the B-17 were detailed in a 1944 documentary “The Memphis Belle,” made by William Wyler. Its final mission was recalled in a fictionalized 1990 feature film “Memphis Belle.”

Hanson, addressing his grandson’s high school class after the feature film was released, was asked if everything in the movie actually happened.

“No, it didn’t all happen to the Memphis Belle,” he told the class, “but everything in the movie happened to some B-17.”

In 1989, Hanson had accompanied pilot Robert Morgan and other crew members to Binbrook Royal Air Force base in England to meet with the young cast of the movie.

“They’re not quite as good-looking as we were,” said Hanson, known for cracking jokes and his happy-go-lucky nature, “but they are young and enthusiastic — exactly like we were.”

Hanson was a construction worker in Spokane, Wash., when he joined the Army in 1941 — three months before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into World War II. During his training at Walla Walla, Wash., he was assigned to the Memphis Belle.

The “Flying Fortress,” as the giant bombers were called, and its 10-man crew flew to England, their wartime base, in September 1942. Between Nov. 7 and May 17, 1943, they flew 148 hours and dropped more than 60 tons of bombs over Germany and France.

They were credited with shooting down eight enemy aircraft and five “probables,” and damaging a dozen more. Four members of the original crew died in combat as the plane was hit by cannon and machine-gun fire.

Although Hanson and the rest of the crew survived unscathed to become early war heroes, they had several close calls.

“When we got the tail shot off, Capt. Morgan put the ship into a terrific dive and we dropped two- or three-thousand feet. It pretty nearly threw me out of the airplane,” Hanson recalled on the Memphis Belle Memorial Assn. Inc. website.

“I hit the roof. I thought we were going down and wondered if I should bail out. Then he pulled up again and I landed on my back. I had an ammunition box and a frequency meter on top of me. I didn’t know what was going on.”

On another bombing run, Hanson was writing in a logbook when he sneezed, jerking his head. A bullet missed him when he moved, and instead hit the log book, which he kept the rest of his life.

At that early point in the war, Morgan told filmmakers in 1989, the Allies were losing 82% of their planes and men. He attributed the Belle’s survival to teamwork and luck — which Hanson courted by carrying a lucky rabbit’s foot.

After the Belle became the first bomber to complete 25 missions, it also became the first sent into retirement. But prior to that, the plane and its crew were ordered on a special mission — to tour the United States, rallying support and encouraging the purchase of war bonds.

BBC Online
Gibbins was a mainstay of the group formed in Swansea in the 1960s whose song Without You was a major hit for both Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey.

But Badfinger had a tragic history, and both main songwriters Pete Ham and Tom Evans hanged themselves amid turmoil in the group’s finances.

Gibbins died in his sleep at his Florida home on Tuesday.

His official website says: “To all of Mike’s fans, it is with deepest regret to inform all that he passed away 4 October, in his sleep by natural causes. He will be terribly missed by all.”

Badfinger signed to Apple in 1969 and their first single, a Paul McCartney song, Come and Get It, reached the top five.

They retained close links with the Beatles, with George Harrison co-producing one of their albums, Straight Up, and guitarist Joey Molland and bassist Tom Evans playing on John Lennon’s Imagine.

Nilsson’s version of Without You, written by Evans and fellow guitarist Pete Ham, went to number one in 1972, as did Mariah Carey’s in 1990.

But despite more of their own hits Badfinger’s career went sour over finances. They signed to Warner Bros, but their third album for the label was never released and in 1975 their contract was ended.

In April 1975 Pete Ham hanged himself, aged 31. The band continued amid financial and legal problems, but seven years later Tom Evans also hanged himself.

Gibbins continued in the music industry, and played on such tracks as fellow Swansea artist Bonnie Tyler’s 1976 hit It’s a Heartache.

He lived in the United States for many years, but Dan Matovina, who wrote the biography Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger, said while Gibbins was happy-go-lucky, he also found it difficult to come to terms with the deaths.

If you want it, anytime I can give it

But you better hurry cause it may not last ~ ‘Come and Get It’ - Badfinger

It may not last indeed. Badfinger is a study in tragedy. Michael Gibbins, Badfinger’s drummer, is said to have died of natural causes in his sleep at the young age of 56. In 1975 Pete Ham, the band’s guitarist and songwriter, committed suicide by hanging himself in his garage. In November 1983 Tom Evans, bassist and songwriter for the band, replayed Pete Ham’s demise and hanged himself in his home.

Badfinger had the best of support and was touted early on as the heir apparent to the Beatles. John Lennon wanted to name the band ‘Prix’ and Paul McCartney was stuck on the name ‘Home’. ‘Badfinger’ was finally selected in reference to the Beatles tune ‘Badfinger Boogie’. ‘Badfinger Boogie’ was the working title for the Beatles hit ‘A Little Help From My Friends’ off Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Badfinger also had a role in an offbeat comedy called The Magic Christian. YOu will find associated with the movie quite the collection of famous names - from stars Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr to writers Terry Southern, Graham Chapman and John Cleese.

Oh, by the way, ‘Come and Get It’ written for ‘The Magic Christian’ was actually penned by one Paul McCartney. The first major hit coming from Ham and Evans was ‘No Matter What’. Another hit ‘Without You’ was propelled even further after being recorded by Harry Nilson and Mariah Carey.

About as far away from Swansea (home of Badfinger) as you can get and still remain in merry old England is the area known as Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire - known as Bomber Country - was home to some 46 airfields during WWII and the Binbrook Royal Air Force base - home to the Memphis Belle - was one of these 46. Robert Hanson was the radio operator on the Belle and you may read a bit of his story at the Belle memorial site including how a sneeze saved his life. There are stories from several other members of the crew at the web site as well.

And don’t forget that a bit earlier in history Lincolnshire was also the take-off point for a Church of England Separatists. If you visit Lincolnshire we hear you should take in the castles as well as the WWII airfields.

“Dit - Dit - Dit - Dah - Dit - Dah.”