Goodbye Bette Davis. Goodbye Jodie Foster.  Goodbye Kathie Lee Gifford.  Goodbye Tammy Faye Bakker.  Goodbye Sinead O’Conner. Jan Hooks, who was well known for these and other actress impersonations on SNL, has died at the age of 57.

Hooks got her start on “The Bill Tush Show” which broadcast in the 1980s on WTBS in her home town of Atlanta, Oh Atlanta (thank you, thank  you Lowell George).  The show mixed up comedy, interviews, and a variety of musical guests including the debut of The Vapors performing their classic “Turning Japanese” on the show.

Hooks left SNL in 1991 and took a part in the successful TV show “Designing Women“.  Hooks also had a very memorable roll in “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” playing the part of Tina a tour guide at the Alamo. Can you say ‘adobe’ with me?

OBTW Bill Tush has been news journalist and humorist.  In 1965 he was working as a radio disk jockey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, hosting the “Mid Morning Polka Party”.

Latrobe of course is famous for Rolling Rock beer as well as (apparently) polka. (Always link back to beer whenever you have the chance.)  (Or to the Deer Hunter wherein you will find several scenes that feature Rolling Rock.)  Fish wrap.

Lest you think polka has also gone and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible polka radio may still be found especially if you find yourself in Michigan or surfing the net.  Polka is apparently a Czech word meaning “Polish woman” if you believe the Oxford Etymological Dictionary.