March 18, 2024

Dispatch #424: Ramon Ameijide TV Guide Covers

 

Bonanza & The Beverly Hillbillies 

As a TV-obsessed kid, I always looked forward to the day each week (usually Thursday) when the latest issue of TV Guide magazine arrived in the mail.

The cover style varied from week to week: sometimes photographs were used, other times sketches, paintings, or collages.

Among the talented artists employed by the magazine: LeRoy Neiman, Peter Max, Bob Peak, Jack Davis, Al Hirschfeld, Ronald Searle, Charles Addams, Richard Amsel and Ramon "Raymond" Ameijide.

The Waltons & Barney Miller
Ameijide used layered pieces of paper or felt to create 3D images. In his work for TV Guide, the artist employed this technique for cast portraits of popular shows such as Bonanza, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Waltons, Barney Miller, M.A.S.H. and The Love Boat.

M.A.S.H. & The Love Boat
His colorful 3D art graced TV Guide covers for twelve years—from 1969 to 1981, including two festive Christmas images.

Ameijide's Christmas covers from 1974 and 1981.
New Jersey-born Ramon Ameijide died at age 76 in January 2000, but his award-winning art continues to amaze and inspire decades later.

There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe

March 16, 2024

Dispatch #423: Uncle O'Grimacey

 

How can you tell when spring is on its way? Is it the days getting longer—spotting the first robin out on the lawn—or the return of Shamrock Shakes to your neighborhood McDonalds?

Believe it or not, those minty green shakes have been around for over fifty years, and once had their own mascot—Uncle O'Grimacey.

The verdant kin of plum-colored Grimace, Uncle O'Grimacey terrified young children in McDonald's ads for a brief time in 1977 before finally returning to the Old Country.

Uncle O'Grimacey

Talented actor Lennie Weinrib, who provided the voices for both Grimace and his Celtic Kin, died in 2006.

Uncle O'Grimacey, meanwhile, lives on in our collective nightmares (and in old McDonalds ads on YouTube). 


There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe


March 15, 2024

Dispatch #422: The Cultural Marxism Boogeyman

 

As I read my local newspaper each morning, I'm occasionally reminded that some of my neighbors have fairly disturbing political views.

Case in point: a March 15th letter penned by Robert Sparkman from Rome City—a community about 50 miles north of Fort Wayne—in which he rails about (among other things) the menace of "Cultural Marxism".


As agencies such as the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center have observed, Cultural Marxism is an old antisemitic dog whistle often employed by right wingers. To quote the ADL's Marilyn Mayo:


Incredibly, the state of Florida—home to a sizable Jewish population—sought to teach this antisemitic drivel to their schoolchildren—as part of the right's push to turn the USA into a White, Christian Nationalist paradise.

When you hear people railing against DEI and "wokeness" or screeching about Cultural Marxism, what they're really endorsing is White Supremacy, which—as President Biden so aptly defined in a speech earlier this year—is a poison.


There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe


March 14, 2024

Dispatch #421: Jonathan Glazer Controversy

 

During the Academy Awards telecast Sunday night, Jonathan Glazer—director of the Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest—reflected on the current Israel-Hamas conflict during his acceptance speech, with his remarks generating some controversy.

A few days later, I made a vague reference to the kerfuffle, prompting a friend—who doesn't follow geopolitical affairs—to ask," what, did Glazer trash Star Wars again?"


There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe


March 13, 2024

Dispatch #420: Commercial Spokespeople

 

Charmin's Mr. Whipple & Folger's Mrs. Olson

I was thinking recently about the extraordinary longevity of commercial spokespeople in the ads I watched on TV while growing up.

For instance, actor Dick Wilson's Mr. Whipple implored shoppers not to squeeze the Charmin for 21 years—the same length of time Virginia Christie's Mrs. Olson brewed up hot cups of Folger's coffee.

Bounty's Rosie and Cool Whip's Sara Tucker
For twenty years, Nancy Walker's Rosie assured customers at her diner that Bounty paper towels were the "quicker-picker-upper", and Marge Redmond's Sara Tucker offered up Cool Whip on the desserts at her Tucker Inn for two decades as well.

Jan Miner as Madge & Jane Withers as Josephine

The reigning queen of commercials is still Jan Miner, who plugged Palmolive dish washing liquid on TV for a remarkable twenty-six years, from 1966 to 1992. Former child actress Jane Withers, meanwhile, portrayed Josephine the Plumber for Comet cleanser over a respectable eleven-year period.

Progressive's Flo and ATT's Lily Adams

So, can any of today's commercial pitchmen match those successful runs? Well, actress Stephanie Courtney has portrayed Flo in ads for Progressive Insurance for 16 years—since 2008—while Milana Vayntrub has been ATT's Lily Adams off and on since 2013.

Paul Macarelli: Verizon/Sprint/T-Mobile
Actor Paul Macarelli first asked, "can you hear me now?" as the Verizon test guy from 2002 to 2011, before switching teams to Sprint/T-Mobile in 2016.

Geico's Gecko and Allstate's Mayhem
The current longest-running commercial spokesperson isn't even human: Geico's gecko debuted back in 1999, and while several actors have voiced the lizard over the years, Brit Jake Wood has done so since 2005. 

Dean Winters, meanwhile, has been Mayhem personified for Allstate since 2010. That leaves Kevin Miles—who portrays Jake from State Farm—as the field's relative rookie, having assumed the role back in 2020.

Jake from State Farm

I suppose Progressive's Flo and Geico's gecko are as cozily familiar to today's TV viewers as Madge and Mr. Whipple were to me. The little green lizard should break Jan Miner's endurance record sometime next year, but since multiple actors have voiced the gecko, I'm rooting for Stephanie Courtney's Flo to go the distance and eventually become the all-time commercial champ.


There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe


March 12, 2024

Dispatch #419: The Two Mrs. Jones

 

The other day I heard a classic R&B song on the radio—Me and Mrs. Jones by singer Billy Paul—and it reminded me that around the time that song was popular, there was a TV movie with a similar title.

Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jonesabout a young couple who decide to marry after an unplanned pregnancy—aired on ABC's Wednesday Movie of the Week on November 16th, 1971. 

Billy Paul's Me and Mrs. Jones, on the other hand—which debuted one year later on September 13th, 1972—detailed a man's affair with his married lover.

Other than an odd coincidence of timing, there's really no connection between the 1970s movie and song, but as an elementary school-age kid back then, I can remember thinking that whoever this Mrs. Jones person was, her love life sure seemed complicated.



There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe


March 11, 2024

Dispatch #418: In a Lonely Place

I'm still recovering from last night's 4-hour Academy Awards broadcast, so today's dispatch features a video for In a Lonely Place, a nifty 1986 track from New Jersey's The Smithereens.

Inspired by a 1950 Humprey Bogart film, it's graced by fine vocals from Pat DiNizio (1955-2017) and Suzanne Vega.

There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe


March 10, 2024

Dispatch #417: Steve Shine's City Limits Lovefest


Recently, it was announced that current Speaker of the House Mike "Moses" Johnson will deliver the keynote address at the Allen County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner on April 26th. According to party head Steve Shine:


Despite Shine's epicenter comment, the Johnson event is being held at a Ceruti's banquet hall out on Ludwig Road—which is not only seven miles from downtown Fort Wayne but only three miles from the city's northwest border.

Democrats, in contrast, tend to celebrate at a more centrally located Ceruti's: Bergstaff Place, near Memorial Park.

One can only assume the GOP's choice of this remote venue—there are no sidewalks out there—was chosen to discourage protests against Johnson, who, aside from serving as Donald Trump's Congressional lap dog, is a longtime supporter of Christian Nationalism.

The GOP has so little faith in the strength of their ideas that they're constantly looking for ways to reduce/restrict voting, so hunkering down at some boondocks banquet hall away from public view isn't surprising. Here's another Shine quote on Johnson:


That seems like quite an endorsement, unless you remember Shine welcoming Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to Fort Wayne with similar praise during the height of the Pandemic:


Well, if nothing else, it's clear Steve Shine's a terrible judge of character. By selecting a remote banquet hall for his annual get-together of John Birch Society Wanna-Be's, he's also shown himself to be coward who's afraid to experience public pushback on his party's extremist agenda. 


There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe


March 9, 2024

Dispatch #416: A Tale of Two Shootings

 

FWPD SWAT team vs.76-year-old woman.

On the morning of Thursday, March 7th, FWPD responded to a call from employees of a tree-service company working on Central Drive. According to a local news report, those workers told police a woman in the neighborhood had threatened them.

When FWPD arrived on the scene, the woman, identified as Corrine Ann Nahrwald, a 76-year-old white woman, emerged from her home and fired a gun.

Officers returned fire, striking Nahrwald in the leg. She was eventually taken into custody and is currently hospitalized in non-life-threatening condition.

Despite the initially jarring images on local TV of a highly militarized FWPD presence outside the home of an elderly woman, I couldn't help but remember the very different police response to DaChe'na Warren-Hill a few months ago.

Hill, a twenty-year-old Black woman, was unarmed when she was shot and killed by FWPD office Mark A. Guzman in November 2023.  

One has to wonder what impact implicit bias had on the FWPD response to Hill, who was fatally shot seconds after the responding officer arrived on the scene—despite being unarmed and driving away from that officer. 

Nahrwald's interaction with the FWPD was quite different: despite firing a gun in the direction of multiple officers, she received a non-lethal shot in response, and—after a prolonged negotiation—was taken into custody and hospitalized for her injury. 

So why was one Fort Wayne woman shown mercy and patience by the FWPD and the other a victim of a rapid extra-judicial execution? The answer might be as simple as black and white.


There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe

March 8, 2024

Dispatch #415: Rothchilds Toffee

 

Rothchilds Toffee

In Dispatch #413, I wrote about the first time I watched a US President deliver a State of the Union speech. My research into the subject sent me down an internet rabbit-hole of 1970s history & trivia.

Which brings me to Rothchilds Toffee. During the Carter Administration, a series of commercials for Rothchilds began airing on TV. They were shown so frequently that I saw them nearly every weekday afternoon when I got home from school. 

In the ads, people who'd just popped a Rothchilds toffee into their mouths explained they simply couldn't engage in any other activities until they'd completely finished savoring that delicious candy.

The title card from Robert Gorman's Rothchilds ad

My favorite of these commercials featured actor Patrick Gorman as a 17th century swordsman whose duel is delayed by the timely consumption of a Rothchilds candy.

Rothchilds toffee came in three flavors: chocolate, caramel, and butterscotch. Although I remember seeing them at the candy counter in local drugstores during the late 1970s, I don't ever recall buying any—despite those inescapable TV ads.

This didn't prevent my friends and I from uttering the catchphrase from those commercials—"not now, I'm in the middle of a Rothchilds!"—nearly every chance we got back then, which I'm pretty sure we all believed to be the height of hilarity.

Rothchilds toffee faded from the scene sometime in the 1980s, consigned to the candy graveyard of yesteryear. If you hear the name Rothschilds these days, it's likely from a wacky conspiracy theory promoted by right-wing nutcase Marjorie Taylor Green involving Jewish space lasers.

Frankly, I'd rather watch those 1970s Toffee commercials in an endless loop for all eternity than listen to one second of that woman's antisemitic drivel.

"Not now, Marjorie—I'm in the middle of a Rothchilds!"


There's more to come in the next dispatch.

©2024 SummitCityScribe