Living in the Cone 2008 (Part IV); August is the Speediest Month

Eduoard made landfall about 4 hours earlier than estimated and as only a Tropical Storm instead of getting to hurricane status (thank goodness!); and despite the meteorological projection tracks that keep taking it towards Austin and the north Texas area, it seems determined to make a beeline towards San Antonio. I'm sure it will turn at some point eventually.


Meanwhile, I'm out buying water and flashlights later this morning.


Just in case, you understand. It would be silly to wait for lines to form like last time.

Meanwhile, it seems that a tornado hit Chicago last night; if not a good handful of microbursts. From CBS 2 Chicago:

Tornadic Storm Clears Wrigley Field, Brings Havoc

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A powerful storm led to tornado warnings in downtown Chicago, evacuated fans from the stands at Wrigley Field on Monday night, and left a path of damage and an atmosphere of panic. Storms continued throughout the night, and were not over Tuesday morning.

The skies were dark and treacherous for much of the game between the Cubs and the Houston Astros. The telecast of the game was interrupted for an Emergency Alert System broadcast announcing a tornado warning for areas west of Chicago. Soon afterward, rain interrupted the game.

As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, at about 8:10 p.m., winds that seemed near gale force began raking the area and the air raid siren that stands sentinel outside Wrigley Field began howling, along with all the others in the city. A voice over the public address system ordered everyone to move into the stadium concourse.

"They told you to get out, down to the concourse, because of bad weather," said Ron Swanson. "A lot of games out here and I've never heard that before; I've never heard that boomer go out across the street." Several small children and more than a few adults were terrified.

The National Weather Service did not immediately confirm any tornado touchdowns. But it said trained spotters reported high-rotation winds in DeKalb and Kane counties in northeastern Illinois, where widespread tree and power line damage was reported. Winds clocked in at 70 mph.

Passengers at O'Hare International Airport were evacuated into the lower levels of the complex's buildings. All flights were temporarily halted, and travelers who had already boarded airplanes were taken off as the storm struck, then led to the lower levels as a precaution. "It was pretty cramped down there, the whole terminal was down there," said George Wickens, 50, of London, who was trying to travel to Florida with his family. "I don't think anything will be getting out of Chicago tonight." More than 350 flights were canceled at O'Hare Monday.

Planes were flying again Tuesday morning. One hundred flights were canceled at O'Hare, and minor delays were reported as of 11 a.m. At Midway Tuesday morning there were a few one-hour delays and some cancellations, according to Cunningham.

"The wind picked up and in probably five seconds it blew (my friend) into her husband," she said. "He grabbed her and pulled her inside and we all ran down the stairs. It was like dead still and then within five seconds, ten seconds we were all blown away."

"The lightning between the buildings was looking ominous," said Michaela Nelson, a 58-year-old singer from Barrington, brushing her dripping-wet hair at the station. "And then it just poured."

As of 10:30 a.m., 219,000 Commonwealth Edison customers are without electricity, the majority of whom are in the city and the southern suburbs, according to ComEd spokesman Jeff Burdick. A total of about 427,000 customers were affected since the storms started. The outages will likely take days to fix, Marquez said.

"At this point, we're still saying it's a multiple-day restoration. We're asking a lot of our customers to be patient as we work on clearing all the damage and restoring power," Marquez said. "We'll get a better idea as work goes throughout the day on the extent of damage, and then have a better idea on when the last customer will be restored."

In the Logan Square neighborhood, a man was left in critical condition after he was hit by a falling tree. He was near his home in the 2100 block of North Whipple Street when the tornado warning sirens sounded. High winds and lightning moved in and sent a tree crashing on top of him. On the Northwest Side, a huge tree was uprooted and tore up the sidewalk on top of the roots. The homeowner could not believe what happened, and suspected a tornado might have hit.

A total of 1,438 trees were toppled or damaged in the storm throughout the city. A total of 158 traffic signals were knocked out, 69 city light poles were damaged, and 112 wires to city light poles snapped, according to the city Department of Streets and Sanitation. There were also 212 blocks where all of the street lights were out, according to the department.

On the roadways at 1 a.m., a backed up sewer added to the problems on the inbound and outbound Dan Ryan Expressway (I-90/94) between 83rd and 87th Streets on the South Side, according to Illinois State Police District Chicago Sgt. Michelle Tufenkjian.

Well, the good thing about hurricanes is at least we get a little warning.

Water. Flashlights. Gotta go.

~~JD~~

"Bozo" Larry Harmon Passes Away at 83

Presented with great solemnity, from CNN.com:

Bozo actor dead at 83

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.
Although not the original Bozo, Larry Harmon portrayed the popular frizzy-haired clown in countless appearances.

His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.

Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos. "You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.

"Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.

Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children's records in 1946. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.

He got that job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo. Along the way, he embellished Bozo's distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume.

"I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, (people) would never be able to forget those footprints," he said.

Susan Harmon, his wife of 29 years, indicated Harmon was the perfect fit for Bozo. "He was the most optimistic man I ever met. He always saw a bright side; he always had something good to say about everybody. He was the love of my life," she said Thursday.

The business -- combining animation, licensing of the character, and personal appearances -- made millions, as Harmon trained more than 200 Bozos over the years to represent him in local markets. "I'm looking for that sparkle in the eyes, that emotion, feeling, directness, warmth. That is so important," he said of his criteria for becoming a Bozo.

The Chicago version of Bozo ran on WGN-TV in Chicago for 40 years and was seen in many other cities after cable television transformed WGN into a superstation. Bozo -- portrayed in Chicago for many years by Bob Bell -- was so popular that the waiting list for tickets to a TV show eventually stretched to a decade, prompting the station to stop taking reservations for 10 years. On the day in 1990 when WGN started taking reservations again, it took just five hours to book the show for five more years. The phone company reported more than 27 million phone call attempts had been made. By the time the show bowed out in Chicago, in 2001, it was the last locally produced version. Harmon said at the time that he hoped to develop a new cable or network show, as well as a Bozo feature film.

He became caught up in a minor controversy in 2004 when the International Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee took down a plaque honoring him as Bozo and formally endorsed Colvig for creating the role. Harmon denied ever misrepresenting Bozo's history. He said he was claiming credit only for what he added to the character -- "What I sound like, what I look like, what I walk like" -- and what he did to popularize Bozo. "Isn't it a shame the credit that was given to me for the work I have done, they arbitrarily take it down, like I didn't do anything for the last 52 years," he told the AP at the time.

Harmon protected Bozo's reputation with a vengeance, while embracing those who poked good-natured fun at the clown. As Bozo's influence spread through popular culture, his very name became a synonym for clownish behavior. "It takes a lot of effort and energy to keep a character that old fresh so kids today still know about him and want to buy the products," Karen Raugust, executive editor of The Licensing Letter, a New York-based trade publication, said in 1996. A normal character runs its course in three to five years, Raugust said. "Harmon's is a classic character. It's been around 50 years."

On New Year's Day 1996, Harmon dressed up as Bozo for the first time in 10 years, appearing in the Rose Parade in Pasadena. The crowd reaction, he recalled, "was deafening." "They kept yelling, `Bozo, Bozo, love you, love you.' I shed more crocodile tears for five miles in four hours than I realized I had," he said. "I still get goose bumps."

Born in Toledo, Ohio, Harmon became interested in theater while studying at the University of Southern California. "Bozo is a star, an entertainer, bigger than life," Harmon once said. "People see him as Mr. Bozo, somebody you can relate to, touch and laugh with."

Besides his wife, Harmon is survived by his son, Jeff Harmon, and daughters Lori Harmon, Marci Breth-Carabet and Leslie Breth.

~~JD~~

Dog Survives Toto Impression During Tornado

CBS-2 in Chicago has this neat story (yes, I said "neat -- get over it) about a happy ending for a dog after the recent tornado activity there ove the weekend.

If you love dogs, you'll like this story.

Dog Survives Toto Impression During Tornado
RICHTON PARK, Ill. (CBS) ― Chase certainly doesn't look like Toto from "The Wizard of Oz." He's a big rottweiler, not a little cairn terrier. But he certainly does a wonderful impression.

On Saturday, when a tornado swept through Richton Park, Chase was hanging out the backyard of Sandra Holmes' house. That is, until the tornado picked him up and took him on the ride of his life.

"People started coming up and saying 'we saw your dog in flight,'" said Holmes, Chase's owner. Neighbor Tatyiana Smith saw it. "The dog was in the air, he was going around like he was pulled out of the ground," Smith said.

Luckily, Chase didn't get whisked away to the magical land of Oz. Instead, residents found him more than a block away in the woods, dazed and shocked, but alive.

"It's a miracle," Holmes said. "It's a blessing from God."

CBS 2's Dana Kozlov contributed to this report.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Hat Tip: The Drudge Report

~~JD~~

"Angel" Harvey Dies at 92

From Wednesday's Robert Feder column in the Chicago Sun-Times:

Heartfelt condolences to Paul Harvey on the passing of his beloved wife and guiding light, Lynne "Angel" Harvey. More than his astute business partner and producer, she also was a pioneer for women in radio and an influential figure in her own right for decades.

Mrs. Harvey died of leukemia Saturday at their west suburban River Forest home. She was 92.Services will be at 1 p.m. today at Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, 126 E. Chestnut.

This also from The Chicago Sun-Times:

Producer for radio legend husband dies
Hall of Fame inductee credited with Paul Harvey's success, created prototype for today's talk shows

May 4, 2008; BY MONIFA THOMAS Staff Reporter

She was the angel by his side.

That's how legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey often described his wife, business partner and producer of more than 60 years, Lynne "Angel" Harvey.

Lynne Harvey died Saturday in the Harveys' River Forest home after a yearlong battle with leukemia.

Mrs. Harvey was the first producer to be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, in 1997. She is also credited with helping turn her husband into one of the biggest success stories in broadcast history.

"She was to Paul Harvey what Colonel Parker was to Elvis Presley," said Bruce DuMont, founder of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. "She really put him on track to have the phenomenal career that his career has been."
'Love at first sight'

Born Lynne Cooper, Mrs. Harvey was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of St. Louis' Washington University.

She met Paul Harvey while working as an on-air personality at a radio station in St. Louis. He was the station's special events commentator.

"It was love at first sight," DuMont said. "I've never met two people who were as madly in love as they were."

The couple married in 1940 and moved to Chicago in 1945.

Mrs. Harvey became her husband's producer shortly after their marriage, handling the behind-the-scenes responsibilities for the No. 1-rated "Paul Harvey News and Comment" show.

It was her idea in the late 1940s to air Harvey's news broadcasts at 10 p.m. -- now the standard time for evening news. She also developed Harvey's best-known feature, "The Rest of the Story."
Found her own success

While her focus was on nurturing her husband's career, Mrs. Harvey found success in her own right, as well.

For instance, she created a television program called "Dilemma" that became a prototype for today's talk-show genre. And she was one of the nation's first women to run an entire broadcast while working at a CBS affiliate.

In addition to her Hall of Fame honor, Mrs. Harvey was also the first recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Chicago chapter of American Women in Radio and Television.

DuMont said Mrs. Harvey was a generous philanthropist whose death is "a devastating loss to the industry, to Paul Harvey and to people who love Paul Harvey."

Mrs. Harvey is also survived by her son, Paul Harvey Jr., another member of the Radio Hall of Fame.

The Love Song of Bozo T. Clown

I wrote this in July 2001 for the Gary Post-Tribune as a tribute to the long-running WGN-TV "Bozo the Clown" TV show. I based it on T.S. Eliot's work (obviously). The Post-Trib printed it whole, without editing, prompting their TV and Movie critic to e-mail me "you are my hero!"


The Love Song of Bozo T. Clown

(With Profound Apologies
to Mr. Eliot’s Estate . . . .)

LET us go then, you and I,
When our senility is spread out against the sky
With Bozo euthanized on WGN-TV;

Let us go, through certain web-surfed streets,
The message-board retreats
Of restless nights in sleepless e-hotels
Whilst in the background the music swells:
As they take up baton for the "Grand March" one last time
With their insidious programmers intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question...

Oh, do not ask, ' What is it? '
Just wait ten years to get your tickets.


In the room the children come and go
Talking of their friend, Bozo.

And indeed there was once upon a time
When vaudeville routines crept into TV
Rubbing their backs upon the TV-screens;
There was a time, there was a time
To prepare a clown face to meet the children that you meet;
There will be time to pratfall and create,
And time for silly works and clapping of hands
That lift and drop a cream pie on your plate;
And briskly rub it into your face,
And time yet for Cookie's indecisions,
And for Wizzo's visions and revisions,
And Oliver O. Oliver Kentucky visits,
And Sandy the Tramp, Rusty the Handyman, Cuddly-Dudley,
Professor Andy’ and Big-Top Bob’s musical improvisations,
Before the taking of a lollypop, an Archway cookie and tea.


In the room the adults come and go
Talking of their childhood friend, Bozo.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, ' Do I care? ' and, ' Do I dare? '
Time to turn back and fall over a chair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my red yak hair--
(They will say: 'The original Boze was so much better!')
My big blue coat, my ruffled collar mounting firmly to my chin,
Without necktie, nor a simple pin--
(They will say: ' But how his lips and nose are red! ')

Do I dare . . . Throw a pie at the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a knock-knock joke will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all--
Have known the "Bozo's Circus," the "Bozo Show,"
And the "Super Sunday Show",
I have measured out my life with awful puns;
I know the voices groaning with a terrible joke
Beneath the music from a shrinking Big-Top Band.


So how should I continue?


And I have known the stuffed shirts; known them all--
MBA's with Arbitron studies and Market Share
(But in the klieg lights, downed with light brown hair!)
Is it cigar smoke perfume from the Prez of Tribune Corp
That makes my show such a bloody mess?
Arms that lie along a table, or sign the final check.
And should I then presume?
To know what children want to watch?

They shall I say, "We have been out-competed by Children's TV
And watched the ratings go down the pipes"
These lonely CPA's in shirt-sleeves, tossing out the Bozo Show?...

They avert their eyes, these ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of cancellation seas.

No! Bozo was not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that rules Chicago Kids' TV
We'll sing a song, tell a joke or two,
Throw a pie, and do some vaudeville, too.
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Impolitic, not cautious, and fancy-footloose;
Full of spoonerisms, but just a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous--
Almost, at times, the Fool.


I grow old...I grow old...
Bozo wears bell-bottomed trousers bold.


Shall I wear a red Yak wig? To wear "clown white" paint?
I shall wear blue bell-bottom trousers, and a red nose on my face.
I have the drum a'turning, to pick children for the "Grand Prize Game."


I do not think that they will pick me.


We have lingered in the chambers of the TV
By cartoon clowns wreathed with seaweed red and blue
Till Bozo's Circus is cancelled; and we cry, too.

(C) 2001 by J.D. Long, baby . . .

Silence on the Air in Chicago; Wally Phillips Passes Away

I'm almost at a loss for words . . . almost. I'd like to think Wally wouldn't have wanted that. Wally Phillips was the most-listened to radio host during the 1960's, 70's, and 80's -- perhaps ever.

He began his ground-breaking 42-year run at WGN in 1956, when he arrived from WLW-AM in Cincinnati. For 21 years, he was the undisputed king of morning radio, drawing an astonishing half of all listeners at his peak. At the Tribune Co.-owned news/talk powerhouse, Phillips pioneered a new form of radio by engaging his audience through phone interaction and employing his impeccable sense of comedic timing with random drop-ins and sound effects.

At the peak of his popularity as morning star at WGN, Phillips attracted half of all Chicago area radio listeners -- an audience of nearly 1.5 million each day -- making him the most listened-to radio host in the country. "When we say 'WGN Radio is Chicago,' I quickly add that 'Wally Phillips is WGN,'" said Wayne Vriesman, vice president and general manager of the Tribune-owned station. "He is the most creative, humorous and innovative person I have ever met in broadcasting. . . . (with) a lifetime of great radio listening and a public service never equaled in broadcasting."

Wally Phillips gentle, calm, reassuring demeanor made you feel like one of the family, while making you laugh so hard I frequently went to school with cornflakes in my nose.

A year later he was back in Cincinnati at a radio station where he developed his madcap style by messing around with prerecorded interviews. In one instance, on a Doris Day tape, she had answered a question by saying "Yeah, that was half the fun of it." The jock was supposed to ask, "You've been all around, meeting all these different people . . ." Phillips' question was "Doris, I understand there are innuendoes that you and the guys on the bus got just plain drunk, that it was nothing but an orgy from place to place."

The station eventually fired him for inserting a phony item into a news broadcast.

"I wrote, 'All members of infantry company so-and-so report immediately to your draft board,' and I described an insurrection in some phony country. He read it on the air. Hell, they even had the FBI all over the station," Phillips said in an interview published in the Tribune in 1976.

Phillips' delivery occasionally had an edge to it, like the time he tracked down formal-wear mogul Ben Gingiss on a cruise ship on the Pacific Ocean and got him on the phone, saying "We're down here at the store. . . . Where do you keep the fire extinguisher?" More typical was the morning when he started his broadcast by chatting with farm reporter Orion Samuelson about the coming Stomach Rumbling Finals in Stuttgart, Germany.

If you never heard Wally Phillips' Show, you have my sincere condolences. He was an absolute genius. But he was renowned around Chicago for his big heart for kids. Even Bozo the Clown competed against him, to a point.

He also was the first to offer a $ 1 million prize. In his most famous and longest-running promotion, listeners were invited to guess what was inside "Wally's Black Box." No one ever did. The box turned out to contain a note bearing the name of Jean Rogers, a movie heroine Phillips admired.

Marking his 50th year in radio in 1997, Phillips was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Among his legacies at WGN was establishment of the Neediest Kids Fund, for which he raised more than $25 million.

Sources:

The Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Tribune, The WGN Radio Archives, and Northwest Indiana Vidette-Times. The Tribune site has video clips, and the WGN Archives have original clips of Wally's Show -- Bonus!

~~JD~~