Okay, it’s Wednesday night, and we’re taking requests…
Our first one comes from Domino the Cleric, who wonders where in Hades I dug up the history of a bad, live country music show that featured local yokels (some good, some not so) and was only seen in Maine and eastern Canada.
“OK here’s a challenge, find a link to an Eddy Driscol [sp?] career retrospective and filmography. Does anyone remember Dialing for Dollars?”
Ask, and ye shall receive.
First up, let’s start with an on-line auction for the Red Ball spacesuit Eddie wore in the 1950’s Supper-Time Super Show (the winning bid was $300).
Then, there’s this autographed poster advertising The Great Money Movie!
How about Duncan MacMaster’s article Where Did All the ‘B’ Movies Go?, wherein he discusses TGMM and laments its loss.
Or check out the History of Nova Scotia, 2001 January 3 (scroll down a bit).
I’m still lookin’ for more…(now that it’s not Wednesday night anymore)…
OK, kewl links. The poster link has a tid bit of info that explains one question I always had about Eddie Driscoll. How in the heck did a guy get away with acting out such bizarre characters on a little back water TV station in conservative 60’s-70’s Maine? Well he was “part owner and founder of WLBZ”. Ah-HA, that explains it, he owned the STATION. Somewhere else I read that Stephen King toasted Eddie at his retirement party and said that Eddie’s weird antics helped warp his own child hood (which is saying a lot). I think that watching Eddie Driscoll prepared me for later watching the Monty Python TV show. By the late 70’s seeing men dressed as women for laughs was old hat, thanks to Eddie. I also remember his trademark “wo-who” cheer.
I especially like the “History of Nova Scotia” article. There are a few quotes in there that are kinda scary: “Driscoll was an on-air personality with WLBZ-TV in Bangor, Maine, and an unwitting influence on millions of Canadians. While the world was under the spell of Hollywood, Atlantic Canada was taking its cultural cues from Bangor”
…?!?…
“…cultural cues from Bangor…”
..?!?…
Wow, that just sends shivers up my spine.
The article also woke up a couple other memories, “One ringy-dingy. Two ringy-dingies”. I’m still cracking up thinking about him doing that shtick on “Dialing for Dollars”.
The article also loosened a couple more memory cells about Stacey’s CJ: “The host would also use the show to promote his motel and fuel mart, which featured full service. “See these hands? These hands smell like gas,”. Ya, I remember that. But I can’t remember where his staion was? Anybody??
I also liked this quote “Saturday Night Live was trying to invent characters like this, these were real people, but they were characters who couldn’t be manufactured.” Pretty much sums it up.
Good job Solonor!
very cool stuff, indeed. BTW, Domino, the gas station was across the street from the motel (“hotel-motellll tiiiiimmme…Welllll, it’s forty below and I don’t give a …..” opps, sorry, wrong motel) on the corner of Wilson Street and Parway South. It’s now a Cumberland Farms mini mart.
Funny, they didn’t mention “Weird”. It seems to me that that must have been where Mr.King received his warpedness (sp?) as far as Eddie Driscoll goes…
Also quite funny is the thought that untold Canadians were culturally affected in some way by Eddie Driscoll. I fully expect it must have been some sort of subversive tactic, designed to try and assimilate those unsuspecting denizens north of the border…. gak. Did I just say that? 🙂
I tried looking for references to ‘Weird’ (I remember when they brought it back for a short time in the 70’s), but the word is too common.
Ah yes, I remember. It was a cute charming little country store looking place, right? It was in front of the…um…I’m trying to remember the name, that place that you guys played once. We kept getting like CB and airport chatter over the monitors because the building was a big old metal barn. Kinda like that scene in Spinal Tap. Anyway, I remember Stacy’s store, but I can’t remember that biker bar…?
The Show Ring!!
AH-HA, YES! The Show Ring!
I remember Dick Stacey’s Country Jamboree!!! “See these hands….They Stink!!!!”
Ayuh. He was attacking that newfangled “self-service” by telling everyone his full service attendants were the ones that were supposed to smell like gas, not the customer.
And don’t forget…”We take Canadian money at par.”