I know that Life is not all peaches and cream, but when I look back on my childhood comic characters I get a real feeling of happiness. A feeling absent all the bad stuff that may have been happening then in the news (the bouncing ball murderer), or in the home (new step-father because father died). I received a Harvey Comics book as a prize and I love it! Little Huey, Richie Rich, Litle Dot and Casper flying through the air. Free and easy. Fantasy. I still want Life to be like a Fantasy. The way it seemed to be in the 50s and 60s. The way it was when, sometimes, I would come home from school and mom would have the windows open with the curtains blowing in the breeze while she washed dishes and listened to opera. When I was taught to not use God’s name in vain and to always cross myself when I passed a church. To be respectful.
Today our society seems to want to embrace and show its anger. So much so that we now have to censor ourselves on social media. A loss of freedom. The thing is our world actions have led to watching what we say, even if what we say is simply a line from a TV program. I am not free to comment on social media without first making sure my words are not invoking some kind of violence. I posted on Facebook a line from a Twilight Zone TV episode with Telly Savalas. “My name is Tina and I am going to **** you.” The title of the episode is Living Doll. Facebook admonished me for posting incendiary language. They did not suspend me but they might next time. Our need to be angry is skewing our freedom. I do not blame one man for not pointing out the bad apples and deleting them, because there are so many unhappy people out there. Once I posted a comment and someone replied to me that they hoped someone would try to drown me and no one was there to save me. I was so astonished I replied “No you don’t! You don’t even know me! What would your mother think if she heard you say that!? People today no longer care what their mother would say. So now I have to censor myself on Facebook. In the Twilight Zone episode the doll did not like Telly Savalas so she warned him of her plan for him.
I know that Norman Lear chose to make TV sitcoms that brought laughter into peoples lives. He knew about the rough times and wanted to introduce some fun into our evenings. Hence, shows like Maude. This sitcom did include dark humor, controversy and drama, it was also quite funny at times. Bea Arthur had a magnificent handle on comedy. She said on an interview that the fact that she had work on her own show made her feel like a “middle-aged Cinderella.” Awwww, that’s nice.
Good Times, executive produced by Lear, was definitely about living with laughter and positivity even though life certainly came with problems. Weeping Wanda, played by Helen Martin was always good for a laugh and don’t forget Johnny Brown as Buffalo Butt. I loved this show. It was funny and sometimes, carefree. I was a single mother with an 8 year old daughter, I needed a TV sitcom or two in the evenings. Even the Twilight Zone episodes sometimes made me laugh. After all, who ever heard of a talking doll? Too bad when Telly fell down the stairs, though, wasn’t it? LMAO
May this be a year that tempers our anger, relieves our anxieties and allows us to feel free and easy.
I am sending out Love vibes to all. Thanks, for stopping by.
H
These days it is so difficult to write inspirational, motivating posts. Posts that bring smiles and laughter. Posts that are entertaining. The political climate sucks so bad right now it is impossible to ignore. I chose to watch an ad placed by President Trump recently. How disheartening. A Reuters headline read: “Sickening’: New anti-immigrant Trump campaign ad stokes outrage”. And it was sickening. And truly sad, to me. Sad and un-Presidential. Low. An article in the Politico talks about President Trump never being shy about branding female political enemies with “personal and demeaning” insults. How is this presidential? How can he even allow himself to communicate on such a level. He sits on the highest seat in the land, for Heavens sake. And I guess that is the point. He’s the President. He can pretty much do what he wants. Thank goodness he backtracked on that “consider it a rifle” statement about rocks being thrown by migrants towards U. S. military. The newspapers (Politico) printed that he has since said “I didn’t say shoot”.
“The Brooks–Sumner Affair, occurred on May 22, 1856, in the United States Senate when Representative Preston Brooks (D-SC) used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA), an abolitionist, in retaliation for a speech given by Sumner two days earlier in which he fiercely criticized slaveholders, including a relative of Brooks. Brooks beat Sumner severely on the head using a thick gutta-percha cane with a gold head. Brooks didn’t stop when his cane snapped; he continued thrashing Sumner with the piece which held the gold head. Brooks later boasted “[The pieces of my cane] are begged for as sacred relics.” Apparently, his constituents sent him hundreds of new canes. – “Caning of Charles Sumner”; Wikipedia”
My question is “didn’t Black people ever watch old time radio?” I have begun to realize the magnitude of commercialism and how it played into Blacks being ignored in this world in the early 1900s. While researching African-Americans and their relationship to Old Time Radio I did a Google search for “Old Time Radios”. The search engine game me dozens of images of families sitting around the radio listening to a program. Some actually were looking at the radio as if it was a television. However, none of these families were Black. I am trying to wrap my head around the idea that despite all the African-Americans in America at the time, there was little representation in the radio industry. According to J. Fred MacDonald “the industry in its so-called Golden Age offered only limited opportunities for black men and women to develop.” Even though there was a huge need for personnel.
Of course, there were Blacks working in radio as janitors, or electrical assistants and even an announcer or two. They had to come in the “other” door, though. And there were Blacks performing on the radio, such as my father, Eddie Green, who became Rudy Vallee’s protege’ or Eddie “Rochester” Anderson from the Jack Benny program. My father was evidently so funny that Rudy Vallee would feature Eddie over and over. Then there were shows that were hugely popular with everybody (maybe not the NAACP), such as, Amos n Andy. People everywhere literally stopped what they were doing to listen to this program. Eddie was the lawyer, Stonewall in this program. There must have been some Blacks sitting in front of their radios, or if they did not have one a person could stand in front of their local storefront and listen to the broadcasts. Yes, I am beginning to really see how segregation kept Black people “out of the picture”, except in some rare instances. I mean we were THERE.
Today, If you look up Old Time Radio (OTR), not the Beyonce’ concert, you will get a lot of information about all the White radio suspense, cowboy, comedy and horror shows.
pininthetush 