Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I caught the tail end of that period, Glenn. I remember the old two-drink lunch from the older guys! It was very Hollywood, working in the TV & Movie industry. I never thought anything unusual about it. I was often teased for my "soft-drinks."

Well, Mike, the first job out of school I had was in an office with a guy who used to have a few (or more I suppose) at lunch and then come back and terrorize the office staff (I never witnessed this but have no doubt it happened because he was a infamous for it.) I do remember as a kid when my friends were telling me that soon cigarette commercials would be taken off the tube. Funny how long ads for them survived in print. And the Joe Camel thing was funny, too. People said Joe was evil because he was really selling kids on smoking but somehow that doesn't seem much worse to me than selling adults on smoking. What's more, I'm not sure if a single kid smoked because he thought the Camel ads were good.

Glenn, wasn't Tom Selleck Joe Camel? I know he was the figure for one of the cigarette campaigns.

"the first job out of school I had was in an office with a guy who used to have a few (or more I suppose) at lunch and then come back and terrorize the office staff" -- This is on of the faces that alcohol paints on you. In this case it's not the nice-guy party-guy. Its the ugly-one!

Only the great Mickey Mantle could do a cigarette ad and a stop smoking ad at the same time!

As for sports stars you don't have to go back too far to remember Jim Leyland, manager for the Pirates and Rockies, smoking in the dugout.

There was a time in my youth when, during the local 11 p.m. news (then only 15 minutes long), the anchorman poured a glass of beer into a tall glass while extolling its virtues to the viewer -- on the news set. He wasn't permitted to drink it, but he sure did hawk it. Ah, the Fifties ....

Those are some pretty prime examples. When I was a kid in Chicago, Harry Carey (before his days with the Cubs) would annouce White Sox games and be hammered by the 7th, when he'd do a live on camera ad/announcement for Falstaff. I can't help thinking George, the second time he went broke (with Handmade Films) didn't up the smoking when the bank accounts were drained.

Brain, funny -- I don't think Mantle was even a real smoker -- but I guarantee you that he wanted the money they paid him!

Glenn, Carey's drinking was fabled, and boy, he got real sloppy. I believe his demise with the White Sox was over having an affair with the owners wife!

Wow, that would have been Bill Veeck's wife? I do seem to recall that Harry was fired in the mid 70s, when he was seemingly very popular and the excuses seemed weak for it, and then I think he was reinstated. When he went to the Cubs I no longer lived in IL but after his hard drinking and from the hip broadcasts I thought it was a poor fit.

He was fired a few times in the 70's. He was a broadcaster for the Oakland A's briefly during that time frame.

I just checked online and found out that Carey had an affair with August Busch's wife while with the Cardinals, not the White Sox. I think thats what got him over to the Cubs, or maybe to the A's. That would have been banishment. Good one, Brian! I forgot he was with Oakland for a blink.

Happy Easter, everyone!

He went from the Cards to the White Sox, was fired by the Sox in 76 or so but there was an outrage so I think he was hired back (because I'm pretty sure he was calling the infamous Disco Demolition night at Comiskey in '79, the double header that never happened) and had sidekick Jimmy Piersal (who was fired for calling the Sox's wife "whores" on a call in radio show...but yes, he and Harry are generally considered the broadcast sports team of the century) and then he went to the Cubs in the early 80s.

Didn't Anthony Perkins play Jimmy Piersal? I love when actors who have no athletic ability are hired to play famous athletes. Tony Perkins couldn't slug his way out of a paper bag but their he was playing one of the best centerfielders. I guess that's why they call it acting.

Anyway here is more on Caray.

"Caray made his debut in 1945 with the Cardinals, but was fired in 1969 amid rumors of a personal relationship that caused problems with the Busch family, who owned both the Cardinals and the Anheuser-Busch breweries. Caray was well known to his Cardinal radio audience for drinking and advertising a competitive brand of beer before the Busch family acquisition of the team. Caray attributed his firing to a business-related grudge. After a season with the Athletics, Caray broadcast for the White Sox from 1971 to 1981, and then for the Cubs from 1982 to 1997."

Threadjackers!!!

bloody pirates.

Probably, when George heard about Harry, he smoked even more ... (attempt to get thread back on track)

>>Didn't Anthony Perkins play Jimmy Piersal?<<

Indeed. Fear Strikes Out. During telecasts for the White Sox, Harry supposedly used to say to Jimmy "you're nuts," to which Jimmy replied "and I have the papers to prove it." As for the acting, one of my brothers used to comment on that, saying "Perkins threw like a girl." I don't know if Harry smoked but he lived a lot longer than George. I think he had to give up the drink, though, after he had a stroke. He may have even had to cut back to get the Cubs gig as a hard-drinking sportscaster went hand in hand with the Sox image but the Cubs were pretty whitebread by comparison. By the way, there is a DVD out of the whole disco demolition fiasco, which went down on live TV. That was very rock 'n roll. So I guess Harry and George did have something in common.