🗬 One weekend doing the news shift at WVUE-TV in 1971 we got a call from somebody doing their homework (this being pre-Google by many years) who wanted to know how many square feet there were in Tulane Stadium. The answer we came up with was none – not since the Saints traded Tom Dempsey.
🗬 Ruthy the duck lady
🗬 Lilyan Wilder
🗬 Ant-knee awards (Anthony)
🗬 Kid Sheik music lessons – When I was a television reporter in New Orleans I got word of George “Kid Sheik” Cola giving free music lessons to a Brit. He told me it was true, “cause young kids those days were all rock and roll, looking for the big chart topper”. But John ( I don’t remember his surname) from Birmingham was different. He came to New Orleans to learn from Kid Sheik and eventually played with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at their French Quarter location. I remember filming the Kid, with his gnarly hands working the valves, translating it to the nimble fingers of John.
🗬 Had tennis lessons from “Hit it where they ain’t” Nehemiah Atkinson
🗬 Once the Pope of the journalistic world, CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite criticized local TV anchormen saying they couldn’t even write a story to the 42nd paragraph, referring to their flimsiness at looking in-depth at news stories.
On one occasion I had to go to New York to attend an audience with Cronkite where he said nice things about me and my co-anchor, Dave Layman, and the CBS affiliate I worked for. Promos they’re called. While waiting for the technical staff to be sorted out, I, being ironic, asked why he’d been willing to say good things about me, a local TV anchorman, because he didn’t know I could write a story to the 42nd paragraph. He leaned towards me and in a stage whisper said “That’s the way the game’s played, son“.
🗬 Back in August 1969, I was part of a trio of reporters (Ross Yockey and Bob Kreiger, the other two) working on a cover story for New Orleans Magazine on Mayor Vic Schiro – “The Sayings of Chairman Vic, Master of the Malaprop” I think was the cover title.
It came about as us collecting every bit of the Mayor’s wisdom on film or audio as proof, like him saying on TV during Hurricane Betsy: “Don’t believe any false rumors, unless they come from me,” Alec Gifford was holding the mike in front of Mayor Vic Schiro and Alec asked him about various reports of flooding in the city.
“Don’t believe any false rumors unless you hear them from me,” Schiro said. “Followed him to his grave,” Mr. Gifford said many years later.
That was just one. During a dinner, he said from the head table: “Just look at the lovely Mrs McKeithen. Every wrinkle in her face is glowing.”
From the mundane: “That’s the way the cookie bounces.”
To the abstract: “They say that cleanliness is next to Godliness – maybe that’s why it gets so hot in New Orleans.”
As I remember, we had convinced him to pose for a cover shot cutting a ribbon, as he was famous for.
I recall the then owner of New Orleans Magazine, Joe David, had a three story mansion on Bourbon Street. He would invite a half a dozen writers to dinner, ply us a with wine and food, and extract story ideas out of us for the next six months.
George Bacon was the editor. But I don’t remember Angela Shelly who I later worked with in television.
06/24/1971 Louisiana / Rock Festival Evening News ABC 05:22:20 pm 01:50
11/29/1972 New Orleans Fire Evening NewsABC 05:22:00 pm 02:30
07/16/1971 Railroad Strike Evening News ABC 05:22:30 pm 01:50
01/11/1972 Baton Rouge Riot Evening News ABC 05:06:10 pm 02:00
04/18/1973 Floods / Mississippi River Evening News ABC 05:16:50 pm 02:00
10/27/1971 Cuban Sugar Reps. / Louisiana Evening News ABC 05:24:20 pm 01:50
11/16/1972 Southern University Protest Deaths Evening News ABC 05:01:00 pm 02:00
07/22/1971 Wbad / FCCEvening News ABC 05:22:50 pm 02:30
07/23/1971 New Orleans, Louisiana / Motel Fire Evening News ABC 05:20:50 pm 01:30
01/10/1972 Baton Rouge Riot Evening News ABC 05:23:40 pm 01:40
09/03/1973 Labor Day Weather Evening News ABC 05:00:50 pm 02:30
03/09/1970 Environment / Pesticides / Oil Fire Evening News ABC 00:14:30 am 01:50
06/21/1971 McCrea, Louisiana / Rock Festival Evening News ABC 05:22:40 pm 02:10
03/20/1969 Plane Crashes / Louisiana / Egypt Evening News ABC 00:17:40 am 01:20
11/19/1970 Louisiana / Racial Violence Evening News ABC 00:02:20 am 02:10
09/21/1971 Prison Riot Evening News ABC 05:14:50 pm 01:50
01/04/1973 Boggs Funeral Evening News ABC 05:23:20 pm 02:10
07/1977 New Orleans Shooting Incident Evening News ABC 05:34:40 pm 01:50