What's In a Name? (4CE reprint Feb. 2013)

4ce Feb 2013   stolf's oldies

What's In a Name?

I was startled to read in a local newspaper's birth announcements that a boy had been born in Massena in early December and given the first name "Lucifer." I will not mention further details, out of curtesy…but certainly not out of any sense of privacy, since it was right there in the newspaper! But suffice to say, "Lucifer" is Latin, meaning "bringer of light," referring to the planet Venus, the Morning Star. Believe it or not, this name was not always associated with Satan…indeed, it is used only once in the Bible, taunting a fallen Babylonian King. 

What's more, as I understand it, only the King James Version uses this L-word…other versions say morning star, daystar, or other phrases. If you're interested, check Isaiah chapter 14. There is even a St. Lucifer, a bishop of Sardinia, and his church exists to this day in the city of Cagliari. Other Lucifers? There's an asteroid named Lucifer, discovered in 1964…and in Disney's "Cinderella," Lucifer is the Wicked Stepmother's dastardly cat.

Then there's the "Lil Abner" comic strip, where Pappy Yokum's full name is Lucifer Ornamental Yokum. Typical of Al Capp's "wicked" sense of humor, no? Mammy Yokum's real name is Pansy Hunks…and Daisy Mae's maiden name was Scragg…not to be confused with Wilma Flintstone who was a Slaghoople...or 

Morticia Addams, born a Frump.

Blondie Bumstead's maiden name was Boopadoop…sounds pretty ridiculous today, but it wasn't back in 1933 when she was a flapper, and married the son of railroad magnate J. Boiling Bumstead…ouch! On "The Honeymooners," Trixie Norton's maiden name is unknown, but her real first name is Thelma…yup, same as that of a relatively recent First Lady, Pat Nixon. If you were thinking of Lady Bird Johnson, her first name was Claudia. On "The Dick Van Dyke Show," Moshe/Maurice "Buddy" Sorrell's wife Pickles was born Fiona Conway…and like Trixie Norton, she was an ex-show girl. 

Now see if any of these names ring a bell: Jonas Grumby, Roy Hinkley, Thurston Howell the 3rd, and Eunice Wentworth. If I had given that last one's married name as Lovey Howell, and included Ginger Grant and Mary Ann Summers, you probably would have known you were on Gilligan's Island. The first 3 were the Skipper, the Professor, and the Millionaire. The show's creator Sherwood Schwartz said he always thought of Gilligan as a "Willie," but that name never made it onto the show, so it isn't "official."

Likewise, Peter Falk's Lt. Columbo never had a first name…while Jack Klugman's Quincy sort of did…in one episode, we see his business card and it reads "R. Quincy." Rudolph? Roderick? Rembrandt? Nobody knows. 

But speaking of "ringing a bell"…or "striking a familiar note"…the Ruby Begonia catch-phrase from "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in" was originally from the radio version of "Amos and Andy." And in the park bench sketches, Ante Johnson's dirty old man is named Tyrone F. Horneigh (pronounced horn-eye) while Ruth Buzzi is Gladys Ormphby. 

One great source of controversy is whether Barbara Felton's Agent 99 character on "Get Smart" had an actual name. Now over the course of 5 seasons, she used many aliases while on assignment. In the 3rd season episode "99 Loses Control," she accepts a marriage proposal from a wealthy suitor…who turns out to be a KAOS agent, naturally…and tells him her name is Susan Hilton. I remember watching this and thinking: Aha, so that's it! Trouble is, at the end, Max calls her "Susan" and she says: "It's 99, Max. Susan isn't my real name."

What makes "Susan Hilton" different from her other false names…and why many fans still argue in favor of it…is that Max really believes that's her name, and is miffed that she told someone else but not him. Now I know what you're thinking…what about the scene in the Season 4 episode where they get married…"Do you, so-and-so, take…" Conveniently, when her name is spoken, one of the guests coughs! And in fact, creator and writer Buck Henry said there was a running battle about whether her real name should be revealed…and he won, as it never was. 

Of course, on the subject of seldom mentioned "real names," you have to take things with a smidgeon of sodium chloride…because sometimes there are inconsistencies…like Mary Tyler Moore's maiden as Laura Petrie. It was originally Meeker, which was her married name at the time. When she divorced Dick Meeker, Laura's maiden name switched to Meehan…so it's a trivia question with 2 different answers. At least we know her best friend and neighbor was born Mildred Krumbermacher.

But sometimes names are remembered and persist over time. In the same Sunday paper where I read about little Lucifer, there was a Beetle Bailey comic strip where we see his younger brother Chigger. The strip started in 1950 and I daresay Chigger has been seen or mentioned only a handful of times over the past 60-plus years. To go along with "Beetle," a chigger is a mite.

Then we have "clegg," another name for the horse-fly. And it's appropriate to mention it since this February marks the 49th anniversary of the Beatles first appearance on Ed Sullivan. But what's that have to do with Capt. Clegg, a fictional pirate in a series of books written in the early 20th century by Russell Thorndyke?

It goes back to 18th century England, where Christopher Syn is a student of divinity at Queens College, Oxford. His Spanish-born wife runs off to sea with his best friend…yikes!…and Syn takes off after them, eventually becoming a feared pirate, using the name Capt. Clegg. After a close call with the King's Navy, he decides to settle down as Vicar at Dymchurch-under-the-wall, in Kent, along the coast of the English Chanel…and in his spare time, leads a band of public-spirited smugglers as the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh.

This 3-part show was watched by many of us Baby Boomers on Walt Disney…thus we missed the Beatles, altho we sure did hear about them the next day! And if all of this Capt. Clegg business doesn't sound familiar, it's because Disney left all of it out of his version. In the original novels…plus the George Arliss 1936 movie "Dr. Syn," and the 1962 Hammer film "Night Creatures," with Christopher Lee as "Parson Blyss"...Capt. Clegg is a dark, ruthless character.

For example, when a large Cuban mulatto betrays him, Clegg has his tongue cut out and maroons him on an island…only to be recused by a British naval officer who's hot on the trail of Clegg, and who doesn't believe he's really buried at Dymchurch as a headstone there claims. Eventually, the mulatto recognizes Dr. Syn as Clegg and complications ensue…including Syn's death at the end, and his burial in Clegg's previously empty grave. A little strong for Disney, who toned it down and changed it around considerably. 

Another odd thing is that in the introductions to the 3 parts of the Scarecrow series, Walt Disney talks as if Dr. Syn were a real person. Yes, there were smugglers at that time, but they didn't play the benevolent Robin Hood role by any means…and yes, the area still holds Dr. Syn festivals, but that's because of the books and movies, not any historical figure. Welcome to Fantasyland…"Take the King's gold, share it among you!"…and rock on! 

Quickies... (4CE reprint Jan. 2013)

4ce jan 2013   stolf's oldies

Quickies...

Remember "quickies" from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In? Got some this month, a potpourri of strange and wondrous sidelights on Baby Boomer pop culture…

>>>  The Doors' bass-player…If you loved their records, and especially if you were forming your own rock group, you may have noticed that their lineup wasn't traditional: nobody played bass guitar. Keyboard player Ray Manzarek doubled up…playing an organ with his right hand, and the bass line with his left, using a small keyboard instrument from Fender called a Rhodes piano bass. It had 19 white keys and 13 black, covering 2 and a half octaves. And apart from Jim Morrison, these guys were stellar musicians…for example, "Light My Fire" started out as a folk song, and was converted into what was almost a bosa nova beat…why?…because musically they thought it sounded cool…and right they were.

>>>  Mad magazine…originally, in 1952, it was a comic book called "Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad." The stories were parodies of other comics, movies, and TV shows…stuff like "Superduperman," "Little Orphan Melvin," and "Howdy Doodit." In 1955, after 23 comic book issues, it was converted to the magazine format we all know and love. And it's still around, now published 6 times a year, just as it was originally, before going monthly in 1954…except now it costs $5.99…cheap!

>>>  Donkey Kong…why "donkey"? What's that got to do with a gorilla? In 1981, Nintendo was trying to license the Popeye characters for a video game. When that deal fell through, they assigned Shigeru Miyamoto the task of coming up with original characters. Donkey Kong was his version of Bluto…and he believed that "donkey" in English meant "stupid," so that Donkey Kong would be seen as "the stupid ape." Wrong…but delightfully so, and the goofy name stuck…even to the extent of becoming a breakfast cereal, remember?

>>>  Why are there 2 teams in the minor league American Hockey League with the same nickname…the Norfolk Admirals and the Milwaukee Admirals? Norfolk came first, at least as an AHL member, as an expansion team in 2000. The Milwaukee team dates from 1970, first as an amateur team, then a member of the U.S. Hockey League. They joined the International Hockey League in 1977, then the American Hockey League when the IHL folded in 2001. And it was simply decided that, given each team had a legitimate claim to the nickname, neither would have to change.

>>>  Another example of double nicknames would be the Canadian Football League with the Ottawa Rough Riders (which folded in 1996)…the "Eastern Riders"…and the Saskatchewan Roughriders or "Western Riders." The reason is: before a merger in 1958, the Eastern and Western divisions of the CFL were actually 2 separate leagues, that didn't play each other except for the Grey Cup. Also, the Hamilton Tiger-cats resulted from a merger of 2 older teams, the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. 

>>>  Salem, Massachusetts…the town where I was born…was the 8th most populous city in the US in 1790, with close to 8,000 people. Bear in mind, #1 New York City had just 33 thousand…and #3 Boston a mere 18 thousand.  (Who was #2? If you said Philadelphia, you get the gold star.) Salem didn't fall out of the top 10 until the 1830 census. And not for  nothing, but in 1950, Ogdensburg had more people than Anaheim, California…16,166 versus 14,556. In the next decade of course, Anaheim's population would grow to over 100,000…thank you, Mr. Disney.

 >>>  And one thing that makes all Salemites wince is when they hear that witches were burned there. Burning was a medieval form of execution in Europe. Instead, 19 accused "witches," women and men both, were hung during the Witchcraft Hysteria in 1692. And one man died while being tortured, crushed by heavy stones…"pressed to death" as they recorded at the time. 

>>>  One of my favorite movie bloopers….in the Dirty Harry movie "Sudden Impact," Clint Eastwood has a pet bulldog. In some scenes it is clearly a male, in others, a female. A bulldog doesn't have a lot of hair, you see. If it had been a long-haired dog, well...oh, never mind…why am I explaining this to you? Sheesh.

>>>  1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9…10!…That psychedelic number counting animation on the early episodes of "Sesame Street" was voiced by none other than Grace Slick, lead singer of the Jefferson Airplane.

>>>  But did you know that Slick wasn't the group's original singer of the group? That was Signe Anderson. She was with them for a year, and sang on their first LP "The Jefferson Airplane Arrives" from 1966. She left the group to have a baby, and was replaced by Grace Slick, from the group the Great Society. "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" were songs the Great Society performed, and of course became hits when recorded by the Jefferson Airplane. 

>>>  Likewise Blood, Sweat and Tears…Al Kooper was the lead singer on their first LP, subsequently replaced by British-born Canadian David Clayton-Thomas. On their Greatest Hits collection, you can hear Kooper singing on "I Can't Quit Her." Alex Chilton of the Boxtops and Steven Stills were considered as replacements before Judy Collins recommended Clayton-Thomas. And the whole idea of a jazz-rock group with a prominent horn section? It came from their admiration of the Buckinghams' pop sound…just jazzier. 

>>>  Turkey and Russia…geography buffs recognize these as the 2 countries that are part of both Europe and Asia…but what country is in both Europe and Africa? That would be Spain. It claims as its sovereign territory 2 ports on the northern coast of Morocco…Ceuta and Melilla. They are not considered colonies, but an integral part of the Spanish state….and have been since the 1500s, long before Morocco gained independence from France. Morocco doesn't see it that way, but there you go. Such geographical oddities are known as "enclaves" and there are a lot more of them around the world than you'd think…um, which country am I in again?

>>>  Come to think of it…while it's not quite the same thing, there are 3 localities in the US that you cannot get to by land without first passing through Canada…they are "internationally discontiguous" as you might say. Can you find them? Rainy day fun for the whole family. 

>>>  Who is Ponsonby Britt? Watch an episode of "Rocky and Bullwinkle," "Hoppity Hooper," or "George of the Jungle," and you'll see his name in the credits as Executive Producer. Except there was no such person…it was just an inside joke by Jay Ward and his crew.

>>>  Who or what is Bibendum…nicknamed Bib? He is the tubular Michelin man, mascot of the tire company since 1894. His name comes from a quote from the ancient Roman poet Horace: "Nunc est bibendum"…meaning "Now is the time to drink." It refers to the Michelin tire's ability to perform in rainy weather, "drinking" the water from the road. 

>>>  Buddy Ebsen was Walt Disney's original choice to play Davy Crockett…until he saw Fess Parker, and Buddy was denoted to second banana George Russell. And Buddy was also slated to be the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz"…replaced by Ray Bolger when he was found to be allergic to the aluminum makeup. Back in Kansas, the Scarecrow was a farm-hand named Hunk…and oddly enough Ebsen would eventually play a Hunk…Hunking "Hunk" Marriner, sidekick on the 1958 TV series "Northwest Passage"…it had been Walter Brennan in the movie. BTW, Hunking is a British surname. Till next time, rocking on!