After receiving Larry’s recent e-mail about his dad and the TV in the dark rumor, I responded to him thusly:
Your double life as underground lamp promoter has been exposed. You will have to answer the masses now, pal. hope you’re ready for the inevitable backlash from people who hate lamps but who bought them anyway to protect their eyes at nighttime.
Larry fires back, after the jump.
Very funny Mr. -er- Goodtimes (is that Dutch?)
My Dad was a pretty amazing man. He wrote poems that were published in Liberty and Post. He wrote radio plays and several books. He also was an accomplished artist (I have several of his paintings in my home). He was President of the Catholic Historical Society and the campaign manager for Howard Stassen. He also has written two history books.
But it was his work as President of his own advertising and public relations firms that brought him the most notoriety. He not only came up with the lamp story, he also came up with the concept and original artwork for the Norelco Santa on the sled at Christmas time. And he was part of a team that came up with the Chiquita Banana
song which propogated the lie that you should never put bananas in the refrigerator (actually although the skin turns brown, they keep better). They were looking for a word that rhymed with equator.
But the biggest PR prank is the ghosts at the General Wayne Inn. He wrote the story that the ghost of a Hessian soldier was found in the basement as a way of getting some PR. The next thing you know, some ghost finders came out to the restaurant and reported finding 13 ghosts.
My father was then on an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” talking about the ghosts. The story lives on to this day.
I am a touch disappointed that the ghosts at the General Wayne Inn are just a hoax. The GWI is right down the street from my ex-girlfriend’s mom’s house, and I often hoped that the ghosts would take a trip down the street and scare my ex while she was visiting her mom. Damnit!