"How Is Everybody Doing?"
Mom came out of her long nap tonight. I'd just finished a ritual begun shortly after the GLBTQ workshop of playing a couple episodes of Tht Jack Benny Program She really seems to respond to them. Tonight, she opened her eyes at several points during the evening, despite an interuption while the PA hooked up her feeding tube for the night. I'd put the dvd on "pause" while the PA did her work. I don't want Mom to associate me with the PAs.
After the PA left and play resumed it was only a monent later before someone wheeled Maria, her roommate, into the room. I usually begin packing up my things at that point, but when I asked th PA if she wanted me to go, "No.", she answered cheerily.
So, we finished the episode; I even moved the player from its usual perch on the tray table against the wall, balancing it on my lap as the PA pushed the table out of the way. It was the episode where Jack visits the singer, Johnny Ray in order to sign him to the cheapest contract imaginable. In the interim there's a song and dance routine with "Rochester" and Don Wilson, Jack's announcer.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0933311/
You don't see too many announcer's these days. I guess Don Pardo from "The Price Is Right" was the last of the great announcers. Back in the day, however, there were Harry Von Zell, George Feniman, Jack Lescoulie http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0503921/. A decade later talk shows would produce Ed McMahon, Arthur Treacher (an ex-character actor who settled in for a second career sitting at Merv Griffin's side for many years) and a little known Los Angeles television host named Regis Philbin who came to national attention as the late Joey Bishop's couch sidekick in a short-lived challenge to the Carson Show.
Announcers could just introduce products during commercial breaks (like McMahon and Lescoulie) or they could become integral parts of the storyline like Von Zell and Wilson.
In any event, after Rochester and Mr. Wilson do their song and dance number (an ode to Lucky Strike cigarettes), the scene opens on Johnny Rays house in Beverly Hills. What follows is some of Benny's - usually known for his economy of movement
- most physical comedy turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQvTbY_aUPQ
Meanwhile, Maria who now is almost completely wheelchair bound, required the assiatance of not one but two PAs to lift her from the chair into bed. When the second one came in he bumped into the foot of Mom's bed. That roused Mom from her semi-slumber and she started calling for Big Brother. I calmed her quickly with a stroke of my fingers against her hand, but wht followed really made the ahir on the back of my neck stand up. She looked me diectly in the eye (she's had late stage glaucoma for years) and in a perfectly calm voice proceeded to ask me, "How is everybody?"
Mom: How is Jimmy, Nanny, Junius and [unintelligible]
Me: Fine. Everybody's fine.
Mom: How is everybody doing?
Me: I'm about the worse one.
After that she seemed to settle back in her pillow and close her eyes.
After the PA left and play resumed it was only a monent later before someone wheeled Maria, her roommate, into the room. I usually begin packing up my things at that point, but when I asked th PA if she wanted me to go, "No.", she answered cheerily.
So, we finished the episode; I even moved the player from its usual perch on the tray table against the wall, balancing it on my lap as the PA pushed the table out of the way. It was the episode where Jack visits the singer, Johnny Ray in order to sign him to the cheapest contract imaginable. In the interim there's a song and dance routine with "Rochester" and Don Wilson, Jack's announcer.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0933311/
You don't see too many announcer's these days. I guess Don Pardo from "The Price Is Right" was the last of the great announcers. Back in the day, however, there were Harry Von Zell, George Feniman, Jack Lescoulie http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0503921/. A decade later talk shows would produce Ed McMahon, Arthur Treacher (an ex-character actor who settled in for a second career sitting at Merv Griffin's side for many years) and a little known Los Angeles television host named Regis Philbin who came to national attention as the late Joey Bishop's couch sidekick in a short-lived challenge to the Carson Show.
Announcers could just introduce products during commercial breaks (like McMahon and Lescoulie) or they could become integral parts of the storyline like Von Zell and Wilson.
In any event, after Rochester and Mr. Wilson do their song and dance number (an ode to Lucky Strike cigarettes), the scene opens on Johnny Rays house in Beverly Hills. What follows is some of Benny's - usually known for his economy of movement
- most physical comedy turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQvTbY_aUPQ
Meanwhile, Maria who now is almost completely wheelchair bound, required the assiatance of not one but two PAs to lift her from the chair into bed. When the second one came in he bumped into the foot of Mom's bed. That roused Mom from her semi-slumber and she started calling for Big Brother. I calmed her quickly with a stroke of my fingers against her hand, but wht followed really made the ahir on the back of my neck stand up. She looked me diectly in the eye (she's had late stage glaucoma for years) and in a perfectly calm voice proceeded to ask me, "How is everybody?"
Mom: How is Jimmy, Nanny, Junius and [unintelligible]
Me: Fine. Everybody's fine.
Mom: How is everybody doing?
Me: I'm about the worse one.
After that she seemed to settle back in her pillow and close her eyes.