Rick Minerd - Life Is A Jukebox

Spook Beckman, like Wes Hopkins was in a league by himself.  Where Wes was best known by the teens and young adults of the 1960's and '70s, Spooky was known by generations of radio listeners.  

I first got the opportunity to work with him  in the mid '70s when Spook was in the middle of his radio comeback after being away from the business for awhile.  It was at  WRFD.

The station had a format of mostly Adult Contemporary music but the Spook was given free reign to play what he wanted.  Mostly standards and Big Band music.

Disco  music was just getting it's foot in the door elsewhere and Spook had his own ideas about doing a live  "Disco"  show with a live audience. He worked out a deal with a Grove City bar inside what was then Howard Johnsons- called  "The Post Time Lounge"  to appear on Friday and Saturday nights with what he billed as "Spook Beckman's Disco Daddy Show."

He had a specially made pajama-type outfit that spelled that out across the back, and for me, his music guy, a T-shirt with the same logo.  (my job was to play the records while Spook mingled with the crowd telling night-club jokes and  sharing drinks with them.)

People coming to the show hoping to hear Disco tunes were serenaded by Al Martino, Buddy Rich and Patti Page records. Spook hated Disco music. But it was his brand of the genre and his loyal fans never complained. They were there to see Spook Beckman.

They would've come if there wasn't any music.

There was this one "gal" named Ginger who used to call Spook several times  a day at the station and pester him.  "She" was absolutely in love with him. She offered him the moon and back again. A sultry voice that had us all fooled. As a matter of fact Spook who was very devoted to his wife Marilyn would say, "AHH Ricky, if I wasn't a married man."

Bill Stewart, one of the funniest radio personalities I've ever worked with voiced a little jealousy about this caller. Bill seemed to know more about her than the rest of us. I always believed that he was behind  Gingers obsession with Spook. He was probably the only one on the staff that "knew"  Ginger was a man. Or was she?

One night Ginger made good on her promise to show up at "The Post Time."

Spook Beckman was a large man, Ginger was bigger. Hair like Dolly Parton that may very well have been her own, a chest bigger than Dolly's,  that might also have been her very own, and make-up that would make Tammy Faye envious.

Someone had passed me a note up on stage that she was sitting alone at a corner table and drinking entirely too many cocktails. And Spook, who could also consume more alcohol at these shows than most men half his age had no idea she was there.

It was a  feature of the program that audience members would request something special and Spook would do his best to dance with them. When I read Gingers note I announced that we had a special request from the lady in the corner and when Spook looked over at her he whispered to me, "There is no way."

I reminded him that it would be impolite not to dance with her since it was part of his act. He looked again and whispered,  "I ain't that damn drunk." When I told him that it was Ginger he nearly fell off the stage laughing. And being the showman he was he met her on the dance floor and did one of those no-touching dances. It resembled something like the twist.

At the end of the night Spook kept me going in and out of the parking lot to make sure she wasn't out there waiting for him. He was afraid to leave. He had had more than a few drinks and he kept asking, "That was a man wasn't it?"

No one knew for sure.  Except maybe Bill Stewart.   

                                        A young Spook Beckman Ca. 1952  

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