Rick Minerd - Life Is A Jukebox

I received this photo in the mail from the daughter of former Central Ohio radio and television personality Bill Palmer, shown here interviewing another early TV pioneer, Virgina Graham.

Late last year I had a few e-conversations with Bill's Daughter Pam and she told me of her memories of growing up with a famous father, being able to hear him on the radio,  or see him  on television and knowing that while others around her saw him as someone special for his notoriety, she only thought of him as dad.

Even though she knew that he was someone special.

My understanding of Bill Palmer's life comes easy, having had the opportunity to have met some of his well known colleagues from the late 1950's and early 1960's who were familiar voices and faces around the Columbus media zone.

Television Guy's like, Bob Marvin (Flippo),  Spook Beckman, Jerry Razor, Earl Grene, Chuck Nuzum, Gene Fullen and countless radio personalities here.

Growing up in Columbus, as I'm sure was the case everywhere else during the era of early television programming I remember these people as being special.

Even a guy like car salesman Lex Mayer who became more famous hosting a weekly wrestling show than for selling new Bel-Air's, or used F-O-R-D's.  (He often portended to detest the FoMoCo.)

The guy refused to say the word Ford when trying to describe one for sale.

Those fortunate few who had job's sitting in front of television camera's entertaining housewives and kids during the morning and afternoon programming blocks were  bigger than life for all of us who didn't know the difference between the local celebrities and the big network guns.

Most of us didn't know,  nor would many of us have cared about the difference in their salaries from people such as Jack Paar or Arthur Godfrey.

They were stars and if we found ourselves lucky enough to be in their company, obtaining an autograph was as monumental as getting something signed by the internationally known celebs.

But to Pam,  Bill Palmer was just  "Dad."

No more special to her than my own Dad who was famous only at home, or within the brick boundaries of the Swifts Premium Packing Company was to me.

50 years after Bill's run through  local radio and television studios many of his fans and admirers are gone, and the rest of us  can only scrounge for old black and white photo's or Google his name and those of his colleagues and hope to find stories on the web about them to recharge our memories.

Like the photo above.

For me looking at it is like looking at the small black and white television screen that I stared at as a kid.

Especially seeing the simple set of the vintage studio from where Bill hosted his morning TV show, and the now archaic looking television camera zooming in on him and Ms. Graham. 

I still prefer the colorless visuals  of not only  TV,  but of movies and photographs that are the examples of what  I remember as quality over quantity and substance of character in the content of programming and entertainment.

Something as simple as this picture is more interesting to me than would be the most vivid,  lifelike color shot of someone like Jay Leno interviewing someone like Katie Couric.

Early radio and television photographs are now historic documentation not unlike  other historical photo's from earlier centuries.

As odd as that might sound consider the fact that there was no such thing as old photo's of the industry when my generation was seeing this stuff during the years of it's early existence.

These early "pioneers" probably didn't know they were pioneers, nor could they have imagined how much less impressive their work would seem to the generations  that would watch and listen to those who would follow in their footsteps.

Most of them couldn't read or learn from any history about broadcasting because there wasn't any, some of these people drew up the blue prints for what today's broadcasters are mandated to perform by.

As good at their craft as people like Jym Ganahl or Cabot Rea are, they probably won't be as fondly remembered fifty years after they sign off as those who first signed on doing virtually the same type of work.

The attarctive females who now grace the digital,  high definition color screens of today's local television programming won't be as warmly remembered as the plain Janes like Sally Flowers and the others who came before them.

Future blogs about what made this generations of "stars" special might be more difficult to find then this one.

Even the presiders over mega automotive dealerships like  Fred Ricart or the Germain brothers, with their millions of dollars spent on colorful and glitzy advertising won't have a spot in broadcast history like the crusty and often cynical personality of Lex Mayer.

I'd take one old black and white photo of Lex over the entire library of choreographed and rehearsed film showing those now hawking cars on the airwaves.

And I'm a Ford man.

Imjustrick@aol.com

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