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Foster Brooks

I actually found out about his radio past when he appeared on my show on KB once. A very nice man who remembered his days in Buffalo fondly.
The last time I saw him was about 5 years before his death in 2001. He was headlining the Palm Springs Follies (where all performers, including the chorus "girls",have to be at least 60 years old). But he was so feeble by that point that he had to be led onto the stage, where he sat on a stool and read his act off of 3x5 cards.

Sadly, there are many program directors who would have approved of that method of performance.
 
My 1 cent (it was 2 cents before inflation & taxation)

A classic showman. A local "made good". A true entertainer (much like Lucy)...that had a bar raised higher than today's standards.
Few knew he hailed from the New York territory....shame.
I don't know what the post originated from...but it doesn't matter...nice!!!

HDBG
 
Rochester also was home to Foster Brooks for years, and a second home to him even in his later days. He was a personality on WROC-TV (then on channel 5 and an NBC affiliate) for a number of years in the 50s and early 60s before heading west to try his hand at comedy. Part of his work around 1960-61 involved not only hosting talk shows for grownup audiences and providing news features for the evening newscasts, but also emceeing the afternoon children's cartoons featuring classic Popeye shorts. He'd wear what looked like a tugboat captain's costume and tell stories in between cartoons, including one-liners that would go over most kids' heads but make Mom and Dad chuckle. (I was a faithful viewer.)

He made a lot of friends in the area, and kept a summer home south of town to which he returned every year even after he made it big in Vegas and LA.
 
Foster Brooks was inducted into the first Bflo. B'casters Hall of Fame, held at the Calumet.
About 30 or 40 folks were expected to attend, around 150 showed, so the place was jammed.

He was not able to attend due to physical problems. So he had his daughter sit him on the living room couch and point a video camera at him.

At one point he told a story that went something like this:

I remember Buffalo well. As a matter of fact my favorite Man On The Street
interview happened in Buffalo. It was during the war and I asked a woman what her fondest wish was.
She replied "I want to wake up tomorrow morning and find my husband standing at the foot of the bed with his discharge in his hand".

The place went wild! He still had it.
 
"At one point (Foster Brooks) told a story that went something like this:
I remember Buffalo well. As a matter of fact my favorite Man On The Street
interview happened in Buffalo. It was during the war and I asked a woman what her fondest wish was.
She replied "I want to wake up tomorrow morning and find my husband standing at the foot of the bed with his discharge in his hand".

The place went wild! He still had it."

That, or a recreation of it, made one of Kermit Schaefer's Blooper records, although the way it was edited you couldn't tell the source. Now, as Paul Harvey used to say, you know the REST of the story...
;D
 
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