Wave The Bloody Shirt
PG likes to listen to internet audio content while editing pictures. The idea is to listen to the talking voices, avoid interruptions, and create content. This works well, until PG hears something quotable. Today, it was Moby, on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast. @chamblee54 “I’m feeling just a little bit smug because I just found out what cis gender means” @thelittleidiot @BretEastonEllis
Bloggingheads.tv is notoriously bad for multitasking. It has a video image, with the risk of taking screen shots. BHTV also has a device that allows you to make samples, whenever you hear something interesting. The Glenn Show, episode 43716, lasted 2:46 before the quote buzzer went off.
The show featured Glenn Loury and John McWhorter. The two men, both professors at Ivy League Schools, are the “Black guys at Bloggingheads.” They tend to talk about race relations a lot, like the rest of America. Whoever said that people don’t like to talk about race is mistaken. Americans LOVE to talk about race, often at top volume. Exaggerated gestures, logical gymnastics, and redundant rhetoric are the order of the day. Whether anyone is listening is another matter.
The first saved comment was when Dr. McWhorter said that someone called someone a racist. It sounded the same as someone saying, fifty years ago, that someone was a communist. PG has written about this before, comparing anti racism to McCarthyism and homophobia. There was an unsigned comment… “Will you just put on your white sheet and come out already?” Good times.
A few minutes later, Dr. McWhorter mentioned that a taxi has never refused to pick him up. This compares to a comment made by Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Playboy interview. “I’ve never had a white person call me a nigger.”
The Glenn Show tends to downplay the effect of racism, and focus on issues like mass incarceration and black on black crime. There was a comment made about the soft bigotry of low expectations. Another remark decried people who wave the racism bloody shirt.
Many people disagree. You will not need to look far to find them. This tweet is another POV. @kat_blaque White people will make it a hobby to create stock accounts to tell me I look like a gorilla, but deadass deny racism exists. lol.
Another example is a video. A cashier at a Family Dollar saw three children dressed in “cultural garments.” The lady made the mistake of asking them if they were going trick or treating. The mother of the children went ballistic. “Racist bitch” is one of the milder things she said.
Right now, it is highly fashionable to say that Donald Trump is a racist. A good case could be made that he is. However, a lot of people are tired of being yelled at about race. Dr. Loury presents a scenario how this constant racism bashing may help Mr. Trump might get elected. Pictures today are screen shots of Dr. Loury and Dr. McWhorter, edited by chamblee54.
William McKinley
One hundred fifteen years ago, President William McKinley was near death. He had been shot September 6, 1901. Medicine at this time was primitive compared to today. During surgery after the shooting, the bullet was not removed. The University of Buffalo makes this comment: “Dr. Mann and the others were neither trained trauma surgeons nor did they bother with disinfection, not even wearing gloves. The first bullet had done little harm; the second entered McKinley’s abdomen. The physicians used improperly sanitized probes and when Mann could not find the bullet, he closed the incision without draining the wound. It was a fateful decision.”
After surgery, the President was taken to the home of John Milburn. He seemed to be recovering, but took a turn for the worse and died September 14, 2001.
President McKinley had been shaking hands at a reception. The meet and greet was at the Academy of Music, as part of the Pan American Expostion in Buffalo, New York. A letter to “The Nation” has this viewpoint. ” Whatever other results may flow from the assassination of President McKinley, let us hope that that object-lesson may be sufficient to put an end to our national habit of promiscuous handshaking in public. It is hard to conceive of a spectacle more fatuous and less edifying than that of a horde of country bumpkins, criminals, cranks, idlers, and curiosity-mongers standing in line waiting for a chance to grab and squeeze the hand of the unhappy Chief Executive of this country.”
There were anarchists in 1901, who had murdered several European leaders. Several of McKinley’s advisors did not think the reception was a good idea, and forced him to have extra security. A writer in the Buffalo Courier observed on September 5 “The surrounding of President McKinley by a body-guard of detectives when he appears in public, is probably as distasteful to himself as it is to abstract American sentiment, but as long as the earth is infested by malevolent cranks and unreasoning Anarchists, the precaution is entirely proper.”
A young man named Leon Czolgosz (pronounced CHOL gosh) managed to wait in line with a concealed weapon. He was seen to shoot President McKinley. He was immediately captured, and executed October 29, 1901.
Lew Rockwell speaks of a rivalry between John Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan. Rockefeller man McKinley was replaced by Morgan supporter Roosevelt, who promptly began to break up the trusts. Another historian, connected to Lyndon LaRouche , speaks of British interests, and the rise of Confederate power. McKinley was a target of media superstar William Randolph Hearst. An editorial printed in the April 10, 1901 Journal asserted that “If bad institutions and bad men can be got rid of only by killing, then the killing must be done.”
Some say that a murder one hundred fifteen years ago does not affect us today. However, an argument could be made that the death of McKinley set in motion events that led to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System, and American participation in World War I. Both of those events have had effects lasting until today.
It is curious how President McKinley is mostly forgotten today. Some say he was most popular President since Lincoln . McKinley had been a wartime President, who won. His successor, Teddy Roosevelt, is on Mount Rushmore, and is a superstar President. Mr. Roosevelt also ran as a third party candidate in 1912, and helped to elect Woodrow Wilson. (Mr. Wilson was alleged to be a member of the “Omega Group,”rumored to be behind a McKinley conspiracy.) Mr. Roosevelt’s popularity is very different from the other three Vice Presidents who were promoted by the murder of the President. He was good at dealing with the press.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Slam Poetry Judge
PG showed up at Java Monkey on sunday night. He knew there was going to be a slam competition. This means no open mike. Thinking that slam meant memorized, PG decided not to enter. (It doesn’t. Several poets read.) A few minutes later, the host asked for judges. PG recklessly raised his hand.
The format was simple. Twelve poets performed in the first round, eight in the second round, which narrows to six in round three. Poets have three minutes, and lose points if they go over. Judges rate poets from zero point zero, to ten point zero. From five judges, the top three scores are counted. People get points, based on their finish in the preliminary round. In a few months, people with the most points will participate in the finals.
The judges are given a small yellow pad, and a sharpie. At the end of each poem, the host calls for the scores. The lowest score is usually booed. Anyone sitting in front of a judge can see the score. It has the potential to get nasty, although that did not happen sunday.
Judging slam competition is different from listening to open mike. On a normal sunday, you listen to the people. (Unless you choose to wander around, and only show up for your performance. This is frowned upon.) Some you enjoy more than others. Some get cheers and applause, some get a polite golf clap. When you are judging, you have to assign a number, without much time to think.
The highest score PG gave was a nine point seven. This was in the second round. Nate Mask, a Java Monkey regular, gave a powerful piece about gun violence. It mentioned citizen on citizen killing, several mass killings, in addition to police killing citizens. This was the best poem of the evening. In the pictures, Mr. Mask is the man with a beard, and a hat.
The winner was Ryan. In the pictures, he is the young man in the long sleeve white shirt. In the first round, Ryan used the N-word. In the second and third rounds, he gave powerful performances about his family story. Ryan was a deserving winner of the September Second Sunday Slam.
At the end of the evening, PG was given a T shirt from the National Poetry Slam. A few weeks ago, PG pulled those shirts out of a box, and put them on a table during registration. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. .
Deplorables Of Basketball
Listing a link in this forum does not indicate approval of content ~ Black Family in San Antonio Stands Up to Racist White Couple at Chester’s Restaurant ~ Racist Trash Texas Couple Who Verbally Attacked Black Family I.D’d ~ Reverend forced to ban his own dog from pet service because she is ‘unchristian’ ~ poet therapy ~ Jiz Makes a CUMback ~ Is the National Anthem Racist? Beyond the Debate Over Colin Kaepernick ~ The History of Literature ~ RM5 Gar Discovers a Lost Recording of Walt Whitman! ~ You Know Those Common Objections to ‘They’ Pronouns? Here Are 9 Simple Facts to Shut Them Down ~ Report: 2016 Chicago murders climb over 500 after violent Labor Day weekend Among those killed was a retired pastor who was fatally shot outside a senior housing complex early Monday, the paper reports. Police took another resident of the home into custody, though no charges have been filed. Witnesses told CBS Chicago the shooter was another retired minister who conducted services at the complex and said the two often argued over religion. ~ Phyllis Schafly ps over my dead body ~ 10 Great Podcast Episodes from Summer 2016: Subliminal Cassette Tapes, Kansas Sweet Crude and More ~ Math is racist: How data is driving inequality ~ stop talking about racism ~ Who killed Ferguson activist Darren Seals? ~ The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale ~ Mandarin Monday: A Lesson in Chinese Internet Slang ~ What I Told My White Friend When He Asked For My Black Opinion On White Privilege ~ We think your favorite band is: The Band dances to the beat of its own fiddle, just like you. You love the old sound, the old music, and the old timey feel to some of the songs. The Band is unique and special and you are proud of the important part it played in music history. ~ Richmond, all I wanted was for you to say sorry. But instead you called me a liar. So, here are the receipts. ~ BLM activist: White people should be excluded from discussions on race ~ Racist Extremism Is Wrong, No Matter Its Color ~ The 7 stages of white people getting woke ~ White Nonsense Roundup ~ This Black Man is Fed Up with Respectability Memes Bashing Black Women ~ January 25, 1971 Martin TN New Jersey Reds 100 Harlem Globetrotters 99 ~ rape culture screed ~ political quiz ~ Clinton: Half of Trump’s supporters fit in ‘basket of deplorables’ ~ Why I am Skeptical of White Liberals in the Black Lives Matter Movement ~ Should I harass this woman on the Internet: A complete guide ~ Hillary Clinton’s ‘Basket Of Deplorables,’ In Full Context Of This Ugly Campaign ~ Three protesters arrested after violent incident at Starbucks ~ Yes, All White People Raised in America are Racist. ~ Hillary Clinton’s health just became a real issue in the presidential campaign ~ 30-year-old man shot, killed outside business ~ Lester “Roy” Jones ~ Antonio Perkins ~ Drive by Shooting In Chicago ~ 2 men recovering after gas station shooting ~ Pie aren’t square. Cornbread is square. ~ If “Emily Doe” had been smoking pot exclusively, and had not been using legal alcohol, it is unlikely she would have passed out behind a dumpster. ~ Technically, only isn’t the adjective before the noun an adjective? The other modifiers are adverbs. ~ Yahweh come back now ~ Join The Movement, the newsletter that tackles the justice issues that matter to you most. ~ We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. More info ~ @WernerTwertzog Radicals, of all kinds, can be recognized by their difficulties with punctuation. #Twertzog ~ From an Amazon review of “A Choice Not An Echo” “Phyllis Schafly is sort of an Ann Coulter without the wit, humor, accuracy, intelligence, and engaging personality. This book might be of value if you have a table with a short leg that needs shoring up.” ~ The spell check suggestion for Schafly is Scholarly. ~ Chamblee54 curates a compendium of the best of #Twertzog. the international opportunity to tweet like @WernerTwertzog It is illustrated with disfigured dogs from the beach, the park, and the river. ~ Maybe, instead of making up your mind, you should mind your make up. ~ I heard she was a demon in the sheets… just ask the klan! ~ @KingDSeals #BlackLivesMatter people did to Ferguson what white people did to mother Africa, come in steal all our resources then leave us for dead..smh ~ lets call DJT racist for criticizing citizens of multi racial/mixed race country, or religion with every race known to man ~ The article had 1869 words. 33 of them were “they”. ~ just once, i would like to see follow up on a celebrities promise of charitable donations i don’t have wherewithal to do this ~ Maybe you understand G-d, and believe in science ~ *We* can quit screaming racism at every opportunity. There are many other things you can say about DJT. ~ One thing the public could do is quit taking the bait whenever *the media* has a scandal to distract us. So what if a second string quarterback does not stand for the national anthem? The second thing Facebook Nation can do is stop publishing memes full of logical fallacies. (To the many aggressively vocal non football fans commenting on this matter….Colin Big Hair is not a good enough player to start the game at quarterback. The fact that he kept the Falcons out of the Super Bowl four years ago is irrelevant.) ~ I have long had a problem with the expression “radical faerie.” Isn’t being a faerie a radical act. ~ Maybe this is why we want Iran to be an outlaw state. ~ The quart is the Liter Ally. ~ If you don’t have anything good to say about anyone, come sit with me. ~ I always get something I would not mind having leftovers of. ~ pull the string, or pull a finger? ~ the lady said to Adlai Stevenson “you have the support of all thinking people” “yes, but I need a majority to win” ~ “I’m a fucking human being” That is not an appropriate use of the F word. The author should use another adjective to show that they really, really mean it. ~ And called it macaroni ~ Share is not a good word for that building. ~ The above questions were selected because they give a broad sample of the most divisive issues being discussed this year in politics. We continue to add new issues on a weekly basis. ~ #BasketOfDeplorables name calling fellow citizens every one a child of g-d to promote election of bottle brunet crook over carrot top ~ This aversion to stating facts about assholes supporting Hillary is an ongoing problem ~ You might consider voting in the local and state races, and forgetting bottle brunet vs carrot top. I don’ t know where you are registered, and how much action there will be. The US senate race, and the various congressional races, are looking pretty one sided. The state legislature, and any county elections, might be the only chance to express yourself. ~ The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic ~ @nihilist_arbys Today, fly your hunger into Arbys for meal deals so hot they could melt steel beams. Enjoy Arbys. ~ are you an eggistentialist? ~ #basketofdeplorables first they came for the racists / and I did nothing because it’s all good / then they came for the sexists / and I did nothing because I support a woman’s right to choose / then they came for the homophobes / and I did nothing because i am secure in my sexuality / then they came for the xenophobes / and I did nothing because I love Xena the warrior princess / then they came for the islamophobes / and I did nothing because jesus loves me / then they came for me / there was no one left to help me ~ pictures are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Nine Eleven Story
This is my 911 story. I repeat it every year at this time. If you saw it last year, it has not changed. Feel free to skip the text and look at the pictures, from The Library of Congress.
I was at work, and someone called out that someone had run a plane into the World Trade Center. I didn’t think much of it, until I heard that the second tower had been hit, then the Pentagon, then the towers collapsed, then a plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
I focused on my job most of the day. There was always drama at that facility, and concentrating on my production duties helped to keep me saner. This was roughly the halfway point of my seven year tenure at this place.
One of the other workers was a bully for Jesus. He was a hateful loudmouth. After the extent of the damage became known, he shouted “They are doing this for Allah,” and prayed at his desk. The spectacle of the BFJ praying made me want to puke.
I became alienated from Jesus during these years. Once, I had once been tolerant of Christians and Jesus, as one would be with an eccentric relative. I began to loath the entire affair. I hear of others who found comfort in religion during this difficult time. That option simply was not available for me.
Radio Free Europe
While researching a post about Molly Ivins, PG stumbled onto a lovely site called Booknotes. This site enables authors promoting their latest books. It seems to have gone out of business in December 2004, but the interviews are still available. PG likes to listen to “stuff” while he edits pictures, and Booknotes appears to be a treasure chest.
The multi tasking soundtrack last night was a chat with Hendrik Hertzberg, who is familiar to readers of The New Yorker. BTW, the majority of TNY readers live west of the Hudson River. Supposedly, the biggest number of readers is in California.
In 1965, Mr. Hertzberg was about to get drafted. At the time, this meant a one way ticket to Vietnam. Young men looked for alternatives to this, some of which were legal and moral. Mr. Hertzberg heard about an organization called the National Student Association. “And so I went to work after college for the National Student Association for a year. And it wasn`t just because the National Student Association was a wonderful cause that advanced liberal ideas and fought communism abroad and all of that sort of thing. Later, we learned that it was a CIA front, but I didn`t know that. What I did know was that if you worked for the National Student Association, you didn`t get drafted, that — it wasn`t exactly that you were deferred, but anyway, nobody got drafted while working for the National Student Association, so it was a way to have a year without worrying about getting drafted.”
The National Student Association has a facebook page, which one person likes. “The 1967 revelation of NSA’s ties to the Central Intelligence Agency sparked a national scandal, but did not measurably damage NSA.”
The CIA was involved in all sorts of things in those days. ( It still is today.) One of the fronts was Radio Free Europe. When PG was a kid, the cartoon shows had a commercial for Radio Free Europe. (It was different from the one embedded here.) These fund raising commercials were part of the scam. These commercials netted around $50k a year, towards a multi-million dollar budget. (source)
Soon after the war stories, the conversation turns to religion/tribal allegiance. LAMB: Explain this. “The Nuremberg laws would say I`m Jewish. The Law of Return would say I`m not.” HERTZBERG: Well, according to the Nuremberg laws, if you have a — if you had a Jewish father, the Nazi classification, you were a Jew. But the Law of Return, where — what entitles you to citizenship, automatic citizenship in Israel, you`ve got to have to have a Jewish mother. So I`m Jewish one way, I`m not Jewish the other way. I guess I feel sort of 51 percent Jewish because my name, Hertzberg, sounds Jewish, and therefore, people respond to me, often assume that I`m … 100 percent Jewish.”
This conversation was in 2004, when BHO was a little known Senator. Today, BHO, who had a white mother, is routinely considered black. If you go by the laws of the Nazis, BHO is black. If you go by the laws of Israel, BHO is white.
Mr. Hertzberg took a break from journalism to write speeches for President Jimmy Carter. Mr. Hertzberg is a member of the Judson Wellover Society. HERTZBERG: Judson Wellover was the very first White House speech writer. Not the first person to write speeches, ghost write speeches for a president — that would probably be Alexander Hamilton for George Washington — but the first person who was ever hired just to write speeches in the White House was Judson Wellover. He was hired by Warren G. Harding, and he — it was such a matter — it was such a shameful thing to have somebody writing — hired to write speeches that they hid his salary in the budget of the White House garage. And when we started, when Bill Safire and I started the Judson — the society of sort of a marching and chatter society or dinner — we have a dinner every couple of years of White House speech writers from all administrations, we named it after Judson Wellover.
Warren Harding is credited/blamed for coining the phrase “founding fathers”. Was Mr. Wellover involved? This is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress.
Hillary Clinton Not An …
There was a video conversation posted Feb 4, 2016. The participants were Robert Wright, and Heather Hurlburt. The topic of conversation was spirituality, and life in Washington DC.
At the 27:14 mark, the conversation turned to people who work in government. Mr. Wright quoted a longtime Washington observer. He had never met a national elected official who was not an asshole. Ms. Hurlburt then named three politicians, with the phrase “not an asshole” after his name.
After a pause, Ms. Hurlburt said “Hillary Clinton. not an asshole …. I worked for her, and she is, in person, to individual people, a deeply good human being.” PG thought this was the best endorsement of Mrs. Clinton yet. He made a clip of the comment, and posted it in various venues.
After posting the quote, PG decided to go back and hear a bit of the context. The first three men to be labelled non-assholes were Chris Murphy, Mo Udall, and Tim Kaine. This was in February, five months before Senator Kaine was nominated to be Vice President.
In October 1992, there was a campaign rally in Woodruff Park. Al Gore, Tipper Gore, and Hillary Clinton were all there. Tipper Gore said that, in person, Hillary Clinton was just as warm and friendly (not an exact quote) in private, as she was in public. PG started to go back to the office, when he saw the President of the firm. “I guess we are both playing hookey.”
Pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Clickbaitery
Today’s adventure in clickbaitery began with a headline, Math is racist: How data is driving inequality. It seems to be a rule that you get the r-word into every title, whether it is justified or not. The story promotes a book, Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. “A former Wall Street quant sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life — and threaten to rip apart our social fabric.”
The thesis of the book is that big data is running amok. “Denied a job because of a personality test? Too bad — the algorithm said you wouldn’t be a good fit. Charged a higher rate for a loan? Well, people in your zip code tend to be riskier borrowers. Received a harsher prison sentence? Here’s the thing: Your friends and family have criminal records too, so you’re likely to be a repeat offender.”
Is this racist? Maybe, and maybe not. Are records secretly coded with with an indication of the persons race? (With the Health Insurance Marketplace, this information is explicitly on the application.) Or, is race just a divide and conquer tactic? While America has a hissy fit about a second string quarterback sitting down, big data is making life tougher for the ninety nine percent.
“O’Neil calls on modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. But in the end, it’s up to us to become more savvy about the models that govern our lives. This important book empowers us to ask the tough questions, uncover the truth, and demand change.” This sounds good on talk shows, but ultimately big data is going to continue doing what they do. With the Donald and Hillary show going full bore, there will be plenty of distraction.
The one star reviews at Amazon make their points. Aaron C. Brown skewers the book. His review is well written, but too long to quote here. “This book tackles an important subject on which the author had a lot of knowledge and expertise, and interesting incisive opinions. Unfortunately it is marred by appalling journalistic lapses, bad enough to taint not just author, but publisher as well. Crown Publishing Group should have done a little fact and reference checking.”
The other one star folks have the zesty quotes. “She claims to be a mathematician; she’s certainly not a logician.” ~ “Author clearly wasn’t payng attention is math class. The logic used in the book is contradictory at best, nonsensical at worst and racist all throughout.” ~ “Expected a nice educational read, got a book written by a SJW with an ax to grind.”
PG saw another race based article yesterday, It’s time to stop talking about racism with white people. It was written by Atlanta resident Zack Linly. Out of 1869 words, they appears 28 times, or 33 if you include they’re. (There is used 4 times, and their is used 12 times.)
The fifth sentence of this paragraph has two, of the three, homophones. “I understand that white people are mad. They’ve gone their whole lives being the default for social and cultural normalcy and never really had to think critically about race at all. Now a black first lady addresses the nation, and she talks about slavery. Now social media identifies and challenges their micro-aggressions. They’re getting the tint snatched off of their rose-colored glasses; that “Shining City on the Hill” they know as America is starting to lose some of its gloss. And they ain’t here for that — but we are.
The full article is available at the link. Here are a few more quotes.
“When Rachel Dolezal got her counterfeit black card snatched, we struck comedy gold for black meme-makers all over the web. The “Ask Rachel” hashtag was born, and scrolling through your Black Twitter feed became something like running a marathon, only the people on the sidelines were handing out little paper cups filled with white tears instead of regular drinking water.”
“When Beyoncé released the video for “Formation,” featuring a black kid in a hoodie, a “hands up, don’t shoot” banner and a sinking police car — then performed the song while paying homage to the Black Panther Party smack in the face of white America during the Super Bowl halftime show — she provided us with a bottomless open bar of white tears.”
“The fact is, we can fight systemic racism without white validation. We can continue shutting down bridges and highways every time there’s a new Alton Sterling, Philando Castile or Korryn Gaines in the news and let white folks complain about the intrusion on their lives.” (The names of citizens killed by other citizens are not said.)
As this feature is written, there are 3280 comments. scotpowell 6:29 AM EST “I bet this guy is fun at parties…..” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Tubby Boots
PG found Classic Television Showbiz while reserarching a recent feature about the late Sherwood Schwartz. The site is a treasure, with youtubes of classic tv shows, and interviews with “entertainers”. Somewhere in the sidebar was a link to a story about Tubby Boots.
Charles “Tubby” Boots was born around 1926 in Baltimore MD. He was a nightclub comedian. Mr. Boots weighed 375 pounds, had bleach blond hair, and often performed without a shirt. He wore pasties on his boobs, and would twirl them simultaneously in opposite directions.
The parts in blue are borrowed from Classic television showbiz. Tubby’s parents were a vaudevillian dance team called Boots and Barton. At the age of seven this youngster was clocking in at an astounding two hundred pounds, a constant target of ridicule in his Baltimore schoolyard….During his childhood, Tubby managed to witness a performance by comedy’s greatest cult icon, Lord Buckley … Tubby Boots recalled shortly before his death, “[Lord Buckley] was like a father figure to me. I met Buckley when I was seven years old when I was working at the Hippodrome in Baltimore, Maryland, and I was in awe of him. I saw his act every time he would come back to play the theater … I would sit in the theater all day and watch the shows. I’d stay out of school for the whole week – my mother would pack me a lunch – she knew what I was doing because I wanted to learn about show business. Buckley would do his hat-switching act. Every other show he would get me to do it with him. I’d hang out with him backstage, we’d go out for lunch or dinner, he’d sneak me back into the theater and I’d watch the whole stage show again. I started working nightclubs when I was eleven. I weighed 250 pounds and passed myself off as twenty-one. I got arrested in a strip joint and the police said: ‘We’re not going to throw you in jail but you’re not going to work in this town again – you’re too notorious.’ So they actually put me on a train and said ‘Where you wanna ticket to?’ I said, ‘New York.’ I didn’t run away – I was forced to leave. So when I got to New York I called Buckley and, pretending to sob, said, ‘My mama died in a car crash…my father was with her…’ Unbeknownst to me, he called my mother and told her, ‘He’s with me.’ So he got me a job at The Three Deuces, passing me off as twenty-one.” The Three Deuces was one of Manhattan’s major jazz holes in the thirties and forties, regularly featuring Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Lord Buckley was connected to the jazz world for most of his career, performing in their clubs and utilizing a great deal of the Black hipster vernacular in his act.”
Mr. Boots got a job as the emcee for burlesque shows, frequently in traveling carnival shows. He was doing well, when Lord Buckley called him from Hollywood. Supposedly, there was a movie job waiting for Mr. Boots. When he got to California, he found out otherwise. “Tubby became affectionately known as Princess Lily. “He used to call me Princess Lily but Prince Charles of Booth was my title. Buckley used to say: ‘Lil! You had the misfortune to be born with the beautiful body of a woman in the ridiculous body of a man!””
In 1959, Mr. Boots was in a bizarre accident. He was taking a bath, and the controls for the hot and cold water were in another room. Lord Buckley was handling these controls, and poured scalding hot water into the tub. Mr. Boots was stuck in the tub, and was badly burned. He spent a week in the hospital, and was not friends with Lord Buckley later.
After he recovered, Mr. Boots moved to Miami Beach. He performed in motel lounges for many years, and developed a following. Comedy albums were becoming popular, and Mr. Boots contributed “Thin my be in but fats where its at”. The albums were sold at his shows. The legend is that no copies exist that were not autographed.
The various search engines are sketchy about Tubby Boots. The Lady Bunny tells about going to see Mr. Boots in a supper club on Long Island in the eighties. Reportedly Mr. Boots did well during the comedy club explosion of the eighties.
PG saw a show by Tubby Boots. It was December 1974, at a dingy Atlanta bar called The Cove. PG was hanging out with someone we will call McClain, who liked the drag shows at The Cove. The bar was a former electronics warehouse, with a sign for Ballantines Beer by the front entrance. Ballantines had not been sold in Georgia for a long time, but the sign stayed. This was on Monroe Drive, behind Piedmont Park. Tubby Boots was a friend of somebody, and did a show at The Cove one night.
If you can stand to look at the embedded video, you get an idea about his show. Forty years later, PG can remember a few of the jokes. There was a one liner about an *African American* who took a shit, and thought he was melting. There was a routine based on the role Katherine Hepburn played in “Suddenly Last Summer”. My boy is not queeyer, he’s carnivorous. After a while, the shirt came off, and he twirled pasties from his boobs in different directions.
After the show, PG talked to a black friend, who did not want to meet the comedian. Meanwhile, Tubby Boots and McClain were making out. Before long, McClain came over to PG, and said he wanted to go somewhere else. McClain died in July, 1992. Tubby Boots died in August, 1993. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
leave a comment