Squibs 503-505 [by Alan Ziegler]

503: Remembering Murray the K 

1960s and 70s Radio disc jockey, real name Murray Kaufman; dubbed the fifth Beatle by either George, Ringo, or himself; played love songs for couples in cars watching the submarine races (for a long time I didn't get the joke); profiled by Tom Wolfe ("the first big hysterical disc jockey"); called his show The Swinging Soiree; don't mess with his ubiquitous straw hat (one man tried, once); invented the eponymous language Meusurray (which is Murray in Meusurray); bowled with the Ronettes;

presided over all-star rock shows at the Brooklyn Fox Theater;

and signed a random press release:

504: So much depends on a key and Bisquick

Two downtrodden friends on the 104 bus. “They got me a place. I'm on my way to pick up my key.” Key: a half-ounce melding of the metaphorical and the literal. I worry the keys in my pocket like amulets, conjuring long-forgotten doors. "After I get my key come over and I'll make my biscuits. Get me Bisquick. None of that Jiffy. You gotta get me Bisquick."  Now I'm on Nantucket, sun setting, the key to my rental bike somewhere in the sand, no place to stay, running to catch the last ferry. Backdoor opens: "Get me Bisquick!"

505:

The greatest advertisement for color TV was black-and-white TV. 

Comments

[David Lehman]

Wonderful post, Alan. Murray the K, as you bring the name to life, returns me to a whole area of nostalgic consciousness -- the gab of disc jockeys, the pop songs that preceded the Beatles ("Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Johnny Angel"), and other such stuff that was in my mind, too. Me-You-Zarry is how I imagined it pronounced. Do you rememebr Bob Morrow or Bill Mazer, the articulate radio talk show host who was a human encyclopedia of sports?

[Alan Ziegler]

David, The DJ floodgates are open. Do you mean Bruce Morrow aka Cousin Brucie? At 87, he's still doing a Saturday night show on WABC (last I looked). In the late 60s WNEW FM became the haven for new personas of the likes of Scott Muni (I remember him explicating the lyrics to the Beatles' "She's Leaving Home"--"'She's leaving home after living alone.' See, she was 'living alone' even though she was home"); and John Zacharle (formerly a TV ghoul host known simply as Zacharley). And there was Alison Steele aka "The Night Bird"; and Rosko who threw in some poetry and went off on monologues (I remember one that ended with something like "Not all letters that are written need to be sent." And of course Bill Mazer on Channel 5--nightly and "Sports Extra" on Sunday. There was a local sports guy (can't recall the name) who, reporting on a boxing match said, "He beat him to a pulp. Then he beat up the pulp."

[David Lehman]

How I could have messed up the first name of Cousin Brucie is beyond me. Thanks for the memory; I do remember Scott Muni, not to mention Herb Oscar Anderson and Dan Ingram, whose favorite song of the year was, he announced dramatically, "Stranger on the Shore" (Acker Bilk) because "it's sentimental, and I'm a sentimental guy." I have warm memories of Howard Cosell, whom it's fashionable to dislike, but his voice had a lot of drama in it that I found irresistible.

[Alan Ziegler]

Howard Cosell’s radio flagship was "Speaking of Sports" but he went beyond sports, adding “Speaking of Everything” to his lineup. To this day, part of Cosell’s legacy is that "Saturday Night Live" concludes every cold open with “Live from New York it’s Saturday Nighght!” (thank you, Aram Saroyan) because when the show debuted it’s official name was indeed "Saturday Night"; "Saturday Night Live" was taken by Cosell’s short-lived variety show. He had such a distinctive persona, as embodied by Eugene Levy is this classic SCTV sketch: https://youtu.be/10WDGYBJYwE