Hi! What? Oh, you want more Petula Clark? Sure! We love Petula Clark.
But … but you want WHAT? Pet singing her 1961 song “Sailor (Your Home Is The Sea)”? A video of her singing it? In FRENCH?? AND her original English single, too? Sheesh, you’re asking a lot, you know that?
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/JAN07/Sailor.flv 320 240]
OK! All right! Here. Anything to make you happy.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/JAN07/Sailor.mp3]The mystery girl from the previous post is the lovely and talented Petula Clark! The movie clip with Pet at age 12 is from “I Know Where I’m Going!” Having been well-known in England and France for many years, Petula was 32 when she hit it big in America in 1965.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/JAN07/Downtown.flv 400 300]
The audio player has the studio recording of “Downtown” and, from 1968, Petula’s superb tear-jerker, “Kiss Me Goodbye.”
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/JAN07/Downtown.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/JAN07/KissMeGoodbye.mp3]
The Morty Gunty Show, WOR-TV, Channel 9, NYC
Source: TV Party.com
New York TV had a lot of great kid shows. My favorite hosts were Soupy Sales, Chuck McCann and Morty Gunty. Sandy Becker was also great, and who could forget Sonny Fox’s show, Wonderama?
For some reason I particularly enjoyed watching Morty Gunty, who came on the air when I was only 8 years old. Gunty clowned around like Sales and McCann, but in a different way. I agree with the opinion on the TV Party.com link that Gunty didn’t seem to want to be a TV kid show host. And I guess maybe I liked that.
Towards the end of 1964 Morty offered free, autographed pictures of himself. Wow! Without delay I wrote a letter to the station, asking for my free autographed photo of Morty Gunty. And a week or two later it came!
The photo was on the front of an oversized postcard. That was fine with me. It was printed in blue ink, and that was all right, too. But the autograph was obviously only part of the printing process, and that wasn’t all right. I had expected Morty would sign his photo personally!
So I wrote back, expressing my disappointment. Keep in mind that I was all of 9 years old. I don’t remember exactly what I wrote, but I’m pretty sure I was nice about it. I was a huge Morty Gunty fan, and I was desperate for his autograph, so being nice about it was the only way to be.
Some weeks later, on a Friday, at the end of his show, Morty sat in front of the TV camera, looking rather quiet and somber. He said he wanted to read a letter he had received. It took only a few moments to realize it was my letter! I sat stunned, listening to my own words being read out loud by my idol, right on TV!
Then I sprang into action and ran to the stairs to call for my twin sister Jean to come downstairs. I remember yelling for her to hurry. When I got back to the TV I knew immediately that it was a bad idea to have left the set, because Morty had already finished reading my letter, and I had missed some of what he said. I don’t know if he gave my name over the air.
The gist of what I caught was Morty Gunty explaining that my letter had caused some trouble, and that day’s show would be his last. And it was. The Morty Gunty Show was gone forever from New York TV.
I don’t know where the postcard is. I’m pretty sure I kept it and didn’t return it with the letter, but I can’t find it amongst any of my childhood keepsakes.
After a few years, as I began to grow up, I wondered what had happened. Had I really been the cause of Morty Gunty losing his show, and being fired from WOR-TV? Then, after our family moved to Massachusetts, Morty confirmed that yes indeed, it had been my fault.
The story concludes in Part 4.
If you must know, in the month of December this Web site was viewed from 1,963 different addresses, with about 35,000 total hits. Excluding my own, of course.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/JAN07/IKnowWhereImGoing.flv 400 300]
Who’s the hilarious and charmingly lovely little British miss in glasses?
Here is — no way! — what is absolutely the most influential song of the 1980’s. Taken, like totally, from vinyl, fer sure.
I heard reverberations of it today, while waiting for my physical therapy session and listening to the receptionists talking.
Somebody give that girl a cell phone!
Edit: I’ve remastered this sucker. It needed a bass boost, so it’s like up by 12 dB at 150 Hz, I’m sure.
