Pay it Forward - Part 1 Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime

If you're short on truth, you wind up with tall tales Chicago Sun-Times, February 24,2006

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Everybody loves somebody sometime

Words & Music by Irving Taylor & Ken Lane
Recorded by Dean Martin, 1964 (#1)

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This man is frank and earnest with women.
In Fresno, he's Frank and in Chicago he's Ernest.

Take my wife, please!

Henny Youngman

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"On Tuesday, January 17, the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce and Community Bank of Elmhurst hosted the State of the City Address given by Elmhurst Mayor Thomas D. Marcucci. In his usual style of frankness and honesty, mixed with humor and analogy . . . "(Elmhurst Independent)"

Marcucci kicked off with a story that he said came to mind just then, just as he was getting ready to do his speech, inspired by Chamber of Commerce President John Quigley's totally spontaneous off-the-dais ad-lib mention of Henny Youngman. How's that for quick thinking and extemporaneous speaking while maintaining a "frank and honest style?"

But the mayor didn't just have a story, he had a theme, too! The story, along a "pay-it-forward" theme went something like this:

Chicago Archdiocese Cardinal Cody was rumoured to plan a vistit to a Marucci family member's Columbus Hospital bedside but never showed up. No reasons were offered for the snub, yet one must wonder if the Cardinal of the Archdiocese of Chicago might have gotten bogged down ministering to his own substantial flock. Perhaps a well placed call to the Archdiocese of Joliet, the Marcucci family's home diocese, might have rousted a more dependable spiritual luminary, but then again hindsight is twenty-twenty.

As the father and son Marcucci grappled with their disappointment over the no-show Cardinal, a heretofore anonymous man sharing the hospital's family lounge offered to help turn their frowns upside down.

Dee Longfellow, writing for the Elmhurst Independent tells it this way: "When Marcucci's father repeated the sad tale, the man asked if he could cheer her (the hospitalized family member) up. They accepted the man's offer, not knowing he was none other than the legendary Henny Youngman."

Now perhaps you're wondering, "Why would anyone agree to let a complete stranger "cheer up" hospitalized relative? Just be grateful that you have never been given the cold shoulder by a Catholic Cardinal. Perhaps the moral of this story is that while God sometimes fails to deliver one demi-celebrity visitor to the bedside, He can just as easily produce a legend anytime anywhere -- just like that (fingers snap in the background).

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No doubt those legendary celebrity types can be so unassuming when they are not in the spotlight. Would you have recognized Dean Martin if you had met him in a Chicago hospital lounge much less some Jewish guy that looks like Henny Youngman with a violin case in tow?

Yet it does seem odd that no one in the family, not even anyone in the hospital, would have recognized the very popular and well known comedian during the era this "story" is purported to have unfolded.

Youngman made numerous appearances on television, including a long-running stint on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In (1968 - 1973). In 1955 he was host of a TV series titled The Henny and Rocky Show, appearing with champion boxer Rocky Graziano. He had a larger role in Herschell Gordon Lewis's The Gore-Gore Girls (1972), a fact he denied vehemently. He made a few recordings, most notably The Primitive Side of Henny Youngman, recorded in St. Louis and released in l959 on the NRC label. Wikipedia

After the family accepted this kind stranger's offer, the legendary Henny Youngman's true identity was revealed as he proceeded to perform 90 minutes of straight comedy right off the top of his head. (Wow! Imagine! A professional stand-up comic performing 90 minutes of comedy right off the top of his head. Johnny Carson, you are off the pedestal - Karnak or no Karnak.)

- To be Continued -

Stay tuned for
Pay it Forward -- Part II The Rat Pack

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The Legendary Johnny Carson

Johnny Carson - "It was so cold outside..."
Audience - "How cold was it?"
Johnny - "It was so cold, the politicians had their hands in their own pockets."