One of my favorite scenes in the movie American Grafitti is when the Richard Dreyfuss character meets Wolfman Jack in a deserted radio station out in the middle of nowhere. The studio is filled with record albums filling shelves that stretch from wall to wall. As the scene ends, we see the Wolfman working the mic while starting a record on the turntable.
Fast forward a decade or two to the mid 70s. My dad, who seemed to know everybody who was anybody in Knoxville at the time, was friends with the late great Claude "The Cat" Tomlinson, the morning DJ on WIVK. For those of you younger that I am, (depressingly too many of you) Claude may have actually originated the entire Morning Zoo type show, albeit with one important difference. Instead of relying on pre-recorded bits and having an entire crew of people to perform the show (like the John Boy and Billy Big Show, for example) aside from a news anchor and a traffic reporter, he did the show solo. He created characters like Lester Longmire and Old Man Shultz, and performed them all in real time. No pre-recorded scenes for this man; he did it all live.
One morning on the way to school, my dad took us into the studio to watch Mr. Tomlinson work. The studio didn't look anything like what was in American Grafitti; there were still some albums, but it looked like most of the music was on tape cartridges, sort of a cross between a cassette and an 8 track. Again, for you youngsters, ask your parents. We went in to the studio during a commercial, and Dad introduced us to Mr. Tomlinson, who kept moving while talking to us, putting new commercials into the tape player and getting ready to go back on the air. He signaled us to be silent, then his voice changed and he went from Mr. Tomlinson to Claude the Cat. He started doing a commercial for some restaurant I think it was, when all of the sudden, his head jerked to the side and the voice of Lester Longmire was coming out of his mouth. He and Lester had a 30 second conversation about breakfast at whatever the restaurant was, and Claude's head moved back and forth as he changed voices. It was an amazing and somewhat creepy performance, especially if you were a 11 year old kid.
After the bit, he went back to a pre-recorded commercial, and started talking to us again. We thanked him and left the studio to go to school.
So, y'all are all asking yourselves "Why is he telling us this?"
I'll let you know soon.
Posted by Rich at November 6, 2005 10:45 PM | TrackBackNothing defines the morning ritual of eating breakfast before going to school...for years and years...more than listening to Claude, Lester, and Old Man Schultz on the radio in the kitchen. That was it, and that was everything.
I always liked when "Lester" read the school lunch for that day.
Posted by: Barry on November 9, 2005 10:11 AMI am Claude's nephew. He is my dads brother. Just the other day I was reading Uncle Claude's book "Great Day in the Morning" and wondered if any one still remembered his show. He truly was the beginning of what we know as radio now. I think it is great that people still think of him from time to time.
Posted by: Aaron Tomlinson on November 11, 2006 2:54 PM