Another icon from my youth has died. I remember him being on TV as a kid like Virginia Graham, Dinah Shore, and George Perot. And just like the others, I thought he was already dead. But, no, born in 1913, we was still alive in southern California, presumably enjoying his golden years.
As the news of his death came to me, I went to YouTube to search out videos from those long ago days when he was a TV personality. I remember him as a wholesome, kid friendly entertainer. After watching about dozen clips, I found myself asking, how was it that he was so "campy" and borderline inappropriate with kids and yet such a success? Get your pens ready communications Ph. D. candidates ~ I think his show's popularity was perhaps directly due to it's risque skirting of issues otherwise taboo in adult circles. For example in this video clip, grown-up's couldn't talk about cross-dressing in public, but innocent little children by proxy could pretend. One intro I saw was a joke about a child who led a stranger into the bathroom to meet their naked mother who was in the tub. Yet, another focused on kindergartners being kissed and kissing back with this idea that it was naughty but okay, you sly little 6 year old dog, you!
People think that the past was always a simpler and more innocent time. I am doubting this more and more. It was just a time when innuendo was more strategically important and even children were considered grist for the mill of adult lasciviousness.
Art, you old perveyor of the yuck yuck laughs of my youth, rest in peace. Mission accomplished.
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