EXCERPTS from my new book, WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE-How I Learned to Love my Brown Martini

The sales manager of this company [in Des Moines] came to Memphis to interview me, and he stayed at the Peabody Hotel where I worked in the basement for the TV station. I had to get into the hotel and up to his room without anyone seeing me. It took some finagling but I was able to get away without anyone knowing what I was doing. He was a great guy and we hit it off immediately and I was asked to come to Des Moines for another interview. In those days most of the planes landing there were DC-3s.

The minute I got off the airplane in this cold, desolate looking place I reached the conclusion that I didn’t want to be in Des Moines, Iowa. I was brought up in the South where the weather could be challenging but I would rather spend the rest of my life in Jackson, Tennessee than one day in Des Moines. I would also come to understand a saying passed around by this company’s alumni: “It’s a nice place to work if your family can afford to send you.”

Journey with me boozed up to sobriety in WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE. It’s a trip on Amazon here.

EXCERPTS from my new book, WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE-How I Learned to Love my Brown Martini

We had out-of-town friends visit us regularly in Memphis, but our favorites were ‘Warren’ and ‘Jessica,’ not their real names, from Norfolk, while in the Navy; remember Baxter’s Barn? They wanted to go to the Peabody and see the ducks, then go to the roof where there was dancing. We were too late to see the ducks this particular night so we proceeded upstairs where the band was already playing. The Peabody roof bands were featured regularly on CBS radio nationwide.

A friend of mine who had one of the finest radio voices I had ever worked with, “Harry Rhodes,” not his real name, was doing a band broadcast on the network that night. Harry rarely committed a blooper but this night he was somehow rattled when introducing the show and said, “And now CBS presents the music of Benny Firestone coming from high atop the Potel Hebody. He repeated that three more times before getting it right. The drunks didn’t know the difference.

Journey with me boozed up to sobriety in WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE. It’s a trip on Amazon here.

EXCERPTS from my new book, WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE-How I Learned to Love my Brown Martini

Eventually I moved over to WREC-TV (later to become WREG), Channel 3, with studios in the basement of the Peabody Hotel. The Peabody had its own stories. It was, and still is, famous for its ducks that swim in the fountain in the hotel lobby. Every evening they are put to bed by their caretaker by rolling out a red carpet that stretches from the fountain to the elevator bank. Apparently this feature brought in visitors from all over the world, some not so good for these innocent fowl.

The ducks are marched into the elevator on the carpet and taken to the roof where their penthouse was located. No one but the caretaker is allowed to ride with the ducks. The next morning the procedure is reversed and the ducks are returned to the fountain through the elevator, via the red carpet to the fountain. You are allowed to stand around and observe but you can’t get too close to the ducks. Unfortunately this kind of protection would prove inadequate in a mindless display of stupidity.

The hotel was hosting a group on one occasion, which I believe was a bunch of college fraternity alumni; my memory is vague since this has been almost fifty years ago. The Peabody had a mezzanine that surrounded and looked over the lobby, and a cluster of the frat guys had congregated around the mezzanine with drinks in hand. The ducks were still innocently swimming in the fountain entertaining the guests. As usual, there were several people standing around the fountain looking at the ducks.

All of a sudden a barrage of drink glasses began to hit the fountain and some of the ducks, even guests. They were coming from the drunks on the mezzanine, and the volley went on for several minutes until security stepped in to stop the chaos. My recollection is that some ducks might have been killed, others injured. No guests were hurt. The frat guys were questioned but no one would give up the culprits. In my lifetime I have been on many drunken tears but would never do something like this.

Journey with me boozed up to sobriety in WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE. It’s a trip on Amazon here.

EXCERPTS from my new book, WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE-How I Learned to Love my Brown Martini

The wrestling matches were in their glory during this period (late 1950s), and I worked camera, eventually directing the show. Our cameras were in the balcony of the auditorium where the matches were held, and had to be carefully attached to the protective railing. Advice given to all cameramen in setting up was, “if you accidentally drop the camera during setup, you might as well go over the side with it.

Journey with me boozed up to sobriety in WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE. It’s a trip on Amazon here.

EXCERPTS from my new book, WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE-How I Learned to Love my Brown Martini

Eventually I left this station to work for a competitor in Memphis, and for more money. However, Channel 5 did have its moments, one of which turned out to be a very famous one, at least as the future would dictate. I met a very young, and still on the way up, Elvis Presley, one night. He just walked into the studio and said hello. He had asked the receptionist if he could see the studio, the door was open and we weren’t on the air, so he caught me in the middle of setting up the next show.

He very politely asked if I would give him a tour of our studios, which I readily agreed to. By this time the engineering crew was congregated around the window from the control room to the studio trying to get a good look at Elvis. Actually, I was embarrassed, since our main studio where we were at the time was converted from the offices of an old bank building and looked like it. Since this was my first job in television and these were the pioneer years, the 1950s, we were just beginning to make the rules.

I showed him around, explaining that almost everything live he saw on the tube from this station came from this studio. There was also an announcer’s booth, a small cooking show studio downstairs, and a stage on the second floor with an auditorium for special events. But we still did the bulk of our “productions” from this area that was not much bigger than a large living room. Hey, this was the beginning of TV, where it all started.

But Elvis seemed impressed, and, that said, I still cannot tell you just how much fun I had in this oversized playroom, because we were just learning what television was all about and still setting the guidelines. Guidelines we changed on a daily basis to make things more entertaining for the public. This often included mistakes that completely broke up the crew, but as the guy in charge, I had to remain cool in the chaos. However, there were a couple of times when it was so bizarre that I almost lost it.

Before the King left the studio, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a Zippo lighter and showed it to me. He asked me if I thought something like this would sell with his picture on it. It was Colonel Parker’s idea, he told me. I replied that I was sure anything with his picture on it would sell. He thanked me for everything and even graciously waved to the control room crew before leaving. I had taken him in to meet them and he was fascinated over how we produced shows.

It wasn’t until later I realized that at this point he had not yet appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show.” That was September 9, 1956, when 60 million viewers watched the birth of the “King of Rock and Roll.” Elvis garnered a whopping 82 percent of the television viewing audience. If he had been on the “Ed Sullivan Show” before coming into our studios, I’m sure it would have been a huge let down. But he did leave appreciative and the next time I saw Elvis Presley was on the “Really Big Shew.”

Journey with me boozed up to sobriety in WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE. It’s a trip on Amazon here.

Goodreads the GOOD site for writers

Goodreads, the site where readers go for the best books to read, and writers go to promote the books they write, recently attained the title of the world's largest book-focused social network, fifty million reviews. You want to go to Goodreads.com when you're looking for the latest in fiction and non-fiction but there's so much more which you will soon discover. Make friends, let others know what you're reading and vice versa, Set up a bookshelf for the future. This is truly the home for readers and writers.

Huff Post recently ran an article about Goodreads Giveaways, which is a great way for new writers to get their books into the hands of interested readers. I ran the promotion and had 285 requests for my book. Probably would have had more but only ran for a week giving away only two books. The Huff Post writer  suggests 30 days and as many books as you can afford to give away. On my next giveaway I plan to run for 30 days and offer five books, but that's your decision.

EXCERPTS from my new book, WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE-How I Learned to Love my Brown Martini

As a smaller fish in a larger market, I was offered a job at WMC-TV, Channel 5 in Memphis, but would have to start as a studio cameraman, and because of my experience in photography, also as a nighttime newsreel photographer. While in school it was necessary to put the heavy drinking on hold, but spending the day in classes and the evenings working and studying left no time anyway. This random discipline in abstinence would come in handy when I finally decided to give up the drinking life.

This was only momentary until one night a couple of guys from the station talked me into going out and having a few drinks at an after-hours place. Fortunately it was Friday and no school the next day, so there was no reason to curb my intake, resorting to the old habits of drinking until I couldn’t move. My friends brought me home to a very unhappy wife who left me at the front door in a lump. Somehow I managed the control to not do that again for a while.

Journey with me boozed up to sobriety in WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE. It’s a trip on Amazon here.

EXCERPTS from my new book, WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE-How I Learned to Love my Brown Martini

I would compare my discharge from the Navy with the day several years later when I would find out I didn’t have prostate cancer after switched biopsy records had proven the diagnosis wrong. Relief with a capital “R.” The incident almost resurrected my boozing habits after years of sobriety. And I cannot recall any other occasion that brought me this close to the bottle, but I can say that during this one time and in every other instance my wife, Barbara, was there as my support.

Journey with me boozed up to sobriety in WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE. It’s a trip on Amazon here.

EXCERPTS from my new book, WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE-How I Learned to Love my Brown Martini

I find it interesting how some guys know just how much to drink when they are out trolling the bars and know when to stop, or at least slow down, when they meet someone interesting for the evening. If they are on the prowl they instinctively realize they are about to score and drinking into unconsciousness will not get the job done. I, on the other hand, seemed to relish my find so much that I had to celebrate it with more booze. Even if we made it back to my room it was usually lights out pretty quick.

Journey with me boozed up to sobriety. It's a trip in WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE on Amazon here.

EXCERPTS from my new book, WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE-How I Learned to Love my Brown Martini

I cannot count the number of bad influences I am supposedly guilty of, but I know deep down in my liver that they all were adults, of a sound mind—at least most of them—with the ability to make decisions on their own. But I carried the mantle with enthusiasm and in most cases with pride. Although I have to admit that in several instances I was the first to shout, “It’s time for a drink.” That was like a call to action for me that had become the most important thing in my life.

You can buy my book on Amazon here.

EXCERPTS from my new book, WITHOUT THE LAMPSHADE-How I Learned to Love my Brown Martini

On one [Navy Shore Patrol) patrol my partner, who wasn’t much bigger than me, and I were pulling this hulk of a swabbie up the gangplank of a destroyer when all of a sudden he bolted and fell over the side into the water. The Officer of the Deck was an Ensign who said to leave him there because they had something to fish him out with. Apparently he did this every time he went ashore. As we were leaving someone had moved a hoist to that side of the ship and the swimmer was being brought aboard.

You can buy my book on Amazon here.