From a reader, comedian Doug Doane, comes an email (reprinted with permission):
Hey… I don’t know if I ever told youse guys this story, but every time I see the name of your site, (which just popped up in my feed) it reminds me of it.
My Mom was a radio personality for NBC in NYC back in the 30’s, a Big Band singer in the ’40’s, and then put together a Jazz nightclub act in the late 50’s as the Big Bands began to fade away. In 1962, her show, “The Lucille Linwood Quartet”, got booked into the brand new Tropicana Hotel as the opening act for… Shecky Greene!
Mom brought me and my sister along on this tour. It was supposed to be for 6 weeks, but she got her contract extended and we wound up living there for about 7 months. I was only 8, and could care less about what Las Vegas was. It was just another gig for my mom, and I was used to her working all over the country, UNTIL, I discovered she was working with Shecky Greene. See, Shecky Greene wasn’t a stand up comic to me back then. Why he was “Private Braddock” from the TV show Combat!, that every 8-year-old boy in the country was glued to each week.
I bugged and bugged my mother for weeks to introduce me to “Private Braddock”. Mom told me I was too young to be allowed in the nightclub. I was relentless. She became good friends with Shecky and finally got permission to bring me in early and took me to his dressing room. I drove him crazy with nothing but question after question about what it was like to “Kill Krauts” with “Sargent Saunders” and his crew. I’m sure there was some signal by Shecky to “get this damn kid out of here,” but soon our meeting ended. It made my year. When we eventually returned to Ohio, I was the envy of every kid on the block…I got to actually meet “Private Braddock”.
So every time I see your Shecky Magazine moniker…it always brings a fond smile to my face as I think back to that wonderful memory with my Mom.
Hope you guys are doing well,
Doug
Photo at right depicts Keenan Wynn (left) and Shecky Greene in a publicity still from the ABC series. (You can buy the pic on eBay for $24.99!)
The Male Half was a huge Combat! fan but doesn’t remember Shecky Greene being in the series! (Greene was only in the first season.)