On November 10th, Frank turned 77. I had a few simple gifts for him to open in the morning. There were two front zip hoodies and two books. One book was Delivering For America: How The United States Postal Service Built a Nation about the 250 history of the postal service. The other book was Making Mary Poppins: The Sherman Brothers, Walt Disney, and the Creation of a Classic Film about the behind-the-scenes making of the Disney movie Mary Poppins.
During the day, Frank was serenaded by Robin, Isaiah, Jeremy, and Autumn via text message. Here is the Happy Birthday Quartet.
The iconic year of this particular birthday reminded me of a 60+ year old TV show
77 Sunset Strip. Per
Wikipedia77 Sunset Strip is an American private detective crime drama television series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Roger Smith, Richard Long (from 1960 to 1961) and Edd Byrnes (billed as Edward Byrnes). Each episode was one hour long when aired with commercials. The series aired on ABC from October 10, 1958, to February 7, 1964.
I was only five to nine years old when it was on TV and I probably only heard the sound drifting upstairs when I was in bed. Perhaps I caught glimpses of it when I was older, but I particularly remember one of the characters, hair-combing Kookie. Even now, I cannot get the catchy opening song — complete with finger snapping — out of my head! Listen to
77 Sunset Strip here.
More dominant than an old TV show this birthday for Frank was the current TV show of
Wheel of Fortune. Frank and I had tickets to see a
live performance of the show on the road at our local Bankhead Theatre. The stage was set up with a wheel, a bonus wheel, and the large puzzle board, of course. There was an equivalent of Ryan Seacrest (Pat Sajak) played by
Mark L. Walberg and a Vanna White equivalent played by a woman selected at random from the audience. The woman was especially amusing because she was so short, she had to jump up to touch the letters on the highest row of the puzzle board.
There was an announcer and a strolling camera man. The announcer mingled with the audience to warm them up before the show began. That was where Frank had his claim to fame. Frank was picked to be interviewed. When asked where he was from, Frank replied proudly, "Washington, DC! And I don't mean Virginia or Maryland to that little state up in the northwest." When asked about his interests he boasted about his over 1000 railroad cars in the garage and showed off his QUILTER'S HUSBAND shirt he was wearing. The camera view of the exchange was projected up on a large screen and I took a photo. Unfortunately I was holding my cell phone over my face but it really is me.
The set up and process of the show was well thought out. Five people were selected at random from the audience and brought up on stage to compete. A bonus puzzle with only some of the letters showing was posted and whoever figured it out first got one point. Whoever of the five accumulated three points first, went on to a final round in the second half of the show. The three winners from three groups of five comprised this final round where they actually spun the wheel and called letters. The pre-screening of the fifteen players from the first half assured the final round was a decent competition without any turkey players.
The second half mimicked the TV show more closely with calling letters, missing turns, or going bankrupt with spins of the wheel. There were money awards, on the order of $50's or $100's. Frank got a souvenir pen. We had a really good time and, after the show, posed for a photo op in the lobby in front of a publicity poster.
After the show, we celebrated with a pan of brownies. I had baked them earlier in the day and we had been snacking on them rather than waiting for a formal candle ceremony to dig in. We did keep up the traditional "make a wish and blow out the candles" eventually, though not with a particularly pristine receptacle for the candles. I wonder if the quality of the wish is compromised...? Even if so, the brownies were delicious anyway.
