Odds and ends, with some a bit odder than others:
When TV was new: As a kid in Oak Park, there were two ways to get on TV. You could be spectacularly lucky and score tickets to Bozo’s Circus on Channel 9. The upside would be getting to skip school for the live broadcast at noon. The downside, for a worrier like me, was that Mr. Ned would pluck me out of the crowd for the Grand Prize Game and that my first toss of the ping pong ball would hit the rim on Bucket No. 1 and dribble forlornly off camera along with my pride.
The other way to get on the still-new medium along about 1962 was, to my way of thinking, to be Lois Nettleton. Ms. Nettleton, you see, was born in Oak Park. Don’t know where in Oak Park, though her obit in the New York Times said her family was poor and her parents divorced when she was young. She put on “little shows” in her backyard as a kid and that spurred her interest in acting. A website listed her birth date as Aug. 6, 1927. That would have made her 80 when she died last week in Los Angeles of lung cancer.
What I knew about Lois Nettleton was that she was the granddaughter of our neighbor, Mrs. Coffee (spelling?), and that, on at least one occasion, she came to stay with her for a couple of days. There was a pretty darned confirmed Lois Nettleton sighting on the block. I may have actually seen the back of her blond head enter Mrs. Coffee’s house once. I believe I did. And while I never met Lois Nettleton, Mrs. Coffee was a sweet woman who always bought raffle tickets whenever I was out peddling them. And Lois Nettleton did come and visit her grandma, which makes her kind and loyal, even after she had been broadcast coast to coast on such programs as The Fugitive and The Twilight Zone.
Three pieces of Lois Nettleton trivia you are free to use to amaze your friends: She was a semi-finalist for Miss America in 1948; she was married just once and for seven years to Jean Shepherd, one of my favorite humorists (A Christmas Story); she was so cool that she guest-starred on Seinfeld.
Quickly: Did you see the Obama ad in last week’s Journal? Hundreds of Oak Park women listed their names in support of the senator. Reading the list made it clear why the guy got 80 percent of the vote in Oak Park when he ran for the senate. … Congrats to my friend Mark Gartland, the president of the Park District of Oak Park, for being honored last week as a “Rising Star” by the Illinois Parks and Recreation Association. Well deserved. Considering the sad shape this park district was in when Gartland, David Kindler and Tom Philion were elected five years ago, the progress is profound. It helps to have a solid chief executive in Gary Balling. Combine the right staff and the right board and good things happen. … Saw Todd Stroger speak last week to a group of local publishers. More impressive than I expected. Still not saying much. … And while I seldom offer opinions beyond the level of village life, here’s a viewpoint to consider. Our company also publishes newspapers in Austin and in Forest Park. That gives me some exposure to the two candidates for Cook County Recorder of Deeds-Ald. Ed Smith and incumbent Eugene Moore. First off, this useless county office ought to be consolidated out of existence. Ed Smith promises to do that. Moore does not. Why should he? It is a cushy life living off the taxpayers. Smith has been an independent voice for decades on the West Side. Gene Moore has been a political hack for just as long. His base of operations in Proviso Township is as discouraging an example as can be found of what happens when all power-state, county, municipal, school and park boards-devolves to one insular political group. High taxes, no services, no accountability.
