Archives, Willie Whistle and Channel 38...

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On Saturday, Mar 14, Bump Martin wrote:
>You know, I would *love* to have a tape of the show to 
>show my kids this ridiculous program that we ACTUALLY 
>watched! (Remember that he needed an interpreter to 
>repeat almost everything he said...?)

Yeah...horrible stuff. But techs who worked on the show
swear they could understand him. An acquired ability, 
no doubt.

He used those tiny, cylindrical bird-whistles sold at 
joke shops to "talk". The techs kept spares on hand 
because Willie frequently swallowed them. <ulp!>

There were many stories about Willie...one time he was
out on a harbor cruise, and became violently seasick, to
the point where he passed out. They propped him up in
a deck chair, unconscious. "There's nothing quite like
the sight of an unconscious clown on the high sea," said  
someone who was there.

- - Henry Dane

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