Oh, for corn’s sake

(Originally posted July 7, 2011 over at KD8OSB; minor edits.)

I wrote recently that some places are nice to DX[1] but you wouldn't want to visit.

I feel the same way about Old Time Radio personalities. I really don't want to know what they looked like, I'd rather invent that myself. And I fear knowing too much about their personal lives, preferring instead to know them by what they created behind the microphone.

I'd very much like to read Walter Tetley's biography  (http://www.amazon.com/Walter-Tetley-Corns-Ben-Ohmart/dp/1593930003/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309947810&sr=1-1 ) I like his voice and the image he conjured on the "Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show" (the Thanksgiving episode is priceless and one of the best in my opinion; I know I have it but must not have filed it with other Thanksgiving shows, because I can't find it; I will look for it). I understand Tetley's story is tragic and I'd prefer not to know it just yet; maybe someday.

When I was a boy there were all sorts of tell-all bios about famous people. One I never want to read is Bing Crosby's, written by his son Gary Crosby
( http://www.amazon.com/Going-Own-Way-Gary-Crosby/dp/0449205444/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top ).

Of course, my generation knew Bing Crosby from the movies, not radio, so I had a face to put with the voice. The bio was written after Bing's death. Bing died just before Christmas when I was young, and I remember feeling a loss, as White Christmas – both the song and the movie – were inextricably linked with my childhood celebration of the season. Bing is still a meaningful part of my Christmas to this day, despite Gary Crosby's catharsis (and the annual complaints that White Christmas is overplayed).

Let them eat fruitcake.

[1]
In radio, DX mean’s “long distance,” as when you pick up a far-away radio station on the AM dial when you’re driving at night. In other words, some places have more charm over radio than they do in person (or via TV, movies, photographs, etc).