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Shout It Out Loud
Jul. 30th, 2007 11:40 pmThis morning I woke up, checked the news online and saw that Marvin Zindler had died. It's hard to explain Marvin to those who didn't live in Houston. He was a crusading consumer advocate who used the power of television to shame businesses and people to apologies for what ever people wrote in. He wasn't an investigative journalist, just a loud noisemaker, and one of the most peculiar men to even be on TV, and that's saying a lot.
For years you would hear him close a report with "I'm Maaaaaarin Zindler, Eaaaaaahwitness News! No one knew how many plastic surgeries he had has, or how many white wigs he had gone through or how many blue-tinted glasses he owned. He was known for his "Rat and Roach Reports" on Friday which he'd pretty much read off the previous weeks health inspector's report. I remember one week in college coming back to school on a Monday talking to everyone that had had lunch in one of the mentioned places on Marvin's report the day before.
Blech.
Marvin would finish the report with all of the restaurants that had failed inspection due to (yelling loudly) "SSSSSSSLIIIIIIIIIIme in the ICE Machine!" The call had become so famous a person put it to music, and even that was used in the report in later years. There's a YouTube video of it HERE, if you want to hear it, and see it for yourself.
He had a contract with the station for life, so on his deathbed in the hospital he was still doing stories for the station - wig and all. It was always amusing to see how Dave ward, the Channel 13 news anchor would try to keep a stiff upper lip after Marvin had bellowed his signoff.
Now there is a little peice of Marvin you may have seen. In the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Melvin P. Thorpe is Marvin Zindler - and I can say it's with little exaggeration from reality to the stage (except for the singing and dancing). Melvin, played in the movie by Dom DeLuise sings "Texas Has A Whore House In It" with all the bombast of the real deal. The reason is Marvin Zindler really did shut down the brothel known as The Chicken Ranch (because during the Depression men paid for sevices in chickens) thatwas out in LaGrange, Texas, between Houston and Austin. The story is true, just the real players weren't as photogenic as the movie.
There was a lot of death in the news today, director Ingmar Bergman, football coach Bill Walsh and TV talkshow host Tom Snyder. I remember watching him in the seventies when we were off on summer vacation. Both my mom and I were nightowls, so we would watch The Tomorrow Show and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Years later I watched late Night with David Letterman and The PTL Club because who didn't love the trainwreck that was Tammy Faye Bakker. I liked to call the show, The Pass The Loot Club.
I guess it's interesting in this day and age where we have people who pass on, and not only do we remember, but we also have the ability to go see their work. We've graduated from tales to portraits to pictures to moving images of those who have passed. Lucille Ball has been gone for some time, but she's still on TV. Glenn Miller died before my time, but I can still hear his band and see old movies of him. in this day and age, the departed don't have to be gone.
Chris came back over the weekend from a trip to his grandmother's in Florida. He purchases a video camera so he could capture some of it. She's in her eighties and has started to have some memory lapses. Chris showed me some of the movies and there she was telling tales with Chris's parents. I may never get to meet her, but I've seen her.
I wish I had done the same with my grandmothers. I don't know why I didn't. I did own a video camera at one time...one that fell apart after two years of heavy use around the marching band. Sure there's pictures, but the stories are lost. I guess you always want to hear more from them.
Somewhere there's several reels of Super 8 movies that my paternal grandparent's took, and I've watched some of them, but the people in those movies, shot in the 50's don't remind me of my grandparents as i knew them.
Perhaps I should start filming my parents. At this point it would be totally for myself, as neither I nor my sister have children. Perhaps there will be some niece or nephew someday, but it's going to be a while and the parents aren't getting any younger.
I'm in the middle of my years now, and I know the losses are going to star steamrolling, parents, friends, etc. Time marches on. The true losses in my life have been minimal, but I've cried over grandparents and pets. I wonder what it's going to be like as we go along. The future looks promising and dower all at the same time. There's losses you plan on, but I'm sure there will be many changes that will take me by surprise.
I just hope we can go out as loudly as Marvin Zindler.
For years you would hear him close a report with "I'm Maaaaaarin Zindler, Eaaaaaahwitness News! No one knew how many plastic surgeries he had has, or how many white wigs he had gone through or how many blue-tinted glasses he owned. He was known for his "Rat and Roach Reports" on Friday which he'd pretty much read off the previous weeks health inspector's report. I remember one week in college coming back to school on a Monday talking to everyone that had had lunch in one of the mentioned places on Marvin's report the day before.
Blech.
Marvin would finish the report with all of the restaurants that had failed inspection due to (yelling loudly) "SSSSSSSLIIIIIIIIIIme in the ICE Machine!" The call had become so famous a person put it to music, and even that was used in the report in later years. There's a YouTube video of it HERE, if you want to hear it, and see it for yourself.
He had a contract with the station for life, so on his deathbed in the hospital he was still doing stories for the station - wig and all. It was always amusing to see how Dave ward, the Channel 13 news anchor would try to keep a stiff upper lip after Marvin had bellowed his signoff.
Now there is a little peice of Marvin you may have seen. In the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Melvin P. Thorpe is Marvin Zindler - and I can say it's with little exaggeration from reality to the stage (except for the singing and dancing). Melvin, played in the movie by Dom DeLuise sings "Texas Has A Whore House In It" with all the bombast of the real deal. The reason is Marvin Zindler really did shut down the brothel known as The Chicken Ranch (because during the Depression men paid for sevices in chickens) thatwas out in LaGrange, Texas, between Houston and Austin. The story is true, just the real players weren't as photogenic as the movie.
There was a lot of death in the news today, director Ingmar Bergman, football coach Bill Walsh and TV talkshow host Tom Snyder. I remember watching him in the seventies when we were off on summer vacation. Both my mom and I were nightowls, so we would watch The Tomorrow Show and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Years later I watched late Night with David Letterman and The PTL Club because who didn't love the trainwreck that was Tammy Faye Bakker. I liked to call the show, The Pass The Loot Club.
I guess it's interesting in this day and age where we have people who pass on, and not only do we remember, but we also have the ability to go see their work. We've graduated from tales to portraits to pictures to moving images of those who have passed. Lucille Ball has been gone for some time, but she's still on TV. Glenn Miller died before my time, but I can still hear his band and see old movies of him. in this day and age, the departed don't have to be gone.
Chris came back over the weekend from a trip to his grandmother's in Florida. He purchases a video camera so he could capture some of it. She's in her eighties and has started to have some memory lapses. Chris showed me some of the movies and there she was telling tales with Chris's parents. I may never get to meet her, but I've seen her.
I wish I had done the same with my grandmothers. I don't know why I didn't. I did own a video camera at one time...one that fell apart after two years of heavy use around the marching band. Sure there's pictures, but the stories are lost. I guess you always want to hear more from them.
Somewhere there's several reels of Super 8 movies that my paternal grandparent's took, and I've watched some of them, but the people in those movies, shot in the 50's don't remind me of my grandparents as i knew them.
Perhaps I should start filming my parents. At this point it would be totally for myself, as neither I nor my sister have children. Perhaps there will be some niece or nephew someday, but it's going to be a while and the parents aren't getting any younger.
I'm in the middle of my years now, and I know the losses are going to star steamrolling, parents, friends, etc. Time marches on. The true losses in my life have been minimal, but I've cried over grandparents and pets. I wonder what it's going to be like as we go along. The future looks promising and dower all at the same time. There's losses you plan on, but I'm sure there will be many changes that will take me by surprise.
I just hope we can go out as loudly as Marvin Zindler.
