Wednesday, November 3, 2010

15 Minutes of Fame

Well, 15 seconds really. I fly frequently on business, usually at least twice a month on Southwest Airlines. Their in-flight magazine Spirit is very well produced and their editor lives in smalltown New Hampshire. So when the magazine published an article on the humble sandwich I sent off a letter to the editor and lo and behold it was published last month:

"Great article on sandwiches but are you aware that 1960’s Boston radio DJ Dick Summer claimed that it was really the Earl of Shrewsbury who invented meat between two pieces of bread? So in our favorite deli, we should be ordering a ham and cheese shrewsbury on rye!"

Now I have a daughter who teaches at Shrewsbury High School in Massachusetts, but do you think I could get her to rally to the cause and speak out about this sandwich injustice? Not on your life.

For those interest souls, you can listen to a near 10 minute long 1964 segment of Dick Summer’s antics on YouTube that includes his shrewsbury plea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GPpzKacu74.

Summer does a few radio or TV voiceovers nowadays, including the Binder & Binder ad on cable TV. A very distinctive voice, reminding me somewhat of Jean Shepherd or Rod Serling.

4 comments:

Erin said...

You want to come and get a big fat eyeroll from about 30 16-year-olds, bring yer soapbox on down to my classroom! Glad to see you're increasing your publishing creds, though.

Michael said...

I remember Dick Summer! He also had a big thing about Venus Fly Trap. It was actually a special time when I got to listen to him because, if memory serves, he came on at 10 PM. My brother and sister were big advocates of the Shrewsbury for quite some time. Thanks for the memories.

Sponge-headed ScienceMan said...

Michael - Dick Summer was on late, you're right. I can recall lying in bed listening to him on WBZ-AM spinning some story or another. I was often tired for school the next day.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Next up: Larry Glick.