FRIDAY the 13th

My Touch Of Greatness...

FRIDAY the 13th Version!

The Friday the 13th Tale Begins

Flash back to my days peddling TV time at the then ABC-TV affiliate in Fresno, California...

KJEO-TV was rated fourth out of all the network affiliates in the market, even though at that time (late 70's) ABC was the top network across the land...

Bad management?  Oh yea...

Cheap operation?  You bet!

And I toiled there for eight years as a sales guy
 and then local Sales Mangler...

Anyway, my tale continues...

One of my better accounts was the local JC Penny 's...
They had stores throughout Central California and I always corralled the lion's share of the TV budget...

One of the core reasons I scored the budget was that when we had to promote a local sale or event we always did the TV production at our station...Even though our equipment was the worst...

VTR's were always breaking down...

Our old color cameras looked like mud...


And the overall quality work of the studio production crew was marginal at the very least...

So, how does all this work into the Friday the 13th theme?

Hang with me... 

We had a family friend who had a daughter 
and she was doing some local modeling work...

I needed a spokesperson to pitch Levis for a Penny's spot...

So I got her hooked up with my ad contact at the store and we were set to tape the spot for the big weekend sale of Levis
 at JC Penney's...

Meet Dana

Her name was Dana Kimmell and she hailed from Texas...
She was a real pro and went through the copy each and every take without a flaw...

Problem was we had nothing BUT problems taping...
Glitch in the tape...Late CG...On and on...

But one on going problem was getting the wrinkles out of her jeans
 as she modeled them from the rear and turned her head
 to deliver her lines...

I had the solution!

I scampered out to the studio and got on the floor in front of her
 and tugged on the bottom of her Levis...

They panned down from her butt to nearly the bottom of the jeans 
where I was grasping tightly with my grubby little hands...

It worked!

The pants looked great and we finally we able to deliver a 
"wrinkle FREE" commercial for the client...

Once again...How does this tie into Friday the 13th?

The Connection

Glad you asked...

See, Dana went on and had a brief Hollywood career...One of her resume highlights was being a victim in "Friday the 13th,  Part III"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWdQ3yWpsS8#t=123

She had a whole lot of guest shots on the tube back then as attested to by her IMDB page:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0454011/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

She even appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson...

She was one of the two gals that Carson 
came out and flashed in a classic comedy bit...

She became a Mom and gave up her acting career
 and raised two kids...

Occasionally she appears on panels discussing horror flicks
 and her "Friday 13th" role...

So there ya go...

My Friday the 13th connection just for you...

So, don't be afraid of this date and suffer from 

"paraskavedekatriaphobia"

Go out...Have fun...
BUT don't party at Camp Crystal Lake!

Memories Of The Surf And Sand

Everyone has treasured places where they spent part of their youth just raisin' hell and havin' good times...

For many it might be at the lake or in the mountains or...

Wait for it...

AT THE BEACH!

Being a lucky cuss and growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the golden 60's we had THE BEACH!

Friends, meet Zuma Beach, located north of Malibu on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH)...

Two miles of pristine sand and good waves (most of the time)...

Still sporting 14 lifeguard stations, Zuma is where most of us from the valley headed for cool off in the summer months...

Sometimes we would venture to Santa Monica, but that was always too damn crowded and the surf sucked compared to the usually gnarly body surfing found at Zuma...


The far north part of the beach was where you found the surfers, but zillions of zit faced valley teens hung on the sand stretching the first two miles of Zuma on PCH...


Food stands were always busy and there were more than sufficient heads and  showers...

Let's face it, guys took their leaks in the surf...I suspect most of the chicks did, too...

I always liked that warm quick rush you would get when you let lose your bladder and stood for a moment or two frozen and enjoyed that special moment...

Many flicks and TV shows have been shot here on the sands of Zuma..."Back to the Beach", "Zuma Beach" "Charlie's Angels", "Where The Action Is", "Baywatch" and countless more...

You still see old monster movies and usually when they were at the surf they were at Zuma or nearby Point Dume...

And Frankie and Annette frolicked here many times in the "B" Beach Party films...



Plus Point Dume next to Zuma was seen countless times in a zillion flicks...

The most famous scene is the end of the first "Planet of the Apes" film when Heston rides up on the horse and sees the State of Liberty and realizes he has returned back to earth...

I have many memories of Zuma but one that stays with me is seeing the sea of young teen bodies glistening in the burning sun and smelling of Coopertone and tanning butter as they listened to portable transistor radios...

Transistors were "the thing" in the mid 60's...Kinda like the I pods and phones today...

EVERY kid had them tuned to KHJ "Boss Radio"...Every kid...

In those days KHJ scored more than 60% of the total LA radio market...

No station has even come close to those numbers over the past forty plus years... 

KISS Radio in it's heyday did a little more than a ten share...

KHJ WAS radio for LA and on the sand at Zuma you knew it...

I liked to travel in my old family '51 Chevy Belair with some buds and spend those chilly and windy winter days at Zuma...No one was there expect the guys in the main lifeguard building...

They would watch us with binoculars as we hit the strong winter waves to body surf...

I bought a custom wet suit called a "Farmer John" that was cut like a wife beater T...It allowed you to flail your arms and dig into the water as you struggled to hit your wave...

You had a mega cold rush of water down your back and then you were riding the four footer for several seconds and then ending up on the shore break and eating sand...

Once we were around a trash barrel and had lit a fire to keep warm...The trash was burning as the lifeguard drove up and hopped out and came over to us...

He was so cool he stayed a bit and warmed up his frosty hands in the flames of the fire...

Heck, no one else was stupid enough to be on the sand let alone in the water when it was only in the high 50's...BRRRRRRR!

I liked to smoke Wolf Bros. "Crockettes"...Little cigars either soaked in rum and dipped in wine or the other way around...They were sweet and tasty to smoke...

Also did the Eric small cigars thing back then...Just about my only vice late in my high school days...

Drinking wouldn't begin in earnest until my USC days...But that friends is truly another story...

If your travels take you to So Cal, take the drive up to Zuma and park in one of the 2,000 stalls and walk the sand...Whatever the weather, Zuma is one of the jewels on the crown of Southern California beaches...

I can still hear 'em back then screaming out, "SURF'S UP!"

Just don't eat anything less than an hour of hitting the  waves...Remember that line?  Why did we believe that stuff back then...Why?

See ya back soon all...



"WACKORADIO" returns!

My DJ alter ego is back...

Yes friends, SIN CITY ARTIE has fired up his internet radio station and it is booming out the sounds 24/7 from Maryland to Malaysia...

Want to get into all the audio action?

LISTEN to WACKORADIO by going right here: 
http://media.spacial.com/player/sam-vibe/index.html?sid=1001132