This week's theme: Labor Day

I picked three songs this week related to work - WORK! - my second favorite 
thing in life.


Labor Day always reminds me of Mel Jass. He was a local celebrity here in 
the mid 1960s and was host of WTCN channel 11's daily afternoon "Matinee 
Movie".

I used to joke that his name was really Mel J. Ass. I know, I know, that's 
cruel and wrong, but I was just a kid back then :-)

He was harmless enough and a real name dropper. Evidently he had about a 
thousand very close person friends who were all major Hollywood celebrities. 
Amazing! He was always referring to his good friend X or his good friend Y 
or would talk to them on the phone on air - when they were hawking a new 
movie they were in.

Anyway, he had a segment called "Dialing for Dollars" where he would give 
out a secret code, then call someone randomly and if they knew the code they 
would win some money. If they didn't, the total would go up a little each 
day until someone did.

I tried to convince a friend of mine once that they pre-recorded the show - 
which of course, if they did, nobody could ever win.

I think of him on Labor Day because one year, as a publicity stunt, he 
called a local hospital to find out how many women were in labor on Labor 
Day.

Evidently he didn't understand the true meaning of Labor Day. Hey Mel, it's 
about grilling hamburgers - just like all the other summer holidays. Some 
people are just so stupid :-)


Mel Jass's Greatest Hits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IBnDtcuNoE

Mel Jass
http://www.pavekmuseum.org/jass.html

Mel Jass, Mel's Matinee Movie
https://www.facebook.com/Mel-Jass-Mels-Matinee-Movie-655071184564811/

Mel Jass
http://slphistory.org/jassmel/


Stay Jazzed!
--Tom Swezey



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