To my scads of readers, thank you for bearing with me during this time of grief, as my job and my company begins to fade away.
But today's column will look at those who actually did pass away during the past couple of days when we were away for the Thanksgiving break.
Fidel Castro is gone. I guess you can say "good riddance" to his passing.
Florence Henderson died. I was never a "Brady Bunch" fan, but she did welcome Davy Jones--another past passing--into her TV home.
Ralph Branca is gone. He may have delivered "The Shot Heard Around the World," but he also delivered a lot of grace, dignity and sportsmanship by being a human being, not a goat, about the whole thing.
Ron Glass left us too. Best known for his role on "Barney Miller," Glass was another TV icon that left us too soon.
And then we come to Jerry Schatz. He left us too, just prior to the Thanksgiving break.
Yes, Jerry Schatz. And if you are a Baby Boomer and don't know who he was, shame on you.
Jerry Schatz, as Jerry Tucker, was one of the last of the Our Gang/Little Rascals comedy actors, and although he usually was nothing more than a bit player in most of these shorts, he did have his glowing moment.
In one of the Gang's funniest shorts, "Hi Neighbor," he played the rich kid who stole the girl from Wally because he had a brand new, gleaming red fire engine. Wally and the Gang didn't take to this very well, so they built their own fire engine.
It wasn't red, it was pretty much put together with spit and polish, but they had their fire engine, and the two fire engines then had a race to see which one was best.
If you remember the hill that they went down, it was probably the steepest hill that God has ever created on this earth, or at least the gods of the Hal Roach Studios could create.
All havoc ensues, Jerry loses the girl, the Gang wins, and Spanky ends up taking off his clothes down to his skivvies because the rest of the Gang lost their clothes going through the bushes.
It is a comedy classic, really demonstrates what this series was all about, and Tucker is truly the star of this short.
He would have ancillary roles in these comedies over a period of years, and while doing those shorts, he also appeared in numerous other films in bit parts, including "March of the Wooden Soldiers," a Thanksgiving favorite, so his passing came at an interesting point of the year.
But when he left the movies, he even said time and time again that he actually went from being Jerry Tucker to Jerry Schatz, and he lived an unassuming, yet interesting, life after the films.
He served in the Armed Forces in the Navy, won a Purple Heart during World War II, and for much of his life was an electrical engineer with RCA Global Communications.
He married, became a father, and lived in Copiague, Long Island, a town not very far away from where I live. Unbeknownst to most people, except those very close to him, Schatz was part of the Our Gang ensemble in an earlier life.
He was "outed" a few years ago by Long Island's Newsday newspaper, and he lived out his life finally being comfortable with the Tucker/Schatz connection.
He died in the Veterans home in Stony Brook, New York, the same place where my father in law is now. I asked my father in law this weekend if he knew Schatz, and he said he didn't, but he did hear that someone who was very involved in various causes had died, and Schatz was quite involved over the years in various veterans groups, so putting two and two together, that was Schatz that he was referring to.
Schatz had his funeral this past weekend, which was not much of a surprise if you knew his background. Interestingly, as a footnote, Schatz was one of the few Jewish Our Gangers, along with Jackie Cooper, who was half Jewish.
Anyway, for the Baby Boomers, another icon of our youth has left us.
Sure, he might have been more of a footnote than an icon, but he will be missed.
Not too many Our Gangers are still with us, so when you lose one, you really lose a part of your own personal history, and the passing of Jerry Schatz hit me, personally, harder than the other deaths.
That's just me, I know, but he and the other Gangers bought so much joy to my life, I think it is understandable that I would feel the way I do.
I'm sorry you're hurting, I'm sorry you feel bereft at Schatz' parting. It's hard when you lose someone who has brought joy into your life.
ReplyDeleteBut...Shame on us for not remembering a bit player in a movie serial that was over and done before the Boomers were born, a child actor who never pursued entertainment as an adult? Really, Larry. Dismissive of world leaders and well-loved actors and sports heroes in favor of someone none of would ever remember?
I won't ridicule you the way you ridiculed all of us when we were in mourning for Robin Williams. Entertainers become part of our lives, and there's an emptiness when we lose someone whose work brings us pleasure. And that's why your ridicule hurt so much. I'd like you to remember that the next time an icon you don't like passes away.
You are looking for things in what I wrote, and whether you believe it or not, I simply wanted to honor him in his passing. Do you remember the Newsday article "outing" him from a few years ago? I wrote about that, too, in the original blog site. It was nothing more than a few words about him both times, nothing more. I could have written about the others, but in particular about Henderson and Castro, everybody is writing about them, and as I said, I was not a fan of either the Brady Bunch of Castro, so why write the same things everybody is writing about them? Schatz was a bit of a different person to write about, so I did. Don't look for hidden meanings, nor idol-worship like so many did with Williams, someone who abused drugs and himself and unfortunately, had a terrible mental illness during his lifetime. His actions were as gallant as a slug. Schatz was someone who grew up out of his acting years, served our country, and lived his life the way he wanted to live his life. To me, that is far more gallant than how Williams lived his life. So what is the problem here, or more to the point, what is your problem? Stop reading between the lines.
ReplyDeleteOh dear G-d....For someone who makes his living from writing you have a remarkable talent for not understanding the written word!
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing wrong with you honoring this man, if he gave you pleasure through his acting, that's a good thing.
But first you took a swipe at Florence Henderson. It's OK, you're not a fan, you don't have to like her, but you walked all over the grief of her fans. At least it wasn't as bad as what you said when Williams died. And what you just repeated. FYI Williams gave a lot of pleasure to a lot of people, he was a real mensch. Did you read the autopsy report, by the way? No drugs or alcohol were involved, he'd cleaned himself up a long time go. He died from Lewy Body Dementia, which causes both physical and mental issues, including paranoia, delusions, insomnia, memory loss and moods swings. But go ahead, repeat the slander about a drug problem, if it makes you feel justified in your dislike of him.
And then you called out the rest of us for not knowing who he was. A child actor, a bit player in a long-dead movie serial, and we're supposed to be ashamed because we don't know who he is?
Here's what I would have said:
Most of you probably won't know who Schatz is. He played a small but important role in the Our Gang comedies. He did not pursue acting as an adult, but served his country in WW II and later went on to ....I loved the Our Gang movies, and a piece of my childhood went with him....
See what I mean? You want us to feel with you, don't chastise us for not knowing a bit player in a long-dead movie serial.
You should do some reading on Lewy Body Dementia. It's frightening. My father, of blessed memory, suffered from it, the things that came out of his mouth sometimes....
ReplyDeletehttps://www.michaeljfox.org/foundation/news-detail.php?ask-the-md-faqs-on-lewy-body-dementia&smcid=ag-a30U0000005anpJ&s_src=adwords&s_subsrc=Blog_AskMD_LBD&gclid=CL6Dt5mazNACFUxMDQod_r0Jzw