“Buddy Hackett… Buddy Hackett”
Thanks for the laughs…and the happy memories…
I’m staying in my cool apartment, because it's too hot to venture out in The Big Apple today.
When the sun sets, I’ll make my move, meantime I’ve got the “TCM” old movie channel on.
“The Music Man” is doing its musical, colorful best to entertain this old gal. I haven’t seen that movie in years. Who suddenly appears in a dancing singing number but…Comedian Buddy Hackett. Remembering him from the old days makes me smile.
He’s in a printed suit with his tiny, crooked mouth, lump of a nose, hamster like black eyes, & chubby body…totally in his loveable persona.
He was a popular celebrity in the movies, TV, a talk show favorite, a Borscht Circuit entertainer. Buddy H. was from my old Brooklyn neighborhood, but older than my siblings & I.
He was a real character with an endearing Brooklyn accent emitting from his inch -wide twisted mouth. Voice sounded like he was chewing on a wad of bubble gum. It was his wonderful easy connection with audiences…his muffled voice.
Buddy was everyman’s witty natural jokester. Some guy we’d hang out with at the corner candy store, school yard or be our classroom clown. Those of certain age, will recall he was Las Vegas act & a friend of “The Rat Pack”.
A memory of seeing him, was the time he was the feature star entertainer at the Catskill’s Concord Hotel.
My husband & I were seated at the crowded bar with an after-dinner nightcap, when this woman takes the stool next to me. She was just another single woman looking for a guy, at the hotel’s famous pickup bar.
Many singles met their mates at The Concord bar.
When she turned around & started to chat with us… we couldn’t believe our eyes!
It hit us…she was an exact replica of “Buddy Hackett’s face, but with a Raven -red stylish shag hairdo, (fashionable for the era).
