iijrrn-mratirn t^ilirarg
The NEW BERN
PUBLISHID WBBKLY
IN THI HIART OP
^ «4STBRN NORTH
INA
I
400 0^1 ri^
,. -^s
/.r*
^0
i
VOLUME 12
NEW BERN, N. C. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1970
NUMBER 46
Yesterday was when New
Bern's radio listeners wouldn't
think of missing Major Bowes
and his weekly "Amateur
Hour." Boweswas around from
1934 to 1948- After his death,
Ted Mack took over.
Mack, his real name is Wil
liam Edward Maguiness, turn
ed musician in High school at
Greeley, Colorado. He couldn't
read music, but iater teamed
in Hollywood with a couple of
other hopeful bandsmen, Glenn
Miller and Matty Malnick.
Gentlemanly, and instinct
ively polished, he left radio
for television 22 years ago,
and has been on the tube ever
since. Don't regard him light
ly, for included among his dis
coveries were Frank Sinatra,
Robert Merrill, Maria Cal
lus, Pat Boone, Connie Fran
cis, and Jack Carter.
Sinatra wasn't even a soloist
when Mack gave him his chance,
but the cockiest member of a
Brooklyn quartet called the Ho
boken Four. Mack humorously
recalls his "dese, dem and
dose" accent, and the songthe
group sang, "A Bold in de
Gilded Cage."
Yesterday was when you
could see proof on every street
that New Bern wasn't a one-
horse town, and kids who used
foul language got their mouth
washed out with Octagon soap.
Yesterday was when West
ern Union had competition from
Postal Telegraph, and every
church had a bell. There were
several tobacco warehouses in
the village, and you bought your
oysters right off the boat, at the
market dock down at the end of
Middle street.
Every school desk included
an ink well. Fountain pens were
only for pupils with rich par
ents, and tte bail-point type
were unheard of. Those staff
pens they expected you to write
with legibly were best used to
puncture the posterior of the
boy seated in front of you.
Yesterday was when one of
the most popular motor men on
Callie McCarthy’s streetcars.
Captain Bill Davis, sported a
moustache that put one in mind
of a friendly walrus. KingWat-
son, owner and operator of a
famed riverfront eatery, wore
impressive foliage above the
upper lip too, but his made him
look like a plump rooster.
Yesterday was when every
body, even poor folks, had two
houses. The little one, out back,
usually got capsized by devilish
young ramblers on Halloween...
Fastidious ladles preferred to
do their snuff dipping on the sly,
and didn't use a long tooth
brush.
Yesterday was when a barber
was happy to shave you in ex
change for twenty cents, and a
quarter got you a good haircut.
Customers squawked to hi^
heaven when the price soared to
forty cents. Electric clippers
were yet to arrive on the scene,
and those hand clippers pulled
like all get out.
Yesterday was when the only
phonograph record that came
close to challenging the popu
larity of Gene Austin's "My
Blue Heaven" was Moran and
Mack's "Two Black Crows."
Sales of Johnny Marvin's "Old
Man Sunshine" also ran high.
Earlier, the record most in de
mand was "Mr. Gallagher and
Mr. Sheen."
Now why would anyone keep
(Continued on Page 8)
Enjoy the rare spectacle, but protect your eyes North Carolina. Cloudless skies could make the sight
from harmful rays, when Saturday s solar eclipse an even greater attraction ^
hangs its curtain of day-time darkness above eastern