Ewell Gibbons death question
busb...@my-deja.com
I am not sure if I have the spelling correct. About 20 years ago there
was this guy doing some commercials for health food (grape nuts, my
fuzzy memory thinks), and he became quite famous ( for an ad hocker ).
I seem to remember a rumor or urban legend that he died from food
poisoning or something ironic like that. Kind of like Jim Fixx
dropping dead while jogging. Does someone remember the specifics of
his cause of death and his age? Thanks,
WILLIAM
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Before you buy.
Brad Ferguson
> I am not sure if I have the spelling correct. About 20 years ago there
> was this guy doing some commercials for health food (grape nuts, my
> fuzzy memory thinks), and he became quite famous ( for an ad hocker ).
>
> I seem to remember a rumor or urban legend that he died from food
> poisoning or something ironic like that. Kind of like Jim Fixx
> dropping dead while jogging. Does someone remember the specifics of
> his cause of death and his age? Thanks,
>
> WILLIAM
Euell Gibbons (note spelling) died in 1977. His date of birth is given
as September 8, 1910 or 1911, so pick an age.
Gibbons had written a clutch of books about so-called natural foods,
including edible wild growth, and this gave him a sort of
Ansel-Adams-of-Food image. He wasn't well known before he started
doing the Grape Nuts commercials about thirty years ago, but afterward
he was terribly famous.
Grape Nuts tasted horrible, so it was positioned as natural and good
for you, presumably on the theory that it tasted so bad that it _must_
be good for you. Gibbons' initial commercial for it had the line that
Grape Nuts "reminds me of wild hickory nuts." No one ever stopped to
think about just how bad wild hickory nuts might taste. Used coffee
grounds is a good approximation.
Gibbons didn't die of food poisoning. He had a terrible case of ulcers
and medicated himself with huge doses of aspirin (which was probably
the worst thing he could have done), and this untreated condition led
to his death. Three or four of his books are still in print.
RChamp7927
>Gibbons had written a clutch of books about so-called natural foods,
>including edible wild growth, and this gave him a sort of
>Ansel-Adams-of-Food image.
Ah yes, who could ever forget his famed tome, _Stalking the Wild Asparagus_?
I wonder if anyone will ever call Ansel Adams the Euell Gibbons of Art.
Bob Champ
MadCow57
for you, presumably on the theory that it tasted so bad that it _must_
Sez who? I like Grape Nuts.
Brad Ferguson
<madc...@aol.com> wrote:
There are two kinds of people in the world ...
Brad Ferguson
<je...@nyc.rr.com> wrote:
> wasn't he the guy who keeled over, and died, on the set of
> the tonight show starring johnny carson during the show's taping?
> didn't it play out like this: johnny asked Ewell, "how are you
> feeling?" Ewell replied, "never felt better johnny," then died.
No, but it sure makes a great story, doesn't it?
J.I. Rodale, the nutrition guru, died during a taping of Dick Cavett's
talk show circa 1971, but he wasn't the person that Cavett was
interviewing at the time. Rodale let out a snore as he died, which
prompted Cavett to ask him if they were boring him. The show was never
broadcast, but ABC technicians and their descendants have been playing
the tape at parties for decades.
Jeff
the tonight show starring johnny carson during the show's taping?
didn't it play out like this: johnny asked Ewell, "how are you
feeling?" Ewell replied, "never felt better johnny," then died.
jeff
Chuck Bridgeland
>wasn't he the guy who keeled over, and died, on the set of
>the tonight show starring johnny carson during the show's taping?
>didn't it play out like this: johnny asked Ewell, "how are you
>feeling?" Ewell replied, "never felt better johnny," then died.
Nope, that was Robert Rodale, another natural foods "enthusiast"/nut. (I
think his first name was Robert.)
The story I remember is that he'd just boasted that he'd live to be 100.
--
The Beast of the Apocalypse could be stamping 666 on everybody's
foreheads and beheading the faithful and the American news media would
tell us that we the people just want to "get on with our lives."
Chuck Bridgeland, chuckbri-at-mwci-dot-net
http://users.mwci.net/~chuckbri/PGPKEYS.TXT
BKeith9508
>for you, presumably on the theory that it tasted so bad that it _must_
>be good for you.<< -- Brad Ferguson
>
>Sez who? I like Grape Nuts.
>
>
>
>
>
Remember, if God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it!!
When God calls you does he get a busy signal?
"Snap out of it!" -- Cher, Moonstruck
Surfwriter
Healing System" (aka: Fruitarianism) die while peeling a fig in the
Swiss Alps? (According to what I heard, he stopped his Mercedes
convertible and got out to admire the view & enjoy a fig or two.
Unfortunately, he forgot to put his handbrake on.)
busb...@my-deja.com wrote:
>
> I am not sure if I have the spelling correct. About 20 years ago there
> was this guy doing some commercials for health food (grape nuts, my
> fuzzy memory thinks), and he became quite famous ( for an ad hocker ).
>
> I seem to remember a rumor or urban legend that he died from food
> poisoning or something ironic like that. Kind of like Jim Fixx
> dropping dead while jogging. Does someone remember the specifics of
> his cause of death and his age? Thanks,
>
> WILLIAM
>
PirateJohn
(Chuck Bridgeland) writes:
>>wasn't he the guy who keeled over, and died, on the set of
>>the tonight show starring johnny carson during the show's taping?
>>didn't it play out like this: johnny asked Ewell, "how are you
>>feeling?" Ewell replied, "never felt better johnny," then died.
>
>Nope, that was Robert Rodale, another natural foods "enthusiast"/nut. (I
>think his first name was Robert.)
I think you'll find that Rodale died in an auto accident in Russia.
Someone posted here that Gibbons died from severe stomach ulcers but I sorta
remember that he died from stomach cancer. Whatever the cause, it was,
ironically, a digestive disorder.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pirat...@aol.com
Keeper of the Humour List at http://members.aol.com/PirateJohn/pirate1.html
"Mother, mother ocean... I have heard your call" - Jimmy Buffett, A Pirate
Looks At Forty.
Wild John
event):
Jerome Rodale (died 5 June 1971)
In a New York Times Magazine interview, this 72-year-old
longevity guru announced, "I'm going to live to be 100, unless
I'm run down by a sugar-crazed taxi driver." A guest on the Dick
Cavett Show the next day, while Cavett was discussing politics
with journalist Pete Hamill, Rodale's head dropped to his chest
and he was heard to let out what sounded like a snore. "Are we
boring you, Mr. Rodale?" asked Cavett. There was no response --
Rodale was dead. The show was never broadcast.
I think Frank Zappa said it best when he told us "You are what
you is."
Truer words were never (snooooooooooore)...
-----------------------------------------------------------
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Wild John
http://www.snopes.com/spoons/
Giving credit where credit is due.
Brad Ferguson
<pirat...@aol.comSPAMNOT> wrote:
> In article <slrn8ohpld....@kosh.bridgeland.org>, chuc...@mwci.net
> (Chuck Bridgeland) writes:
>
> >>wasn't he the guy who keeled over, and died, on the set of
> >>the tonight show starring johnny carson during the show's taping?
> >>didn't it play out like this: johnny asked Ewell, "how are you
> >>feeling?" Ewell replied, "never felt better johnny," then died.
> >
> >Nope, that was Robert Rodale, another natural foods "enthusiast"/nut. (I
> >think his first name was Robert.)
>
>
> I think you'll find that Rodale died in an auto accident in Russia.
That's right. The father, J.I. Rodale, died on the Cavett show in
1971; the son, Robert, died in a taxi accident in Moscow in 1990.
Note the other post citing "the sugar-crazed taxi driver" reference
that the senior Rodale supposedly made on the Cavett show. He never
actually said it, but now you know where it probably came from.
Louis Epstein
: On Fri, 04 Aug 2000 01:06:58 GMT, Jeff <je...@nyc.rr.com> wrote:
:
: >wasn't he the guy who keeled over, and died, on the set of
: >the tonight show starring johnny carson during the show's taping?
: >didn't it play out like this: johnny asked Ewell, "how are you
: >feeling?" Ewell replied, "never felt better johnny," then died.
:
: Nope, that was Robert Rodale, another natural foods "enthusiast"/nut. (I
: think his first name was Robert.)
No,as stated previously in the thread,that was J.I. Rodale...
and the show was not Carson's...
Robert Rodale,who succeeded him as head of Rodale Press and is also
dead,was J.I. Rodale's son.
The press is apparently best known for its health-related things
like Prevention magazine,but I first came into contact with the
name with their book THE SYNONYM FINDER and a companion.
: The story I remember is that he'd just boasted that he'd live to be 100.
BALKI2
" The US authority on wild edible food began his career in sheer desperation
in the 1920s. His family had moved to New Mexico where his father was forced to
leave them to find work. When the food supply was down to a few pinto beans,
Euell took a knapsack up into the mountains and returned with it full of
puffball mushrooms, pinon nuts and the fruits of the yellow prickly pear.The
family survived for a month wholly on what he provided.
Over the years Euell ranged from cowboy to beachcomber, once living
exclusively on wild food for five years. When he was in his 50s a literary
agent persuaded him to write his first book "Stalking The Wild Asparagus", and
during the next ten years he published six books on the subjext he knew so
well. He warned amateurs to shun mushrooms and start with " raccoon pie and
cattail salad-they never hurt anyone."
He indignantly denied that wild foods had caused the ulcer he developed in
1974, blaming it instead on the many aspirin he had taken to relieve arthritis.
Late on December 29, 1975 he was rushed from his farnhouse in Beavertown,PA,
where he lived with his wife Freda, to the Sunbury Community Hospital. Upon
arrival he was pronounced dead of a heart attack."
John F. Gross
("You know, many parts of a pine cone are edible." E.G.)
JG
<busb...@my-deja.com> wrote in message news:8mb15j$463$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...