Ed Ames, 95, actor/singer’s life cut short by a tomahawk

[That Derek]

https://variety.com/2023/music/news/ed-ames-dead-daniel-boone-1235626012/

[radioacti...@gmail.com]

Unfortunate news indeed.

The tomahawk schtick with Carson may certainly forever overshadowed Ames's twin careers as both an actor and singer as your headline implies, Derek...but NOT, I'd argue, as much as those lesser-known Ames brothers had THEIR careers hurt when Ed went solo as a singer.

SO: Anyone know if any of the other Ames Brothers are still alive--and maybe even still singing, playing the occasional Holiday Inn piano bar, say--and thus surviving their sadly-late, more showbiz-successful late brother Ed?

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

[Big Mongo]

>
> SO: Anyone know if any of the other Ames Brothers are still alive--and maybe even still singing, playing the occasional Holiday Inn piano bar, say--and thus surviving their sadly-late, more showbiz-successful late brother Ed?

According to Wikipedia: "Vic died in a car accident in 1978 at age 52, Gene died of cancer in 1997 at age 73, and Joe died of a heart attack in 2007 at age 86. Ed was the last surviving member until his death in 2023."

[radioacti...@gmail.com]

Thanks for digging that up, Mongo.

But though The Ames Brothers are 100% no more*, I'll still find myself humming "Rag Mop" every time I clean the kitchen floor. Shan't use its lyrics as a mnemonic for spelling those words, though; too many Gs and Ps. (And I don't know of ANY tune whose spelled-out lyrics include "mnemonic".)

STYBLE/Florida
=============
* Actually, I suppose there COULD be a replacement brother or two available, as Derek's Variety piece mentioned the Ameses had a huge family. (Just as there were two or three--if I recall correctly--additional, never-famous brothers in the The Wright Brothers family of Dayton.

[MJ Emigh]

I've recently been watching a few episodes of "Daniel Boone" hosted by Darby Hinton (who played Israel Boone on the show). Last week, I saw the one that introduced Ed Ames as Mingo, born to a Cherokee mother and British father. Since he was educated at Oxford, the character didn't have to deal with the typical Hollywood Indian-speak. I see that as a plus, although it probably wouldn't fly today, having a Russian Jew play a Native American.

[radioacti...@gmail.com]

That is fascinating information regarding Mingo; don't know if I ever watched Ames in that role for more than the occasional scene here or there as a kid. (When it came frontier series, I was squarely in the F Troop camp.)

Know if they ever worked into a Daniel Boone script any references to cricket, which he as an 19th Century Oxford man surely played, no?

Meanwhile, what's your problem with Hollywood Indian speak?!? Me heave tomahawk! Heap big laughter! Heap many replays!

STYBLE/Florida

[Louis Epstein]

Reuchlin and Lorin were the two older brothers of
Wilbur and Orville.

(Roy and Walt Disney had older brothers too;
and Adolphus Busch and his Anheuser bride
had an older brother and sister (respectively)
who married each other without becoming rich
and famous).

I only recall at the moment that Nicholas,son of
Claes Martenszen van Rosenvelt,had many children,
but not what other sons besides the eldest (whose
family have the tow truck operation in Canajoharie)
avoided fame unlike the lines of Johannes(ancestor
of Theodore) and Jacobus(ancestor of Franklin).

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

[radioacti...@gmail.com]

Hey MJ Emigh*:

Sorry, as after a quick historical check, it turns out I got my centuries confused.

That is, Daniel Boone and his fictive "Man Friday"** aide Mingo flourished in the 18th, not 19th Century, with the NBC series set around the time just prior to the American Revolution, not the early decades of the 1800s.

I don't know for certain, but I doubt they were playing cricket at Oxford--or anywhere else--when Ed Ames's character would have been studying there in the 1760s. Of course, anachronisms are distressingly common in TV and movie scripts, not to mention plays (isn't there a famous one in a Shakespeare scene, where some ancient character notes the chiming of a clock, centuries if not millennia before the timekeepers were invented?).

So if the Daniel Boone writers were on their game, they wouldn't have EVER cited Mingo's cricket experience. Which is fine by me, as I've never understood its confounding rules anyway. (Nor why cricket players are known by the clunky-sounding word cricketers, rather than cricketeers.)

STYBLE/Florida
=============
* You never answered my question as to how your surname Emigh is properly pronounced--which I would think is rather important to anyone in showbiz (believe you told me awhile back that you do (or at least formerly performed) a stand-up comedy act, no?). You see, to a lifelong "radio guy" like me, proper pronunciation isn't merely a broadcast nicety, but a downright NECESSITY. Oh, and did you use "M.J." onstage, or instead whatever M- and J-names those initials stand for? ****
** Not an allusion to Mingo's role as Daniel Boone's sidekick, but rather to Daniel Defoe's celebrated novel about that OTHER fictional castaway***, that one never portrayed by Tom Hanks.
*** Actually, the Robinson Caruso--sorry, heard the "Gilligan's Island" theme song too many times!--character WAS based on a real historical figure, a marooned sailor named Alexander Selkirk, for whom the southwest Pacific isle to where he was banished is now named. But Selkirk's real solo stay of about a half-decade was sure a LOT briefer than Crusoe's fictional one. If I recall accurately [from a synopsis, NOT the full Defoe text, a classic I've never gotten around to reading] was something like a quarter-century, no? Another difference: Selkirk never had some noble-savage pal he named Friday (or after any other day of the week).
**** And I'm guessing Emigh is a [subcontinental] Indian or perhaps Pakistani name? Because until you set me straight on this, in my mind's eye I'm imagining a Dinesh D'Souza-lookalike, onstage mike-in-hand in front of a (phony) brick wall at a some comedy club in Sanford, Florida, perhaps even with the not-long-for-this-world Trevon Martin in your audience who's maybe even sharing a table with George Zimmerman*****.
***** No relation to The Guy with the Funny Nose, the Funnier Hair and the Funniest Voice.

[A Friend]

In article <17f0c2ed-3c94-4ede...@googlegroups.com>,

<"radioacti...@gmail.com"> wrote:

> *** Actually, the Robinson Caruso--sorry, heard the "Gilligan's Island" theme
> song too many times!--character WAS based on a real historical figure, a
> marooned sailor named Alexander Selkirk, for whom the southwest Pacific isle
> to where he was banished is now named. But Selkirk's real solo stay of about
> a half-decade was sure a LOT briefer than Crusoe's fictional one. If I
> recall accurately [from a synopsis, NOT the full Defoe text, a classic I've
> never gotten around to reading] was something like a quarter-century, no?

Yes. Crusoe notes in his journal that he was marooned for 28 years,
two months and 19 days.

[MJ Emigh]

On Saturday, May 27, 2023 at 6:39:02 AM UTC-5, radioacti...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hey MJ Emigh*:

Hey, Bryan!

First, I need to congratulate you on your ability to speak "Indian." Heap good job.

I became friends with Jay Silverheels (best known as Tonto to Clayton Moore's Lone Ranger) through a business he was involved in in the early '70s. I would guess that he was about 30 years older than me (I was still in high school at the beginning), but we somehow just hit it off. People recognized him all the time and asked for autographs anywhere we went. He kind of brought it on himself, wearing really beautiful jackets made by Mohawk artisans in Canada. I never saw it happen, but he said that every once in a while he got a comment like, "How did you learn to speak like normal Americans?" Sheesh....

There is no way to pronounce my surname. It varies both in spelling and pronunciation around the country. I try to avoid it and stick with MJ. I tried your radio game many decades ago, where I was called Mark Jaye. I was really lousy at it. It was just when cart machines were coming in to replace records. It was stupid and led to the downfall of the relationship between the DJ and the audience. I was done with that in under a year. As a result, I have great respect for guys like you.

HA! No, the name is Dutch. The little village where the dude who came here is from is now in Germany. I'm mostly Irish, but it just takes one Dutch guy to mess things up. The original spelling appears to be Eighmey. And, no, I'm not a comedian. I set regular magic aside about 30 years ago and have been doing mentalism since then as corporate entertainment. I retired mid-pandemic, but still do a few gigs for repeat clients.

MJ

[A Friend]

In article <b35375fc-bc88-40f7...@googlegroups.com>,

<"radioacti...@gmail.com"> wrote:

> The tomahawk schtick with Carson

I still think that was done on purpose.

[Diner]

Nope. Ames discussed it a few years ago on The Carson Podcast.
Since he didn't know how to throw a tomahawk, he practiced the night before at home, damaging some trees on his property.
The next day at rehearsal, he threw the tomahawk and it landed perfectly in the middle of the figure's chest. But one of the producers was afraid that it might fly off and injure someone, so he covered the handle with tape to weigh it down. So when Ames threw the tomahawk, it landed a few inches further down. The rest is history.
https://carsonpodcast.com/ed-ames/

[A Friend]

In article <ca0152d4-ac45-41ed...@googlegroups.com>,
Diner <bway...@gmail.com> wrote:

Fair enough. Thanks.