Whatever happened to Northern Calloway (Sesame Street's David)
Virgilio (Dean) B. Velasco Jr.
A few years ago, the "David" character disappeared from
Sesame Street. Whatever happened to him? Moreover, whatever
happened to the guy who played him?
--
Virgilio "Dean" Velasco Jr, Department of Electrical Eng'g and Applied Physics
graduate student slave, roboticist-in-training and Q wannabee
Beam me up, Scotty. |I practice the safest form of sex| Why did the chicken
It ate my phaser. | known. It's called abstinence. | cross the Mobius strip?
Leslie E. Frates
>
> A few years ago, the "David" character disappeared from
> Sesame Street. Whatever happened to him? Moreover, whatever
> happened to the guy who played him?
Northern Calloway died in 1991, in his early 40's. I do not remember
what the cause of death was. Apparently it was very sudden as he had
just finished taping his last show of the season just weeks before. He
had decided to "retire" from the show that season (and I would conclude
it was for health reasons, considering his youth and the early retirement).
--
*************************************************************************
Leslie E. Frates (lfr...@nis.CalState.EDU)
Lecturer, Dept. of Foreign Languages & Literatures
California State University, Hayward
"I'll take Foreign Phrases for $1000, Alex"
*************************************************************************
Mark Wojcik
various reasons. We often treasure them because they're amusing,
entertaining, or whatever...without really being sure how accurate they are.
As much fun as these books may be, they're much more useful if one knows how
many errors they contain.
Therefore...as long as we're discussing the best and worst trivia books of all
time, why not solicit comments on *any* given trivia book?
At the moment, I'm leafing through _Isaac Asimov's Big Book of Facts_ between
other projects. This book is huge and full of interesting stuff...but I don't
really have any way of knowing how much of it may be erroneous.
Any opinions out there about this particular book?
Mark Wojcik
>v...@giskard.eeap.cwru.edu (Virgilio (Dean) B. Velasco Jr.) writes:
>>
>> A few years ago, the "David" character disappeared from
>> Sesame Street. Whatever happened to him? Moreover, whatever
>> happened to the guy who played him?
>
>Northern Calloway died in 1991, in his early 40's. I do not remember
>what the cause of death was. Apparently it was very sudden as he had
>just finished taping his last show of the season just weeks before. He
>had decided to "retire" from the show that season (and I would conclude
>it was for health reasons, considering his youth and the early retirement).
I haven't had time to read and post to this board for a while now (although
you can see some of my greatest hits now playing on afu), but when I saw this
post I knew I had to contribute.
My understanding was that "David" (Northern J. Calloway) left the show
because, ah, he was suffering from a psychological condition which interfered
with his work. Is that a nice enough way to say it?
As an example, let me describe a memorable example which is chronicled in
_More News of the Weird_ (Shepherd, Kohut, and Sweet):
Unfortunately, the book fails to give the actual year that this occurred, but
it does mention that Calloway was 32 at the time, so we can deduce that this
happened around 1980.... Calloway
"...went on a rampage through a residential neighborhood, beating
a woman with an iron rod, taking a schoolbag from a child waiting
for a school bus, breaking a car windshield with a rock, smashing
the plate-glass window of a house, and vandalizing the interior
of another home."
Calloway ran naked (!) into the garage of one Douglas Wright and spilled a bag
of herbicide on the ground, after which he proceded to roll around on the
ground.
Wright, who had understandably gotten his gun, fired a shot into the air.
Calloway began screaming that he had been shot, then ran over to the Wrights'
birdbath and began washing himself off and saying that he worked for the CIA.
_More News of the Weird_ concludes by saying,
"As he was being taken away, strapped to a stretcher, Calloway
screamed, 'I'm David of *Sesame Street*, and they're trying to
kill me.'"
So, now we know, at least in part, what happened to David. What I want to
know is:
-- what ever happened to that robot they used to have on the show?
-- why did Gordon shave his head?
Virgilio (Dean) B. Velasco Jr.
>
>So, now we know, at least in part, what happened to David. What I want to
>know is:
>
>-- what ever happened to that robot they used to have on the show?
>
>-- why did Gordon shave his head?
>
>
Gordon didn't shave his head. Sesame Street pulled a Darren
on us by using a different actor. The old Gordon was Rae
Dawn Chong's father.
What I want to know is why Bob and Linda still haven't tied
the knot. I mean, they've been dating for years now! :-)
--
Virgilio "Dean" Velasco Jr, Department of Electrical Eng'g and Applied Physics
graduate student slave, roboticist-in-training and Q wannabe
Bill T.
: At the moment, I'm leafing through _Isaac Asimov's Big Book of Facts_ between
: other projects. This book is huge and full of interesting stuff...but I don't
: really have any way of knowing how much of it may be erroneous.
: Any opinions out there about this particular book?
This is another pretty good "bathroom" book. I don't remember finding any
errors. And for those folks addicted to playing NTN trivia at the local
bar, his anecdotal method of presenting his facts makes it easier to
recall some of this stuff than just browsing a question and answer trivia
book.
--
pest...@netcom.com
Tony Redman
Virgilio (Dean) B. Velasco Jr. <v...@giskard.eeap.cwru.edu> wrote:
>
>Gordon didn't shave his head. Sesame Street pulled a Darren
>on us by using a different actor. The old Gordon was Rae
>Dawn Chong's father.
>
Regardless, they did change Gordons. I don't remember how smooth the
switch was. I guess the one Gordon went away for awhile and then this new
guy just showed up.
Tony
tony....@launchpad.unc.edu
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Virgilio (Dean) B. Velasco Jr.
>In article <321q0i$4...@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>,
>Virgilio (Dean) B. Velasco Jr. <v...@giskard.eeap.cwru.edu> wrote:
>>
>>Gordon didn't shave his head. Sesame Street pulled a Darren
>>on us by using a different actor. The old Gordon was Rae
>>Dawn Chong's father.
>>
>I thought Tommy Chong (of Cheech and Chong fame) was Rae Dawn Chong's father.
I think you're right. I stand corrected.
Well, he was SOMEBODY's father.
chakravorty bonnie jean
National Enquirier, and in one of those august publications they showed a full
body picture of a very over weight and pathetic Northern Calloway. According to
the article, he suffered from mental problems, and committed suicide. I guess
interested parties could do a search. This was very sad news for me because I
enjoyed him in the role of David and whatever his problem was, it didn't show
on Sesame St..