Two FBI Agents Come Clean on JFK Assassination

Two FBI Agents Come Clean on JFK Assassination 

THE FBI & the Assassination of President Kennedy

Unlike the Secret Service, whose director Chief Rowley thought it unwise to reprimand any of the Secret Service agents over lapses during the assassination, many FBI agents were reprimanded for a variety of reasons.

Now, nearly a half-century later, we have the reports and confessions of a number of agents who not only recognize there were plots and a conspiracy behind what happened at Dealey Plaza, but offer modus operandi and legitimate suspects who were known at the time, but officially covered up.

“From An Office with A High Powered Rifle” – A Report To The Public From An FBI Agent Involved In The Official JFK Assassination Investigation (Trinday, 2012), is former FBI agent Don Adams’ story of his personal investigation of Joseph A. Milteer, a right-wing fanatic who was caught on an informant’s tape saying President Kennedy would be killed “from an office with a high powered rife,” a threat that was kept from Milteer when he was ordered to locate and interrogate Milteer.

Just as FBI agents were kept from informing other agencies of information they collected on those who would become 9/11 hijackers, Don Adams was shocked to learn, after the JFK Act forced the release of many assassination records, that he was kept in the dark at the time he was investigating the assassination. It was only years later that he learned that the man whose case he was assigned had been recorded on tape predicting the murder and how it would be accomplished by a Florida police informant, that his suspect was photographed in Dallas on the day of the assassination, and he later bragged that he was there.

Despite the fact that an FBI document falsely claims that Milteer was at home in George at the time of the assassination, Adams knows he wasn’t because Adams was at Milteer’s house that day looking for him. When Milteer finally arrived at his girlfriend’s home a week later, Adams took him into custody, but was continually frustrated by other FBI agent’s attempts to cover their ass. Adams wasn’t even aware of the extent of the cover-up until he was shown some of the record released under the JFK Act.

When finally shown the transcript of the police informant’s conversation with Milteer, Adams was shocked to read that Milteer not only said the assassination would be accomplished “from an office with a high powered rifle,” but that “they will pick up somebody within hours afterwards…just to throw the public off.”

While working for the FBI in Ohio, Adams became familiar with Leo “Lips” Moceri, who Chauncey Holt, a self-professed tramp, con artists and syndicate accountant first mentioned as being in Dallas at the time of the assassination. While Moceri later disappeared, Adams says that in 1976 he located Moceri’s car in hotel parking lot, and he is sure Moceri is dead because his clothes and golf clubs were covered with blood.

I can identify with Don Adams, and his frustrations, as we are both sons of police detectives. I can understand his desire to make it in the FBI on his own without the benefit of his father’s friendship with Cartha DeLoach, a high ranking FBI official whose name is cc’d on nearly every FBI document related to the assassination.

Like my father, a Camden, NJ detective, Adams had the highest regard for the FBI and was proud he was an agent, serving “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” until he was convinced otherwise by the real evidence, and sadly learned that justice was never served, at least in the case of JFK.

My father had a similar high regard and opinion of the FBI, until a new agent was assigned to the Camden office and he was asked to show him the lay of the land. My dad later told me that after giving the new agent a tour of the high crime areas of the city, he took him out to Garden State Race Track where he pointed out a few organized crime characters and bookies. A few weeks later, one of the bookies complained that the new FBI guy was shaking him down for hundreds of dollars a week, thus changing my dad’s opinion of the FBI.

Those involved in such organized crime operations know who the bad cops are, the ones that will take a bribe, and they call them the “right coppers,” as opposed to the “wrong coppers,” or good cops who won’t take a bribe. Don Adams was a good FBI agent and to the criminals, a “wrong copper,” but he didn’t know who the bad FBI agents were when was working with them, and only later, belatedly figured them out.

High on Adams’ list today is J. Edgar Hoover himself, of whom he says, “If one looks clearly at the entire window concerning the assassination and asks what one major player could influence the investigation, the answer would have to be J. Edgar Hoover. I do not make that powerful statement lightly. Nonetheless, I have come to believe that it was the actions of the director of the FBI that facilitated the cover-up.”

After serving in the backwaters of Georgia, where he was handed the Milteer case, until it was covered up, Don Adams was assigned to the Dallas FBI office, where he had the opportunity to meet some of the other agents involved in the “investigation” of the president’s murder, including J. Gordon Shanklin and Robert Gemberling.

Their names are well known to JFK assassination researchers since Shanklin was in charge of the Dallas FBI office and he assigned Gemberling to investigate all the leads that came in after the assassination. After they both retired, Gemberling took exception to an interview Adams gave to a local Ohio newspaper, going on the record against the lone gunman theory promoted by Gemberling. Both men exchanged long letters. Then Adams attempted to straighten out some of the misconceptions Gemberling flouted in an article in the (Nov. 2003) issue of Grapevine, the official publication of retired FBI agents. But the editor would not publish Adam’s rebuttal.

“I knew that nothing would change his beliefs,” Adams writes, “not even evidence that should have at least made him question the veracity of his investigation. I have come to believe that Gemberling could not be dissuaded because he was following LBJ and FBI Director Hoover’s directive that Oswald had to be the shooter. Gemberling wrote of the outstanding work done by the FBI agents in this investigation and how proud he was of their work. But that work was tainted by corruption from above….There are too many witness statements from too many different people that contradicts the official findings.”

While the editors of the official FBI publication wouldn’t publish Don Adams rebuttal of the official findings and conclusions, Kris Millegan, publisher at TrinDay has no such reservations. Millegan gets personally involved in each book he publishes, and notes that, “There is much to learn from Adams’ story: connivance, deceit, and distraction by federal officials both before and after the assassination to deflect inquiry from its natural course and affect its outcome. And there is something there.” 

There certainly is something there. Adams himself concludes, “As the 50^th anniversary of this great tragedy approaches, it is time to begin again. Americans and people around the world have the right to know as much of the truth as can be learned.” 

M. WESLEY SWEARINGEN

M. Wesley Swearingen, a 25 year veteran of the FBI had to self-publish his own book, “To Kill A President” – Finally – An Ex-FBI Agent rips aside the Veil of secrecy that Killed JFK.

Swearingen, who faithfully served the bureau for a quarter of a century, eventually “came clean” and in an earlier book, “FBI SECRETS – An Agent’s Expose,” (South End Press, Boston) reported on FBI “corruption and wrongdoing,” including “black bag jobs” - breaking and entering private offices and residences to conduct illegal searchers, and COINTELPRO, the counter-intelligence program that targeted suspects J. Edgar Hoover thought subversive.

Swearingen served in the Chicago FBI office, where Guy Bannister had been the Special Agent In Charge before he ran Lee Harvey Oswald as an agent provocateur in New Orleans.

Chicago is where Swearingen worked closely with William F. Roemer, Jr., a big blow-hard whose book “Roemer: Man Against the Mob,” falsely portrays how he gave the Chicago mob a hard time, when he actually protected their operations, in league with the CIA, to plot the assassination of Fidel Castro and partake in the conspiracy that led to the death of JFK. 

When I read in Roemer’s book how he tapped the phones and the cocktail conversations of Sam Giancana, John Rosselli and the crooked cop Richard Cain and others, I realized he was full of it, and Swearingen confirms it.

Swearingen had an informant, an anti-Castro Cuban he calls “Ramon,” who was trained by the CIA at JM/WAVE who told him all about the Chicago mob’s connections to the Cubans, to the CIA and their plans for the Bay of Pigs and to kill Castro and Kennedy.

Cain was shot in the face with a shotgun by a masked gunman in Rose’s Sandwich Shop in Chicago on December 20, 1973, Giancana was killed, shot in the back of the head a few days before he was to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978, and Rosselli shortly after he testified, turned up in pieces stuffed in a 50 gallon oil drum floating in the Florida bay.

Among the characters in Swearingen’s book are Judith Campbell Exner, girlfriend of Frank Sinatra, JFK and Sam Giancana, who was questioned by the FBI in Swearingen’s apartment, Oliver “Buck” Revell, another FBI official who is also exposed as a blow-hard, and William Sullivan, Hoover’s assistant who was killed in 1978 in a hunting accident.

While there isn’t much documentary evidence to support his version of events, like Don Adams documents published in the appendix of his book, Swearingen’s story rings true, and fits all the facts of the case as I know them.

TrinDay & A Memoir of Injustice

A Memoir of Injustice (TrinDay, 2011)
by Jerry Ray as told to Tamara Carter, with an Afterward by Judge Joe Brown.

From the moment Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed it was clear there was a war on, not a race war, a perspective encouraged at the time, but because the violence also consumed the lives of John and Robert Kennedy, it was a war over the hearts and minds and political lives of the America people.

It is a war that continues today, a violent one that uses murder and assassination as a tool in the chest of strategists who remain behind the scenes and immune from justice, and a war that is manifest in the refusal of the government to release the now historical investigative records of the Congressional investigation into the murder of Dr. King.

The assassination of MLK is not unique in the failure of the government to bring justice to an historic homicide, or release of the relevant government records, as that is also the case with the JFK and RFK assassinations. More specifically in the MLK case, the government failed to put the accused assassin on a fair or thorough trial, or to properly identify and locate the shadowy Latin smuggler “Raoul,” who holds the key to the true powers behind the assassination, thus requiring amateur sleuths, civilians, historians and the younger brother of the accused to do the job.

While there are dozens of other books that go into the details more thoroughly, Jerry Ray’s view of the proceedings is fascinating and reads like a Raymond Chandler novel, without pulling any punches, short, crisp and to the point.

The early part of the book, describing the dysfunctional and basically criminal nature of the Ray family, is a sad tale that sets the stage for how Ray could have been easily  persuaded to be part of the plot or, like Oswald, set up as the patsy and fall guy.

One might expect the brother of the accused to stick up for his kin, even after James Earl Ray died in prison, but Jerry’s story is engaging and believable, and thanks to T. Carter, is delivered in a style that serves a fine example of the proper way to draw out oral history from a closely engaged witness like Jerry Ray.

Jerry first learned the authorities were looking for his brother when he heard they were after a suspect named Eric Galt, which he knew was an alias James Ray had used. He immediately drove to St. Louis to talk to another brother who owned the Grapevine Tavern, a seedy, shot and beer joint on the hard side of town.

After James was caught in England, and the details began to emerge, Jerry learned that when the alleged getaway car was located, “Don Wilson, a 25 year-old agent with the Atlanta FBI office, was one of two agents who made the initial response. While the senior agent conferred with Atlanta police, Wilson opened the driver’s side door and two pieces of paper fell out. Thinking the papers were insignificant and that possibly he had messed up a crime scene, Wilson stashed the two pieces of paper inside his pocket. It was not until later that Wilson discover the great significance of the two pieces of paper: they had the name ‘Raoul’ written on them…”

From prison, James Earl Ray asked his brother to check out a guy “Randy Robenson,” whose name was on the back of a card “Raoul” had, a card from the Le Bunny Lounge on Canal Street in New Orleans.

A cab driver told Jerry the club was probably one of Carlos Marcello’s joints, and as Jerry relates: “At the time, Carlos Marcello was the biggest crime boss in the United States, his criminal empire claiming the entire Gulf region, even stretching into parts of the Caribbean. At the time, there was strong evidence that Marcello, who harbored bitter hatred for Robert F. and John F. Kennedy, had played a direct role in JFK’s assassination.”

As recounted by Jerry, “I walked inside, sat down at the bar and ordered a beer. To my surprise, Le Bunny Lounge was an average place. There were only a few other customers there, and they were sitting at tables away from the bar. The cocktail waitress was an attractive woman. We started talking back and forth. I asked her if she knew Randy Robenson. She stared my way and said, ‘Who’s asking?’ I didn’t beat around the bush, and replied, ‘Twenty Dollar Bill, that’s who.’…”

She knew a Randolph Robenson, a guy from Florida who came in with a Latin looking guy, good tippers.

Jerry thought it significant, “Jimmy and Raoul meeting at Le Bunny Lounge, owned by a New Orleans crime boss, an acquaintance of Percy Foreman, an attorney with ties to both the Kennedy and King assassination – the pieces were coming together, and a big picture was starting to take shape. It was not a pretty picture.”

Though Ray never acknowledged killing King, and it is questionable that his rifle that was left at the scene was the one used in the shooting, Percy Foreman, who became James Earl Ray’s lawyer, convinced Ray to plead guilty to avoid the death sentence, and also avoid a trial during which all the facts in the case would have emerged.

Some of those facts would come out during the 1978 House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) investigation and two subsequent civil trials, one led by Dr. William Pepper on behalf of the King family that resulted in the conviction of co-conspirators, thus proving conspiracy. The other case was COPA v. DOD – (Coalition on Political Assassinations and Department of Defense) that sought the release of Army Intelligence files on Dr. King in the last two months of his life, and though COPA lost the case on appeal, the DOD did release an after action summary of the reports, which clearly indicated they had maintained a very close surveillance of King and in fact, watched him being murdered.

William Pepper once said that he had identified “Raoul” and even talked with him on the phone, but since then, we haven’t heard much more about the shadowy Latin smuggler, or whether the other leads were properly followed and investigated. Pepper's suspect is described and his photograph printed in his book, An Act of State.

Memphis Judge Joe Brown, now of TV Court fame, presided over James Earl Ray's last court appeal before he died, and tested the alleged murder weapon against the bullet removed from Dr. King's body. Judge Brown claims the rifle ballistics don't match and it should be tested properly. Instead it sits in a case in the Civil Rights Museum at what was once the Loraine Hotel where King was killed. Judge Brown writes an appropriate afterword for this book.

The records on the Martin L. King assassination of the HSCA are still locked away, and were not included among the JFK Assassinations Records Act as they should have been, though they can and should be released by an act of Congress, if people will only ask them to do so.

Justice many never be served in this case, as Jerry Ray concludes, but history still can be, if the relevant government records are released to the public, as they should be.

TRINDAY – A few words about the publisher – TrinDay.

Not your traditional mainstream publisher, TrinDay is run out of Walterville, Oregon, by Kris Millegan, who asks, “Will we stand up and take back our country from the crooks, cronies and cabals?”

Millegan has found a nice niche, publishing radical and conspiratorial, though historically documented books that are too hot or controversial for other publishers to handle.

Some of the books, like “The Bilderberg Group” and “Shadow Masters” by Daniel Estulin, concern the larger strategic conspiracies behind big governments, big money and maintaining the drug-oil industrial scheme of things that we have no real control over.

“Dr. Mary’s Monkey,” “Me & Lee” and “The Last Circle” bring out first person stories much like Jerry Ray’s “Memoir of Injustice.”

“Dr. Mary’s Monkey” is Ed Haslam’s personal investigation into the death of a New Orleans cancer researcher, and her ties to those on the edge of the assassination of President Kennedy, which dovetails nicely with Judyth Vary Baker’s Harlequin style love affair with the accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. “The Last Circle” is Cheri Seymour’s story of Danny Casalarso’s fatal investigation into the “Octopus” and Promis software scandal.

Though there has been some dispute over the details, Baker certainly was employed at the same coffee company at the same time as Oswald, but with few questionable witnesses to them being together, their love life may be exaggerated. However, the overall story of what happened in New Orleans in the summer of ’63 is accurate and colorful enough, enlivened by documents, photos and maps that adorn practically every page.

More significant are other TrineDay books, like a revised and expanded versions of John Loftus’ classic “America’s Nazi Secret” and the late George Michael Evica’s under-appreciated “A Certain Arrogance” – subtitled “The sacrificing of Lee Harvey Oswald and the Cold War manipulations of religious groups by U.S. Intelligence.”

Then there’s Hank P. Albarelli Jr.’s “A Terrible Mistake,” about the MK/ULTRA death of CIA officer Dr. Frank Olson, Douglas Valentine’s book on the DEA “The Strength of the Pack,” and Lt. Col. Dan Marvin’s “Expendable Elite.”

In all, TrinDay continues to give us much to think about, and should change the way we think about politics and murder.

TrinDay P.O. Box 577, Waterville, OR, 97489
1-800-566-2012

[Bill Kelly is author of “300 Years at the Point” and “Birth of the Birdie.” His research on the JFK assassination is supported in part by a grant from the Fund For Constitutional Government Investigative Journalism Project. He can be reached at bkjfk3@yahoo.com]

How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?

carlaulbrich.com,
http://www.carlau.com/bio.html

Carla Ulbrich was a guest last week (Nov. 13, 2011) on Gene Shay's Folk Show radio program on WZXL, and proved to be quite good, and funny.

Having come down with some medical problems that were hard to diagnose, and once they were thinking she was doomed to die, she took on a comical persona that continues to make people laught. Her new book is titled: How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?

Her strong suit is her playing guitar, singing and song writing, as she often performs in hospitials and nursing homes, and has written a number of truly great, funny songs.

And best of all, she recently moved to New Jersey, alas North Jersey, but she's now a Jersey Girl, and should be performing more in these parts.

Here's her bio:

Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist from Clemson, South Carolina and currently living in New Jersey. Insert your own punchline here.

Carla has a love of wordplay and a keen observational eye. She is primarily known for her humorous songs about such topics as wedgies, Waffle House, Klingons, and how rich she would be if she had the copyright on the 'F' Word. She also dabbles in fingerstyle guitar. Something of a mix between Phoebe and Jeff Foxworthy, she cites her biggest musical influences as Sesame Street, camp songs, and commercial jingles for beer and breakfast cereal.

The Professional Smart Aleck has toured all over the US and England, and has appeared on USA TV, the BBC, Dr. Demento, Sirius XM Radio, and The Bob and Sherrie Show and venues such as the Falcon Ridge and Kerrville Folk Festivals, Club Med, Eddie's Attic, and the Bluebird Cafe.

Carla started out on guitar at age 8, taking lessons from a nice lady down the street who only taught beginners. At age 12, she was told the teacher had nothing left to teach her, so Carla joined the school band, playing the flute. The band was particularly - well, bad, and they played the same music every year, so Carla switched instruments every year to prevent boredom: flute to clarinet to piccolo to tuba to xylophone, finally becoming the drum major her senior year. Had the band been anything worth bragging about, Carla may have ended up being a band director, but hey, we'll always have the memories of "this one time at band camp..."

Instead, she went to college to major in music in performance, where she frequently got in trouble with her professors for wasting time writing her own songs when she should have been practicing scales and listening to 12-tone "music." So, she wrote songs about her professors as well. Those approximately 18 minute and 20 second tapes, much like the Watergate tapes, have been conveniently erased.

College, however, was not a total waste. It was where Carla overcame crippling stage fright. "I used to sign up for open mics and then literally run away before my name was called. One of my friends threatened to never speak to me again if I did not get over myself and perform. If it weren't for her, I'd probably still be working in the mall selling suitcases and dancing flowers. Do they still make dancing flowers?"

Carla's first CD, Her Fabulous Debut, was released in 1999, the same year she won the South Florida Folk Festival Song Competition. In 2002, Carla fell very ill with kidney failure and a stroke. As part of her recovery, she wrote a bunch of humorous medical songs lampooning her frustrating experience with the US health care system, resulting in the CD "Sick Humor."

In 2009, Carla released her 5th CD, “Live From Outer Space,” recorded at Sirius XM Radio's Performance Theater. The CD was chosen as a "Top 10 CD of 2009" by George Graham (WVIA), Festival Radio, and the Serious Comedy Website. The track "Duet with a Klingon" was the #5 most requested song of 2009 on Dr. Demento.

Feb. 1, 2011 saw the release of Carla's book of humorous essays about her medical adventures as "The Singing Patient": "How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?" (pub: Tell Me Press). This book has received the Lupus Foundation Seal of Approval.

Ulbrich, President of the Difficult Last Name Club and former member of the defunct trio Girls Gone Funny, has shared the bill with such luminaries as Cheryl Wheeler, Vance Gilbert, Modern Man, the Bobs, Chuck Brodsky, Bob Malone, Bill Staines, Greg Greenway, David Massengill, Steve Forbert, Bob Malone, Lou and Peter Berryman, the Austin Lounge Lizards, Rev. Billy C Wirtz, The Boomers, and Twiggy the Water Skiing Squirrel.

Scroll down for the egregious list of awards and venues played.

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SICK HUMOR:
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In 2002, Carla suffered two strokes and kidney failure. Undeterred, she re-learned the guitar from scratch that year.

Under the stress of constant "care," Carla finally snapped and became "The Singing Patient," resulting in her third CD, "Sick Humor."

This collection features songs such as "Prednisone," "Sittin' in the Waiting Room," "On the Commode Again," and "What If Your Butt Was Gone" (a parody of one of Carla's own songs, also featured on Dr. Demento's 2005 "Basement Tapes" collection). Most of the lyrics were written during her many hours in doctors' waiting rooms. (Caution: contains some poop humor. Hey, write what you know. Sorry guys, she's taken.).

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SPEAKING PROGRAM:
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Carla now shares her story of how humor, friendship, alternative therapies, occasional stubbornness, and hanging onto hope helped her beat the odds. Her speaking/ singing program is called "How Can You *Not* Laugh at a Time Like This." She has presented the program for various medical gatherings and company parties, as well as Unitarian fellowships and the Association of Applied and Therapeutic Humor.

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GUITAR INSTRUCTION:
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Carla has taught guitar at Lander University, North Greenville Baptist College, Hummingbird Music Camp, the National Guitar Workshop and her own private studio.

She is currently on teaching staff at Golden Age Fretted Instruments in Westfield, NJ.

She also has written a music instruction book ("Theory for Young Musicians: Notespeller") published with Alfred.

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MORE INFO THAN YOU NEED:
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If you are planning to feed her, she likes gluten-free bread, hummus, dark chocolate, beans, cashews, tofu, green tea, carrots, and salad (gluten free, no artificial sweeteners or MSG, no iceberg lettuce). As proof that all her success has not gone to her head (her butt, maybe), Carla does not drink alcohol, eat red meat or shellfish, but M&Ms are fine - even the brown ones.

Carla uses up excess brain cells watching Wheel of Fortune (which you can view in less than 10 minutes using Tivo), playing Words With Friends, listening to the original Van Halen, and collecting US stamps and bottle caps.

Reclaim Your Health with Humor, Creativity, and Grit
by Carla Ulbrich, The Singing Patient
Tell Me Press, February 2011

Chronic or life threatening illness is no laughing matter, but folk singer songwriter comedian Carla Ulbrich's new book, How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?: Reclaim Your Health with Humor, Creativity, and Grit, published by Tell Me Press, February 2011, brings a much needed dose of levity to this tough subject with some serious comedy and some sick humor. This book will make you laugh as it inspires and brings hope.

'While writing a great book on how to recover from illness, Carla Ulbrich wrote an even better book on how to live a healthy and fulfilling life. No doubt, you have a good doctor if you see How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? in their waiting room.''

Michael Stock, "Folk & Acoustic Music," WLRN Radio, South Florida

''How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? is outstanding....Carla is your guide to navigate the emotionally and technically confusing world of illness with heart, humor, and bite-size chapters. Everyone needs a patient advocate-and now you have one, with this book.''

Robert Aubrey Davis & Mary Sue Twohy, ''The Village,'' Sirius/XM Radio

''As a doctor, Patch Adams brought to mainstream America the concept of a caring, compassionate, and fun medical staff making a profound difference in the healing of their patients. Now we've been given the gift to hear about it from the patient's perspective. Carla Ulbrich is living proof that bringing fun, play, creativity, and laughter to the healing process does wonders for the mind, body, and spirit. Carla's uncanny wit is infectious-and that's an infection we can all benefit from!'

Danny Donuts, CPA (Comic Performance Artist) and member of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor

''I was completely taken with [Carla Ulbrich's] amazing outlook on life, her tenacity, and her passion.... Carla talks to you honestly, on every level, in her book. She also does it with a fantastic sense of humor.''
LuckyYogini.com

You Only Rock Once

You Only Rock Once: My Life in Music [Hardcover]
Jerry Blavat (Author)

The long-awaited autobiography of entertainment icon Jerry Blavat, You Only Rock Once is the wildly entertaining and unfiltered story of the man whose career began at the age of 13 on the TV dance show Bandstand and became a music legend. Lifelong friendships with the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, a controversial relationship with Philadelphia Mafia boss Angelo Bruno that resulted in a decade-long FBI investigation, and much more colors this amazing journey from the early 60s through today.

Now, some 50 years after his first radio gig, Blavat puts it all in perspective in this uniquely American tale of a “little cockroach kid” borne out of the immigrant experience who lived the American Dream.

Jerry Interviewed: http://www.trn1.com/amn-jerry-blavat

Blavat was one of the early rock-and-roll deejays who revolutionized the profession and invented the "Oldies" format. He had national success in the ’60s as host of the popular CBS-TV dance show The Discophonic Scene, but is best known as a high-energy oldies deejay on the air and at live events throughout the Middle Atlantic region. With a successful nightclub outside Atlantic City, NJ (Memories); regular radio shows on 88.5 FM WXPN in Philadelphia, 92.1 FM WVLT in South Jersey, and 98.3 FM WTKU in Atlantic City; and scores of sold-out live dance events every year, Blavat is as popular as ever. He lives in Philadelphia, PA. Please visit him at jerryblavat.com. BOOK: The long-awaited autobiography of entertainment icon Jerry Blavat, You Only Rock Once is the wildly entertaining and unfiltered story of the man whose career began at the age of 13 on the TV dance show Bandstand and became a music legend. Lifelong friendships with the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, a controversial relationship with Philadelphia Mafia boss Angelo Bruno that resulted in a decade-long FBI investigation, and much more colors this amazing journey from the early 60s through today. Now, some 50 years after his first radio gig, Blavat puts it all in perspective in this uniquely American tale of a "little cockroach kid" borne out of the immigrant experience who lived the American Dream.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7624-4215-7

Writing a narrative that teems with zest and hipness, Blavat invites readers to accompany him on the inside track through the early days of doo wop and R&B to his national stature as an influential figure on the pop scene. Bandstand icon Dick Clark, in his foreword, spells out how much clout Blavat wielded in the heyday of the top acts of the '60s and '70s, rising from a teen "committee member" of the popular TV show to a powerhouse DJ on the East Coast from his studio built in his garage in Philadelphia, and later a top-rated TV stint. He discusses his ground-breaking Alan Freed–sponsored shows at the famed Paramount, his friendships with black doo wop and soul groups before the Jim Crow barrier came down, and his hobnobbing with Hollywood royalty including Sinatra, Frankie Avalon, Tony Curtis, and Sammy Davis Jr. He doesn't shy from talking about his wild ways with the ladies and the run-ins with the law concerning his mobbed-up pals. This soulful memoir by a "little cockroach kid from South Philadelphia" offers readers an insider's view into the golden era of rock and roll and pop music and entertainment. (Aug.)

Jerry Blavat
Broadcast Pioneers Banquet
Bala Golf Club, Philadelphia
November 22, 2002
http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/jerryblavat.html

He's the Geator with the Heator; the Boss with the Hot Sauce; the King of Philly Rock & Roll. He's as much a part of Philadelphia as cheese steaks, Tastykakes, soft pretzels, and the Liberty Bell. He has been entertaining the Delaware Valley for over 40 years. He's Broadcast Pioneers member Jerry Blavat.

As a dancer, radio and television disc jockey, performer, entertainer, producer, and nightclub owner, Jerry was born Gerald Joseph Blavat on July 3, 1940. He was raised in South Philadelphia and began his show business career at the age of 13 when he debuted as a dancer on the Original Bandstand hosted by Bob Horn. Two years later, at the age of 16, he became the road manager for Danny and the Juniors, a top Doo Wop group of the late fifties. At the same time, he met Sammy Davis Jr. They became life long friends and when Sammy married his third wife, Altovese Gore, Jerry was his best man. Blavat became Don Rickles' personal valet in his early years and they remain friends until this day.

In 1960, he started his own radio talk show on WCAM (AM), in Camden, New Jersey. In September of that year, the South Philadelphia Review reported that a new radio show would be broadcast live from the Venus Lounge at Broad and Reed Streets in South Philly. The paper said, "The name of the new venture is called the Jerry Blavat Show and features a South Philadelphia personality by the same name." Then on a snowy night in mid January, pulling out a stack of records, he began entertaining listeners throughout the night, and the legend of "The Geator" was born.

In the mid-sixties, reports had his audience at a half million teenagers per month. Much of Jerry's broadcasts in the early days were done on reel to reel tape. Recording the program in his garage studio, the tapes played while Blavat made personal appearances. In the mid-sixties, Jerry's broadcasts were also added for a time to the program schedule of WHAT. On that station, Blavat stated that he only made $18 a week ($1.50 per hour). Most of his audience didn't buy it, but it was true. The real money was at the hops, not on the air. However, Blavat knew he needed the airwaves to promote the appearances.

In 1965, he produced and hosted his own TV show "The Discophonic Scene" on CBS' Philadelphia outlet WCAU-TV. From 1967-70, the show aired on WFIL-TV, Channel Six and was syndicated through Triangle Publications coast-to-coast in 40 markets.

When the British Invasion came along, Jerry never became part of it. He didn't like format radio, never participated in it and has always been his own man. In 1966, Jerry said: "It had been hell during the Beatles reign, when there had been much pressure to get on the bandwagon. But I sensed that it just didn't have enough soul for my kids... So I finally gave in and played a few, and I got bombarded by phone calls saying 'Geator, what you doing, man?'"

In April of 1972 he became one of the first on-air personalities on WCAU-FM, an oldies station. He was on Sunday nights from 7 to 10 pm. He went on WFIL as a regular in the fall of 1983, hosting Sunday nights and quite often weeknights, when WFIL returned as an oldie station with Harvey Holiday as Program Director. In 1987, Blavat moved to "Philly Gold Radio," WPGR. It became "Geator Gold Radio" in April of 1992 when Blavat purchased the station.

Until this day, Jerry is seen on many local and national TV shows. He currently is involved with PBS on their Doo Wop specials working with the show's producer, T. J. Lubinsky. When the shows aired locally over WHYY-TV, Jerry Blavat was the area's host.

Broadcast Pioneers member Gerry Wilkinson, who produced "The Legends of Rock and Roll" featuring Jerry Blavat at WHYY, along with some of the WHYY-TV Doo Wop events said: "One day I stopped down at Jerry's studio while he was on the air. The broadcast still had 15 minutes to go when "Mama Geator" (Jerry's mother) showed up. That was the only time I ever saw his show ever take a back burner. He immediately went into a record (yes, he still plays those old 45's) and ran out to greet her pulling me with him. It was something special to see a 60-year-old man being that devoted to his mom. He's a good guy. He worshipped his mom. To me that was a good trait to see in my friend." His mother passed away in December of 2001.

May 2011
Throughout his career, Jerry has appeared on "The Tonight Show," "The Mike Douglas Show," "The Joey Bishop Show," "The Mod Squad," and "The Monkees." Jerry Blavat has appeared in feature films including "Desperately Seeking Susan," "Baby, It's You," and "Cookie."

After WPGR, the Geator then built studios in Center City and currently broadcasts over five different radio stations throughout the Tri-State area as the Geator Gold Radio Network.

In 1998, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in April of 1998 and was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia's "Hall of Fame" on Friday, November 22, 2002. On Monday, May 1, 2000 Jerry was interviewed by Broadcast Pioneers member Ed Sciaky on our webcast, PIONEERS IN BROADCASTING. You can view it in our video section.

He still owns his own nightclub called "Memories" in Margate, which has celebrated its 30th Anniversary a few years ago. Besides broadcasting five days a week, he works at various clubs most nights. While many refer to James Brown as "the hardest working man in show business," the title should belong to Jerry Blavat.

Jerry Blavat's pages on this website are some of our most popular ones. We are always getting e-mails from people wanting us to put them in touch with whomever sells VHS/DVD copies of the old Blavat TV vehicles. Unfortunately, none of this material exists today. Many of the shows were live and never recorded. Others that were on tape, were broadcast and the tapes re-used. Remember that only television stations used videotape and the cost of a half-hour of tape was almost $500 (in 1965 dollars). They were re-cycled and used over and over.

Do you have audio recordings of any of Jerry Blavat's TV shows? If so, the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia would love to have a donated copy for our archives. Have recordings of Jerry's radio broadcasts before 1990 (especially WHAT shows and early WCAM programs)? Again, we would love to receive a donated copy.

Jerry Blavat said many years ago: "I may not be the best jock in the world, but I've got my own built-in excitement meter." Like the Geator says: "Keep on rockin' 'cause you only rock once."

From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Written, compiled and researched by Broadcast Pioneers member Gerry Wilkinson
Top photo by Broadcast Pioneers member Gerry Wilkinson
Bottom photo by Barbara Farley-Stone, wife of member Frank Stone

He's the Geator with the Heator; the Boss with the Hot Sauce; the King of Philly Rock & Roll. He's as much a part of Philadelphia as cheese steaks, Tastykakes, soft pretzels, and the Liberty Bell. He has been entertaining the Delaware Valley for over 40 years. He's Cruisin' 92.1, WVLT's Jerry Blavat.

http://www.wvlt.com/blavat.html

As a dancer, radio and television disc jockey, performer, entertainer, producer, and nightclub owner, Jerry was born Gerald Joseph Blavat on July 3, 1940. He was raised in South Philadelphia and began his show business career at the age of 13 when he debuted as a dancer on the Original Bandstand hosted by Bob Horn. Two years later, at the age of 16, he became the road manager for Danny and the Juniors, a top Doo Wop group of the late fifties. Danny & the Juniors is just one of many groups that you can listen to here on Cruisin' 92.1, WVLT. At the same time, he met Sammy Davis Jr. They became life long friends and when Sammy married his third wife, Altovese Gore, Jerry was his best man. Blavat became Don Rickles' personal valet in his early years and they remain friends until this day.

In 1960, he started his own radio talk show on WCAM (AM), in Camden, New Jersey. (He won the show in a crap game). In September of that year, the South Philadelphia Reviewreported that a new radio show would be broadcast live from the Venus Lounge at Broad and Reed Streets in South Philly. The paper said, "The name of the new venture is called the Jerry Blavat Show and features a South Philadelphia personality by the same name." Then on a snowy night in mid January, pulling out a stack of records, he began entertaining listeners throughout the night, and the legend of "The Geator" was born.

In the mid-sixties, reports had his audience at a half million teenagers per month. Much of Jerry's broadcasts in the early days were done on reel to reel tape. Recording the program in his garage studio, the tapes played while Blavat made personal appearances. In the mid-sixties, Jerry's broadcasts were also added for a time to the program schedule of WHAT. On that station, Blavat stated that he only made $18 a week ($1.50 per hour). Most of his audience didn't buy it, but it was true. The real money was at the hops, not on the air. However, Blavat knew he needed the airwaves to promote the appearances.

In 1965, he produced and hosted his own TV show "The Discophonic Scene" on CBS' Philadelphia outlet WCAU-TV. From 1967-70, the show aired on WFIL-TV, Channel Six and was syndicated through Triangle Publications coast-to-coast in 40 markets.

When the British Invasion came along, Jerry never became part of it. He didn't like format radio, never participated in it and has always been his own man. In 1966, Jerry said: "It had been hell during the Beatles reign, when there had been much pressure to get on the bandwagon. But I sensed that it just didn't have enough soul for my kids... So I finally gave in and played a few, and I got bombarded by phone calls saying 'Geator, what you doing, man?'"

In April of 1972 he became one of the first on-air personalities on WCAU-FM, an oldies station. He was on Sunday nights from 7 to 10 pm. He went on WFIL as a regular in the fall of 1983, hosting Sunday nights and quite often weeknights, when WFIL returned as an oldie station with Harvey Holiday as Program Director. In 1987, Blavat moved to "Philly Gold Radio," WPGR. It became "Geator Gold Radio" in April of 1992 when Blavat purchased the station.

Until this day, Jerry is seen on many local and national TV shows. He currently is involved with PBS on their Doo Wop specials working with the show's producer, T. J. Lubinsky. When the shows aired locally over WHYY-TV, Jerry Blavat was the area's host.

Broadcast Pioneers Vice-President Gerry Wilkinson (a consultant for WVLT), who produced "The Legends of Rock and Roll" featuring Cruisin' 92.1, WVLT's Jerry Blavat at Channel 12, along with some of the WHYY-TV Doo Wop events said: "One day I stopped down at Jerry's studio while he was on the air. The broadcast still had 15 minutes to go when "Mama Geator" (Jerry's mother) showed up. That was the only time I ever saw his show ever take a back burner. He immediately went into a record (yes, he still plays those old 45's) and ran out to greet her pulling me with him. It was something special to see a 60-year-old man being that devoted to his mom. He's a good guy. He worshipped his mom. To me that was a good trait to see in my friend." His mother passed away in December of 2001.

Throughout his career, Jerry has appeared on "The Tonight Show," "The Mike Douglas Show," "The Joey Bishop Show," "The Mod Squad," and "The Monkees." Jerry Blavat has appeared in feature films including "Desperately Seeking Susan," "Baby, It's You," and "Cookie."

After WPGR, the Geator then built studios in Center City (rebuilt in the Fall of 2002) and currently broadcasts his Cruisin' 92.1, WVLT daily show from that location. On Thursdays, our own Jerry Blavat originates live from the Trump in Atlantic City exclusively only on your favorite station, Cruisin' 92.1, WVLT, South Jersey's #1 Oldies Powerhouse!

In 1998, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in April of 1998 and was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia's "Hall of Fame" on Friday, November 22, 2002. On Monday, May 1, 2000 Jerry was interviewed on the Broadcast Pioneers' webcast, PIONEERS IN BROADCASTING. You can view it in the Cruisin' 92.1, WVLT video section of this website, WVLT.com!

He still owns his own nightclub called Memories in Margate, which has celebrated its 30th Anniversary. Besides broadcasting five days a week, he works at various clubs most nights. While many refer to James Brown as "the hardest working man in show business," the title should belong to Jerry Blavat, who said many years ago: "I may not be the best jock in the world, but I've got my own built-in excitement meter."

Cruisin' 92.1, WVLT is proud to present Jerry Blavat to the people of the Delaware Valley daily from 5 pm to 7 pm. He's a legend and Cruisin' 92.1, WVLT has him. We have the legends. Like the Geator says: "Keep on rockin' 'cause you only rock once."

CRUISIN' 92.1 - WVLT

IN PERSON; His Patter and Platters Still Rock the Shore
By ROBERT STRAUSS

Published: August 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/nyregion/in-person-his-patter-and-platters-still-rock-the-shore.html

GO, Baby! Go, Baby! Go, Baby! Go!''

The crowd at La Costa Cocktail Lounge is going-baby like it is 1965, when Jerry Blavat, the Geator with the Heator, the Boss with the Hot Sauce first played ''Can't Help Myself,'' by the Four Tops.
Though it is 36 years later and teenage denim and litheness may have given way to late-middle-age gray and arthritic joints, there are still multitudes dancing to Mr. Blavat's patter and platters every weekend of the summer at the Jersey Shore.

''They used to be my Yon Teenagers,'' said Mr. Blavat, who started his own career as a 13-year-old dancer on ''American Bandstand.'' ''Now they are Beyond Teenagers.'' Mr. Blavat has been a record promoter, radio personality, road manager and movie and television performer. But mostly, he's been the Geator, a popular D.J. from Philadelphia to the shore for four decades.

''I've known him for 40 years, since I was one of those Yon Teens,'' said Robert Brady, a Democratic Congressman from Philadelphia. ''He's been a friend of all the teens, and now all of us who like the oldies. He never has a down night. He's made a lot of people happy.''

In the summers, most of those people are down the shore, as Philadelphians put it, often following him night after night. On Thursdays at 5 p.m., he is does a two-hour stint at Resorts International casino hotel in Atlantic City. By 9 p.m., he is 30 miles down the Garden State Parkway at Lighthouse Pointe, a club in Wildwood, where he doesn't stop spinning records until 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, he is at his own club, Memories, in Margate, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. He wraps up the weekend Sundays from 4 to 8 p.m. here at La Costa. Then it's back to Philadelphia where every weekday from 5 to 7 p.m., and sometimes from 2 to 4 p.m. as well, he does his syndicated radio show on the Geator Gold Radio Network, a half-dozen stations from Vineland to Ocean City to the Philadelphia suburbs.

''I don't know about slowing down,'' said Mr. Blavat, clad in his Sunday D.J. best -- a white Ralph Lauren polo shirt, khaki shorts, dusty New Balance sneakers and an un-logoed baseball cap. He is short and thin and taut-faced, looking much younger than his professed 61.

JERRY BLAVAT
Inducted 1993

Philadelphia radio listeners know him as "The Geator with the Heater" and "The Boss with the Hot Sauce." His mile-a-minute patter still reverberates in the countless dance halls and the radio and TV air waves where he's played the hits for "Yon Teens" everywhere.

Jerry Blavat, a South Philadelphia native, began his show biz career as a dancer on the original Bandstand. At age 16, he became the road manager for Danny and the Juniors. Then, in 1959, Blavat embarked on a career in radio, at WCAM in Camden. Over the years, he's complemented his illustrious radio career with numerous TV projects, including The Discophonic Scene in 1965, which featured live musical performances by some of the biggest stars of the day.

That success led to numerous network television appearances including The Mod Squad (with lifelong friend Sammy Davis, Jr.), The Monkees (where, playing himself, he fell for Davy Jones who was dressed as a girl in order to qualify the band for a mixed-group talent contest), The Tonight Show and The Joey Bishop Show. He's also been seen in several movies such as "Desperately Seeking Susan", "Baby It's You" and "Cookie."

Blavat continues to spin gold and wax nostalgic with shows on several Philadelphia area radio stations and at many club appearances.

Who is Jerry Blavat.... and What is The Geator With The Heator?
http://web.archive.org/web/20080329015535/http://www.mystreamingserver.com/geatorgold/htmldossier.html

Many disc jockeys over the years have claimed a love for the music they play. A few of them have meant it. A fewer still have put their money where their mouths were. And of those, only one (to our knowledge) has been wildly successful in the process: Jerry Blavat.

When rock and roll began to emerge in the early '50s, and with it a rise in the popularity of the rhythm and blues records which led to its sound, radio personalities were successful because of their ears. They had the freedom to pick the music they played and their fans flocked to them because of their knowledge and taste. By the '60s, for a variety of reasons from the payola scandal to a desire for a more uniform sounding station, the radio personality truly became a disc-jockey-- playing songs from an approved list. The disc-jockey's personality came through between the records, not because of them. The 70s brought an approved order of approved songs which were selected largely through research --and liner cards. Liners were pre-written phrases to be parroted directly by the on air host. In other words, most disc jockeys were not only being told what to play, but what to say. But many were being handsomely compensated in the process.

Jerry Blavat took a different route. He was attracted to the business because of his love for the music and it was a relationship he wasn't willing to sever. His first exposure to "fame" came as a dancer on the original Bandstand television program, hosted by Bob Horn. In 1953, less than a year after the show's inception, a 13 year old Jerry Blavat perfected his first scam-- impersonating a 14 year old to get on the program. He became a favorite with the viewers and rose to the head of the coveted "Committee", the group of teens responsible for aiding Horn in the direction of the show. When Bob Horn was fired over very questionable circumstances a few years later, the rest of the teens welcomed new host Dick Clark. Belying his youth, Blavat displayed an early sense of the loyalty that would become his most prized character trait and left the program rather than tacitly approving Horn's ousting. (The two remained close until Horn's passing in Houston in 1966.)

By the time he graduated from high school in 1958, Jerry Blavat was hooked not only on the music, but on performing as well. And he was working on a healthy resume to prove it. Promoting records (for Cameo-Parkway), working with performers (serving as Don Rickles' valet), and traveling with top recording stars (as road manager for Danny & The Juniors) gave him a front row seat for the roots of rock and roll. Living as a "roadie," Blavat amassed a wealth of knowledge and a bank account of contacts. Artists like Jerry Butler, Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Gladys Knight and many more became friends and confidantes. The stories they told coupled with the first hand experiences he had, unwittingly prepared Blavat for a career move he never knew he'd make.

Jerry got into radio in 1962, the result of a bet. Given the state of radio today, some might believe he was on the losing end of that wager. But what actually happened was Jerry, full of bravado, bet that he could do a radio show from a nightclub. It wasn't whether it would be technically possible, rather whether Blavat would be able to convince a radio station to go along with it, that the owner of the Venus Lounge bet against. He didn't know Jerry, who promptly went to WCAM in Camden, New Jersey and purchased an hour of radio time (reimbursing himself in part from the proceeds of the bet, no doubt). For most people, an ensuing "act of God" would have ended this story. But for Jerry it was simply a fortuitous beginning.

Since Jerry acquired the radio time, he was allowed to resell commercials within it, which he promptly did. He had this all figured out. And for a while it worked just like he thought it would. What he hadn't counted on was the snowstorm. The one that closed the nightclub. And the city. But nothing could close Jerry. He had sold the time and he was going to air those commercials. (Loyalty may be the trait Jerry prizes most in himself, but onlookers will attest that tenacity by far is the key to his staying power. Nothing will stop this guy. And everything has tried.) So doing the only unreasonable thing, Jerry ignored the 'stay off the road' warnings and made it to WCAM's studios where he, his records (the ones he used to dance to on bandstand, the ones he promoted on Cameo-Parkway, and the ones he just plain liked that no one had ever heard-- the flops and flipsides) and his commercial announcements, set up shop.

If you want to light a radio audience on fire, there is no better propellant that a blizzard. When snow immobilizes a city, kids tune in to find out if schools are closed, adults listen to hear if they've got to report to work, and everyone stays glued to the disc jockey's every word, in part because there's nothing else to do when you're housebound. The only way Jerry Blavat could have had a more captive audience would have been to broadcast to prisons. Captive or not, what they heard was captivating. They'd never heard anything like it. And they'd never heard so much of it. The storm that immobilized the listeners also immobilized Jerry's replacements, so his one hour of evening radio time turned into all night. He continued his frenetic pace until the morning guy showed up at 6 a.m. Listeners didn't know which was better-- his patter or his platters-- but they did know the number of the station and they called.

Just as an exhausted Jerry was ready to fall asleep, the general manager of WCAM phoned and wanted to know what the hell he did. (Usually when this kind of a call comes, it's the end of your career, not the beginning.) After finding out, the GM informed a bemused Jerry that he was a smash. Blavat's club gig turned into a radio gig, and Jerry turned into "The Geator With The Heator".

Just exactly what that meant has been the subject of much discussion. Even long time fans aren't precisely sure. But there is logic behind the seemingly illogical but appropriately rhyming handle (every jock with soul spoke in rhymed couplets back then-- today the records rap... back then the rap came from the disc jockey between the records which contained something now nostalgic-- a melody).

Geator came from alligator-- gator, or geator, depending on your Florida accent. To hear Jerry tell it, 'a geator would lay in the mud and bother no one unless you came close. Then it would snatch you up.' That's how it was with Blavat. Once you dialed by 1310 and caught his act, he snatched you up like an alligator. He was hot, almost too hot. Like a car heater in the dead of winter, he started out warming you but quickly heated you up to the point that you broke out in a sweat. Some felt it was what he said, others claimed it was the way he said it, but for most it was the music, that mesmerizing sound they weren't hearing on the popular stations.

...But make no mistake about it, while Jerry Blavat may well be the best known disc jockey in Philadelphia, he's never worked on a highly rated station. His chosen approach of buying the time outright (and later in his career, an entire station), allows him to remain free to program the sound as he sees fit, answering to no one but his audience. Fortunately, Blavat has a business sense. Because the only way this approach can be viable in the long term is by knowing how to market the airtime-- and yourself. Jerry is a master at both.

The Geator coupled his growing popularity on the air (which by 1963 resulted in regional syndication of his program on small stations throughout the Delaware Valley from Atlantic City to Allentown) with appearances off the air at dances, clubs and events. It was not unusual for Blavat to see 5,000 kids a week in person in the mid '60s, nor too much of a stretch to say he'd remember 3,000 of their names the following week. His appearances became so frequent that for a time he needed to use a helicopter just to make it on time from one gig to the next. (Today the helicopter is gone, but the frantic schedule is still in place. Throughout the year, he can be found somewhere on virtually any night, and in the summer months he's in weekend residence at Memories At Margate, the New Jersey Shore's hottest night spot which he's owned and operated since 1972.)
But Blavat's entrepreneurial spirit didn't stop there. He formed record labels (most notably Lost Nite which issued countless oldies compilation albums treasured by collectors to this day, but also Crimson which had the Soul Survivors'; "Expressway To Your Heart"), opened record stores (the Record Museum chain was his), and arguably began the "oldies" format. A number of people claim that distinction, but to our recollection, no one else in 1962 was playing the music of rock and roll's past. And for top 40 music in the early '60s, there wasn't all that much of a past-- if you were relying on hits, that is. Jerry was relying on a sound. Even before the term was widely used, Blavat and oldies became synonymous to his audience. Then, and to this day, he lived by the phrase, 'where we don't only play the oldies, we create them'. The year didn't matter, the artist didn't matter, the label didn't matter, A side, B side, anything on vinyl qualified if it had the sound. (If we have to describe that sound, you're at the wrong site.)

In 1965 Jerry made a quantum career leap, combining his on air demeanor with his in person style by launching The Discophonic Scene, a television show which took him to a new level of mass appeal respectability. Unlike his radio career, where his show was always the standout segment on otherwise comparatively obscure radio stations, The Discophonic Scene aired on VHF network affiliated television outlets. First on WCAU-TV 10, and later on WFIL-TV 6, the Discophonic Scene was ultimately syndicated through Triangle Publications, seen across the country every weekday in over 40 markets.

Differing from most television shows where behind the scenes the host is but a small part of the action, The Discophonic Scene was in all ways an extension of Jerry Blavat. Relying on the contacts he made earlier in his career, Blavat rose early to personally book the likes of Fats Domino, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas and many many more. Being a fan himself, the rule was live performances, not the badly mouthed lip-syncing identified with similar offerings. In front of the camera, there was also a difference-- Jerry was more like the kids than their parents. He not only resembled the "Yon Teens" as he referred to his fans, but he danced like them too. After all, it wasn't that long ago that he was in their place on Bandstand.

That success led to numerous network television appearances including The Mod Squad (with lifelong friend Sammy Davis, Jr.), The Monkees (where, playing himself, he fell for Davy Jones who was dressed as a girl in order to qualify the band for a mixed-group talent contest), The Tonight Show and The Joey Bishop Show. He's also been seen in several movies such as "Desperately Seeking Susan", "Baby It's You" and "Cookie".

But the real legacy that belongs to Jerry Blavat is the one he created on the radio. The one that endures to this day. The one where "The Geator With The Heator" jumps out of your dashboard blaring a heart stopping song that you've got to hear. The one where "The Boss With The Hot Sauce" brings back the past. In 1970, Jerry returned fulltime to his radio roots and he hasn't been off the air since --or out of the clubs. It hasn't always been an easy road, but it's the only one he'd choose to travel. As for those of us who consider ourselves fans of that special sound-- the one that takes you where you want to go-- we're just grateful to be invited along for the ride.
Rollye Jamesrollye.net

HEAR THE GEATOR -

MONDAY THRU FRIDAY 5-7 PM:
WVLT Cruisin' 92.1 FM &
http://www.wvlt.com
(click on LISTEN LIVE)
MONDAY THRU FRIDAY 7-9 PM:
WTKU KOOL 98.3 FM &
http://www.kool983.com
(click on LISTEN LIVE)
THURSDAYS, 9-11 PM (July 4 weekend thru Labor Day):
WFNE FUN 106.7 in Wildwood & N. Cape May
http://www.fun1067.com
(click on LISTEN LIVE)
SATURDAYS 6-7 PM - GEATOR'S ROCK & ROLL, RHYTHM & BLUES EXPRESS ON WXPN:
- Philly & South Jersey 88.5 FM
- Lehigh Valley 104.9 FM
- Harrisburg 88.1 FM
- Baltimore 90.5 FM
and worldwide at xpn.org (click on LISTEN LIVE!)
For archived shows:
Go to xpn.org - click on PROGRAMS, then GEATOR R&R, then LISTEN TO RECENT SHOWS

FRIDAY & SATURDAY NIGHTS Memorial Day thru Labor Day:
WTKU KOOL 98.3 FM and kool983.com LIVE FROM MEMORIES IN MARGATE Fridays starting at 8

JERRY'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY - "YOU ONLY ROCK ONCE: MY LIFE IN MUSIC"
PUBLISHED BY RUNNING PRESS JULY 2011
ISBN # 978-0-7624-4215-7
YOU ONLY ROCK ONCE: MY LIFE IN MUSIC - available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble bookstores and bn.com, Walmart.com, other websites, and many local bookstores, including:
PHILADELPHIA: Joseph Fox Booksellers and the Penn Book Center
WEST CHESTER: Chester County Book & Music Co.
WILMINGTON: Ninth Street Book Shop
REHOBOTH BEACH: Browseabout Books
AVALON, OCEAN CITY, & STONE HARBOR: Hoy's Five & Ten

For upcoming interviews, readings, and signings in your area, check the CALENDAR link at left and also the Facebook page for YOU ONLY ROCK ONCE.
Currently the book is #1 on amazon.com in the broadcasting category!

Next book signings:
FRIDAY, NOV. 18, 8 pm at CAFE MADISON in Riverside, NJ
TUESDAY, DEC. 6, 6 pm at BLACK TIE FORMAL WEAR, 1120 Walnut St in Philadelphia (before JERSEY BOYS performance @ Forrest Theater)

NOTE: Books will be available for purchase at all book signings.
WATCH THIS SPOT FOR UPDATES AND ADDITIONS --
also, click on "LIKE" the Facebook page YOU ONLY ROCK ONCE: MY LIFE IN MUSIC –

and join the online Geator Fans group on Yahoo --
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GeatorFans

NEXT KIMMEL CENTER CONCERT: Saturday, Januray 28, 8 pm kimmelcenter.org

Jerry returns from the Malt Shop Memories cruise on Monday and will be at SugarHouse on Wednesday and the Buck Hotel Thursday . . .
Please join him at the following fundraising events:

SUN NOV 27: HARRAH'S, BRIGANTINE - ANIMAL RESCUE BENEFIT
(click CALENDAR OF APPEARANCES at left for locations & details)
REGULAR WEEKLY APPEARANCES - LABOR DAY THROUGH MAY:

WEDNESDAYS 5-7 pm - SUGARHOUSE CASINO, 1001 N. Delaware Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19123 - broadcast live on WVLT Cruisin' 92.1 FM and wvlt.com. For more info: sugarhousecasino.com or 877.477.3715

THURSDAYS, 8 pm - BUCK HOTEL, 1200 Buck Road, Feasterville, PA, 215/396-2002, thebuckhotel.com

REGULAR WEEKLY APPEARANCES - MEMORIAL DAY THRU LABOR DAY

WEDNESDAYS 5-7 pm - SUGARHOUSE CASINO, 1001 N. Delaware Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19123 - broadcast live on WVLT Cruisin' 92.1 FM and wvlt.com. For more info@sugarhousecasino.com or 877.477.3715

THURSDAYS 8 pm (starting the Thursday before July 4 weekend) - LIGHTHOUSE POINTE, 5100 Shawcrest Rd, Wildwood Crest, 609/522-SHIP - live on WFNE Fun 106.7 FM and fun1067.com

FRIDAYS, 5-7 pm (mid-May thru Labor Day weekendt) - CHICKIE'S & PETE'S, 6055 Black Horse Pike, Egg Harbor Township, NJ, 609/272-1930 - live on WVLT Cruisin' 92.1 and wvlt.com

FRIDAYS 8-11 pm MEMORIES IN MARGATE, Madisot & Amherst Ave., 609.823.2196 - with FREE FOOD BUFFET from Barrels and Chickie's & Pete's. Jerry is followed at 11 pm by Joey Marini's Back in the Day dance party at Memories - all live on WTKU KOOL 98.3 and kool983.com.

SATURDAYS 9 pm to 4 am MEMORIES IN MARGATE, broadcast live on WTKU KOOL 98.3 FM and kool983.com till 2 am

SUNDAYS 4-7:30 pm - afternoon jam sessions at LA COSTA LOUNGE, 4000 Landis Ave., Sea Isle City, 609.263.3756

For Jerry's complete schedule of personal appearances, click CALENDAR link at left. Once you're in the calendar, click on any event for more info about it, including location, how to get tickets, directions (click on MAP next to event's location), and more.

IMPORTANT: If you have a QUESTION about an item on the CALENDAR, you will get a faster answer if you post it in the Geator Fans group rather than in the calendar notes. To join Geator Fans, click on this link:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GeatorFans/
and then click JOIN THIS GROUP. The Geator Fans group is very active and you will almost always receive a prompt answer to your question there.

JOIN THE GEATOR ON-LINE FAN CLUB AND MESSAGE BOARD AT
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GeatorFans

LINKS & MORE:
The easy-to-remember link for this website is always geator.net
Join Yahoo's online Geator Fan Club & discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GeatorFans/
Look for Geator's columns -- "ASK THE GEATOR" in the Atlantic City Weekly (acweekly.com - click on 'News & Views,' then 'Ask the Geator')
Want to learn the dance steps? See link at left on this page for tips (sorry, no instructions on line yet)
Check out Bill Smith's Geator tribute at thegeator.com (not up to date but chock full of Geator history & info)
Hear Jerry as Al Bacore, the Tuneful Tuna, narrator of SpongeBob SquarePants' fabulous CD "The Best Day Ever" !!
Check out the brand new Facebook page for Jerry's autobiography, "You Only Rock Once: My Life In Music" - go to Facebook, search for YOU ONLY ROCK ONCE, and click on "LIKE"
and keep on rockin' -- 'cause you only rock once!

For info not listed here, send an email to geatorella@yahoo.com

To buy rare & out of print vinyl recordings, contact:
Jim at Forever Records, Rt 13 South, Levittown Shopping Center, Levittown, PA,215-945-9423 OR
Val Shively's R&B Records,49 Garrett Road, Upper Darby, PA 19082,610/352-2320 Fax: (610) 352-8199 OR Bobby at Pat's Music, 4516 Frankford Ave, Philly, 215/708-0444

Jerry Blavat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jerry Blavat
Birth name Gerald Joseph Blavat
Born July 3, 1940 (age 71)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,United States
Show Geator Gold Radio
Station(s) WVLT (FM), WTKU (FM), andWXPN
Style Oldies
Country United States
Website Official website
http://geatorgigs.webs.com/index.htm

Jerry Blavat (born July 3, 1940), also known as "The Geator with The Heator", is an Americandisc jockey who is known for promoting oldies music on the radio in the Philadelphia area. Blavat was born in South Philadelphia to a Jewish father and Italian mother.

Career
In 1953, Blavat debuted on the original Bandstand on WFIL-TV with Bob Horn and Lee Stewart. In 1956 he managed a national tour for Danny and the Juniors, and he worked as Don Rickles' valet in 1958-59. He got his start in radio in 1960. By 1963, his show was syndicated in Camden, Atlantic City, Trenton, Pottstown, Wilmingtonand Allentown. During the 1960s, Blavat was a partner in the Lost Nite and Crimson record labels, along with Jared Weinstein and Collectables Records' founder Jerry Greene. Together, the three also owned Record Museum, a now-defunct chain of record stores based in Philadelphia.

From 1965-1967, Blavat produced and hosted a weekly television show called The Discophonic Scene. He also guest-starred on television shows including The Mod Squad, The Monkees, The Tonight Show and The Joey Bishop Show. He has also appeared in the moviesDesperately Seeking Susan, Baby It's You and Cookie.In the early 1970s, Blavat purchased a nightclub in Margate, New Jersey, and named it "Memories."

Mafia connections
In 1981, Blavat was having dinner at a South Philadelphia restaurant with Greek mob boss Chelsais "Steve" Bouras and several other guests when Bouras was shot dead in a contract killing.

In the early 1990s, an investigation by the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation into organized crime's influence in the liquor business made public Blavat's association with the Bruno-Scarfo crime family. During the investigation, Thomas A. DelGiorno, a former Scarfo crime family Capo, testified that Blavat had regularly paid a "street tax" to the crime family, had purchased a $40,000 yacht for crime boss Nicodemo Scarfo and was one of several individuals who purchased a condominium in Florida for Scarfo. In exchange, the criminal organization secured employment for Blavat throughout the state and also kept union organizers out of Blavat's nightclub. Del Giorno also testified that Blavat regularly served as a driver for crime boss Angelo Bruno. Blavat pled the fifth.

Recent activity
In 1993, Blavat was inducted into the Philadelphia Music Alliance's Hall of Fame.[6] In 1998, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fameas part of a permanent exhibit in its Museum of Radio and Records. In 2002, he was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia's "Hall of Fame." In 2011, Blavat is a DJ for oldies radio station WVLT FM 92.1 in the South Jersey area, for the University of Pennsylvania's public radio station WXPN in Philadelphia, and for radio station WTKU 98.3 FM in Atlantic City. He owns the nightclub "Memories in Margate". Blavat is a regular columnist for the Atlantic City Weekly.

On July 23, 2011, Blavat's autobiography, "You Only Rock Once: My Life In Music," was published by Running Press.

References
"Lost Nite Album Discography". Archived from the original on 2008-08-02. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
"Jerry Blavat - Dossier". Archived from the original on 2008-03-29. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
"CRUISIN' 92.1, WVLT - Jerry Blavat Bio". Retrieved 2008-06-22.
Strauss, Robert (August 19, 2001). "IN PERSON; His Patter and Platters Still Rock the Shore". New York Times.
Sullivan, Joseph F. (January 19, 1992). "Mob Sway Over Bars Called Strong". New York Times.
"Philadelphia Music Alliance Hall of Fame Bio". Retrieved 2008-06-22.

Chris Mathews new book on JFK

Chris Matthews Plays Loveball With JFK In New Biography

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/26/chris-matthews-jfk-biography_n_1033273.html

Chris Matthews -- current host of MSNBC's "Hardball" -- was a 15-year-old working as a paperboy for the Philadelphia Bulletin when he found his political loyalties shifting.

Like the rest of his immediate family, he considered himself a Republican, but something about John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign had inspired him, made him question what he stood for. Not only did he find himself suddenly rooting for a Democrat, but he had grown enamored with the entire Kennedy dynasty, and momentarily cheered the possibility of a two-term JFK presidency, and a Lyndon Johnson presidency to follow.

Thus began a lifelong fascination that hasn't ever let up. In 1996, while still the D.C. bureau chief for theSan Francisco Chronicle, Matthews published "Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry that Shaped Postwar America," and on Nov. 1 he'll release "Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero," a wide-ranging biography that focuses on the life and dual natures of the 35th president.

Jackie Kennedy famously called her husband both "elusive" and "unforgettable," and in this new work, Matthews seeks to elucidate the conflicting shades of Kennedy's character, while also celebrating a leader who he believes united the American people more than any other president since the 1960s.

In an interview with HuffPost, Matthews reveals the Kennedy traits that caught him off guard, why he made everyone feel "included," and a few essential qualities he thinks Obama -- and other American politicians -- could pick up from Kennedy.

Was there any significance to releasing this book now, or did it just work out that way?
I've been working on it for years. I started back in the 80s, looking at the Nixon/Kennedy rivalry, but since then I've been working on this for a long time. I guess I was thinking about the 50th anniversary [of the assassination], sure, and I didn't know what the current zeitgeist would be. But I think it's the perfect time for it. The country wants to be reminded what a leader is. A hero. We haven't had a hero since Kennedy, really -- a guy who proved himself in battle, a hero in war who had a rite of passage like that. This guy was the guy. He was it.

What surprised you most to learn about him?

How sick he was. I say in the book how he was a greater hero than he wanted us to know. He was sick all the time, had a terrible stomach injury, blood counts all through high school, it went on and on and on. He was always in a hospital. He must have had a record in Choate for the number of days he was in the infirmary. Also, he was always reading. Always. He was a reader, and a hero worshipper, and he became who he became because he was incessantly studying King Arthur, Churchill, the history of World War I, the Times every day in high school. I got this from his classmates.

You repeatedly discuss how much Kennedy loved politics, in general, and how he was proud to be a politician. What about politics appealed to him most?

He loved meeting people, loved campaigning, loved the competition, loved the zest of it. He loved building a party and punishing his rivals. It's all there, what a politician has to be. Even the day he was killed, he was going to the airport in Fort Worth, asking people what the difference was between Dallas and Fort Worth politically. He was always asking questions, always trying to learn more about it.

Was Kennedy feared?

You can't be loved for long if you're not feared. Kennedy did not hold grudges, but he dealt politically with people. I think he'd make Eric Cantor fear him a little if he were [president today]. He was tough on his enemies, he always was. Look at everything he did: He beat Nixon, he beat Johnson, he beat them all. He didn't join those guys, he beat them. You think Johnson wanted to be his running mate? He had this stick, this ability to enforce. He wasn't moved by those emotions around him and he could stand up to people.

You write in the book that Kennedy knew, more than anyone, "that nations die or thrive on the ability and judgment of their leaders to stir them at perilous times." How was Kennedy able to stir people?

Everyone was part of his mission. There was always this inclusion of bringing people in and making everybody participate. It was never, "Let's see how smart he is," it was always him bringing other people in, making people a part of it all. Ask anybody from that generation, they felt included. I think the big Kennedy distinction was the ability to make everybody part of the effort. "We're all in this together."

How did he do that, specifically?

He was all about relationship politics. It wasn't about transactions -- "Once you're with me, you're with me." He stuck with them. Obama's sort of like, "You elect me now, I'll do the job, and watch me do it." The Clintons were all about relationships, too, but the entire Kennedy party -- that was everything. He was always building a team around him, and people trusted him. He had 12 kids in the mud, 12 guys in the military, he saved his crew. When you go out and you carry your 42-year-old engineer on your back for four hours, the strap of his life jacket in your teeth, it creates a certain competence. Those guys loved him.

Because he was strong on the battlefield.

He was a leader! It's not about the ability to give a good speech or to be smart, it's about a talent to really lead people. I don't know if Romney or Obama have showed that kind of leadership, someone who men and women want to follow into battle. "We want to go with him. I want to go with that guy." Kennedy could walk into a room and men and women both would just melt. He was very impressive in terms of personal chemistry.

Have any politicians since Kennedy possessed similar qualities?

Scott Brown got a bit of it in Massachusetts, he connected with that anti-establishment thing in Boston. But that's more parochial. Jimmy Carter in '75, '76, he picked up on the country's mood for a while. I think Reagan picked up on some of it in his time.

Does Obama possess some of those qualities?

Obama hasn't clicked into the zeitgeist the way Kennedy did. Does [Obama] feel what we feel the way Kennedy felt what we felt? Does he get us right now? I hope he does, but I don't know. Kennedy connected with the country. We were losing the Cold War, the world's global map was changing from red and pink and we could see it. He said, "Let's get this country moving again." He knew exactly how to brace us for what was [to come] -- that sense of when to strike something. [Kennedy] always had this fear of complacency, and he knew the times, he knew us. Obama hasn't clicked into the zeitgeist. Is there an Obama party? I don't know.

BK: CHRIS MATTHEWS - WHO USE TO SPEND SUMMERS IN OCEAN CITY NJ DURING HIS COLLEGE DAYS, AND WORKED AT THE CHATTERBOX - MAY HAVE ADMIRED JFK - HE CERTAINLY GETS HIS DEATH WRONG.

Here’s partial transcript of Chris Mathews putting his foot in his mouth again, and Jerry Policoff’s response.

'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Friday, April 15th, 2011
Read the transcript to the Friday show

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/

…MATTHEWS: “Let Me Finish” tonight with the grassy knoll. That was the place in Dallas—near the Texas Book Depository—that the crazies believe people shot at President Kennedy from.

Well, to the conspiracist mind, it‘s important to always have a grassy knoll. It‘s their grotto of denial, a place to travel mentally and find deliverance from reality. Those who don‘t like reality need a grassy knoll to get through the night.

I do not wish to do injustice to these desperados. I know exactly why people need grassy knolls. They need them because they cannot bear the suffering that truth brings to the heart and to the mind.

How could some loser—some misfit who went to the Soviet Union because he thought he liked communism and believed he could find a happy life there, then came home and fall hard for Fidel Castro on the rebound, how could this squirt kill the regal Jack Kennedy? It doesn‘t balance out, does it? How could a nobody kill such a great somebody?

Well, worst yet, how could a man of a hard left—a communist—kill Jack Kennedy. Why wasn‘t it a right-winger who killed him? Then we could blame it on them?

I‘ve got it. We‘ll come up with a conspiracy theory—don‘t actually have to prove anything, of course, that says—just say it. Just say it. It really was a right winger. It‘s that guy - oh, those guys over in the grassy knoll. Don‘t you get it? It was the right wing that killed our hero.

Well, a half century later, we‘ve got a new grassy knoll, another place for retreat for those who can‘t stand a hard truth. The truth is that Barack Obama is the president of the United States. Got it! President of the United States, duly elected leader of the country living right there in the White House.

And they can‘t stand it. They can‘t stand that it is, in fact, a fact. No way around it. No way.

Just look at the history books. Look at the newspaper. Dang it! This guy is president. He was elected president. A majority of the people wanted him president and went out and voted for him.

How do we change that? How do we change that reality?

I got it, with this—it didn‘t happen. You see, he wasn‘t born here. He‘s not eligible to be president.
I read it somewhere that he‘s from somewhere else. Can‘t put my finger on it but he‘s not really an American, you see? Not natural born anyway. He‘s from out there somewhere.

So, last night, the boobs in the Arizona legislature voted to require the candidates for president henceforth approved other documents besides the official document that the state of Hawaii issues as a birth certificate. They want circumcision, baptismal records. They want something that nobody‘s ever wanted before from any candidate before.

What they really want is the same thing grassy knoll people want even now—deliverance from the truth they cannot handle.

Donald Trump—take a bow for giving new hope to grassy knollers everywhere. Wow!
That‘s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42647474/ns/msnbc_tv-hardball_with_chris_matthews/


Dear Chris,

I was not surprised by your arrogant and ignorant denunciation of conspiracy theorists who believe JFK was fired upon from the "Grassy Knoll." Of course the last official investigation of the assassination came to that same conclusion, based in part on scientific acoustics tests that virtually proved it (despite claims to the contrary those tests have never been refuted).

I find myself wondering, however, if you ever read your former boss and mentor's book "Man of the House," in which Tip O’Neillwrites:

I was never one of those people who had doubts or suspicions about the Warren Commission’s report on the President’s death. But five years after Jack died, I was having dinner with Kenny O’Donnell and a few other people at Jimmy’s Harborside Restaurant in Boston, and we got to talking about the assassination. I was surprised to hear O’Donnell say that he was sure he had heard two shots that came from behind the fence. "That’s not what you told the Warren Commission," I said. "You’re right," he replied. "I told the FBI what I had heard but they said it couldn’t have happened that way and that I must have been imagining things. So I testified the way they wanted me to. I just didn’t want to stir up any more pain and trouble for the family." "I can’t believe it," I said. "I wouldn’t have done that in a million years. I would have told the truth." "Tip, you have to understand. The family—everybody wanted this thing behind them." Dave Powers was with us at dinner that night, and his recollection of the shots was the same as O’Donnell’s.

So I guess O'Donnell and Powers can be counted among the "crazies," as can Tip O'Neill for passing on what they told him without attempting to refute it."

You are entitled to believe what you want about the Kennedy assassination, but branding people who believe something else based upon eyewitness testimony and scientific evidence as "crazies" says a lot more about you than it says about them.

Jerry Policoff

The Big Year - the Book & the now Movie

The Big Year, a book about birders, has been made into a movie.

http://www.markobmascik.com/the-big-year

Every year on January 1, a handful of people abandon their day-to-day lives to join one of the world’s quirkiest sporting contests. With few rules and no referees, there is one goal: to see and identify the most species of birds in a single year. The few who commit to the full year – known to its participants as a Big Year – will spend a grueling, exhaustive year traveling hundreds of thousands of miles and spending thousands of dollars. In a good year, the contest offers passion and deceit, fear and courage, a fundamental craving to see and conquer mixed with an unstoppable yearning for victory. In a bad year, it drains savings accounts and leaves people raw.

In THE BIG YEAR: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession (Free Press; publication date: February 4, 2004; $25.00), prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik chronicles the 1998 North American Big Year, the greatest – or perhaps the worst – birding competition of all time. With engaging humor and a sharp wit, Obmascik captures the enthusiasm of the birders themselves, taking readers on a rollicking 275,000-mile odyssey, as each of the three main competitors fight for the title of champion.

The three contestants were perhaps the unlikeliest set of competitors ever to meet. A wise-cracking industrial contractor from New Jersey, a newly-retired executive vice-president of a multi-million dollar company from Aspen, and a painfully divorced software engineer who continued to work full time at a nuclear power plant in Maryland while pursuing his Big Year; they were all passionate about birds.

As they traveled on the grueling, 365-day potholed road to glory, they faced broiling deserts, roiling oceans, bug-infested swamps, rising debt, and a disgruntled mountain lion. From the island of Attu in Alaska to the Florida Keys, from the deserts of Arizona to the Pacific Ocean off the coast of northern California, they crossed time zones and, occasionally, paths on their quests to see once-in-a-lifetime rarities that could mean the difference between winner and second place. Perhaps the most intense birding competition ever, by December 31, one of the contenders had set a record so gigantic – identifying an extraordinary 745 different species by official year-end count – it is unlikely ever to be bested.

Mark Obmascik is the bestselling author of Halfway to Heaven: My White-knuckled — and Knuckleheaded — Quest for the Rocky Mountain High, winner of the 2009 National Outdoor Book Award for Outdoor Literature, and The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession, which received five Best of 2004 citations by major media. The Big Year movie, starring Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson, is being released in October 2011 by 20th Century Fox. Obmascik was lead writer for the Denver Post team that won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize, and winner of the 2003 National Press Club award for environmental journalism. He lives in Denver with his wife, Merrill Schwerin, and their three sons, Cass, Max, and Wesley.

Fat, forty-four, father of three sons, and facing a vasectomy, Mark Obmascik would never have guessed that his next move would be up a 14,000-foot mountain. But when his twelve-year-old son gets bitten by the climbing bug at summer camp, Obmascik can’t resist the opportunity for some high-altitude father-son bonding by hiking a peak together. After their first joint climb, addled by thin air, Obmascik decides to keep his head in the cloud and try scaling all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains, known as the Fourteeners – and to finish them in less than one year.
The result is Halfway to Heaven, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Obmascik’s rollicking, witty, sometimes harrowing, often poignant chronicle of an outrageous midlife adventure that is now walk in the park, although sometimes it’s A Walk in the Woods – but with more sweat and less oxygen. Half a million people try climbing a Colorado Fourteener every year, but only 1,200 have reported summiting them all. Can an overweight, stay-at-home dad become No. 1,201?

With his ebullient personality and sparkling prose, Obmascik brings us inside the quirky, colorful subculture of mountaineering obsessives who summit these mountains year after year. Honoring his concerned wife’s orders not to climb alone, Obmascik drags old friends up the slopes, some of them lifelong flatlanders tasting thin air for the first time, and lures seasoned Rockies junkies into taking on a huffing, puffing newbie by bribing them with free beer, lunches, and car washes. Among the new friends he makes are an ex-drag racer trying to perform a headstand on every summit, the lead oboe player in a Hebrew salsa band, and a climber with the counterproductive pre-climb ritual of gulping down four beers and a burrito.

Though danger is always present – the Colorado Fourteeners have killed as many climbers as Mount Everest – Mark knows his aging scalp can’t afford the hair-raising adventures of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, and his quest becomes a story of family, friendship, and fraternity. In Obmascik’s summer of climbing, he loses fifteen pounds, finds a few dozen man-dates, and gains respect for the history of these storied mountains (home to cannibalism, gold rushes, shoot-outs, and one of the nation’s most famed religious shrines.) As much about midlife and male bonding as it is about mountains, Halfway to Heaven tells how weekend warriors can survive them all as they reach for those most distant things – the summit of mountains and a teenage son. And as one man exceeds the physical achievements of his youth, he discovers that age – like summit height – is just a number.

The author