Bob Barry's Unearthed Interviews Bob Barry

Who is more Milwaukee than Lawrence Welk? With his accordion and orchestra, played polkas plus light and bubbly “champagne music,” which laid claim to the bubble machine. He played many dance dates in Milwaukee, including George Devine’s Million Dollar Ballroom. It was there, as a youngster, my parents took me to see him, and they bought me an accordion. That didn’t last long, as I preferred to play baseball instead of playing the squeeze box. Welk recorded some of his records in Grafton, Wisconsin. Today those recordings are rare and valuable. Welk started out in radio and later his very popular “Lawrence Welk Show.” He mentions the threat of being canceled, but that never happened, and reruns are seen today on local TV. He had several hits including “Calcutta,” which was a number one record in 1961. Welk was inducted into the International Polka Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He even appeared on Saturday Night Live. You might remember when Stan Freberg impersonated him in a recording called “Wunnerful Wunnerful.” Welk was not happy with Freberg’s mimic but ended up using it for the title of his book.

I’m sure that the older podcasters in the audience watched the very popular TV series “Dallas” in the 1980s. Morgan Brittany played Katherine Wentworth, the scheming half-sister of Pam Ewing and Cliff Barnes. In the 1987 season finale she drove a car that stuck Bobby Ewing, resulting in both of their deaths. Morgan worked with many super stars during her career. She will talk about that, also her husband’s very dangerous job in films and some personal information the ladies will love.

Barbara Mandrell at one time, was considered one of the most successful country singers and all-around entertainers, with six number one singles and 25 top ten singles on the Billboard Country charts.  Barbara also had her own primetime TV show and appeared in “Touched by an Angel,” “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” and “Baywatch.”  Her hit records included: “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” and “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.” Barbara is very talented, playing several instruments. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009. Mandrell has been only one of a few women to win the CMA Entertainer of the Year award twice, alongside Taylor Swift. In 1979 she crossed over into the Top 40 pop charts with “If Loving You is Wrong, I Don’t Want to be Right.”

The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, 109 years ago this month. We spoke with one of the survivors of this tragedy. In 1911, Marshall Drew had sailed with his aunt and uncle on the RMS Olympic to visit family in England. The voyage home began in Southampton on April 10, 1912, aboard the maiden voyage of the Olympics’ sister ship, the Titanic. Marshall was very generous with his time and seemed pleased to tell his story.

Howard Cosell had a boisterous personality. He once said, “I’ve been accused of being arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, a showoff…and of course I am.” He was sarcastically nicknamed “Humble Howard.” In one of his sports commentaries, he suggested that Terry Bradshaw did not have the intelligence to win in the league. But in 1993, TV Guide named Cosell “The Best All-Time Sportscaster.” Howard called many of Muhammad Ali’s boxing matches. His most famous championship fight call was the George Forman-Joe Frazier fight in Kingston, Jamaica. That’s when Cosell yelled “Down goes Frazier, down goes Frazier.” You may remember on Monday Night Football, Dec. 8, 1980, Cosell announced the death of John Lennon. In this podcast he answers his critics and suggests that Al McGuire and other coaches had an unfair means of getting their star players. Of course, I gave McGuire a chance to answer that accusation.

In case you don’t know who, Evel Knievel is, let me tell you. This daredevil attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps. His most famous stunt was attempting to jump the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He tried to jump across the Snake River Canyon in Idaho Falls using a rocket-powered cycle. He failed, due to a parachute malfunction, but only suffered minor injuries. He later jumped 19 cars with his Harley-Davidson XR-750 (pictured) at the Ontario Motor Speedway in California. That historic cycle is in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Needless to say, Knievel had trouble getting insurance. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the survivor of the most bones broken in a lifetime, more than 433 bone fractures. George Hamilton portrayed him in the film “Evel Knievel.” In this podcast he’ll tell you how he got his name and his philosophy in dealing with this dangerous sport.