The "Walking Man" contest questions

[scottp]

Good Lord! Those clues are giving me a headache! I'll check back in a week or two and see if it makes any more sense.

I thought Clara Bow was Miss Hush, not Martha Graham.

[bboswell]

Ahh yes, Clara Bow was Mrs Hush, Martha Graham was Miss Hush.

[shimp scrampi]

OK, kids - I've heard the Truth or Consequences episode where Jack's identity is guessed! The riddle isn't totally explained, (none of the goofier clues are) but the "master of the metropolis fits his name quite well" bit is. It does refer to Waukegan, which Ralph Edwards spuriously claims is an Indian word for "walk again" - therefore, "Walking Man" - he could have just said it (vaguely) rhymed. According to straightdope.com, Waukegan actually means something like "little Fort" in Potawatomi.

Jack appears in the episode from the remote location where he was doing the footsteps - it's an interesting in/out of character bit - in fact he claims NO ONE aside from the few T or C staffers knew he was the Walking Man, not his writers or even Mary. He talks about being at home, ready to do the walking for the show, only to discover Mary had re-soled his shoes in rubber, rather than leather, so he had to go steal a pair of her leather-soled pumps to do the bit. Ralph Edwards asks if Mary never suspected he was the Walking Man, and Jack retorts, "well, after that, she suspected something, but it wasn't that I was the Walking Man!"

[bboswell]

Jack retorts, "well, after that, she suspected something, but it wasn't that I was the Walking Man!"

Hmmm, I sense a "Jack's Gay Double-entendres" post coming up!

[LLeff]

It does refer to Waukegan, which Ralph Edwards spuriously claims is an Indian word for "walk again" - therefore, "Walking Man" - he could have just said it (vaguely) rhymed. According to straightdope.com, Waukegan actually means something like "little Fort" in Potawatomi.

"Walk again"? Oh that's so much malarky. Waukegan really does mean "Little Fort". And Bill Cosby did some jokes about that at the Genesee Theatre opening, seeming to misunderstand when he asked the audience what it meant and we collectively responded "Little Fort". You can guess what he thought he heard.

And at the risk of sounding like I'm ragging on Waukegan...I wouldn't call it a metropolis.

[Maxwell]

And at the risk of sounding like I'm ragging on Waukegan...I wouldn't call it a metropolis.

True, especially compared to places like Berwyn.

[bboswell]

I just wonder if perhaps the earlier post was right, considering "Rochester" a metropolis. Then, in the interest of race relations, he reconsidered and came up with the "walk again" excuse. Master of Waukegan? "Walk Again?" Please!!

[shimp scrampi]

I kind of doubt it, I think it is just some kind of pun on a silly way to pronounce "Waukegan" (walky-gann). Edwards sounds really flustered in all the excitement and ruckus and blurts out the goofy "Indian word" thing without giving it much thought. If it was an attempt to patch up race relations, they just traded which race they were insulting! After all, we all know that if you want to speak Native American languages, just pronounce the English incorrectly

It would be nice to hear the following week's broadcast, where they supposedly explain all of the horn honks and cat yowls, but that episode is still elusive at the moment.

[scottp]

Haven't I heard "Master" used in referring to any man who employs a butler or valet? If it was, say, a British aristocrat and his British valet, we wouldn't think that much about it. But even in the 1940s I'd think they'd want to avoid this word in the Jack and Rochester relationship, because it would bring up memories of slave times.
But just the other day I saw a reprint of a 1940 Chesapeake & Ohio Railway ad for their passenger trains. The company played up Colonial Virginia in a lot of their advertising. This one showed genteel folks in the dining car being served by a black waiter, while the panel above showed genteel fellows of the powdered-wig era bowing to the ladies-- but their... ahem... "unpaid employees" weren't shown.

[shimp scrampi]

Haven't I heard "Master" used in referring to any man who employs a butler or valet? If it was, say, a British aristocrat and his British valet, we wouldn't think that much about it. But even in the 1940s I'd think they'd want to avoid this word in the Jack and Rochester relationship, because it would bring up memories of slave times.

I think you've got it exactly right there, all the evidence seems to say that the "master" on T or C was NOT referring to Rochester. The English "master" for butlers and the like wasn't a tainted term since there never was slavery (after Roman times, anyway - and never race based slavery) there. If any more evidence is needed, I can't recall a single instance of "master" being used between Roch and Jack even in Rochester's most grotesquely stereotyped pre-war bits.

[bboswell]

hmmm, I'm still not convinced. Of course I have the disadvantage of not living through the time period where most of the Civil Rights fight was fought, but I still wonder if "master" could have been used by Ralph Edwards originally to mean "boss." (According to the Time Magazine article, Edwards made up the clues himself.) I'm not saying he used it intentionally in the "master/slave" sense nor in the english butler sense. Certainly no one would have used it that way in national radio show, but when you're trying to be cryptic, perhaps that could be a possibility. Later, when trying to explain it, perhaps he realized that it could have negative connotations, and came up with the "walk again" idea.

(I'm not convinced one way or the other, half of this is just me playing devil's advocate. The other half is me being bull-headed!)

[shimp scrampi]

Well, I guess it's open to interpretation, but aside from a forum member's creative post 50+ years later there isn't any reference to Rochester, NY (not much more of a metropolis than Waukegan) regarding the contest.

Secondly, the second part of the clue "fits his name quite well" makes it clear to me that Waukegan (rhyming, punning, or faux-Indian) is the correct city in question. It makes less sense if Rochester was the answer. But we need to find that subsequent T or C episode!

[bboswell]

I guess that's true. It's been 50 years and we're trying to play Indiana Jones here. Or is it more like a Canticle for Leibowitz?? (In the post-apocalyptic future a monk makes an amazing find, a piece of paper that says: "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma." What can this mean?!?!)

[LLeff]

I guess that's true. It's been 50 years and we're trying to play Indiana Jones here. Or is it more like a Canticle for Leibowitz??

Oh gosh, I was loving reading "Leibowitz" some time ago but somehow put it down and haven't found it again. I'm in the middle of a Gore Vidal book (ironically, "Messiah") so searching will have to wait.

But I'm on a Benny research trip right now, and I'm LIVING "A Canticle for Leibowitz". Trying to figure out answers to questions that the only people who could answer are dead...like, why did Jack wait almost a year between his mother's death and enlisting in the Navy (was he still performing with Lyman Woods, and if so, where)? How is it that while Jack was enlisted, there are still reports of him performing his vaudeville act (no, not the Great Lakes Revue) in places as far away as Lansing, MI? I've got lots and lots and lots of pieces, but still trying to find ways to cement them all together. It will take years and lots more research, although I have found answers to plenty more old questions.

[shimp scrampi]

Thought I would resurrect an old fun thread to sadly note Ralph Edwards' passing a few days back. It's a good occasion to remember that this little corner of Jack's career, the Walking Man contest - is not only fun to discuss so many years later, but raised 1.8 million dollars (in 1948!) for the heart fund. An enduring gift to society indeed.