Around the Corner with John McGivern | Program | Minocqua (#808)
[Original Airdate: February 21, 2019]
Most people go to Minocqua to play in the north woods of Wisconsin – and there is no finer playground. If you are thinking about cabins, lakes, waterski shows and supper clubs, then you are right on the money. But after this half hour, you’ll also think of jerky, popcorn, zoo safaris and vitamins – no kidding! Hopefully you’ll also gain an understanding of its true culture, one that is rich with Ojibwe and founding family histories. The word “eclectic” comes to mind. But “rejuvenating” may be the best description of Minocqua.
Around the Corner with John McGivern:
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Join Emmy Award-Winning actor John McGivern as he explores living, working and playing in Wisconsin's unique communities. John has visited more than 100 communities so far, with no end in sight!
ABOUT MILWAUKEE PBS
Milwaukee PBS is an award-winning multimedia producer and broadcaster of exceptional and meaningful local and national content. Licensed to Milwaukee Area Technical College, Milwaukee PBS is one of the highest-rated PBS stations in the country. Our unique, independent position in the community makes us the ideal source of community engagement as a storyteller, conversation facilitator and advocate. No matter where you come from or where you make your home, we encourage you to bring your world and Milwaukee into focus as a member of the Milwaukee PBS community.
Pronounce This: Wisconsin Names
We asked six unsustecting Californians to take a stab at pronouncing some of Wisconsin's more...ahem...unusual place names. Well, they tried their best.
Then again, anyone would have trouble sounding out Weyauwega and not hurt their brain. Folks from the Badger State won't want to miss this.
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Around the Corner with John McGivern | Program | Around Madison (#809)
[Original Airdate: February 28, 2019]
The capital of Wisconsin can’t be covered in one episode, so we neglected some great things in Madison when we were there in 2012. We didn’t include the UW Arboretum, Olbrich Botanical Gardens, the Henry Vila Zoo, the Dane County Farmers Market and Mickie’s Dairy Bar. Consider those oversights rectified!
But we like to include the unexpected, too. You may have been to Camp Randall, but probably not to the kitchens down below. You may have walked on Observatory Hill, but were you aware that you were walking on ancient effigy mounds? Have you ever heard of Yumbutter, or talked with an elite swimmer or toured the Capitol with the longest serving legislator in the nation? And even if you’ve taken a tour of Wisconsin’s Executive Residence, we guarantee that you weren’t taken behind the scenes like John was.
Apparently Madison can’t be covered in just two episodes either, but you’ll enjoy this one for sure!
Around the Corner with John McGivern:
Still haven’t subscribed to Milwaukee PBS on YouTube? ►►
Support Around the Corner with John McGivern and Milwaukee PBS by becoming a member! ►►
ABOUT AROUND THE CORNER WITH JOHN MCGIVERN
Join Emmy Award-Winning actor John McGivern as he explores living, working and playing in Wisconsin's unique communities. John has visited more than 100 communities so far, with no end in sight!
ABOUT MILWAUKEE PBS
Milwaukee PBS is an award-winning multimedia producer and broadcaster of exceptional and meaningful local and national content. Licensed to Milwaukee Area Technical College, Milwaukee PBS is one of the highest-rated PBS stations in the country. Our unique, independent position in the community makes us the ideal source of community engagement as a storyteller, conversation facilitator and advocate. No matter where you come from or where you make your home, we encourage you to bring your world and Milwaukee into focus as a member of the Milwaukee PBS community.
My Friend Irma: The Red Hand / Billy Boy, the Boxer / The Professor's Concerto
My Friend Irma, created by writer-director-producer Cy Howard, is a top-rated, long-run radio situation comedy, so popular in the late 1940s that its success escalated to films, television, a comic strip and a comic book, while Howard scored with another radio comedy hit, Life with Luigi. Marie Wilson portrayed the title character, Irma Peterson, on radio, in two films and a television series. The radio series was broadcast from April 11, 1947 to August 23, 1954.
Dependable, level-headed Jane Stacy (Cathy Lewis, Diana Lynn) began each weekly radio program by narrating a misadventure of her innocent, bewildered roommate, Irma, a dim-bulb stenographer from Minnesota. The two central characters were in their mid-twenties. Irma had her 25th birthday in one episode; she was born on May 5. After the two met in the first episode, they lived together in an apartment rented from their Irish landlady, Mrs. O'Reilly (Jane Morgan, Gloria Gordon).
Irma's boyfriend Al (John Brown) was a deadbeat, barely on the right side of the law, who had not held a job in years. Only someone like Irma could love Al, whose nickname for Irma was Chicken. Al had many crazy get-rich-quick schemes, which never worked. Al planned to marry Irma at some future date so she could support him. Professor Kropotkin (Hans Conried), the Russian violinist at the Princess Burlesque theater, lived upstairs. He greeted Jane and Irma with remarks like, My two little bunnies with one being an Easter bunny and the other being Bugs Bunny. The Professor insulted Mrs. O'Reilly, complained about his room and reluctantly became O'Reilly's love interest in an effort to make her forget his back rent.
Irma worked for the lawyer, Mr. Clyde (Alan Reed). She had such an odd filing system that once when Clyde fired her, he had to hire her back again because he couldn't find anything. Useless at dictation, Irma mangled whatever Clyde dictated. Asked how long she had been with Clyde, Irma said, When I first went to work with him he had curly black hair, then it got grey, and now it's snow white. I guess I've been with him about six months.
Irma became less bright as the program evolved. She also developed a tendency to whine or cry whenever something went wrong, which was at least once every show. Jane had a romantic inclination for her boss, millionaire Richard Rhinelander (Leif Erickson), but he had no real interest in her. Another actor in the show was Bea Benaderet.
Katherine Elisabeth Wilson (August 19, 1916 -- November 23, 1972), better known by her stage name, Marie Wilson, was an American radio, film, and television actress. She may be best remembered as the title character in My Friend Irma.
Born in Anaheim, California, Wilson began her career in New York City as a dancer on the Broadway stage. She gained national prominence with My Friend Irma on radio, television and film. The show made her a star but typecast her almost interminably as the quintessential dumb blonde, which she played in numerous comedies and in Ken Murray's famous Hollywood Blackouts. During World War II, she was a volunteer performer at the Hollywood Canteen. She was also a popular wartime pin-up.
Wilson's performance in Satan Met a Lady, the second film adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's detective novel The Maltese Falcon, is a virtual template for Marilyn Monroe's later onscreen persona. Wilson appeared in more than 40 films and was a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show on four occasions. She was a television performer during the 1960s, working until her untimely death.
Wilson's talents have been recognized with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for radio at 6301 Hollywood Boulevard, for television at 6765 Hollywood Boulevard and for movies at 6601 Hollywood Boulevard.
Wilson married four times: Nick Grinde (early 1930s), LA golf pro Bob Stevens (1938--39), Allan Nixon (1942--50) and Robert Fallon (1951--72).
She died of cancer in 1972 at age 56 and was interred in the Columbarium of Remembrance at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.