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11-14-2006, 11:30 AM
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Gene London: Remember when?
Is anyone here old enough to remember the old Gene London show? It was weird, wonderful, and sometimes disturbing. Weird monsters, aliens, apes, crazy obsessions with princesses, drawing, and out of control story lines. The show totally spun out of control at the end...but it was part of my youth. And just once, I was on that show.
Gene London was this strange, very feminine, and wonderfully compassionate guy. I think that he is a costumer now in NYC. I once saw a show where he was buying starlet dresses. He seems to have come further out of his Quigly mansion if you know what I mean. But he was a gentle guy and had a very well intended kid's show. When I was a little boy, I broke my leg. It was something that a little boy savored instead of dreaded. Wow, I got a cast. People could sign it. The kid's in school would be interested instead of throwing rocks at me. Everyone would give me special attention. And of course, it looked cool. Oddly enough, soon after getting the cast placed on my foot, I found myself on the set of the Gene London show. For a kid like me, this was a big deal. And I knew that I'd play the sympathy card. So there I was stumbling around the set like Tiny Tim on my little crutches. I don't remember clearly but certainly I must have been hamming it up for the cameras. I can almost picture myself groaning in some sort of fake agony with one eye on the camera and the other on Gene London's weird goings-on. Gene reminded me of that character in the movie, Powder, only slightly less butch. But he was a talented artist and he was coming my way. I must have been looking into the camera at that moment. Gene stopped the show and started to ask me about my cast. And the next thing I know...the famous Gene London is drawing on my new cast on camera. Amazing. I couldn't wait. I was hoping that he'd do a picture of the Planet of the Apes characters that I loved so much. Or maybe a picture of Tim McCarver, my favorite baseball player. Or maybe he'd just do some impressionist art which would be a nice conversation starter in school. Oh, Gene is doing a face...great...I'm sure it will be good. Well, what can I say .... what does a gay kid's show host with an obsession with Disney and a complete lack of knowledge about the goings-on in the mind of a heterosexual little boy do at such a moment. As I pried my eyes off of the camera lens with my toothless grin, I looked down at my cast only to see that Gene was drawing a picture of Cinderella on my fresh cast. What? Nooooooo. The rocks would be flying again at recess...I just knew it. I think that I must have broken out into a flop sweat at that moment. I might have cried on the ride home. Gene London ruined my cast. At that moment, I gave a fake nod of acceptance and love for the drawing which would have made a car salesman blush. The Gene London show had suddenly become just a little too wimpy for me. When I got home, I had to devise a plan. After all, I wasn't too young to know that Cinderella on my cast was going to be a rough one to explain in class. I thought of putting a fake beard on her. Or maybe turning her into a unicorn. And what on earth was I going to do...use crayons? How about putting a big band-aide on it and saying that it was a new type of cast. I was stumped. And if my memory serves me correctly, I took a couple of rocks the next day in school. I got laughed at a bit. But you know, in the end, it was kind of cool to have a Gene London original on my cast. By the time everyone signed my cast around the picture and eventually across it, the whole thing didn't look half-bad. And, years later, I sit here and write about it. And play the sympathy card once again. Gene London was a Philly original. He was the first gay guy that we'd all ever encountered. He was a nice guy who really cared about the kids. We watched that show religiously at a time when the VCR hadn't even been invented. We followed that crazy story line and watched that show jump the shark, jump the whale, and eventually jump the Titanic. Wherever Gene London is today, I hope that he realizes that his innocent little show made many of us the degenerates that we are today. And opened up our minds and eyes just a little bit too. 
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11-14-2006, 12:07 PM
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Gene London rocked, and who the hell knew from gay back then.
__________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x-fkSYDtUY "Censorship is free advertising by the government"--Federico Fellini "Do you mind if I smoke while you eat?"
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11-14-2006, 01:13 PM
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check this out for Gene London and the others - they'll bring a smile to your face...
http://www.theprideofphiladelphia.co...iacontest.html
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11-14-2006, 01:14 PM
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My sister & I were raised on that show. You're right in that it did get strange towards the end. Some of the odder aspects I remember:
- probably what could be considered one of the first rock videos when Gene was filmed chasing after "Debby Dibbley" to the Beatles "Baby You're a Rich Man". I'm still wondering, 40 years later, what that was all about. - Also, the time Lucielle Ball made a guest appearance on the show. As a young kid I was so impressed with how he could make those great drawings in seconds. It wasn't until was a few years older that I wised-up and could see that he was tracing the images. In any event, Gene London was a great Philly talent who provided years of great entertainment for the kids of that time.
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11-14-2006, 01:34 PM
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Was it Dibbley mansion? Hahahaha. I stand corrected.
And you are so right about the tracing....hilarious. It was such a weird program. It started as this little humble show and eventually turned to Aliens. Sort of like when Mork showed up on Happy Days. But you always did get the sense that the kids were revered on that show. It was low-budget madness with a heart. And tracing paper.
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11-14-2006, 01:35 PM
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Didn't he dance with Debbie Dibley on occasion?
__________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x-fkSYDtUY "Censorship is free advertising by the government"--Federico Fellini "Do you mind if I smoke while you eat?"
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11-14-2006, 01:35 PM
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I remember Gene London!! I also remember Sally Starr!
Go down Memory Lane a bit: http://www.tvparty.com/lostlondon.html
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11-14-2006, 02:04 PM
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yea, it was great wasn't it.
I heard that Gene London is running a cozy little abortion clinic in upstate New York now.  pssst...calm down...i'm just kidding.
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11-14-2006, 02:11 PM
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Quote:
He was performing abortions in South America after he escaped there....just as that other Nazi war criminal did in Canada. And now, back to Gene and Sally!
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11-14-2006, 02:26 PM
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ahhh.... the classic Gene London - Nazi War Criminal mix-up. Ya got me.
Things that you'll never hear at a local comedy club.... "do we have any rabid pro-lifers in the hizzouse tonight?" Now back to Sally Star.....she looked remarkably similar to my Aunt Rose....but most Jews wouldn't be caught dead in a cowboy hat. Her show was on way too early for me..... and Chief Halftown...forget it.
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