L.os Angeles broadcaster passes away. George Putnam

[Ronnie Roach]

Monday, September 15, 2008

My first political adversary: George Putnam. RIP.

Los Angeles in the mid-sixties was innocent…well…in my young eyes it was. I remember in family get-togethers they would argue about politics, my grandmother would try to change the subject. Me, I couldn’t give a toss. All I cared about was Baseball, rock & Roll and comic books. Then in 1966 came around and the Sunset Strip riot happened. It was reaction to a curfew set by the L.A County Sheriff because small business owners felt threaten by wild teenagers. I remember in the Hollywood Independent (A free newspaper that homeowners found on their lawns and driveways every Wednesday and Thursday) was a photo of a teen dancing on top of a RTD bus on the front page. That was the very first I read a newspaper. I was basically politically naïve, however I like teen rebellion. I wanted to join them but I was too doing kid stuff.
Then, one evening I was channel surfing, which entailed turning the dial on my parents black & white Zenith TV set. There was this well groom newscaster with a deep voice giving a commentary in a segment called: In this reporter opinion. I am not sure of the title of the commentary. I think it was called: As I was driving down Sunset Blvd. He started to bum-rap the lazy hippies who were dependent on social handouts lying about on the sidewalks getting high and not working. Hippie? What is a hippie? I thought he was talking about long hair teens. His slogan was: They want to retire before they work. Hey! Not a bad idea! His name was George Putnam. His was the early Rush Limbaugh.
He was an enigma. He was a member of ACLU and a registered Democrat but he had a distain for the new left and the counter culture movement. He disliked the Black Panther Party and any other ethno centrist groups like The Brown Beret Party.
George was strictly a local broadcaster, however, He was making more money that Walter Cronkite on the national news. He was a hard drinking rough neck who likes Hollywood starlets and yet, he promoted traditional family values. The new left wrote him off as a reactionary. I remember in the 80’s he appeared on fundraiser for Dr.Gene Scot church singing the blues! He sounded like…Muddy Waters!
In my early teens, my friends and I got together and smoked weed and laughed at George Putnam while he was doing his broadcast. George reminded us as our parents who didn’t have a clue about Woodstock nation.
In 1972, George had a TV show called: Talk Back. The idea of the show was that anybody could stand on a podium and express their opinion about the issues of the day. George with 2 other of his colleague sat behind a desk and gave their 2 cents about your comments. I wanted to organize a Yippie action. My idea was fill the studio with screaming Yippies and disrupt the show by taking off our clothes and smoking pot. To make a long story short, I was the only one who showed up. I gave a fake name, which was Ronnie Roach. When I got up to the podium, I had the image of the Godless anti-American Yippie with long hair, army jacket, new left buttons and a Mao cap. Then I proceeded to lie my ass off. I made the claim that I was a bad student with a D average then I smoked pot, my grade average skyrocketed to A. I presented Hal Fishman with Steppenwolf latest album: Monster, which I found in a dumpster in back of Arons record shop. Then, George saw my Vietcong badge on my chest. He instructed the cameraman to get a close up of it. His booming voice asked me…young man, do you realize that is the flag of our enemy. I don’t remember what my reply was. That was my first 15-minute of fame. I remember coming home to my grandma’s place and her phone was ringing off the hook She was getting phone calls from relatives who saw me on the tube. Relatives she hasn’t heard from for years. She got a kick from my appearance. She started to tease my by calling me cockroach. It didn’t stop on that night. I was walking on Hollywood Blvd and a stranger stopped me. You are that guy I saw on TV! At that moment I wanted to be famous. It never happened! Oh well!
I last time I saw George was at the Arco towers in downtown L.A in the 1980’s. He was doing a radio show there. I was with my wife, Pamela. She vaguely knew who he was. I asked if he remembered me, he didn’t. He was polite and excused himself to do his show. I was sort of insulted. The only one who still remembers my appearance, who saw me on the air was Aaron Kay (The pie man). He never forgot it. When I was on Talk Back, I told Hal Fishman I sprinkled pot on my cornflake before I went to school. Aaron never forgot that line. he still kids me about it.
George Putnam was the most misunderstood man of politics. Forget John McCain! Putnam was the original maverick! So, he was a militant moderate! His broadcast style was lampooned on Television sit-coms. He died at the age of 93 a week ago. I should be so lucky! He kept his religious views to himself, so I wondered if he believed in the afterlife? I will miss him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBHbrnGxjMI