In 1941, on the eve of America's entry into World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to curb the influence of Nazis and fascists in South America and promote American ideals. So the President enlisted someone who embodied the American capitalist spirit: Walt Disney.
Walt Disney - Third from right
It was U.S. People-to-People diplomacy - in terms of being de facto diplomats of course. Walt Disney did meet Getulio Vargas, who was the president of Brazil at that time. it inspired at least one cartoon of El Pato Donald, Donald Duck, who meets up with a Brazilian parrot, José Carioca.
What can U.S. voters learn about our U.S. influence today in Brazil, from a socialist government regime?
Surprise U.S. voters! The Brazilians are now voting to move rapidly from federal government health care into private health coverage provided by UnitedHealth Group. The expanding Brazilian middle class has experienced poor socialized medicine health care and is demanding private health care coverage for value and service.
Then what's all the U.S. Obamacare about? Stephan Hemsley, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, said, "We believe we have never seen a more compelling opportunity for growth." It is a part Obamacare Crap Shoot - You Call it!of a broader trend as U.S. companies seek faster-growing markets overseas... say whaat?
Is Obamacare causing more high paying jobs to move off-shore, especially Doctors? We need Doctors to stay here to treat those additional 30 million new patients included in our socialized government Obamacare program. Why hasn't Obama told the American voters about these sorely needed jobs as losses attributed to compelling overseas opportunities?
Oh well, "We'll vote for it first and find out later what's in it!" Rational thinking is traded for socialist ideology which will overfill our hospitals with sick patients with costly inept healthcare leading to many more unnecessary deaths.
Unless you grew up in Southern California during the 1950s to 1970, you'll never quite understand this story and the You Tube clip fully, but it's still a glimpse into a more innocent past that everyone can appreciate.
Starting with 'Cartoon Time' on KTTV-TV in 1952, Sheriff John was a welcome guest in homes until 1970. His lessons in manners, safety and patriotism were a hit with parents and children alike.
John Rovick donned a sheriff's hat, khaki uniform and badge to become Sheriff John on KTTV's daily "Cartoon Time" show. (Rothschild Photo/KTTV)
This You Tube video clip certainly brings back the nostalgia of early T.V. programming without the technical computer era production window dressing. It includes his last show sign-off on the air.
Time: 6:12
Article by Dennis McLellan, Special to The Los Angeles Times Newspaper
October 7, 2012
"Sheriff" John Rovick, the beloved Los Angeles children's TV show host whose gentle, fatherly persona made him a welcome guest in homes throughout the 1950s and '60s, died Saturday morning. He was 93.
Rovick died in his sleep at a nursing facility in Boise, Idaho, said his wife, Jacqueline. A Toledo, Ohio, native who launched his broadcasting career in radio, Rovick was a newly hired staff announcer at KTTV-TV (Channel 11) when the Los Angeles station first went on the air in 1949.
In 1952, after KTTV acquired a batch of old cartoons and was searching for someone to host a daily cartoon show for children at 5:30 p.m., Rovick came up with a novel idea: Sheriff John. Rovick knew longtime Los Angeles County Sheriff Gene Biscailuz, "and I had been an honorary Sheriff before I started the show because I was interested in law enforcement work," he told The Times in 2008. So "I put on a khaki uniform and a badge and got a big white hat, sat at a desk and showed cartoons," Rovick recalled.
"Cartoon Time" with Sheriff John became an immediate hit with young viewers, earning an Emmy Award in 1953 for outstanding children's program. KTTV by then had added a new show to its schedule at midday, "Sheriff John's Lunch Brigade," which stayed on the air until 1970.
"Come on now, laugh and be happy and the world will laugh with you," he'd sing in a smooth baritone, lip-synching as he entered the door of the sheriff's office set at the beginning of each show. The opening included leading his young viewers in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
"We talked a lot about safety, courtesy, manners and things like that," he told the Idaho Statesman in 2005. "We often had firemen or police officers as guests, and I'd warn the kids not to do things like play in the street or get into refrigerators or play with matches." He'd also do occasional live remotes, taking viewers to see how bread was made, or how cars were assembled at a GM plant in Van Nuys. And, of course, he'd show cartoons (those with Crusader Rabbit were early favorites).
One highlight of the show, whose primary target was 4- and 5-year-olds, was Sheriff John's reading of the names of dozens of viewers who were celebrating birthdays. Then he'd sing "The Birthday Cake Polka" — "Put another candle on my birthday cake. We're gonna bake a birthday cake ..." — as a large cake revolved on a lazy Susan.
Sheriff John also had lunch along with his viewers — he'd usually eat a sandwich and have a glass of milk after saying a brief nondenominational prayer. "It was a real good little prayer," he recalled in 2008 in The Times, the words still fresh in his mind: "Heavenly father, great and good. We thank thee for our daily food. Bless us even as we pray. Guide and keep us through this day." Rovick acknowledged that it would be hard to get permission to say grace on a contemporary TV show. "Oh, they'd fight me tooth and nail today," he said, but at the time no one complained. "Isn't that amazing?" he said. "That was when everyone was trying to prove that God was dead, and I was out to prove he was still alive, and I won."
From the start, Rovick received encouraging mail from parents, who extended their gratitude for his lessons in manners, safety and patriotism.
"The kids always came first," he said in the 2005 interview. "To some of them, I was a father figure. That was the best thing about being Sheriff John. A lot of those kids loved me." Rovick once received a letter from a mother saying her young son had asked her how old Sheriff John was. She told him, "I don't really know." To which the boy said: "He must be hundreds of years old. Every day he sings, 'I'm another year old today."
One father wrote a letter of thanks and told him how his young daughter learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance: "... with liberty and justice for all, and now to our first cartoon." The letters from parents also included one from a mother who said that when a disease took the life of her young son, their pastor read the words to "Laugh and Be Happy" at his funeral.
Sheriff John became an influential TV figure, spawning other law enforcement-type children's TV show hosts around the country.
Rovick was born Oct. 2, 1919, in Dayton, Ohio. While studying speech and dramatics at Michigan State University, he began singing with an eight-piece student band on Saturday afternoons at the student union.
The shows were broadcast by the university radio station and in so doing, he later said, "I got the feeling I liked broadcasting." He began working occasionally at a local radio station and after graduating in 1941, he landed a job as a staff announcer on a Toledo radio station. But the job was short-lived.
In 1942, Rovick joined the Army Air Forces and flew 50 missions as a radio gunner on a B-25. He was later commissioned a second lieutenant and had temporary duty with the transportation corps on a liberty ship. After the war, Rovick returned to his old job at the Toledo radio station. Inspired by a colleague who had worked in Los Angeles, Rovick made an audition record and in 1949 drove west.
After KTTV canceled "Lunch Brigade" in 1970 — to "save money," he said in 2008 — Rovick stayed on as a staff announcer until retiring in 1981, after 32 years at KTTV. He then moved to Idaho.
Decades later, Rovick continued to be a welcome sight for those who had grown up with Sheriff John.
"I had a heart attack five years ago," he said in the 2005 Idaho Statesman interview, "and the Boise doctor who saved my life turned out to be a Sheriff John fan. My dentist is a fan, and so are three of the people at the clinic where I get my eyes checked.
"I was walking into a store the other day, and a woman gasped and said, 'Sheriff John!' It just doesn't stop. It's amazing that it's been so many years ago and people still remember the impact the show had on their lives."
Rovick was separated for many years from his wife, Jacqueline, with whom he had two daughters, Wendy Maceri and Sandy Kaiser. They survive him, as do five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Judy Wallman, a professional genealogy researcher in southern California , was doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that Senator Harry Reid's great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. Both Judy and Harry Reid share this common ancestor.
The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows in Montana territory:
On the back of the picture Judy obtained during her research is this inscription:'Remus Reid, horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by the Pinkerton detectives, was convicted and then hanged in 1889.'
So then, Judy recently e-mailed Senator Harry Reid for information about their great-great uncle.
Believe it or not, Harry Reid's staff sent back the following biographical sketch for her genealogy research:
"Remus Reid was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory . His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed."
"... After all, nobody's right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day." - Bill Clinton at 2012 Democrat Convention
In the defense of the Obama record Bill Clinton offered instead an infomercial for the Clinton brand of politics. Toward the end of the speech, everyone was waiting for the Vegamatic Chopper to come out, or better, an intro of the 2016 Hillary for President Campaign kicking off her election bid to start building her nest egg.
An excerpt below from Clinton's speech defines his successful leadership as "not fighting with others" and that Obama "is still committed to cooperation." To paraphrase Clinton's own words, "What "parallel universe" are Democrats living in that see any of Obama's cooperation?"
President Obama has the impossible job to carve out any first term legacy positively and hope for any change in his second term either. The words "ridiculous" and "absurd" come to mind when describing the "Obama one-term proposition".
Clinton DNC Speech at Charlotte, SC Convention CenterClinton's Speech Text: "Through my foundation, in America and around the world, I work with Democrats, Republicans and Independents who are focused on solving problems and seizing opportunities, not fighting each other. When times are tough, constant conflict may be good politics but in the real world, cooperation works better. After all, nobody’s right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day. All of us are destined to live our lives between those two extremes. Unfortunately, the faction that now dominates the Republican Party doesn’t see it that way. They think government is the enemy, and compromise is weakness. One of the main reasons America should re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to cooperation."
I remember when the Democratic Party announced their choice of Adlai E. Stevenson to run against President Eisenhower in 1952. Back then, I recall on the schoolyard playground we kids all talked politics as Republicans and Democrats, not as Communists, Socialists or LGBT - Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual & Transgender Rights Activists. I wore a lapel pin that said "Let's Back Ike". My Democrat friends would say, "Let's Back Ike... up to the wall and shoot him!" and run away laughing. We would retort with, "Mary had a little lamb and it's face was almost human and every time it turned around it looked like Harry-ass Truman!" (The current Democrat President in 1952) Such horrible stuff was said during the election years in the 1950s, a whole lot different than today's standards. LOL!
A Biographical Note for those too young to remember...
A U.S. statesman, Adlai Stevenson was instrumental in the founding of the United Nations (I still hold that against him for helping to enable the U.N. to ever start up) and as Governor of Illinois (1949-53) was able to bring about important public reforms. (Better to ask: Important to whom after looking at all the pay-offs and favors to corrupt Illinois politicians imprisoned since over the years?) Twice Democratic candidate for the presidency (1952, 1956), he was defeated both times by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
These are two stories that really tell a story about this politician and maybe another?
Harry Truman finally persuaded Stevenson to campaign for the Democratic nomination in 1952. Stevenson stayed overnight at the White House and was put in the Lincoln Room. He wandered around the room, gazing with awe at the things in it, unable to bring himself to lie in the bed. So he spent the night on the sofa. He was unaware that in Lincoln's time the bed was not there, but the sofa was. (Not the case today for the Obama Lincoln bedroom "musical bed" for his rich campaign contributors, moneyed backers and political hacks - hate to think what they do on the sofa)
It was probably during his first campaign against Eisenhower that Stevenson was approached by an enthusiastic woman supporter who said to him, "Governor, every thinking person will be voting for you." Stevenson replied, "Madam, that is not enough. I need a majority." (A little truth in jest, really telling in that exchange of words - it's about what the Democratic Party thinks of the "perfect electorate", get past the minority of "thinking people" onto a majority of non-thinking, stupid voters to cast ballots for their Liberal Progressive candidates and policies)
Famous "Worn-Out Hole in Shoe" during 1952 Campaign stump. Adlai Stevenson caused a furor when a photograph was taken of the hole in the sole of his shoe.Adlai E. Stevenson evoking the "common working-man" touch of wearing worn out shoes apparently still did not get enough non-thinking voters to cast their ballots. Could be that enough started to think for themselves and decided to vote for Ike instead?...
I wonder if the same thing will happen again if a majority of "the folks" in the 2012 Election get it about Obama too?
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 12:34PM 
1943 Anti-Hitler Cartoon
Walt Disney - Third from right
Surprise U.S. voters! The Brazilians are now voting to move rapidly from federal government health care into private health coverage provided by UnitedHealth Group. The expanding Brazilian middle class has experienced poor socialized medicine health care and is demanding private health care coverage for value and service.
Obamacare Crap Shoot - You Call it!of a broader trend as U.S. companies seek faster-growing markets overseas... say whaat? 
