April 05, 2007
Mr. Rivets
How many people remember Mr. Rivets?
He was a mechanical man portrayed by Joe Earley on Philadelphia's Channel 3, back in the day when its call letters were WPTZ.
Next to Howdy Doody, he's probably my earliest television memory, and I remember watching him faithfully, usually with my mother nearby. One day (this was probably in 1954 or 55) the host of the show, Alan Scott, asked Mr. Rivets to write my name on the blackboard. By my name, I mean "Jimmy" which is what everyone in my family called me in those days. Anyway, Mr. Rivets refused.
This probably went on for a few seconds until Alan finally turned to look directly into the camera and say, "You see, Jimmy. Mr. Rivets won't write your name because you don't listen to your mother. You just pick at your food. You have to learn to eat all the food your mother gives you."
At which point my mother turned to me and said, "You see! Even Mr. Rivets says you have to eat more."
Many years later I finally realized that, in a misguided attempt to get me to eat my vegetables, my mother must have written a letter to the station. The trouble is it didn't work.
It just never occurred to my five-or-six-year-old self that Alan Scott might actually be talking about me. It must have been someone else with the same name.
I did ask my mother about it about 30 years later, but she didn't even recall Mr. Rivets, let alone writing a letter to him.
Posted by jt at April 5, 2007 01:19 PM