David Brenner Goes Comic

David Brenner - 1969



David Brenner and Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show 

David Brenner left Ocean City - Somers Point on Labor Day 1965 and went back to Philadelphia were he continued working as a documentary news producer and director for KYW TV, as did his cameraman Gary Shenfield and on camera reporter Tom Snyder, all winning journalism awards for their work making 115 television documentaries including the hour long feature “Long Cool Summer of '65.”

Brenner grew up in South and West Philadelphia, served in the 101^st Airborne after high school and then attended Temple University before producing television shows.

Shenfield later recalled that even in 1965 Brenner was using numerous techniques he would later use as a standup comic, - cracking jokes, kidding authority and giving Snyder a nuggy head rub whenever the opportunity presented itself, which was often, until Snyder got it, which he eventually did.

By 1969 however, Brenner had stashed enough money away and decided to take a year off from regular work to try to make it as a professional comedian, moving from his Philly to New York and getting a steady gig at a Brooklyn nightclub, where after working a year and a half he was asked to appear on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show on January 8, 1971, a ten minute experience you can now get on YouTube. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7-ZF7wiPl8]

Brenner was an instant hit, Carson invited him back, and his 158 appearances and as guest host 75 times.

On one occasion Brenner told Carson about his years as a documentary film producer, and the incredulous Carson asked for a story so Brenner told Carson about the time he broke into the Somers Point, N.J. judge's office and called him at home to tell him he was there, and got arrested for exposing the kangaroo court they were running for arresting drunk college kids.

Brenner died of cancer on March 15, 2014 at the age of 78.

Benner's hour long CBS KYW TV award winning documentary “The Long Cool Summer of ‘65” is preserved among other reels of tapes at Brenner's alma mater - Temple University's Samuel L. Paley Library, that should document all that has been recoded here.

  

Ritchie and Jimmy in the Village

  Ritchie and Jimmy in the Village

Once Ritchie learned to play guitar and sing he didn't do the quick sketch thing for money, and performed in the Village clubs at night instead.

But he remained friends with Napoleon, and occasionally, mainly on summer weekends, got on the bus to Ocean City for a few days just to get out of the city. While Napoleon sketched Ritchie hung out with the hippies on Schriever’s pavilion, sometimes jamming with Jim Croce, Todd Run grin, John Hall, Stephanie Nicks and Joe Walsh, who were all there at one time or another.

Napoleon continued to sketch and paint until he split for New Orleans in late 1969. How he got to the Big Easy is another story.

Playing three or four gigs a night Ritchie made out pretty good, and then got a good paying job uptown as a minstrel in an off Broadway play. As Ritchie put it, going uptown from the Village was like going to another country.

All of the musicians who worked uptown wore straight black slacks and shoes and most were in the union, and that's how Ritchie found Jimmy.

While they crossed paths briefly at the shore in the summer of '65, they didn't meet, and since then Jimmy had left Joey Dee and the Starliters and after getting fired by Little Richard for upstaging him, he was playing with the Isley Brothers at the Club Cheers, just across the street from the Peppermint Lounge, where the Starliters were still playing the Peppermint Twist and Shout.

Ritchie was the opening act and stuck around to catch The Brothers, but it was Jimmy the siideman in the back of the stage who caught his attention. Is that Dude playing the guitar with his teeth?, he thought to himself as he moved up through the crowd to get a closer look. Damn!, he is, and not missing a beat.

After the set Ritchie went backstage where the entertainers shared a dressing room, to meet this guy. After Jimmy told Ritchie what bands he had played with since leaving the Army - Billy Cox, Joey Dee, Little Richard and the Isley Brothers, Ritchie told Jimmy about the Village and how hip it was - another world all together, and that he needed to front his own band and not play behind the skirts of others.

When he finished his last set for the night Ritchie took Jimmy downtown in a cab, and introduced him to some musicians -' like John Hammond, Jr., and club owners, one of whom took Ritchie's word for it, and booked Jimmy Johnson and the Blue Flames to the Cafe Wha? - yea, it's spelt that way with a question mark.

While a drummer and bass player were recruited and they practiced, John Hammond, Jr.  slipped Jimmy a few bucks to sit in with him at the Village Gate, something he never did before.

Hammond liked to play old, traditional blues, even though he was a college educated white boy, and Jimmie jived nicely with that style.

As Ritchie later explained, it was quite common in folk and blues music circles to tell the story behind a song before playing it, and so it was a quiet mid-week off night, before Jimmy began playing at the Cafe Wha?, before he was "discovered" by the Bloody Brits and taken across the pond, it was before he became famous when Jimmy took the folk music cafe stage for an acoustic duet with John Hammond, Jr.

Jimmy had explained to Ritchie his reservations about singing - his father told him he had inherited his mother’s voice and couldn't carry a tune,  but Ritchie set him straight, as Jimmy wrote to his dad, repeating what Ritchie had said to him almost word for word.

"Nowadays people don't want you to sing good. They want you to sing sloppy and have a good beat to your songs. That's what angle I'm going to shoot for. That's where the money is. So just in case you might hear a record by me which sounds terrible, don't feel ashamed, just wait until the money rolls in because every day people are singing worse and worse on purpose and the public buys more and more records."

"I just want to let you know I'm still here, trying to make it. Although I don't eat every day, everything's going alright for me. It could be worse than this, but I'm going to keep hustling and scuffling until I get things to happening like they're supposed to for me. Tell everyone I said hello. Please write soon, It's pretty lonely out here by myself. Best luck and happiness in the future, your son Jimmy." 

Jimmy's mom and dad divorced and Jimmy was raised by his dad, who bought him his first guitar after finding him playing the straws of a broom.

When it was his turn to pick a song, Jimmy began by saying this song came to him in a dream about his mother, and with Hammond gently playing a rhythm, began playing and singing:

Angel

Angel came down from heaven yesterday
She stayed with me just long enough to rescue me
And she told me a story yesterday
About the sweet love between the moon and the deep blue sea
And then she spread her wings high over me
She said she's gonna come back tomorrow

And I said, "Fly on my sweet angel
Fly on through the sky
Fly on my sweet angel
Tomorrow I'm gonna be by your side"

Sure enough this morning came unto me
Silver wings silhouetted against the child's sunrise
And my angel she said unto me
"Today is the day for you to rise
Take my hand, you're gonna be my man
You're gonna rise"
And then she took me high over yonder

And I said, "Fly on my sweet angel
Fly on through the sky
Fly on my sweet angel
Forever I will be by your side"

Fast forward - July 4, 1989

Flashforward 20 Years - July 4, 1989

The sidegunner on the Hamburger Hill mission on May 1969 who survived also survived DSS - delayed stress syndrome or so he thought.

After years of individual and group therapy he stopped the treatments and got off the meds and settled down in Cape May with his waitress wife and two boys. Working at a marina he got a boat, took up a serious interest in fishing and started a popular fishing column in the local free weekly newspaper.

All seemed well with the world when he took his family to see the fireworks on the beach, sitting on the open side door of the van, eating ice cream, pizza and popcorn. It was all right until an exceptional explosive grand finales, as mom went "wow!," the boys clapped their hands and their father turned pale as a flash of reality came rushing back in a flury of repressed images of battle, the open side door of the helicopter, the chatter of the machine gun fire, the wounded, bleeding men surrounding him, the pilot saying, "Are we having fun yet?," and then his sideman's gun suddenly going silent.

Turning around and seeing the other gunner slowly slinkimng to the floor, he grabbed the other machine gun and fired it into the jungle below until return fire stoped. Then he bent down and picked up the back of the head of his partner and held him tightly in his arms so they both could feel it.

When all fell silent, except for the chirping blades of the chopper, the two soldiers looked each other in the eyes as the wounded Marine said in a whisper,"Tell my mother I love her, and remember the good times."

"What's wrong honey!," his wife said shaking him, "You're white as a sheet and sweating. Look like you seen a ghost."

After awhile she drove home and with the radio on the boys in the back didn't notice anything wrong, but she knew, and waited until they got home and the boys were asleep to ask him what was wrong.

He just sat there stone faced quiet for a half hour as she rooted through a kirchen drawyer for the business card of the Veterans hospital doctor who had been treating him.

Then he began talking - mumbling - she listened closely - he was reciting the alphabet over and over - fast and then slow - and then settling on a few letters, B - M, until he finally clapped his hands and stood up crying - tears flowing but he was smiling, almost laughing, "Billy - Billy Miller!"

"It's all right now honey - its all right," he said. "I forgot I still have a mission to finish," he said as he picked up the phone and asked for the information operator for a small mid-west town and asked for a William Miller, residence, and wrote it down, but said yes when asked if he wanted to be connected.

It was now after midnight but after a few rings a man answered.

"Hello?"

"Is this Mister Miller, the father of Billy Miller, USMC, who was killed in combat in Vietnam?"

"Yes," came the solumn reply.

With his wife sitting next to him and holding tightly the hand not holding the phone he stopped crying and straightened up to attention as she wiped the sweat off his brow with the other hand, as he slowly and delibertly said, "Well sir, I am John Fitzpatrick. I served honorably with your son for nearly two years, we went through boot camp together, were bunkmates and side gunners together. He was a fine soldier you can be proud of. He was my best friend and he died in my arms."

After a moments silence Mr. Miller said, "I know who you are John, Billy told us all about you, he wrote home often. We still have his letters."

"Is Mrs. Miller there?"

"She's right here."

"Well I have a message for her, but I have to deliver it personally."

"Your welcome to come out, we have pictures of you and Billy together, and he told us of some of your antics. You can stay in Billy's room while your here."

With that, Fitz hung up the phone, called the airlines to reserve a seat on a fight the next day and then called his boss at the marina and left a message on the machine that he wouldn't be to work for a few days, maybe a week.

Then, after she asked a few times what the message from Billy was, he looked her in the eyes and said, "Tell my mother I love her, and remember the good times.

" Do you believe it," he asked, "all these years I forgot - suppressed the memories, even the name of my best friend. And now I have to complete that mission and deliver that message. And there were plenty of good times."