FMC Fast Chat with Radio Legend Cousin Brucie Morrow

In this episode, we invite you to take a stroll through the last 50 years of radio, music, and American history with the legendary Cousin Brucey Morrow, one of broadcasting's most popular and successful personalities.

FMC Fast Chat takes you inside the news so you can be in the know in 30 minutes. Hosted by Fair Media Council CEO and Executive Director Jaci Clement, Fast Chat features notables in news, media, and business.

The big question everyone wants to know is, how in the world do you just keep going? You know, you've been with us forever and you, and you seem to still enjoy it almost like a little kid.

It is, you know, interesting you said almost like a little kid. I feel like that. Um, you know, it's amazing at this age that I'm just gonna eventually— I'll be in the Guinness World Book of Records, be the only guy that's been broadcasting for 128 years. Uh, I don't know. I don't feel it. I don't feel the age. You know what it is? I, I think number one is the audience. I, I really think the audience, the, the back and forth that I get from the audience, and that's, by the way, thanks to a lot of digital devices we have today. I have the audience right in my heart. I know what they're thinking. I can see them. I can feel them. They instantly tell me if they like something or they get angry at something. So I think the audience gives me this input and gives me this feeling of wanting to stay young and stay with it. Then of course, the other thing that's very important is the music I play. I am on a crusade. I will never let this music die. And I— what I do, Jaci, is I play music from the '50s, '60s, and '70s. I'm generally '60s based. And I think most people are '60s based, even if you're into, uh, of the heaviest stuff today in the '80s, '90s, 2000s. '60s was a very important turning point in music. We developed technology. We developed distribution, which is very important in the recording industry. Up to, you know, '40s, '50s, you had a modicum, a mild amount of distribution. Distribution increased. Technology increased. We started getting people, the poets, really good poets who were very aware of the technology and know how to use it. So all this stuff got together in the mid to the late '60s. So here I am today, still purveying it. And I got to tell you honestly, I love what I do. And obviously, evidently, it comes through on the screen, it comes through on the speakers. You know, it's funny I just said the screen because I was just told Here we go again. That in my studio, when I return to the studio, I'm going to have a bunch of video cameras. Well, they also built a performance studio for me where there'll be 5 cameras and a guy switching. So radio has become a little bit different. We're not doing radio per se as they did in, uh, Guglielmo Marconi's era, right? Radio is now multimedia. And like, there's no such thing as local radio anymore or local television. Everything now is streamed. So people, somebody in Berlin or Mexico City or West Coast, it doesn't matter. I'm coming from New York City on a local station, a major local station, but it really isn't anymore. So it's worldwide. So I think that's what keeps me going. The excitement of the technology, the excitement of reaching New audiences. It's a discipline and a fun, and I just love what I do. I go on the air, I'm like a kid. It brings you back to what you said.

Okay. Well, tell me though, how did your interest in radio ever even start?

Actually, I grew up, I wanted to become a doctor. In fact, next life, if there's such a thing, I hope I want to study medicine. I'd love— I am kind of a medical person as it is. make people happy and I make them forget their hurts and problems. I really, I guess, owe it to my parents, number one, who gave me the lead to do whatever I wanted to do. They said, go for it, whatever I wanted. Because, you know, you're born up in Brooklyn, your mama wants you to be a doctor. There's no— you're brought up to be a doctor. I think instead of a silver spoon, they gave me a set of medical encyclopedias. I was 2 years old. They knew right away. But, you know, as I got older, I just started falling in love with the stage and with theater and with people. And I guess I got to say, when I was at PS 206, in those days we used to have hygiene plays. Oh, you'll like this. We couldn't have sex education because you couldn't use the word S-E-X. Oh, so we had hygiene plays. And what was a hygiene play? They used to teach us how to wash behind our ears. Wash our bodies, brush our teeth. That was hygiene. So one day every year in the assembly, they'd have a hygiene play. This is how it started for me, right? I have a hygiene play. And my teacher, Mrs. Freilicher, came over to me. And by the way, I'm going to shock you a little bit here. Nothing to get upset about. I was a very shy kid.

Yeah.

I was very shy. Oh, I didn't want to stand up in class. I didn't want to face my fellow classmates. I was kind of shy. And she somehow cajoled me into trying out for the hygiene play that year in the assembly in front of 300-some-odd kids. Well, I tried out, scared stiff. She talked me into it, and I got the part. Ask me, ask me what part I got.

All right, Brucey, what part did you get?

I was a cavity. I was a tooth, a bad tooth. A lot of people still think I am in society. I was a bad, bad tooth. And I got up on the stage, you got a picture of this, dressed in this huge, huge dental thing with a bad, you know, the cavity on top and had a little peek hole in there. As I was on that stage, that's when it happened. I felt the warmth of the audience coming from them. To me. And then it returned. I relaxed. I wasn't nervous anymore. And I felt that, hey, they liked what I was doing, albeit I was a bad tooth. And I sang a song, you know, my mommy eats me and doesn't want me to eat chocolate. I love it. I want my Bosco. I want this, you know, everything I was supposed to have. And they would laugh. The audience responded. I I fell in love that day. I gave up my medical career.

Okay.

And I became a part, after a while, when I went to high school, I went to James Madison High School. I grew up in Brooklyn and went to Madison High School. And it became a part of the All-City Radio Workshop, which takes students from the New York Board of Education system and trains you, trains you to go onto radio. And it would be a television. It was broadcast. I stayed with them for about 3 years and I played all kinds of parts, dramatic parts. I did news. I went out on remotes. And I really fell in love and I got to be pretty good at what I was doing. And I knew that this was going to be my career.

Okay. So how did Bruce from Brooklyn become Cousin Brucey?

Oh, now you're asking a secret. A secret! No, I'll tell you. I love to tell this story. It's kind of a fun story. And you can share it with everybody. Which we are now. Hi everybody. Okay, um, I was sitting in the studio at WINS. My name is Bruce Morrow. Most people think my last name is, uh, Brucey, right? Cousin Brucey. So I'm in the studio and a guard, a security guard, comes in followed by this little old lady with twinkly eyes. Now in those days we allowed people in the studio. We weren't afraid of somebody taking it over. You know, and taking me off the air at the point of some device. So she says to me, and I said, hi, ma'am, how are you? What can I do for you? Now, I knew she wasn't here to listen to Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers, the music I was playing at that time. I figured there was something else. I'm a Brooklyn kid, so I know when someone's going to put their head on me for something.

Right.

So she looked at me and she said to me simply, twinkly eyes. Now, I gotta tell you something, Jaci, and I think you know this as well as I do. When you speak to somebody, as I'm doing right now, I'm looking right in your eyes, right in your eyes, right? And I guess you're looking in my eyes right now. You are captured. The contact is made. Well, she contacted me and she said, Mr. Morrow, Bruce, do you believe we're all related? And I said, oh, here we go. Here we go. I knew it. And I said, excuse me for a moment.

I'm sorry.

I cued up a record. I played an Everly Brothers record, right? Wake up, little Susie, wake up. I'm playing something, right? Some of my music. And she says to me, do you believe we're all related? And I said, yes, ma'am, I do. She said, well, cousin, lend me 50 cents. I'm broke. I can't get home. That's as simple as that. Well, I thought she was so cute. Eyes twinkled. She was right in my face, right in my eyes. I gave her the 50 cents and she said to me, thank you, cousin. I'll never forget. Bye, cousin. She left. That night in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, right in the middle of the tunnel where there's a little daisy growing right now, I heard a bell went off. I saw a light and I heard, cousin Brucie, cousin Brucie. Got it. That's it. You know, in our business, Jaci, we all want shtick. Is a great word. We all want something special to do. I heard Cousin Brucie. Well, I slept on it. I decided I was going to be Cousin Brucie. I called the program director the next day and I said to him, I got my shtick. From now on, starting tonight, I want to be called Cousin Brucie. And he said to me, I was like 18, 19 years old. He said, kid, are you crazy? This is the Big Apple. This is New York City. This is not Dayton, Ohio, or Morgantown, West Virginia. Not that there's anything wrong with those places. You can't do that. That's too corny. Well, at 19, I garnered up all my energy and all my strength and I said, sir, sir, pardon me, with all due respect, you don't know what you're talking about. Everybody loves to visit their cousins. Who doesn't want to go to their cousin's house? They got better toys. Your aunt and uncle feed you better. You can eat all the junk food you want and you can stay up as late as you want. Right? He looked at me and he said, OK, tell you what, you try it tonight, kid. But if you're wrong and you overdo it, I'm going to fire you the next morning. Here's the postscript. So the next morning at 5:30, and I remember that time well, I get a call. And he said, Bruce, get your blankety-blank in here, right? You're in trouble. Get in here. It's 5:30. I called my father. I thought I'd been fired. I thought maybe he smacked me. It scared me. So my dad went in with me and my dad looked at this man. My dad was a good businessman from New York City. He manufactured children's clothing. God rest him. I love him. And then he became my bodyguard, which is another funny story. That didn't work. And he said to the promotor, well, what's the problem? He said, I'm firing your son, Mr. Morrow. I said, why? He said to him, why? And he reaches at his desk. This is great, Jaci. Opens the drawer of the desk. And takes these yellow papers out, throws them on the desk, throws them on the desk. He says, look at this. Now, what the yellow papers were, that was Western Union telegrams. Western Union. There were hundreds of them. So my father said, well, what's wrong with that? He says, I'm firing him, Mr. Morrow, but we're putting him under a 7-year contract. That's how Cousin Brucey was born.

All right, so that explains your name. Explain to me where you got your style from, because when I look at your list of accomplishments, which are vast in radio and in movies and television, what you bring to people— your whole career brings people happiness. So how did you become the person that brings us so much happiness? How did you pick that style?

Well, I think first of all, as I said, I was very lucky to have parents that gave me my lead, right? And they did. They always said, you know, you gotta do what you want. Follow— like Elvis Presley said, follow that dream. Follow your dreams. So they always gave me the lead. I had very wonderful teachers throughout elementary school, you know, primary school and high school. And then college kind of was wonderful for me. I went to Brooklyn College and I lasted there 6 months. For some reason, Jacqui, I could never find the classes. I always claimed they moved the classes on me. Obviously, I wasn't interested. I went to New York University. I enrolled there, and that's where I found myself. I founded the radio station at New York University in New York City. And I went into the dean. There was no radio station. Now, every university today has a television system and radio stations, which they should. It's part of our DNA. And I went into the dean and I begged him to let me have some money to start a radio station. And I walked into his house, into his office, with snowy, muddy galoshes. He hated me from the minute I came, and I destroyed his rug. So he said, kid, here's $28, here's your radio station, get out. He threw me out of his office. I wrecked his carpet. Well, I bought wiring and I bought a couple speakers and I wired them. We had microphone. I wired myself into a lounge and I started a radio station. So I'm very lucky that throughout my life so far, I've met people that really have promoted what I became and showed an interest in what I wanted to do. And then naturally, life— I'm a very curious guy. I love life. I love people.

Right.

I ain't shy. Anymore. I was. And, uh, it's just one thing led to another. And here I am today at this tender age, which we will just not discuss. And you know what bothers me? I'll tell you what bothers me today. And this, this is not— this is the— I don't have too many things that bother me. I'm a happy guy. No matter what you are or have, what secrets you have in life, everybody knows. You can't hold a secret in this world. Because of the digital things. They know my underwear size. They know what color socks I wear. I mean, they know your age. They know where you've been. They know who you loved. They know your old girlfriends. There's no secrets anymore. So that's the only complaint I have in my life. Otherwise, I am— you're looking at the happiest guy. At this age, I said, I'm doing my radio shows. I'm doing them from home. Although, be it, I want to go back to my studio because I'm a professional broadcaster. I'm still given the opportunity to reach millions of people. I think as I developed and after I got through the, you know, when you first start on the air, as you know, you're very mechanical. You know, you're very aware of surroundings and the devices that are photographing you or telecasting you and all the gadgets in front of you. And once you get past that, the person comes out. And as the person develops, You absorb everything around you in life. So my, my really code to my success is that I'm able to absorb my life, which means this audience. Everywhere I go, I, I talk to people. People find me very approachable. I'm not a radio gadget. I'm a cousin. I'm a, I'm a real live friend. And my whole style, Jaci, is— One-on-one. I learned very early in my career— here's one of my good secrets, I'm very proud of this, and I teach this when I teach classes. I love to teach. I love to give my secrets and my experience out. I learned a long time ago that when you're on the air, you don't ever, ever talk at. You talk to and with people. And I learned that for a long time, like I'm doing with you right now. I mean, you might as well be sitting right across the table from me, and I wish you were. I love the feeling of the real person with me. So when I go on the air and I say, hey cousins, it's your cousin Bruce on The Tonight Show, they're there with me. I feel them. I feel the warmth. I feel the connectivity.

I see that. Now, is this— you're a champion of something that I believe you coined this term of human radio.

Well, you know, when I— oh, by the way, I owned— I was very lucky. I've been a very lucky man. I met my partner, who unfortunately is deceased. We lost him, Bob Silliman. And Bob and I founded a radio company, the Silliman Morrow Broadcast Group. And we started buying radio stations, bought a lot of radio stations. And we bought a big TV station in Atlanta. So you're looking at a very Happy man that I could do anything I want for the rest of my life and my kids and my kids' kids. So, uh, when we bought this radio station, I said, you know, I got to come up with a new format. So I came up with this format that is like— has a bit of everything for everybody. So when you tune in to what I was doing on these radio stations, you identified with not only me, because I did— every day is kind of— you'll get a kick out of this. We owned, let's see, we started with about 8. We wound up with, I have no idea how many. And I used to fly to as many as I could during that week. Because I'd be on the air in that local, in those days, local radio station. We didn't have apps. You know, oh my God, no apps? What was that? Right? So I used to fly there every day. We had this twin-engine plane. And Bob and I used to fly. We had a pilot. And I always asked him to let me fly it. He was very wise never to do that. We used to land in back of ShopRites on grass strips to get into these medium-sized markets. And I just learned that every market really was almost the same. I mean, there's a little bit of difference and you were able to adapt to it. But I just always was very aware of my audience. And I still am to this day. When I go on air, when my— someone says, Brucey, you're on. My belly lights up. It says, on air, Brucey. And I'm with my friends. I'm with friends.

I'm wondering, out of everything that you've accomplished, what are you most proud of?

Well, I think number one, what I'm— I don't know if it's proud, but it amazes me I'm still doing it. It's never been really done before. It's kind of weird. It's kind of strange. And I don't feel any older, I swear. Uh, Met my wife, Jody.

Yeah.

Jody changed my life. My life personally, I don't talk too much about my personal life. My personal life was not in good shape. I have 3 kids, by the way, and we have a cat named Mr. Cookie, who's adorable right now. And we have 3 kids and 2 grandkids. And at that time, early, things were not working out properly. And I met Jody. on a blind date. So I think that's one of my proudest accomplishments. She made a mistake, I didn't. She married me. Now she's— we're very happy and she's my best friend. So that's another accomplishment. The other accomplishments I think, well, I'm back at WABC. I was on SiriusXM. Now I'm not going to badmouth that because it was— I was on for 15 years on that particular system.

Right.

And I use the word system. 15 years on SiriusXM. And it was a wonderful experience, Jaci. Really was. I was reaching people, cousins all over the world on a satellite, not even on apps, satellites. And it was good. And one day I woke up and I started getting, I hate to use the word bored, but I guess I'd have to be truthful. I was getting tired of it. I didn't like the idea of not having the feel of local radio. Now, I don't know if you understand what I mean by local radio, because unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, because of technology— again, there's the word— there's no such thing as local radio anymore.

Yeah.

Like you, you're on all over the place. I'm on all over the world again. It's amazing on my station. But I really started missing the feel of local radio. I realized that I was in corporate broadcasting. Very different. Corporate broadcasting is very broad. It's not narrowcasting, it's broadcasting. There's no feel of the local community or communities. It just is one big blob. And it worked great. I was happy for 15 years. And obviously they were and the audience was. But I just wanted— I was getting a little older and I said, you know, I don't know how many more contracts I'm going to be able to finagle my way into. It's getting to a point I really want local radio again. I own local radio stations. I started with local radio stations and I wanted it. One day, a guy named John Castamides, who became my friend— John is a mogul. He owns supermarkets and real estate. And one day he bought WABC. Which was kind of a— the station was going nowhere. It was talk, extremely conservative, which is fine, you know, which whatever you're into. He used to listen to me on SiriusXM on Saturdays with his wife, Margo. And he used to call me. I didn't know who he was. And one day I get a call and he says, you know who you're talking to every single Saturday? He called me to play Elvis or somebody. And I said, no, that's John Kastanides. He just bought WABC. I said, what? Can you imagine somebody buying a monster mega, mega radio station like WABC? And when I was on, I was reaching 30-some-odd states just on the regular signal. Like, well, he and I became friends and we started talking, and eventually I signed a contract with him. I left Sirius, the end of my contract, left very amicably. There was no anger. I mean, I can tell you anger with other things, other stations I left, which was not so nice. not from my part, from their part. But I signed a deal with him, and, uh, he wants a lifelong commitment.

Yeah.

And I said, yeah, I said, you know what, I'm not signing a thing for 125 years with you. No, no, no. We signed a very nice contract. He took care of me beautifully. And I, I have the feeling once again, Jaci, of I'm on local radio. I feel that warmth. I feel I can touch I know what's happening in town. I know the mayor. And it could be any town. I know if a traffic light's out. I know if they had a flood. And I feel that again. And that's another thing that enhances the warmth that I know I project. I know I project that. And that's because I'm back on, quote, local, quote unquote, because there's no such thing, radio again.

The Fair Media Council actually is advocating for local, not only for what it does, but its importance on the day-to-day level. You know, people tend to overlook that or they forget about it because there are other forms of media, but it's not replaceable.

Radio has one thing that no other mass media has accomplished so far. It is intimate. It is, of all mass media, the most intimate. I'm in the bathtub with you. I'm taking a shower with you. I'm shopping with you. I'm in the car with you. I read your mail with you. I have intimate moments with you, right? No other mass media can do that because you can put this— you can put me in this little box on the side and it's there as your friend. So in the background is a friend. The other mass media, whether it be a newspaper or television, you cannot do that. Nothing wrong with that because you expect to pay attention.

So tell me, how did you end up getting a role in Dirty Dancing?

That's, you know, we were just watching that last night. Not funny. I think, I think before we went on, I told you I haven't watched that in 10, maybe more years, and Jody kept saying, let's watch that. Um, actually, it was Jody. Jody's friend Eleanor Bergstein was the associate producer and writer and creator of this, uh, iconic motion picture. Uh, knew Jody through some friends and called her and asked questions about me because she used to listen to me on the radio. and how she can contact me. Well, they wanted me to help them with the music. In fact, I was so pleased last night, I forgot they gave me a credit as a musical— the music consultant, because the music that was selected was really in my living room. I played all the records from 1962. So she called me and said, we'd like you to audition. It's kind of a funny story. Audition for This thing, they just called it dancing at that time. They were afraid to use the word dirty, which I'll tell you why in a couple minutes. But so I auditioned. The original part they wanted me to play was the, uh, the social director. Okay, down at the lake right now we have a board of checkers. You know, they wanted me to do that. Uh, I said, all right, I'll audition. I was scared stiff. I didn't know— I did movies, but This was kind of a different kind of thing. I read the script and I told Jody, you know, honestly, I don't want to do this. That is going to shock you. I didn't want to do that because I thought it was the corniest grade B-minus movie I've ever— I mean, it would— the summer of baby love and this, you know, corny. Oh, shows you what an idiot I am. What a jerk I am. Oh, I missed that one pretty bad. So I go in— this is kind of a fun story. I think you'll get a kick out of this. So the day comes for the audition. There's a lot of people, you know, she knew me, but maybe the producer, uh, and the directors, et cetera, Emile and everybody, they wanted to see what they were getting into. So they were offering me a pretty nice role. So I'm outside and they said, okay. I figured I always like to make a little splash. I'm a little silly. I'm a little nervy.

Yeah.

So I decided I was gonna wear a, uh, A whistle. Everybody down in the pool. And I decided I was going to jump in. So listen to this. They said, OK, it's your time. Cousin Brucey, would you go in please? They opened the door. And instead of walking like a normal person, picture this now, Jaci. I ran, got up speed, and I jumped into the room. And I said, everybody down to the lake! While I'm in midair, fast. And as I'm coming down, My life froze because I saw 6 people sitting in front of me, scared stiff. As I came down to earth, because that moment froze, it seemed like an hour, seemed like an hour. I came down to earth and I didn't know what to do. I was like panicked. I didn't know what to do. Well, then they all started laughing. And I wound up getting the part. I could not get away from WABC at that time for They needed 8 weeks for shooting for that part. It was a pretty major part. And, uh, then they gave me a part of a dentist, and then they gave me a part of a surgeon or something. They wanted me in it. I wound up being the magician, which has become an iconic part to this day. No matter where I go, anywhere in the world, almost the magician. Like, not Cousin Bruce, you're the magician. That type of thing. I saw a baby in half in that film. Which was kind of a funny thing because that's kind of almost a dangerous trick. You have to learn it. So we're shooting this film, Dirty Dancing, up in Lake Lure, North Carolina, I think it is, right? Beautiful little town. And they said, all right, Brucey, tomorrow you're going to do your part. You know how to saw somebody in half? I said, what are you, out of your mind? What in the hell do I know about sawing somebody in half? I grew up in Brooklyn. You know, I don't know anything about this. So they had to find a magician somewhere in North Carolina. Flew him in, taught me the trick, and I did it. So if you look at Gray, beautiful little baby, when I was doing this particular trick, you can notice that she was really scared looking. Well, she should have. See, the deal is, because she knew I didn't know what I was doing.

Right.

The saw, which is that ugly looking Big, ragged, rusty sawtooth thing goes right into a slot that misses— I can't— I'm not supposed to tell a secret, but, you know, the saw goes just in front of the knees. She's in a fetal position. And she was not happy. Faye, number one, it's uncomfortable. Two, she knew I didn't know what I was doing. And I did lines like, this will only hurt for a moment. Oh, you have Blue Cross? Anyway, long story short, it was wonderful. And I have a lot of stories that happened at that shoot. And someday in a book, I'm gonna relate those stories 'cause there's some very funny and surprising things that I went through shooting Dirty Dancing.

I see that. So ultimately, what did you think of the movie?

Last night, I loved it. I said to myself, and I'll give you the answer, gee, this is not bad. It was really fun. It was really fun. I thought it was— I love the music. I thought the music was right on. I thought Jennifer Grey was great. I think she's adorable. I like Patrick Swayze. I love Jerry. Jerry, we lost so many. I love the director, Emilio Bardolino. Emilio Bardolino. We lost a lot of people. They passed away since that movie came out. And watching that film as a whole, I said, gee, you know, they really used me. I'm so lucky. I love the film. I'll watch it again maybe in 15 years.

I have a couple questions from the audience here. So we have a question, what's your favorite song?

Oh, now that is unfair, Jaci. You've been really reasonable to me. You've been really a buddy, a cousin. That is— I know, let me see what I can do with this one. Well, first of all, I'll have to divide them into decades. There's no way I can say, because I play on my shows '50s, '60s, and like I say, a touch of the '70s. So '50s. Well, I'm going to have to go with the Everly Brothers and Elvis. I got to split it.

Okay.

Everly Brothers and Elvis. I love the Everly Brothers. I play them a lot. Then of course I have to go down the list. The Drifters, Jerry Lee Lewis. So it's tough. The '60s, well, I don't think there's a— I don't think there's an even conflict here. I love the Beatles. Now, the reason I love the Beatles and Motown, by the way, but let's talk about the Beatles. I believe the Beatles saved my industry. If it wasn't for these mop tops from Great Britain who loved the American music idiom, they loved the '50s, they worshiped Jerry Lee Lewis. worshiped Chuck Berry, they worshiped Elvis, and they— all that music has them incorporated in the feeling. If it wasn't for the Beatles though, and what happened with the marketing of the Beatles, I don't know if you and I'd be talking today. They really saved the music industry. And then of course it went on. Because of them you had the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Hollies, Dave Clark Five, on and on. And then of course, Motown. Motown is an essential part of our music medium. Motown showed that races can get along and mix, right? Music. Music is the food of love. Play on. Give me excessive of it. Who said that? A guy named Billy Shakespeare. Pretty close. A little loose translation. Twelfth Night. And Motown took their music, it related their experiences, and it was done in such a way where white audiences, Black audiences, any audience anywhere in the world can relate to it. So when you ask who's your favorite, it's my answer. I can't. They're all my babies. We've developed a great close association, all these people. So there's so many of them. The Bobby Rydells, The Petula Clarks, the Dave Clark Fives, Elvis. I became very friendly with Elvis. The Beatles, I can go on for 3 hours. I mean, tell you what, because I introduced them at Shea Stadium with Ed Sullivan.

We need to wrap up, but I'm wondering if you can tell us the Beatles story pretty quickly.

We were at Shea Stadium and I was asked to introduce them along with Ed Sullivan while they were on the air that day. the week before. And we're in the dugout. They were brought into the dugout. And the audience is going wild. There's 65,000 kids. You couldn't hear anything. The cacophony, the noise was overwhelming. I always say that Consolidated Edison, which is our electric and gas utility, if they wanted to shut down their turbines that day, the energy from Shea Stadium would've lit New York up very well and electrified New York. So they were in the dugout with me and John Lennon and Sullivan's with me. And John Lennon comes over with Paul McCartney and says, cousin. He used to call me cousin. Cousin Brucey, is this gonna be safe? And I mean, it was, anything could have happened. It was a tsunami, right? It was like a tidal wave was coming. The audience was like unbelievable. 65,000, mostly young girls, were there for one reason, to be, to share space. And then Paul McCartney says to me, Bruce, are we going to be all right? Because with all the experiences they had in Hamburg and all over Great Britain and all over the continent, they never felt the energy. I mean, a danger like this, you feel it. You felt it in your body. To this day, Jaci, I can conjure up that feeling in my belly. And it makes you very anxious. And I said, I put my fingers behind my back like that, and I said, yeah, it'll be okay. I was lying. I didn't know. I was scared too. I never felt anything like this. Well, I'll cut to the chase. We're walking up the steps. Ed Sullivan's in front of me to introduce the Beatles after a whole bunch of acts that I don't think anybody can remember were there at Shea Stadium that day. Still couldn't hear a thing. And Sullivan turns around to me as we're walking up to introduce them and said, Cousin Brucey, is this gonna be all right? Is this all right? He was scared stiff. And for some reason, the little devil in me came out. I figured, oh good, I can get him a little bit. I knew he didn't even know the Beatles. He didn't. He was kind of a square. And I said to him, Ed, no, it could be very dangerous.

Dangerous?

His eyes bulged. You remember he had these big eyes. And he continued walking up. And he said to me before we got to the top step, What do we do? And I knew I had him. And I simply said, Ed, pray. Pray, right? He looked at me, was not happy, went on the stage. Postscript, we had a wonderful day. The kids were great. The police, uh, the security of Shea Stadium asked me to patrol the grounds with them.

Yeah.

With them. I patrolled the grounds, helped calm the kids down. They had their hands on the chicken wire. They just wanted to get at them. and just loved them. And there wasn't anybody that really got hurt that day. It was wonderful. Everybody was there, including me, to share space with these 4 guys that I believe saved the American music industry.

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