TV Show QUESTION

[e_d_d_i_e_]

Is it true that Mr. Rodgers really was a Marine Sniper, and he wore that sweater because he had two sleeves?

[marine4life]

I don't think anyone actually knows the answer to that question. It's been argued really well both ways. The only way to know for sure is if you had someone at records

[Trapper]

I think it was dispelled. I don't believe he was a Marine at all, and he does not have two sleeves. Being from Pittsburgh, we see a lot of stuff about him. Our children's museum has a whole wing about him.

[innersanctum]

Is it true that Mr. Rodgers really was a Marine Sniper, and he wore that sweater because he had two sleeves?

According the "bible" of Marine Corps websites, he was not a US Marine nor did he ever serve in any branch of the service.

http://www.usmchangout.com/famousmarinerumors.htm

[Trapper]

According the "bible" of Marine Corps websites, he was not a US Marine nor did he ever serve in any branch of the service.

http://www.usmchangout.com/famousmarinerumors.htm
That was where I got my intel from Steve. Thanks for backing me, buddy.

[gunga55]

Come on Bridget tell him about the Famous Marine section on this site.
OK to save here typing it there is a section.

[HMC8404]

Here's another source for you that shows you many origins of Mr Rogers being portrayed as even a Navy Seal during Vietnam ... http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/mrrogers.asp

... when in actuality he was from here in Pittsburgh PA where we are soon opening up a park in memory of him right by Heinz Field. Here is the article:

A statue of Mister Rogers will adorn the North Shore
Fred finds some new neighbors

Thursday, May 24, 2007
http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070524ho_artistsillo_rogers1_450.jpg

Plans call for a site built around a 10-foot-high statue of Fred Rogers to be placed on an observation deck bored into a bridge pier on the North Shore. Officials hope the privately funded parklet will become a major sight-seeing destination in the city.



By Timothy McNulty
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh will welcome back an old neighbor next year.

Plans call for a $3 million sculpture of children's television legend Fred Rogers to be placed on an observation deck bored into an old bridge pier on the North Shore. The 10-foot-tall sculpture shows Mr. Rogers tying his shoes, as he did at the beginning and end of every episode of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."


A keyhole shape will be bored into the Manchester Bridge Pier, close to the south entrance to Heinz Field, framing a new view of the Point and giving an entrance to the childhood icon's "living room."

Children will be encouraged to scramble onto the statue -- by the same sculptor who did Mayor Richard S. Caliguiri's on Grant Street -- and construction materials will mimic the "Neighborhood" studio set.
Officials hope the privately funded parklet will become a major sight-seeing destination in the city and the setting for generations of snapshots with Mr. Rogers or the city's keyhole-framed skyline as a backdrop.

The site "creates a distinctive sense of place, a place that fosters civic pride, creates fun and ... recognizes our children and the importance of our children to the future of this community," said William H. Isler, the president of Mr. Rogers' production company, Family Communications.
The project is funded by Colcom Foundation, the $500 million charitable foundation of the late Cordelia S. May, a longtime Rogers family friend. The foundation paid $1.3 million for the sculpture and $1.7 million for developing the parklet plans, and promised to pay for the site's future maintenance.

Supporters stressed the site is not a Fred Rogers memorial. Rather, they are calling it "A Tribute to Children," with hopes it can be a gathering place for children and families.

The old bridge abutment currently sits unadorned along the Allegheny riverfront trail. The city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority once proposed turning it into an observation deck, much like the designers of the Rogers project -- Pittsburgh-based Astorino -- are now planning.
Plans are to circle the statue and elevated observation deck with a railing, creating a 4,100-square-foot visiting space.

Over the past four years, designers looked throughout the city at locations that would make the most of the statue, which Mrs. May commissioned in 2003. Colcom Foundation leaders wanted it near the Point, but with Point State Park being redeveloped, instead focused on the pier, Mr. Isler said, for its high visibility and accessibility to transportation and visitors.

"The site is highly visible -- from Mount Washington, Fort Duquesne Boulevard, the Golden Triangle, Point State Park -- and each time the three rivers are photographed or filmed, it's seen," lead architect Louis Astorino said. "It's seen on 'Monday Night Football.' It's seen nationally when you look at Pittsburgh."

The city's Art Commission has given preliminary, conceptual approval to the plans, which will go to the city planning commission next month.
Plans call for the statue's site to be completed by March 20, which would have been Mr. Rogers' 80th birthday. Construction is also tied to Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary next year.

Mr. Rogers was born in Latrobe in 1928. He wrote and starred in "Neighborhood" at WQED for 33 years, won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, two Peabody Awards and four Emmys, and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. He died at his Squirrel Hill home in February 2003 at age 74.

The sculptor, Robert Berks, has done many portrait busts and similiar statues of Mr. Caliguiri and Albert Einstein, for the National Academy of Sciences. The Rogers statue will be similar to a child-friendly Hans Christian Anderson statue in New York's Central Park, supporters said, by Georg Lober.

The Rogers statue will be sitting on steps, allowing children access to it, but it will still be oversized. The sculptor, Mr. Astorino said, wanted to convey "the overwhelming awe of seeing this person for the first time as a child."

Plans for a statue of dancer Gene Kelly, who grew up in East Liberty, are continuing behind the scenes. The oft-discussed statue, based on the iconic dance number from "Singing in the Rain," has been proposed to welcome visitors to the Cultural District.

Mr. Kelly's widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, who is in Pittsburgh this week for Saturday's Gene Kelly Awards for high school musicals, has the final say on the design.


http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070524ho_roger4_230.jpg (http://www.post-gazette.com/popup.asp?img=http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070524ho_roger4_450.jpg)
This sculpture of children's television pioneer Fred Rogers by Robert Berks will be the centerpiece of Tribute to Children parklet on the North Shore utilizing the Manchester Bridge Pier near Heinz Field with Downtown Pittsburgh in the background.

[HMC8404]

My father worked for MaBell here in Pittsburgh for many years. When Mr Roger's show called them to have a 'telephone man' on their show, they immediately thought of my father with 9 children. My father was on in an episode in the early 70s (I think it was '74), and all of us kids loved it. Of course my father, never having been on TV before and not realizing what he was doing, kept his back to the camera most of the time.

I had written to PBS for a copy of the show and all they sent me was that part that he was in, not the entire show in it's entirety. Its funny watching that now ... my father was soooo young. I had fogotten how young he used to be. :)

[e_d_d_i_e_]

Wow, People actually were young at one point? Speaking of that. A Civilian Contractor I work with said... Ya know I wish you could start off old and get younger, but keep the knowledge you get along the way to being old. Sooo true.. cause then when its towards the end of your life.. you get nap time and recess and all the joys of a young child.:26:

[HMC8404]

Wow, People actually were young at one point? Speaking of that. A Civilian Contractor I work with said... Ya know I wish you could start off old and get younger, but keep the knowledge you get along the way to being old. Sooo true.. cause then when its towards the end of your life.. you get nap time and recess and all the joys of a young child.:26:
You're 22 eddie ... don't squander your youth while you're in the moment which you are. Be wise and learn from other's hindsight.

I was talking to my friend Ray who still works at the hospital in Lejeune as a civilian now that he's retired, and he told me about a meeting he sat in on. He and I worked together in the same office '87-91 when I was stationed there. He was my Senior Chief and I was an HM1, and we used to do all these 'brain storming' sessions on how to make certain processes within the hospital work more smoothly, etc. He said he laughed quietly to himself at this meeting last week because there they were, discussing a 'problem area' within the hospital that has been a problem since we were there and he said they were suggesting a lot of the same things we had suggested at that time, had implemented and learned it didn't work ... but becauses they thought it was an original suggestion, they wouldn't hear anything else. So he just stayed silent and thought ... "you think this is the first time for this?" My point is ... young people think that the first time THEY are dealing with a problem, or a relationship issue, etc, ... that it is THE first time ever and rarely do they care to listen to other's advice, especially those who have already 'been there done that' in life. That is not wise ... most later learn the hard way that they should've taken the advice. I did learn that around my mid-20s to late 20s to do just that and heeded other's advice and hindsight and I've made much wiser decisions. My regrets in life lie back in my late teens to early 20s.

Okay, jumping off the soap box now. Just remember ... you're at that stage now. Take this as hindsight eddie. :)