Memory Lane: ‘A Swingin’ Safari’

Do you ever get a tune in your head from way, way down at the bottom of your memory jar, and then it drives you nuts because you can’t remember what it’s called or where you heard it?

I’ve had this one going round and round. I kept thinking it was from a TV game show, The Match Game, and it turned out I was right–it was the theme song for the first edition of The Match Game, 1962-69. And I used to hear this at my friend’s house after school, because his mother never missed the show.

Nothing like an old TV theme to take you back! Hey, where were you in ’62? I think Paul Lucas asked that once. Of course, he had us all behaving like teenage sitcom characters, which wouldn’t be even close to describing my pals and me. I have a vision of two or three of us just sitting down to play Mille Bornes when we heard this music coming from the living room.

Bert Kaempfert, Billy Vaughn, you made great music! Don’t let anybody say you didn’t.

The Unforgettable Soupy Sales

Remember this guy? Soupy Sales, the legendary kids’ TV comic of the 1950s and 60s, was truly off the wall.

Here he is in 1993, recalling a live TV stunt he pulled in 1965 which got him kicked off the air–telling children to send him “those green pieces of paper” found in Mom’s pocketbook or Dad’s wallet.

So they did!

Soupy, you were one of a kind.