Eyewitness to Lincoln's Assassination - (1956)

I'm always looking for old TV shows and unusual things to post here each day. It's not as simple as you might think. Sometimes I have 20 things ready to go at once; while at other times I am really scrambling for something interesting. It sometimes feels like "feast or famine", and at those times it boils down to "sink or swim."

At any rate, this is a cool little segment from the "I've Got a Secret" television show which aired on February 9, 1956. The guest is Samuel J.Seymour, 97 years young form Maryland. His claim to fame is that he witnessed the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as a boy. He was about 6 years old at the time of the event at Ford's Theater.

I won't recap the clip - best to let you view it without a preamble. Suffice to say that it just one of the things that I enjoy so much about the internet. I can actually go online and find oral accounts of historical events from people who not only never wrote these recollections down, but are now; as Lincoln was;  lost to the ages.

These clips are valuable additions to the books I read. Enjoy Mr. Seymour's story as you try to imagine life as a 6 year old boy in 1865 Washington, D.C.

'The Head of the House" - The Honeymooners March 31st, 1956

This episode, titled "Head of the House", from "The Honeymooners" was first aired 56 years ago today. A lot of things have changed since then, but the silent battle of wits between men and women still rages. In this episode, Ralph, who has answered a question for the Inquiring Photographer in the daily paper about who is the "head of his house", sets out to prove that he is, indeed, "master of his own domain." What the boys don't know is that Alice has replaced the wine with grape juice. But that doesn't stop Ralph and Ed from getting drunk.

And, even as a kid, I was cognizant of the similarities between "The Honeymooners" and "The Flintstones." Both shows were about two working class guys, married to their sweethearts, and always in trouble with them nonetheless. In this "Flintsones" clip from 1961, Fred and Barney skirt their chores, only to be discoverd by their hardworking wives, Wilma and Betty. This was actually a private film made for Winston-Salem rather than for the show. The legendary team of Hanna-Barbera knew how to satirize, and in "The Finstones" they created a whole parallel world in fictional Bedrock, to that of Ralph and Ed in "real Life" Brooklyn.