Episode 69 begins with a Cape Cod true crime tale. In 1899 a shocking murder rocked the Cape and specifically the town of Yarmouth. Young James Whittemore had been killed by his supposed friend Edwin Ray Snow. Why did Snow murder his friend? What happened after Snow was caught? It's all covered here.
Heeeere's Johnny! For 30 years Johnny Carson was the undisputed king of late night television. The Tonight Show was appointment viewing for millions. 30 years ago this week Johnny signed off for the final time. We go way Back In the Day to look back at a little of what made Johnny Carson and his show so legendary.
This week's Road Trip takes us to Westerly, Rhode Island. The final stop before entering Connecticut this coastal town has stretches of beautiful beaches, delicious food, a five-star resort, and much more. Find out why you should pay it a visit and then plan your trip!
Who were the biggest sports stars of the 1980's? This week's Top 5 is sure to create debate among fans. It was an easy list to create, but a hard one to narrow down.
There's also a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the very first Academy Awards ceremony.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 68 here.
Episode 69 begins with a Cape Cod true crime tale. In 1899 a shocking murder rocked the Cape and specifically the town of Yarmouth. Young James Whittemore had been killed by his supposed friend Edwin Ray Snow. Why did Snow murder his friend? What happened after Snow was caught? It's all covered here.
Heeeere's Johnny! For 30 years Johnny Carson was the undisputed king of late night television. The Tonight Show was appointment viewing for millions. 30 years ago this week Johnny signed off for the final time. We go way Back In the Day to look back at a little of what made Johnny Carson and his show so legendary.
This week's Road Trip takes us to Westerly, Rhode Island. The final stop before entering Connecticut this coastal town has stretches of beautiful beaches, delicious food, a five-star resort, and much more. Find out why you should pay it a visit and then plan your trip!
Who were the biggest sports stars of the 1980's? This week's Top 5 is sure to create debate among fans. It was an easy list to create, but a hard one to narrow down.
There's also a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the very first Academy Awards ceremony.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 68 here.
Intro
Hello World, and welcome to the in my footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. Coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 69. We're going to start this week off with one of the most infamous murders and trials in Cape Cod history that being the trial of Edwin Ray snow, we're going to take a road trip to the Rhode Island-Connecticut border and the seaside town of Westerly, Rhode Island. We're gonna go way, way back in the day and look at my memories of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 30 years after he retired, there'll be a brand new top five featuring the top five biggest sports stars in North America from the 1980s. And of course, there'll be a brand new this week in history and time capsule. All coming up right now on episode 69 of the in my footsteps podcast. The countdown is on to Memorial Day weekend to the official beginning of tourist season for us down on Cape Cod. It's the double-edged sword where you get the great weather to be outside. But all the roads and beaches start to fill up as a kid had never mattered traffic and just being crowded. Because as a kid, you know, you ride your bike, you're not in anyone's way you're not going anywhere where people are going to be. And now it's like you notice it all the time. Every year, it's the same thing. But I guess it's good to live in a place that people want to go and visit because they'll spend their money and help people out that live here year round, rather than living in a place where nobody wants to go ever. And then you're kind of screwed. Do any of you have plans for Memorial Day weekend? I know that it's not this weekend, when the podcast goes live, it's the weekend after. I don't know if anybody goes on vacations or takes long weekends. I mean, we get long weekends, or are a lot of you just waiting for the Fourth of July weekend to do your big traveling. One thing I used to enjoy about the summer and growing up here was that we all knew the back roads so that we could avoid all of the traffic. And now with the advent of Google Maps, GPS is just on everyone's phone. Now the easiest route to get from A to B you can just punch it in. So there's no more secret back roads. Really the technology, it's a double-edged sword where you can get to places easier, but that means everyone else can get to the same places easier to I guess it just means that you have to work harder to find places that people don't go to. So I wanted to as I always do, say thank you to everyone that has been tuning into the podcast. Next week is going to be episode 70. 70 episodes that I've been doing this, and I hope you all have been enjoying it. I hope that you if you do enjoy it, tell people to check it out. And always you can shoot me an email Christopher setterlund@gmail.com. I still got plenty of ideas for this podcast. So we'll be going for a while longer. So hopefully you stick with it stick with the episodes coming up and with it being spring going into summer, you can take these episodes with you outside, walk in the sun, enjoy it. That's one of my favorite things to do podcast walk, grab a podcast that's like two hours long, set my timer for an hour and just walk out down our bike trail that's not far from where I live, and then come on back. It's great exercise and you get distracted. That's what a lot of people need is a distraction, so they don't realize they're exercising. So let's get to the distractions. This week's episode is going to start off with some true crime. This I had promised to do a few months ago things got changed. So I'm coming back around to it. This is the story of the turn of the 20th-century murder perpetrated by Edwin Ray snow in the town of Yarmouth that haunted Cape Cod for a long time. And you're gonna get the full story of it right now on episode 69 of the in my footsteps podcast.
Edwin Ray Snow
The month of September brings the end of summer on Cape Cod it ushers in a quiet time of reflection and recovery from the hot days and long nights of the previous months. It marks the change of the seasons and today marks the exodus of vacationers and the influx of kids back to school. In the year 1899 Cape Cod was a far different place. A mere 27,826 People called at home as a comparison as of 2020 the year-round population on Cape Cod was 228,996 people. In 1899, the annual average salary was $438 per year, or just over 15,000. when adjusted for inflation to today, electricity and telephones were rare luxuries, and the automobile would not become very readily available for nearly a decade with the introduction of Henry Ford's Model T in 1908. It was this serene rural setting of Cape Cod that became the backdrop for a crime that changed the area forever. On a September evening, in 1899, a young boy was murdered by his friend and South Yarmouth, the boy with James Whittemore, his friend and killer was Edwin Ray snow. The man who would become known as Edwin Ray Snow was abandoned as a baby on a doorstep in Boston in 1882. He was taken in by Captain James Hawkins of Barnstable and his wife upon Hawkins death in 1887. The young boy was taken in by Captain Hawkins daughter, Ida snow and her husband Albert. He will be given their surname upon adoption. James Whittemore grew up on Cape Cod, living in South Denis with his widowed mother I Della. He would work as a bakery card driver for Gage and Rogers bakery of West Dennis for two years, taking a route from West Denis through Barnstable. Whittemore became friends with Eddie snow a little over a year prior to the incident, as he often delivered baked goods to Snow's adoptive parents. In May 1898, Snow was sent to a reformatory after breaking into Isabelle Lewis's Yarmouth store. He stayed there for 11 months, being released in April 1899. And returning to Yarmouth, to live with his adoptive parents again. Things were relatively quiet until a fateful day late in the summer. On Wednesday, September 12 1899 20, year-old James Whittemore began his bakery cart route from West Dennis. He stopped and picked up his friend 17-year-old Eddie snow from his home in South Yarmouth. The two remained together all day, passing back through Yarmouth, around 5:30pm. Around 9pm, the bakery cart was spotted in Yarmouth port being pulled by the horse. Neither Whittemore nor snow was on board, a man named Ebenezer Hamblin would staple the horse overnight. Idella Whittemore worried after her son did not return home search for James Early the next morning. She was eventually directed to Hamblin's home. Upon further inspection, Hamblin and Whittemore found the front seat of the cart covered in blood. As Idella headed back toward her home, she spotted a crowd along a heavily wooded area just south of the bass River Railroad Depot on present-day station Avenue in South Yarmouth. That area for those that are curious is where the parking area is for the bike trail, basically right next to Stop and Shop across from CVS. When Idela arrived at the spot, the crowd recognized her and broke the news. James had been found about 50 yards off of the road shot in the back of the head by a 32-caliber revolver. The hunt was on for Edwin Ray snow. He purchased a train ticket early on September 13, headed for Middleboro Detective Sim let NE And Sheriff Judah chase of Harwich port were hot on snows trail, he was apprehended in a yard near the Boston in New York dispatch office in Middleboro. on his person was $12 in money changed from silver. Plus the dollar 25 train fare meant that apparently snow had killed his friend for the sum of $13.25. Less than 24 hours after the death of James Whittemore Eddie Snow was in custody and headed back to Cape Cod. On October 18 1899, snow plead not guilty to the charge of murder. The killing of Whittemore would be the second murder on Cape Cod in a month, as in August 1899. Joseph hill of Hyannis had murdered his wife Mary. Boston newspapers at the time, said that the rash of Cape Cod murders spoke to the degeneration of the locals, to which the Yarmouth register responded that neither of the murderers were in fact native Cape cutters. On New Year's Day 1900 Snow changed his plea to guilty and he was sentenced to death in the electric chair a week later. He was to be the first man to die of electrocution in the state of Massachusetts. But it was not to be though, as on January 15 1900, Massachusetts governor Murray crane switched snow sentence from death to life in prison. Snow was seen as too young to have his life ended so soon upon his conviction while being led away to prison, snow confessed to a reporter quote, I killed Jimmy Whittemore, a dear and good friend to me on the impulse of the moment, I had no intention of committing such an act. When I went to ride with him that fateful day in September, end quote. Snow was transferred from Barnstable to Charlestown prison to serve his sentence. In 1901, convicted murderer Luigi Storti would become the first man to die in the electric chair in Massachusetts. Snow became a model prisoner learning as much as he could, reading the Bible, and being genuinely repentant. The Governor's Council even considered him for a pardon in 19 1818, but it was not granted. This news led to snow escaping from prison on November 26 1919. He was on the run for several hours before being caught in the woods between Taunton and Middleboro and returned to his cell. snows pardon would again not be granted in 1930. However, around this time, he made a powerful ally in Reverend Father Spence Burton. Seeing his genuine remorse, and the good work he had done in the prison system. Burton successfully lobbied for Snow's pardon in 1932 at the age of 50, and after 32 years in prison, Edwin Ray Snow was a free man. Despite his pardon, Cape Codders, who remembered the murder were unhappy with his release, remaining on the cape or even in Massachusetts was impossible. So with the help of Burton, Eddie snow would move to California to start a new life. He ended up in San Francisco, working with the fathers of St. John the Evangelist church. In 1943. Snow married Virginia DeLonge, and lived out the remaining years of his life and relative normalcy before succumbing to prostate cancer in 1949. And that is the story of possibly the town of Yarmouth’s most notorious murder. I can't think of any more but I also haven't done tons of research on it. Most of the facts of this case for the segment of the podcast were taken from local newspaper archives. If you want even more details about the story of Edwin Ray snow, check out the book The Cape Cod murder of 1899 Edwin Ray snows punishment and redemption, which was written in 2007 by Teresa Michel Barbo. I'll put a link in the description of the podcast if you want to go check that book out on Amazon or on her website.
Road Trip: Westerly, RI
It is road trip time again. And here we are we're going to stick along the south coast of New England pay a visit to the smallest state in the nation, Rhode Island, and its westernmost point, appropriately named Westerly, Rhode Island. For those wondering westerly is the westernmost point in Rhode Island. The next town over is Stonington, Connecticut. The town itself was founded all the way back in 1669. And as of 2020, it had a population of 23,359. So it's not really a small town. Like last week when I talked about Hull, Massachusetts. It's more mid-size, the town that I live in on Cape Cod, it's roughly the same size as that. For those of you looking to take a trip down to westerly from different places in New England, it is just under 100 miles southwest from Boston and about 45 miles from Providence. It's interesting the geography of Rhode Island because for me to get to westerly from Cape Cod, it's about a two-hour drive. And the reason is that you've got to go way north to get up above Narragansett Bay and then kind of swoop back down southwest. But you know now how to get there from different places, but why should you go there? Well, no surprise to anybody who's listened to the podcast, there's a lighthouse in Westerly. That was the reason that I first went there. The lighthouse itself was at 14 Lighthouse road. For those of you that may know some things about lighthouses or might find them interesting, you can look it up and notice that watch a lighthouse looks very much the same as Beavertail lighthouse, which is in Jamestown, Rhode Island, kind of rectangular, almost like a Jenga board, I guess the best way to describe it. The Light Station itself was opened originally in 1745, with the current beacon being built in 1808. One thing I remember when I went down there with my buddy Steve to get some photos of this lighthouse is that it's behind a chain link fence, so you can get some further away vantage points. But if you're looking to get closer up views of the lighthouse, you kind of have to navigate these rocks that are around it. So if you're going to do that, please be careful. I can honestly say that there have been times going across rocks to get pictures of lighthouses that I have gone straight down on my ass. It wasn't at watch hill it was at a different one, but I'm just giving you a heads-up. Being that it is on the coast. There are lots of beaches in Westerly that are worth checking out. If you go to watch Hill to check out the lighthouse. You can take a hike right there to Napa tree point. Even though they're close by it's best to park and watch Hill Beach, which is nearby on Larkin road obviously during the season. Be wary of parking fees and if so, there are other parking places in that same area where you can park and walk out to Napa tree point. I've been to these places and I'm not one that enjoys paying for parking. So I always look for places that are free. Napa Tree point is a peninsula little sandy finger sticking out into the ocean to get to the tip. It's about a mile and a quarter. But if you do get out there you can see the remains of Fort Mansfield. It's pretty neat. I mean, a little bit dilapidated, obviously because it's an old fort. If you listen to last week's podcast where I talked about Fort Revere in Hull, it's kind of in that same vein, except you don't have to walk, you know, two and a half miles total to get to Fort Revere. If Napa tree point isn't your thing, watch Hill Lighthouse isn't your thing. Well, you've got a better chance. Check it out East Beach. This one is a little bit complicated. It's a long stretch of beautiful beach. But parking and getting to it can be difficult. There are several access points at the end of dead end roads. The end of Atlantic Avenue is a good spot to try. Montauk Avenue. And I mentioned Larkin road before any of those you can try but obviously use your best judgment when it comes to parking somewhere. If you feel like it might be a spot you shouldn't be don't leave your car there. Because the last thing you want to do is take a road trip to westerly and then get your car towed. Of course the easiest way to check out East Beach would be getting a hotel room leaving your car there and walking. Why not stay at one of only nine five star hotels in Rhode Island, the Ocean House at one bluff Avenue. It was voted by Travel and Leisure as one of the 10 best resort hotels in the northeast and one of the top 100 hotels in the world. So that's some pretty lofty praise right there. And obviously, a lot of people can't afford a five-star hotel I know I couldn't. I just like to share this one because it seems to be a destination as much as a place to stay. It's got 49 rooms a beautiful view overlooking the bluff and you can walk to East Beach no problem. So that's another reason why I put it in here. They're at Ocean House ri.com If you want to see for yourself the views in the rooms. Once you've set up home base for your trip to westerly you got a place to stay you've gone and hung out at the beaches, you got to find someplace to eat and there's a couple of really great choices. There's the cooked goose at 90 to watch Hill Road and the cooked goose.com It's a quaint breakfast and lunch place. They got homemade baked goods, tons of different cakes and pies and bars. And of course all the classic breakfast and lunch staples. You could want pancakes, eggs sandwiches. So that's a good place to start your day. A great place to end your day is the malted barley at 42 High Street and the malted barley ri.net. It's more of a live entertainment craft beer bar with beautiful outdoor seating. But they do serve some foods like their famed gourmet pretzels so you can get those as well and listen to live music to end the day. Western westerly like a lot of these places I talk about on these road trips are places you need to go to and kind of fully explore. I give you Cliffs Notes of things to go and see but it's better to go and kind of find your own way. Check out see westerly.com They've got everything you could possibly want to know about where to go, what to see where to stay, what to eat and hidden gems and all that good stuff. westerly is a great place to visit on its own. Obviously I went for watch Hill lighthouse, but it's right on the border of Connecticut. It's so close to Massachusetts. I mean a two hour drive from Cape Cod isn't that bad if it's a place worth visiting, and westerly is definitely a place worth visiting. beautiful beaches, five star resort hotels, tremendous breakfast and lunch restaurants, outdoor seating, live entertainment bars, westerly Rhode Island has got so much to check out and now the time of year is getting to be perfect to go down there. You'll have the salty sea breeze coming off Block Island Sound. So wherever you are in New England, take a drive down to Westerly, Rhode Island, make it a day trip, make it a week trip, you can't go wrong. And I'll be back in two weeks, Episode 71 for another road trip featuring one of the many many beautiful places in the six states of New England and beyond.
This Week In History
This week in history, we are going back 93 years ago, May 16 1929. And the very first ever academy awards ceremony the very first Oscar ceremonies were held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. The Academy Awards are the pinnacle for motion pictures in this country. In the 93 years there have been some legendary names that have won awards legendary films that have won awards, as far as acting, the most wins go to Katharine Hepburn, who has for Best Actress victories and 12 Total nominations. Three films are tied with 11 Total Oscar victories. Those are Ben Hur, Titanic and the Lord of the Rings Return of the King. And if you're wondering about directors director John Ford has the most Oscar wins with four. But it all had to start somewhere. So what about that very first Academy Award ceremony 93 years ago this week, best actor went to emil Jannings for the last command. Best Actress went to Janet Gaynor for 77 Best Picture went to wings. And interestingly for Best Director, they had two different categories for comedy and drama. Comedy went to Lewis Milestone for two Arabian Nights and drama went to Frank bizagi for 77. In total, there were 13 academy award categories and 13 awards given out. Today that number has grown to 24 categories. But the long and storied history of the Academy Awards The Oscars started 93 years ago this week in history. And now it is time for another brand new time capsule. We are going back 28 years ago this week to May 15 1994. The end of my sophomore year in high school Good lord, let's see what was going on back then. The number one song was I swear by all for one. This was off of the group's album of the same name all for one. It was actually originally written in 1993 as a country song and became a hit for John Michael Montgomery. The song was definitely the group's biggest hit and remain number one for 11 weeks. In a cool bit of irony here, all for one had one other really big hit and that was I can love you like that from 1995. And if you can believe it, that was actually also written for country singer John Michael Montgomery. So all for one basically made a business out of covering his songs and getting big hits out of them. The number one movie was the crow, starring Brandon Lee. This isn't epic film, drama, action suspense, but it's also marked by tragedy because this was the film where Brandon Lee was accidentally shot on set and he died. It was a pretty big hit at the time making $94 million on a budget of $23 million. But it's garnered even more fame in the years since it's 84% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and I highly recommend it. It was one of my favorite movies in high school and is based on the comic book series The Crow written by James Obar. The number one TV show was Stephen King's the stand min-series, it was actually parts two, three and four of the mini-series were the top three spots in the ratings. It's a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy. The book Stephen King wrote the Stan came out in 1978. The mini-series was actually remade in 2020. I'm surprised that they've never made an actual full-length movie, though based on it. And if you were around back then may 15 1994, maybe you were a sophomore in high school like me, and you wanted to listen to some music, maybe you want to listen to, I swear, but you didn't want people to know exactly what you were listening to. You could get yourself a Sony Discman, complete with bass boost and skip protection for about $100 or around $190 when adjusted for inflation. But back then the days of making mix CDs weren't quite around yet, so you were kind of stuck with whatever compilations were being sold. Or you could just stick with the Sony Walkman and make mixtapes and that's going to wrap up another time capsule another this week in history. Now we're going to head into the top five, this is going to be a good one here, as we kind of go into my wheelhouse of 1980s sports. And check out the biggest sports stars of North America from the 1980s right now.
Top 5: North American Sports Stars of the 1980s
This week's Top Five is short create a lot of discussion. As we go back in time and look at the biggest sports stars in North America in the 1980s. It's funny this list was easy to make as far as putting a bunch of names in there, but then a lot harder to narrow it down to a top five with a few honorable mentions. But these are the names that everyone growing up in the 1980s knew of as far as sports even if you weren't a sports fan, you probably had heard of these names. So let's get started with those honorable mentions and let's see how much disagreement I can cause among you listening. Honorable Mentions for the biggest sports stars of North America in the 1980s include Earvin Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, John McEnroe, Lawrence Taylor, and Hulk Hogan. Being from Cape Cod, New England, putting Larry Bird on the honorable mentions list was definitely tough. But I tried my best to be as unbiased as I could be. And you'll see here as we jump into the actual top five. We'll start off with number one, Michael Jordan. I mean, that's an obvious one. If he wasn't, I mean, this list is in no particular order, but I think he would be number one on most people's lists, in my opinion, and a lot of people's opinion, the greatest basketball player ever one of the greatest athletes I've ever gotten to see in my lifetime. He was a household name. If you watch college sports based on him winning the national title with North Carolina, but going just straight in the 80s Michael Jordan was not a winner, his Chicago Bulls they started to get a little better at the end of the 80s but he was known for all of his endorsements McDonald's Gatorade, Nike, and those endorsements helped make him an even bigger star before he became the best ever and winning all the championships with the bulls in the 1990s. Number two, Wayne Gretzky. Take everything I said about Michael Jordan and kind of throw it on Wayne Gretzky. If you didn't know hockey or watch hockey, you knew at least one name and that was Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky in his prime was so much better than pretty much everyone else that played hockey. It was almost unfair in the 1980s. With the Edmonton Oilers, he won four Stanley Cup championships and had 1842 total points in 768 games. To tell you how dominant Wayne Gretzky was. This stat should sum it up. He has nine of the top 11 highest season point totals in the history of the NHL, with the other two being Mario Lemieux nine of the top 11 scoring seasons. That is why he is the great one. Number three is Bo Jackson. For those younger listeners out there, you may not understand just how big of a star Bo Jackson was in that brief time that he was at his peak in the late 80s to be a prominent running back for the Los Angeles Raiders, but to also be a great outfielder for the Kansas City Royals. He played football and baseball and played them both. Well. He got a huge endorsement deal from Nike. The Bo knows series of commercials, where he played every kind of sport and did every activity well. He was a human highlight reel in two different sports. Sadly, a terrible hip injury in January 1991, in a playoff game in the NFL, started a quick downward spiral so where his career in football was over, and his baseball career ended only a few years later, but for a few years, he was the biggest name in sports, I would say. Number four is Mike Tyson. Again, much like I said about Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky. If you didn't follow boxing, you still knew who Mike Tyson was based on his series of quick decisive knockouts of basically everyone he was facing. He made his debut at the age of 18 in March 1985, and won the Heavyweight Championship in November 1986. At the age of 20. With a second-round TKO of Trevor Berbick. For the rest of the 1980s. It was just a string of knockouts, just dominant fights, were his fights were events, but you knew they wouldn't last. There are fights like the famous Michael Spinks fight where Spinks was so scared, his knees were shaking, I would have been to get in the ring with Tyson. I was scared enough playing Mike Tyson's Punch out as a kid. And finally, number five on the list of the biggest sports stars of North America in the 1980s is Joe Montana. It was a toss-up here between Montana and Larry Bird. I went with Montana because he won four Super Bowls in the 80s. Whereas bird won three NBA championships, in my opinion, up until Tom Brady won all the rings that he got in New England and now Tampa Joe Montana was the greatest quarterback ever. There's no shame in being second best though. But again, playing quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s Joe Montana was a household name. Everybody knew who he was Joe Cool. So with Montana or Larry Bird, you can't go wrong with either. And with these lists, it's always subjective. My top five of Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Bo Jackson, Mike Tyson, and Joe Montana is likely to be different than pretty much everyone who listens out there. But even if you don't have the same list as me, there's no denying that those five that I just mentioned are some of the biggest names in the history of sports, with legends like Jordan, and Gretzky and the ultimate what could have been with Bo Jackson. But what do you think? Do you agree? Do you vehemently disagree with my top five shoot me an email let me know what your list was. And I'll be back two weeks from now with a brand new top five have something more random that we can all agree to disagree on.
Back In the Day: Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
There are so many things that occurred before I was born that I wish I had been alive to witness the very first Super Bowl on TV, The Ed Sullivan Show with The Beatles. The original Woodstock seminal shows seminal moments that are now legendary that I wish I had been around to see. But my age being what it is, I was actually lucky enough to get to witness one such seminal show, even for a brief moment in time. And that was the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. And we're going way back in the day to look back 30 years ago, this week, and when the show actually went off the air. I'm not going to sit here and say that I was mature for my age as a child. But definitely, the fact that I wanted to stay up late and watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I don't know what that says about me. I got to see some episodes in 1991 and 92. So I mean, I was 1314 years old. And Johnny Carson was the king of late night television. So I think even as a kid I knew who he was and I knew that I probably should check him out. By the time I watched the tonight show Johnny Carson was already in his mid 60s and had an eye on retirement. I think by the mid-1980s. He had really started delegating having a lot of guest hosts come in, especially Joan Rivers and Jay Leno. But there was something more sophisticated about his humor. Maybe that's just coming from a 13-year-olds perspective but I did feel more like an adult when watching The Tonight Show compared to Saturday Night Live that I was watching, or other comedies like The Simpsons or married with children that I watched at the time. And I think I enjoyed the fact that I was watching something that I don't know if my parents watched but I know my grandparents watch. So it was a connection to family, feeling like we'd have more in common and more to talk about, since I really couldn't speak with them about my tastes and music with grunge. Johnny Carson's reign on The Tonight Show started all the way back October 1 1962. He took over the show from Jack Paar, and he was 36 years old at the time. On that first show, his guests were Groucho Marx, Tony Bennett, Mel Brooks, Joan Crawford, Rudy Vallee, and the musical guests was the Phoenix singers. Interestingly, they were a folk singer trio of all African American men. And Johnny Carson actually wrote the liner notes for their first album. So that's a really neat connection that he had them on his first show. And that was just the first of what would be 6714 Total episodes of The Tonight Show. That's a lot of content that Johnny Carson created. And he would have the fake commercials he would do Carnac, where he would do the fortune telling. I go back now and I watch clips on the Johnny Carson YouTube channel. And that'll give you all you need to know you didn't have to see it live like I did, but to see him interact with some of the biggest legends in the history of entertainment and sports and of course, he had Ed McMahon as his faithful sidekick. This was way before the Publishers Clearing House days and the Star Search days, and the bloopers and practical jokes days. Those are all ones from the 80s that I remember. And Doc Severinsen led his band that had that famous tonight show opening. And Ed McMahon would say here's Johnny every time it was legendary. Everyone wanted to be on that show. There was the whole thing about stand up comedians, the ones that got their big breaks on the shows like Jerry Seinfeld, even David Letterman. If you want to go and check out some of my favorite stuff, definitely go on to that YouTube channel, Johnny Carson's one and find shows that he had either Don Rickles or Rodney Dangerfield as his guests. It's just so funny. I mean, Rodney Dangerfield is one of my favorite comedians ever. So having him on there, just making Carson just roll. It's just the best. I can't sit here and pretend to be an expert on all things Johnny Carson and Tonight Show. That's why I keep pushing toward the YouTube channel so you can see for yourself. I know for people of my parents and grandparents generation, Johnny Carson was basically the last voice that they heard at night before going to bed. It was appointment viewing for a lot of people because he'd have his monologue where he talked about the news, but it was always tinged with comedy. And he saw lots of stuff. I mean, he was on the air from back at the Kennedy assassination, Martin Luther King assassination walking on the moon, Watergate, and up through the Persian Gulf War. So that's a lot of stuff that he saw and reported on. But in the end, it was you know, 30 years on the air, I guess was enough. By the time I started watching, he was already on the downswing. Interestingly, I had always thought that the final tonight show that aired on May 22 1992. I thought that was the famous show with Bette Midler singing to him. But it actually was a clip show when I researched the segment for the podcast. I'm like, wait, I don't remember that. So the night before was actually his last live show, and that's where he had Robin Williams and Bette Midler as his final guests. And if you wanted a rundown, the most frequent guests on The Tonight Show were Bob Hope was number one. He was on the show 131 times, and Joan Rivers was on at 105 times. And interestingly, when Carson left the Tonight Show, everybody thought that David Letterman was going to be his natural successor even Carson thought that so when Jay Leno got the job, it was kind of I don't know I don't want to say disappointing because he ended up being good, but at the time, it was like wait, Letterman should be taking over. After that final episode of The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson said he was retiring he really meant it. After that went off the air. He only made two appearances. One was on Letterman’s Show where he popped out to do a top 10 list. And the other was when he was on The Simpsons where Krusty the Clown was trying to get his show back and his popularity back. And he had Johnny Carson on his show. It's interesting being my age and the generation where I grew up where I was able to actually see the end of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, while also listening to Nirvana and grunge music and some hip hop like Public Enemy. It's a weird dichotomy of time. And I honestly can't think back of any moments from the tonight show when I watched it. If I go back on YouTube, I can find episodes, I don't have any memories of specifics, I just know that I made it a point to stay up and watch. Typically, it was Fridays because I didn't have to go to school the next day, but every now and then I'd pick one up during the middle of the week. Stay up super late. But Johnny Carson was the king of late night. And even David Letterman said at once that basically everybody that came after him, was trying to do some version of Johnny Carson Show. There's so many classic moments to go and check out whether it's him just having guests like I said, like Rodney Dangerfield on there, or Robin Williams going crazy. Or his recurring characters I said like Carnac or Art Fern or Aunt blobby. I definitely recommend if you've never seen the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson for the 30th anniversary of the show ending or his reign ending, go to his YouTube channel and just start looking up. Pick the ones that are the most popular as far as views go and just go down the rabbit hole. I may not have gotten to see the Beatles on Ed Sullivan or man walking on the moon or Woodstock but I did get to see the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. And that's a pretty fair trade. Did you all out there watch the tonight show were you around back then. I would say if you were younger than me even by a couple of years, you would not have watched it. I couldn't imagine a nine or 10 year old staying up to watch a show that was a little more sophisticated at times than a typical comedy show. If you did watch it, let me know what your favorite moments were. If you didn't watch it, go to that YouTube channel and check it out. 30 years ago this week, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson had his very last episode and the king of late night took his final bows.
Closing
And that's going to do it it will wrap up episode 69 of the in my footsteps podcast. Thank you so much to all of you who have been tuning in every time for my random assortment of topics. It's like a quilt I stitched together. Hopefully there's something on the shows that you enjoy. I do my best to incorporate stuff that will bring in a wide audience, which is why I've got so much in the way of travel history and nostalgia. If you want to support the podcast, the best way you can is by sharing links telling people about things that have been on the show so they can find it. If you want to buy me a coffee you can go to buy me a coffee.com Find the in my footsteps podcast. Any donations coming in go towards advertising the podcast. And plus, I'll shout you out on a future episode if that's tempting. Next week will be the special bonus episode of the podcast I do monthly episode 70 is going to be one that I've been waiting to do for a long time as well. This will thrill longtime friends and family as I go into a deep dive about when I wanted to be a filmmaker. So much so in high school that I spent all of my savings to buy a camcorder. So I could make my own films and kind of hone my craft. So next week's episode will be a lot about the process of buying the camcorder what I wanted to do as a filmmaker why I did it. And some of the shenanigans came from all of the videos I shot over the years. I can't wait for that. Hopefully you'll enjoy it and it won't be just a bunch of inside jokes. Just in case I forget on next week's episode of the podcast I want to wish an early Happy birthday to my oldest niece Kaleigh, the OG of my six-pack of nieces and nephews. Her birthday is May 31. But you know, I might forget I'd rather be early than late to the party. So happy birthday early. I'm pretty sure I'll see you and we can have some fun and laughs like we typically do in this family. Remember to check out Mind Body spine chiropractic, if you're in need of anything to do with spinal health, physical health, mental wellness, there's so much that we do down there way more than chiropractic. You'd be surprised if you think that it's just you lay on a table and someone cracks your back. Dr. Michael singleton has got so much more knowledge. And all of us down there that we're just interested in giving people a new lease on life, a better overall quality of life. So come and check us out in Brewster on Route 6A. And we're getting close to Memorial Day weekend, the weather's getting beautiful. Get outside, get that vitamin D, that really helps with mental health. In the current world, it is very important to focus on your mental health. I preach that all the time. And I'm having to remember to do that for myself as well. Nobody puts more pressure on themselves to do the best they can with what they've got in life than me. And I'm sure a lot of you are the same way where you're constantly trying to just be the best version of yourself every day. And there are days that it seems like it's within your grasp. It's days that it feels like you're just spinning in circles and nothing's going to change or get better. So focus on your mental health, especially on those days where it feels like you're just walking a treadmill, but even on the good days. And hopefully this podcast will give you some good times. It'll give you an excuse to get outside and walk in the sun and listen to the sultry tones of my voice. Find time and make time for yourself. But also find time and make time for those that matter to you. Because you just never know when tomorrow comes and something changes and changes permanently. So take advantage of it because nothing is forever. And remember in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path, leave the biggest footprint you can in this world and enjoy every moment of it. Thank you all again for tuning into the in my footsteps podcast. I have Ben Christopher Setterlund and I will talk to you all again soon.