L-R: Ray Flynn, Billy "Corrupt Midget" Bulger (in background just behind Ray), Dapper, Mike Dukakis, and the late Joe Moakley.
Posted on 12/17/2007 8:44:30 AM PST by raccoonradio
Howie Carr live thread for week of 12/17/07
from TheBrothersBulger.com—go to the link to see videos
http://www.thebrothersbulger.com/Dapper%20O’Neil.htm
“Boston City Councilor Albert Leo “Dapper” O’Neil was no particular friend of the Bulgers, either Whitey or his brother Billy, then the president of the Mass. State Senate. Dapper never attended Billy’s St. Patrick’s Day breakfast in Southie – “who wants to go someplace where you can’t piss for four hours?” he used to say of the crowded affair at the Bayside Club. But when gangster Zip Connolly retired from the FBI in December 1990, Dapper felt he had to be there, with a citation for Zip from the City Council. Of the Dap it could be truly said, he’d attend the opening of an envelope. All the cops were there – feds, state, Boston, prosecutors, etc. – and Dapper was a law ‘n’ order politician. When this video was recorded, the Dap was 70, in his prime. After World War II, he used his GI Bill benefits to attend Dr. Staley’s School of the Spoken Word, where aspiring pols learned how to speak and generally conduct themselves. Among Dr. Staley’s students: John F. Kennedy and James Michael Curley. In these clips, you can see how well the Dap learned. In the first one, particularly, his jokes are un-PC, but his timing is that of a professional stand-up comic, which some of his critics claimed he always was.”
He says that like there's some contradiction! ;-)
We'll miss you, Dapper -- may angels sing thee to thy rest!
Prayers for the repose of Dapper’s soul, RIP Dapper, you will be missed.
If he was popping 16 ibuprofens a day, wouldn’t he be looking a tad jaundiced?
Not from Advil. AFAIK, it's Tylenol (acetaminophen) that causes liver damage.
I think I read that 1/3 of UK suicides one year were from Tylenol/acetaminophen.
I heard some of Hopkins this morning,,,he was ragging all over menino and deval, priceless, I think I’m gonna like this guy!
Thanks! Things doing well here in Beverly.
Howie’s show on Wed. (RIP Dapper) was good; I liked
the caller who decided to play a trick on the Dap by
going up to him—she knew damn well who he was—and
saying, “You must be David Scondras! I heard so much
about you!” Dapper, of course, detested David
(unnh! unnh!) Scondras
Special column ping; as Howie promised, a tribute to
the Dap.
O’Neil was principal of the old school
By Howie Carr | Thursday, December 20, 2007 | http://www.bostonherald.com
Dapper O’Neil was 87 years old when he died yesterday morning, and he never owned anything except the clothes on his back.
Dapper O’Neil never made a dime in politics. Name me another modern pol in Boston you can say that about.
Except for the Army during World War II, he lived at only two rented addresses his whole life - on Moreland Street in Roxbury, where he took care of his mother, a cafeteria cashier, until she died in 1964. Then he moved to 4354 Washington St. in Roslindale where he lived with his sister Millie in a third-floor walk-up above a dentist’s office.
What I’m getting at is that Dapper really was old school. You often read that someone’s death represents the end of an era, and it’s nonsense. But this really is the end of something special in Boston.
Talk about a throwback - Dapper didn’t have a checking account. He paid cash for everything except his car (with the “Liberals: An American Cancer” bumper sticker). About 10 years ago, during his last term on the City Council, the Dap won $50,000 on a scratch ticket. He had Steve Murphy drive him down to Lottery headquarters in Braintree.
The Dap left with a $36,000 check and had Murphy drive him immediately to the South Boston Savings Bank, where he paid off the $11,000 note on his car. The rest he took in cash. By 6 p.m. he was in Lowell at a wake for some firefighters who’d been killed in a plane crash. Nobody there would ever be able to vote for him, but he wanted to be there because that was Dapper.
I got him on the radio and asked what he’d done with his winnings.
“I got 22 grand in cash on me right now,” he said.
I told him to shut up about the cash before he got himself killed.
“Let them maggots try something,” Dapper said with a laugh. “I got a surprise for them - a .45. It’s loaded, too.”
One time in the early 1980s he was coming out of Amrhein’s in Southie after dinner when a bearded ex-con ran up to him. The punk stuck a knife in Dap’s face and demanded his wallet. The jailbird then ran away, but Dapper chased him into an alley and shot him.
On the way to the hospital the con asked the EMTs, “Why’d he shoot me? All I wanted was his money.”
After World War II, most veterans were using their GI Bill money to go to college or trade school. Dapper enrolled at the Staley College of the Spoken Word on Bay State Road. “Dr.” Delbert Moyer Staley had trained generations of Boston politicians as speakers; his alumni included John F. Kennedy and James Michael Curley.
Dapper was the last of Dr. Staley’s star pupils. He lost his first few races, even though Curley endorsed him for state rep against future jailbird Charlie Iannello in 1950. And yes, Dapper never won a one-on-one fight, but after television became the dominant medium for news, he was elected to 14 consecutive terms on the Boston City Council. He was the ultimate triple threat pol - equally adept at delivering a memorable quote for TV, radio or newspaper.
So many stories . . .
I got a letter from a guy in Braintree last October who remembered when he was a long-haired hippie in 1967 and Dapper was running for mayor. The Dap was driving his soundtruck down Boylston Street when he saw the hippie and an equally scruffy friend - props for the Dap. Everyone was a prop for Dapper O’Neil.
Dapper pulled up alongside the pair, picked up his bullhorn and yelled, “When I’m elected mayor, those two guys will get a shave and a haircut!”
They both cracked up, and 20 years later, the guy bumped into Dapper at a City Hall hearing. A group was trying to obtain an abandoned building in the South End to set up a dance academy for mostly minority youngsters. Dapper, always dismissed as a racist-homophobe-misoygnist, spoke up for the black and Hispanic kids.
“And he never got any credit for that,” the ex-hippie said. “Anyone who thinks he didn’t help people should slap themselves.”
The last time I talked to Dap was two weeks ago Saturday. He called on Richie Masterton’s cell phone while he was with a bunch of retired cops in Dorchester. He was playing to the crowd - a lifetime habit is hard to break. He wanted to know when I was going to put him on the radio. The plan was, Murphy and I were going to have him on the show tonight.
Never put off until tomorrow . . .
But the Dap was happy that day. “I love you, Howie,” he said, and he reminded me he wasn’t gay.
I’ll let the guy from Braintree finish this column. That morning at City Hall, after Dapper testified on behalf of the dance studio in the South End, the guy went up to the Dap and reminded him of that day in 1967 on Boylston Street.
Dapper studied him closely. The ponytail was long gone, but not the beard.
“You never did get a shave,” the Dap said.
So long, pal. And one last time - thanks for a million laughs.
The Thu ping
A year ago: “Progressive talk” said adios en Boston...
Thu Dec 21 2006 at high noon, the gals filling in for Stephanie Miller said goodbye and there was a liner
for “Boston’s Progressive Talk” followed by some brief silence and then la nueva rumba debuted in Boston.
As I described it on boston-radio-interest mailing list: “After one final ID as “Boston’s Progressive Talk’ there was about 2 minutes of silence; at one point, an ad for “Slim 23” showed up (for about 10 seconds);
back to silence, and then “la nueva Rumba” made it’s debut-—”Mas musica”...a countdown
in Spanish, another ID, another 10 sec of silence, and then a tune in Spanish.”
Fans of lefty perspectives can still find them with
various other people on local radio, plus local TV,
the Globe, the Phoenix...
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/politics/view.bg?articleid=1055950
“Todd Feinburg has struck a deal to co-host WRKO’s morning-drive show with Tom Finneran starting Jan. 2, a station source told the Herald today. The three-year deal worth up to $700,000 - with potential bonuses - was made yesterday, the source said, and Feinburg was spotted at the station and WRKO’s Christmas party last night at the Hard Rock Cafe.”
Todd and Tom in the morning. Advil and Prozac.
Who knows, maybe Feinburg would wind up with the show entirely. It has happened before—
a co-host is brought aboard and the original host winds up getting the heave ho. Or
it could just be a long-lasting morning team for Entercom Boston.
Drudge doesn't like McCain? McCain, as one of the Keating Five, should have had his buttocks thrown in the slammer (along with John "I didn't see any Chinese money donated to the Clintons - When do I get my ride back into space?" Glen).
BTW, Drudge was had to foresight to know what Arnie would do to Kali, too.
Years ago, I met a guy that grew up with Bennetts. Somebody asked him how could Bob work for Clinton? He said he asked Bill the very same question, and the answer was essentially, "You don't turn down the President when he calls."
Not sure if Howie was spotted at Hard Rock...
‘RKO is denying the Feinburg & Finneran rumor; from Herald’s Messenger Blog:
“UPDATE:
WRKO station spokesman George Regan said: “This is the silly season. We already came out with a press release.” WRKO released a press release on Tuesday that said. “Feinburg was offered another position at the station, but declined.”
The Friday ping. Howie’s last show between now and Jan 2
(fill ins and best ofs coming). If they don’t forget,
we can expect the reading of the Yuppie Christmas—
er, hhhhhhhhhhholiday—letters today.
>>What was the quote of the year? “Dogs!” or “Don’t tase me, Bro.”? Listen at 3PM.
Poll so far
Which of these is the best quote of 2007?
“God created the dog!”
33%
“Don’t tase me bro!”
67%
I’ll go with “don’t taze me bro!”
I voted for that too. Always brings a smile to my face.
I also enjoyed that clip he had of a guy being tasered
in the courtroom. Sadly, it had been condensed—there
actually was a pause of a second or two in between,
but the version Howie played was funny because the
screams came right away:
“Your honor, I demand to be heard. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”
(got his wish)
The dog sound bite is pretty good, too. By the way, I borrowed and quickly read Mark “Get Off The Phone You Big Dope” Levin’s “Rescuing Sprite” from the library. What
happens in this true life tale? Poor dog died.
Died, died. The dog...died...
Just type “Don’t tase me bro” into the search at youtube
and you can find all kinds of parodies and remixes. The
one below combines it with MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This”
(which, itself, sampled from the late Rick James’
“Superfreak” IIRC).
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzkd_m4ivmc
Howie hasn’t done a caning/tasering segment in awhile.
Maybe since we’re nearing the end of the year we can
do our own—”felony” or “misdemeanor” categories.
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