I Remember Cedric Adams (Part 2)

What made this enthusiastic bundle of energy run? The ambition for power? Wealth? Fame? Of course. Every boy dreams a dream. And for almost four decades, through sheer hard work, rigid discipline and love of his public and profession, Cedric's fame and fortune multiplied.

His REAL motivation had to be his small, charming Niecy and their three handsome sons. Indeed, without them, there could have been no "Father and Son Soliloquy's on Moving Day, on Father's Day, on The Spirit of Christmas, on School Openings: "Well, David, tomorrow you and thousands of other little youngsters start school for the first time. Climb up here on Pa's knee while he tells you a little bit about it."

Niecy, always gracious and his distaff side of "Dinner at the Adams," radio show, was referred to as "Ma," in the commercial world. She was a perfect foil for column items such as "Things I Can Get Along Without: The crease that's left across the knees of my trousers after Ma hangs them over one of those wire hangers."

Few men in the history of columning have used words so simply as conductors of feelings. His "Thoughts While Shaving: It's a silly notion, but I always feel like a sissy every time I dust with bathpowder and yet, it's very refreshing." And, "There isn't any sight much homlier than one of us fat guys in an undershirt.

Cedric's ever inquiring mind had its own unique way of seeing things. "Want to know how long you're going to live, roughly?" he'd ask. "Add the number of years your father, mother, your two grandfathers and two grandmothers lived and then divide the total by six for what you may expect."

And these: "It takes two to make a marriage - a single girl and an anxious mother." "The honeymoon is over when he suggests you pay more attention to the frying pan and less to your own."

In every category, Cedric included interesting and sometimes useful information. He recalled the measurements of the Venus de Milo - waist 28 1/2, hips 36, bust 34 3/4, height 5 feet 6. And in the cooking hints department: "A tablespoon of vinegar added to the water in which you boil a chicken," he suggests, "will make the bird more tender."

"When you are introduced to a blind person," Cedric wrote, "always speak first. That places you before him and shows him in what direction to hold out his hand."

Other Adams paragraph leads: "Among Things I Think Are Important," "Take It Or Leave It," "Things I Consider Important."

He longed for a Rolls Royce and got it, though it was a vintage model with most of the nuts and bolts missing when it landed on his doorstep. He had acquired this four-wheeled status symbol while attending the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth as "Duke of Magnolia," for the Minneapolis Star. And every one of his readers sympathized and identified with his problem of getting the old relic in top shape.

His super-luxury, 49 foot cruiser, was his office and residence for 6 months of the year. Teletype and broadcasting equipment were installed in the Boat Works a few feet away so that he could air his shows and send column material in from the shores of his beloved Lake Minnetonka.

He did take three weeks off annually to luxuriate in his Jamaican hideaway and pursue his fond hobby of reading, reading, reading. Dayton's bookstore was alerted yearly to choose a dozen best sellers for the Adam's retreat.

Cedric's 17 hour day began at 7 when he teletyped his daily column to the Minneapolis Star., from the comfort of his library overlooking "Spit Lake." Visits to his three plush offices to check mail, telephone calls, visitors, appointments and manuscripts consumed his frantic day which continued past his nightly newscast.

Though the advent of television was important to him as a performer, Cedric was uncomfortable in the new and demanding world. Never in open conflict with anyone other than himself, he was, of necessity, conscious of the TV ratings war. And many were the times he suffered from moments of harrowing uncertainty in which he'd envision himself an entire flop. Lighting, props, teleprompter - things out of his control unnerved him. The spectacular success of his newspaper-radio days was not his on TV. But he held his own against younger competition, learned to take the extra load in his stride.

His first exposure to network television was a show titled, "Prize Performance," that he emceed and for which he commuted to New York overnite for 11 weeks. He appeared on Faye Emerson's "Wonderful Town," series and the Adams family were subjects on Ed Murrow's "Person to Person," hike into their home.

Over the years Cedric met and became friendly with a number of celebrated visitors from every walk of life. Among his favorites were Bob Hope and Arthur Godfrey. The range of their powerful and creative minds stimulated his own interests and led to national exposure. He and Godfrey met in the '40s and it was Arthur who subsequently introduced him on his first 5 minute CBS network show. Later Cedric substituted on Godfrey's Talent Scout program out of New York.

Both humorists had a bit to say fore and aft in "Poor Cedric's Almanac," a compilation of column works that reassured him that he was not on a treadmill to daily oblivion.

Other celebrities interviewed, greeted or hosted by "Mr. Northwest," included Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Bennett Cert, Eddie Cantor, Ed Sullivan, Art Linkletter, Senator Hubert Humphrey, Jack Dempsey, William S. Paley, the Liberaces, to name a few.

Though he was baited with many fine offers to leave the Twin Cities for the "big time," Cedric's love for and pride in being a small-town boy was with him always. He did not have the ego - the feeling that he could compete with the Hopes and the Godfrey's of the world. Nor did he want to.

"I've had just as much fun talking with a harness maker at Tracy, two 80 year old twins at Spring Valley, a lathe man in Owatonna, an Innkeeper at Deep River, a cook at Wabasha, as I have in meeting the personalities of Broadway and Hollywood,"remarked the outgoing man who brought inspiration and related to thousands of people of all walks of life.

His humanitarian projects were many. He often launched a one-man reform movement with the basic causes of problems as he saw them. With the aid of his three media, Cedric's loyal and responsive audience came through with an annual day's entertainment, food and drink for thousands of underprivileged youngsters; he waged and won a compaign to abolish the sale and use of fireworks in the state; hundreds of baby buggies rolled in from a 4-state area as a result of an appeal from a "buggy-less," reader; his annual yuletide request to help his special charity, The Little Sisters of the Poor, brought truckloads of goods, goodwill and dollars.

And there was the flop-house resident project. He dolled the derelict up, landed him a job and subsequent new life. Another monument to the generosity of his public is a furnished home for a sightless mother and her family through his appeal for pennies.

Also, Cedric was not above printing lonely heart letters - after investigation. The results produced marriages as well as good copy.

"Bellying up to the microphone or a typewriter four or five times a day isn't all there is involved in this strange vocation of mine," he's say. Indeed not. Cedric recognized and believed in the media possiblities as a creative and entertaining force and he exercised conscientious judgment in everything he did. Through his typewriter he enlightened, inspired, taught, was generous, kind and forthright in the best tradition of a real live American journalist. On the podium he was humorous, challenging, uninhibited and projected a confidential intimacy. Although his thoughts SEEMED to be at random, Cedric actually had incredible precision, timing and instinct. There would be a tenseness about his eyes as he's sit silent and motionless reviewing thoughts in his mind before going on stage. Then he's choose appropriate comments after he'd quickly sized up the mood of his audience.

Competing with no one but himself, Cedric dealt in nostalgia, wit, charm, buffoonery and plain hard work. "Through the years I've gone all out to provide laughs because I think laughter is an essential part of life," he'd say. "There's no thrill greater than to look out over a vast audience in a high school auditorium or community hall and see a thousand faces bursting with laughter. That's the reward for all the outlandish situations into which I've plunged myself these many years."

Using props, tricks and his bulky shape, he was amusing always at his own expense. Participating in a turkey race down the main street of Grand Forks, climing into a ballet costume for lessons and submitting to make-up and dance routines with Hollywood professionals were part of his formula to entertain. And we, his loyal public, were the beneficiaries.

"We are grateful to him that he helped us to enjoy life, and we can be grateful that to the very end he never lost that enjoyment," eulogized Reverend Howard Conn.

He was only 58 when he passed away of a heart attack. He'd been dining with family and friends. I think he would have thought it fitting that he was in one of his favorite Minnesota small towns.

Like the mythical Paul Bunyan, Cedric was, and shall remain in the heart of everyone he touched.

I'm glad he was my boss.

Written by,
Bernadine "Our Gal Magill" Abraham

If you missed part one you can read it here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8312037/i_remember_cedric_adams.html?cat=49