Fuse #8

Sunday, March 25, 2007

All Right, Rogers, You Have the Floor

This past week Fred Rogers would have turned 79 years of age. In 1969, Mr. Rogers testified before a Senate subcommittee in the pursuit of funding for PBS. I find it very interesting to see that Fred really did talk this way to adults as well as kids. I also love the tough guy he keeps speaking too who, in the course of the testimony, is completely charmed the by Mr. Rogers persona.

7 Comments:

At 12:46 PM , Blogger Robin Brande said...

Doesn't your heart feel a hundred times bigger after listening to Mr. Rogers for six minutes? What a wonderful, loving, sweet, positive, smart man.

Thanks for posting this! Totally made my day!

 
At 5:13 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh my. That tough guy suddenly morphed into Groucho Marx at his sweetest. Something pure magic was happening there.

Thanks for that one!

 
At 5:21 PM , Blogger fusenumber8 said...

No one can resist the pure unleashed power of the man they call "Mister".

 
At 10:03 PM , Blogger Brooke said...

Hey, glad to see a lil' bit of tribute for a fellow Pittsburgher.

This clip is from the documentary about Rogers' life, America's Favorite Neighbor which was produced by our PBS station, WQED, which also produced Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. If you have the means, I HIGHLY recommend laying your hands on a copy of this film.

The "tough guy" in this clip is Sen. John Pastori. In 1969, Pastori was generally known as the Curmudgeon of the Western World, and it still makes me happy to know that Rogers took him down.

We were so sad when Rogers passed away -- there would always be reports of Rogers sightings around the city; everyone loved him. Incidentally, all of the tapes, archives, and puppets created for Mr. Rogers Neighborhood were given to the library school at the University of Pittsburgh (where I got my MLIS). The puppets, however, are not locked in some airless vault, but put on permanent display at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, where kids of all ages (including my own) squeal with delight and talk to them.

I'll give my regards to Daniel Striped Tiger the next time I see him.

 
At 3:21 PM , Blogger fusenumber8 said...

Jane! You were able to comment! I'm so pleased. LOOK EVERYONE! JANE YOLEN'S COMMENTING ON MY BLOG!

I'm so happy.

 
At 7:27 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this wonderful clip. I have a huge smile on my face right now =)

 
At 6:30 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

That was so lovely!

It took 40 minutes to download from my evil dial-up connection, but it was absoloutely worth it.

I'm brining my mom in to watch it.

Thanks.

 

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