The following is a presentation of WYES TV New Orleans more of New Orleans that was is made possible by the WYES Producer Circle, a group of generous contributors dedicated to the support of Channel 12 local productions.

Dreams.

Dreams keep us going.

Dreams keep us growing.

Dreams keep us thriving.

Hancock Whitney.

Your dream.

Our mission.

as most people do yet never thought that you'd that you'd see the Pope or a pope in person, let alone that you would ever have the opportunity to to meet one.

So it's it was all a cloud nine type experience, I should say.

Heavenly and the young couples at that time, you know, didn't have a lot of money, but that was a real, real, like the best treat you could have was to go to the Blue Room.

Everything was so elegant.

They visually the fair was beautiful.

The quality of the entertainment was spectacular.

You look at the acts that it was able to bring it.

It was a great show.

It's something that all of us can look back with many, many fond memories.

They said, Terry, you do it.

And I said, Well, I'm not interested in being on the air.

And I you know, I looked at her and here was this beautiful blond and I was the little fat squatty lady, and this will do it for a little while.

And so I did.

And the ratings started climbing so I couldn't get out of it.

Long string and hello, I'm Peggy Scott Laborde.

Well, we have history books to rely on for New Orleans.

Distant past.

We mustn't forget what has happened in our city more recently.

Let's look back on more of New Orleans.

That was when I first went out to the fair.

The first thing when I got there, I had to ride the gondola.

I used to love to ride that.

Go over the river, see the view and everything.

And then when the fireworks would start, a lot of people would jump on a gondola to get over the during the fireworks.

I would wait about five, 10 minutes and I would catch just as the finale was going on, and you could hear the fireworks hitting the top of the gondola and plus the sight with all of these fireworks.

The finale going on was really something to see.

My fear was always that thing was going to fall and it was going to fall into the river and they would never find it.

It would sink into the silt.

So I never would get on the gondola.

And one time going over, I never will forget it.

It was a guy in there with his wife and his daughter and this guy was so scared.

It was unreal.

I mean, he he was he was petrified and it was going over.

And then when you'd hit certain parts of it, it would like jump and it would jump.

And this man got so scared.

Well, we finally got on the other side and they said, OK, he said, we have to go back.

You said, no way.

He and he took a taxicab back.

The gondola is just one of many memories of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition better known locally as the World's Fair with its theme a world of rivers fresh water as a source of life.

The hope for the fair was that it would revitalize an area of the city that had great possibilities.

New Orleans was looking at using this world's fair to develop 81 acres of riverfront land and open the river up to the people that the river had been closed off for industrial purposes by warehouses and shipping and commerce.

You could have those activities in other parts of the city and along other parts of the river.

Here we were sitting on the Mississippi River but isolated from it.

And so this World's Fair was aimed to was aiming to revitalize a part of downtown that really had been just very, very quiet, underused.

8 million people walked through the gates of the fair not enough to make the fair financially a success.

But those who bought season passes certainly felt they got their money's worth.

We enjoyed so much of it.

But then things would change at the fair.

It wasn't like always the same.

People perform, you know, the sidewalk, people you know, like you'd be walking along and all of a sudden it'd be a group, a performance that was at the wall.

They used to do that.

You never know what was coming up next.

We had nine stages of entertainment that we program 10 hours a day, seven days a week for six months.

There was a lot going on how the fare looked was determined by a team of architects under the direction of August Perez and associates.

That palate was really determined from the way houses around New Orleans were painted.

The whole fair was in that pastel palette.

22 different colors taken from New Orleans architecture.

Greeting you at the entrance were two ladies who bared almost all the mermaids.

When you saw the mermaids for the first time, what did you think Voluptuous Mermaid, that is at the entrance to the big, big bird maze running through the center of the fair sight was a structure created for more than a decorative purpose.

The wonder was started with a very practical problem there were huge power lines running overhead, and it was right through the middle of the fair sight.

What were we going to do?

Well, Charles Moore and Alan ask you and Leonard Sabato and Arthur Andersen envisioned something that would draw the eye down from those overhead power lines.

And animate the central core of the fair site.

We had 81 acres, the one the wall was only 11 feet wide, a mile and a half long.

But there were souvenir shops in it.

There were little stages and beautiful brushed aluminum banana leaves and the pastel palette.

So the Wonder Wall was this marvelous kind of frozen parade that was whimsical and fantastic.

And never very practical, other than solving a very real problem.

You didn't walk into that fair and think about power lines overhead and after a monumental push to be ready for visitors, the fair opened on Saturday, May 12th.

What a beautiful day it was.

It was just absolutely spectacular when the the ceremonies went on.

And then all of a sudden the entire rear curtain wall of the amphitheater opened up and you could see the river.

And there were there was a fireboat with great big streams of red, white and blue water coming out of it.

And there were things on the river happening and the boats were blowing their horns.

And all of a sudden one of them went loose thousands of balloons lifted up from the Mississippi River, all within view of the audience in the amphitheater.

It was a whimsical neighborhood that would only last for six months, but it opened the eyes of New Orleanians to a view they would cherish a visit to the fair would often include bumping in to see more to fare the fair's pelican mascot during the time of the World's Fair.

I actually played the Pelican for a while.

I was one of the people running around inside the Pelican.

But that was kind of frustrating because the pelican was real hot and and no one knew who the pelican was.

Anyway, it was an anonymous character in there.

And I wanted to be seen because I've always been a frustrated actor.

Well, all these girls just kept coming.

I was like, Oh, how cute he is.

So they couldn't appreciate how cute I really was because I was stuck inside of this costume.

Another bird was the inspiration behind a popular pastime at the German Beer Garden located in the Louisiana Folklife Pavilion.

Now, the Federal Fiber mills building the chicken dance, you know, thought he had a he had a shake your wings, do your wings and then you had and then you had shake your little booty thing just like a like a chicken.

Would you I guess, you know, also popular was that touch of Sicily, the Italian village the Italian village was great fun.

I mean, that was, again, like the German beer garden.

People had their favorite spots and just good food and liveliness it there were so many gathering spots and people would would have their favorite areas and you'd see the same group of people in each different spot.

Not to be forgotten was Pete Brown's reunion hall memories of the World's Fair are sweet for most fairgoers, yet bittersweet for some of the fair's investors.

I remember really how much fun.

Oh, yeah, we did good.

It took me three years to pay for that.

Well, yeah, we'll get to get that athletically.

Yes.

I'll make some of my so of some of my great investments now.

But I tell you, the people enjoyed it.

So tell me about it.

I enjoyed it, too.

I think it just it did great at the beginning, and then it went down to two.

It was ten years and the planning and ten years and settling the bankruptcy affairs.

And it was in January of 1994 that the last employee, last paid employee left, there was a paid employee kept to keep certain files and keep certain things going on with a 20 year saga.

So was the World's Fair worth it?

I think that if one takes the long view, was it a benefit to us to have it, did we really benefit by having it?

And I think to that question it yes, it helped with a political process to get the convention center built.

It accelerated the redevelopment of the riverfront warehouse district.

Long range is good, very good.

After more than a decade since the fair there are still some reminders located throughout town, a lighting fixture sculpture from the treasures of a Vatican exhibit, a bronze depicting Christ in the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well, now in front of Notre Dame Seminary and aluminum leaves that were part of the Wonder Wall we're much better having had the fair the not to have done anything at all.

Had we done nothing, what will we have to remember there was a time when New Orleans was a major stop on the nightclub circuit.

The more elegant supper clubs were where people could see performers such as Carol Channing Tony Bennett or Jimmy Durante.

In New Orleans, a nationally known supper club was located in the Roosevelt Hotel today, the Fairmont, that special place the Blue Room in the early 1900s before the Blue Room, the hotel's original supper club was called the Cave.

It was located in the basement of the place was decorated like a vast cavern, complete with stalagmites and stalactites.

By the mid thirties, the cave was replaced by a club upstairs called the Blue Room.

For a short time it was renamed the Hawaiian Blue Room, complete with palm trees and fountains.

But it went back to being just the blue room and the host to the big stars, as planned by the hotel's owner, Seymour Weiss.

In those days you had to wait in line to get in a blue room.

I have reservations.

I've already seen lines half a block long waiting to get in, especially on open night, because you had a certain amount of people who saw every show.

They usually had three acts or at least two they had.

Maybe they'd have a couple who would dance, you know, that ballroom dancing, and then you'd have your main act.

And it was always usually a name at you would go to the Blue Room and that was all dress up, you know.

But most of the time that was old adults would be in the Blue Room because the boys couldn't really afford that too much.

But it was beautiful in there and the music was always, you know, so nice and everything was so elegant.

A national broadcast live from the Blue Room on the CBS Radio Network help spread the room's fame.

Leon Kellner led a big band from the late forties to the early seventies.

It seemed like when you'd say the Blue Room was him, that Leon Gallo.

I mean, there was nobody else, you know, since the beginning of time.

His music made the Blue Room Blue and the Blue Room.

You want to say it's magnificent, because that's the music of Leon Culver.

We're playing the broadcast, and where do we come to the piano and say, We've got a happy birthday and we've got a happy anniversary?

Coming up, Sam and Fanny Stone.

You know, and I said, all gave we'll do it or so when the broadcast is over.

We're on CBS Radio.

And of course, people at home didn't have any idea what was going on, you know, doing a spread of ways.

Memories were made by the stars who played at the Blue Room.

For Keltner, entertainer Jimmy Durante was tops.

He would say, let me see the music.

I hand him the music.

And he'd say, I don't see that stuff.

Come on down here.

I don't see you playing it all wrong.

And he'd throw all the music all over the place.

And he grabbed my shoulder and he'd say, Get back on that bandstand.

And when he'd say that, the sleeve would come off, of course the lady in the back would.

So it's back on every show, you know?

But a funny thing about that is, in spite of the fact that everybody knew what was going to happen, everybody was waiting for the sleeve to come off.

They knew it was going to come even though the room was best known for its big name, Max, there are still memories of one of its more unusual presentations the ice skating, the rink come from underneath the bandstand.

It just rolled out, and it was about the size of the dance floor.

It just covered the whole dance floor.

And one of the most amazing things was the way that they used to sit the little children in the front of the chairs.

They had little chairs for the kids and all the kids just to sit right in a front so they could see what was going on.

And the ice show was fantastic.

I saw some fantastic ice skating on a small rink that was unbelievable.

I'm sure it was the ice show.

It was maybe the second ice show and the costumes didn't arrive.

They just didn't arrive.

And Mr. Weiss came to the piano and he really came on the bandstand.

He walked, you know, to the back of the called me home.

And he said, Look, the costumes are not here.

We got to go on.

This is it.

We can't wait any longer.

And what we're going to do is we're going to comp complimentary the whole room.

Nobody gets a check it was a place for celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions of all times.

I joined a club that was called the Southern Bell Wives.

We were wives of the telephone man, and then they started the tradition that every year the past presidents of the clubs the ladies would get together and the Blue Room was the place that we would go to eat.

It was turkey to lay was the thing to eat.

That was very elegant to eat the turkey play.

While the ladies were enjoying their turkey pool, a Leon Kellner would have been playing the piano, perhaps conducting for singer Phil Harris.

Well, would you come along with me that go down that Mississippi or performing duties beyond conducting, such as the time when Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, later of Laugh-In TV fame, performed their comedy routine they were great team class act, you know, but somewhere in the act he would say, Damn this.

And on damn you know.

So the next time we booked him back again, I say we the hotel booked him back again.

My a wise call me aside.

And he said, son, tell them not to say Damn and that was a big deal.

It was hard for me to tell them that, you know, during the 1960s, the Blue Room tried to keep up with popular trends in music Sonny and Cher were booked in this room and they showed up.

Here I am with my big band.

So they showed up for rehearsal with a guitar, part organ part, a keyboard part.

I don't know any music then it didn't have any music.

And he said, Well, we didn't know you were going to have a band, you know, we didn't know you're going to have a big band.

We just thought it was going to be, you know, like a Hollywood Los Angeles show rooms, you know?

So we quick, they quick got music, you know, and 48 hours we had arrangements even though the era of the Supper Club was all but over.

The San Francisco based Suite family, which had purchased the hotel from Weiss, continued name Max in the Blue Room until the 1980s and a night out didn't always have to be a fancy one whether with your family or with the date in New Orleans.

They were the places that you kept going back to.

Ledford's restaurant, which opened in the forties, was an art deco masterpiece that specialized in seafood but music was also on the menu Mr. Harold L'Enfant, you know, called The One Wanted to know.

He heard about the band when, you know, if we weren't working for him, and he gave us pretty full free range, no problem, because we were the funny hat band and they, we also played for dancing.

So we had we, we give them a show and then the dancer.

So it came out good.

Is it funny how well we put a funny hat on Mother's Day would put ballerina dresses, you know, we'd do anything for a laugh or anything for money.

We do a lot of good tunes and good then, you know, when they wanted to, you know, just play the good drinking bad, they come out of drinking led Vance with its boulevard rum was the spot for special occasions such as wedding receptions for this couple, Evans parking lot was the departure point from their reception to their honeymoon.

For others, Ledford's parking lot had different uses, including smooching and imbibing.

For the more adventurous there was Lucas's on Decatur Street, then considered to be one of the quarter's rougher streets.

What was once locations is now the location of the Sparrow's Restaurant.

Going to Lexus was like a combination of going to the upper crust Hot Spot nightclub, combined with taking your life in your own hands.

It was nothing on a Saturday night to see debutantes and their escorts there in formal attire and cocktail dresses, standing next to guys who would showed up on motorcycles.

And long before New Orleanians learned to love their chicken from Popeye's, there was Jim's fried chicken in the Carrollton neighborhood.

Oh, that was very nice, too.

That was that was very, very nice.

I can remember with dates, you know, going in there too.

They have the big wide booths that you used to sit in, and it was not as elegant as Blue Room, but you could afford that a little more ironic Lee, where Jim's once stood, is now occupied by a Popeye's Fried Chicken, when in the quarter for a thin wallet or a big appetite the place to go was Buster Home's restaurant.

Buster was full faced loving, funny, funny man.

The life full of and one of the great cooks of the world.

Just breathtaking food there.

Nobody in the world who couldn't eat it was a dollar to eat.

Probably the best red beans and rice anywhere in the world.

That's why there were all, you know, thousands of important people.

Famous people came.

If you didn't have that dollar, buster would feed you anyway.

I mean, it was amazing.

Sweet guy also in the corner was the French market's morning call, a coffee stand, the place to top off a night.

Memories linger for Pete Fountain and for the woman who would become his wife.

I was in my tux would just come from playing.

And that's when she first saw me.

And I had the powder all over my tux.

You know, you can't.

You can't.

It is donut to a powder on and back to get it.

But after that, that that's what you see set you free a unit.

After almost a century in the beer Caray morning call moved to Metairie and then there were those places out by Lake Pontchartrain.

The rockery in literally had an entrance made of rock.

It was popular for burgers and fast food and often fast times for the young crowd that milled about in the parking lot no longer around at least there's a hardware store that carries the name on Lake Pontchartrain in the West End area was a nightclub called the Myo Mine featuring female impersonators the show was terrific.

We had six entertainers in the show and we had a band and everything was live reason we came and we embraced the rain and the being located on the water had an unexpected advantage.

We had a window in my dressing room and we had take we had a fishing pole and we'd take the fishing pole and we'd put a ring on it, a earring to catch the catfish, and they would buy it, but better we used to cut off a piece of Arctic and soap in and put it on the hook, and they would bait that Arctic.

And so we had so many catfish, we had to give them away Bradford was nearby, was a romantic spot at the end of Breakwater Drive.

It was known as the point.

I remember one story about some friends of mine that took my pocket the point one night to watch the submarine races as it was affectionately referred to.

But they had three couples in one car and they were too crowded.

So it was decided among them that it would be a good idea if in turn each couple would spend some time outside of the car so that the other two couples could have more room in the car for smooching.

The trouble was it was like 30 degrees outside right there on the lakefront with the wind blowing.

And yet with the persistence of high school students, they actually took turns rotating in and out of the car on something like ten minute intervals and some folks weren't as particular in their location.

Oh my goodness.

Anywhere that the red light had the red light, any red light would be fine.

It's a smooching city.

I mean, everybody, anywhere you do find that you love both and you Pope John Paul.

The second was greeted by John's Olympia Brass Band as we walked down the ramp from his jet at the New Orleans International Airport on Friday, September 11th.

1987.

Oh, that was a great experience, a very highly emotional experience because number one, I am Catholic.

And when I was a young boy I was an altar boy.

So we would always respect him and send you the Cardinals.

And that night when they brought the brass band out to the airport to meet the Pope.

Well I was in the top it was an honor to do that it responsibility brand over and knock a few people out of the way.

We shake our hand with it.

We even had a councilman who was an officer to try and keep on trying to step in front of us, you know, and somebody one of the guards from the pope came and said, you people move back, move back, move back.

They cleared it and he came to all of us.

We should all have one way or the papal visit required more than a year of preparation involving thousands of volunteers.

Asked to coordinate the visit was Monsignor Roger Warren I recall the archbishop saying one time that he had asked the Holy Father to please, you know, come to New Orleans for a visit.

And and the Holy Father said to him, too hot, too hot, and Archbishop Pan and said, don't worry, Will air conditioning it for you?

I'm sure he was ready to air conditioned the whole the whole city.

The pope's two night stay in New Orleans would be the longest on his tour of the United States.

He and part of his entourage stayed at the archbishop's home on the grounds of the Notre Dame Seminary.

So what kind of a house guest was the pope?

Perfect first of all, he doesn't object to anything.

And he came and he took a look at the house and he said, you've got a good house.

I said, thank you very much.

What a weekend.

A mass for clergy at Saint Louis Cathedral.

At the Superdome, a meeting with black Catholics and Catholic schoolteachers down on the field of the dome.

A youth rally later on that evening.

And Xavier University, he gave a speech to the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

And with all the coming and going Archbishop Hannan was at his side right after the address to the black Catholics he got a real big kick out of that because he had never spoken to an exclusive African-American group and they liked his speech so well that they interrupted him and interrupted him, of course, in the normal way.

Hallelujah.

Thank you.

Brother.

Say it again, brother.

So let's see.

Well, at first he didn't know how to take it.

He didn't know whether this was for or against.

And he found out it was for.

So when the next time when we went, we were in a limousine and his secretary who was Polish Monsignor, Jewish, who understands English, too, by the way.

Well, he got a real thrill out of the reception given by the African-American people.

And every once in a while, he turned from his jump seat.

I was in the back seat with Holy Father entire from his jump seat.

Turn around, look at the pope, and he'd say, Hallelujah, brother, say it again.

So what was said inside the Popemobile?

He'd say his prayers.

So how do you break into somebody saying his prayers?

You know, he's praying all the time.

The whole time we're we're in motion except the time when he would be bantering, you know, with Monsignor James and I had all kinds of questions, but I couldn't break into who he was praying, though.

It was a busy weekend.

Even a pope has to eat in terms of China.

There was nothing that was just sufficient to set a table for 24, which was what we were going to have on that Saturday.

We were operating on a shoestring budget and I thought, well, let me just call Lennox, because that's the premier American China manufacturer in this country.

And they loved the idea.

And they called me back and they said, what we'd like from you is for you to go and pick the pattern and you guide us in terms of design and what you would like.

And we came up with the design of the pope, the Vatican crest, the Holy Father crest on one side on the dinner plate, and then the Archdiocese of New Orleans on the other.

And we felt like that balance quite nicely and would certainly commemorate the Holy Father's visit.

Then what we did a little bit differently was that for the placed plate, which would be at the bottom, we changed the pattern and have something a little bit more ornate with the gold and white.

But we used only the papal crest for that which we thought was more powerful and very appropriate.

So the combination, it would sit like this was quite handsome when they came to the table and had dinner.

And then when the dinner plate was removed, you would have this sitting as the place plate.

And of course, when you have fancy china, you have to have fancy crystal.

We set the table and we realized that once again, Archbishop Hannan was lacking in Crystal to compliment this magnificent China.

So I picked up the phone and I called Lennox once again and said, Would you believe we don't have Crystal?

And they were just adorable.

They said, Well, we will send you 24 of the wine, the water goblets.

And then they said, You know, in New Orleans this can be mighty hot.

And September, wouldn't you like some iced tea glasses?

So of course we said yes.

Helping to fill those glasses and plates at the Archbishop's residence that weekend was the staff from Antoine's restaurant.

I had the privilege of actually cooking the Pope's omelet for him and then assisting with the sisters and arranging the platters and bringing his breakfast and serving it to him in his his room, which was Archbishop Hannan's, you know, side room to his bedroom.

And we'll study outside of the bedroom.

And it was served his breakfast there, and he had a little ham and cheese omelet, biscuits, cafe au lait, and we'll take preserves and some fresh fruit for his breakfast on the first morning.

And he ate just about all of it.

What was left of the Biscuit Sisters and I shared in the downstairs that was merely a prelude to what took place.

Later in the day we have a big lunch in the dining room with several cardinals and archbishops and assistance to the Holy Father at the table that I think it was 22.

You know that we're at the table now.

I had the chance to to actually put his cherries jubilee before him.

And when I said it before him, the cherries jubilee, he leaned over and said, Oh, just like that, and looked up and smiled.

And that was great.

And I loved it.

And I thought about that and our scurried off and got out of there and just thought about that for the longest time.

Spearheading the team assembled to take care of the Pope were nuns from the Order of the Sisters of the Holy Family.

The Holy Father needed one of his robes cleaned, and the precious nuns just took his robe and went down the street to a little cleaner's on South Claiborne.

And they had the robes cleaned by someone whom we had not cleared anything with any security and did this all on their own and came right back with a robe.

So that was not planned but it worked out fine and it didn't upset anyone at all, but it was totally unexpected.

Randy just received an invitation from one of the papal dignitaries to have his family meet the Pope.

They actually got to assist me in the service of his breakfast, and each of them took something, a little dish and then I got the chance to bring it up.

And he stood there up at the top of the steps and took each little thing from each one of my children, caressed it and surpassed it to his valet who was standing right there.

And the result, the scene was that I was standing there with my four children with him, 6:00 in the morning, and my wife was at the bottom and we had us at the bottom of the steps.

And I told them, Holy Father, this is my family.

But the most important part is right down there down the steps.

And I looked over the banister and he called my wife up the steps and she came up and we stood there with him and he put his arms around us and gave us his blessing.

A beautiful family.

And for that has been a lasting memory for for us.

Lasting memories for many were made that Saturday afternoon.

An outdoor mass was planned on the Eastern campus of the University of New Orleans.

Everyone was prepared for a scorcher.

Monsignor Mawn was ready.

After all, Archbishop Hannan had made a promise to the pope, the altar for the papal mass.

There were, you know, air conditioners that were built in under the platform so that it would be so he was true to his promise to the Holy Father that he would air conditioning for him.

As it turned out, heat wasn't the problem.

I say it rained and I cried because everything was wet.

The people were all wet.

But the mass went on.

And it was a marvelous, you know, spiritual experience for all the people who were there.

And I thought standing off to the side but relatively close looking at the pope and to get out there and see a couple of hundred thousand people who had stayed through that rainstorm waiting for the mass I just thought that he was deeply touched by this.

I addressed all those gathered here in New Orleans in the spirit of the gospel, all those who make up the Eucharistic Assemblies of the local churches of this region.

I greet you as the proud heirs of a rich and diverse cultural history, as people who can therefore appreciate the need for merciful love among individuals and groups.

Here we have represented the cultures of France and other European nations of black people, Hispanics.

More recently, Vietnamese today, this region continues to be the home of various races and cultures now united in one nation.

The United States the mass was filled with music, including performances by Al Hirt, Ronnie Cole, and Pete Funk.

I think one of one of my greatest things of my life, really, because to know to be Catholic and to see the big man and to to have him, you know, give you a little nod when you're playing and he went like, no, no, no, here we go like that.

But then you had to play for him and to know that he's right, what, 100 feet away and listening to you and this it was I thing of my life really I have always heard about the beautiful music of New Orleans.

Today.

I have been able to hear it and admire it personally.

The pope was tremendously impressed by the way the attention of the people and standing there and by the final hymn because everybody stood and sang the thing.

And he I don't know how he knew it, but he knew it somehow or another.

He liked singing, though, and he got a tremendous belt out of it.

And he stood up there just looking at the people.

He paused and he stood up there and he just waited to get the flavor of the moment, you know?

And I said to myself, this is the moment oh, here's the Holy Father giving a tribute, you know, to the city.

And and the city responded that it was really that scriptural kind of thing that my own type experience, like Lord, it's so good for us to be here.

Let's just build three tents and stay well.

People who wanted to stay, it's just awesome.

As the kid would say, he was awesome, you know, just, just just to see him, you know, it's amazing.

Man walks around, were just he expected to walk on water and anything.

I just start floating, you know, it's it's amazing.

And he's got that that charisma that whenever common apart from recollections tangible evidence of the papal visit include what remains of the altar for the outdoor mass and a plaque that signifies the renaming of the street in front of the cathedral.

Those memories of that weekend are still vivid.

You know it was like as if all his hundred percent of his attention was was focused in on the experience and you hundred percent aware of of you and not anything else undistracted view and and of course you know you know the good you know and he didn't he didn't have very much time to look at me you ran out of time to look at it real quick you know but I don't know but that was the thing that that I think was so so wonderful about him.

And I noticed as he went from person to person you could tell that they they were getting full 100% treatment you know, and that's a gift.

We were the only ones that did it we will always have that honor of being the only brass band that did it.

And the brass band, namely the man that was in the band at the time, who did welcome the Pope to the United States here in the city of New Orleans, the same weekend that the Pope prayed in the Superdome, Tulane and the Saints head home games there that weekend.

Tulane and the Saints won.

Any connection to this?

I wouldn't attribute any.

If we did, then they'd be coming back for more, and we can't guarantee those results.

Oh, yeah.

He's a love island and guys on a wag and I got on it and lady, I got crab, I got Swoopes I got it.

Dude, sharpen your scissors and make it ditched and you do it with a rhythm.

All that stuff was like all music you know?

It's something real special about it.

The sound on and donkey's in and bells on them.

It goes.

Singing is a little song.

I want a million good all right.

Well, they have a good one.

I got Want a metal band.

All those songs is something real special.

It was the ultimate in curb service.

Although the roaming Candyman is still around, there used to be many colorful street vendors.

You won't see him that to milk and wonderful salesman.

But he was a New Orleans character because he had it.

He had his little waffle.

That's how I started hand over the waffle wagon that he used to play, if you will.

And people would come to the when they had the waffle, they'd come in by his office, the beat them.

But you could smell when he would make anything, you could smell them ten blocks away.

He would make them these frozen waffles now.

And this was made from scratch and they have a batter and he would pour it on his little real, real little over there.

And, you know, you'd come and you'd say, I want to order a waffles.

And he would make it right.

Then and there and it was powdered sugar was on him, not sirup, it was powdered sugar.

And he'd give it to you in a little fold of paper for you to to eat it.

He played the bugle.

He'd get five, four or five tunes on a bugle, which was no canes, no nothing.

You know, I was just I just a bugle could play the trumpet.

Just played the bugle I wish I would have knew about music to know what he played on a bugle if he was good or not.

It seemed like he played more melodies then Abuja was able.

But again, I liked wherever he played as a kid.

No know, he was loud people hearing the long way away.

But I for uniqueness Bugle and Sam's combination of loud music and hot waffles couldn't be touched as they say, with a ten foot pole.

One possible exception was a street vendor who actually sold poles.

The man used to come and sell close poles, clothes poles for your mother to give to.

She hung her clothes out on the line, yet he had the pole to lift that that line up.

And the man used to come with the poles across their back.

I guess it was some kind of cane poles my mother used to by, you know, talking about deals like that.

There was another one.

And he came in the neighborhood and was in the neighborhood.

And he said, hey, he said, would you like to get your picture taken with a billy goat?

And I said, Yeah.

So I got in this little car and I'm standing behind, you know, old dirty face, old raggedy.

And he took my picture.

And after it was finished, he said, Now go get I think it was $0.25 from your momma for the picture.

So I said, OK, so but when I went home to Mom I said, cause $0.25 for the man took my picture or boy, I thought my mom was going to kill me.

And a quarter and those days was like $100 today way I remember the the rag man.

Who was that.

That would, that, well he would buy all rags and it would do horse drawn carriage would full of rags and you could send a bundle of rags for that $0.10, five, ten, ten and once a week the rag man would pass.

So you would bundle up all your old rags you didn't wear them those days you wear your rags today I should be worn today and you'd bundle them up and you'd sell them.

He would weigh them and he'd give you your pennies for them.

And those pennies I remember is what we used to get the snowballs in the evening that and then I had the guy with the, with the come along with, with the coal, the calls for your furnace in the wintertime, the men would go around and they would sell coal because you burned wood and coal and those great that it's like a little fireplace but you burned coal in that to keep your house warm.

I remember the man would sell coal and sell wood.

You had the ice man he would come around selling ice.

You had to get your ice.

All that people came around selling those things.

The vegetable man, the praline lady, everybody they shouted their items.

We used to get a lot of different kind of people coming selling water.

Now, you had a man selling vegetables on the street wall in the mall.

Now you go down watermelon, bananas.

I got bananas, lady got right bananas.

And some of them pulled carts.

Some of them had horses.

You know what a lot is that?

It's a rice cake, it's a donut, and it has rice in it, you know, powdered sugar.

And they would make those and then they would come around on Sundays with baskets and they would be shouting the colors.

Cause, Bill, to show all these hot and beautiful and hot colors, you know, they use this stuff out there and they would people would come out and buy those colors.

I remember that very much.

Then you had the lottery man after a while.

The lottery man.

Yeah, I had the people would play the lottery, but he was a bandit and he came to your door.

He had his customers like you had everything else, you know, the lottery man would come around and you would play whatever numbers you wanted, and the evening he would come back and throw you the lesson you would see if you won.

So everybody came around the coffee man.

Was it the label probably wouldn't.

I don't think that was illegal.

I don't know.

I don't think it was legal, but they did it it's high noon in the Crescent City and time to catch up on the news with a lot of people on midday.

60 minutes of information and fun every day at noon in the 1960s.

Those sounds called New Orleanians to their TV sets for an hour of information, entertainment, fashion, and chatter on WDSU, TV Channel six Terry Fletcher.

Reg was the driving force behind Midday, along with entertainment critic Al Shea, Nash, Roberts, Wayne Mack and the husband and wife team of Bob and Jan Carr.

Jan and Terry fled preaching were women, working women with families who were able to have a career.

And that was a little unusual in the sixties Time now for the News and for that.

Here's now a gift for that.

Thank you, Terry.

Good afternoon, everyone.

The Terry Flint Bridge was the person who actually conceived and carried out that show, and she would think nothing of picking up a magazine and reading to you an article she had seen in New York, a magazine or something that dealt with New Orleans or talking about Liebling, his newest book on Earl Long or Huey as Today.

They wouldn't do that if they didn't have some pictures to go with it.

Terry didn't care about pictures.

Entertainment critic Al Shea began as a producer on Midway, eventually becoming one of the first critics on TV in the country.

I handle the celebrity as if they were any movie stars in town.

And also we drew heavily from the Blue Room because the Blue Room every two weeks changed and had the biggest stars imaginable all the during the sixties.

Among the more unusual interviews she had was with Morgan's, the magnificent hometown mad scientist character who hosted a weekly horror movie television show.

It really is nice of you, Dr. Martin, to let me come by here to talk to you.

So many of our midday viewers are really anxious to know what you have in mind.

That standing so close.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You really like.

Well, I actually I got a lot of chemicals here.

And of course, I'm sorry about the place, but, you know, like you know, loneliness is next to nothingness.

And I tell you, it's what you do in a constant is world.

You are wondering, why is this been such a famous laboratory?

It's so excuse the word filthy.

Oh, no, my friends, I don't believe anything.

You see, once I create an experiment, I want it to stay just like it was.

It falls right where it was.

It's part of history.

You don't wipe it away.

There's no other way to record it.

You think those idiots out there give me any credit for what I do here?

That's why all the all these colors here, all these chemicals, I never watch them.

They're like badges of that past expelled.

That's right.

You got it.

That's their badges.

That's what they are.

It means this was one particular experiment.

I remember what caused that.

What's that?

Well, I won't go into what I remember.

What caused this, you know, various experiment.

I tell you, it looks to me there's, like, a lot of blood that is.

Is that blood?

On midday, the late Wayne Mac would introduce the ladies in the audience from civic and church groups.

They were all dolled up for their TV appearance.

We had 35 women every day.

We served lunch to Wayne Mack.

Usually took care of the ladies.

Charming.

So funny.

Welcome to the program and also welcome to the St Claude Heights Mothers Club today, brought back by popular demand.

They call us up and demanded that they be put back on the show.

Midday was a very live and very fun field and you never knew what to expect.

A show like the Today Show is today, but because everything was live, you would tune into it and then you didn't know what would happen, such as the time when Fletcher Ridge was interviewed Mardi Gras costume designer Larry Youngblood.

I said, Larry, you've been awfully busy this year, haven't you?

And he said, Oh, yes, I have 16 balls.

And I said, Well, I've seen two of them.

And they were perfectly lovely.

At which point I realized what I said, I'm burying my face and my hands on the dress.

The cameramen, the cameras went every which way, and that was the end of the program.

Our fashion forecast in color as day comes, presents the international, the American designs at home anywhere in the world, and the international choice in color this season from the maharajas of India, Raja Red and making local shows possible where commercials classics include a Jack Speer commercial by the 1960s comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May very keen to bird you you me and you yeah can be beauty real beauty and you were here we never had each premium build from a hungry pristine nature ingredients you mean coming very dear very ginger me reaching are you making fun of me new me me we can do they we make when you you in where you cooking net we do this way we can make fun of you we mean you glad you could be with a real beauty sir.

Hmm?

I wonder if I could have a glass of Jack Speer the mellow, bright, clear light beer.

Yes, ma'am.

Coming right up here it is.

A glass of Jack Speer with Jack's real beer.

Taste very keen.

You mean.

And you did you he you weren't making when you me you were making when you were making when you, you know, you making fun.

You heard on the more serious side, there was editorial cartoonist John Chase, who in the mid 1960s became the first TV cartoonist in the country.

He began cartooning for daily newspapers and authored several books, a New Orleans History.

Chase gave viewers his own slant on politics here at home and beyond.

His little man was part of New Orleans television for over 17 years.

Every day, John Chase came up with that of the cartoon.

John Chase had worked for the New Orleans States item, and he came to work for WDSU and every day would come up with a new cartoon.

He always sign that.

We always did those line, by the way, John would draw would draw the the the the framework of the cartoon.

He would do everything.

It was almost completed and he would narrate his cartoons.

Faces can tell the story of other matters of importance going on today.

Khrushchev is again threatening.

This time his communist colleague he stares daggers at now tomorrow Goldwater brings a campaign for President to the city.

His visit poses a problem for Skinner, who would like to be a good host and remain a good Democrat.

But for New Orleans tonight, four young visitors from England seem to top the news.

Close your eyes and I'll kiss you.

I miss you.

Remember oh, the and about that same time, a young, clean shaven journalist was also providing an editorial voice on WWL TV in what has become the nation's longest running television editorial.

I'm really was a newspaper man, and I was working in Chicago one winter and I was walking to work one day up to my knees in snow uphill.

I looked around to when a soul on the street and I asked myself, what am I doing here?

So I turned around, went back to my apartment, packed up, came back to New Orleans and started the editorial in 1962.

And I've been doing that ever since and from time to time it's good for all of us to pack up and come back to New Orleans.

The New Orleans that was good evening yes.

Do survey elements.

Yes.

Yes, we do.

Well, I'd like a, I'd like a bottle of that and wait a minute, I have a slip of paper here.

I'd like a bottle of Maloja six or the real beer taste premium brewed from 100% natural ingredients.

Do you have that, Miller Bright.

Clear in line.

Yes, we do.

Jack's the beer that once you've tried, you'll never again be completely satisfied with any other beer.

Beer?

You mean that's what it says on this table?

That's what I like.

I'd like some of that.

Well, it says here it's my favorite beer.

Oh, well, then I'll get it for you right away.

Thank you.

Having made it, you know, I'm just so upset.

Something wrong?

And I know I have an incredibly bad memory.

I don't know what's wrong with me.

Really.

I'm so ashamed.

Mean I mean, it's supposed to be a characteristic of Irish never to forget anything.

It is among elegance, irony that I forget everything.

I remember nothing.

I have absolutely no memory.

I absolutely remember nothing at all.

Nothing.

I have to write everything down.

It's a maddening problem.

I cannot remember anything.

Couldn't is.

How long have you had this problem?

What problem?

More of New Orleans that was is made possible by the WUIS producers.

Circle, a group of generous contributors dedicated to the support of Channel 12 local productions.

Dreams.

Dreams keep us going.

Dreams keep us growing.

Dreams keep us thriving.

Hancock Whitney.

Your dream.

Our mission.