  Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 260 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.246.55.51 |
Sonny will be at the Farmington Hills Borders, 30995 Orchard Lake Road, along with "From Soupy To Nuts!" author Tim Kiska on Friday, June 9 at 7:00 PM. Stop by and say, "How do!" to Sonny and pick up a copy of Kiska's book, a nostalgic celebration of Detroit television. | ||
Hardhat Member Username: Hardhat Post Number: 130 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 68.21.40.213 |
Ah Sonny... Still heard on WWJ radio at 4:18 and 5:18 p.m. weekdays doing the weather. I never get tired of hearing him say that so and so was evicted from a nudist colony for disgracing the uniform. And ya gotta love hearing about the weather in Luxemborg or Scotland, with the temperature stated in the accent of that country. I wonder if he has all schtick stored in his brain or he has a jokebook from the 1950s that he uses. In any case, the man is priceless. He was also a bomber pilot in WW 2, I do believe. | ||
Susanarosa Member Username: Susanarosa Post Number: 888 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 208.39.170.90 |
POW, at that. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 2275 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 4.229.105.18 |
With Rita Bell and Bill Kennedy gone, he is one of those rare survivors of 1960's local TV (along with Soupy Sales and Carol Duvall)... I still remember him doing the weather, reaching up for the (detachable) Keewenaw Peninnsula in the U.P., taking it down, pointing at it and going "Pvvvvvt". And don't forget his mention of "Enga-denga-dine" (Engadine, MI). In one of his more memorable radio weather forcast about 10 years ago he mentioned the temperature in Athen's Greece (in Greek).... and then he said "In Greece do you know how they separate the men from the boys.... with a crowbar!" He's a Detroit icon! | ||
Smogboy Member Username: Smogboy Post Number: 2863 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 69.47.100.44 |
We should come up with a Sonny Eliot-isms thread. My favorite was one many years ago when there was a major heat wave in the area. He has said that it was so hot the car thieves were using oven mitts to steal hubcaps. Obviously this was back in the day when hub cap theft was somewhat prevelant. | ||
Thursdaynext Member Username: Thursdaynext Post Number: 23 Registered: 04-2006 Posted From: 70.236.144.208 |
One of my favorite books as a kid was "Sonny Elliot at The Zoo". I wouldn't be surprised if it's still floating around my mom's house somewhere. My mom also remembers him flirting with her at a party at the Ponchatrain Hotel not too long after the hotel had opened. The story goes a friend of hers dared her to pinch the nipples on the gold statue of the naked woman in the fountain. Sonny caught her doing this and later when he spied her going down the escalator, while he was going up, he made a few flirty / joking comments, she tossed some back at him and then he told her to stay put when she got off the escalator 'cause he was going to come back around to talk to her. Needless to say, my mom made sure she disappeared before he could come back around. I get the feeling Sonny has a naughty sense of humor.  Wait, I guess that also meant my mom used to be a bit of a tease! | ||
Dabirch Member Username: Dabirch Post Number: 1554 Registered: 06-2004 Posted From: 208.44.117.10 |
Sure she did. | ||
Thursdaynext Member Username: Thursdaynext Post Number: 24 Registered: 04-2006 Posted From: 70.236.144.208 |
I swear I look nothing like Sonny Elliot. | ||
Pacypacy_ Member Username: Pacypacy_ Post Number: 90 Registered: 05-2006 Posted From: 24.192.166.67 |
I remember seeing Sonny "helping" a man back up in a parking lot at a tiger game once, as the fellow backed up he bumped the car parked behind him and Sonny said "okay, that's good". Pick up the book "From Soupy to Nuts" all about early Detroit TV.( and some early channel 9 also like Captain Jolly and Poop Deck Paul) | ||
Smogboy Member Username: Smogboy Post Number: 2866 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 69.47.100.44 |
Wow...Sonny Eliot at the Zoo. How far we've come since then! I remember that show on TV as well. I still remember those monkey & chimpanzee acts that the Zoo used for our "education". We used to go en masse from our school and sit out in the grandstands watching these anaimals perform for us. I'm so happier now knowing that the animals are being cared for so much better than those days. | ||
Pacypacy_ Member Username: Pacypacy_ Post Number: 91 Registered: 05-2006 Posted From: 24.192.166.67 |
I would like to see the animal acts comes back. They were fun and entertaining which are some reasons one goes to the zoos. Do you think Sea World should stop their animal acts? I am one of those who refuse to go back to the zoo until we have an elephant again. Kagen should get a job at PETA. The ape exhibit is useless all you see are trees and chipmonks. I go to Toledo's zoo, at least they have an elephant. | ||
Neilr Member Username: Neilr Post Number: 262 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 69.242.223.67 |
Sonny Elliot lived for many years in a townhouse on Nicolet Place in Lafayette Park. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 2281 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 4.229.90.160 |
Any oldtimers know who Joe Mendi II was??? Hint: he got top billing over Bob Hope at the Michigan Theatre in the 1950's. | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 261 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.238.170.38 |
I've got a photo of Joe kissing Sonny on the cheek. | ||
Bob Member Username: Bob Post Number: 1021 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 152.163.100.8 |
I particularly love when Sonny says the sun will set exactically @ ........ | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 262 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.246.55.51 |
Gistok, Sonny told me that he used to bring Joe Mendi cigarettes and cigars. | ||
Broken_main Member Username: Broken_main Post Number: 1117 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 69.222.11.226 |
Bob...I love that saying as well. I aslo wonder if he ever uses the same joke twice. Ihave never heard him repeat anything | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 2285 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 4.229.72.246 |
The first Joe Mendi (Chimpanzee) was a Detroit area celebrity who lived in the early 1930's at the Detroit Zoo (he had worked earlier in Hollywood and Broadway). He once was hospitalized and received $500 (1932 dollars) worth of flowers at his hospital (yes he was in a public hospital) bedside. He died in 1934. Unfortunately online searches have not yielded any info on Joe Mendi II, who was alive in the 1950's and 1960's. But as Ed said, he kissed Sonny Eliott. | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 1309 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 69.209.109.173 |
Sonny Eliot was and is a national hero. He was a B-24 bomber pilot, shot down and imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp for over a year during WW II. He is a member of the Michigan Aviators Hall of Fame and is "enshrined"in the Kalamazoo Air Zoo's Hall of Fame. Very fitting for our local Detroit hero. | ||
Smogboy Member Username: Smogboy Post Number: 2915 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 69.47.100.44 |
I wonder how Sonny Eliot's weather schtick would've held up in today's media madness. Would he be the equivalent of a Bernie Smilovitz for weather?? | ||
Mcp001 Member Username: Mcp001 Post Number: 2216 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 69.14.135.95 |
Does anyone know if there going to be any more future book signings like this (or even on any other books/media on early Detroit TV), and if so, if they give us some more advanced notice? I mentioned this thread to a friend of mine, and they were kind of bummed out that they didn't have the time to go. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 68 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 69.136.155.244 |
I think that's a pretty good analogy. In the sense that Bernie Smilovitz presents a light-hearted sportscast aimed at the non-hardcore sports fan, Sonny Eliot did likewise for those who only needed to know the basic weather forecast and were willing to be entertained as they got it. Sonny's upbeat and humorous delivery of the weather livened up his show in the days before "Chroma Key", Doppler radar and fancy computer-generated animations. This was when the only available props were a national/state map plus a piece of chalk (or magnetic suns & clouds that a pretty weather girl would place on the map with an outstretched arm). By the early 1980's, "happy talk" between the newscasters was all the rage and "cut to the video tape" brought more action and color to the news and sportscasts than the short and hastily edited film clips could ever provide. I think probably from the news director's point of view, a surfeit of levity in a 30 minute program, along with a trend to providing more serious meteorology (think Mal Sillars, Jerry Hodak), made Sonny expendable. BTW, I was there Friday night and Tim Kiska's book is a very good read.  | ||
Mcp001 Member Username: Mcp001 Post Number: 2235 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 69.14.135.95 |
Detroit_memories, Thanks for the heads up on this one (and for the link as well)! | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 277 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.246.55.51 |
A funny Sonny story: In the mid 60s Sonny made a 45 RPM record called "At The Zoo!," which was a recording of animal sounds done live at the Detroit Zoo. When it came time to record chimpanzee noises, the chimp wrangler asked Sonny what kind of sounds he wanted the chimps to make. "Oh, just some chimp chatter, like Ooh Ooh Ooh, Aah, Aah, Ahh." The trainer then reached over to one of the chimps, grabbed his testicles, squeezed real tight, and sure enough the chimp screamed Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, Aah, Aah, Aah! That's the take that was used on the record. |
