Kermit Schaefer (
24 March 1923 -
8 March 1979) was an
American writer and
producer for
radio and
television in the
1950s and
1960s. He is best known for his collections of "
bloopers" — the word Schaefer coined for mistakes and gaffes of radio and TV announcers and personalities. Bloopers came into prominence in
1931, when radio announcer
Harry Von Zell mispronounced the name of then-
President of the United States Herbert Hoover as "Hoobert Heever" on the air, but Schaefer's is believed to be the first attempt at collecting and presenting them. Other similar famous finds of Schaefer's include
ABC correspondent
Joel Daly intoning, "The rumor that the President would veto the bill is reported to have come from a high
White Horse souse," and veteran radio host
Paul Harvey breaking into uncontrollable laughter at a story about a pet poodle.
These were collected and released in
LP audio collections such as
Pardon My Blooper! and
Your Slip is Showing, which were briefly popular in the 1960s. A movie version also entitled
Pardon My Blooper was released in
1974. These led the way for such current TV shows as
TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes, hosted by
Dick Clark. Schaefer himself gained minor celebrity under the nickname "The Blooper Man".
Schaefer has come under criticism from TV and radio historians who have noted his deceptive presentations in his albums. If Schaefer could not obtain an actual audio recording of the event, he would simply hire actors and recreate the event — without offering any disclaimer. This led to some misrepresentations. For example, the blooper by Harry Von Zell described above was not recorded, so Schaefer recreated it. Had Von Zell's mispronunciation occurred as the President was being introduced to an audience it would have been highly embarrassing. However, Von Zell's blooper occurred at the end of a brief presentation in honor of the President's birthday, which, while still embarrassing, was not quite as mortifyingly so as President Hoover was not present.
Schaefer is historically remembered for an unwitting
libel he committed by dramatizing an incident that never happened. In his vinyl record
Pardon My Blooper!, Volume 1, Schaefer replicated the famous radio show host "Uncle Don" Carney, who broadcasted on
WOR in
New York City to millions of children from 1928 to 1947. In Schaefer's brief drama, Uncle Don mistakenly believes his microphone is off, then utters a contemptuous indecency.
Schaefer's motivation to recreate Uncle Don included widespread popular rumors, some surprisingly misremembered testimony, and a contemporary, though probably false story in
Variety about one of Uncle Don's many imitators. On April 23,
1930 Variety reported that "about two weeks ago" an unnamed children's bedtime story announcer at an unnamed station in
Philadelphia had blurted out — after the show had concluded and he believed the mic power was off — 'I hope that pleases the little b_______' (sic). But — Variety claimed — the mic was open, the Federal Radio Commission was listening, bundles of complaining telegrams arrived, and the announcer was fired. Indecent language used in front of women and children carried great opprobrium in 1930, yet this stunning story did not appear in Philiadelphia newspapers.
Again, no audio existed, so Schaefer recreated this blooper. Schaefer's "Uncle Don" segued from a gentle goodbye song to the children, then
misopedically declared, "We're off? Good, well, that oughta hold the little
bastards!" There is absolutely no factual evidence that Uncle Don ever said this, and Schaefer's false recording has perpetuated an unflattering
urban legend that the real Don Carney had spent his life denying.
Not all of Schaefer's bloopers were recreated; one of his
Pardon My Blooper albums, for example, included a rare outtake from a
Bing Crosby recording session in which Crosby good naturedly starts swearing at his producer for changing the arrangement of the song he was singing.
At least five
Pardon My Blooper albums were released in the late 1950s-early 1960s. Many of these recordings would be reissued in the 1970s by
K-Tel Records. Schaefer also edited a number of books transcribing bloopers, with some books covering certain themes such as bloopers from
classified advertising and television broadcasts.
After his death, Schaefer's title of "Keeper of the Bloopers" was passed to
Dick Clark, who hosted and produced a long-running series of blooper specials (and a weekly program) beginning in the early 1980s and continuing until the present. By the time Clark picked up the mantle, recordings of bloopers were far more easily obtainable, and in fact were often provided willingly by the producers of films and TV shows as a way of promoting their product. Clark also followed in Schaefer's footsteps by releasing an album of bloopers from radio broadcasts. Clark's TV blooper shows always carried a dedication to "Kermit Schaefer, Mr. Blooper".
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