John Rinaldi Reveals Untold Big Chuck & Lil’ John Stories

A lot of people remember Big Chuck and Little John as a fun Friday night monster movie show. Talking with John Rinaldi, the man generations of Cleveland viewers know as Little John, makes it clear it was also something deeper: a weekly ritual that gave families a shared language, a safe laugh, and in more than a few cases, a lifeline during the hardest years of someone’s childhood. 

We get into John’s memoir, Laughing My Way Through Life, including why he resisted writing it for years, how he teamed up with Carl Hendricks to capture John’s voice on the page, and what it’s like to negotiate with publishers over which stories “have to stay.” John also shares the very real, very funny side of book promotion, from Barnes and Noble events to the legendary option of buying a copy “out of the trunk of my car.” If you care about memoir writing, Cleveland history, or local TV nostalgia, you’ll get a lot out of this. 

From there, we dig into the mechanics of the show and the business behind it: Chuck Schodowski as the creative engine who wrote and directed thousands of sketches, John as the guy handling contracts, appearances, and everything outside the station, and how a jewelry business on East 9th fit into an 80 to 90 hour work week that still felt joyful. John explains why the show was scripted, how the movie “breaks” were handled, and why that old-school pacing might not survive in today’s instant-gratification media world of YouTube, streaming, and short clips. 

We also talk about how local television production changed as stations shrank from hundreds of employees to a fraction of that number, plus the union lessons John learned early on and the support he got from Cleveland legend Dick Goddard. If you grew up on WJW Fox 8, love behind-the-scenes TV stories, or want a reminder of what community entertainment can do, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a fellow Northeast Ohio native, and leave a review with your favorite Big Chuck and Little John memory.

Transcript

Welcome And A Cleveland Icon

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Peachy Pop a Mind Revolution. Today I'm honored to be joined by John Rinaldi, better known to generations of Northeast Ohio television viewers as Little John. Alongside Chuck Shadowski, John co-hosted the Emmy Award-winning Big Chuck and Little John show on WJW TV Channel 8 here in Cleveland. The program became a Northeast Ohio institution, entertaining viewers with a unique blend of classic horror, science fiction, and monster movies, comedy sketches, and recurring characters and celebrity guests, and obviously local humor. For many families throughout the Cleveland area, Big Chuck and Little John wasn't just a television show. It was a weekly tradition. Long before YouTube, podcasts, and streaming services, viewers gathered around their television sets to watch monster movies, laugh at the latest kits, and spend time with some of Cleveland's most beloved television personalities. Beyond television, John built a successful career in the jewelry business and is now the author of his memoir, Little John, Laughing My Way Through Life. Today we'll talk about his childhood, his career, his book, the story behind the show, and the legacy of one of Cleveland Television's most recognizable personalities. John, thanks so much for being here today. It's a pleasure and an honor to have you on my show. Thanks so much for being here.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Well, thanks for having me. These are all fun to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Are they really? Yes, they are. I get a big kick out of them. Awesome. That's great. It's so awesome when my phone rang. I knew your voice right away. And I'm like, this is John Ronaldi. He actually called me Persian. I thought you'd an agent or something would call me. No, I'm I'm it.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

You were it, that's awesome. I was it for Big Chuck Little John, too. We I handled all all the affairs. Okay. Oh, you weren't kidding. Chuck Chuck was Mr. Inside. He took care of the skits and everything like that, and set the setup and that. Okay. And I took care of everything outside. So the contracts and the personal appearances, the softball games, and anything we did outside. So it was a it was a good combination.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Oh, I had no idea. Okay. Well that's awesome to know because I, you know, I just assume the station took care of all that. No, no, no. We were we were independent of the station.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

You were really? Yeah. Who were you employed by? I was I had a jewelry store. That's what I did for a real living. So did they pay you? Did they pay at the channel at the station? Yeah. I freelanced the show. Oh, so you're like a contractor? Exactly. I freelanced the show. Chuck worked. Chuck worked for WJW and then Fox 8 and that.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Yeah, because he was a producer of the news, right? And director, yeah. Wow. And see, I didn't know any of that. And I'm going to get into that down the road, but that's pretty amazing. Because you know, I was just a kid when I'm watching it, I'm not thinking about any of that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Yeah. So yeah, it's been it's been fun. That's why I was very impressed when they gave me all those honors and everything at Fox 8.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Well, it's I'll tell you a little story about me. It's like 1970, and we lived in this old farmhouse on Route 306 in Chesterland. And every Friday night, my parents would go to bed, and my brother would grab the old black and white TV set off of the steel rolly cart, TV cart, and he he was eight years older than me, so I was five, he was like twelve or thirteen. And we'd run upstairs, he'd put the TV set on the dresser, we'd turn out the lights and watch you guys on Friday night. And he'd laugh at me because I was scared of all the monster movies. And then on Saturday night it was The Ghoul on Channel 61 with Ron Sweet. So I'm sure my brother sees this, he'll he'll be thrilled I'm getting to talk to you. So you've been a big part of my life for fifth well 55 years?

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Well, I st I started in uh 71. Okay. And at the with Julan and Big Chuck. Yeah. And

Why He Finally Wrote A Memoir

SPEAKER_02 4:05

then Hooly left in 79 and I took over. And from then on out it was Big Chuck Little John.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Well, first let's let's talk about your book. Because you're trying to sell a book. And I still don't have Barnes and Noble has never called me back. But did you bring in copies?

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Yeah, I have copies in the trunk of my car. Okay. There's four ways you can buy this book. Okay. Okay. Amazon, Barnes and Noble. All right. Littlejohnbook.com. Okay. And Out of the Trunk of My Car.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Okay. And I saw that title. I thought that was great. Because you on the show, you always seem so upbeat and happy. That's me. Is that really the sound?

SPEAKER_02 4:45

That's me. What you see is what you get. I'm like this every day, 24 hours. That's why my wife hates me. I wake up happy, I go to bed happy. And we've been married over 50 years. How did you meet your wife? In a bar. Really? In a bar. Last stop in in Parma.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

And uh remember that place wasn't on a ridge or state or something like that. Yeah, State Road. Yeah. By State Road Park. Yeah. Oh, how funny. And you've been together 52 years? 51. 51. Wow, that's awesome. Wow. That's when you meet in Parma in in indirectly. Well, Chuck kind of makes fun of certain certain ethnic people.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Well, certain ethnic could be anybody. Yeah. It could be it could be anybody. It's not a certain it's not a certain race, it's not a certain ethnic people.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

It could be anybody. You know, that was a genius way of approaching the jokes.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

And I don't know if anybody ever Well, this way you're not picking on anybody, you're pick you're picking on everybody.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Yeah, and you're not you're not being offensive. Right. Wonder who he's really making fun of. What inspired you to write the book?

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Well, you know what? I I I never wanted to write a book. Never in a million years. And people have been after me to write a book. Write a book, write a book, and I go, I don't want to write a book. Okay, so then a guy by the name of Carl Hendricks, and was writing a book for himself, and he said, Can I interview you? And his book is all about our show, Gulardi Show, Hulan and Big Chuck Show, you know, through all the years and everything. I said, Yeah. So he interviewed him and and interviewed me, and I said, Hey, send me a copy of what you wrote. And I say this all the time, and 80% of the people never send anything. Oh really? Yeah. So he sent it to me. So I was reading it and I thought, wow, this is pretty cool. This guy writes like I sound, like I talk. So I called him up and I said, Hey, I want you to write a book with me. I says, I'm you know, 80 years old, or at that time I was 79, and I have a little time on my hands, so let's let's write a book. He goes, I'm not a writer. I said, What do you mean you're not a writer? He goes, I'm a financial advisor. He says, I'm just writing this book for for kicks for me. He said it'll probably never get published. He says, I'm just writing this book. So I said, okay, well, I want you to write the write a book with me. He goes, Well, let me think about it a couple days. I said, okay. In the meantime, I called, you know, three people, and I told the guy, I said, hey, listen, I'm gonna write a book. The guy goes, You're 10 years too late. You're too old. I said, Well, I didn't write a write a book ten years ago. Okay, who's your writer? Carl Hendrix. No, no, no, you need a professional writer. You can't have a guy that's not a professional. Then I called N Neil Zurker, and I he said, Oh, it's about time you're supposed to write a book, and he's obviously alive.

unknown 7:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

About time you're writing a book. I've been telling you for years, who's your writer? And I said, Carl Hendrix. He goes, No, no, no, no. You need a professional writer. Then I called another guy and I said, Hey, what do you think of me writing a book? He goes, best thing you're ever gonna do. It'll be great. He said, Who's your writer? And I said, Carl Hendrix. He goes, No, no, no. We'll find you a professional writer. So I called the guy back and I said, Listen, I know you're the right guy. You're the guy I want. And he goes, Well, you know, I'm not a writer, but I'll if you want to give it a shot, and I said, Yeah. I said, Well, now listen, you don't know me. I said, We're not gonna write this book, you and me sitting in a living room, sitting in a basement, just talking back and forth. Yeah. You're gonna go and basically live my life with me, how I live it. And so be ready to drink, be ready to party, be ready to go out. You said this to him. Yeah. Oh, okay. I said, we're gonna go to lunches, we're gonna have dinner, everything. We're just kind of a good time. We're we're gonna have a good time doing this. And I he said, okay. So which we did. We went to lunches, we went to dinners, went to plays, and you know, uh my wife and his wife met. We've been to his house for dinner, he's been out. So we've become friends, and uh he's way younger than me, and at these uh the age of my son, uh, and but we hit it off. And that's the book. It came in the book.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Wow. And now how long did it take?

SPEAKER_02 8:46

It took two years. Two years, but it's about six months longer than it should, because we were tweaking things that shouldn't have been, you know, we were too overcr over analyzing everything. But uh yeah, and I have to say, if you like the book or don't like the book, uh it's well written. It's well written. And uh this Carl Hendrix did a did a great, great job on it.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Yeah, I can't wait to see it. I can't wait to read it. And are there stories in there that you felt had to be included?

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Well, that was part of it. That you know, like uh the the editors and publishers and everything that say, oh no, you you gotta take this chapter out. I go, why? Well, people aren't interested in that. I said, I don't care. I want to put it and keep it in. People people are interested in that. And it uh so anyway, we fought back and forth for a lot of things, and that's what took the six months extra. And some I some I could see their point and I relinquished, some I couldn't see their point, and I stuck my heels in the ground, and uh, we finally figured out like a common ground on everything. And I like I used to say, I said, I can't believe I'm negotiating my own book. It's my book. Yeah. So but once the publisher, you go to publisher, it's his. Yeah. It's his. He owns it, he own everything.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Well and so they have the right to tell you what what to put, take things in and out without your approval.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

No, no, no. I have to approve everything. Everything's gotta be approved by me. But but they it and they they hold the rights to it in that. So and like I said, it turned out to be pretty good. I gotta admit.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Well, that's awesome. Yeah, it's it's so much uh fun to to see the uh that it's coming together, and you've got lines at the bookstores from what I've seen. You've got people waiting for the book.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Yeah, I I have to I've done well, like I, you know, yeah, I you heard me tell the four ways you can get to the books, okay. And I do the Barnes and Noble. I don't know when this is going to air, but I'm doing I've done three Barnes and Noble and I'm still gonna do two more in in a future, you know. I'm doing Mennor and then I do appearances too, where I sell my book also. So it's working on fun. Oh, good. And I'm having a lot of fun doing it, meeting people, talking to people. And it's a different kind of book signing. If you're if you're thinking if you're thinking of going there and sitting in the audience and I'm gonna sit there and talk for 15, 20 minutes, and you know no, it's not gonna happen. Yeah. Get in line, come on up, and I'll tell you a story. We'll talk individually. Really? You don't have to listen to that guy's question you don't care about. So that's why it takes a long time to do a signing. Like I but I'm signing a hundred books, a hundred and you know, ten books, uh eighty-five books, and uh I'm fast and efficient, but I talk to everybody.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Well, I I was surprised it was sold out everywhere. It was sold out at Barnes Nobles online, it was sold out on Amazon online, and you told me the reason behind that and that they only uh ask for so many copies. Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

So who knows how they do it it goes from I I'm learning that the business now it goes from the publisher to a wholesaler, and the wholesaler sends them out.

unknown 11:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

So like bookstores, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and how it's distributed, I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

So all I know is what I have in a trunk of my car.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

I know

When A Comedy Show Saves You

SPEAKER_02 12:00

how to distribute them.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

It's it's really exciting because you know, you must be seeing that you you had some impact on the people, at least in Northeast Ohio. It must be does it make you happy to know you had so many people that enjoyed your work?

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Well, it's funny because through the years, obviously I I I'm very humbled by the people that come up to me and say, Well, you changed my life. I watch you every you know, Friday. And like uh and again, when you get to my age, names are forgetful, but the the three girls that were captive for 20 years and a couple of years. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Amanda Berry was one of them. Yeah. And she said to me, she said, uh, you know, it was a joy for your show because it was one of the times he would let us out and not beat us.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

We could watch your show. Another guy would come up, big guy, and at the and he said, You know what? I had a bad childhood. My father beat me every day. He said, But your show, we sat together and watched it.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah, yeah. That's that'cause I was alluding to that because we had a bad childhood too. And it was just this is the one thing that got us through the week.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Well, that's what a lot of people say. It makes me feel good. It really, really does make me feel good. And I remember this was years ago when my one grandson was younger and he was with me on an appearance and hearing all this, and he goes, Papa, I didn't know you, you know, did so much for these people. I says, That's because on your papa, you don't really know like my kids, my own kids, when they were growing up, that uh me being on TV, they didn't think anything of it. There's no big deal. But they had a picture of Big Chuck in their on their wall. That's weird.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

But did they did they look at you as being famous? No.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

No, you were just another guy in that.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

That's hilarious. Is there anything you wish was in the book that they talked you out of?

SPEAKER_02 13:46

No. No, not that I well, I sh I shouldn't say no. Yes, probably, but uh the book is so well written that you you you don't miss it. And again, you don't know what I was gonna put in. That's true. So I have enough for uh another book if I wanted to. Uh you really? Yeah, so I mean there's not gonna be another one. Where did you grow up? The east side of Cleveland, 110th and Woodland.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

And I went I went I went

Childhood Mischief And Comedy Roots

SPEAKER_02 14:10

to Cleveland Public Schools. Okay. I went to Anthony Wayne, Audubon, John Adams. Okay. Those are some of those are gone, aren't they? Well, Anthony Wayne is gone. John Adams is was gone and now they rebuilt it. So that's bad.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Were you an only child or were you the youngest children?

SPEAKER_02 14:26

No, no, I was the middle child. I have an older brother and a younger sister. Oh, wow. We're all f five five years apart.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Oh, okay. So you a lot of people who are funny are like the youngest or or the only. And they're always trying to get attention. I'm the middle. You're the middle, that's excellent. I'm the middle child. So were you the class clown as a kid?

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Yes. Yes, I was. I let me tell you, I was I was a bad kid when I was a little kid. If they if they would have had riddling at the time, I'd I'd have been I'd have been on it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because I was always here, there, and everywhere. Yeah. And and if it'll be this is in the book that, you know, for my mother to get her housework done, she'd have to tie me to a chair. Seriously? Yeah, because I'd be messing here, messing, okay. And then my mother invented the harness, you know, for people. So she'd have me on a leash. She'd have me on a leash, leash. Is she really serious? And then when we went into a store, she'd tie me to a telephone pole outside. And that the now sounds cruel, but it it had to be. Because if I got loose in the store, she'd be there another hour trying to find me. And that and and it's funny, in the neighborhood, everybody knew. They just walked by because it was a neighborhood. And nobody said two words.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Were you the class clown?

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Yeah, I my my motto is I want to make somebody laugh every day. That's been ever since I was a kid. Seriously. That's ever since I was a little kid. I want to make somebody laugh every day. And class clown or class mediator, whatever you want to call it. That was me.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Did you get bullied because of your height? No, never. Never? Never. So you didn't have to use humor to diffuse bad things. No, never. Never. Oh, that's awesome. Your kids were different back then.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Well, I wasn't never. First of all, I had big friends. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

So protect you, I guess. So that's the nobody bothered you. You had big friends. You have an amazing sense of humor. So were you who were your favorite comedians? Bob Hope.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

I was gonna say Bob Hope or Bob Pope was my favorite comedian. Really? And that he was clean, he was nice. There was no drama in his life, you know, as far as you know, him stealing or doing anything. Or fraternizing or whatever. That happens now. Oh my gosh. It didn't happen then. It's terrible. And even if it did, the media didn't jump all over it and you know bury you because of it.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Yeah, or it was just kept kept quiet then. Yeah. Did you ever watch Vaudeville Vaudevillion? Because you kind of have a vaudevillion on the show, not maybe not vaudevillion, but that old time comic. You and Chuck kind of had that Vaudevillion uh chemistry.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Well the when the Wall Street Journal wrote us up, uh they said we were the last of vaudeville. Last of Burlesque. Seriously. After actually, that's what it said.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

And we were the first ones ever from Cleveland to be on the front page of the Wall Street Journal with our pictures.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

And uh Is that in the book?

SPEAKER_02 17:12

I don't know. Okay. All right. I don't think so. But uh I have the front I have the the tin of it that uh they printed it off of.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Uh I'm learning all kinds of things here. I had no idea. Because yeah, I kinda it was just a question I came up with because there's that that slapstick kind of humor in your skits.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Well it was it was shaped after Ernie Kovacs. Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

That's that's what it was the the kind of humor was supposed to be. So you went to Ohio State and from what I read you

Jewelry Store By Day TV By Night

SPEAKER_00 17:40

studied marketing. Correct. How did you end up as a jeweler?

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Well, the reason I took marketing was it was the only thing you could take that didn't require a foreign language. So I figured I'll take marketing. Okay. And so in one of my marketing courses was an advertising course. Yeah. And you had to stick your hand in a bucket, pull it out, whatever you pulled out, six weeks later you had to give an advertising campaign for that product. Okay. So I picked Accutron watches. Okay. So I sent 20 questionnaires to 20 jewelers around the state. Do you carry Accutron watches? I just picked them out of at that time we did have a phone book, so you could pick them out of there. And sent them out, and you have Accuton watches. If it's no, you just sent it back, and okay. And if it was yes, you had 20 questions. And one jeweler sent it back out of all 20 that I sent to. And I sent them to Cincinnati, Columbus, sorry, Cleveland. And happened to be a guy from Cleveland that worked for Colin Hubbard, Mr. Nichols, and he answered the questionnaire. So when I got home on break, the Colin Hubbard store was in Severance Shopping Center, which was in Cleveland Heights, and I lived with my parents at the time in Cleveland Heights. Yeah. So I went over and thanked them. And he said, Do you need a job for the summer? I said, No, I'm already working as an electrician's helper, but I'll work here part-time. And that's what I worked for in the summer part-time, and it must have seen something in me because when I went back to school, every month, every six weeks, he would send me something that had to do with jewelry, like a diamond tweezer, an eyepiece, you know, and everything. So when I came every time I used to come home from breaks, I'd work with him. And then when I graduated from college, I I just went full-time.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

With that with and that's it. So did you eventually because it it was called Rinaldi Jewelry. Did you eventually buy it from him?

SPEAKER_02 19:30

No, no, no. Colin Humbert, big chain. No, it was owned by the Zale Corporation. I broke away and opened up my own jewelry store. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

So the one on East Ninth Street? That was where I started, correct. Okay, so that was your that was entirely yours. Correct. Correct. Okay. Because I drove past it a thousand times.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

Yeah, and then my wife and I decided we're gonna open a store. She knew nothing about jewelry, and so I I couldn't afford help, so I had cheap labor.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

I had her and my father. Oh, your dad worked there too. Yeah. Did your wife ever appear in the show on Big Chuck and not on Big Chuck Lil Lil John?

SPEAKER_02 20:02

She never did. My kids did, my father did, my mother did. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Uh, but not her. Because she looks kind of familiar. I've seen when I was doing research on you, she looked a little bit familiar. I thought maybe I'd seen her in a skit. No, not on our show. That's that's so funny. I didn't know I've always wondered where the jewelry store came from. And that there's I'm glad you cleared that up because I drove past her all the time. Like, that's where little John works. And you know, I was this little kid.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

And again, just to preface things, I had two happy businesses. The jewelry business is happy. You come in and get any gate of rings, buy gifts, everything like that. And you don't come in to buy an angry gift, you're happy when you buy the gift. And TV was funny.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

So to work 80, 90 hours a week was no big deal because I'm having fun, I'm having fun wherever I'm at. And I never felt like I was going to work was a a dread.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yeah, that's true. You and you in I know from what I've seen you you enjoyed working with Chuck a great deal.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Great great great combination. Yeah. Like like I said, he was Mr. Inside, I was Mr. Outside, but he was big Chuck when he was on the show. Okay, off the show, he was very quiet, reserved, everything.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

I was me all the time.

unknown 21:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

So you needed a guy like Chuck. Like when I was going out this way, he'd like pull me back in. When I was going out that way, he'd pull me back in. You needed a guy, a level guy, a level level headed guy.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

When you were in the shop, when you're down at your jewelry store on East 9th, did people come in just because you were Yeah, every now and then, but uh basically when they did come in and they saw me, they it put them at ease.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

It's not like they're going to some strange store or anything like that. Yeah, it was like they knew me as you know, I came in their bedroom every Friday night. So And they trusted you because of it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Oh, that's excellent. Did it help sales?

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Yes. It it it helped putting people at ease and that. Plus, uh I was an honest guy, and like I said, uh when I walked down Euclid Avenue and walked down anywhere. Nobody can stick their head out of the window and go, You screwed me, you some of it. Okay. No, can't do that. Because I never did, and everybody knows that.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

So at what point did you

Meeting Chuck And Becoming Little John

SPEAKER_00 22:10

cross paths with Chuck Shadowski?

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Oh, that's when I was working at the Colin Hubbard. That was before my own store and everything. That I was working for Colin Hubbard and a guy by the name of Dick Blake. I don't know if you heard of him or anything. Anyway, he's a guy that was a professional dancer and he had dance studios and dressed for success and all that. Then well he came into the jewelry store and he wanted to he we cracked his stone. We broke his stone. And we wanted to repair his stone and he wanted money. And we said we're, you know, jewelry store, not a bank. And but he was very nice. Every time he came in, he didn't raise his voice, scream, make a make a big scene or anything. Yeah. So after a couple times, the the older I was a young salesman at the time, I was 22 years old, and he said, Go make him laugh. Go make him laugh. So I said, okay. So I went up there and fooled around and he goes, Do you like to be funny? I said, Yeah. He goes, I know these guys who land a big chuck. I said, here's my card, tell them to give me a call. Had you heard of Big Chuck land before? Well, I've seen the show and that uh but I wasn't a regular or anything because I and like I said, I was out on Friday night. I I wasn't home. So but so anyway, so a couple weeks later I get a call. Hey, this is you know Big Chuck. And I go, Yeah, Dick's just trying to get you know back at me. You thought you were being pranked? Yeah. And he goes, I want you to do a skit. Will you do a skit? I said, sure, why not? He said, Well, you gotta be a little girl. And I said, That's not a problem. So you had no problems with that? No. And I th so he he said, Can you get a dress? I said, Yeah, no problem. My sister, I'll get one from her. And he said, He had a wig. And could I get combat boots? And I said, Yeah, absolutely. I said, because all my buddies were coming back from NAM. Yeah. So they had combat boots. And he said it's gonna be Bridget the Midget. Yeah. And the Ray Stevens record. And he said, uh, okay, I'll send you all the stuff. Never got anything in the mail, so I forgot it's just a prank. Two weeks later calls back, hey, I you got all the stuff? How's it? I said, I didn't get a thing.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

He goes, Oh, we we could do it without it. Don't worry about a thing. And the next thing, the next red flag that went up was we're gonna do it at Bonnie's Lounge, West 220th in Lorraine in Fairview. Fairview, yeah. Yeah, okay. Well, I was on the east side, and this is the west side. We never crossed the river. Yeah. East side never went well. Okay, but I said I looked it up in the phone book, and here there was a Bonnie's lounge. It wasn't okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

So at this point you still were questioning if it was really Chuck Shadowski?

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. I didn't recognize his voice or anything. So so I said, I'll do it. So no, I did fifty years or how many years I did on a show. This is the first one that I did, and the last one that I did that was ever on a Saturday night.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

That's number one. So we get there, parking lot's full, we go to, you know, go into the door and it's locked. And I go, oh, you gotta be kidding me. So all of a sudden I bang on the door and the door opens about you know, about eight inches, and I I said, he goes, John Ronaldi. He goes, yeah, he says, Big Chuck here, come on in. So we go on in, and my my I had three buddies with me, and so I wasn't worried about anything.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

And the he locks the door, right? I said, Well, this is a strange place, boy. They lock your door, lock you in, and a bar is full, everything.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

So is it just a regular bar?

SPEAKER_02 25:29

It's a regular bar by any sounds. So what it was is, and again, first time and last time, WJW said, they'll pick up the barbell for beer. Okay? But if you leave, you can't come back. That was the door lock thing. And they wouldn't take anybody new in it. And this was before a cell phone, so you couldn't call anybody to come or anything like that. Yeah, yeah. And that's how it started.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

I was Bridget Demitch. Well, and I just watched that the other night. I hadn't seen that since I was a little kid, so I I see it now. I'm like, you had to have some problems with that and go, what do you want me to do? Nope. Nothing at all. Nope, not at all.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

And again, this is I I was the you know, like MC for the king and queen of Ohio State University. I mean, I I did a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Oh, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Just by screwing around. And I was actually on a radio station down there in uh it was the only local dormitory. And in high school, I was on WJMO, and I was the only white DJ uh with uh Cedric Williams. Sir Cedric, he went on to Soul Train and everything like that. Oh, really? And yeah, Ken he was uh Ken Ken Hawkins' uh son-in-law. He's from Cleveland? Yeah. I didn't know that. So anyway, he asked me to play basketball, thinking I'd say no, and because it was a big thing at the Hulan Big Chuck, All-Stars, and everything like that. Yeah. And I said yes. So he thought I'd say no because of my height and everything. Yeah. So we we come back, meet at the for the bus stop next week. I got my little gym bag and everything. And you get it, we had took a bus and get on the bus and go. So I get dressed. I mean, I at this point I was never on television. Okay, we we taped on Wednesday, and we played basketball on Thursday, and the show came out on Friday, so they never even saw me. And so they had no idea how to introduce me, so they didn't introduce me as Bridget the Midget. And I come running out, okay. And Chuck gave me a jersey and it came down on my knees, okay. So that's what I wore like that. I mean it had trunks underneath. But so at halftime when you sign autographs and everything, there's a line from here to China for Chuck and Hoolie, and then the rest of the players just got five or six kids that would sign autographs. So whoever has, and I didn't have pictures, I signed on Chucks and Hoolies. Whoever has those pictures that say Bridget the Midget, those are really collector items. Are they really? Right. Because after that, Chuck said, You're little John. And I signed Oh, he gave you the name? Yeah, and I signed little John. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Oh, I was wondering, I was just gonna ask you where the name came from. That's right. He is that was it? So I mean, was he you you said he's quiet in person, kind of reserved individual. So when when you were together and he was he directed everything, right? He wrote the script.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

He wrote the script and he directed it, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:22

So he just came up to you and say, Hey John, I've got this idea for a script.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Never questioned them, never did a thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

You never got mad. You never said, Hey, you know, I just saw the the episode or the skit where the certain ethnic snowblower. Oh, that was done any the the the that was done at my house.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Uh that was your house? That was my house in Brooke Park and it Yeah. Okay. But how can I say this? Well, I'll tell I'll tell you what. It is eulogy. I said, let me tell you how close we are, we're very close, and I trusted him immensely. And right now, if he said to me, Go right run right through that stained glass window, I said I'd get off this stool, run right through the stained glass window, knowing he checked it out, it would be safe, and they wouldn't have anything to worry about.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Really?

SPEAKER_02 29:11

And I said, and the second thing I'd ask him is, How'd you get off the out of that coffin? But that's hilarious. But I trusted him immensely. That's amazing. Now we went hurt and skits and that, and but it it was no fault of ours. Well, I heard him. That was a fault of mine. You heard Chuck? Well, I broke his ribs uh in a karate skit. Oh, did you really? And he says, You really gotta hit me, you know, don't hold back. So I whacked him and it broke his ribs.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Oh man. So Well, it's funny because I just wondered if you said, Hey Chuck, uh you're you're playing too much of my height. Let's kind of again no.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

It started that way, and then Chuck realized, hey, he can do other things.

unknown 29:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

So there's very few things that they played on my head on certain things, but on uh then I the rest of the time it was it didn't matter who it was.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

So Well, that's amazing in showbiz that you two had that chemistry and that trust. Because you always hear the backstabbing between any other.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

No, I don't I don't think we never argued about things. Yeah. But there were ar there were but it was arguments that didn't have anything to do with just regular like having arguments. Sure, sure. Two guys two big if you had two best friends, I mean they'd argue over something.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

So But it's just to me, it's almost like karma.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

You were meant to get together and we really had yeah, we really had good karma in it.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

And it seemed like he and Hooley had great karma.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

They had good karma. I mean, but he relied he relied on Hooley a lot because Hoole was a professional. If I had half the talent that Hooley had, I'd have been in Hollywood years ago. But uh Hooley's very talented, very talented guy. Yeah, because it's I just had a better personality and I was a nicer guy. You're nicer than Bob Wells? Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

Because didn't he go to Florida to become a minister?

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Not a minister.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

He came in a religious program he was going to be on. Okay. Because I'm I vaguely remember, because I was like in seventh grade when Bob Wells left and you took over. And I I honestly don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Him and his wife Barb were gonna get a show like uh morning exchange. In Florida. In Florida on this religious station. Oh. Okay, so Okay. Well then did it ever work out? No. After about six months, they said your religious sincerity doesn't show through. See you later. Oh man. But by then I was entrenched in in the show. They weren't gonna take Juli back. And I and I don't even know if he wanted to come back, and he became like an insurance salesman type guy. Oh, really? Okay. Then he were he still did little theater and you know things like that.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

Oh, cool. So d was there a big rift like when he left and they asked you to take his place. Were you asking for more money or no no no no no it had nothing to do with money.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

None of nothing never had to do with money. Nothing. And no, there was no big rift between Chuck and I or Hoolie and I, and it was okay. And we all knew Hoolie was leaving. Yeah. And then one day I get a phone call at the jewelry store, and this is when I am on 9th. And the secretary says, you know, Bill Flynn, who was the station manager, wants to see you. And I go, Me? And I go, I do. Okay, all right. So I went down to the studio, and and now you gotta understand, I went I've been there for uh eight years already, and because as the bit player, and I used to come in the back door, go to the studio, and walk out of the back door. And I thought I never went anywhere else in the station. There's no reason for me to go to the sales office or the shooting. And every now and then, if I had to go to the bathroom, that was three doors down a little farther. So I came in, and of course I get in the studio, and I had asked somebody, how do you get to Bill Flynn's office? He said, He's on the third floor. I go, Well, how'd he get there? Okay, he said, go down the hall, take the elevator, okay. So I I go up to his office, go up to the third floor, get off. So secretary's office is straight ahead, and she could see you coming off the elevator. She goes, Mr. Flynn wants to see you. He's in his office. So he walked through there and walked in his office, and he was sitting there. And he said, I said, Hey, how you doing? He said, fine. And he said, Would you like to be the co-host with Big Chuck on the show? I said, Yeah. He goes, go down the hall and give an interview to Ray Hart, that was a press at that time the press reporter for TV. And I go, okay. So I went down the hall, gave the interview, and came back to the store and I told my wife, I said, Hey, this is great. I'm the co-host with Big Chuck. I said, and we didn't know we were gonna, I didn't know. And obviously, obviously Chuck had to okay this. Okay. Oh, Chuck didn't know anything about it? No, no, he had to okay it. Oh, okay. But I didn't know anything about it. Okay. He never talked to me about it, never said, Would you want to nothing. Okay. But Chuck had to and I so I go back to the store and my wife says, Wow, that's great. How much am I gonna make? I go, I have no idea. Never asked, okay. And it wasn't much, believe me, when I tell you. Uh so uh the anchors make a lot of money before, but no, not not for one night a week. Yeah. And so, and again, it wasn't for money. I wasn't in for money because I had I had a business. I was making money in a jewelry store. So what I was making a living, and this was extra money, and then where we made our money was on personal appearances and commercials. And at one time we were hot. I mean, we were like doing five commercials all the time, and you know, yeah, personal appearances everywhere. And so that was it.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

The rest is history. I remember a commercial, I don't know if you were both in it for waterproofing. No, I say waterproofing. Both of us were in it. Yeah, that's it. I think somebody was in uh in the bricks. That's Chuck. Yeah, okay. I think you touched on this already. So Chuck came up with all the ideas for the skits.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

Yeah, we have over 2,000 skits. Okay, I thought of six. And six. I think they're the six funniest, but anyway, so he was very creative. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

He was a comedic genius. Oh, that's that's wild. Because I just wondered, you know, what it was like, because I didn't know if you know that was there a meeting? Did you did you No? No, you tape the show once a week, right? Correct. So it was in front of a a a studio audience.

How The Skits Were Really Made

SPEAKER_02 35:10

Studio audience, so it was a studio audience there, and what we would do is I'd go in and read the prompter, read the the thing once, and then do it. That's all. And then and after every show, uh for all those years, I got up, took my mic off, looked up to the sky, and said, Thank you, Mrs. Ryan, who's my third grade teacher, taught me how to read.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 35:32

You said that after every every show, every show. And I these are like takeoffs of like, what was it, Jimmy Durany, thank you, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are. Okay. And and leaving the jewelry store every night uh in in the beginning, every day I made it through the day and light a cigar up like Red Arbach did after every victory and everything like that. So little things like that.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

So did you actually watch the movie with the kids or was that? No, no, no. We were just doing the skits.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

You just do the well, the skits are done another day. Okay, but the skits are done another day. You just sit down there, hi kitties, do the breaks, go to the audience and then come back, and then they insert the movie. And then people would say, Well, you're talking about the movie. Well, we have a little like cheat sheet that gave us like 15-minute breaks of what's going on in the movie. Yeah. So that's why we could talk about it. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

Because I I always wanted to go see the show.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

What we had issues and we everybody thinks it's ad-lib that that show is scripted 100%.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

Well, so Chuck wrote the whole script and said this is it, and put it on the cue cards and that was it.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Yeah, put on a teleprompter and let it roll.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

So was there a lot of outtakes?

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Did you say that we had to redo it, or you just did it like Well, every every now and then, obviously, if you fumbled or stumbled too bad, yeah, then we do it over again. But if we stumbled a little bit, no big deal. That's that's us. We're not professionals, it's two local guys doing a television show.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

And that's so So did any of the kids in the audience ever get out of hand? You know give you any problems.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

No, because uh there was always adults. Oh yeah. So if the Cub Scouts came down there with adults, yeah. And if the anybody came down, there was always adults in the audience. And and the adults were just as interested in the show as the kids. Yeah. Because they watched it. And that uh Yeah. Yeah. No, never had any never had any problem with anybody in big crowds, nothing.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

So did you get a lot of adoration on the street? Like people see you and just like to this day. No, to this day. Because I was wondering when I brought you in the building for any well, one of our neighbors is really young. His name is his name is uh Ralph, and he's from Parma. And they said, Do you know the big Chuck and Little John show? He goes, No, but I'm sure my parents do.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

Oh, exactly. I I just uh I just did a thing two days ago. I'm walking down the street and two kids are raking the leaves. They go, Hey, how are you doing? Are you a little John? I go, Hey, he goes, My grandma loves you. And the other guy goes, My grandpa loves you. I said, Then you guys know who I am. They go both go, no.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

Yeah. And I just keep on walking. You know, I don't know if you'll know this, but I was always always like the music, the bumper music, I guess the couple of times. Okay, Chuck was a very big guy in music.

SPEAKER_02 38:12

Yeah. Those record, those records now. Okay. Oh, yeah. They were from his personal collection. Oh, really? That he that he picked, those records.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Yeah, he had a blues, there's a blues guy.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

He was a big blues guy. Ray Charles was a big guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Yeah, my brothers and I just loved that that opening organ piece.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

And but you that's that's Jimmy McGriff, I think.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

That's it, yeah. That's Jimmy McGriff. Yeah, I love. I just I didn't know about that guy other than because of your show. And there's a lot of things like that. Also from the ghoul, he had a lot of music on there that uh he played. So what's your favorite skit?

SPEAKER_02 38:46

You know, people always ask me, favorite skit, favorite restaurant, favorite color. I have no favorites in anything. I don't have a favorite color, I don't have a favorite restaurant. I have ones I like, and I have this so but if I had to pick one, I would say troglodytes was the one that was my springboard. And that was my fourth skit I did, and that was like the springboard that like made me like, wow, that's a little gen.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

I loved that one as a kid. I still love that. I saw I used to pull it up on YouTube every now and then and watch it. Do you have a skip that you just cringe? No.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

Everybody asked me that too. No. No. That was my job to do them.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

I thought it was coming up for the original questions.

SPEAKER_02 39:22

No, that that wasn't that was my job to do them. Yeah. Okay, and then Chuck said I was the right 'em. He was. Like I said, I trusted him immensely. He was a director. And if he said do it again, I did it again. If he said do it again, I do it again. He's the guy that had to be satisfied, not me. Yeah. So I had no problem doing things over.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

So the the one skit that I've always liked is that I it's not called the certain ethnic audio engineer, but you're doing Indian Love Call by Ray Stevens. How did you edit that back then? So when you kicked that snare, it fell in time to the music. That was done in one take. Seriously, that whole thing was done in one take.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

We probably did three of them in our life in one take. Wow. That was it. It just it was I was supposed to hit it with a a mallet, you know, like the the the drum thing, but I the the thing rolled away, and that's why I kicked it. And it fell in the right in time with the music.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

That was just by chance? By chance. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

Climbing up and down the ladders, everything, opening the doors, one take.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

So you probably had a blue screen in behind that door?

SPEAKER_02 40:25

No.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Okay. That because I just one of my favorite skits, and then the other certain ethics

Local TV Shrinks Unions Teach Hard

SPEAKER_00 40:30

no blur we already talked about. So you've seen a lot of changes in television over the years, and you told me in our phone conversation, I believe WJW Channel 8 used to have 500 employees.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

No, 250. About 200, 250 people. And now how many people? 50 or 60. But again, robotics took a lot.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

There used to be a on our on our set, there used to be three cameramen, a floor director, an audio guy, and now there's one guy. The guy that runs all three cameras. So you had three cameramen on your show and a sound engineer? He wasn't and a sound engineer, sure, but we also have a had a floor director that I see that would point to a camera.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

Okay. Because when I was in the station a couple months ago, I was blown away. There was just a lady sitting in a desk toggling switch. There was no cameraman. Exactly. The the teleprompter for digital and all auto. And there was like some of the people were just standing around scrolling on their phones. Exactly. Like, what was everybody getting on?

SPEAKER_02 41:33

And and they happen to be on morning shows and news shows and everything, yeah. Where they have too many people anyway. Yeah. But they all they have jobs to do before that, but they just show up to watch the thing happening. But no, it's it's amazing. Uh they used to have little cubicles for desks, and people would fight for one, a little cubicle. Now they're building condominiums out of them. There's there's nobody there. It's crazy. And if you went in the newsroom back then, it was you know, Tim Taylor sat here, Robin Soboda sat here, Casey Coleman sat here, John Telicher. They were right, they were four feet apart from each other. They didn't have offices or anything like that. Well, Wilma Wilma did. Wilma did? Wilma did, yeah. What about Dick Goddard? Nope. He was right in the middle of everything. Was he really? Right in the middle of the well, no, Dick was not a primadonna. He was the a good guy. He was really, really a good guy. I'm gonna give you a little story too. Okay. The reason I stayed in television is because of Dick Goddard. Wow. Okay. When I was just starting out, okay, uh, I did like four skits, five skits, and telephone rings in the jewelry store. And I answer it, and the guy goes, Are you John Ronaldi? I said, Yes, Sam. He says, Did I see you on the Hulana Big Chuck Show? I got real proud. Yeah. He goes, Well, my name is Ken Bickel. I'm the head of AFTRA. I didn't know what AFTA was, which is American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The Union. Okay. Union. Yeah. And he said, uh, would you like to join the union? I said, no, no, thank you. I said, that's probably the only thing I'm ever going to do. So no, thank you. So I hung up the phone. He said, thank you. I went to phone. About 10 minutes later, he got a phone call from Chuck, can't use you anymore. And I said, why? He said, you refuse to join the union. And Fox ate it, well, WTW then was a union station. I said, I didn't refuse to join. He asked me if I wanted to join. Okay. And he said, I said, all right, I'll give me his number, I'll call him back. So I call him back. I said, okay, I'll join the union. It was $150 at the time. I don't know what it is now. Probably a couple thousand or whatever. So I said, I will. He said, okay, so he sends me the papers and everything. So I wasn't a regular on the show. I was just doing a skit now, maybe a month later, another, another six weeks, another. I was getting paid twelve bucks.

SPEAKER_01 43:45

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Okay. So they'd send me a check for like twenty-four bucks or something like that, or twelve bucks. Sometimes no check. Okay. But I had to go down, it was on Euclid Avenue. I had to pay the park. So it was like four bucks. Okay. Yeah. The park. So this this went on for about four or five months, and a guy calls me and he says, Hey, he says, you know, you're a slow pay. And I go, slow pay. I go, what kind of you need? You're getting a hundred percent of my paycheck. I'm endorsing them, sending it to you. I said he says, Well, you you should be paying more on time. I said, How can I pay more than I'm making? I said, I'll tell you what. I know I know these guys, uh Bait Tress girl, who was the head of the Teamsters at the time. Very good friends with the family. And uh we used to go to my father and I would go to fights with the guy and everything like that at the arena. I said, I'm gonna call him and ask him what percentages he take from his union guys. And I might ask him to call you and explain to him. Never heard from him again. Oh wow. Never it took me about a year and a half to pay him off. And and obviously now union dues, you gotta pay union dues and everything. Oh, yeah. And now my age I don't have to anymore. I'm done. I'm aged out. But and how union dues worked was it was a minimum. Uh-huh. Okay. But if you made X amount of dollars, you owed more. If you had that made Y amount of dollars, you owed a percentage of what you made. So that's how the union dues went up. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. So I mean, guys like in Hollywood are paying hundreds of thousands to the union, yeah. So I had no idea. Well, that's crazy. So So anyway, so back to the story. Coming down the hall one day, this is just after this happened, and Dick Addett says, How's it going, kid? I said, I don't know, Dick. I said, This is crazy. I said, I'm thinking of not even coming here anymore. I said, It's costing me money to come here, and I explained the story to him. He goes, Listen, you're air apparent to this show. And this was six years before I even became co-host.

SPEAKER_00 45:50

And are you still on Playhouse Square at the time? Or are you down at the news station?

SPEAKER_02 45:53

At that time, no, we're at that time we're at the news station. Okay. So he and he says, You're an air parent, believe me. I said, Nick, I can't afford to come down here and you know, do this. And he goes, You're and he says, I'll tell you what. And Dick was popular, as you know. Oh yeah. He said, every time somebody asks me for a personal appearance, I'll say, Okay, you have to take little John.

unknown 46:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

So for the first four or five years, I was with Dick Goddard on personal appearances. Now again, uh whatever Dick got, I didn't get the same percentage as him. And when Chuck and Hoolie, when Chuck and I went out, Chuck and I got the same amount, but with Dick, obviously I was a big player. But that was the you know, that was nice of him to to do that. And that's why for whatever Dick ever wanted, I did for him. And that's the woolly bear. That's when the Wooly Bear started and and all that. So I I Chuck and I MC'd every show where we did everything, and then you know Chuck decided not to show up sometimes, and I said, Okay, I'm the only one that has made every single woolly bear. I think this one is 52. Yeah. 52nd woolly bear.

SPEAKER_00 47:00

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 47:01

Even though Dick's gone and everything like that.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

Well, they still have it? Oh yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

Oh, I didn't know that. In Vermilion. This year it's October 4th.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

Oh, well, and you go to all of them. Everyone. Oh, I had no idea.

unknown 47:10

No idea.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Huh. Well, I have a a good story about Mr. Goddard. I was at Galardi Fest and Tim Conway was there. And the place was packed. My brother drives up from Athens and he's gotta see Tim Conway and see you guys. And so the place is packed, and I I can't I'm at the back, and there's no way I could have gotten up to I couldn't even hear Tim. So I was like, oh, I'm scrunched up. And look over to my right, and there's Dick Goddard. I'm like, oh hi, Mr. Goddard. He's like, Oh, just call me Dick. And I for the 20 minutes that Tim Conway was talking, I talked to Dick Goddard. I bought his book, and I'm like, Wow, what a wonderful guy. He was the friendliest. I and I still have his book. I've I've read it cover to cover. And I was like, Well, that's that's a really really nice guy. He's a genuine guy. He was a genuine guy.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

Good athlete too.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

Is he was he really? Wow. And can sing.

Legacy Gratitude And Final Words

SPEAKER_00 48:05

Could he really? He was a good singer, yeah. What do you think makes local TV like here in Cleveland, like your show, work?

SPEAKER_02 48:12

Well, it worked back then. I don't know if it would work now, because it was a working class city city. People worked all week, whatever job they did, they want to come home and relax and just be, you know, entertained. Yeah. There was no political agenda, there was no swearing. You could watch it with your grandma, you could watch it with your little kid, you could watch it by yourself. It didn't matter. If you left your kid alone, you didn't have to worry about them. Yeah. And that's so and everybody on the s at the station at the stations were born and raised in Cleveland. That's why Cleveland said Cleveland's own. They were from Cleveland. Yeah. John Tulligen's from Euclid. Wilma's from Maple Heights. Chuck was from City. I was from the city, you know. And then things started to get where they were bringing people in, but after they're here about six months ago, Cleveland's own. So but no, and we're we're like dinosaurs in the field. Our skits are too slow for people now. Yeah. They they want instant gratification. They want they don't want to listen and think about and and through the years we shortened skits. The the first skits were three minutes long, two and a no, not then now they were like a minute, minute and a half. But it it wouldn't work now. Kids people would get upset about breaking into the movie. Oh sure.

SPEAKER_00 49:30

Sure. What was the skit that took like two years to make? The The Chase. Were you in that? Yeah. Oh yeah. Because I know Chuck is like scooting around the road or something. Like he's a He's chasing me. Okay. All right. It's been a while since I've seen it. Two years. And that was all stop motion or action. Is that what it's called? Yeah, stop motion. Stop action. That's a that's a lot of dedication. What do you think of YouTube and all the new streaming services on online?

SPEAKER_02 49:57

Yeah, don't bother me, one way or another.

SPEAKER_01 49:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:59

I'm sort of old school. I don't know how to do any of it. Uh I don't know what's up, what's down. YouTube is robbing a lot of people for money, because like our skits. You can watch our skits anytime you want. Yeah. Nobody gets money from that.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

They don't have to ask for licensing rights or anything. I have no clue. They'll show them. Who who owns those?

SPEAKER_02 50:18

I have no idea. Probably Fox 8. Oh, so Chuck doesn't own any of the Oh no, we own nothing.

SPEAKER_00 50:23

You own nothing?

SPEAKER_02 50:24

No, not nothing. Yeah. Station did it.

SPEAKER_00 50:29

How would you how would you like people to remember you?

SPEAKER_02 50:35

As me, as me. Okay. Yeah, good guy. Yeah. Uh always happy. Yeah. Happy to see somebody they would be happy to see.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

Uh when you when you look back at over all those years on TV, all the laughs and the lives you influenced, I mean what do you hope your legacy will be?

SPEAKER_02 50:57

That we touched people's lives to the good.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

Yeah, you really did. It's it's really amazing because when you you know, I belong to some of the whatever you call them on Facebook, the Big Chalk and Little John and the Ghoul and Galardi, all those groups. And it's just it brings back such great memories.

SPEAKER_02 51:14

And you really did influence like I say, it's two local guys. Yeah, and people could see right through that we weren't trying to put on any airs. That was us. This has just been awesome, John. Well, thank you so much for being here. It was fun. It was like I said, everybody goes, Do you do you enjoy doing it? He says, Oh, it's so hard about talking about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

Yeah, no, it's true. John, I want to thank you so much for being on my podcast today. And it was an honor to meet you. I would felt so privileged to have you on my show and on my set. And as you know, and as you've heard probably from thousands of us, for those of us that grew up here in Northeast Ohio, you, Big Chuck, Hulahan, Art Lafredo, Stosh, Soul Man, all of the characters that we saw on that show weren't just personalities. You were part of our childhood. And you helped me. You helped me through some hard times of my childhood. And I know you helped all my friends, all my friends watch your show, and you gave us something to look forward to on Fridays at the end of a long school week. And the fact that people are still talking about your show years later, decades later, speaks volumes about the kind of content and how you connect it with your audience. And I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your stories and your memories with me today and with my viewers and my listeners. And thank you for all the laughter. Just just all the laughter. I can't even begin to tell you at times. I laughed and still laugh at your skits and and the show. For everyone watching, be sure to check out little John's book, Laughing My Way Through Life. After the show, he walked me out to his car, or I walked, we walked together out to his car. He opened up the trunk of his car and he's got a box of his books in there, and he gives me even one of these books. And um, I can't thank you enough, man. This is John's book. And I'm gonna read it. I can almost guarantee everybody out there this is gonna be a good read. So I would urge you to buy John Rinaldi's book. And John, if you're watching this, this set behind me. All of my little kneck-knacks and everything here. Even though it's not just like your set on Big Chuck and Holihana, Big Chuck, and Little Don. It was definitely inspired by you, Big Chuck, Ron Sweet, who is the ghoul here in Cleveland and in Detroit. All my knickknacks here, everything here was was inspired by shows like yours and others. And my YouTube channel is kinda constructed around it, and I wanna thank you for the inspiration and the hope you gave me as a kid. And thanks again, and thank you all for watching and for listening. Until next time, keep questioning everything now. Keep learning and keep exploring the world around you.