[Dixielandjazz] Doodles Weaver

Robert S. Ringwald ringwald at calweb.com
Wed Feb 4 21:35:43 PST 2004


Listmates,

Regarding Doodles Weaver.

I sent an e-mail to Randy Morris.  Randy is one of the world's foremost
experts on Spike Jones.  Below is his reply:

Bob
mr.wonderful at ringwald.com
Placerville, CA, USA, Earth, Sol's System, Milky Way



> In a message dated 2/4/04 9:46:05 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> ringwald at calweb.com writes:
> Randy,
>
> This from DJML.
>
> Is this true?


> Hi Bob,
>   Always good to hear from you! It is most certainly true. Doodles (real
name
> Winstead) was the brother of Pat Weaver. Pat was president of NBC TV in
the
> 1950's and Sigourney's father. He passed away just a few years ago.
>   Both brothers attended Stanford. Doodles was a real prankster in
college,
> and is said to have inspired some of the gags in the movie Animal House,
> although they didn't duplicate his actual gags.
>   As for the Feetlebaum gestation - Doodles had done his horse race
routine
> in clubs and on radio with Rudy Vallee before joing Spike. He experimented
with
> different funny sounding names for the slow nag, and Feetlebaum seemed to
get
> the most laughs. Hence Spike dubbed him Professor Feetlebaum. He would
often
> sign autographs this way.
>  Interesting story: In the early 1960's I was at Disneyland with my
parents.
> We were eating a Coke Corner when who should come out and do his entire
act,
> dressed in a full length racoon coat, but Doodles. Later I found out from
his
> son that he took the gig to pay for son's birth!
>   Doodles was a true comic original. I used to call him on the phone
because
> he was listed in the phone book - "Weaver, Doodles". What a guy!
>     My best always,
>   Randy Morris
>





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