Just heard from Jack White’s wife Lynn that he suffered a diabetic stroke in his back, which affected his spinal chord and the movement in his legs. He is in the local VA hospital in the spinal cord injury center, and will be there for at least another month.
For those of you who don’t know Jack, he was a local TV newsman with San Diego’s Channel 10. In addition to being a talented magician, he is also a serious circus fan and memorabilia collector. Every year when the Ringling show was in town, he'd ensure that it received plenty of news coverage on Channel 10. Some years, he would even fly out to Phoenix or Tucson to tape interviews with Ringling performers, which would later air when the show was in San Diego. He was the first U. S. newsman to interview Gunther. This occurred in 1968, when Gunther flew in to San Diego to look over the show and see how it treated its animals while on the road. (This was prior to his actually signing a contract with the Felds.) One year, the Circus was playing San Diego on the anniversary of its last performance under canvas in 1956. Jack did a story on the “folding of the Big Top,” which almost backfired when people thought that it was the arena show that was closing! His biggest “scoop” occurred in the early 1970s while the Blue Unit was here. He and one of his cameramen were standing at the backdoor of the San Diego Sports Arena when one of Charly Baumann’s tigers got loose on the ramp when its cage tipped over while being transported down into the arena. The cameraman kept shooting and got some great footage of Charly keeping the tiger occupied in the arena parking lot until it could be re-caged. (The hand who was driving the tractor got a Gotterdammerung ass chewing from Charly afterwards!) One year, Jack got to appear as a guest clown – I think it was in the packed car number. His honorary “Get your ass off the lot” pink slip was signed by Prince Paul himself, and Jack still proudly displays it in his home office.
Jack is not having visitors because he is focusing completely on his rehab, but is in good spirits. If you’d like to pass along your best wishes for his speedy recovery, you can e-mail him c/o prestoone@cox.net and his wife will see that he gets them.
Eric |
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