Toy Hall of Fame welcomes new inductees in 2024

Finally, two of America’s most popular toys from the 1980s have been voted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2024. They are Transformers action figures and My Little Pony, both brands of Hasbro.

They “survived the test of time,” according to Christopher Bensch of The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, N.Y., home of the toy hall of fame.

“These very deserving toys showcase the range of how people play,” Bensch said. “Established in 1998, the hall of fame is dedicated to enshrining toys and games that have inspired creative play and experienced sustained popularity over a long period.”

For Transformers, its sixth nomination to join the toy hall of fame finally proved to be the charm. Its induction in 2024 coincides with the 40th year anniversary since the product was rolled out in the United States in 1984.

 

Transformers originated at the Japanese toy company Takara, based in Tokyo. Essentially, two alien robot factions at war could transform into other forms, such as vehicles and animals. (The Autobots were the heroes and the Decepticons were the villains.)

Henry Orenstein, a Holocaust survivor, is credited with brokering the deal that brought together Takara and Hasbro in the 1980s to introduce the Transformers brand to U.S. markets.

“Orenstein’s real life was more amazing than Transformers,” wrote The Times of Israel.

Orenstein was born in Poland to a Jewish family in 1923. While imprisoned at Budzyń, a German labor camp in Poland, in 1944, he got word that the Nazis wanted “all scientists and mathematicians to register with the camp administration.”

“Despite not knowing if the scientists and mathematicians would be given better conditions or killed immediately, and despite the fact that Orenstein himself was neither a scientist nor a mathematician, he gambled and signed up.

Those who registered were assigned to a special squad that was tasked with developing a gas for the Germans that could paralyze enemy tanks. That never happened, and later, Orenstein suggested it was a ploy “thought up by the German scientists in charge at Budzyń to avoid military service on the Eastern Front.”

After having been rescued by Soviet troops, Orenstein emigrated to the United States in 1947 and made inroads in the toy industry. He ran several toy manufacturing companies and held more than 100 toy-related patents.

 

Ever the gambler, Orenstein became a professional poker player in his “senior years” and invented the “hole card camera” to make televised poker championships more interesting for viewers, as they could see players’ face-down cards. Orenstein died from COVID-19 in Livingston, N.J., in 2021, at age 98.

 

Loyal fans of My Little Pony also celebrated the toy hall of fame announcement with glee, as the line of pastel-colored ponies had been a toy hall of fame finalist seven times. At long last, My Little Pony trotted into the winner’s circle in 2024.

 

Having made its debut in 1981, the line of mini-horses “encourages children in traditional forms of doll play – fantasy, storytelling, hair grooming and collecting. The small ponies have come in more than a thousand varieties, all with elongated tails and manes made to be brushed,” according to Michelle Parnett-Dwyer, the Strong museum’s curator of dolls and toys.

 

The primary inventor of My Little Pony is Bonnie Zacherle (shown below), who was employed by Hasbro as an illustrator. Early models wiggled their ears, swished their tails, and winked an eye. Today, the ponies are branded with a unique symbol on one or both sides of their flanks, which are referred to as “cutie marks.”

Record label executive claimed ‘Louie Louie’ lyrics innocence

When Federal Bureau of Investigation agents visited the New York City office of Wand Records company president Florence Greenburg in 1965, they demanded to hear tapes from every recording session associated with the rock’n’roll song “Louie Louie.”

 Performed by the band known as the Kingsmen of Portland, Ore., and released on the Wand label in 1963, “Louie Louie” shot up to No. 2 on the national charts in 1964 and sold millions of records.

 

The FBI was in hot pursuit of a case to prove the tune’s lyrics were vulgar. Greenburg, who formed the Wand label in 1961, claimed the FBI was barking up the wrong tree.

“It’s all nonsense,” she said. “There was no dirty record. I wouldn’t take anything dirty. The lyrics to ‘Louie Louie’ were completely unobjectionable.”

Greenburg added: “I could use another one like that.”

That didn’t happen. The Kingsmen had a lot of turnover in personnel but continued to churn out records for several years. Success was fleeting, however.

It didn’t matter, said music historian Jim Esposito. “Many refer to the Kingsmen’s recording of ‘Louie Louie’ as the first successfully famous slab of garage rock,” he said. “It remains a quintessential rock’n’roll recording and one of the most recorded songs in the past 70 years of pop music.”

Sources agree that “Louie Louie” is the No. 2 most recorded song in history. (“Yesterday,” released in 1965 by the Beatles is No. 1.)

A new generation of music fans was introduced to “Louie Louie” in 1978, when the song became the anthem of the comedy film “Animal House,” sung by Bruto Blutarsky (John Belusi) and his Delta House fraternity brothers “like a bunch of drunken Romans in bed sheet togas.”

Curiously, the film was set at mythical Faber College in 1962 (a year prior to the Kingsmen’s recording of “Louie Louie”), making it one of the movie industry’s classic anachronisms (a chronological inconsistency).

Early in 1978, Universal Studios approached the University of Oregon about filming on campus in Eugene. Jim Scheppke of The Oregon Encyclopedia reported that university president William Beaty Boyd signed a $20,000 deal stipulating that the filmmakers not identify UO in the movie.

A halfway house became the derelict Delta fraternity house. Most of the movie’s interior scenes were filmed nearby at the original Sigma Nu and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity houses. President Boyd’s office in Johnson Hall became the office of Faber College Dean Vernon Wormer (John Vernon), who was driven to pull the Deltas’ charter.

 

Delta House brothers replied:

Among those invited to the Delta House Toga Party was Marion Wormer (Verna Bloom), wife of the esteemed dean (shown above). 

Another special guest was Clorette DePasto (Sarah Holcomb), the 13-year-old daughter of the town mayor. After the girl passed out from drinking the forbidden purple passion, brothers deposited her into a shopping cart and delivered her to her home.

“The movie was the second most popular movie in 1978 after ‘Grease,’” according to Scheppke. “‘Animal House’ was produced for less than $3 million. It grossed $140 million in theaters in the United States and Canada.”

“‘Animal House’ is ranked 36 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest film comedies of all time,” he added.

“For decades, the University of Oregon tried, unsuccessfully, to hide its participation in ‘Animal House,’” Scheppke said. “Today, the film has become part of the culture of the university – a part of its brand. Movie locations are pointed out on campus tours, and Otis Day and the Knights’ rendition of ‘Shout’ is sung at UO Duck football games.”

The homecoming parade scene was filmed in the City of Cottage Grove, 23 miles south of Eugene. Officials agreed to close down Main Street for three days to allow filming. The “ghosts of ‘Animal House’” return annually to celebrate. 

In 1986, Richard Berry, who wrote “Louie Louie” in 1955, was living on welfare at his mother’s house in Los Angeles. California Cooler, America’s original wine cooler brand, wanted to use the Kingsmen’s hit in a television commercial, but the company’s lawyers were told they had to get Berry’s permission.

As a result, Berry regained partial rights to the song…and became a millionaire.

  

Lyrics of ‘Louie Louie’ form a rock’n’roll legend of the ages

Here we go…back into the music studio to solve one of the great mysteries of early rock’n’roll: What are the “real” lyrics of the hit song “Louie Louie?”

The tune was composed nearly 70 years ago as an innocent little calypso number in 1955, written on toilet tissue paper by Richard Berry, a doo-wop bass vocalist in Los Angeles. He was seeking to capitalize on America’s fascination with the sounds of chart-topper Harry Belafonte.

(Berry’s classic, melodic riff from “Louie Louie” is eerily parallel to a song named “El Loco Cha Cha,” recorded by Cuban-American band leader René Touzet. Just saying….)

“Louie Louie” was first recorded in 1957 by Richard Berry and the Pharaohs. On some Caribbean island, a shrimp boat sailor is telling his bartender friend named Louie that “me gotta go,” because a “fine little girl she wait for me” in Jamaica. The whole story unfolds as a Cajun folksong in just two minutes and eight seconds.

“Three nights and days me sail the sea / Me think of girl, oh constantly / On the ship I dream she there / I smell the rose in her hair.”

“Me see Jamaica moon above / It won’t be long, me see me love / Me take her in my arms and then / I tell her I-I never leave again.”

In 1961, the song was covered in Tacoma, Wash., by “Rockin’ Robin Roberts and the Fabulous Wailers.” They juiced it up instrumentally and put some rock’n’roll energy into the original lyrics. It’s quite an impressive rendition.

 

“Louie Louie” was discovered again in 1963 by a group of five guys in Portland, Ore., known as the Kingsmen. They remade the song, ramping up the organ, electric guitar and percussion input. Vocalist Jack Ely put the emphasis on “Louie Lou-eye.”

 

The band recorded the song in a rather bizarre setting. They circled a single microphone located several feet above them that was dangling from a cord hung from the ceiling. Ely was wearing dental braces that caused him difficulty in articulating the lyrics. The words came out rather muddled and garbled.

“That provided hormonal teens and their excitable parents license to imagine they were hearing all kinds of lascivious lyrics,” reported music historian Andrew Amelinckx.

 

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation got involved after being sent letters from across the country,” Amelinckx said. Some of the letter-writers included what they believed were the “true” lyrics. “For more than two years, FBI agents tracked down leads while the agency’s scientists attempted to decipher the song and determine if the band’s single violated the federal law that banned the interstate transportation of obscene matter,” he added.

As Dave Marsh wrote in his book “Louie Louie: The History and Mythology of the World’s Most Famous Rock ‘n Roll Song,” Jack Ely sang the words “with so tangled a tongue that not even FBI scientists could decipher them.”

By the end of 1965, the FBI file contained 119 pages, but on Dec. 2, 1965, an assistant U.S. attorney recommended dropping the investigation since there was "no evidence of a crime.”

The FBI totally missed one cuss word in the song, Amelinckx said. That utterance occurs about 54 second into the recording, when the band’s drummer, Lynn Easton, dropped one of his sticks and blurted out a four-letter word that is barely discernable.

 

“Louie Louie” lived on in infamy, Jim Esposito wrote. “You couldn’t go to a dance where it wasn’t played four or five times. And all the bands always knew the dirty version.” To be continued. 

Election season is finally over and done with

Oh, what a relief it is. The political advertisements that peppered local television stations – and about drove us crazy – vanished on Election Day, Nov. 5.

 

In North Carolina, as a “battleground state,” we no doubt got more than our “fair share” of the negative commercials.

Two refreshing exceptions were the commercials that aired promoting candidates for North Carolina’s Council of State.

One commercial advocated for Democrat Elaine Marshall (shown below), 78, who was seeking to retain her seat as Secretary of State.

 

The commercial depicted Marshall as “helping out” at several small businesses. In back-to-back scenes, she was checking the oil of a car in a repair shop and serving a slice of pie in a diner. Presumably, she washed her hands in between.

Marshall held off Republican challenger Chad Brown, 52, winning by about 1.8 percentage points. She has been North Carolina’s Secretary of State since 1997.

Another advertisement of note featured Dave Boliek (shown below), 56, the Republican candidate for State Auditor. Featuring his wife and four children, the commercial showed how he runs a tight ship, accounting for every penny of family finances. 

His wife, Haden, begged viewers to “send him to Raleigh.”

They did, giving him a victory margin of nearly 2 percentage points over Democrat Jessica Holmes, 41, who was appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of State Auditor by Gov. Roy Cooper in 2023.

In the race for U.S. president, Republican Donald Trump, 78, rode a red wave of early voter turnout across North Carolina to outdistance the Democrats’ Kamala Harris, 60, by about 2.5 percentage points.

 

In the North Carolina governor’s contest, voters witnessed a total and complete implosion by Republican Mark Robinson, 56, who is the sitting lieutenant governor. Robinson lost by nearly 15 percentage points to Democrat Josh Stein (shown below), 58, who is the state’s attorney general.

 

Democrat Rachel Hunt (shown below), 59, a state senator from Mecklenburg County, won the race for North Carolina lieutenant governor by about 1.5 percentage points over Republican Hal Weatherman, 54. She is the daughter of former North Carolina Gov. Jim and Carolyn Hunt.

 

An objective analysis of North Carolina’s voting results has been compiled by Chandler Spaulding, director of strategic communications and government relations, at the Smith Anderson law firm of Raleigh.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, the political makeup of North Carolina’s 14-member congressional delegation “has changed based upon new districts that were redrawn in 2023,” Spaulding wrote. “North Carolina is shifting from a 7-7 split between Democrats and Republicans to a Republican majority of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats.”

The 1st Congressional District race was the only competitive one in November. Incumbent Democrat Don Davis, 53, narrowly escaped with a win of about 1.5 percentage points over Republican challenger Laurie Buckholt, 62.

 

This “expansive district in the eastern part of the state covers 22 counties,” Spaulding said. 

Buckholt, who lives in Edenton in Chowan County won 10 counties, while Davis, a native of Snow Hill in Greene County, carried 12.

In the North Carolina General Assembly, the suspense was whether Republicans could maintain supermajorities in both chambers (a three-fifths advantage), Spaulding noted.

“Democrats only needed to gain one seat in the House and one in the Senate to break the supermajorities. Based on preliminary election results, Senate Republicans expanded their supermajority to 31 Republicans in the upper chamber,” Spaulding said.

“In contrast, House Republicans lost their supermajority by one vote, but maintain a solid majority in the lower chamber.”

A handful of legislative races remain tight and recounts could come into play, she said.

For the North Carolina Supreme Court, only one associate justice seat was up for election this year – between Democrat Allison Riggs, who was appointed by Gov. Cooper in 2023, and Republican Jefferson Griffin, who has been serving on the state Court of Appeals.

 

“As a result of the Nov. 5 election, Griffin narrowly won this seat, and the N.C. Supreme Court will now have a 6-1 Republican majority,” Spaulding wrote. “However, this race could qualify for a recount.”

Three of the 15 seats on the state Court of Appeals were up for election. Republicans won all three contests, so the Court of Appeals will now be comprised of 12 Republicans and three Democrats. 

White House staff picks ‘Tree-mendous’ as 2024 Christmas fir

Right on schedule, a pair of White House representatives showed up Oct. 28 at Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm near Newland in Avery County, N.C., to select the “perfect” Fraser fir to adorn the majestic Blue Room of the U.S. President’s home in Washington, D.C., during the upcoming Christmas season.

They were Dale Haney, the White House grounds superintendent, and Robert Downey, White House chief usher. They picked a 20-foot tree that measures 12 feet wide.

Sam Cartner Jr., who owns the 500-acre tree farm along with his brothers Jim and Dave, said the tree is about 25 years old. 

The Cartner brothers named the winning tree “Tree-mendous” and attached a large red, white and blue bow to the boughs.

 

Sam Cartner Jr. told Christian Gardner of the Avery Journal Times that “Tree-mendous holds tremendous meaning, carrying hope and happiness to all those affected by Hurricane Helene recently in North Carolina.”

“It means so much to have this tree come from Avery County, especially after what everyone has been through,”

Sam Cartner Jr. said. “We’re very proud to represent Avery County and other western North Carolina counties that grow Christmas trees. We want it to symbolize all the good of mankind and what we’ve experienced here in the last month since the storm.”

Haney (shown below) has been down this road multiple times. At age 73, he has served on the grounds crew at White House for 52 years, have been hired in 1972 during the Richard Nixon administration. 

He has North Carolina connections, having graduated from the horticulture program at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst.

Haney was completing an internship at the Dumbarton Oaks historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, when he was recruited to become a gardener at the White House.

Over the years, Haney advanced from gardener to foreman to chief horticulturalist. He became superintendent of the White House grounds in 2008, during the administration of George W. Bush.

Haney told the Journal Times: “We consider size, shape, how straight the tree is and, of course how good it smells.”

Downey, who became the chief usher when Joe Biden was inaugurated as president in 2021, said: “North Carolina has a great agricultural system and heritage, and the trees here are fantastic; and this year in particular, because of all they’ve been through (since Helene), it shows the resilience of North Carolina.”

 

Cartner’s was founded as a family farm in 1959 by Sam Cartner Sr. and his wife, Margaret. Both are now deceased, so their three sons have inherited the business. “We’re really proud of our trees, but it’s but it’s not just about Cartner’s,” said Sam Cartner Jr. “It’s about Fraser firs, raised in western North Carolina.”

“Fraser firs are native to this area, and they have great characteristics of needle retention and color and fragrance. Needles that are soft but the limbs firm enough to hold ornaments, so it’s a great species to grow,” he said. “It’s the Number Two money producer behind tourism in this region.”

 

I can’t tell you how many customers have called and asked how we did through the flood and the hurricane just to check on us,” Sam Cartner Jr. told Theresa Opeka of The Carolina Journal.

Tree-mendous will be harvested on Nov. 20 and displayed at Mountain Glen Country Club north of Newland from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. for a community event and toy drive benefiting flood victims. Flood first responder units will also be recognized.

The Cartners plan to be present when Tree-mendous arrives at the White House on Nov. 25.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, Cartner’s Choose & Cut season opens Nov. 23 & 24 and continues Nov. 28-Dec. 1 and Dec. 7 & 8. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Cherry Point facilities drive eastern N.C. regional economy

During his many years as a civilian employee at the “Naval Aviation Depot,” which has been renamed as Fleet Readiness Center East, aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock…and during his time as a Mayor of the Town of Newport…Derryl Garner was constantly “building bridges” between the public and private sectors.

 

One organization that Mayor Garner helped create in the 1990s continues to effectively mesh military interests with the needs of citizens who reside in the communities around Cherry Point. It’s a partnership that is known today as Allies for Cherry Point’s Tomorrow (ACT).

For years, Mayor Garner was the lead spokesperson for ACT, positioning Cherry Point as a critical component of the nation’s defense network, warding off threats of base curtailments or closure.

It’s unclear if Mayor Garner wrote the message: “Pardon Our Noise. It’s the Sound of Freedom.” But he certainly embraced it.

Because Mayor Garner always viewed Cherry Point as a regional asset and the primary source of jobs for residents of Carteret, Craven, Jones and Pamlico counties, it only made sense to have the four counties band together and speak with one, unified voice.

 

ACT is an example of a collaboration that works for the benefit of all and avoids getting mired down in petty politics.

ACT’s primary focus is to: “Educate the public and raise awareness about the significance of Cherry Point, its history and its role in supporting both the local community and the entire U.S. military on a global scale.”

The F-35 Lightning II squadrons of Joint Strike Fighters have arrived at Cherry Point. Both the F-35B and F-35C variants are now aboard the Air Station and are replacing fleets of F-18 A/C/D Hornets, AV-8B Harriers and the EA-6B Prowler aircraft. 

ACT had begun to lobby for the F-35s in 2012.

One longtime ACT board member acknowledged that Derryl Garner was a visionary who repeatedly cautioned against any development project that could potentially encroach upon Cherry Point’s ability to train aviators.

“Nothing could finer in eastern North Carolina” than the payroll generated year after year by Cherry Point, Mayor Garner would say.

A Marine Corps spokesperson stated: “MCAS Cherry Point is home to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, which serves as aviation combat element of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, and Fleet Readiness Center East (FRC East), a world-class maintenance, engineering and logistics support center for all branches of the U.S. military.”

With a combined workforce of 11,823 (6,467 active-duty military and 5,356 civilian employees), Cherry Point facilities have an annual economic impact that exceeds $2.19 billion. That is probably a conservative estimate.

ACT has identified a few more “talking points.”

     Approximately 23,150 people – one out of every four people living in the four-county         area – is connected to Cherry Point, either as active-duty military, civilian employees,         family, dependents or retirees.

 

Cherry Point purchases nearly $1 billion in goods and services a year from local companies and vendors.

 

FRC East is the largest industrial employer east of I-95, providing high-skilled, high-wage civilian jobs that pay an average of nearly $61,000 per year.

 

Looking at an even bigger picture, Carteret County also benefits from the presence of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and MCAS New River near Jacksonville in neighboring Onslow County.

 

A Marine Corps spokesperson said these Onslow bases provide an annual economic impact of more than $4.82 billion, with a combined military and civilian employment that totals 48,624.

In 2015, to reaffirm North Carolina’s commitment to be the “most military and veteran friendly state in the nation,” the North Carolina General Assembly authorized funding to establish a Department of Military & Veterans Affairs. One goal is to “assist our veterans in any way we can during their transition to civilian life and beyond,” said Gov. Roy Cooper.

“Veterans shall be granted preference in employment with every state department, agency and institution,” he added.

Newport, N.C., motto emphasizes ‘old-fashioned courtesy’

Newport, N.C., grew up as a railroad town, blossoming with the opening of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad in 1858, connecting the port at Morehead City to Goldsboro.

Today, the tracks continue to pass “through the heart of Newport.” Newport was officially chartered in 1866. 

The community’s history, however, dates to the early 1700s, when a crossroads settlement was known as Bell’s Corner and later as Bell’s Landing. Early Carteret County census rolls listed several Bell families.

The community was also known for a short time as Shepardsville. David Shepard and his family members were also prominent landowners in the region.

Long before U.S. Route 70 came to Newport, the Newport River, which weaves through Carteret County and empties into the Beaufort Inlet, served as the “highway over which early settlers traveled” to and from the coast.

Newport officials say the town was called “New Port” to distinguish it from the “Old Port” of Beaufort. Others believe an early influx of Quakers from Rhode Island name the town “Newport” in honor of their native Newport, R.I.

Regardless, Newport professes to be “the town with old-fashioned courtesy,” welcoming visitors, guests and newcomers.

 

The town saw action early in the Civil War, when Union troops took possession in 1862 of the Confederacy’s Newport Barracks and Fort Benjamin, a large earthwork garrison to guard a railroad bridge over the Newport River.

In January 1864, Confederate Gen. James Green Martin of Elizabeth City, N.C. (shown below), was tapped to lead a force of almost 2,000 soldiers from Wilmington, N.C., to support an expedition to drive Union troops out of New Bern.

 

At Newport Barracks, Martin encountered Union soldiers under the command of Lt. Col. Valentine Goodrich Barney of Swanton, Vt. (shown below), on Feb. 2, 1864. After a brief battle, Barney’s men abandoned the fort, retreating to Beaufort. Each side had five fatalities.

When Martin learned that the Confederate troops invading from Kinston had failed in their attempt to retake New Bern on the previous day (Feb. 1), he ordered his men to return to Wilmington, taking valuable supplies and equipment from the barracks with them.

The Newport Historical Museum, housed in “The Teacherage,” provides a wealth of additional information. In 1926-27, the North Carolina school system decided to build a “teacherage” for the single, female schoolteachers employed by the Newport Consolidated School.

 

The large, two-story structure accommodated 16 teachers in a dormitory-style facility with a common kitchen and dining room.

A full-time matron was hired to cook and help with cleaning. Teachers had rent deducted from their monthly paychecks. In the early 1940s, the building was converted into apartments for married couples. The facility was eventually sold at auction in 1981.

The teacherage became a museum in 2012, operated by the Newport Consolidated Alumni Association. (Newport’s high school had closed in 1964, as students began attending the new West Carteret High School in Morehead City.)

Looking to protect its future in 2014, the Newport town government enacted a model tall structure ordinance to ensure that wind turbines do not encroach on the air space used by pilots during their training at nearby Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

 

John Droz Jr., an active opponent of wind energy, said that Cherry Point is a “bastion of national defense and the major employer in eastern North Carolina. If the airspace surrounding Cherry Point became endangered by wind turbines, it could make the base a likely candidate for base closure.”

“The nation’s national defense notwithstanding, at an annual loss of $2 billion in wages and salaries, eastern North Carolina would be devastated,” Droz said.