Benny's studio is like a sealed time capsule of the last 25 years. Only we get to UNseal it and go in and waller in it! It contains each and every cool thing bit of ephemera from the past 25 years and beyond. Post-it note doodles, antagonizing messages slid under the bathroom door, the sign I made that says "watch out for the mousetrap" and has a crude drawing of a mouse with his foot caught in the trap saying "ouch", the Michael Moore "Purity Seal"....
I could go on and on, but by now you must be saying "yeah yeah, Benny's office, big deal" (unless you are BENNY!) "What is the point, Pumpie?"
The point is, you may be wondering what handsome man's head is welded onto Auntie Litter's shoulders in the Benny and Pumpie Most Powerful Of All Beings! And the answer is "Eunice Gore!" An actual genuine Auntie Litter poster adorns the studio wall, and this hand-colored clear acetate photocopy of Eunice from one of his campaign posters. I can't remember why it is a mere copy and not the actual Eunice Gore poster. Perhaps Benny will see this and refresh my memory. Is the actual poster in there somewhere? How did this thing come to be?
Eunice Gore ran for mayor of Leeds Alabama when I was a little kid, and the urban legend is that his campaign slogan was "Vote for Gore for More Liquor Stores", but I can't recall if that is actually true. I tend to think it was a joke, based on his alleged drunkenness. And was it mayor of Leeds he ran for, or Governor of Alabama? In trying to re-learn all of this, I found two references to him on the internet. This one reminds me of that motorboat he dragged all over the place, and seems to indicate that he was running for governor. I love the little nugget about "Nub" immediately under the Gore nugget!
This one proves he is not totally lost to the dustbin of history, but his existence as a politician is about all it reveals. No, wait! I just saw where it says he did indeed run for governor! In 1966, so I was 10 years old, not such a "little" kid, but still way too young to give a crap about politics, unless there were funny comments going around about a drunken Bible-thumper dragging a boat around. I do think he ran for Mayor of Leeds once. So maybe he did both! (?)
I wonder if Janet or Ardell or Cousin Kirky or anybody else from Alabama can add to this thimbleful of info about Eunice Gore. That second link says he is still alive. Is that TRUE?
4 comments:
Southerners are hilarious. Even the nasty ones are sometimes funny.
When I was a kid, I recall we had a weirdly racist governmor named Lester Maddox. An absolutely strange man filled with wacky ideas. But I recall a stunt wherein he promised to ride a bicycle backwards down (I think) Peachtree Street. Sure enough, the crazy bastard rode his bicycle (backwards!) down the street.
Eunice Gore is in fact quite dead. From what I was told he hoarded newspapers and magazines and never threw any away. I was also told that the house and garage were stacked high with piles of literature. Can you imagine the treasure trove of printed literature that was in all probability just thrown in some big dumpster. On another note, I always just thought the he was one of the more weirder people that I encountered while I was growing up in Leeds....although nowhere nearly as weird as "Gloves".
Ardell
...and don't forget the big billboard he erected in his later years that said...I LOVE EDNA. And do you remember his big ol' black cadillac? I recall him going around town with a big loudspeaker on top.
His sister told my mom that it was cereal boxes stacked up in his house...
DUNSTON CHECKS IN!
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