Anyone else remember this guy?

[Archae]

[warrior1]

1. Bill Dana

born as William Szathmary

[REPUguy]

2. Former astronaut

[MichaelSoE]

3. AKA José Jiménez

[Archae]

4. Right, all three of you.

His "Jose Jimenez the astronaut" had me on the floor.

"I will be landing in the state of Nevada! Just how far into the state of Nevada..."

[pinboy3niner]

5. "Is that your crash helmet?" "Oh, I hope not...."

[Archae]

7. "The most important part is the blastoff!"

"I always take a blast, before I take off...otherwise I wouldn't get in that thing..."

The whole sketch is here:

[hifiguy]

6. Used to see him on Sullivan all the time

when I was a little shaver.

[ohiosmith]

8. An early fatality of political correctness.

[CBGLuthier]

15. Uhhm, funny maybe but it was kind of steeped in racism and ethnic stereotypes.

I liked how, in the movie The Right Stuff, one of the astronauts (Alan Shepard) was always imitating Jose in front of the hispanic staff at a clinic. They sure did get some funass revenge on him. Best enema scene ever.

[ohiosmith]

16. Been there! Enema scene I mean!

[Baitball Blogger]

23. Yes. We were torn in my family over that.

My dad, who is Chicano, would laugh hysterically whenever the comedienne was on. There weren't very many popular latinos on t.v., so even a pretend one was welcome. And when we learned he was pulled off we accepted it and went back to watching the Spanish channels.

[pipi_k]

9. My name Jose Jimenez...

Oh yeah.

My dad had a comedy record of his.


One of the "poems" he recited, I still remember 50 years later:

"My teacher is so very nice,
I always take her good advice,
She's soft and warm like bunny fur,
I'd sure like to make out with her!"

I guess that was sort of risque back in the early 60s.

[pipi_k]

10. Oh, and a few other records in

my dad's record collection back then...

Cannonball Adderly and Nancy Wilson

The Ink Spots

The Harmonicats

Jimmy Dean

Ray Anthony (Do the bunny hop!)


There was quite an argument the day my mom brought home an album by the Singing Nun with the song "Dominique" on it. I guess he felt she was trying to contaminate his collection.

[nolabear]

11. This gives me an idea for a thread...

[ohiosmith]

12. So?!

[Mr.Bill]

13. He was one of the writers

On the old Steve Allen show. Also did some comedy bits on the show.

[ohiosmith]

14. He also wrote the "Sammy's Visit" episode of All In The Family.

[Mr.Bill]

17. Wow, I didn't know that.

Ironic that he would be accused of racial stereotyping for Jose Jimenez and then write that script, which of course, shows how silly racism is.

[Graybeard]

18. Bayball hab beeen berry good to me.

Last edited Thu Aug 30, 2012, 06:18 PM - Edit history (1)

Stereotype? I guess so.

Funny? Damned right!

But in Bill Dana's humor there was never any
meanness or ridicule. It was good natured and
we really liked the baseball player and the
astronaut.

[ohiosmith]

19. Wasn't that Garrett Morris?

[Archae]

20. Yes it was.

[whistler162]

21. Bill Dana the NASA test pilot?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Dana_(pilot)

[Baitball Blogger]

22. How is it possible that I come across this only now?

My name is Jose Jimenez.

My dad said he put an end to his career voluntarily because the Hispanic community, which is what we were called back then, said that they felt his act was reinforcing stereotypes.