{"id":30463,"date":"2010-11-21T18:07:55","date_gmt":"2010-11-21T18:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/?p=30463"},"modified":"2010-11-22T19:44:19","modified_gmt":"2010-11-22T19:44:19","slug":"3am-cult-hero-garrison-keillor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/3am-cult-hero-garrison-keillor\/","title":{"rendered":"3:AM<\/em> Cult Hero: Garrison Keillor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"garrison\"<\/p>\n

(above: Cover of Time<\/em> magazine, November 4, 1985. \u00a0 \u00a0 Keillor was the subject of the cover story ‘Lonesome Whistle Blowing<\/a>‘ by John Skow)<\/p>\n

I hear that old piano
\nFrom down the avenue.
\nI smell the pine trees
\nI look around for you.
\nOh my sweet, my sweet old someone
\nComing through that door…
\nIt’s Saturday’n
\nThe band is playin’
\nHoney, could we ask for more?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those words, set to the tune of ‘Tishomingo Blues<\/a>‘ open ‘A Prarie Home Companion’, which is performed every Saturday afternoon for two hours. \u00a0 And they are sung by its host and creator, Garrison Keillor. His red sneakers tap along to the beat as he introduces the members of the show’s radio acting company and the house band, ‘Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band,’ led by pianist Rich Dworsky. \u00a0 Then he introduces the musical and other special guests of that week’s show and reads ads for the made-up sponsors of the show – Powedermilk Biscuits, Guy’s Shoes, Bebop-a-Reebop Rhubarb pie and the longest sponsor of all, Jack’s Auto Repair.<\/p>\n

The show itself is a throw-back to old-time variety shows that dominated the airwaves in the golden age of radio. \u00a0 There are one-time radio dramas, musical guests, and regular sketches like ‘Life of the Cowboys’ and ‘Guy Noir.’<\/p>\n

The most famous part of the show comes in the third half-hour, ‘News from Lake Wobegon.’ \u00a0 This regular feature has Keillor relating anecdotal news from “his home town” of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, in his famous droll voice. \u00a0 He tells stories of the various people in this town: their misadventures, their quirks, their absurd but detailed ethics that keeps them going despite the unhappiness they expect out of life. \u00a0 Lake Wobegon is made up of the descendents of Norwegian and German immigrants. \u00a0 The Norwegians are Lutheran while the Germans are Catholic. \u00a0 Keillor says he “imported” those qualities in order to talk about Minnesotans and the midwest in general, since many small towns that dot the upper-midwest are made up of those kinds of people. \u00a0 Through the ethics of the town, Keillor presents a people who believe utmost in the Protestant work-ethic to the point of absurdity. \u00a0 In his 2004 book Homegrown Democrat<\/a><\/em> which has been called a collection of \u00a0political essays but I think it’s more of an autobiography used to justify his political views, Keillor titles the first chapter “Don’t think you’re special,” which is something the citizens of Lake Wobegon strive to live up to. \u00a0 Keillor ended the show on June 13, 1987 to move on to other projects. \u00a0 His second Lake Wobegon book, Leaving Home<\/a><\/em> was a collection of ‘News.’ \u00a0 It ends with a farewell to the Lake that was the monologue on the last show.<\/p>\n

When the show ended, Keillor moved to the Upper West Side of New York and continued to write. \u00a0 He produced a tribute to old-time radio, WLT: A Radio Romance<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0 In my opinion, this is his best work of fiction. \u00a0 Like the Lake Wobegon books, WLT<\/em> is more a collection of stories than a novel and tells the improbable history not of a town, but a radio station. \u00a0 The number of characters is smaller – and more characters appear throughout the novel rather than in just a few stories. \u00a0 WLT first appeared in Keillor story ‘WLT (The Edgar Era)’ which ran in The New Yorker<\/em> in 1976. \u00a0 WLT also appears in one of Keillor’s most anthologized stories (and one of my personal favorites), ‘The Tip-Top Club’ that appeared in The Atlantic Monthly<\/em> in 1981 and was added to Happy to Be Here<\/a><\/em> in its 1983 reprint. \u00a0 It tells the story of a quirky show on WLT hosted by Bud Swenson which consists of people calling in and telling Bud over the air about their lives and their quirky solutions to everyday problems. \u00a0 Much like Keillor’s name on A Prarie Home Companion<\/em>, the number to call is never said on the air, and could only be learned from another Tip-Topper, from someone who knew the rules. \u00a0 Bud quietly retires and Wayne Barger takes his place. \u00a0 Wayne freely gives out the number on the air and talks at length about the psychology books he’s read. \u00a0 He sees himself as an educator who values radio for its ability to inform. \u00a0 The Tip-Toppers revolted, calling in and asking Wayne to retire that night. \u00a0 After a year, Wayne left and was replaced by a commercial rock and pop show.<\/p>\n

A Prarie Home Companion didn’t stay off the air for too long. \u00a0 It returned in 1993 keeping the format of the original and it continues on to this day. \u00a0 Ever since he wanted to be a writer at the age of 14, Keillor wanted to write for the New Yorker<\/em>. \u00a0 His heroes were its regular writers Thurber<\/a>, Liebling<\/a>, Perelman<\/a> and White<\/a>. \u00a0 As he described them in Happy to Be Here<\/em>: “Four gentleman. \u00a0 One blind, one fat, one delicate and one a chicken rancher.”<\/p>\n

Keillor’s work is a masters work of radio storytelling. \u00a0 His writing takes the quirks of living in the midwest and makes them universal. \u00a0 The characters he creates are likable, even if they are among groups that are suspicious like fundamentalists or just plain out-there religious folks. \u00a0 He has a great respect for the American writers, and he writes in the great tradition of Midwestern writers like Sinclair Lewis, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Carl Sandberg. \u00a0 His work doesn’t pine for an older age, but shows that the folks in the small towns in the Midwest are just like anyone else in any time. \u00a0 They have the same misadventures and the misunderstandings they have demonstrate how silly city folk are.<\/p>\n

Keillor has likened himself to the prodigal son of the Gospel of Luke. \u00a0 He has said that one has to “leave Lake Wobegon in order to talk about it.” \u00a0 He’s recreated a small-town that is so familiar it might as well exist. \u00a0 He’s brought it to life to the point that even city dwellers can see the small-towns in their communities along with the bizzare cast of characters that populate them. \u00a0 Keillor hasn’t left Lake Wobegon – he’s kept going back.<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> Keillor in 2002 on the BBC’s World Book Club<\/a> \/ A Prarie Home Companion<\/a> \/ News from Lake Wobegon podcast<\/a> \/ A Prarie Home Companion sampler: Tishomingo Blues<\/a>, Life of the Cowboys<\/a>, Guy Noir<\/a>, News from Lake Wobegon<\/a> \/ Interview with the Paris Review<\/em><\/a> \/ New Yorker<\/em> piece on the Grand Ole Opry that inspired “A Prarie Home Companion” (paywall)<\/a> \/ Keillor on Charlie Rose<\/a> archive \/ 1985 appearance on Late Night with David Letterman<\/a> \/ Keillor on St. Paul, 2008<\/a> \/<\/p>\n

\n

\"profile\"By Day, Robert O’Connor is a mild-mannered reporter for the Twin Cities Daily Planet<\/em>. He’s a journalist, musician, adventurer and a dozen other things. He’s from St. Paul, Minnesota – a city that knows how to keep its secrets. His work has appeared in Hot Press<\/em>, Time Out Chicago<\/em>, The New Indian Express<\/em>, KFAI<\/em>, the Chi-Town Daily News<\/em> and a few other places.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(above: Cover of Time magazine, November 4, 1985. \u00a0 \u00a0 Keillor was the subject of the cover story ‘Lonesome Whistle Blowing‘ by John Skow) I hear that old piano From down the avenue. I smell the pine trees I look around for you. Oh my sweet, my sweet old someone Coming through that door… It’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buzzwords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}