French Legend

It happened the very first time I toured France. And it's happened, more than once, every tour since. The moment my froggie friends find out I'm from the land of fiscal irresponsibility and Elvis. The inevitable anticipatory question: "So, you know Johnny in America?" The Logical response would be, of course, "which Johnny?" But as I was soon to discover(and never forget!) - to French people of "a certain age" - "Johnny" is, and will always be - Johnny Hallyday. France's answer to Elvis, Buddy Holly and every other 60's swivel hipped, guitar slingin' sensation.

His detractors uncharitably label Johnny as "an aging rock star." Literally true. But the implication that he's a legend in his own mind, is totally false. True, Johnny doesn't constantly burn up the charts. But whenever he does pop out a new disc, it routinely sells a million plus. And radio play has virtually nothing to do with it. Unlike today's rock stars, Johnny doesn't need radio. Or the teen-age iPod crowd. Johnny has something much better. Like Formula One drivers. Like Movie Stars. Like bloggers with 90,000 monthly readers (Curse you Yaro Starak!) - Johnny has fans! Obsessively loyal, dyed in the jeans, "Johnny Rules" fans. In the Millions. Hanging on his every word. Devouring the daily tabloids chronicling the joys, sorrows, and breakfast cereal choices in "Johnny World." Buying the sunglasses the king endorses from every other billboard.

But wait - There's more! Lest you think (shame, shame) Johnny is just a big fish in a small pond -when the Rolling Stones (aging rockers anyone?) were last in Paris, they only managed to sell out one and a half shows in the ginormous "Stade du Paris." Johnny (routinely) sells out BOTH shows (or however many he may offer) in half an hour. Not an hour. Not 45 minutes. 30 minutes. 20,000 seats filled. At 100 euro plus a ticket. Aging Rock Star? Yup.Celebrity money machine? You betcha!

It's a curious fact of French celebrity-dom that more than a few of it's iconic Stars - the ones we folks from "over there" regard as the quintessence of French Culture, are not French. Yves Montand. Italian. Jacques Brel. Belgian. Johnny Halladay, though born in Paris, was the child of a Belgian Father and a French Mother. Johnny rose to fame basically by singing French versions of American and English Music. As evidenced by his 1962 album(you remember "albums, don't you?) -"Johnny Halladay sings America's rockin hits." Several of the musicians who were later to become stars in their own right - Jimmy Page and Peter Frampton - to name two, played on Johnny's discs.

Johnny's personal life, like most artists, has been as rough as his career has been smooth. His 1965 marriage to Bulgarian-French(now there's a combo) singer Sylvie Vartan, lasted until 1980, producing a son, David. Now an "emerging musical artist." During that marriage, Johnny and Sylvie were the "golden couple." Darlings of the tabloids (of course), and role models for the musical wanabees of both sexes. Johnny is now on Marriage number four. A bout with colon cancer and an artificially induced coma to facilitate recovery from surgery, obviously have taken their toll. As they would on any 67 year old veteran of the "rock n roll lifestyle."

In a career spanning 50 years, "Johnny" has done 100 tours, sold 110 milion discs and scored Platinum 18 times. So - Where's the money? Where all the smart money is. In Switzerland. Johnny wanted to relocate to his Father's native Belgium, but his lack of permanent residency there proved the deal breaker. So, not wanting to give the majority of his income to the French tax man - Switzerland's fixed rate (on assets there - NOT your income) and more relaxed residency requirements, got Johnny to the mountains.

It wasn't until I saw my first "Johnny video" that I understood why his fans think he's big in the land of "67 channels and nuthin' on." See- Leatherclad Johnny, shades glinting, cruising Sunset Bouldevard. Thrill to -Johnny at the beach. Palm trees. Beach volleyball with girls who've never seen their feet. Sing-along with Johnny in the California recording studio. That folks, is show biz.

Now, officially "retired", and with a second home in California, Johnny's anonymity allows him to ride his motorcycle through the desert to his heart's content. Knowing that when he stops for the night at "motel nowhere-ville," he is unlikely to hear: " Uh...... Mr. Hallyday....could I have your autograph?"

Bottom Line: Whether his music lights your fire, or puts it out - for 50 years Johnny Hallyday has been doing what he loves,making people happy,and making money. Sounds like a success story to me. N'est ce pas?

THROW ME A BONE HERE PEOPLE!

What are ya thinkin'?

Beer Brewing Ice Cream Maker

The Saga of Puffed Wheat Anderson, A Minnesota Legend

Image : http://www.flickr.com

I have no idea how old I was when I first learned about the famed Minnesota scientist and inventor Alex P. Anderson, AKA Puffed Wheat Anderson. My Dad told me about him when I was eating a bowl of cereal, you know, the one that's shot from guns. Or doesn't Quaker use that line any more? They sure did when I was growing up. I'd hear it a dozen times in a half hour when I used to listen to Sgt. Preston of the Mounties as a six-years-old. I naturally wondered if he was a relative. He wasn't, but I couldn't imagine how shooting rice or wheat out of a cannon could make them puff up.

I thought of that again as I was shopping in Byerly's, a local grocery store, and happened to pass by the cereal section. I decided I wanted to find out how it was done so when I got home, I immediately looked up Anderson in Google. I wasn't prepared for the fascinating story surrounding his life and accomplishments. Or the Quaker company's marketing history, for that matter.

It seems that Alex Anderson could have been famous for an entirely different reason. According to a Minnesota Public Radio interview with Robert Hedin, Anderson's grandson, Master Alex of Goodhue County was the youngster who gave directions to the Jesse James gang about how to get to Northfield, MN. Those of you who aren't up on your folk history might not know that robbing the Northfield bank was the biggest mistake ole Jesse ever made. Two of his members were killed by the local townspeople and things got so hot that the rest of the gang was lucky to escape with their lives. (An even more interesting coincidence from a personal standpoint, is that the gang camped out on the point in Cedar Lake near Annandale. Our lake cabin was just a couple of hundred yards down the shore from where they cooked a meal and licked their wounds before heading back to Missouri.)

Hedin says that Anderson included an account of the fateful meeting in an essay about Silurian fossils. Alex was also interested in Phrenology and could tell you your personality by feeling the bumps on your head. Even though he was a fine poet and memoirist, his greatest accomplishment was to invent a way to break down the starch in grains by subjecting them to intense heat and pressure, greatly enlarged the kernels in so doing. To do this he devised a large wooden gun. Albert Lasker, an early advertising genius hired by the Quaker company, explained the process. The lab must have been a hundred feet long. The so-called gun was actually a drum that was super-heated with the mouth covered. When it reached the correct temperature, workers removed the cover with a pulley. The grains exploded out and flew wildly around, expanding to eight times its original size in the process. Hedin puts it more colorfully. "It made the lab sound like a battlefield, smell like a bakery and look like a snowy winter morning."

Pleased with his invention, Anderson decided to show it off. Puffed rice made its premier appearance at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. A minor hit as a novelty, it also caught the eye of an unnamed executive of the Quaker cereal company in the process.

In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, cereal was considered to be a health food and the Quaker company saw a virtual gold mine in Anderson's process. They were right, but for the wrong reason. Aftey they bought the rights they spent a considerable amount of money advertising the product to the Japanese. Puffed rice was ordinary rice, they said, but many times larger and it took less to fill you up. Better still, it was delicious. The campaign turned out to be a total flop. Lasker proved that Americans were the right target, so to speak, and under his tutelage 'shot from guns' became a household word. No one needs to be reminded that the Quaker company survives to this day selling the same products.

Anderson died in 1943 after donating his house to the Red Wing School District. It turns out that he became a patron of the arts. Now it is a haven for writers and other artists. The Kiwanis hold regular meetings there, making the residents sing for their supper by reading Shelley and William Blake. But that's not all. If you like modern art or improvisational jazz, you'll find someone with those talents at the Anderson House. I wonder what Jesse James would have thought of it all.

Ice Cream Maker