Joe Palooka-Round 2!

  Last week I wrote about a tribute that's
being planned to the late Ham Fisher.
  The Wilkes-Barre born cartoonist was
know Internationally for the comic strip
character he created. And that, of course,
was Joe Palooka!
   The Joe Palooka comic strip ran in
hundreds of newspapers during its heyday.
   Fisher, through his character, became a
celebrity. And back in the 1940's Wilkes-
Barre's Junior Chamber of Commerce
honored the artist with a bronze plaque
placed on the mountainside along Route
309 in Wilkes-Barre Township. That
mountain, in fact, was named for Joe
Palooka.
    The mountain, as you might suspect,
is still there!
     But the plaque was stolen in the 1970's
and I, in a radio editorial, called for it
to be replaced.
     The Sunday Independent Newspaper
picked up the cause and launched a fund
raising campaign to put a new memorial
to Fisher and his character a few feet
away from the original site.
     I was one of four men on a committee
overseeing the project.
     I've been trying to gather material from
that time period for the upcoming tribute
to Fisher.
     But while the mountain is still there the
Sunday Independent went down for the count
many years ago.
     I knew I had photos, copies of the comic
strip, and other items stored away safely......
somewhere. So I did what most any guy
would do in a similar situation.
    I asked my wife to look for the stuff!
    After a day of digging through
every drawer and box tucked away in our
house she was about ready to give me a
right to the jaw that probably, if inflicted,
would have taken Palooka down.
     I know they're here somewhere.
     But I also knew someone else who would
not only have the photos and clippings.....but
would know where to find his copes!
     Fred Ney was a writer with the Sunday
Independent. He did most of the leg work that
lead to the successful drive for a new
monument.
    I called him and, less than 24 hours later,
had all of the material I had been looking
for.
     I suspect my wife was thinking about a
left hook for putting her to work rather than
just calling Fred in the first place!
     Now that I look at myself in the photo
from the dedication....I'm forced to wonder
if I didn't hide......rather than misplace it
in the first place!
     That's me, second from left next to Joe!

  Hope you've got some well dressed
friends too and that all your NEWS is
good!