What's In A Name?

         Shakespeare tells us a rose would
smell the same no matter what you called
it.
         I get the point. But would John Wayne
would have been a popular if he went by
Marion Morrison....his "given" name? Or
how about William Henry Pratt? Better
known as Boris Karloff!
         Amd when I was a DJ I used to just
call myself  "Double Dee."
         I've been doing some research on
Ham Fisher. He's the Wilkes-Barre native
who came up with the comic strip character
Joe Palooka.
        The Luzerne County Historical Society
will pay tribute to Fisher on the 29th of this
month.
       Joe Palooka was always associated with
Wilkes-Barre. In fact the city was often
included in the story line of the comic
strip which, at it's peak, ran in more than
900 newspapers.
      There were movies about Joe Palooka.
      Jimmy Durante even played Palooka's
manager in one of the flicks.
      We've got Mount Joe Palooka along
Route 309 in Hanover Township.
      But when Fisher originally came up
with the character he was going to call
him Joe Dumbbell. He also considered
naming him Joe Dumbbelletski.
       It's bad enough to be called "a big
Palooka."
       Imagine living in the shadow of
Mount Dumbbell!
       By the way, Ham's real name was
Hammond Edward Fisher. Heck, he
could have been called Eddie Fisher!
       Well whatever the name he
painted a positive picture of the
hard working, honest people who
built this area from the days when
coal was king. And Joe Palooka was
one of the good guys!
       Hope you've got that name right
and that all of your NEWS is good!