Good Deeds

"¢ Dave Alvin and Chris Gaffney were friends and musicians. Mr. Alvin became very famous as an Americana musician (The Blasters and solo), and Mr. Gaffney became famous mainly in southern California and Arizona. At one point in his career, Mr. Gaffney was having a difficult time making a living as a musician, so Mr. Alvin hired him to be the guy who sold merchandise such as T-shirts and CDs. Mr. Alvin paid Mr. Gaffney's hotel bill, and Mr. Gaffney got a cut of the sales of merchandise. In addition, Mr. Gaffney "œwould come up onstage in the encore and play his accordion, sing a song, engage in onstage antics," Mr. Alvin says.

During the encore in Philadelphia, Mr. Gaffney came onstage and sang "Cowboys to Girls." Mr. Alvin remembers, "The next day, the review of the show says that perhaps the highlight of the show was when the merch guy got up and sang a song. Gaffney never let me forget that." In addition, Mr. Gaffney started staying onstage for the entire concert, not just the encore. Unfortunately, Mr. Gaffney died at age 57 of liver cancer. To honor his friend, Mr. Alvin put out a tribute CD featuring such performers as Los Lobos, Joe Ely, and others who knew Mr. Gaffney's work. It's good that Mr. Alvin got some big names on the tribute album because most people (according to Mr. Alvin, "99.9 percent of the people in the world") have never heard of Mr. Gaffney, and now many more people will hear of him. Mr. Alvin is proud of the tribute CD: "This is now part of my business card, if I had one: 'Singer, Songwriter, Guitar Player and Chris Gaffney Promoter.' It has to be because the highlight was when the merch guy came up for a song." (Athens NEWS Editor Terry Smith, a long-time fan of Chris Gaffney, says the highlight of his trip to SXSW '09 in Austin was the Chris Gaffney tribute show at the Continental Club, which Dave Alvin led.)

"¢ When film critic Roger Ebert was a kid, he used to write to celebrities, some of whom responded. [Actress] Polly Bergen sent him an 8x10 autographed photo, and Percy Faith sent him a dozen of his 45s. When young Roger asked Stan Freberg for an autographed photograph, Mr. Ebert remembers that the satirist wrote him to say that regrettably "he was all out of photos, but as a consolation was enclosing a hairpin from [actress] Betty Furness." In addition, young Roger once paid an unannounced visit to the radio station WKID, peeking in through the screened door. (Air conditioning was rare back then.) DJ Don McMullen saw him and asked if he could help him. Young Roger said, "I just want to look." Mr. Ebert remembers that Mr. McMullin "let me in, pulled up a chair, and let me watch him at the microphone. He'd read a commercial [...] while using his thumb to hold a cued-up record on a turntable that was already spinning. Then he'd announce the record and lift his thumb. This was unspeakably cool."

Then something cooler happened. As a song played, Mr. McMullin retrieved the weather report from the wire ticker, then announced live on the radio, "We have a young announcer here named Roger who is going to tell us about the weather." He then set the weather report in front of young Roger, who announced, "Sunny and warmer tomorrow, with a high around 80." Roger was "dizzy with excitement," and Mr. McMullin said live on the radio, "Good job, Roger." Later, Mr. McMullin married, and Mr. Ebert gave him steak knives.

"¢ Of course, Major League baseball player Roberto Clemente was a hero in his native Puerto Rico, and often he found that people there would not take his money when he ate a meal or wanted to buy something. Once, he tried unsuccessfully to pay for something he wanted to buy, but the store owner explained that he would not take Roberto's money because when he was a kid, he had tried to get a foul ball, but an older, stronger fan had taken it from him. The next inning, Roberto gave him a baseball to replace "the one they took away from you." The man said, "That's why I can't charge you."

Roberto was always good to fans. He said, "I send out 20,000 autographed pictures a year to the kids." Why? He explained, "A country without idols is nothing." In addition, he signed many, many autographs because "I believe we owe something to the people who watch us. They work hard for their money."

He also looked out for other players from Puerto Rico, such as pitcher John Candelaria, who says, "The first Pirate I met when they were trying to sign me was Clemente. Clemente was supposed to be arguing for the front office. But while they were trying to talk me into signing, Clemente kept telling me in Spanish, 'You can get more money.'"

"¢ Jack Nicklaus performed a very good deed when he raised $590,000 for charity by playing one hole on each of 18 different golf courses. What was his means of transportation between holes? A helicopter.