With the death of Mickey Rooney, many news anchors, when
telling of the news, have gotten the names “Mickey” and “Andy” mixed up. Both
were famous “Rooneys,” but both, now being dead, won't care. I don’t think
so, anyway.
I’ve been called the wrong name a few times in the public
forum, it, always giving me a chuckle, my mediocrity being somewhat of success.
On live TV during a telethon the co-host kept calling me Larry Wyatt. The
third time I felt compelled to correct him, and added, “Well, at least we now
know who’s a bigger star.”
Also, the wrong name was put in a program by a community
theatre group who had me listed as Larry Hunt. I was playing the lead. They apologized
and said they would change it but it was the night before opening. Being community
theater and rather amused, I said heck no. I figured I’d get much more mileage out
of friends opening the program and start laughing before I even take the stage.
Years before I moved to Houma, La. there lived a very
popular Reverend Hyatt who actually had red haired kids and naturally people
putting two and two together would come up with three and mistake me for one of
his sons. When asked how my father was, I would say, “Oh Lord, he’s drinking again
and running around on my mother with Mrs. Steck. The young women who worked at the church. It’s not pretty.” (Just
kidding, but it would have been funny.)
I’ve received mail, with my address on the envelop sent to
Larry Flint, Wyatt Hyatt, Larry Byatt (which I thought was a key punch mistake)
and others. Plus, when Larry Hite gets arrested and shows up in the police
beat, people think once again, Larry’s in trouble.
If I went to another market I’d use a handle on the
radio. I like the idea of taking a local lake in the area and put the name “Blake”
in front of it. There is a lake in the area pronounced “Da-cad.” “Blake the Cad”
has a rebel attitude that might be fun to work with. Blake Erie sounds like it
would be a lot more fun.