Radio
After the war he initially worked as a Mississippi River boatman, then became a familiar voice on Port Arthur and Beaumont radio stations. His afternoon show of the 1950s attracted many young listeners as Baxter unleashed wild humor between novelty and satire recordings, sometimes leaving the studio for shows on location. As his radio fame increased, he often was invited to emcee at shows and events throughout East Texas. Bill Lambright recalled Baxter's radio antics:
- I had the thrill of listening to Barefoot Bathless Baxter (as we called him in the 40s, 50s, 60s) on the radio in Port Arthur, Texas, where we both were born. Bax was 20+ years my senior, but his childlike joys of flight and homespun humor spoke to me as a kid as well as all in his radio audience listening to KPAC, the voice of Port Arthur College. If I need a good laugh today or touch of home, I read Bax!
- Before Bax was an aviator though he was a sailor in the US Merchant Marine. He could identify ships by the patterns of their smokestacks as they sailed down the Intercoastal Canal, which he could see from KPAC's control room. I traveled the world in my mind as he described his adventures on the high seas. When I was in the Navy, I'd spend at least several hours of my furlough time watching Baxter perform on the radio. He would spin records with his bare feet. His commercials were as entertaining as the music and other antics he would pull. Believe me, he had to mature a lot to master the techniques of flying a plane or maybe he flew his Mooney barefoot. I don't know. I followed him on the radio as he learned to fly his first airplane. I wish those programs had been recorded. They would be priceless, but those were the days before audio tape.
Read more about this topic: Gordon Baxter
Famous quotes containing the word radio:
“A bibulation of sports writers, a yammer of radio announcers, a guilt of umpires, an indigence of writers.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)
“Now they can do the radio in so many languages that nobody any longer dreams of a single language, and there should not any longer be dreams of conquest because the globe is all one, anybody can hear everything and everybody can hear the same thing, so what is the use of conquering.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Local television shows do not, in general, supply make-up artists. The exception to this is Los Angeles, an unusually generous city in this regard, since they also provide this service for radio appearances.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)