Big Jack Armstrong (born John Charles Larsh on December 4, 1945 in Durham County, North Carolina; died March 23, 2008 in High Point, North Carolina), aka Jack Armstrong, Jackson W. Armstrong, and Big Jack Your Leader, was a Top 40 disc jockey of the 1960s through the 1980s, and an oldies DJ until 2006.
His parents were John Edgar Larsh, Jr., who was a professor in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina, and Ruth Ella Neal. His father once served as the Acting Dean of UNC's School of Pharmacy.
He held a Guinness World Record for "fastest talking human alive" at one point in his career. He developed 2 imaginary sidekicks - the Gorilla, who speaks in a raspy bass, and likes women, banana juice, and whiskey, in that order - and the Old Timer, who wheezes, tells lame jokes, and was always getting shot after one of them.
Larsh was known for his distinctive signoff. At WKYC, it was a few catchphrases, spoken over the instrumental version of The Beatles' "And I Love Her". On WKBW, he used "Shimmy Shimmy Walk II" by the Megatons. On most stations, he used no background music. Eventually, it became a Motormouth extravaganza, spoken so fast it was hard to understand.
Read more about Big Jack Armstrong: Career
Famous quotes containing the words big, jack and/or armstrong:
“A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razorstrap. A thin book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Be not a Jack of all trades, but a master of one.”
—Chinese proverb.
“There dwelt a man in faire Westmerland,
Jonnë Armestrong men did him call,
He had nither lands nor rents coming in,
Yet he kept eight score men in his hall.”
—Unknown. Johnie Armstrong (l. 1–4)