No, I hadn’t remembered the Newberry’s skit till you mentioned it but the peanut butter thing rings a bell. Not sure it was me, I’d have to hear it. I was yelling and being yelled at in “A Light Snack” though. Who knew criminally bad taste could be so entertaining!? And I am proud to say I was there! (o: There were other gals in that skit too as I recall, and of course others who did Love Workshop episodes, but I don’t know who. I wish I did. Wouldn’t it be a kick to get together and trade memories of all of us doing that crazy stuff at KDKB for The Love Workshop gurus?

I remember Newberry’s too, specifically the one that was at Park Central (am I right?) that had a photo booth out front and a lunch counter ala the ’50’s. It was usually crowded with lovable geezers eating mashed potatoes and gravy over something that resembled a piece of roast beef, or some such delicacy. Do you remember that store from Park Central? We often used to hang out there, it was a pretty place in the midst of a concrete town.

Last time I talked to Russ about the Love Workshop stuff we did (at a KCAC LIves Blog reunion a couple of years ago) it amazed me how clear those memories were for me. I was surprised Russ remembered me so well. He was his typically larger than life, welcoming, grinning and joking self. Great bear hugger that Wonderful Russ!

When I listen to the Love Workshop bits now I clearly recall walking in the door of KDKB one evening, guitar in hand, going into the production room and Russ telling me to make up a song on the spot for the bank jingle. One take wonders, those guys! I sound like I was about 14 years old. (I wish, but not quite that young at the time!) BTW Russ told me he didn’t know where the Shirley MacLaine thing went. I am looking for my tape, but there’s a snowball’s chance in hell I can still find it. If I do I will send it to you if you want.

Did you make it to the 2005 (6?) KCAC/Rebirth Reunion at Alwun House? I hope we can do another one in the fall and you can be there. If I’ve met you I don’t recall your face, but of course am well acquainted with your name, Wayne Butane and the whole labor of love (and lunacy) you do about the Love Workshop and those days.

When I worked at RFP Andy Olson burned a copy of a cd of the bits that I think came from you (where else?) which I enjoy immensely. Especially when I play it for people who are floored at the contents. Your comment about the success of various movements hit the nail on the head…it takes a little more than a sense of humor to insure victory. But it doesn’t hurt, eh?

Our collection is indeed not quite complete. As I’ve mentioned somewhere on one of these pages, I remember an episode in which the boys berate a woman (you perhaps?) for buying tubs of cut-rate peanut butter at Newberry’s. (Not only do I remember that episode, but I remember Newberrys!) Unfortunately, that routine hasn’t yet surfaced.

I would tend to agree with you about the success of the various movements and their problamatic attitude towards ridicule. Unfortunately, I fear that, given the forces stacked against them, it might take a little more than a sense of humor to insure victory!

But while we’re waiting, there’s always “Love Workshop!”

Thank you for acknowledging me by name in some of your info about the Love Workshop. It’s a kick to listen to these and recall how much fun everyone at KCAC had together. And the KCAC crew, under Compton’s helm, sense of humor intact, didn’t take themselves all too seriously or they wouldn’t have recruited people like me to do stuff like the Love Workshop!! All I did was happen to be in the right place at the right/wrong (depends on who you’re asking) time with my guitar in tow (yes, that Minny Mouse sounding jingle at the end of First Women’s is me, too)

I loved being a very small part of the Love Workshop stuff, even though it did ruin me with my feminist friends of the time. Who’d a thunk that I’d become “persona non grata” among them for becoming a “persona unknown-a” on the coolest radio station in the universe?! I was even banned from the Women’s Folk Festival I was booked to play (saner heads came to my defense and prevailed; but upon arrival I was banished to an adjacent stage.) It’s been pondered why the 1970’s Women’s Movement didn’t succeed on the scope that it should have. Um, a general lack of sense of humor maybe?! That’s one thing the Love Workshop didn’t lack. Those guys were willing to offend anyone and to be offended in return.

Looking over your list of downloads from the shows, one seems to be missing…a script that I found particularly hilarious to read that my w-o-m-a-n friends found sacrilegious: Shirley MacLaine’s endorsement of First Women’s Credit and Trust and her rambling about how great things were under that oh so benevolent leader Chairman Mao. I recall the first line being “Hi, I”m Shirley MacLaine, and in my travels throughout the People’s Republic of China the one thing Chinese peasant women everywhere said they lacked was their own bank!!” Do you have that one among those listed above?

I see you’ve listed the sticky old orange juice queen Anita Bryant. I’d completely forgotten about hers! I think I did that one too, but have to listen to it to be sure. It’s wonderful that you’ve enabled folks to download these rare gems. My all time favorite is the one about the free sperm bank at First Women’s. To this day I remember saying this line: “And for those of you who find pro-creation cumbersome and distasteful, First Women’s has our own Sperm Bank…”

I haven’t ever asked Russ but I suspect that the inspiration for the bank ads came after the actual first women’s bank (in New York I believe) by women, for women,
closed abruptly after it’s grand poobah’s (oops, ‘poomahs’) were charged with embezzlement.

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The rest, I fear, are lost to history.

You and The Love Workshop light up my life.

Please ask Wonderful Russ Shaw about the female talent in the group - “Karen.”

Your pal,

Chuck Kelley

This is the happiest day of my life! My days of late night praying for more Love Workshop are over! Time to chuck that rosary in the garbage!