Rotary Club of Greensburg

Our meeting began in the usual way with Bill McGrath leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance and God Bless America.  Our invocation was given by Kary Coleman.

Sergeant at Arms Report

John Hanna reported 47 of our 105 members in attendance today. Chuck Anderson brought Larry Blake, and Laura DeMichael brought Holly Schubert.

New Member Induction

Mark Parker presided over the induction of our newest member, Debbie Woods.  Bill Thorne sponsored her as a new member.  Welcome Debbie.

Announcements

Gwen brought some 6-month calendars if you want one.  The pictures are from a photographer in Rotary.

Laura DeMichael wanted to thank everyone for our help with providing toys for children in need this year.  They were able to give gifts for everyone who asked for them.  Thanks to all who contributed.

Mark Parker announced that the holiday party for children will be next week at the usual time.  Randy Bish will be here to do cartoons, and Laura DeMichael will be having the kids sing Christmas Carols for us.

Patty Lonsbary brought some flags of Rotary clubs during her 28,000 mile journey across the continent.  We have added them to our collection, and it was good to see Patty during the holiday.

Birthdays

Gwen Loughner gave our birthdays and anniversaries this week.  I unfortunately didn’t catch everyone with birthdays and anniversaries – really sorry.

Autobiography

Uncle Lou Incardona gave us his miniautobiography.  He’s been married for a year happily, but 31 in all.  He has three kids.  Lori, and Nicholas are all grown .  He graduated from Steel Valley High School and from IUP in human resource management and spent 0 days doing that.  Lou’s family has been his biggest reward.  He worked as a youth in his dad’s beer distributor.  After college he worked for his father in sales.  He also opened up a pizza shop, which was a cover for a pinball machine business.  Once his father sold his own distributor, he opened his own called Lou’s Booze.  He got bored, and he ended up working at a car dealership.  He became sales manager in 10 months, and he was that guy in the back room that the car salesman goes to talk to.  He came back to Greensburg when he was able to work in Ford at Greensburg.  Five years ago he leave the car business to join the mortgage business.  He then developed his company called Follow Your Customer.  It’s a low cost marketing tool to help someone run their business with a system that does the reminding about your customer.  He’s now working again in the car business at Kunkle’s Subaru in Delmont.  Thanks Lou.

Speaker

James Boggs introduced our speaker, Rich Sanders.  He is a nationally recognized Stooge expert and speaker.  He is the founder and president of the Restless Knights local Three Stooges fan club.  Rich was very good friends with Moe Howard and his family, as well as many who had worked with them.

Rich Sanders began working on this connection 40 years ago.  In 1958, Columbia first released the Stooges to TV.  The Stooges actually had their act jumpstarted in the Holiday House in Monroeville in 1959 that helped jumpstart them.  And they made at least one appearance at Kennywood Park.  Around the mid-1960’s, Rich bought a sound projector and started collecting the films of the Stooges.  He wanted to know more about them, and at that time there was nothing about the Stooges.  There was an address for Columbia Pictures on the box, and Columbia responded giving Moe Howard’s address.  He sent Moe a letter, and Rich received a 2 page letter from Moe along with autographed pictures.  Apparently Moe and Shemp performed in Jeannette when they were younger at Oakford Park.

In late 1971, Rich got permission to start a regional fan club.  The club has been 37 years old, and Rich shows film marathons of the Stooges locally.  And finally, Rich wrote a book in 2006 as “My Friend Mow…Memories of a Stoogeboomer.”  And while it started as a fan letter, Rich became a friend of Moe through his letters.  Now Rich is a friend of Moe’s son Paul, who got away from the show business.  The reason that the act was called Three Stooges is because they were with Ted Healy originally as his Stooges.  That’s where the name came from. 

Our meeting ended with Bill leading us in the Four Way Test.