![]() The story that prevails is that he fought alongside actor Lee Marvin at Iwo Jima during World War II. Rogers and rarely, if ever, Fred.Ī similar rumor continues Bob Keeshan-more commonly known as Captain Kangaroo. The choice of long sleeves was to create a sense of formality with children, as well as with their parents this was what prompted nearly everyone to call him Mr. Directly out of high school, he attended college-and upon graduation, he began working in television. In fact, he never served in the military at all.įred Rogers was born in 1928, making him too old to have enlisted in the service during the Vietnam War. He was, however, neither a Marine nor a SEAL. The “proof” is often cited by the fact he never revealed his arms on television-his consistent choice of long sleeves was to hide many tattoos. Recently, the rumor of his previous career as a trained killer has surfaced in the form that Rogers served as a US Navy SEAL during the war. Follow him at ken-jennings.Every once in awhile, the meme appears on Facebook or in a mass-forwarded email: Prior to his career in the long-running PBS show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Fred Rogers was a highly-decorated sniper in the US Marines. He's also the proud owner of an underwhelming Bag o' Crap. Ken Jennings is the author of eleven books, most recently his Junior Genius Guides, Because I Said So!, and Maphead. Quick Quiz: If he had stayed in the Marines, Keeshan could have been promoted to Lieutenant Kangaroo, then Captain Kangaroo, then what rank? still fields many a call from patriotic TV fans wanting to hear stories of Captain Kangaroo’s valor in combat. Keeshan spent the rest of his life denying the war stories, and the Naval Historical Center in Washington D.C. He turned eighteen (and enlisted in the Marine Corps reserves) in 1945, several months after American forces retook Iwo Jima. The only problem: Lee Marvin was injured at Saipan, not Iwo Jima, and Bob Keeshan never served in the Pacific at all. In the popular memory, this story goes back to something Lee Marvin said on The Tonight Show about Keeshan’s brave service in the Pacific. Rogers, who was supposedly a Marine sniper or Navy SEAL or something.) When Keeshan died in 2004, veterans wrote outraged letters to newspapers complaining that his obituary hadn’t mentioned the medals he won for bravery on Iwo Jima. (Gen X-ers will recall a version of this myth spreading about Mr. Green Genes,” which Zappa recorded on his 1969 album Hot Rats.īut even more persistent was the rumor about Bob Keeshan’s supposed service in World War II. The whole thing snowballed from fan theories about the song “Son of Mr. In reality, though, Zappa was born to Sicilian immigrants Francis and Rosemarie Zappa. According to one extremely popular Baby Boom myth, Frank Zappa was the son of Hugh Brannum, the actor who played Captain Kangaroo’s farmer friend Mr. For thirty years, Keeshan starred as Captain Kangaroo, the most popular children’s TV host of his era.Īs with most fixtures of American youth culture ( Pop Rocks, The Wizard of Oz, that “Paul” kid on The Wonder Years), a series of weird urban legends grew up around Captain Kangaroo’s show. (If they used Fahrenheit there, which they don’t.) Jeopardy!’s Ken Jennings apparently has a trip to Australia on his mind this month: he’ll be here all August debunking mountains of marsupial misinformation for Woot!īob Keeshan was not taxonomically a marsupial he just played one on TV. Travel experts say that late August is actually a beautiful time to visit Australia: airfares are still low, the beaches of the north are warm, and even Sydney usually gets up into the mid- to high 60s most days. Are you sweltering in the August heat? Let’s spare a thought this month for our brothers and sisters of the Southern Hemisphere, just coming out of their chilly winter months.
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