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"Give'em Steel!!"

"Gary Dee Attends His Own Funeral"

Was broadcast the last week of March 1974, and now 30 years after it aired, the show has such deep impact and even more meaning than it did in 1974. This is a story that is humorous and also thought provoking at times. Nobody suspected what Gary Dee really had in mind throughout this series of programs. This story has an ending with a twist, but I wont spoil it for you.

Click here to play all 29 parts in succession

(Approximate running time for all 29 parts: 2hours 15minutes)

Part one: The week started quite typical with Gary calling Cleveland "The Most Sinful City in The World".

Part two: "Brother Gary" displays his unique showmanship, kicking into high gear as he preaches "Hellfire and Damnation" if you don't "repent and confess your sins"!!

Part three: Here, Gary shows his unique ability to ad-lib commercials.
 
 
 
 

< This is the "Liz" that Gary mentions several times during the Real Audio segments.

Part four: Unlike Claifornia, "Cleveland doesn't want to grow". Gary's hero, Joe Pyne.

Part five: Preliminary funeral arrangements for Gary Dee.

Part six: "you must not lust"..Prepare yee the way of the Lord..Gary talks with "Count John Manalesco" (a talk show host whose show followed Gary). Gary called him "Count Voodoo and phony balony, among other things.

Part Seven: This is the mid-week show ending, where Gary tells it like it is.
 
 

Part Eight: On Thursdays program, Gary calls his attorney to arrange his will. Gary, not able to resist the subject of city politics, discusses issues with the attorney.

Part Nine: Here, Gary attempts to call Liz, his future wife (see picture above). Gary solicits for Pall Bears.

Part Ten: Here Gary Dee tells what he would do to Don Imus in the ratings (and I agree with Gary!)

Part Eleven: Calls in preparation of Gary's Funeral.

Part Twelve: More calls in preparation of Gary's Funeral.

Part Thirteen: This is the closing of Thursday's show. Gary "looses it" while talking about his funeral, then he recovers his composure and takes some really funny calls. Gary gets serious and instructs his listeners that "you still have a chance to re-write your obituaries."

Part Fourteen: Friday, the day of Gary's funeral. Gary begins his antics during the 5:30am newscast. Then as he had done thousands of times, the show begins with Buck Owens' "My Heart Skips a Beat"..... with accompaniment from "Fearless Number One" himself.

Part Fifteen: Gary has fun with some callers and kibitzes with some of his co-workers in the studio.

Part Sixteen: After some ingenious callers, Gary "tries out" his new casket. Sparing no expense, the radio station actually hauled a casket into the studio.

Part Seventeen: Gary lectures that "there is still time" to add another chapter to your obituary. To make Cleveland into a great city, and keep this country out of other peoples buisness around the world.

Part Eighteen: Gary lectures about crooked cops and crooked ministers (wow! he sure had it right)." You could be impeaching the President" (Nixon, that is)!

Part Nineteen: This segment starts with a call from "The Viscous Piranha" (a regular caller with a wry sense of humor), then Gary turns serious and asks "if you knew that you were going to die, what would you do with the rest of your life"?

Part Twenty: A gun totin' Catholic threatens to squirt Gary with her holy water pistol. Gary then talks with co-workers Ciata Mickey (traffic reporter), and Bob Neal (sportscaster who broadcast The Cleveland Indians Baseball games with Jimmy Dudley for over 20 years in the 1950's and 1960's).

Part Twenty One: Gary prepares for his passing. "I'm coming Lord!" Gary shows his quick wit with a harassing caller when he tells her "have I made you think!"

Part Twenty Two: The time has come........Gary Dee DIES on the air!!

Part Twenty Three: WERE news crew report on the funeral motorcade of "The Late Gary Dee".

Part Twenty Four: Broadcasting "live", or should I say "dead", from Public Square, Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, here are a few ulogies from Gary's co-workers.

Part Twenty Five: More ulogies, with some really hillarious comments from the "corpse" himself.

Part Twenty Six: The Funeral of Gary Dee continues from Public Square with comments from Bishop Count Manalesco (John Manalesco hosted an astrology program after Gary's), and Gary throws in his ad-lib comments from his casket.

Part Twenty Seven: Ulogies continue from a local businessman, the head of the church of Satan, a letter from Cleveland council president, and a local millionaire. And Gary again shows his keen wit, by ad-libbing many funny comments.

Part Twenty Eight: Here, the secret finally begins to surface with comments from politian Dennis Susnik, and a representitive from The Greater Cleveland Growth Association. Gary Dee tells a story about his Uncle Otis.

Part Twenty Nine: The Grand Finally. Closing comments are from Gary Dee himself.

EXTRA: Saturday, the day after, Gary broadcasts from Purgatory!

Here is where you can share your thoughts about Gary with other listeners.

Sign Gary Dee's condolence book

View Gary Dee's condolence book

View the first condolence book from when I first put this site up

I am in search of more material about Gary Dee. If you have any air-checks, pictures, or newspaper articles, I would be happy to exchange some of your copies for some of mine. Please contact me:

garydee (at) n1dk.com

Thanks to those who took time to E-MAIL me with their thoughts about Gary Dee

I do have much more material on Gary Dee, and I will post it as time permits. (I can be enticed by E-Mail!)

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