THIS E-MAIL MESSAGE WENT OUT TO THE FISHING NEWSGROUPS!!
THE RESPONSES ARE BELOW!!!
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Growing up, before the proliferation of fishing shows, there was Gadabout Gaddis (circa 1967). Gadabout, a white-haired man would jump in his float plane and go to some of the most beautiful and remote places on earth with his white Shakespeare rods.
He was akin to the old Field & Stream .. Outdoor Life Fishing lore of old, sitting around a pot bellied stove and telling tall tales!
I was wondering if anyone has a video of any of Gadabout's shows. I don't know if his shows were ever saved or whatever. His show would sure stand out today where the fishing shows more or less resemble Manhattan Public access tv with some guy muttering inane thoughts while hooking into a bass. Gadabout was introspective and kind of a hero to me in his white cowboy hat as he galloped in his seaplane through the skies in his mystical search for pristine wilderness and fishing holes.
Please e-mail me if you might have a treasured copy of one of his old shows. Thanks
JP
webmaster@seakayaker.com |
LETTERS:
From: hexagen@world.std.com (Hexagen)
Subject: Gadabout Gaddis.....forget him...;-) No Way
JP,
You bet I remember him, the introspective *NON HOLLYWOOD* attitude
was great. One thing though...he liked to strrrretch those 10" brookies
into 16"beauties!;-);-) He was terrific though...
I checked up on the old American Sportsman tapes at ABC a few years ago,
talked with one person who steered me to another woman who was in charge
of their library, but she was out to lunch...never did call back.
I'd sure like to check up on that again..to get those Lee Wulff/Curt
Gowdy trips into the Minipi region of Labrador, as well as the Joe Brooks
episodes. Those were/would_be Golden.
tight_lines,
Steve Drossel
From: boeing377@aol.com (BOEING377)
Subject: Re: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
You hit the nail right on the head in characterizing the modern fishing
show dialogue as akin to public access mutterings. Old Gadabout sure knew
how to convey the essence of fishing although I cannot specify exactly how
he achieved this I am surprised that nobody has been smart enough to try
to copy his style. Good fishing... Mark
From: Steve Pearson
Reply-To: Steve.Tina.Pearson@postoffice.worldnet.att.net
Subject: Re: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
Hey Ho JP:
Yep, ol' Gadabout was something else. I remember being 6 or 7 and
watching him every Sat. He was on right after Roy Rogers and before
"Wide World of Sports".
An interesting Gadabout story. I have a friend in Ohio who knew
Gadabout quite well. He and some friends met him on a river down in
Florida (where he lived)...My buddy's on air traffic controller (and
pilot), so he and Gadabout got to be pretty tight. Every year Jim would
fly down to visit and Bass fish with him. Turns out ol' Gaddabout was
as good a pilot as he was a fisherman (and I remember him to be pretty
good at that).
Jim had some wonderful stories about Gadd and his flying
days. The way I understand it, Gadabout was no young pup when Jim met
him. He wasn't flying anymore due to poor eyesight (as I recall).
Anyway, Gadabout still had his airplane (A Cherokee I believe) and Jim
used to take him up and fly him around whenever he was down visiting.
Don't remember the exact details of some of the fishing stories but the
were very entertaining at the time...had some great pictures as well.
Stevie.Pee
From: fishline6@aol.com (Fishline6)
Subject: Re: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
I have a fishing show on radio & TV here on Long Island and he was a hero
to me also. Let me know if anyone comes through. Thanks.
Rich Johnson
Fishline6 member of OWAA, NYSOGA, licensed guide. Tight lines to you all!!
From: mikep165@aol.com (MikeP165)
Subject: Re: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
JP
My grandmother's sister was the pilot of that float plane along with
her husband.
Gadabout had no family of his own so he was adopted
into ours.
He lived well into his 90s and died just a few years ago.
The family took care of him right up untill the end.
My grandmother's
sister is still alive and well in Florida. I will be visiting her next
week.
If there are any copies of the shows on tape I will do my best to make
them available.
will be in touch
Mike
UPDATE FROM MIKE - THE PREVIOUS LETTER !!!
From: MikeP165@aol.com
Subject: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
JP
WOW !!! I can't believe what you have put together in just a few days
Gaddis's web page is wonderful. I just returned from Florida and while there I had a
chance to visit my aunt Edna. She is 84 and still verry sharp. She can sit and talk
non stop about Gaddis story after story. He passed away Oct 23,1986 at age 90
.
She had donated most of his fishing gear to different fishing museums around the
country so they could shared by others. Gaddis had spent the last forty years of his
life with Aunt Edna and she maintained several photo albums of his life many never seen
outside the family.
She did not have them with her in Florida but keeps them
in Gaddis's last summer home on a beatuiful lake in central Maine. She invited
me up there this summer to view them. I was wondering if you would be interested
in having some for the web site. I am sure that she would be happy to make them
available. I will try to locate a laptop to show her the work you have done.
I am sure she will enjoy it.
Before I left she gave me another copy of his biography.
I now have two, one with his autograph. She also gave me a new deck of Gadabout
Gaddis playing cards. I would like to make one set of cards available to you. Just a
small token of appreciation for what you have done. I am sure Gadabout would want you to
have them.
Let me know if you are interested. Keep up the good work.
Michael Pelkey
165 Broadway
Methuen,MA 01844
From: roninrus@earthlink.net (Rusty)
Subject: Re: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
You're showing your age!
Gadabout was cool, also rich.
He owned an island in Lake George or
Little Lake George in Flordia called Hog Island.
Subject: Re: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
In rec.outdoors.fishing.fly, sdiel36214@aol.com (SDiel36214) wrote:
I had a Gadabout Gaddis book...in paperback. He wrote of his great
adventures from his days as a hobo to his final glory of flying fisherman.
He claims to have had the first syndicated TV show but it was much earlier
than c. 1967...50's probably although he was doing non-syndicated stuff
just a few years after TV got invented.
Gadabout needs to be re-born in the form of a modern-day show host.
Today's hosts are a bunch of candy asses. Gadabout could have whooped 'em.
Write if you want to know the publisher of the book...I gave it away to a
friend but could get that info for you.
From: "dick"
To: webmaster@seakayaker.com
Subject: gaddabout gaddis
JP
Your post on the old gaddabout show brought back fond memories of when
I lived back there in CT many years ago.I saw most of his shows for most of the
years it was on.I think of the ones that stand out in my mind were the one on the
Matane river in Quebec province.also the kennebec in Maine but there were
many more that were great.The old white wonder rod was what I got started with fly
fishing.I think it was because of all those shows I watched.anyway if you should find out
how to get hold of copies to his show please post or let me know via e-mail
cause i sure would like to see some of them again.
By the way last Oct I made a real nice trip to Conn,Maine,MASS, and R.I.
mostly fished salt water with a friend from Conn.We had very good luck
Spent a week on Marthas Vinyard fishing in the derby.we did not win but had a
wonderful time and managed to catch many strippers the largest being 36 inches on a
fly it was great to see such wonderful fishing back there much better now than
30 years ago.
Anyway good luck on your quest for gadabout and tight lines
DICK PATREDIS
dick@alaska.net
In the immortal words of OLD RANCID CRABBTREE
Any time a man ain't fishing he is frittering away
HIS LIFE.
Subject: Gadabout Gaddis
From: rm5552@gumby.engsvc.hazeltine.com (Bob Matarazzo X2631)
Dear JP,
I found your Gadabout page today. What a blast! Kindred spirits on the
Web! Your writeup could just as well have been written by me - just change
Greenwich Village to Brooklyn. No one dared step between me and the TV
set when Gadabout was on.
How did we ever get from that great form of entertainment, to those bass-yankers
who are always mumbling something about spahder wahr and are always trying
to sell you something? Ironically, Gad was a sales rep for Shakespeare
but he never explicitly sold the stuff through his TV show. The only thing
he did sell was a set of six lures which cost the grand total of one dollar.
This was done primarily to guage how many people were watching. I did buy
a set of those and still have some of them. Lately, I've been giving my
graphite rods a rest and have taken to swinging white Shakespeare rods
around. There are plenty who don't understand why. Poor souls.
As far as videos go, I have some good news and some bad. About fifteen
years ago after buying my first VCR, I purchased a tape called
"Fishing, USA". This was a collection of a dozen or so of the old
Flying Fisherman shows, minus the commercials of course. I've watched this
tape so many times that it's worn out in spots and appears jittery when you
view it. I've been trying to locate a new copy but so far have come up empty.
I did collect the following information, though: The "Fishing, USA" tape
was produced by Video Gems and then later by G.G. Video. Another set of
tapes entitled "The Flying Fisherman" (Volume 1 through Volume 4) was also
produced by G.G. Video (in 1987).
I've been trying desparately to locate
these since they contain episodes not included in the "Fishing, USA" tape.
I found all of this information in the Videolog at my local Blockbuster
video store. I tried to order the tapes through Blockbuster and also
Critics Choice Video, but was unsuccessful. I suspect that the Video Gems and
G.G. Video production companies no longer exist. There must be copies of
these tapes somewhere but its been a real challenge to find them.
Another source of Gadabout stuff is his autobiography entitled
"The Flying Fisherman". This book is not too hard to find through
book dealers that specialize in fishing books. I would recommend Judith
Bowman Books in New York as a source. Another book that I found was
published by Liberty Mutual Insurance and described the fishing at most
of the locations that were visited by Gadabout on his TV series.
An old
issue of the "New York Sportsman" magazine contains an article about Gadabout
and his experiences fishing in New York state. It was written by Ken Coleman,
who was another Shakespeare rep that took over some of Gadabout's sales
territory.
By the way Gadabout died in 1986 at the age of 90. He is buried in the town
of Moscow, Maine. An airport in nearby Bingham, Maine is named after him.
I've been trying to collect as much info on Gadabout as I can find. Let
me know if come up with any sources, especially the videos, and I'll do the
same for you.
Bob Matarazzo
Melville, NY
matarazz@hazeltine.com
Subject: gadabout
From: George Driscoll
Organization: USGS
I was in Sagamore, Ma. (Cape Cod) a few years ago and spotted an old
Lyman type boat complete with outboard and trailer, in pretty tough
shape. An older fellow came out of the house and told me his son was
looking for just a few hundred dollars for the boat. Having too many
boats of my own I passed.
A few weeks later I went by and the boat was
sold. Come to find out the man's son had bought it from Gadabout just
before he moved to Fla. It was the boat Gadabout used in all his Cape
Cod fishing tv shows. Damn..
Subject: Gadabout Gaddis
From: Michael Dameron
I enjoyed your pages about Mr. Gaddis. As a 20 year old GI during my
Viet Nam era training in Biloxi, Miss. I enjoyed his fishing shows a
great deal. Being from Florida and away from home his trips were a
welcome weekly "vacation."
Coincidentally, I was thinking about him the
other day and the way he could make a popping bug hop across the water.
That's been a solid 30 years since I watched him. I'd say he had an
affect on me. Thanks for taking me back.
Michael Dameron, Major, USAF (Retired)
Subject: GADABOUT GADDIS
From: bbierman@cyberdrive.net (Bruce A. Bierman)
WOW! Thank you so much for the Gadabout WEB pages!
Many many memorie and
warm fuzzy feelings when at probably 12 or 13 I'd sit glued to that old B&W
TV and watch SkyKing, Roy Rogers, and the Gadabout Gaddis followed by Wide
World of Sports!!!
I have heard recently that someone else now uses the monicker "Gadabout
GAddis" and was in the local sportsman show in Cleveland last year? It
seems the name trademark was not renewed. Do you know anything about it?
If you hear anything more about availability of videos or a new Gadabout
imposter, I'd like to know. Thanks. E-MAIL = bbierman@cyberdrive.net
Subject: Re: Gadabout Gaddis
From: rm5552@gumby.engsvc.hazeltine.com (Bob Matarazzo X2631)
John,
I forgot to include one additional bit of info in my previous message. I also
found a tape called "Fly Fishing in America". It is hosted by Homer Circle
and involves several fishing personalities demonstrating their brand of
flyfishing.
First one up on the tape is Ole Gad who talks about bass fishing
with a fly rod. It's nice but much too short. Also included is a very short
clip from one of the films Gadabout made in the 1940's. The tape is
produced by Sports Scan and distributed by Karol Video.
From: "b l"
Subject: Re: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
Thanks for asking that question.Brought back many nice memories of when my
fishing pal and I would watch it "Gadabout"....I believe it was on channel
9, in Chicago,back then.An "old,old" fan....bill
Yes, that was fishing the way it should be.Nothing "phoney" about
Gadabout.bill
From: BassBks@aol.com
Subject: Re: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
When I saw your message on Gadabout I was surprised that people still knew
who he was. Everyone seems to be caught up in all the staged fishing shows
and forgotten what honestly is. Much of what I put in the e-mail was taken
from the 1991 edition of my bibliography, Books of the Black Bass. I had
one other entry that mentioned a story about Gadabout and I'll add those two
entries here, just in case you might be interested.
*GADDIS, ROSCOE V. "GADABOUT" (as told to George Sullivan) - The Flying
Fisherman. 8vo. 182 pages. 1967. Trident Press. NY. The life story of
the first fisherman to become a national TV personality because of his
fishing.
Gadabout was a salesman for Shakespeare and began filming his
fishing trips to use in getting him in front of sportsman's groups in his
territory. Later he flew his own airplane around the country and was able to
visit all the top fishing spots.
Although he visited all the top fishing
spots he still featured bluegill, crappie and catfish as often as he did the
so called exotic sport fish. I have always enjoyed fishing shows but this is
the only one that I ever made a conscious effort to watch. I never felt that
Gadabout was putting us on, if he went fishing and didn't catch anything that
is the way it was shown on TV.
Twenty years ago when I was in Spokane, a
renowned TV fisherman spent a whole week on a local lake filming a half hour
show. I never watched that particular show again. This book included some
on Black Bass. Also a paperback edition by Pocket Books, NY, 16mo. Not
dated.
*BRYANT, NELSON - Fresh Air, Bright Water. 8vo. 283 pages. 1971(c).
American Heritage Press. NY.
Reprints of some 125 stories from Bryant's
column, Wood, Field and Stream, in the New York Times.
Consists of two or
three page short stories. Pages 98-99, Gadabout Gaddis Gives Lessons On
Kennebec River Smallmouth Bass. Another story concerns Bass fishing in the
Everglades. Bass are mentioned in several other stories. There are more
stories about salt water fishing than anything else.
Best wishes and keep in touch!
Clyde Drury
Subject: The Flying Fisherman
From: b-fling@ix.netcom.com (Bill Fling)
Like you, I remember fondly being brought up with the flying fisherman.
Not until I was in my 40's did his memory come back to life. I spent 5
years teaching in Bingham, ME the home of Gad and worked often with my
students at the annual fly-in at the Gadabout Gaddis Airport.
In 1986, I purchased Penobscot Lake Lodge and found in the photo
archives several pictures of old R.V. standing next to his plane at the
end of the dock. I had another one also of Paul Newman and wife Joann
boarding the plane for the trip back to Greenville.
My most interesting possession is a signed copy of Gad's book The
Flying Fisherman.
Good work and thanks for the memories.
Bill
Bill Fling Tel. (315) 298-3044
SALMON RIVER ANGLERS LODGE
e-mail: b-fling@ix.netcom.com
'SALMON RIVER/LAKE ONTARIO SPORTFISHING REPORTS'
'http://www.salmon-river.com'
From: pocki@aol.com (POCKI)
Subject: Re: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
Talk about the first fisherman to be on tv. I was about 13 when I first
saw him on WRGB out of Albany NewYork. What he did then was amazing. The
places he visited and as you say the look of the cowboy. Like Roy Rogers
and Hopalong Cassidy. Yea I remember, I am glad to see that someone else
does also.
I wonder if Bill Dance and those guys ever heard of him.
Best of luck in finding the films.Maybe the old TV
station may have some in their archives. Look at 1947 or 48. Let me know
how you make out. where are you form. I was originally from the Pittsfield
ma area. WRGB is one of the oldest tv stations around if not the oldest
affilliate of NBC. Like to hear from you.
Subject: Gadabout Gaddis - The Flying Fisherman
From: "Eric & Judy Arsenault"
Thank you for your Web Page on Gadabout Gaddis. Just before Christmas I
was searching for fishing book prices for a friend who wanted to sell his
collection. I was talking with a business man in Ontario, Canada, and on a
lark, I asked him if he ever heard of Gadabout Gaddis. He immediately said
" The Flying Fisherman". Boy ! was I happy and surprised.
My story on this started in 1967 when I left Prince Edward Island to
venture forth into the world. I left by train and my father gave me a book
to read. It was " The Flying Fisherman". I have always been a trout
fisherman and my father thought the book appropriate. I lost the book over
the years and only recently thought about seeing if I could find a copy.
Well, you can imagine my joy when this person told me he had 5 or 6 copies
in good condition. I will soon be re-reading and getting aquainted with
Gadabout again after so many years.
I missed all the TV shows. On P.E.I. we only had one channel, Canadian
Broadcasting Corp. with not the best of broadcasting. In reading your
letters I did get Sky King, no Roy Rogers, and no Gadabout Gaddis.
An interesting thing I did read in the letters was that Gadabout used a
white Shakspeare rod. I find it ironic that I used a white Shakspeare rod
from when I was 10 years old ( bought it with my paper money)
until I discovered composite graphite in 1987. I still have two white
rods stored. I take them out when fishing friends come in and tell them
"tall tales" about the many great days I had fishing with them.
Eric Arsenault
NEED I SAY MORE !!!!
We would especially like to thank Pocketbook and the authors for giving us
permission to reprint several sections of Gadabout's book!
