Kermit Schaefer

Kermit Schaefer was an American writer and producer for radio and television in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best known for his collections of "bloopers" - the word Schaefer coined for mistakes and gaffes of radio and TV announcers and personalities. Bloopers came into prominence in 1931, when radio announcer Harry Von Zell mispronounced the name of then-President of the United States Herbert Hoover as "Hoobert Heever" on the air, but Schaefer's is believed to be the first attempt at collecting and presenting them. Other similar famous finds of Schaefer's include an unnamed political reporter intoning, "The rumor that the President would veto the bill is reported to have come from a high White Horse souse," and veteran radio host Paul Harvey breaking into uncontrollable laughter at a story about a pet poodle.

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These were collected and released in LP audio collections such as Pardon My Blooper! and Your Slip is Showing, which were briefly popular in the 1960s. A movie version called and a single movie, also entitled Pardon My Blooper was released in 1974 These led the way for such current TV shows as TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, hosted by Dick Clark. Schaefer himself gained minor celebrity under the nickname "The Blooper Man".

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Schaefer has come under criticism from TV and radio historians who have noted his deceptive presentations in his albums. If Schaefer could not obtain an actual audio recording of the event, he would simply hire actors and recreate the event - without offering any disclaimer. This led to some misrepresentations. For example, the blooper by Harry Von Zell, described above, was not recorded. So Schaefer recreated it - but had "Von Zell"'s mispronunciation occur as the President was being introduced to an audience, which would have been highly embarrassing. Von Zell's blooper occurred at the end of a brief presentation in honor of the President's birthday, which, while still embarrassing, was not quite as mortifyingly so, as President Hoover was not present.

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In at least one case, Schaefer may have committed unwitting slander by recording a dramatization of an incident which never happened. One of the most famous bloopers offered by Schaefer featured famous children's radio show host "Uncle Don" Carney, who, broadcasting on WOR in New York and mistakenly believing his microphone was off at the end of his show, segued from a gentle goodbye song to the children to coarsely announcing, "We're off? Good, well, that oughtta hold the little bastards!" Again, no audio existed, so Schaefer recreated the blooper; however, a contemporary account by Variety in 1930 noted that a children's radio show host in Philadelphia - an imitator of Uncle Don - blurted out "little bastards" in the background in front of an open mic, and was promptly fired for it. Uncle Don himself seems never to have said it, but Schaefer's recording has created an unflattering urban legend.

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After his death, Schaefer's title of "Keeper of the Bloopers" was passed to Dick Clark, who hosted and produced a long-running series of blooper specials (and a weekly program) beginning in the early 1980s and continuing until the present. By the time Clark picked up the mantle, recordings of bloopers were far more easily obtainable, and in fact were often provided willingly by the producers of films and TV shows as a way of promoting their product.

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Kermit Schaefer related Images and Photos (experimental)

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