John Pela

Local television newsman/announcer, host of "Saturday Hop" and "Captain Mercury":

I remember dat John Pela show wit da space ship stuff (Captain Mercury). My brudda was on dat show and stuck a Royal Castle burger wrapper on da cylinder dat spun around to look like da stars flyin' by da ship. We liked dat show da best! He always left his trade mark everywhere.

Response by Cathy:
Coodja see da wrappa on'na TV? If dat happend maybe ya bruthuh was'a secret agent fah da Royal Castle! Sneakin' on'na show disquised as a reguluh kid, plasterin' da wrappa on'na star spinna' gizmo, an gettin' em free advahtiezin'. What'cha think?

We saw John Pela (dressed up like da space guy) atda Beach!

He was so neat (was that the word we used for "cool" in those days?). Hadda space suit anna space helmit--he even had space shooose. He was holdin'na hat cause othuhwise ya woudn'ta bin able ta see his face. An he was so cute. I jist loved 'im! Got his awtagraph an' everything.

It musta been one ah dose POP days (Pay One Price) cause dats de ONLY tme we evah went tuddah' Beach.

Oh yeah, an' while we wah waitin' in line to go on wunnah' da rides dis kid onna flyin' helicoptahs (ya know, da ones dat you could make go up an' down while dey went aroun' an' aroun'?--da ones we yoosta make go way up high annen pull dat bar back an' forth so deyed get real jerky.) anyways dis kid was throwin' up all ovah EVERYBODY onna groun. I kin still pictcha it. Dis circle ah throw up comin' down from nah sky and everybody runnin' and screamin'. It was so funny. But ah guess it was only funny ta us 'cause we wasn't inna path.