 Hey everyone, welcome to my show Friday PM. I'm very happy to be here at Calabash Cigar. We're in South Portland. It's a really interesting place and I have a very interesting guest as well. So you're gentlemen, you go by the name of Trig. Trig. Trig. It's short for Trigva. Okay. Trigva is a Norwegian name. Norwegian? Okay. By the father of both Norwegian. Born and raised in Norway. And so you were born in the U.S.? Yeah, I was born in Baltimore. Baltimore, Maryland. Okay. And so I know you have a very interesting life story. So I thought it'd be kind of interesting to start kind of way back at the beginnings. You were born in Baltimore, a big city kind of life in those days? No, I left there very early age. My father was a Coast Guard man. We moved every three or four years. I was someplace else. Yeah. New London, Connecticut, then South Portland, Maine, and Staten Island, New York. And so as a youth, I spent a lot of time here in Maine. What was Baltimore and Philadelphia like in those days? Was it as kind of bustling as it is now a little bit? Well, my first big job out of high school was Curtis Publishing Company. Okay. And they ladies home journal Saturday evening post. Right. Right. Country gentleman. I was office boy there. And then went into the service about when I was about 18. So you were working before you went into the service for a public and it was all a lot of magazines. Yeah. Yep. And so you went into the service. My grandfather was in World War Two. He was training. He's passed away, but he was training to be a gunner for one of the planes that dropped the bombs in Hiroshima, trained the whole time in California and his team didn't get picked. They all drew straws and he got sent home. And that was his career in World War Two. I was in a navigator in B 24. Okay. Right. Right. Similar. So and were you also as he was in the Air Force then? Navy Air Force Navy Air Force. Okay. Most of most of my tour was in the South Pacific. South Pacific went all those little little islands. Yeah. We flew patrol effective. We were on a patrol for when they went into Iwo Jima in those islands. We just flew cover for the massive amount of ships. The ships went when they were just flying to see if any anybody flying around. It shouldn't be. And was this the time of kamikaze and things like that? There was that something to be worried about? No, no, they weren't doing very few around. Right. At that point, they the kamikaze went after the battleships and the battleships. Okay. They didn't bother a little plane flying. Right. We tried to any shipping so forth around the islands that shouldn't be there. We take care of them. Okay. Wow. Oh, I mean, and so how many years were you kind of stationed there for the duration of the war? Well, that lasted about a year and a half. Okay. And I came back to the back to the states and food. Yep. Yeah. So the war ended and you came back to the states or you finished your time before the war ended? Well, I flew for a while with Natch Naval Air Transport Service. And then we during that period, we were flying some of between the islands picking up wounded and taking him to various hospitals and around. Okay. Okay. And so, you know, you probably 18, 19, 20, the war ends. You came back to Baltimore after that or no? No, I went back to Pennsylvania. I finished high school in a remote and suburban Pennsylvania suburban Philadelphia. Sure. Okay. And I went back to there and stay there a while and use my GI built to go to dramatic school and so forth. Correct. So this is what's kind of an interesting, I think to the audience as well. So that I mean, this is kind of a time that was I think there was a lot of kind of famous actors around that same generation that kind of got out of the military and went to drama school. Sure. Yeah. And that's what you did as well. Yeah, I went to dramatic school and met a kid by the name of Paul Newman. A little kid by the name of Paul Newman. We did some shows together. Yeah. In other words, like a summer stock where we did did a show a week every show every week. We did a different show. Okay. So sometimes we're on the same show together. Sometimes not. How long were you living in Philadelphia around in those days? Is that when you're doing some acting in Philadelphia? Only on small theaters, you know, local theaters. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And then but after this, after I left Massachusetts, I came back to Philadelphia, went into a TV station to see if they had any acting jobs. Because they didn't have any but they did need some cameramen. Okay. I became a cameraman, cameraman, right? So you switched from in front of the camera to behind the camera. Right. And this would have been in like the 50s by now or yeah, early, early 50s, late 40s, late 40s. And yeah, that's right. And I became a cameraman there. I met guy by name of Kovacs. Yeah. And I it was easy to get him right in front. So I got in touch with played some of the bit parts with him on his show. And as as part of the whole thing, right, everybody could get into the act. Yeah. Yeah. So that so in those days, for the audience, they'd like to always know like how how was television made in those days? I mean, it's obviously different. And you were was there video in the same way that they have video now? Were you filming a lot more on film almost or? No, it was all live live. Yeah, there was no no way to record. You couldn't record it. They never everything was live. What you did, you did. Yeah, you can't do it again. We can't do it again. It was literally like a early type of radio. And it just it when it went out there, beamed out through that frequency, that was all they have was right. Whatever you did was was there. Yeah, it makes it more immediate, maybe more nerve wracking in some ways. But well, you got to watch what you're saying. Right, right. Yeah. Your language has to be pure. Right. So for the audience that's a lot younger, like you worked with Ernie Kovacs. Is that correct? Right. And who was Ernie Kovacs? You tell everybody a little bit about who he was? Because I think he he passed away pretty long ago from a small radio station in Trenton. Yeah. And he was hired there to do some shows at WPTZ in in Philadelphia. And he had several things, various types. Right. And so he was a comic kind of, I think was he kind of very, very comic. I read it because again, this was kind of before my time. But I had read his Wikipedia, learned a little bit about him and that he was a big influence on a lot of Johnny Carson, a lot of other stand up type of talk shows. He was an innovator on quite a few things. I've seen some things now that are being done that he did early on way back before you could he after he left Philadelphia, he went to CBS in New York, New York, and I went with him to CBS in New York. Okay. I was in there for about almost two years. Did he interview celebrities to very seldom? Yeah. No. So was it mostly just him doing a lot of his show? He had he had a singer with him called Edie Adams. Okay. We eventually married. He married her. Okay. Yeah. And her name was Edie. Edie Adams. Yeah. And so you worked with Ernie for some of the times in the 50s. And didn't he have a early unfortunate accident with a car or something? After that was after you had a run on CBS? Yep. He then went out to Hollywood to do some shows. Yeah. That's when he evidently drove his car around one of those winding roads. Have you ever been to LA? I used to live there. Yeah. Right. The Mulholland Hills and everything. Yeah. I know he I know what we he wasn't drunk. He never was in drinking. No, just maybe speeding or he might have had a cocktail, but he wasn't a drinker. So I think he just lost control. He probably was lighting his cigar or something like that. Right. And you lost control. It seemed like that was a lot of people in Hollywood were because James Dean I think had a car crash. Yeah. It's kind of happens a lot. It's definitely a very interesting town for very bad roads and a lot of you know exciting things to do in between. It seems like every couple years you hear of a celebrity that has a unfortunate automobile accident. Well, I was I didn't go with him to California. There's nothing for me to do. I was kind of floating around there in New York. Yeah. And I started I even work backstage on a few Broadway shows as a stage man. Yeah. That sort of thing. But then I went back and I met a lady who was secretary to J. P. Miller. Okay. It wrote Days of Wine and Roses. I do know that. Yeah. She wanted to go out to California to work with him. And I drove her and her whole family out to California. Worked there for a while. And the Days of Wine and Roses that was with Jack Lemon as far as I remember. Yeah. And it was a great show. Yeah, it was a great one. And so were you in New York for a long stretch of time after that? Or I stayed in California. But I didn't stay there too long. I had nothing to do with back. Yeah. And I then I'm trying to get the time frame in there. Right. If I can. But it was it was kind of a touch and go time for me. Okay. I was not out of work. But I wasn't into anything good. Exactly. I was never unemployed. Yeah. I could always grab a show on on Broadway. Just walk and see what they need someone to move a chair from one place to the chair. Right. Exactly. Right. No, I mean that's and and you're still pretty young guy enjoying yourself. Had you been married at that time when you work in a lot of those plays or let's see. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And so does your wife still with us nowadays or no, no, she she passed away only about two years ago two years ago. But we were divorced long ago, long ago, a different time with somebody else. Right. Exactly. Well, so for the audience, I mean, it's pretty exciting. Are you lived a long life? Did you want to tell everybody how old that you are? How old I am now? Yes. I'm I'll be 101 101. That is exciting. I'm gradually I'll be probably close to then, although there's a quick turnaround time on the show. So there's not that many centenarians around. Is that what you call a centenarian? Oh, yeah. Even in Maine, I think there's probably I mean, there's there's some is there a club or anything or no, no, we don't do that kind of thing. Yeah. But you look great for 100 and almost 101. So we're we're in New York. And that's that's where you kind of were for a longer period of time. Was that a period of time in your life that was and I I latched on to I can go back to Philadelphia then. Yeah, I'm going back to Philadelphia where I got involved with teleprompter running prompting shows on local channel CBS in Philadelphia. Okay. And then I traveled with teleprompter did some local I did some shows with I mean, I ran the teleprompter for some for Adley Stevenson, who ran for president. Yeah, I've traveled with him while he was on his campaign. Right. That was quite interesting. Yes. Adley Stevenson and that would have been probably sixties kind of time. We're talking about he ran he ran against a guy named Eisenhower. He was against Eisenhower. Okay. And you were the so when you talk about the teleprompter you you were on the early days of the teleprompter and when politicians were on there and so yeah, yeah, everything I did was early. He definitely sounds that but I mean, even tell the television was kind of in its infancy. That would have been in those days. And so but with the teleprompter, you were working on on those where you were helping to type in the the gentlemen's political speeches and the script. I type it up on a long roll of paper. Yeah, very complicated. But it's right. It was a good job to do right interesting. And it but this is also like what they still have till this day for most politicians that they are on teleprompters. They don't. Well, they're not all teleprompter. There are several companies that have right into it. Right. But everything is called teleprompter. Right. It becomes they were the original ones. It's almost like when you hear of Q tips or here of Kleenex, it's a brand, but it's such a dominant brand that that's all you think of. So teleprompter is a company you work for them specifically like Xerox or you know, type of company. And they were the only game in town for teleprompters. Yeah. But now that same type of thing. Yeah. And so had you after your early times in acting, had you gone back to acting after that or that was kind of the most that you were involved in acting? I didn't do anymore. Got behind the scenes more. It's always behind. Right. I worked prompters for Carson, Johnny Carson. Right. Jack Clark. Yeah. Or Merv Griffin. Merv Griffin. Yeah. So you you probably have some fun stories of all of these folks that and they all came and went. That's I behaved myself and kept out of the way. Right. Right. I had to do. Yeah, exactly. You weren't going to all the Malibu parties or things like that. No. Because you were working for them. So that kind of gets us up to when you got involved in early cable television. I mean, I know that that's that's what we're on now is cable TV. And yeah, I was involved in the early as I was working at teleprompter. They were starting the cables. They were one of the originators with running the cable. Okay. Yeah, we would. I was working a couple of shows and someone at the office said, Hey, would you like to run a studio? We're setting up a studio uptown. Yeah. Well, you're sure. Okay. All right. All right. Well, they were they were they were in a high rise building up at the end of Manhattan up on the 15th floor. They rented an apartment and started setting up the equipment so they could microwave up to the next building and send send the signal over. It was one way of running cable by microwave in the beginning. Really? It wasn't really cable then. So it was like through still like a microwave. So it was still like a being beamed around almost like satellite type of thing. Kind of hard to say like my microwave was just a big dish. Yeah. On the top of the building and we said, I don't know how they did it. I was how they beamed it. Yeah. I was not in the technical land of anything. Right. Right. I don't know how they did it, but they did it. But they did it. They started the system of running cable instead of broadcasting. We would cable cast everything. Okay. Because we come over the wire and I don't thought through the air. Okay. And that started because it does seem as though that probably like a lot of technology started in New York a lot of the time where we and it was this kind of like a cable closed circuit type of thing where it went out at first to New York before they went to everywhere else in the US. Right. Yeah. Kind of beta testing it there. And you were working on it and doing stuff with the cable stations there early on. Yes. And what year did that start expanding out? Oh, that would have been you got me there. Yeah. Well, it's probably like 60 70s. Yeah. HBO, you know, they're still around. They're giant. They were kind of one of the earlier folks putting movies out there on cable. Right. There's a lot of very new technology. I'm not a tech guy either. But I know that it was when I was a kid that we still didn't have small towns in Maine. We didn't have cable. It was it didn't get to even a lot of parts of Maine. But so you were in New York all through till the 80s or so or up until yeah, I retired from the cable system. 82 82. Yeah. Yeah. And then it came up to Maine to retire. Yep. Right. Why not? So you got to Maine in 1982. Where did you move to in Maine? Like what part of Portland? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Ended up in Soco. Soco. Yeah. And so do you still live in Soco to this day? Or at the present time, I'm in a retirement home. Yeah. In more Portland area. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Before we get going, did you have a great interesting story of back in the day to regale us with that? Anything would be fun? Well, story caught me there. Yeah. The whole life was interesting. Right. Right. I'd like to go through it again. Right. Exactly. Go through and see it all again. So many people hobnailed with incoming presidents. Yeah. JFK. I work promptors for him one day. Yeah. Although I didn't work it for him because he had a script already. And then he he waved it to me. I was sitting down in front of the stage. He just goes like this. So he started to add limits. I just had to sit there. Wow. Yeah. He said he was going to use the prompter. Right. So he was kind of like how Trump was always saying he doesn't use the teleprompter. And he kind of go off script all over the place. He didn't need it really. Yeah. Right. So that was JFK. And so and you if you would have been probably pretty young guy in those days somewhat and working with him. Yeah. And then 30s. 30s. Yeah. And was that a long ways before he got assassinated or around the same like. Oh yeah. He was running for president. He was running. Running for president. And then he made it through. He was just a senator. Yeah. Okay. And so do you feel that you worked a lot more with politicians after the time that you not too many. That was only that that was the early 50s when that I was working that venue of prompting. Yeah. And as I say it was ran around the country with Adlai Stevens. Right. Right. It wasn't it was Adlai Stevens and the guy who was anti war or what was I feel like I remember. Yeah what his. Right. He was kind of lost in the shuffle. I didn't bother reading it. Right. Right. Well but that was that in those days when you because you had to go from stop to stop because you were the teleprompter guy. Yeah. Different. Different assignments. Was that an interesting life being on the road with these guys. Oh sure. Yeah staying at different hotels and get free lodging. Right. And big cities a lot of times because that's where they want to speak at. Right. Sometimes smaller towns too. Were there any cities that you really enjoyed when you were doing all that traveling like more than others. Chicago. Chicago. Yeah. It's nice. And it was a great great great city. And before we sign off the election here is coming up. Are you excited about that. Sure. Yeah. If I can get to vote I'll vote. Yeah yeah yeah. You don't want to know who for a little. I mean I think it's all kind of been a wild time. I mean I think politics has gotten so zany that you must have seen that. I mean one other thing that I could ask you about was being early on in cable. Have you noticed that the kind of the rise of cable TV in both of our lifetimes has really changed politics a lot. I don't know if it's for the better but it's turned it more into getting TV ratings being all about that. What's going to be the biggest exciting thing on TV. It's a cable just does seem to always need to have the fresh new thing to talk about. And it doesn't blend as well with politics. I don't understand when I first got into in the TV they were three channels to watch exactly even when I was a kid you had ABC CBS and NBC. And they could get PBS here and there. That was it. Yep. You had three anchors and you kind of really felt like you could respond to who those three anchors on the news were. You had a favorite like Chet Huntley or. Right. Cronkite. Cronkite. Right. That type but they worked with Walter Cronkite. Walter Cronkite. Sometimes. He was a great guy to work with. So different. Right. It's hard to compare what's going on now. It is. It's. And the technology's cut and so. They do things now that they wouldn't even dream of doing right in the fifties. Well I appreciate your time. I don't want to take up too much of it. I know that you're having a. It's OK. Yeah. Back to my pipe pipe and exactly having the card game and everything else. Yes. Thank you so much for your time. It was great talking to you. Thank you very much for tuning in. Have a good night. Take care. Bye bye.