By the late-1970s I was able to only attend some, usually
one per year, of the two week-long Muscular Dystrophy Association summer camps
in northern Illinois, so I missed many of the weeks Danny attended.
But here is some record of the camps we shared.
The 1978 Ravenswood West camp was a notable one. Danny was the leader of a cabin whose
permanent name was the Raven’s Nest, and, Danny being Danny, he quickly renamed
it The Cuckoos' Nest for the week. His
guys that week, as they had every week, had a blast. The campers were all veterans, and long-time
volunteers in that cabin included Rich Spangler, Brad Levin, and Bob
Secco. That week, Jimmy Liptak was the
leader of the cabin next door to Danny’s, Freddy Martin was nearby, and I was
the Activities Program Director. That year, camper attendance
was so high that MDA ran a camp at the same time at the nearby Ravenswood East campsite,
as well as a full camp the following week at Camp Hastings across Lake Hastings. The two Ravenswood camps combined their carnival
night at the West campsite, which was great since so many of the campers and
volunteers were very well known to each other and it was a grand reunion that
evening. I hope to post up later photos
from the week at camp, but here in this post I’ll offer a few that featured
Danny.
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| Randy Smit and Danny Martin in Dueling Kazoos |
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Danny leading his cabin through the "Papers" skit, with "Godfather" Joey Brown at the center.
The did the skit, an oldie-but-goodie, entirely in Spanish, which was very avant garde and very funny. |
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| Jimmy Liptak and Freddy Martin in front of the Cuckoos' Nest |
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Danny and his "bride" Lisa Bertolini at the Camp send-up of a Las Vegas marriage ceremony.
They are joined by Patty Davy and Greg Smith on the left of the photo. |
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| Danny, in his iconic red coat, with Mike Oliver at the Carnival |
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Danny and the boys. Among others, Jimmy Liptak and Freddy Martin are on the far left,
and Mike Goodman and Dana Brinkman are sitting far right. |
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| Danny in 1978 |
In 1978 I was unable to participate in the camp session the following week at
Camp Hastings, but I did visit and took some photographs.
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| Danny with sister Loretta in 1978 at Camp Hastings |
In 1979 at Camp Hastings Danny was cabin leader of a group
of teenage boy campers, the age group he usually worked with. I was nearby as cabin leader of campers a little
older.
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| Danny entertaining in a skit in 1979 (Photo by Bob Solario) |
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| Danny once again donned the iconic red carnival coat in 1979 |
Terry Coor was a long-time camp buddy of Danny’s
and mine. He was very funny, and his
particular condition rendered his speech pattern fairly identifiable and one
Danny, who was great at impersonations, could do well. My Terry Coor wasn’t bad, and so in 1979 we
three decided to be edgy in a send-up of the old “To Tell the Truth” TV show,
where three people each asserted he (or she) was a particular person notable
for one thing or another. A panel would
ask questions and guess which of the three was truly the person each was claiming
to be. Finally the truth would be
revealed. Well, with some trepidation we
put on the skit (as we called such a thing at camp; Danny and I always were
amused at how Hollywood types referred to such as a “sketch”). All three of us kept our right index fingers pointing
straight up, as Terry sometimes did when speaking. Rich Westley served as the game show host who
asked the questions. Well, we did the
skit, unscripted, and it was a big hit.
Terry even set up his own joke by rejecting a question and asking Rich
to ask him a different question for which, unbeknownst to anyone else, he had a
great punch line. Danny and I, and Rich
as the host, went on in later summers to do two more “To Tell the Camp Truth”
skits, first with Blanche Hamende (yes, Danny and I wore wigs as we
impersonated Blanche and her deep, gravelly voice) and then with Bob Schumacher,
and finally a spin off (just like Hollywood!) featuring the Coor Family on “Family
Feud.”
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"My name is Terry Coor!"
No, MY name is Terry Coor!"
(L to R) Rich Westley, Danny Martin, Terry Coor, & Rick Balsamo |
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| To Tell the Camp Truth with Terry Coor, in 1979 |
