Baltimore radio and broadcast personality Dan Rodricks tells of the death a few weeks ago of Big Little Joey Peske, an old-time vaudevillian who claimed to have worked decades before with the June Taylor Dancers of Jackie Gleason fame.
Peske was a staple on wjz-tv's
Breakfast With Rodricks
show and on his WBAL(AM) radio show before that. Rodricks called him the most talented man he ever knew: "kitschy but hip; Henny Youngman meets Eric Bogosian."
Peske narrated pieces for Rodricks' show but was never seen on camera and, of course, not on radio, either.
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That's because Peske wasn't real. He was created by Gary Yealdhall, a graphic artist then in his early 30s, who called Rodricks' radio show as a prank and, after letting Dan in on the joke, provided hundreds of hours of humor and music parody before he died at age 42.
