Johnny Carson died the other day. Except for the very youngest of you, you will remember the name for he was host of television's Tonite Show for probably 30 years, and he was always good for a laugh. He may have flirted with the risque every now and then, but his humor was clean ... certainly clean enough you didn't mind if your youngsters saw and heard it, even though he came on late enough at night that most of our kids were already in bed. The reason this came to mind is because Johnny Carson was the star performer at the 1959 Georgia Poultry Banquet, the big annual event of the Georgia Poultry Federation. In the early 1950's the poultry industry started an aggressive promotional campaign to get people to eat more chicken, and they targeted chain store buyers with the slogan "Wise Buyers Choose Georgia Fryers" and the poultrymen were reasonably successful in getting top people from the food chains to come to Georgia to be wined and dined ... and of course, to be sold on the merits of Georgia chicken. The first events were parades and events in Gainesville. Eventually the parades were replaced by the banquets, and anybody who was anybody in the chicken business attended. These events were held in an Atlanta hotel, and to draw large crowds, and especially to impress the chain store people, some nationally known entertainer was brought in ... even though the industry had to pay them big bucks to come, and pay all their expenses to boot.
My memory of Johnny Carson is that he earned every dollar he was paid. Not only was he a great entertainer the night of the banquet, he also was not at all bashful in telling the chain store poultry buyers that they ought to buy their chickens in Georgia. He was young then, but he did a yeoman's job for the Georgia poultry industry.
This is Gordon Sawyer from a window on historic Green Street.
Saturday
May 10th, 2025
11:39PM
