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THE
SECRET WORLD OF DEX CARD |
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THE
SECRET WORLD OF DEX CARD |
| It's a concept
that features a famous recording group. Every seat in the huge auditorium
is filled with a restless fan, waiting impatiently for his or her favorites
to walk on stage.
But the stars don't appear. As it happens occasionally, because of crossed up plane schedules, the famed group is late. Curtain time arrives, the passes. The worried sponsors of the concert, pacing backstage, hear the young crowd's angry murmuring grow in volume as time shuffles on. Suddenly the spot light outlines a tall, lanky guy strolling on stage wearing a big grin. "I'm Dex Card..." he begins casually. When the group finally appears a breathless twenty minutes later, the audience is in a much more cheerful mood, thanks to the deft touch and infectious wit of Dexter Card. "This is the world I really dig," says Dex, "in front of a crowd of people, reaching out to them so that i can see their reaction when I toss out a few gags. "Of course," he hastens to add, "radio is my first love. The crowds you talk to through the microphone are a thousand times bigger than a personal appearance. But at a concert or at a record hop things are a little more personal. You don't have to wait for a phone call or a letter to know whether the guys or gals dig you, or toss you a few put-downs." When Dexter Card was born his parents were vacationing at a winter resort called Meddybemps, Maine. "Try working Meddybemps into a conversation sometime," Dex quips. The Card's hometown was really Portland, Maine, where Dexter lived until he graduated from high school. His college years were spent in Kent Hill Junior College, in Kent Hill, Maine, and Bates College in Lewiston. "I sort of helped out with family finances during these day sin high school," he says, "with summer jobs as a soda jerk, or a spot as a theatre usher. One summer I stacked up thousands of miles selling ice cream bars to tourists and their youngsters in a resort area." Dex got his first real taste of the excitement of entertaining when he was 13 years old. "I stretched the truth a little about my age," he relates, "to get a job as the mike man for a bingo game at an amusement park in Old Orchard,, Maine. I wa pretty shaky the first few times I called the games whenever the crowd of people stared at me. If you've seen bingo players, you know how they hand on every word you say. "Then, I guess I developed a streak oh ham, because I relaxed and started to work out different deliveries, mixing up gags and chatter with calling out the numbers and letters." The happy reaction of these small audiences made a deep impression on Dex. He loved entertaining people. The feeling he got was not too different from the reaction of a crowd when he starred as a top-notch football and basketball player in school. Fate seemed to be trying to guide Dex along a predetermined course. the kid who had practiced news delivery from stories in newspapers, holding a hair brush to simulate a microphone, got a big chance when, at 15, he was asked to fill in for an announcer who had become ill. True, Dex may have given fate a bit of a helping hand by being at the right place at the right time - but who could have dreamed that such a break would just happen? He stayed with the station on a part-time basis. Dex received additional training in radio when he wa with the Army in Germany, handling announcing duties for the Armed Forced Radio Network. "During the next few years," he says, "I worked at a number of radio stations, including WHIM in Providence; WADA in New York; WCOP in Boston; and WERE in Cleveland. I climbed aboard the WLS bandwagon in May of 1964." Since Dex Card's name is almost perfect for show business, many people assume it's not his own. "It's really mine," he says. "Actually, I was named after an old friend the family's." Although his daily show, personal appearances for civic and charitable activities, and record hops keep Dex busy, he does manage to squeeze in an occasional golf game or ski outing with his wife Anah, and his three daughters, Dorene, 4, Darcy, 6, and Dexanne, 9. he also likes to tinker under the hood of the family auto. The relaxed, witty style of Dex's show, combined with his for flair for showmanship, make it one of the most popular listening "habits'' for Chicagoland fans. |
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