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THE SOCK HOP SATURDAY NIGHT CREW

MARK EDWARDS
had been a Bridgeport area resident most of his life. Currently residing in Southington, Connecticut, Mark grew up in Bridgeport's west end on a dead end street named after his great-uncle.

He and his older brother Larry (unrelated to his Executive Producer), younger sister Vicki and parents Joe and Arlene enjoyed their modest home near the banks of the Rooster River on Renwick Place.

Mark attended Bryant Elementary School on Maplewood Avenue from Kindergarten right through the 8th grade. His class would be the final 8th grade class to do so at Bryant, as the Bridgeport School System finally adopted a Middle School format, eliminating 7th and 8th grades at grammar schools.

For two years he attended Notre Dame HS in nearby Fairfield although he finished his high school education back in Bridgeport at Central HS. It was there that Mark first got "on the air" at the schools radio station, WCHS. With this tenure inclusive his complete radio experience encompasses more than thirty years.

After graduating, Mark entered several different fields, including recording studio engineer and technician, freelance photographer and restaurant entrepreneur.From 1981 through 1988 he volunteered his time as a Junior Achievement advisor and as a J.A. Center Manager from 1981 until 1996.

It wasn't until 1990 that he decided to return to the air by applying for work at the station he was involved with at J.A. On January 1, 1991 he began a tenure that lasted nearly 13 years. At the station he also served for 10 years as the Assistant Chief Engineer. Budget cuts and mixed motives finally brought about the end on September 11, 2003.

Mark's hobbies include photography, videography, classic cars, motorcycles, boating, old movies, old music and computers. He finds little tolerance for current TV or radio programming, which was one of the catalysts for getting his own show on the radio. Current movies also find little favor with Mark, which he considers to be "all effects, no plot." He thoroughly enjoys Marx Brothers movies, the old Sci-Fi monster-on-the-loose flicks of the 50's and 60's, and other classics from all pre-80's decades.

He is the Alternate Spokesman and co-webmaster for his car club, the Classic Nights Car Club of Monroe, Connecticut.

LARRY O'NEILL
originally hails from Memphis, Tennessee, a city famous for pork BBQ and great music, just to mention a couple of things.  In the days before television was available in the mid-South Larry would spend many hours listening to the radio, becoming a big fan of the various serial radio shows.

The Big Band era slowly gave way to R&B groups, and Rock and Roll provided a welcome relief to the Country songs that were so prolific in the area during the late 1940’s.  The armory (where the Memphis Belle sat on display) was the scene of many dances, and big names rolled through Memphis on a fairly regular basis.

Sprinkled throughout Memphis and the surrounding area were various night clubs and road houses where the local talent could try out their skills.   You could stroll down Union Avenue past Sam Phillips’ Sun Recording Studios where the careers of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Charlie Rich were launched.

Sun’s catalog of Master Recordings now exceeds 7,000, including Merle Haggard, Patsy Cline, The Dixie Cups, Conway Twitty, Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Patti Page, Webb Pierce, the Shangri-Las, Ricky Skaggs, Randy Travis and many others.

Dewey Phillips (no relation to Sam Phillips) was given a shot at broadcasting in October 1949 when he started the “Red, Hot and Blue” program which was broadcast “from the magazine (mezzanine) level of the Chisca Hotel.”   “Daddy-O” Dewey was famous for making up words (“Deegawwwww”), talking over records, cracking jokes, mispronouncing the sponsors name, and encouraging customers to say when they walked in the door, “Phillips sent me!”  People would tune in just to see what Dewey was going to say next.  In 1954 Phillips played the first Elvis record ever recorded, “That’s Alright Mama” and the face of the music industry changed forever.

These were the roots of Larry’s love of music, dance and radio.  The years beyond those early days in Memphis brought Larry to New York (1962) and eventually Connecticut (1990).  Over those years, Larry’s accomplishments include Ballroom Dance Competitor, award winning amateur photographer, 5 children, 10 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren.  Various careers include IBM, Chase Manhattan Bank, and The NASDAQ Stock Market.

It was during the Fall of 1994 that Larry tuned in to “Sock Hop Saturday Night” for the first time.  On the other end of that radio dial Mark Edwards was slowly turning back the hands of time for Larry.  Acting on impulse, Larry picked up the phone and made his first request, “Hello Stranger.”   It was the beginning of a relationship that eventually brought Larry to become a part of Mark’s Sock Hop Saturday Night creation.  Larry is extremely proud to be associated with one of the finest radio programs ever to be broadcast.

ROSEMARY CARLSON
it can be said with great certainty, is the only SHSN staff member to have been hatched from an egg in Boston, Massachusetts (her mom refuses to accept responsibility). Maintaining a constant age of 18 due to a time warp she still somehow managed to grow up in the Hartford, Connecticut area during the 50's and early 60's. It was there that she discovered Gene Pitney and began a campaign of pestering the WDRC DJ's until they relented and taught her how to write the programs for the various shows.

Soon it was back to the Bean-Town area where she graduated from Wellesley High School at age 18, followed by continuing education at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York at age 18. Majoring in Psych and English she claims her best papers were done with oldies blasting and the first draft doubling as the finished project.

She spent the following ten years in White Plains, New York, working in the moving business and relocation fields. This is where she met Gil and they were married in 1983 when she was 18. Son Timothy and a move to Vero Beach, Florida followed shortly after. Their second son Andrew arrived on the scene 5 years later when Rosemary was 18 years old. While in Vero they attended the spring training games of the L.A. Dodgers and summer games of the Vero Beach Dodgers. Both Tim and Andrew began collecting autographs at age 2 (they never asked for mine) when Rosemary was 18.

Then came another move, this time to Toronto for seven years where she began to learn the intricacies of the art of garage sales and thrift shops.

However in 1997, at age 18, she moved back to Virginia where she perfected and mastered her thrift shopping. Her honors include finding an original Elvis Presley Sun 78RPM disc for a whopping 50 cents on one occasion, and finding herself locked in a thrift shop after closing hours on another. Yes, she did have some 'splainin' to do for the police officers who responded to the burglar alarm.

September 8, 2001 was the day she realized one of the dreams of her life....
meeting Gene Pitney. During the performance Gene even mentioned that Rosemary was there from Virginia, still age 18. Her cousin had sent her son early the morning ticket sales started to get them aisle seats in the 6th row. On the way home to Virginia she decided to drive through New York City because her son Andrew had never seen the World Trade Center buildings. Two days later they were gone.

In March 2003 she took a less-than-elegant swan dive off a ladder shattering her elbow and requiring surgery. But before consented to surgery she made sure that she would still be able to attend a Gene Pitney concert the following week. Gil drove up and back through a horrific, blinding blizzard while Rosemary slept, awakening only for the concert.

In 2006, on her 18th birthday, she began a second radio career (in addition to being Sock Hop's Associate Producer) with remotes and studio work at her local Virginia station.

It was in 2007 after 23 years of being a stay-at-home mom she returned to work full time at a stockbrokers office while continuing her radio careers, all at age 18.

Although Gil now works in New Market, Ontario, Canada, this doesn't stop her from maintaining a long distance marriage with several road trips up north, burning up the highways and byways with the "tunes" blasting all the way.

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