Jay Thomas
Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 9:02 pm
Died of cancer a couple days ago. You might remember him as Eddie (Carla's husband) on "Cheers." Anyway, I bring this up because he has one of the all-time greatest stories which he repeated on Letterman for awhile, think the last time was 2014.
When Letterman talked with Thomas later on, Thomas told a story about when he was a young disc jockey at WAYS 610AM in Charlotte, North Carolina. Thomas had been making a promotional appearance at a local car dealership which had also booked Clayton Moore to make an appearance, dressed in his Lone Ranger costume.
As the story goes, after the appearance Thomas, who at the time sported what he referred to as a "white man's Afro", and his friend, who was wearing high heeled shoes, tight pants, and a tie-dyed shirt, went off to get "herbed up" (smoke marijuana) behind a dumpster, after the broadcast ended. When they returned to pack up their equipment, they discovered that Moore was still there, as the car that was supposed to drive him to the Red Carpet Inn on Morehead Street (some years he would say the Red Roof Inn) never arrived. Thomas offered Moore a ride in his old Volvo, and Moore accepted. As they were sitting in traffic, an impatient middle-aged man backed his Buick into the front end of Thomas' car, broke a headlight, and drove away.
Thomas gave chase to the Buick through heavy traffic, finally caught up to the man, and confronted him about the damage. The indignant driver denied breaking the headlight, and Thomas threatened to call the police. The man said nobody would believe their story because Thomas and his friend looked like "two hippy freaks". At that moment, Thomas said that Moore, who was still in costume as the Lone Ranger, got out of the car and said to the man, "They'll believe me, citizen!"
For every year thereafter, with the exception of 2013, Thomas appeared to re-tell the Lone Ranger story...