Frank Perdue and Kosher Chickens

Posted by: on Aug 22, 2018 | No Comments

Frank Perdue and Kosher Chickens

It’s been way too long and I can’t explain why, but let’s move on. As my family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, etc, etc, will tell you, I’m a man of many stories…almost all of them true…which I like to tell often and over and over again. After all, truth is stranger (and usually funnier) than fiction.

I often have to tell folks “stop me if you’ve heard this one before,” so if you’ve heard this one before, read it anyway! The year is 1984. Linda and I, along with our dear friend Anita and her boyfriend at the time (sorry Mark), went to go see Romancing The Stone at a movie theater on 3rd Avenue in the 50s. After the movie, we went to PJ Clarke’s for drinks and to watch the NCAA basketball tournament.

The bar was very crowded, so we ended up standing by the bar. The ladies were  leaning up against the men’s bathroom door, when a very tall man with a chicken shaped nose, stood up from his seat at the bar, and asked to use the men’s room.

He entered, the ladies looked at each other and giggled. They whispered that they thought the man look exactly like Frank Perdue. FYI, for those of you to young to remember or know this, Frank was his own TV spokesperson and very much a celebrity at the time.
I took one look at them and said “That is Frank Perdue.”
At first, the didn’t believe me but then the man sitting next to Frank (a very rosy cheeked fella) turned around and said “Would you like to meet him?”
“Of course” came the response and the ladies gave Mr. Rosy Cheeks their names.

Frank walks out of the bathroom, Mr. Cheeks says to him “Frank, I want you to meet my 2 new friends, Linda and Anita.”
Did I mention Frank is tall…like 6’4″ tall?
Frank shakes their hands, bends over and whispers to my wife (well….not quite yet my wife at the time) “Linda, what kind of chickens do you eat?
Linda, not wanting to be rude says “Perdue.”
Me, always looking to embarrass my wife, looks at her and replies “Tell him the truth!”
Linda grins and tells him “Well, I was brought up kosher so we always ate Empire chickens.”

At this point, Frank stands up straight, looks around the bar as if to make sure no one is paying attention, leans back down and whispers to my wife “Honey if you can afford you should eat them.”

Funny how that never made it into a Perdue chicken commercial.