My Personal Background and Experience - Jim Putnam

.

 

This is posted since traditional sites do not allow sufficient room to explain whom I am and what I have achieved.  Here is my real story.

20276 Park Place, PO Box 21 - Coltons Point, MD 20626

Phone 301-769-2027 - email: ivyonoak@yahoo.com

Ivy Hollow Productions

"An unusual collection of like-minded souls with considerable interest in the most ordinary and peculiar of things."

Jim Putnam, Proprietor

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be friends with Yogi Berra?

How about having lunch with La Casa Nostra Godfather Joseph Bonanno?

Or sit on a remote New Jersey deck and chat with Brooke Shields?

Perhaps tour a museum with Wernher Von Braun, architect of our space program?

Or maybe enjoy dinner backstage with singer Celine Dion?

What about helping Bobby Kennedy's son Joseph II with his foundation?

Spend a day with the original Rasta Man Bob Marley?

Chat in a locker room with Smokin' Joe Frazier, world heavyweight boxing champion?

Be a sponsor of Richard Petty, top NASCAR driver in history?

Discover Hitler's secret SS film archives in the frontier outside Moscow?

What do these things all have in common?  Jim Putnam did them.

The Early Years

Some people just do not belong here.  Take Jim Putnam, an Iowa Hayseed for example.  He established a philosophy on life early, very early, and people often found it unsettling.

His self-described mission was "to disturb all settled ideas."  His approach to life was; "no definitions, no regulations, no laws and no prejudice."  True to his love for Lewis Carroll and his magnificent Alice in Wonderland, in Putnam's world "nothing was as it seemed."

Putnam lived to experience life, every aspect of life from the life force in all objects to the thrill of victory and annoyance of defeat.  Every day offered new capers and every experience a new chapter in his "Commonplace" book on life.  In his mind being open to anything and everything was a gateway to more adventures and he instinctively knew the more he learned the less he realized he knew.

Yet what chance did he ever have to be normal? A female physician (a rare occurrence) delivered him one year after two Atomic bombs ended World War II and then at six months old a firefighter saved him from a burning apartment.  At one and one-half years, he suffered a concussion and broke his face flying down a concrete stairway in a stroller.  At three, he was on IVs in a hospital with the mumps.

Four found him immersed in ice to break a 106° temperature.  By five, he was up to his chest sinking in quicksand in Texas.  There was a shootout at six when he and his brother Bob threw a box of bullets into an incinerator catching them in crossfire, followed by drowning at age seven, in a pond at summer camp, when everyone ignored his calls for help and he sank under three times.

By eight lightning hit him in a lake.  At nine, in his basement when pretending to be a priest and holding Mass and Communion it was electrocution.  A blizzard trapped him overnight in a cave with below zero temperatures at ten.  Next, when eleven, he fell through the ice on a lake in frigid weather and his clothes froze while trying to get home in the woods.

A speedboat collision in a ferocious Lake Michigan gale at age twelve split a second boat in two.  Then at thirteen he had a brain concussion in a football game, without equipment of course, had total amnesia and went into a deep coma for days.  All of this and he had not even started high school yet.

The mystical and magical Hopi Indians describe Jim Putnam as a "One Heart" who "walks between worlds."  In his world, Putnam always said some people pray for miracles, he relied on them.  When taking aptitude tests, Putnam used to drive the nuns crazy insisting he wanted to learn and experience everything, not be pigeonholed into a career path.  While in religion class his persistent questioning of dogma and theology kept him in constant trouble.

Born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa then moving to Ottumwa when he was eight, one might say he was a multi-tasking over-achiever from his earliest years.  In Kindergarten, he was already winning book-reading contests at the Iowa City Library.  He chose Greek Philosophers like Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle over the Hardy Boys mysteries, Popular Science and Popular Mechanics over teen magazines.

Oddly, by First grade he was leaving weekly instruction notes to his mother informing her of school and Church activities of the kids and reminding her about her duties that week for PTA, lunches, church receptions, and lunch needs for the gang.  He prepared his own meals by Third grade, and did his own laundry and ironed his own clothes by Fifth grade.  Before finishing Fifth grade, he read every textbook to be read through the Eighth grade.

Just before Third grade, his family moved from the youthful and vibrant Iowa City college town to Ottumwa, a struggling manufacturing town still trying to recover from coal mining origins.  His first memory of the town was waking up in a funeral home where his dad stayed while looking for a house.

Putnam's first memory of his new school, St. Mary's, was when the class had to have eye exams and he could not see a single line on the eye chart.  The nurse became furious with him saying he was lying and reduced the new kid in school to tears in front of his new classmates.

The sad truth was he was almost blind and no one had noticed, and the nurse refused to believe it was possible, so Jim Putnam showed up in his new town and new school wearing coke bottle glasses the lens were so thick.  From a cute little kid in a college town he became a freak in a foreign wilderness, while the funeral home and eyeglass disasters were an indication there was something foreboding about this place.

Putnam kids

In fact, so upside down was life in his new home that once his mother, in response to criticism of her son by his teacher, wrote she "also found Jim strange and he often seemed to live in another world."  Indeed, he did and his other world full of non-stop activity and endless adventures kept him sane until he could make his great escape after high school.

An exceptional Knight of the Alter (Alter Boy) he memorized every Mass in Latin.  In sports he was a YMCA swim team member and basketball all star, also on the Country Club swim team, won state championships in Little League and Babe Ruth baseball and was named Most Valuable player in one state championship.  His high school golf team played in four straight state championships.

When the Catholic high school for girls burned down just before Jim started high school, and the girls and boys shared school, his class was first to finish four years co-ed.  Ironically, every elementary and secondary school he attended in Iowa City and Ottumwa has been closed and torn down. 

During high school, he earned fourteen varsity letters in five sports excelling in baseball and golf, helped shatter records in basketball including a sweet sixteen berth in the state basketball tourney though being from the smallest school in the tourney, and finished ranked number one in the state in their class.  In fact, during his four years in high school, the varsity record was 84-11 and his team never lost a home game, thirty-four straight games.

By the time he graduated, he participated on numerous debate and speech clubs, was elected to several school offices, and played in the high school band.  A writer for the Unitas school newspaper and co-editor of the yearbook, Putnam also had several articles published in the Des Moines Register newspaper and won the Outstanding Journalism award.

Putnam brothers with Coach Kramer

The Siren Call of Music and Muses

In high school, Putnam had a promising rock and roll band but gave it up to play basketball and baseball for the University of Arizona Wildcats.  Interwoven throughout his life is music, perhaps because he is a third generation musician from Iowa City.

His grandfather, Wayne S. Putnam, had founded The Wayne Putnam Swing Orchestra, a featured band on the Moose Club circuit back in the 1930’s and ‘40’s.  His father, Wayne E. and Uncle Chuck both played in the orchestra and his grandmother taught piano in Iowa City.

Music was not limited to his father’s side of the family as his other Grandfather, Patrick Campbell, also of Iowa City, used to drag his young grandson with him in summers to his motel on the outskirts of Springfield, Missouri, the home of country music in the 1940’s and early ‘50’s.

One of many Campbell clan castles in Scotland

There young Jim spent many long nights listening to the country stars jamming in the motel coffee shop after gigs on the Smilin’ Jack Tyree Radio Show, or Korn’s A-Krackin barn dance, which later became the Ozark Jubilee in Springfield.  Who showed up at the coffee shop in the wee hours of the night?  It might be Porter Wagoner, Speedy Haworth, Chet Atkins, Eddy Arnold, and the list goes on.

It was the beginning of a lifelong interest in country music and the relationship between Celtic and country music tying together his ancestral roots from Scotland and Ireland.  Often as a kid, he would watch the University of Iowa Scottish Highlander bagpipe band at practices.

Even when he went to Arizona to play basketball and baseball he often attended local performances of his freshman classmate, an aspiring young singer named Linda Ronstadt.  At the same time members of his Beta Theta Pi fraternity were featured performers on the nationally broadcast Hootenanny Show and the NBC Today Show.  Among the many entertainers who performed at their fraternity house was the national hit group the Kingsmen of Louie, Louie fame.

He loved concerts in the dawning of the rock and roll age and got to meet a host of stars like Elvis, Sony and Cher, the Mamas and Papas, Moody Blues, and later got to work with many more like the Turtles, Blood Sweat and Tears, Frankie Avalon, and Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons on benefit projects.

Jim's first car in high school 1946 English Austin

Right after he graduated from high school, he travelled to New Haven, Connecticut to meet with coaches at Yale University to decide if he would attend that fall.  After spending two years completing the interview process to get into Yale, he opted for Arizona.  Ironically, had he gone to Yale his classmates would have been Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and George Bush, Jr., all Yale graduates from the same class as Jim. 

During the same trip, he spent a couple of weeks in NYC and DC.  While in NYC, he met Tiny Tim in The Page Three club in Greenwich Village, unbeknownst to Jim the most notorious lesbian bar in NYC.  He also was at the Blue Note and The Gaslight Cafe, hangout of Bob Dylan.

He made the best of NYC on his trip going to several Yankees games in the Bronx where he was in the dugout meeting players like Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, and Whitey Ford.  There were also Mets games in their new Shea Stadium, the World's Fair in Queens, Coney Island in Brooklyn, and he attended nearly a dozen Broadway plays in Manhattan. 

At one point, he went to the world famous Brill Building located at 1619 Broadway just north of Time's Square and uptown from NYC's famous Tin Pan Alley neighborhood.  He met loosely affiliated groups of songwriter-producer teams working there including Carole King, Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond and Boyce and Hart, writers who dominated the rock and roll charts whose songs were recorded by Bobby Darin, Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, Ray Charles, Dusty Springfield, Paul Simon, and Elvis Presley, also in the Brill studios.

Later in his career Putnam returned to the Brill Building to use the Broadway Video studios 0f Loren Michael, creator of Saturday Night Live, to produce an award winning television special.  He and Chuck Hammer, legendary lead guitarist with Lou Reed and David Bowie, often were partners in projects.  Eventually Putnam would help found a company housed at 52nd and 5th Avenue, overlooking St. Patrick's Cathedral and NBC Rockefeller Center, just blocks from the Brill Building.

June 1964 Putnam visited the construction site of the Twin Towers, soon to be the tallest buildings in the world, at a new complex called the World Trade Center.  It would open in 1970.  In the 1980's when Putnam worked for the Governor of New Jersey, on occasion he attended board meetings for the Governor at the Port Authority in the Twin Towers, the government agency that owned the World Trade Center complex.

February 26, 1993, while working in Manhattan he was on his way to a meeting in the North Tower of the World Trade Center the day a terrorist bomb exploded killing six and injuring over 1,000.  September 11, 2001 Putnam, still working in Manhattan, was having coffee on the front porch of his home in Jersey across the Bay from lower Manhattan, when he saw the second airplane crash into the Twin Towers and the subsequent collapse of the buildings in the worst terrorist attack in our history.  In time, Putnam would live and work in New Jersey and Manhattan longer than he lived in Iowa in his youth.

Back to music, there was another occasion when he spent an entire day with Bob Marley on a plane trying to get through snowstorms into Minneapolis, Minnesota, and finally giving Marley his winter coat because the soft-spoken Jamaican did not own one.

Putnam integrated music into almost everything he did from concerts in political campaigns, to rock groups in public affairs programs, to Nashville recording sessions.  He often used friends from Mannheim Steamroller in Omaha to perform at political events and play at studio sessions.

Once Putnam was managing a very close Congressional campaign and needed minority votes to win.  He contacted the legendary BB King's manager to get BB to give a boost to the campaign efforts.  By arrangement, Jim and the candidate greeted BB at his plane at the airport and escorted him to the waiting press inside the terminal.

When he pulled off his jacket, BB wore the candidate's tee shirt and he mentioned his "old friend" to the waiting press.  The stunned media, suspecting the candidate knew nothing about BB King, asked him his favorite King record, and the candidate replied, "Gotta Pay the Cost to be Boss."

In return, BB requested a box of the best Omaha steaks for him and his band after the concert and a small grill to cook them.  Shortly after Putnam departed the room of BB and company fire alarms woke the hotel guests when a wind change blew the smoke from the grill on a balcony just outside the room, back into the hotel.

The Political Years

After attending the University of Arizona on a sports scholarship and majoring in journalism, he attended Parsons College, now Maharishi University of Management founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a Vedic sage who was mentor to the Beatles at the height of their career.  Jim also went to the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and by age 22 he began his career in politics working for the first of three mayors of Omaha, Nebraska, a Republican, followed by a Democrat, then another Republican who became a Democrat.

During the next four years, Putnam would undertake a series of pilot projects that would change the way local and federal governments functioned well into the future.  He was the second employee hired to create the first Regional Council of Governments in the Midwest to identify and implement government consolidations, mergers, shared services, and coordinated planning in order to improve service and lower costs.  The success was immediate as Albuquerque, Indianapolis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Toronto launched additional pilot programs.  Jim was on several task forces for the National League of Cities and US Conference of Mayors.

The US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics honored Putnam for being first statistician in the nation to create a methodology to identify pockets of high unemployment and poverty areas within metropolitan areas, data that became the foundation for economic and work force training programs throughout the country.

Working with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Executive Office of the President, he created the nation's first Comprehensive Manpower Program consolidating 18 jobs, employment and training programs in five federal departments into a single entity lowering administrative costs up to 80% and reallocating nearly 50% into improved services.  As a result, the federal government implemented it nationwide saving tens of millions of dollars a year.

Then he helped consolidate both financial and management-reporting systems so local government could use one report for all federal agencies.  The Omaha Riverfront Development Program he helped create with the Mayor was a national pilot development program.  At one point, a temporary assignment to assist the director of the federal Office of Economic Opportunity allowed Putnam to save federal funding for the popular Headstart and Legal Services programs for low income.

Putnam published award-winning studies such as a massive work titled The Invisible Americans identifying poverty in America, did analysis to identify America's unemployed, and was part of the Census Bureau Address Coding Task Force to see that all government data was available on a block by block basis.

He served on task forces to evaluate the Federal Bureau of Prisons, reform the welfare system, create federal block grants to cities and states, design and implement the historic General Revenue Sharing program for states and cities, and helped draft new education, energy, environmental, housing, and Justice Department law enforcement assistance programs to assist local governments.

After four years, he was in our nation's capitol as a domestic affairs specialist for the Executive Office of President Richard Nixon, reporting to Roy Ash, OMB Director and founder of Litton Industries, and Frank Zarb, Associate Director of OMB and later Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Putnam was one of 32 specialists of the little known White House New Federalism Task Force that restructured the entire federal domestic government from agencies to programs to policy.  The New York Times called the mysterious Presidential task force the most powerful federal domestic initiative by a president since the New Deal under President Franklin Roosevelt.

Silently it went about the work of decentralizing the federal government and transferring powers to our nation's governors during the darkest hours of the American presidency, the year between the Watergate and Impeachment hearings.

Over the next decade, he became a reporter for the Omaha World Herald, spent four terms working for the US Congress, managed two successful congressional campaigns, and helped elect the first Jewish US Senator from Nebraska.

Presidential campaign experience included work for John and later Bobby Kennedy, and Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr., followed by work with Ross Perot on presidential and NAFTA efforts. His political experience included all aspects of the legislative and executive branches of local, state, and federal governments and involved working for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

Nationally, he served as Deputy Arrangements Chairman for the 1972 Republican National Convention and the largest presidential election victory in history resulted (Nixon won 49 of 50 states).  Putnam served as campaign manager for US House and Senate races and culminated his political career by hosting separate events with all four living GOP presidents (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush 1) the same year.

While in politics Putnam also worked with Governor Charles Thone of Nebraska and spent eight years with Governor Thomas Kean in New Jersey (recently Chairman of the 9/11 Terrorism Commission), serving the latter as a chief of staff, media and communications director and assistant state treasurer of New Jersey.

In 1981 Kean, a moderate Republican won the governor's race by the closest margin in New Jersey history, just 1,797 votes of 2.4 million cast.  By 1985 Kean won by the largest victory margin in history, getting 69.5% of the vote in a Democrat state and winning by 794,229 votes.  Putnam was active in the 1985 campaign, the most successful "voter inclusion program" ever undertaken by a GOP candidate in the nation.  Kean's record margin included over 60% of the Black, Labor Union, and Roman Catholic votes.

Jim worked with former Kean chief of staff and campaign manager Greg Stevens and cabinet member Leonard Coleman, who became President of the National League in Major League Baseball, on the 1985 campaign.  He helped coordinate with Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., who endorsed Kean, and Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.  In January 1986, a song Putnam wrote at the request of Coretta Scott King called I Had A Dream performed at the first national holiday celebrations honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. in Atlanta and San Francisco.

Working for Governor Kean he successfully led the state effort to sue oil companies and won over $600 million for the state.  He was a member of the State Planning Commission, the Farmland Preservation Commission, the State Energy Planning Commission, and State Recycling program, all nationally recognized initiatives of excellence in government.  As chief of staff he also oversaw the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission headed by actress Celeste Holm as well as state involvement in PBS stations in New Jersey and NYC.

The Kean years also found Jim becoming acquaintances with New York Giants legendary coach Bill Parcells and assistant coach Bill Belichick (now coach of the New England Patriots) through the New Jersey Sports Authority, owner of Giants Stadium, when Putnam represented the Governor or Commissioner Coleman at meetings.  The Giants won two Super Bowls during those years.  Jim also became friends with New York Yankees All Stars Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto during various political activities.

Passions and Pursuits - More Music, Writing, and Entertainment

While working for the Governor he created and produced a television special for the Arts and Entertainment TV Network on energy conservation which won the Cable TV ACE award, the Award for Cable Excellence, the national cable network Emmy, as best public service program in America.  The program featured actress and singer Patti Lapone, Tony-winning star of the Broadway play Evita, and the band he created called State Property, the first government funded show ever broadcast on the Arts and Entertainment network and first to win the coveted ACE award.

During this time, he was a creator, partner, and collaborator with multiple Emmy winner Andrew Carl Wilk, now Executive Producer for television at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in NYC.  The credits include The Energy Show for Arts and Entertainment Network, Flashpoint - a PBS weekly public affairs program, and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra of NYC whose annual Salute to Broadway at the Paper Mill Playhouse, the largest regional theatre in the nation, featured Tony winning actors performing the best songs on Broadway.

Putnam wrote several scripts for Jim Henson's Muppet Babies TV program directed by Wilk and worked with Andrew (conductor and director) in community and regional playhouse productions of Annie, Jesus Christ Superstar, Company and Pirates of Penzance. A number of rising stars on Broadway acted in these popular plays.

From politics, he moved to Madison Avenue where he reunited with former Reagan and Bush presidential campaign experts including Roger Ailes, media consultant and recent President of Fox News.  There were also pollsters Richard Wirthlin and Neil Newhouse, and media creative master Phil Dusenberry, Chairman of BBDO America advertising agency and creator of the Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, and Cindy Crawford Pepsi ad campaigns among many others.  Phil's Crawford ad is one of the top ten Super Bowl ads of all time.

The first person hired at Media, Inc. in NYC, Jim helped grow it to $300 million in billings in three years.  He worked with a number of rock stars on benefits like the annual Starlight Foundation gala, stars including Howard Kaylan, lead singer for the Turtles and Mothers of Invention, and David Clayton Thomas and the Gellis brothers of Blood Sweat and Tears.  He once had dinner backstage with Celine Dion and Michael Boulton after a New Jersey amphitheater performance.

While working in New York in 1994 he formed his own media company, Ivy Hollow Productions, where he produced the first digital recording of the New Testament of the Bible by renowned Shakespearian dramatic actor Max McLean.  Working with Bob Monroe and his Monroe Foundation Jim used "hemispherical synchronization" to increase reader retention when listening to the recording.

After publishing two books of poetry, he then wrote and published The Joshua Chronicles, an inspirational and mystical work of fiction.  At the same time, he began writing the words and music for a song catalog that now totals over 500 songs, and he formed two bands to record the music, Nashville Bound and the John Galt Band.  Over 15,000 Internet friends and fans have helped the bands achieve over a million Internet plays.

National Geographic Television, Ancient Cultures and Sacred Sites

His lifelong fascination with ancient cultures led him to sacred sites around the world, including many in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Mexico, Russia, and Canada.  It was a stimulus to become involved with Andrew Wilk again at the National Geographic Society television division as a creative consultant and in providing soundtracks and themes for a number of Nat Geo TV shows with the Pinnacle Group in Utah.  While at National Geographic Television, a series he helped create and post produce with Chuck Hammer, Really Wild Animals (CBS TV Network and Disney Network), earned one Emmy and five Emmy nominations.

Ivy Hollow undertook major national media campaigns for book publishers and record companies in Nashville and Washington, D.C.  Putnam also created and produced a nationally syndicated weekly radio program in Nashville, Family Values, introducing new Christian singers and authors and launching numerous singers to the top of the national charts including Point of Grace, Anointed, Jackie Velasquez, Rich Mullins and many others.

Dancing the Tightrope and Take Me Now God! are two books he wrote inspired by the experiences of his life and the many influences growing up. The first book traces the early childhood through teen years and the many adventures all kids shared while coming of age in the days before cell phones, texting, video games and personal computers. The latter is the end of the pursuit of the meaning of life, a rather hilarious journey through the baby boomer maze of metaphysical and spiritual paths to the truth.

His next literary work led him on trips throughout Great Britain and Ireland which preceded travel to Russia in search of secret Soviet film archives of Josef Stalin. In the frontier outside Moscow on a military base near Stalin's home, he discovered the extensive KGB cold war film archives of Stalin and the Nazi SS film archives of Adolph Hitler, which had vanished 50 years earlier in the fall of Berlin.  Over 32 million feet of film footage was kept in the top secret archives. Putnam was the first American the forty-nine archive staff had ever met and only the second to visit the archive in the 60+ years since it opened.

After seven years of research including access to previously "classified" files in America, England, France, and Russia, he wrote his subsequent book, Saviors of the 20th Century - Hitler and Stalin - the War of Annihilation between the Nazis and Communists.  It is a non-fiction narrative history tracing the roots and growth of Communism, Nazism, Hitler, and Stalin.

While in Russia, he was able to acquire and bring back to the western world a stunning video documentary that exposed horrid living conditions and death rates in Russian orphanages.  It led to major changes in the health and safety of abandoned children in Russia.

He also worked with international groups to help adopt Russian and Chinese children.  As a result, he made several appearances as a guest and host of Russia Today, a syndicated public education television program out of Washington, DC.  In addition, Nazi footage acquired by Putnam through the Russian archives has appeared in Turner Broadcasting Productions.

Beamish - Neapolitan Mastiff

In 2000 he joined The Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG) in NYC, one of the world's largest media companies, after they bought Media, Inc., the media company which Putnam helped create in NYC in the mid-1990's.

Energy and Environment

Always intrigued by science, physics and inventions, he studied math and physics and received a license from the Atomic Energy Commission to handle radioactive materials fifteen years before being involved in the clean up of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident while working for the New Jersey governor.

He received awards from President Johnson for work with Keep America Beautiful and the National Association of Business, and was involved in several environmental pilot projects including industrial cogeneration, massive solid waste disposal incinerators, fusion energy (Princeton, NJ), and he oversaw implementation of the nation's first statewide mandatory recycling program in New Jersey.

A member of the task force to create the Federal Energy Agency in response to Arab oil embargoes, he advocated alternative energy before it was popular, even patented and manufactured a solar energy system in the mid 1970's.  The latter involved a consortium he recruited of blue chip corporations including PPG Industries, Phillips Petroleum, Goodyear Tire and Rubber and Dow Chemical.

CuChulainn Deo Irie - Irish Wolfhound

His fascination with science and nature prepared him for a most unusual exposure to natural disasters and the forces of nature.  For example, Jim had his homes hit by tornadoes in three different states, experienced hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and Maryland, floods in California, Missouri, and Iowa, and blizzards in Iowa and Nebraska.

As if that was not enough, he also experienced earthquakes in California and Maryland (he was less than 50 miles from the epicenter of a 6.2 quake that hit the east coast, the strongest one in over a century), and was caught in the Mad Cow disease outbreak in England.

Science and Intelligence Agencies

A close friend and confidant of Margaret (Maggie) Sanders, daughter of Colonel Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, it was through Maggie and her affiliation with the National Academy of Sciences he interviewed numerous Nobel prize-winning scientists as well as metaphysical personalities Maggie knew from her life-long search for the Lost Continent of Atlantis.  Also through her Putnam was a participant in the MIT Media Lab - Society of the Mind with Professor Marvin Minsky, founder of artificial intelligence in Boston.

More recently, Putnam worked with Victor Sheymov, a key KGB cold war defector to the US and with James Woolsey, former CIA Director under President Clinton, to establish an international computer security company, Invicta Networks, and to help publish books on intelligence agency activities.

He also works with CBA Pharma, Inc., a Kentucky pharmaceutical company, with a promising potential treatment to cure cancer and drug resistant diseases.  CBA is the first firm to enter FDA Phase 3 human trials with a natural compound that results in the destruction of multi-drug resistant cells including cancer.

Of course, the implications go way beyond cancer since most drug resistance happens in areas of drug over-prescription and saturation over the years, such as treatment with antibodies, medications for depression, high blood pressure, etc.  Even diseases once thought wiped out are making comebacks because of their ability to mutate and most dangerous of all are the hospital-based drug resistant staff infections with their deadly consequences.

The Hopi Indians

Ever since his first visit to meet the Hopi Indians near the Grand Canyon in 1964 Jim has worked with indigenous spiritual leaders including the past three Hopi traditional spiritual leaders along with Navajo, Algonquin, Ute, Sioux, Australian Aborigine and many others to help preserve their cultures and their sacred ways.  His invitation to film the fulfillment of numerous sacred prophecies with the Hopi, Algonquin, Ute, and Dali Lama is a highlight of his fifty years working with Native Americans and Indigenous groups around the world.

On one of his many trips to Arizona, the National Park Service archeological office had invited him to bring a film crew and shoot footage of a little known, ancient Indian site with a twelve mile stretch of undisturbed ancient wall paintings just above the Grand Canyon, called Snake Gulch Canyon that could only be reached by horseback.

While driving to the site the evening before a coyote jumped in front of Putnam's van bringing it to a screeching halt, and then disappeared.  The next morning as they made their way to the sacred site on horseback Putnam's horse was startled by a snake, tossing him fifteen feet down a gulley where he cracked three ribs.  With no access to medical treatment, he finished over ten more hours on horses completing the shoot.  The Hopi told him the "trickster" coyote came to force Jim to take a long overdue rest.

Animal Rescues

Throughout his life he helped heal injured animals and birds his neighbors brought him.  His most memorable rescue took place recently in Southern Maryland one frigid winter day when he went into the bitter cold water up to his neck to save a drowning and sick Bald Eagle along the shore of the Potomac River.  He saved the Eagle, it went to rehabilitation, and later Putnam was able to release it back into nature.  As a volunteer of the Bald Eagle rescue center in Delaware he released another Eagle in Maryland as well.

  

From national politics to cyber security to potential pioneering medical breakthroughs, he still most enjoys music, writing, and trying to help people, animals, places, and things.  Among many current pursuits he is a songwriter through Steven Sharp, Sharp Objects Music Company of Nashville, and his bands, Nashville Bound and the John Galt Band are popular internet groups at Soundclick, MySpace, Indie Records, and many other internet sites.

Media and Entertainment - News Reporting, Books, Music, Television and Publishing

Publishing

He designed a national marketing campaign and produced an album of Christian artists to introduce The Promise, a new CEV Bible translation making it the first Bible to be #1 on national bestseller lists in modern times.

Putnam is publisher of the popular Internet based Coltons Point Times newspaper with over 1,500 articles and columns online featuring multiple investigative stories such as:

Lyme Disease - America's Next Pandemic

Our Broken Health Care System

Federal Campaign Reform

Politics and Political Parties

Histories Mysteries about Southern Maryland

GMO's - Truth and Myth

Cyber Security - Are we really safe?

The Rothschild Dynasty - a Trillionaires Delight

and, serialized excerpts from several Putnam books

You can view his newspaper at: http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/

Mr. Henry - Bloodhound

Books Authored

Words I Chose Not To Speak (poetry)

Second Thoughts (poetry)

Dancing the Tightrope (book and television series)

The Joshua Chronicles (spiritual and supernatural fiction)

Take Me Now God!  (hilarious comedy and parody of Baby Boomers)

Arizona Daily Star Tucson

Saviors of the 20th Century - Hitler and Stalin - The War of Annihilation between the Nazis and Communists (non-fiction historical)

Left Handed, Four Eyed, Small Town, and Catholic, and they call me Lucky? (autobiographical)

Television Shows

Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, wrote several scripts for the TV series

Flashpoint, created and produced a PBS weekly public service television program

The Energy Show, Arts and Entertainment national broadcast - winner of ACE - Award for Cable Excellence (cable TV Emmy) Executive in charge of production

Really Wild Animals, National Geographic TV series on CBS and Disney, 26 episodes, winner of one Emmy and nominated for 5 Emmys - Creative consultant for script and music and post production

Dancing the Tightrope TV Series in development - producer, writer and composer

Several Marilyn Monroe books and scripts under development.

Music

Bible Soundtrack - Max McLean and the Bible

Ivy Hollow Theme - co-wrote with Academy award songwriter Dennis Matkosky

Nashville Bound band - wrote 23 songs recorded by Nashville Bound in Nashville.

John Galt Band - wrote 150 songs for Dancing the Tightrope TV series soundtrack The Story of a Life

State Property band - executive in charge of production for Arts and Entertainment TV special and six music videos

Ivy Hollow music - wrote I Had a Dream performed at first Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday celebrations in Atlanta, GA and San Francisco, CA

Currently additional 250+ songs in song catalog

Radio

Created and produced nationally syndicated weekly radio show from Nashville called Family Values introducing Christian singers and authors

Organizations

University of Arizona Alumni

Beta Theta Pi National fraternity

Omaha Press Club

White House New Federalism Task Force

MIT Society of the Mind

AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) Radioactive Users license

http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/

.

Why is America part of the Syrian War Machine?

.

Obama's failure to keep his "Red Line in the Sand" promise has now left 500,000 Syrians dead!!!

Did we expected HALF A MILLION dead Syrians when the President and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton changed their minds???

Why does the news media allow this staggering death toll of collateral damage to go unreported???

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9481087


  

Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show - The Real Story - September 9, 1956

.

On September 9, 1956 Elvis Presley made his national television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show before a record 72 million people.  Here is the Man and the real story.  While estate restrictions prohibit playing the Ed Sullivan appearance, here is live footage from his return to Tupelo after the Sullivan national broadcast made Elvs a star.  Double click video for full screen.



The Real Story - Elvis on Ed Sullivan Show September 9, 1956

by Christine Gibson, former editor at American Heritage magazine.

Given that many fans think Elvis is still alive despite his death certificate, highly publicized funeral, and gravestone, it’s no surprise that misunderstandings abound about his career. Among those events surrounded by fallacies—perhaps because it strongly affected popular culture as well as Elvis’s work—is his legendary first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, 49 years ago today, on September 9, 1956.

Books and periodicals mentioning the show, which broke ratings records for the young medium and was one of the first to bring rock ’n’ roll to a mass audience, have erroneously reported that Elvis was shown only from the waist up, a triumph of censorship and evidence of the continued prudery of the 1950s. Others, aware of the hoopla surrounding the program, remember it as Elvis’s first performance on TV. The truth, as usual, is a little more complicated—and more interesting.

Presley, who had released his first three number-one hits by the time of the show, was already a TV veteran. He had appeared six times on the Dorsey brothers’ Stage Show between January and March 1956 and then on The Milton Berle Show on April 3, to increasing, if not yet fevered, press attention. But after his second Berle show, on June 5, members of the press expressed sudden revulsion at what the New York Journal-American called his “primitive physical movement difficult to describe in terms suitable to a family newspaper.” The New York Daily News reported that Elvis “gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos,” while the San Francisco Chronicle deemed it “in appalling taste.”

The reaction was enough to make Steve Allen, who had booked Elvis for his show before the backlash, briefly consider reneging, but in the end, Elvis did appear on his show on July 1, although in strangely tame form. Allen, going comically overboard to avoid scandal, dressed him in top hat, tails, and white gloves. Elvis soldiered on gamely, singing “Hound Dog” to a top-hatand bow-tie-clad basset hound.

Sullivan, never a fan of controversy, had already refused an offer to hire Elvis for $5,000. The famously prickly host had been burned before by rock ’n’ roll stars: He vowed to drum Bo Diddley out of television after his 1955 act on the show, when he sang his own hit “Bo Diddley” instead of Sullivan’s request, Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons.” But Elvis’s ratings—his stint on the Allen show had trounced Sullivan—changed his mind. Even as he professed to the press that Elvis was “not my cup of tea,” Ed Sullivan had already begun negotiations with Elvis’s agent, Colonel Tom Parker. His hesitation cost him heavily, however. He would end up agreeing to shell out $50,000 for three appearances, an unprecedented sum.

Elvis made his Sullivan debut on the show’s season premiere, but on the big night neither Sullivan nor Elvis was in the New York studio. Elvis was in Hollywood, filming his first movie, and he sang from the CBS studio there. Sullivan was recovering from an August head-on car collision, and Charles Laughton, the star of Mutiny on the Bounty, filled in for the host, hailing his guest by saying, “Away to Hollywood to meet Elvis Presley.”

Elvis, wearing a loud plaid jacket, greeted the audience from a set decorated with stylized guitar shapes. He announced that the show was “probably the greatest honor I have ever had in my life,” and then launched into “Don’t Be Cruel.” The camera stayed above his waist for now, sometimes closing in on his face, sometimes turning to show his backup singers, but something Elvis was doing out of lens range was causing unexplained screams from the audience. After the number was over, he acknowledged the vocal segment of the crowd, saying, “Thank you, ladies.” To finish the first segment, he played the title song to his new movie, “Love Me Tender,” introducing it as ”completely different from anything we’ve ever done.” Nationwide, disk jockeys taped the performance and played the song, which had yet to be released, on their radio shows, increasing pre-release orders to almost a million and pushing forward the single’s release date.

Viewers got to see the full Elvis—legs, hips, and all—during the second segment, when he performed the up-tempo Little Richard song “Ready Teddy” and two verses of “Hound Dog.” Young rock fans today would doubtless have a hard time understanding what all the scandal was about, as his frenetic swivels and shuffles look chaste compared to the gyrations common on MTV. But Elvis on that night (and his rock star peers in general around the same time) arguably set in motion a trend that continues today.

The press was quick to note that the cameras switched to close-up shots whenever he started dancing, in effect censoring him, but the TV audience got to see plenty, and besides, the girls screamed when he grunted, moved his tongue, crossed his eyes, or even stood perfectly still. With Elvis, censorship began to seem irrelevant. As Laughton noted at the end of the hour, ”Well, what did someone say? Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast?”

The viewing audience certainly wasn’t so offended that it changed the channel. The September 9 Sullivan show reached 82.6 percent of the TV audience, and Steve Allen hadn’t even seen fit to offer an alternative; NBC had showed a movie instead. Censorship did enjoy one last gasp during Elvis’s third appearance, on January 6, 1957, when Sullivan—or, as some historians believe, a publicity-hungry Parker—did indeed instruct the camera operator to show him only from the waist up, even when he sang the gospel tune “Peace in the Valley.” It was the last song he would ever perform on the show. Parker was now demanding $300,000 for future TV engagements, stipulating that a network must also commit to two guest spots and an hour-long special.

Even as he priced his client out of its range, Parker credited the program with the success of “Love Me Tender” and earning Elvis the esteem of American adults for the first time. Historians assert that Elvis’s three nights on the Sullivan show helped bridge the gap between the first rock ’n’ roll generation and their parents. Whether at the same time his behavior on those shows ultimately caused today’s generation gap—that is, whether MTV’s rump-shakers should look to Elvis as their earliest role model and parents can blame him for Britney Spears—is still up for debate.
.

CPT Spirits in the Sky - Elvis Presley - The King of Rock and Roll

.

Elvis Aaron Presley

January 8, 1935 - August 16, 1977

August 16 is the 39th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, husband of Priscilla Presley, father of Lisa Marie Presley and one time father-in-law to Michael Jackson. As I have written before, nearly four decades after his death Elvis continues to make far more money than he ever did during his 42 years of life, topping $55 million in 2015.


In his early years the only way we could hear Elvis records in the Bible belt was when friends in the military were stationed in the south and would bring back Elvis recordings. Over time I got to see him twice in concert including during his last tour in 1977. It was June 19 in Omaha, Nebraska and RCA was recording the concert for a new Elvis project. One week later, June 26, he performed his last concert in Indianapolis and died three weeks later.


This much I can tell you. His voice was as powerful as ever that June in 1977 though he appeared to be physically exhausted. There was a certain melancholy in his voice as if he wanted one last time to give his fans what they expected. When he performed his ballets and gospel songs like My Way and The Impossible Dream there was not a dry eye in the auditorium.

Presley almost single-handedly created the genre of rockabilly and rock and roll and he was the first white person to merge the Black blues and gospel with country rock. In 1973 Elvis performed the first global concert via satellite and 1.5 billion people tuned in making it the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in history, including to this day.

Jailhouse Rock
Double click for full screen

.
The dance sequence from his movie Jailhouse Rock has been considered one of the best motion picture dance sequences ever recorded which he choreographed himself and I hope you will take a look at the number on the YouTube video I added. This is the Elvis we will always remember, the shy kid from Tupelo, Mississippi who grew up to become King of the world.

Here are some other facts about the King of Rock and Roll.

Elvis Aaron Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935. He married Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967 after a long courtship. Lisa Marie is their only child, and she was born in 1968. Elvis and Priscilla divorced in 1973 and he never married again. Presley died on August 16, 1977 in Memphis, Tennessee at Graceland. He was 42-years-old at the time of his death.

The total net worth of the Elvis Presley estate is reported to be approximately $300 million. The singer rose to fame in 1954 after signing a deal with Sun Records. The recording company sold Elvis’ contract to RCA in 1955, and he began recording for them in 1956. RCA paid $5.4 million for the contract and Elvis and the Colonel split the money. His most popular recordings include Jailhouse Rock, Heartbreak Hotel and Don’t be Cruel. Estimates for his record sales are over the one billion mark.

Thousands of people still visit the home every year to see where the “King” lived. Special celebrations help draw even larger crowds, such as the 60 Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll celebration that is being held at Graceland. It is only appropriate considering Elvis is credited with starting the rock and roll era.

Random Facts:

So you thought you knew everything about “The King” huh? Here’s 11 random facts that will challenge that theory!

1. Elvis’ hair wasn’t even naturally black! He started dying it in high school. His natural hair color was actually a dirty blonde!

2. His breakout hit, Heartbreak Hotel, was inspired by a local suicide in 1956.

3. Elvis’ Mom bought him his first guitar at age 12 for his birthday. Elvis tried to convince his Mom to get him a rifle, but that wasn’t happening. She insisted a guitar would be a better option.

4. Elvis recorded over 600 songs! BUT, he didn’t write any of them!

5. When Elvis and Priscilla met, he was 24 and she was 14…. kind of creepy!

6. In Florida, Elvis was called a “Savage” and forbidden from shaking his body… So he waggled his finger in rebellion instead. Elvis you savage!

7. It took him 31 consecutive takes to record “Hound Dog.”

8. Elvis’ entourage was called the “Memphis Mafia” and were known for wearing gold and diamond rings with the letters “TCB” on them, which stands for “Taking Care of Businesses.”

9. He made 31 movies in his lifetime!

10. Elvis would let groups of “good looking girls” who waited at the gates of Graceland in to party late at night. The biggest group was said to be 152 women in one night!

11. Oddly enough, Elvis was related to Presidents Abraham Lincoln AND Jimmy Carter!
Do you know more facts about Elvis? Comment below!

How much is Elvis Presley’s Net Worth? $300 Million!

The Secret to Secure Borders with Mexico - Redeploy American Troops from Overseas

Pay attention presidential candidates, - here is an alternative to the fence in Mexico!

Why not relocate US Troops to new US Bases along the Mexican border?  We could help stop the senseless killing, 160,000 Mexican citizens since Obama took office, caught in the middle of a drug war.  At the same time, a series of a dozen or more bases stretched out along the border would move thousands of trained military into the vicinity of the human trafficking of illegal immigrants along with the drug dealers. Right now the US pays the highest costs possible to foreign governments to post our troops overseas for the purpose of defending their foreign lands.

If we had a series of military bases along the border, we would reduce foreign costs for defense, provide thousands of trained soldiers to help with immigration and drug trafficking, and be able to use the bases to monitor high-tech electronic monitoring of the border rather than build a giant wall. It would also help stimulate the local economies where the bases would be built and soldiers and families housed.

Redeployment of overseas forces

Here is what I wrote in an article June 3, 2010:

We have over 2.5 million defense soldiers and civilian employees but only 1.1 million are in the USA. Since a few thousand remain in both Iraq and Afghanistan that leaves 1.2 million DOD employees all over the rest of the world. There are over 735 American military bases outside the USA including 38 large and medium size facilities.

At the height of the British Empire in 1898 they had 36 bases spread out around the world and at the height of the Roman Empire in 117 AD they had 37 major bases. Of course they were both trying to conquer the world. We aren't supposed to be conquering the world so get rid of the excess bases.

Maybe the president should stop playing world policeman and close the majority of the overseas bases, leaving only those absolutely needed for national security, and set up a network of domestic bases along the border with Mexico. We already have the troops and are paying to keep them outside the country. Why not set up border bases in Arizona, New Mexico, a couple in Texas and maybe one more in Southern California?



Perhaps the presence of thousands of American troops might help stop the flow of illegal drugs and the human trafficking of illegal immigrants? It might even help Mexico reduce the massive death rate from the drug war along the border that has cost nearly 200,000 Mexican lives, men, women, and children, since 2007.

This is one of the darkest elements of the border traffic and is a plague to Arizona and the other states.  Here is a solution that saves money and lives while reducing costly foreign expenditures that can no longer be justified.
.