Coral Gables Historical Archive
The Times
Wednesday, September 8, 1976, page 37 (of 43)
The page
The text of this pageRead by computer from the scan, so some words may be wrong. The page picture is the original.
Miscues were cue to make money from mistakes
By ELIZABETH OWEN Staff Writer Years ago, Kermit Schafer adopted a credo — "To forgive is human; to err, divine" — and staked his whole career on it. Now the tan, white-haired veteran New York TV, radio, film and recording producer is known far and wide as King of the Bloopers." Schafer, who works out of a spacious studio in a highrise overlooking Coral Gables, made a business out of human error by collecting and producing thousands of on-the-air lip-slippers or "bloopers." A "blooper" is an embarrassing statement or action on TV or radio that reaches the audience before the station can stop it. Although Shafer didn't actually plunge full-force into the blooper business until 1952, he started his collection in the 1930s, when radio announcer Harry Von Zell pompously announced to the American listening public: "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Hoobert Heever." Since that ridiculous moment, Shafer has been compiling bloopers and packing them into a dozen books, hundreds of syndicated columns, 15 record albums, regular features in McCall's, Readers Digest, and Coronet, a 90-minute film entitled "Pardon My Blooper," (which was shown just last week at the Riviera Cinema in Coral Gables), volumes of blooper material for use of The Blooper Game network quiz show, blooper TV specials, and an autobiography called "I Never Make Misteaks." Shafer said he was inspired to start his zany career by Allen Funt, creator of the ever popular Candid Camera series on TV. "I was motivated by Funt, a boyhood chum of mine from Brooklyn," said Schafer. "I had represented Funt in the sale of his Candid Mike series to Columbia Pictures, and also produced his record albums. The Columbia deal ultimately resulted in the highly successful Candid Camera series. "I was envious of Funt's attractive lifestyle of owning his own thing, and one day I decided bloopers were to be my thing. I envisioned that I could devote my varied experiences in all phases of the entertainment industry to making bloopers a winner." But making it as King of the Bloopers wasn't easy. Even with the advantages of having an already established career in the broadcast world to draw from, Schafer said his success took him quite a while. "When I felt the time was right, I made my move," he recalled. "I abandoned the 'old lifestyle and decided to turn a liability of the profession into something beautiful and enjoyable. "But it wasn't the overnight success that many people apparently think it was. It took me years to develop bloopers into a strong commercial property." South Miamian Kermit Schafer, self-proclaimed 'Blooper King'
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