For many working-class Pittsburghers, Al Julius was a powerful voice for those who didn't hold large sums of money or influential positions of authority.
Loved by the blue-collars. Feared by the white-collars. The former was his world.
"Julius' World" was the name of his five-minute commentary five days a week on KDKA-TV's six o'clock news edition.
He wore suits and ties when he was on KQV radio in the 1960s. But by 1973, the brash, Brooklyn native had made the move to television, and in doing so, ironically took on a less camera-friendly image, marked by his full graying beard and abandoning suits for sportcoats, usually with sweaters and never a necktie.
And makeup? I can see him telling the director "you know what you can do with that."
Why? Because the people he was trying to reach likely didn't own a suit, much less wear one often. He was the de facto voice in the media for those who had none.
He was bare and blunt, unashamed of his words and actions, and had no patience for those who tap-danced around what they really wanted to say. In Julius' World, it's OK to get mad!
"Out out out!" One of his catchphrases during interviews. He wanted that raw emotion, that anger, that feeling of discontentment that few externalize in polite society.
He had no time for it. Less so for what he described as the 'fluff and puff' that people wanted to hear and see on TV, rather than what they needed to hear.
He wanted people to know the opinions those had of local government. The wasteful spending, the indifference towards those losing their jobs after the steel industry collapsed. The blind eye towards Pittsburgh's fabled red-light district along Liberty Avenue. The poor and hungry in our own backyard trying to find something in their lives to be thankful for...which culminated in something that still lives on, more than two decades after his departure and over a decade this month after his death.
He introduced "Julius' Turkeys" with all the subtlety of a busted chainsaw in the on-air promo that launched the annual Thanksgiving fundraiser.
He had the characteristic angry look in his eye...almost as if he were daring you to have a Happy Thanksgiving esconced in your suburban home's Barcalounger after stuffing yourself with turkey and stuffing, without giving a second thought to those less fortunate.
"THEIR tables will be bare...NOTHING!"
He wanted you to feel guilty about it. He wanted you to want to do something about it, and the last thing he wanted was having to tell you it was your duty to your fellow man to do it.
But if not for the imperfect world in which we live, Al's world may not have existed.
Al was rudely shoved aside during a massive layoff at KDKA-TV in 1991. While he said he would have accepted a pay cut, he was less willing to change the style that made him just as much a part of Pittsburgh as chipped ham and Iron City beer.
He proved it in 1995 when he given a chance to deliver a farewell address, which he began with his trademark irreverence.
"Where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?"
Unfortunately, the likes of Al have fallen into anachronistic anonymity, where journalistic backbone has given way to 'safe' news reporting pandering to advertisers and political cronyism.
I've often heard it said it's better to safe than sorry.
Is it?
I'm sure Al would be the first to say "don't even think of going there."
NEXT WEEK: Workout to Work Out
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