Ed Ames: My Cup Runneth Over

UPDATE, 3/11/2011: I was contacted by someone who found this post and directed me to this great Ed Ames fansite:

http://mingowomen.hqforums.com/

If you're at all interested in Ed Ames, check it out!

Sometimes at work, when things momentarily align and the franticness fades briefly, I find myself doing little more than pacing around my machines looking for little problems that might be about to turn into big problems. At times like this, sometimes I whistle up memories of songs, or even let my brain randomly select songs for me to remember.

One of those songs the past few weeks was one from my ancient past, something that I would have heard played on WNAK when I was but a wee child. The song was "My Cup Runneth Over", but I couldn't remember who sang it. Maybe Jim Nabors? Robert Goulet? Perhaps Leonard Nimoy, even?

Nope. It was Ed Ames.



Who?

That took me some reading. Ed Ames has a decent Wikipedia entry. He had a long career as a musician and an actor, co-starring with the late Fess Parker in the TV show Daniel Boone. And it was this role that led to one of the things for which Ames is most famous - even if people don't realize it's him.

From Wikipedia:

Although Ames is Jewish, his dark complexion led to his being cast regularly as an American Indian. His greatest success as a stage actor came when he played Chief Bromden in the Broadway production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, opposite Kirk Douglas.

Talent scouts at 20th Century Fox saw Ed in the production and invited him to play the Native American Mingo on the television show Daniel Boone, with Fess Parker, Patricia Blair, Darby Hinton and Veronica Cartwright.

While playing Mingo on television, Ames developed some skill in throwing a tomahawk. This led to one of the most memorable moments of his career, when he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on April 29, 1965.

That moment is preserved in this video clip: