the Sterling Yates Story

By Richard C. Stafford

The Pittsburgher Magazine, December, 1956

A TICKET agent of a nationally known airline was startled recently, when a polished voice, with very affected tones said, “If you don’t obtain a seat on the plane about to take off old man, I’ll buy the airlines and demote you to scraping the ice off of the wings.” The voice was that of Sterling Yates, portraying one Baldwin McMoney, a man with “simply scads of money,” and one of the many characters Yates portrays each morning on the Rege Cordic show.

Sterling Yates is a tall, well proportioned balding young man of 30, with simply “scads of talent.” He has never had any formal training in radio or acting, but says, “I guess I have been creating characters ever since high school.” In 1949, his characters became something more than just mere amusement for his friends.

In that year, another young man by the name of Rege Cordic was beginning to make a mark on radio. He had a zany morning show, on which he played records and “joshed around” with various characters who kept entering the studio on one pretense or another. The show mocked well known radio programs and “types,” and even the weather report was rigged for laughs. It wasn’t long before thousands of Pittsburghers, workers and businessmen, students and housewives, tuned in the program over the breakfast table or in their autos on the way to work. A standard phrase in the everyday conversation of Pittsburgh was, “Did you hear the Cordic program this morning?”

In 1949, Cordic signed Yates to play the part of Dad on his program, the old man with a million gadgets and tales to talk about. To Yates, the part was more of a sideline than a career, his main interest being music. The realization that this modest beginning might turn out to be something worthwhile hadn’t struck him yet.

In the years following ‘49, Yates attended Carnegie Tech, where he studied music. During the same period, he played saxophone, clarinet, oboe and English Horn for various bands and orchestras in the Pittsburgh district. He was also the leading actor on radio’s “Adventures in Research” and “Childrens’ Bookshelf.” But his ability to create characters with entirely different voices, as well as personalities, fit in perfectly with the Cordic program.

By 1953, Yates’ “characters” were taking the major share of his time. His humour and that of Cordic’s were of the same timbre. Together, they whipped the program into one of the most popular on radio. Gradually more characters were added. One’s such as Oob the musician, and his sidekick little Oob. Lee, the Chinese laundryman with the German accented father. And of course, there was Baldwin McMoney, the “richest kid on the block.” In the brief period of three years, Yates found his popularity rising fast, and he became a leading radio personality. People no longer said “Hello” - but rather - “How are you Baldwin old boy,” or “Where’s Oob man?” Just as often, it was the character who answered and not Yates.

As the Cordic show grew, it seemed that the ideas for the various skits came from inexhaustible sources. People wondered how the material was so entirely fresh and different from day to day. The program had no writers, and most of the material had to be credited to the cast itself. One of their best ideas was a parody on a beer advertisement called “Old Frothingslosh Pale Stale Ale.”

In 1952 Rege Cordic conceived the idea for old “Frothingslosh,” a beer with “the foam on the bottom instead of the top.” The gimmick was nothing more than just a pun on modern advertising. But last Christmas, “Olde Frothingslosh” became a reality. A local brewery decided to try the idea on the market. Using their own brand of beer, they made up labels for the “Whale of an Ale for a Pale Stale Male.” Pittsburghers liked the idea. They bought over 100,000 cases of the brew made from “The tradition steeped tanks of the Frothingslosh brewery at upper Crudney on the Thames.” This Christmas, the name of Frothingslosh will go out of the state of Pennsylvania. An estimated quarter of a million cases are expected to be sold.

Yates too, will have a part in the commercials advertising the now famous “Pale Stale Ale.” He and the other members of the Cordic group will pull their talents to get laughs and sell beer at the same time. Almost an unbeatable combination.

Many who have heard Yates on the radio and many who know him personally, define him as a “character.” That is not quite true. For he is, without a doubt, several. He is all of the ones mentioned above and more. In each case, not one of them can be alienated from Sterling Yates the individual. He has created them and lived with them, and it is little wonder that they continually manifest themselves all day, on radio as well as in his private life.

Each of the characters that Yates has given birth to is entirely individual. Perhaps that is the reason he is constantly haunted by them. On his evening radio show, on TV, at home, anywhere… they creep into his conversation frequently. So much so that he confesses that “Sometimes man, they even flip me. You Dig? They hang me up.” For example, after having finished a meal at a restaurant recently, Yates, in the character of DAD, informed the waitress that he desired a little dessert. Would she please bring him “a Lightning Jim bar, three Eskimo pies, two deviled crabs and a box of Good and Plenties?” The astonished waitress, no doubt thinking she had a weird one on her hands (and who could blame her?) promptly obliged by writing down the indigestible combination on her order pad.

And so it goes day without end. Sterling Yates as Dad, Sterling Yates as Baldwin, Sterling Yates as—anyone but himself. His wife Jeanne has this to say about it all: “It’s something like living with five entirely different men.” What is her reaction when he switches character? Yates says she gives him a bemused tolerant stare and says “Everyone wants to do comedy these days. You can’t find a straight man anywhere.”

During the November elections, Cordic, Karl Hardman (better known as Perrywinkle, Louie, and Quick and Easy O’Brien,) and Yates rented a train to campaign for Carmen Monoxide (Bob Trow) for President. They were greeted by large crowds of fans at West Newton, Connellsville, Fairmont, Wheeling, West Va., and many other towns. Carmen is indebted to Baldwin McMoney for the funds for the campaign and for the laying of the train tracks, which incidentally, “Will not be used again but will remain intact for future generations to ponder.”

Sterling Yates minus sidekicks, can be serious. A 1951 graduate of Carnegie Tech school of Music, he takes this phase of his life very seriously. He has definite ideas on music, as some executives at KDKA can attest to. On his nightly record show he plays Jazz for the most part, believing that “people hear the commercial stuff all day.” On Rock and Roll for instance, he says that “even mediocre jazz is better than the best Rock and Roll,” and that the “youngsters of today are being exposed to anything music-wise, which gives them nothing to found any good taste upon.” Of course he is also serious about two other things in his otherwise unserious life—his two children: Lindsay, his daughter, age 8, and Sterling Jr. (Skipper), age 3.

Yates, aside from his busy schedule in radio, is also appearing on KDKA TV’s morning “Hometown” show with Ed Schaughnecy. A Jack of all trades, he plays saxophone with Johnny Costa, interviews visitors, and “joshes around in general.” He has ideas for a late evening TV show of the Steve Allen variety.

Yates is also an avid hockey fan, and he was one of the many who regretted the tearing down of the old Duquesne Gardens. But, he says, “I’ll drive to Hershey to see the games if necessary.” Not content with just being a spectator, he played in one of the practice sessions with the Pittsburgh Hornets. “They were very kind,” he says, “I only lost an arm and a leg.”

And that is Sterling Yates, or Baldwin, or Lee, or the Question man. As Carmen Monoxide put it, “My hat is off to Yates and all his Sterling characters.” •

---------------------