MANCHESTER, NH – If you have a moment, do yourself a favor and take the three minutes and 56 seconds to click this link and listen to Howard McCarthy do his rendition of “My Way,” one of many episodes of his Manchester Public TV show, “The Old Lamplighter,” in which McCarthy serenaded the city he loved over the airwaves.
McCarthy, a consummate showman and avid singer, died peacefully at home Oct. 8 after several months of declining health. He was 87.
You may remember McCarthy as a regular at Board of Mayor and Aldermen meetings, and for several years as star of his own MPTV show, “The Old Lamplighter,” a title he chose based on the lyrics of an old song by the same name, says Joe Lahr, a longtime friend of McCarthy’s and MPTV Operations Specialist.
“He was old-fashioned and he loved to be old-fashioned, and for the show he needed a nickname, so he dubbed himself the Old Lamplighter, because one of the lines from that song are that ‘he made the night a little brighter wherever he would go,’ and that’s pretty much what Howard tried to do,” says Lahr.
McCarthy got his start as a regular at City Hall about a decade ago, when he found out he wasn’t allowed to plug his refrigerator into the city’s electrical outlets to sell ice cream, says Lahr.
“He became an advocate for common sense, as he called it,” says Lahr. “That’s what got him started going to meetings, and he’d show up pretty much for every meeting after that, for his three minutes during public comment. He brought a little comedy, or levity to the meetings, even if he didn’t know he was being funny. He made a lot of people laugh and smile.”
Lahr recalls one such meeting, shortly after Mayor Ted Gatsas was elected.
“Howard had seen a photograph in the Union Leader of the mayor with his mother, and that reminded Howard of his own life. As he told the story, he almost died after he was born, and his mother took him and ‘willed the life into him’ by telling him he wouldn’t die. So Howard always had this love of mothers. And so he went to City Hall that night and started telling that story, and he went on for about 15 minutes, crying a little, and basically telling the mayor that he hoped he did well because his mother would be watching him, and would be so proud of him,” says Lahr. “He didn’t get gaveled down. He just told his story, and everyone listened.”
Gatsas says he remembers that meeting well, and how McCarthy would often sing his way through Aldermanic meetings. He was sorry to hear of McCarthy’s passing Thursday night.
“I’m sure he will be a singing angel,” said Gatsas Friday.
Born Dec. 26, 1927 in Peabody, Mass., McCarthy was a proud WWII veteran who served as a Navy clerk at the end of the war, stationed at Pearl Harbor, says Lahr.
“He liked to joke that ‘he won the war,’ even though he said his job was just ‘making coffee and listening to hula records.’ He always loved music. After the war he played in a lot of three-piece bands at military installations until reality set in and he had to get a job. So he started working at Eastern Airlines and stayed for 28 years, until he retired – right before they went out of business,” says Lahr.
McCarthy made a ritual out of preparing for his shows, rehearsing musical numbers and singing his way through most of the programs, with occasional interviews from time to time.
“He did an hour show every week, and I don’t think he missed a week in the seven years he did his show, so that’s about 350 episodes of him singing 10 to 12 songs per show,” says Lahr.
McCarthy then methodically made about 50 copies of each show and wrote the song list on each copy, and distributed them.
He also organized a Christmas dinner for seniors for the last three years of his life, the last one was at the Puritan Backroom, says Lahr, for about 150 people.
“He loved Christmas, and in general, he loved to ham it up every chance he got. He’d wear fancy coats or vests to the show – I’d ask him why he was always decked out, and he’d say, ‘I’m in show business!'”
As a tribute to McCarthy, his fellow producers at MPTV will dedicate the time slot between 4-6 p.m. on Oct. 14 to airing several old clips of McCarthy at his finest, from Aldermanic meetings and his own show.
“Tom Brady and Bill O’Reilly lost a big fan last night,” Lahr said.
→Look for a full obituary, coming soon.
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