Howard Remembers Big, Giant Panties

One of Howard’s childhood heroes passed away today – famed ventriloquist and voice of “Winnie the Pooh’s” Tigger, Paul Winchell.

Howard said he was a big fan of Paul’s and Paul influenced him to do his own puppet shows when he was a kid. Howard even got Paul’s book on ventriloquism. He demonstrated his mad skills to Robin pointing out that he dropped all the “B’s” and “P’s” because they are impossible to do without moving your lips. He said that was one of the secrets he learned from Winchell’s book. Howard pointed out that Winchell was much more than a ventriloquist. He invented one of the first artificial hearts as well as the first disposable razor plus many other items.

He had over 30 patents when he died. Gary had read that Winchell dropped his disposable razor after critics said no one would want to buy something they just had to throw away, only to see another company pick up his idea and make billions off of it. Howard said that this was why he doesn’t invent anything – because he’s afraid of someone stealing his ideas. That, and the fact that he doesn’t have any ideas for inventions – yet. Winchell also invented the “invisible garter” and Howard tried to figure out what possessed Winchell to invent that one. But it did remind Howard of how he used to watch his mom get dressed and all the contraptions that were involved in that process; big, giant panties and girdles and straps and a whole myriad of things. Howard said it was so unsexy that it was amazing to him that his dad got worked up sexually for his mother.