George Jay Wienbarg

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George Jay Weinbarg is the great grand nephew of William Frederick Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill. He has appeared in movies^[1] and has acting credits in films by Director David Capurso, Emily's Song and Food for the Sun, and by the late Ken Anderson, The Gospel According to Most People.

Contents 1 A Farm in the Sand hills 2 Cheyenne 3 On the Road 4 Selling the Hollywood Sign 5 References

[edit] A Farm in the Sand hills

Wienbarg's great-grandparents homesteaded outside of North Platte, Nebraska possibly to be near their famous relative, Buffalo Bill Cody ^[2] and raised twelve kids on "The Farm," and George worked summers from the time he was eight, nearly 100 years later. One of the children is still living in Independence, Missouri, William F. Cody's niece—and Wienbarg's great aunt, Alice Reneau Frederici.^[3]

[edit] Cheyenne

The Cheyenne house in which Wienbarg grew up was from money his parents built for $5,000 from his mother's G. I. Bill. Bettie M. Huston had been was a U.S. Army Lieutenant during World War II [1] and was later interviewed and included in an article in Reader's Digest in 1960 about one of her private duty patients. ^[4] Dr. Harold Welsh, a prominent Cheyenne dentist had been golfing with his cardiologist friend, Dr. Ben Leeper when he suffered a massive heart attack in the summer of 1961. Leeper cut the dentist open with a pair of scissors on the golf course and massaged his heart back to life. Welsh would later "die" six more times, and in the days before defibrillation, each time his heart massaged to life by Dr. Leeper, a piece of tape sealing the chest cavity. It was the first time anyone had literally "died" and been brought back to life seven times. Dr. Welsh would live another 17 years but both became good friends of the Wienbarg family, Dr. Leeper loaning a 17-year old George Wienbarg the .38 caliber S&W Chief Special he would use as a teenage undercover agent for the Cheyenne Police Department.^[3]

Wienbarg rode rodeo as a child in the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo as a kid on wild Hereford yearlings and would later ride a bull in his first motion picture, "The Gospel According to Most People," a Christian film production from Ken Anderson Films of Winnona, Indiana.^[1] That movie and various appearances in local plays was enough to spur him onward into big market radio, eventually into motion pictures. As a radio news personality George Jay appeared first in Denver where the station achieved an NAB "Station of the Year" award, [2] He then moved to Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles and finally New York City where he worked at CNN with Jerry Schmetterer [3] in addition to WNBC, WABC, WCBS, WPIX, WYNY and WOR.

[edit] On the Road

Prior to New York, Wienbarg worked in Cleveland radio ^[5] as had Don Imus (with whom he would later work at WNBC) and as a producer/talent on the first two of three television specials. He also voiced radio and television commercials in preparation for New York City. The first television special was produced by Jack Craciun III of Cleveland and was videotaped at the award-winning Agora Club of Columbus, Ohio. Titled "Music You're My Mother: Agora," it featured the 10-piece rock orchestra, Ralph of Scranton, Pennsylvania and comedian Martin Mull. ^[6] The second show also produced by Craciun was shot at the U.S. Army's Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the home of the 101st Airborn Division outside Nashville, Tennessee May 22, 1975 the week the Viet Nam War ended.

Titled "Music You're My Mother: U.S. Army" it was designed to be shown during the celebration of America's 200th Birthday ^{[7] [8] [9]} and starred Joe Cocker, Barbi Benton, Chaka Kahn, Pure Prairie League, and the Earl Scruggs Review. Executive producers were Cleveland rock impresarios Hank LoConti, and Craciun, formerly of WNCR FM radio whose impetus along with Norman Knight and the late Ahmet Ertegun were responsible for creation of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. [4]

The third television special of which Wienbarg was an integral part was titled "Musicourt." [5]Shot in New York at the Flushing Meadows, Queens tennis courts in 1982, he helped the producer/director Robert Yuhas put it together with the help of the one and only New York entertainment empressario George Martin. He was paid for the production work but not for he double truck editorial piece he placed in The New York Post and elsewhere.

Wienbarg also produced and was to star in the pilot for the music video series "Kicker Kountry" for the Nashville Network from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway ^[10].

[edit] Selling the Hollywood Sign

In 1976, Wienbarg would drive cross country to Hollywood with his friend Hank Berger whom he had met during the "Music Your're My Mother: U.S. Army" television special. There the team researched and wrote "When the Music's Over, the Jim Morrison Story" for Robert Evans of Paramount Pictures as well as developing other motion picture projects. Wienbarg and Berger achieved world fame when they cut up the original Hollywood Sign in Berger's Hollywood Hills back yard. ^[11] By placing small pieces of the original Hollywood Sign on art deco lithograph plaques that Berger had designed, then selling them,^[3] with Wienbarg handling the marketing and media, the story gained world press attention.

Six years later in New York Wienbarg created a line of clothing called Hollywood Clothing with the Korean designer Viola Park again gaining wide media attention this time by attaining the U.S. Trademark imprimatur for the famous sign for the first time in history. The story was featured in articles in Time Magazine, People Magazine, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal along with other syndicated newspaper and media outlets across the country. ^[12] Hollywood Clothing line was sold in Macy's, fifty American States and elswhere worldwide again with Wienbarg handling marketing and media. In all, media reach for the story was in excess of five hundred million, worldwide.

The third television special of which Wienbarg was an integral part was titled "Musicourt."^[1] Shot in New York at the Flushing Meadows, Queens tennis courts in 1982, he helped the producer/director Robert Yuhas put it together with the help of the one and only New York entertainment empressario George Martin. He was paid for the production work but not for he double truck editorial piece he placed in The New York Post and elsewhere.

Wienbarg also produced and was to star in the pilot for the music video series "Kicker Kountry" for the Nashville Network from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway ^[13].

For the past thirty-five years George Wienbarg has worked throughout the country as a broadcaster and journalist making appearances at, among others, CNN, New York; WABC, WCBS (FM), WCBS (AM), and WPIX (FM) in New York; WEFM (FM) in Chicago; KZLA, KPOL and KMET (FM) in Los Angeles; in Cleveland at, WWWE, WERE, and WGCL (FM) as News Director; in Nashville WLAC; and in Denver, at KIMN as Assistant News Director. ^[14] George is now finishing a book on a 1992 East Village murder titled "The Edge" [6]as his latest full-length film, "Food for the Sun," which he costars, is completed. [7]

[edit] References