Tag Archives: Fox-8

Airlift Mike & Morgus: Let’s Get Personal

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Sidney Noel Rideau Records VoiceOvers and More at Airlift Productions New Orleans

As a close personal friend to the New Orleans & Late Night TV Icon Morgus the Magnificent and extremely gifted spirit Sidney Noel Rideau, it is with a heavy heart on this July morning that I pen this one.

Like most guy friendships, we can go months at a time without a chat and then pick right up where we left off, with a lunch or a recording session.  So, in an entirely unrelated matter, I got Sid on the phone just yesterday only to find out that just months ago he had lost the one true love of his life –  Donia.

While we had spoken often of her through the years, I only knew of her through her answering the phone or in the background during our many phone conversations between NOLA and the north shore of the lake.

Sid & Aldona met innocently enough in New York City back in the early ’60s while he was the struggling actor & radio dude and she was an interpreter at the United Nations.  Really.

Their 52-year marriage included two beautiful children and a mutual love for the theater, the arts … and words. Oh, how they loved ‘words’.

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Sidney’s wife of 52 blessed years Donia

It was ‘words’ that carried the lovely Aldona through Poland, England, Pakistan & Switzerland, all before even having met Sidney in New York. Catch up with just a bit of this woman’s spirit in her online obituary here  Aldona Nalecz-Tyminska Rideau.

Sid’s beloved and adored Aldona served all through those turbulent & chaotic Morgus years as not only his silent partner … but as the wind beneath his wings.

Now, all this having been said, Sid would just kick my ass if he even knew that I was writing these words. Of all the people I’ve ever met in show business, radio or the theater – Sidney Noel Rideau would have to be the most personally private of all. Truly. He fiercely defends his privacy.

So, to the reader of these words, a simple request. For prayers. For the spirit of his beloved bride. For healing. And maybe one of thanks – for all the years of enjoyment & fun his on-air exploits have given generations of late night horror movie fanatics around America.  And now, prayers for the woman who helped to inspire it all.

May God indeed bless you, Uncle Sid, and your lovely Donia.

“Don’t stand at my grave and weep. I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am the thousand winds that blow….

I am the diamond glints of the winter snow…

I am the sunlight that ripens grain…

I am the gentle autumn rain.

Don’t stand at my grave and cry. I am not there. I did not die.”

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Airlift Mike On-Camera performing with Sid in “Morgus Presents”, in happier times, 1988, re-broadcast on Fox-8

 

Airlift Productions ~ Audio Alchemy from New Orleans since 1984

Doctor Morgus Still Makes Housecalls…With Airlift Mike

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Sid Noel aka Dr. Morgus the Magnificent Records Internet Story Club Vocal Tracks at Airlift Productions

 

In the mythology of the American Tribe, Superman will always have his Clark Kent, the Batman his Bruce Wayne…and iconic New Orleans TV late-night horror movie host Dr. Morgus (the Magnificent) will always have Sidney Noel Rideau. 

Here in the 21st century, ‘Uncle Sid’ has moved on from his haunts at the Old City Ice House and yet embarked on his boldest experiment ever – using technology, the internet and TV to help mold and shape the thought and character of today’s youth!

It may all sound a bit zany and bold, but when did that ever stop Dr. Morgus before?

Airlift Productions and I are proud to have been tagged personally by Sid (just call me Chopsley) to produce and voice the public service announcement campaign for New Orleans television to promote his Sidney Noel’s ‘Internet Story Club’ website .

Witness a sample of the PSA promotion as it appears On Air – through the talents of Blaine Strawn & his uber-capable crew down on Jefferson Davis Parkway – now showing on a WVUE-TV/Fox-8 flat screen near you …

To read more on nola.com about Sid’s latest adventure, follow the story here NOLA.com ‘Dr. Morgus: the Man Behind the Mask’  

After all, it’s not enough for our legal system to just keep locking-up bad guy after bad guy after bad guy … Our society simply has to stop making them!

Go get ’em, Sid! Now we understand what you meant by “the Higher Order”.

 

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Airlift Productions’ Micheal Ziants appearing with Dr. Morgus in an episode of “Morgus Presents” – circa 1989