Detroit's Bill Bonds...On The Air?

Turn down the volume if you have kids in the house! This is a clip of Bill Bonds recording a newscast teaser. Detroit folks remember his many antics and firings from WXYZ over the years...this one is quite, ummm, colorful. (People made as many "drunk" jokes about Bonds as they did with the "toupee" jokes.) A transcript of this taping is also on the page I link to, in case you can't hear all the words.

Check it out. And you've been warned!

http://www.impossiblefunky.com/archives/issue_7/7_bonds.asp?IshNum=7

For non-Detroit viewers...yes, this guy was really a Detroit news anchor for us. For decades, actually.

 

And now a shill for a furniture-store chain.

Funny stuff, Rudy. I'll bet every TV and radio station in the world has at least one or two of these "colorful" clips in its archives.

 

Mike--I think there are probably more Bonds outtakes around too. Found this on the Detroit Vintage Radio/TV board. Nearly split a gut!

 

Bonds was back in Detroit around 1972, so I'm thinking it had to be before then unless he disappeared from town for a few years. With all his difficulties, there were stretches where he'd be off the air.

He has a rep for hard drinking, and his daughter committed suicide. He's only working as a spokesman for a local furniture company these days, looking a bit white-haired and paunchy.

 

IMDB shows Bonds as being in L.A. in 1970, and NYC from 1975-1977. He also plays a newscaster in the film Escape From The Planet Of The Apes.