One of my earliest crushes, Richard Dawson, died a few days ago. Now I haven’t done a board game post in at least a year, but when I think of Mr. Dawson my mind fills with a blur of Hogan’s Heroes reruns from my childhood.
Do I happen to have a Hogan’s Heroes board game, even though it predates my ’70s TV show board game collection? Why yes, I do. For sentimental reasons, of course…
I assume that the man in blue next to LeBeau and Kinch is Newkirk, Dawson’s poorly drawn character…
The goal, as was typical in the show, is to sneak a man out of Stalag 13…
As the senior ranking officer, Col. Hogan was in charge of the POWs…
Did you know that although Col. Klink…
and Sgt. “I see nothink!” Schultzie are Nazis…
… the actors were actually Jewish in real life? Neither did I.
Turns out that the actor who played Klink escaped Nazi Germany with his family in 1933. And the actors who played Schultz and LeBeau spent time in, and lost family in, concentration camps. Others on the show shared similar credentials.
The show was funny. Real life was not.
There’s Newkirk again…
As usual, the bumbling Nazis are easily defeated and the boys sneak their man out…
A happy ending!
Goodbye, Richard Dawson. You will star in my childhood memories forever…
