TRUCKSVILLE, Pa. — For you, May 14, 2021, might be just another Friday on the calendar, but for Beth Bessmer, it's a special day to remember her father.
"It would have been his 100th birthday, and as my father would say, were he still alive, 'I would have been 101, but I was sick a year.' That was his humor," said Beth.
Beth's father was Edwin "Ted" Raub, known to many in northeastern and central Pennsylvania as "Uncle Ted."
He was the host of Uncle Ted's Ghoul School, a Friday night program on WNEP-TV that featured Uncle Ted's magic tricks and horror films. Beth recently discovered through a Facebook page that her father had a large reach with fans from all over Pennsylvania.
"He entertained and affected people more than he ever knew, more than I ever knew, until I started seeing the posts," she explained.
But Beth says for his 100th birthday, she wants people to know things about her father you wouldn't have learned through his show—like his military service, how he parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day, and his next jump that earned him a second Purple Heart was a jump that could have also inspired his broadcast career.
"The next jump that he made was in Holland, and that's where he got the second injury. His hands were burned," explained Beth. "I guess he was standing by a fire or whatever when something exploded, and his hands were burned. That basically took them out of the war. So while he was recovering and doing rehab, apparently he was given a deck of cards to work with to help his fingers become a little more nimble, and I'm sure that the seed for the magic was planted at that point."
Beth says he also had a special sense of humor. He often used to play around with his wife Angela, who he met during his service in England.
"She asked my father one time what the double yellow lines were down the middle of the road, and he told her that they were for people who rode bicycles, they had to ride down that middle lane, and apparently she fell for it," laughed Beth.
"He was a very caring and giving person. I think that's what I want people really to remember about him, not just that guy with a fez. He did have a background; he did have a past. Some of it wasn't so great, but, you know, it all ties in with Uncle Ted," she added. "But, like he would say, that's all there is, there isn't anymore, and what there was is all gone, And he always ended the show like that."