Tonight, the Piedmont High School bird callers will appear on
"The Late Show With David Letterman" for the 18th and
final time.
That's because Letterman announced his retirement earlier this
month. And nobody was more stunned to hear it than history teacher Ken Brown,
the faculty sponsor of the Piedmont Bird Calling Contest.
"I was caught by surprise," he says. "I know
Letterman hinted at it a few years back, but now there seems to be a more
definitive timeline."
So where will the bird callers appear next? Brown vows the
contest will go on forever, TV or no TV. But it's hard to believe that one of
the many talk shows currently proliferating on the air won't pick the bird
callersw up.
Things looked much bleaker in 1994, when Johnny Carson, who
hosted the bird callers on "The Tonight Show" for 17 years, retired.
Leonard J. Waxdeck, the biology teacher who had founded the
contest as a class project in 1963, approached Carson's successor, Jay Leno. But
Leno wanted to carve out his own persona and wanted nothing to do with
anything that reminded people of Carson.
So the students appeared on "The Arsenio Hall Show" for
a year while Waxdeck tried to figure out what to do next.
But Waxdeck suddenly died a year later. And without him, everyone
wondered whether the contest would survive at all.
But the people of Piedmont refused
to let it die. A coalition of students, former students and parents resurrected
the contest, and the winner's trophy was renamed after Waxdeck. It was
the Bird Calling Contest's second most shining moment. (I'll tell you what was
number one later.)
The next step was getting back on television. They approached
David Letterman, whose admiration for Carson verges on hero-worship, and
he was only too glad to have the kids on his show. Their first appearance was
in 1996, and they've been an annual "Late Night" staple ever since.
But for all his generosity, Letterman had one unfortunate
quirk: Unlike Carson, who let Waxdeck choose who would appear on the show (he always
chose the first, second and third place finishers in the contest, plus the
graduating seniors), Letterman insisted on choosing the acts himself after
viewing a tape of the contest.
That meant the winning acts sometimes didn't get picked. Worse
yet, Letterman would bring four acts back to New York, but only three would
appear on the show. He – or his producer – would give one of them the axe just
before curtain time.
The kids who got cut were always good sports. But it's still a
mean thing to do to young people, no matter how brave a face they put on it.
But then, in 2005, Piedmont High got a new principal named
Randall Booker (he's now an assistant superintendant of schools). And one of
his first acts was to politely but firmly tell Letterman it's all or nothing.
It was a big risk because Letterman easily could have replied,
"Fine, take a hike." But Letterman didn't.
And ever since, three acts have flown back to New York, and
all three have appeared on the show. And they've been the three winners the
judges chose at the contest, too.
And THAT was the Piedmont High School Bird Calling Contest's
finest moment.
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