PITTSBURGH - Irving J. Mendelbaum, who portrayed beloved children's television's "Fred Rogers," was a former convict and three-time divorcee who once beat a stagehand to death with a blood-soaked puppet for complaining about his salary, then urinated on the body before forcing his minions to dump it in the Allegheny River. These are a few of the startling revelations in a book to be released tomorrow, Even the Puppets Hated Him, by former staffer Helen Palsgraf that exposes an almost unbelievably dark side to the late children's show host.
"I'm sure readers will find it amusing that this mild-mannered, beloved TV personality could be a monster, but there was nothing amusing about it for those of us who lived through it," said Joe "Handyman" Negri. "I was there when the stagehand was killed. Not only did we have to ditch the body, but he ordered me to burn the puppet, which was caked with blood. Ever wonder why 'Goliath the Donkey' disappeared from the show without explanation?"
David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely, a mainstay in Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, put it bluntly: "Mendelbaum was the most twisted man who ever lived." Newell cocks his head to reveal that half of his left ear is missing. "I made the mistake of wearing his sweater as a gag one time. Soon as he saw me, he charged at me, teeth bared like a wild dog. Now I'm totally deaf in that ear."
The entire staff of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood lived in constant fear of being fired. "If Mendelbaum wanted to give you the ax, he'd called your house on Christmas Eve and have one of your kids relay the termination notice. And believe me, the ones who were let go, they were the lucky ones," Newell said.
Despite his enormous wealth, Mendelbaum "made Ebenezer Scrooge look like a philanthropist," Negri said. Paychecks never came on time. "A month late was not unusual," according to Negri. When Mendelbaum was in a generous mood and decided it was "payday," he would stand at the top of the staircase at WQED's studio in Pittsburgh, where his offices were located, and gleefully toss bills down the steps just to watch staff members fight each other for them.
"And heaven help you if you ever fouled up," said Newell. Like the time Mendelbaum's longtime pianist Johnny Costa missed a cue. "Irving stormed over to the piano, opened the lid and ripped out a wire, then he started to strangle Johnny with it," said Negri. "It took three of us to pull him off." Costa was never the same, Negri said. He died the following month. At the funeral home, Mendelbaum exposed himself to Costa's distraught widow "just for fun," said Newell. She rebuked him and he stormed out. Before he left the parking lot, he defecated on her car.
"The happiest moment of my life was when they lowered him into the earth," said Negri. "Every year on the anniversary of his death, Dave Newell and I and the rest of the gang from the old 'neighborhood' go out there and pee on his grave - just because we can."
