THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 30, 1994 TAG: 9407290097
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
WTKR-TV PRODUCTION manager Howard Mills is one of those white-haired cats who rubs people the right way. He's been dubbed ``Dad'' by his colleagues for always having a sympathetic ear. An easygoing type, he is the frequent recipient of gifts from folks he has helped over the years.
Take Bob McKinnon, head of the NBC Today Show, based in New York. He remembers Howard and his wife each Christmas with a large bouquet of flowers. Howard showed McKinnon the ropes when McKinnon was just a cub at the station.
Mills began his career with WTAR-TV 31 years ago, long before it changed its ownership and name. He goes back to the early days of television when commercials were black and white, and the crew used mashed potatoes in the ice cream commercials and dropped Alka-Seltzer into the beer mugs to make the foam last longer.
He was also the subject of a hoax perpetrated on the station's viewers by the popular and now retired weather man Andy Roberts. For years, Roberts pretended there was a town named Howard Mills, Texas. Now and then Roberts would point to the weather map, and with a straight face, tell viewers it was overcast in Chicago . . . sunny in Baltimore . . . and raining in Howard Mills, Texas. I swear.
The station's employees gave Mills a miniature, make-believe Howard Mills, Texas. An electric train circles the town, which has a water tower, a no-tell hotel, police station, jail and cafe.
Howard Mills, Texas, occupies a shelf in Mills' office, which may be the most interesting in Hampton Roads.
A lot of people have taken their hats off to Howard. And quite a few have gone even further. They have given him their caps. They caps hang from the ceiling, are mounted on the walls and rest atop shelves and cabinets.
``When you're thinking about buying a cap when you're out of town, you always have to buy two,'' military reporter Bruce Barry said. ``That's one for yourself and one for Howard.''
Station employees, friends, even total strangers bring back hats from distant or local places and give them to Howard, who never wears 'em.
``I haven't worn a hat since I was in the Air Force in Lakeland, Texas, in the 1950s,'' Mills confessed. ``And my wife won't let me bring this many hats home. So they just hang in here,'' he said.
You name it, Mills probably has a hat for it. He is to ball caps what O.J. is to lawyers and Imelda is to shoes.
``Back in 1967, someone gave me a hat with the word `major' printed on it,'' he recalled. ``That was done as a joke because I had gotten in a lot of trouble when I was in the Air Force for failing to salute a major. It was my first cap. Someone stole it. After that, the hats started trickling in as replacements. Now I get maybe two or three a month.''
WTKR luminaries Ed Hughes and Barry have contributed often to the collection during their travels.
``Here's one with ear muffs that Barry brought me back from Russia,'' he said. ``And Ed gave me this one from Tootsie's Lounge in Nashville, Tenn., when he was interviewing country music stars out there this year. It has Ed's autograph on it. Those other signatures are from people who were drinking at the bar.''
If you're collecting caps, it helps to work for a television station. There's a cap for nearly every show, including ``Northern Exposure,'' ``Cops,'' ``Coach,'' ``Studs'' and ``Geraldo.'' And quite a few CBS News caps, including one with a greeting to ``Howard'' autographed by Dan Rather. The most handsome cap in the collection is one fashioned of green felt with the hand-embroidered gold letters spelling ``Lillehammer '94,'' given to Mills by Chris White, the station's general manager.
There are the expected caps from Navy ships and ball caps from every sport and team, including the Baltimore Orioles (autographed by Brooks Robinson).
You name it, Mills has it. There's one from the singing group ``U2'' and a cap from the Clinton-Gore inaugural. And college caps from Georgetown, Iowa, Florida State, North Carolina, Virginia, Norfolk State, Yale, Regent, Liberty and St. Johns, to list a few.
``Here's a helmet given to me from someone in the Virginia Beach Fire Department that has smoke stains on it . . . and over here is a Smokey Bear cap . . . and here's one from the New York Teddy Bear Club with the bear wearing sunglasses. And this one with Hemingway's picture on it is from Sloppy Joe's in Key West, Fla.''
Well, you get the idea. He has boxes of them in a closet that he hasn't even counted. Wonder if the one on Social Security's in there? ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Ian Martin
Howard Mills
WTKR-TV production manager
by CNB