Wednesday, November 16, 2022
I knew Ed for several decades starting in the late 1970s into the late 1990s when I left the area. He was a semi-professional photographer/videographer who documented many of the region's punk and new-wave bands – I think he attended RIT, but I could be wrong.
He also sold advertising, and that was how he became involved with Life Without Shame, Rochester's reviled cable TV show, which at the time was hosted by Rick Benedetto and Tom Loce. As time went on Rick left the show and Ed took his place on camera serving as Tom's goofy sidekick Edwin J. in addition to lining up advertisers for the show. A poor-quality dub of the show's closing credits lists Ed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnlhz3fcPw
After Time-Warner started refusing to air certain episodes of the show, Tom and Ed sued them, and the story went national – here's what the New York Times had to say:
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/01/nyregion/producers-defend-reviled-cable-tv-show.html
You can read more about the case here:
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/191/256/641444/
I worked with Ed while serving as editor-producer-videographer of Life Without Shame with Tom, and I can testify to the fact that he was quite a character.
Ed was famous for telling tall tales and for many years boasted that he was good friends with several adult film stars; Traci Lords being the most famous – and Tom and I were skeptical.
It turns out he really did know them, albeit as a super fan, and they were very welcoming when he introduced us while they were visiting Rochester, and we had dinner with several of them while shooting in Las Vegas.
Mark "Newj"
