HAMILTON, Ohio — As God is our witness, we thought turkeys could fly.
A pair of Hamilton businesses re-created the classic “WKRP in Cincinnati” turkey drop on Wednesday ― but with rubber ducks dressed as turkeys.
The Casual Pint Hamilton and Municipal Brew Works sold turkey rubber ducks that were dropped from a Hamilton Fire Department ladder truck onto targets. The ducks were sold for $10 with half of the money raised supporting the Butler County Veterans Memorial at Veterans Park on New London Road. The other half went to the person whose duck came closest to a target.
Both businesses sold out of rubber ducks in just 24 hours thanks solely to word-of-mouth and some social media advertising
Casual Pint Hamilton owner Ann Marie Cilley said they weren't sure how people would react, but now they know to have more ducks available next year.
“As with everything else, next year, we’ll make it bigger and better,” she said.
Wednesday’s event paid tribute to one of the more memorable episodes in television history.
Nearly a half-century ago, “WKRP in Cincinnati,” a sitcom that followed the antics at a fictional radio station in Cincinnati, aired the classic “Turkeys Away” episode where the station’s manager arranged to have turkeys drop out of a helicopter, swearing at the end of the episode, he thought turkeys could fly.
The episode was filled with indelible lines delivered by the radio station’s reporter Les Nessman (Richard Sanders) as turkeys were “tossed” from a helicopter, including the recognizable, “Oh, the humanity,” “The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement” and “Not since the Hindenburg tragedy has there been anything like this.”
While the exact chaos won’t be recreated, it did happen exactly 45 years ago.
Cilley said the idea came from The Casual Pint marketing team for its franchises, but it was a watered-down version of what they ended up planning. Municipal Brew Works co-owner Jim Goodman and Cilley, who often discuss ideas of shared shenanigans between the two downtown Hamilton establishments, made the idea better than what was initially pitched (having rubber turkeys thrown at hula hoops).
“It’s fun,” said Goodman on why have this duck drop tribute. “It’s funny, and it’s a way to raise funds for the Butler County Veterans Park wall improvements.”
In addition to the $600 split-the-pot grand prize, there were other prize packages, Goodman said, including from The Causal Pint, The Fitton Center, Pinball Garage, and Municipal Brew Works.
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