Itโs cool that Lebanon was once the home office of Late Night with David Lettermanโs Top Ten List. Itโs cool that our little hometown received unprecedented recognition from across the country.
Whatโs even cooler is how it all went down.
There was a time not all that long ago when Lebanon served as the home office of the popular television-talk show hostโs nightly Top Ten List. How it came to pass is one of the most interesting and intriguing stories ever associated with the history of Lebanon, Pa.
The principal characters were a couple of Lebanon School District teachers and local residents, Jay Putt and Karl “Skip” Wolf. Putt has since passed, leaving Wolf behind to relay a story that he remembers as though it were yesterday.
Perhaps the best place to start is the beginning. The year was 1990, and the emerging Letterman was just coming into his own as a comedian and entertainer.
โI used to listen to the Tom Snyder Show on [Lebanon radio station] WLBR from 10-12 p.m. every night,โ said Wolf. โJay Putt was my friend, and he informed me David Letterman was going to be on the show. It was a call-in show, and I said, โLetโs call him,’ and [Putt] said, โThatโs a great idea.โ We used a digital phone that had an automatic redial system. We must have done it 50-60 times, and each time it was busy. But eventually persistence paid off.”
Wolf said Putt was the one who came up with the question.
โI wanted to ask him something common like, โHow did he like show business?โ But Jay said, โNo, ask him to change the home office of the Top Ten List to Lebanon.โ It was a brilliant idea by Jay. Eventually, a screener came on the phone and said, โYouโre next on the line.โ I heard Tom Snyder say, โThis is Karl from Lebanon, Pa.โ I told Dave we enjoyed his show and then asked him to change the home office to Lebanon.โ
What happened next stunned Putt and Wolf. But what was even more stunning was Lettermanโs memory of the short event.
โI remember he said, โDone. Itโs moving,โโ said Wolf. โJay and I were stunned that it was that easy. But we couldnโt tell anyone because we werenโt sure heโd do it. This happened on a Thursday and a week later on Tuesday, I went over to Jayโs house to watch Lettermanโs show.”
About 15 minutes into the show, Wolf said, Letterman told sidekick and band leader Paul Shaffer that the home office for the Top Ten List had changed. Letterman proceeded to cross out the old home office on a cue card and write in “Lebanon, PA.”
According to Lebanon Daily News coverage from that period, the home office change was a surprise even to Letterman writers. Reporter James Mentzer stopped by the Downtown Lounge for the showing, where he talked to bartender Nanette Coleman. “It’s good to know that a big city Like New York would give a small city like Lebanon some recognition,” she said at the time. (Editor’s note: Nanette now owns the bar.)
โHenry Homan had a column in the Lebanon Daily News called โUp the Snitz Creek,โโ Wolf continued. โI called Henry and asked him if heโd like a scoop. I told him the story and showed him a tape of the show. He was the one who told the readers of the Lebanon Daily News. At that point, things got really crazy. We were contacted by newspapers and magazines. People thought there was office space in Lebanon that was actually the home office of the Top Ten List.โ
Lebanon remained the home office of Late Night with David Lettermanโs Top Ten List for about two years and three months. Wolf and Putt made a number of trips to New York to see the show live, and they did everything they could think of to keep the home office here.
โTo keep it going, we tried to shower Letterman with gifts,โ said Wolf. โWe made numerous trips to New York to see the show, but we never got to meet him. We never got word from him, not a letter or a note.
โOne time we were waiting in line to see a show and we told one of Lettermanโs personal assistants that we were from the home office in Lebanon, Pa,โ added Wolf. โI had Shueyโs Pretzels with me and handed it to him to give to Dave. When Dave came out at the beginning of the show, he had a canned ham. He actually came down and handed me a canned ham for giving him the pretzels, but he didnโt know who I was. It went until 1992. During one show, someone said they were going to hold the rest of the audience hostage unless he changed the home office, and he did it.โ
โThey have gone crazy over this,โ Late Night with David Lettermanโs head writer Steve OโDonnell told the Baltimore Sun in 1990. โBut when you go crazy in Lebanon, Pa., thatโs like sending off packages of pretzels to friends and relatives.โ
For a period of 30 years, Late Night with David Letterman on NBC, and then Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, had 13 different fictitious home offices. It began in Milwaukee, Wis. and then moved to Scottsdale, Ariz., but Lebanon served as Pa.’s only home office.
โIt was a great run,โ said Wolf. โSomething else that was crazy was people thought Jay and I had some sort of inside connection with Letterman, that we could arrange personal appearances. But we never had personal contact with him. It was just to see if we could pull it off. It was Jayโs idea and his name kind of got lost in the story. I was just the one who made the call on his phone. We had a lot of fun with it.
โWhen you keep getting a busy signal, you think, โWhat chance to I have of getting through?,’โ Wolf added. โIt was just a whim. It just caught [Lettermanโs] fancy. But from Thursday to Tuesday, he remembered. His writers never knew about it. They had no idea.โ
Letterman retired from the late-night talk show world in 2015, after 33 years of entertaining millions of Americans. Before moving to the 11:30 p.m. time slot on CBS, Lettermanโs Late Night had appeared at 12:30 a.m. on NBC.
There was a time when some insiders believed Letterman would succeed Johnny Carson when he retired as the host of NBCโs Tonight Show.
โI was a big fan of Daveโs,โ said Wolf. โWhen he was on at 11:30, I watched his show all the time. Then when he went to CBS, Iโd watch it. We just liked his humor. You had to appreciate it, because it was an odd type of humor.
โIโm proud of being from here. Iโve lived here all my life,โ continued Wolf. โBut we really didnโt do it for Lebanon. We just did it as a whim. We wondered, โWould he actually do it?โ, and he did. It sort of put Lebanon on the map nationally. It happened 30 years ago, and probably many people in town donโt even know about it.โ
When Wolf thinks back to that time, it is with fond memories. It also helps him remember his lost friend.
โI chuckle about it,โ said Wolf. โI just hope itโs not my legacy. It was pretty neat. I just feel like Jay didnโt get the recognition he deserved. He was too shy to talk on the phone, but Jay was creative. I used to call him โthe idea manโ.
โSometimes what you least expect to happen can happen,โ concluded Wolf. โYou couldโve had 25,000 people write letters to Letterman, and it wouldnโt have happened. It just caught his fancy.โ
Hereโs tonightโs Top Ten List, from the home offices in Lebanon, Pennsylvaniaโฆ
10 reasons why the David Letterman show should be broadcast from the home office in Lebanon Pennsylvania
- Plenty of free parking for audience and crew; just watch your step.
- On moonlight nights from a pasture one can hear the words… “If Letterman comes, he will prosper”
- City police don’t use radar
- Lebanon is “hometown” for Sam Bowie of the Nets, Frank Reich of the Bills, and racing great Bobby Gerhart
- Free saunas courtesy of Weaver’s Smokehouse
- Paul and the guys can catch up on the latest polka hits at the ‘Persey’ Fire Hall
- Fans can visit the country’s oldest tunnel
- The lost art of opera fudge is still practiced here
- Guests can still enjoy stretch limo service
- On a good day you can smell the Hershey Chocolate Factory… on a great day you can smell Zook’s manure spreader.
Letterman clips courtesy of archivist Don Giller. Read a 2017 profile of Giller here.
What story should we tell next? Let us know using the form below.
Give the gift of local journalism.
If you are thankful for what LebTown brings to the community, consider joining our cause as a member. Members get an inside look at our publishing schedule each week, plus invites to our members-only Facebook group and happy hours.
Sign up for an annual membership using the link below, and we’ll give you a free LebTown mug at the next happy hour.
Learn more and join now here.
An earlier version of this article misspelled Skip’s last name. We sincerely regret the error.