Oh yes he did during the early 60's on his nightly network CBS-TV news show. The subject matter was "clothing naked animals for the sake of decency, namely all horses, cows, dogs, cats and any animal standing taller than 4 inches or longer than 6 inches." And that was my mantra 1955-63!
Walter Cronkite sat stoically silent along side G. Clifford Prout, President of SINA, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (a/k/a Buck Henry "The Graduate") spewed out the material I had written: "......those cows and bulls are not grazing. They are hanging their heads in shame because they are naked. That's why SINA has declared the New Jersey Turnpike a moral disaster area!"
Prout/Buck then reached down and picked up his ukelele, playing and singing the SINA Marching Song: "Wings of Decency"
High on the wings of SINA
We fight for the future now
Let's clothe every pet and animal
Whether dog, cat, horse or cow.
G. Cliford Prout our President
He works for you and me
So clothe all your pets and
Join the march for world wide decency.
S-I-N-A that's our call
All for one and one for all
Hoist our flag for all to see
Waving for morality.
Onward we stride together
Stronger in everyway
All mankind and his animal friends
For SINA, S-I-N-A.
When Prout completed this seven minutes of satire, the switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree. All the callers recognized Buck Henry immediately from "Saturday Night Live" and knew he was playing a superb prank on the venerable Walter Kronkite. At that time, Buck was actually a writer for the popular CBS-TV daytime Garry Moore Show. But Kronkite didn't have a clue about that!
However, thereafter he occasionally kicked the furniture around in his office, disgusted at being so taken in by an employee of his very own network. And to his dying day, Walter Cronkite told friends he remained angry. He wasn't mad at Hitler, Mussolini, Khadafy, Castro or Hussain. Only two clowns named Buck Henry and Alan Abel.
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