Tres revolutionarios en Santa Clara, Cuba, 26 de Julio, 1975. Tedd O'Connell, Phil Ball, Paul Soglin.
Editor's note: Phil Ball, the legendary political activist who dropped from sight years ago, reappeared the other day with these photos and reminiscence of the late WISC news anchor Tedd O'Connell, who ruled the Madison airwaves from 1974 to 1989. Ball was an aide to Mayor Paul Soglin when Hizzoner decamped to Havana in 1975 with an entourage that included O'Connell. Here is Ball's recollection.
Recently deceased Comrade Tedd O'Connell was a revolutionary when the revolution was fueled by drugs, sex and rock n roll. His sphere of operations stretched from Mr. P's on Madison's southside to Hemingway's Bodega del Media in Havana.
O'Connell is pictured here in Cuba with child mayor Paul Soglin and me, one of Soglin's thousands of paid staffers, as we listened intently to El Jefe's annual call to arms. Ted(d, who knows why the second D?) was mistakenly blamed for botching the filming of Fidel Castro's unexpected conversation with Soglin in a Havana hotel.
Far more likely was that some hack anti-Castro C.I.A. loser stripped the film from the Channel 3 camera after the fact and sold it to the C.I.A. in exchange for a letter of commendation from President Nixon. Ted(d; really, now, what's the point of that second D?) never guessed. The better stories about TED, well, that's for another day.
