MS Strength

I have a quirky, folksy music CD that I bought back in the early 1990’s. That was a time when “alternative” music— part of the independent, non-pop genre— was intersecting with a movement called “grunge”, or unpolished music played by bands in their garages. The particular CD I’m referring to is by southern alternative artist Victoria Williams. And what especially draws me to this musician is her own multiple sclerosis experience.

Williams grew up in a conservative Louisiana family in the 1960’s. Admittedly awkward and quirky, she went on to study French and music in college while playing acoustic guitar for a local band G.W. Korners in venues around Louisiana and eastern Texas. Williams ended up leaving school and traveling to Colorado and eventually California, working at odd jobs and entertaining others with her guitar-playing. She established Los Angeles as her permanent residency in 1984, while landing an unsuccessful recording contract with EMI records.

Williams later signed a contract with Geffen Records and released the 1987 album “Happy Come Home” to little fanfair. At the time she was married to another songwriter (Peter Case), but this ended soon afterward and Williams went on to record her second album “Swing the Statue” in 1990 with an independent label. This began her notoriety as she started to tour with the likes of Neil Young and Lou Reed (1992.)

At around this time Victoria Williams began to experience a lot of weakness on stage, and she found herself having trouble walking. Shortly after, she was diagnosed with MS and needed to use a wheelchair. During this time her musician friends Matthew Sweet, Lou Reed, Pearl Jam, Soul Asylum, and others did a benefit series of concerts and a CD compilation of Williams’ songs for the Sweet Relief Foundation, a fund for artists who do not have health insurance.

Williams rebounded from the intial attack and went on to remarry, appear in the feature film “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” (1995), and record several more albums—”This Moment: Live in Toronto” (1995), “Water to Drink” (2000), and “Sings Some Ol’ Songs” (2002.) She continued to tour with other bands for several years, and now currently plays guitar and sings with an LA band The Thriftstore Allstars, where she has ongoing show dates at the club Pappy and Harriet’s.

***For further information, see the Victoria Williams Biography and Fansite.

The story of David Lander, aka Squiggy, started in Brooklyn, NY, in 1947. As a teenager, Lander attended the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan and later attended college at NYU and Carnegie Tech.

After moving to Hollywood, Lander did some minor roles and was eventually discovered because of his unique voice and humor as he worked for an answering service. He was then given a job on a radio program called “The Credibility Gap”, a humorous news show.

It was at this radio station that David Lander met his future “Laverne and Shirley” sidekick Michael McKean, and the two put together the team of Lenny and Squiggy. One night, Penny Marshall just happened to be listening to their live show, and had the two audition for her father’s new sitcom “Laverne and Shirley”, in which she was starring. Soon Lenny and Squiggy were nationally known.

I remember watching this show as a kid and just howling over some of the crazy antics. My favorite scenes were when Lenny and Squiggy, the two deranged neighbors, would pop in. Squiggy (did you know that his full name was Andrew “Squiggy” Squiggmann?) always appeared to be some clown with a hair-brained plan that involved the girls. Too funny.

Not so funny is the fact that in real life, David Lander began to experience symptoms of multiple sclerosis shortly after the show ended (1985.) During this time period, there wasn’t a lot to do about modifying the disease— disease modifiers didn’t hit the market until the 1990’s— and Lander’s doctor told him he had a good chance of ending up in a wheelchair.

David consulted with his wife and daughter about what to do. It was decided that he would keep silent in order to protect his career, since aging and being sickly were (and are) highly frowned upon in Hollywood. He went on to do voiceovers for a number of feature films and TV shows, including “A Bug’s Life”, “Jungle Cubs”, and “101 Dalmatians.” Appearing in several other films, he was featured as the baseball game announcer in “A League of Their Own.”

Finally in 1999, Lander publically announced that he had MS. He was not in a wheelchair, but he admitted that he suffered from some of the embarrassing social blunders that multiple sclerosis can cause, such as unsteady walking and dropping things. In 2000, he was named the national MS Society Ambassador of the Year for his work at promoting MS awareness. In the same year Lander published his autobiography Fall Down Laughing: How Squiggy Caught Multiple Sclerosis and Didn’t Tell Nobody.

David Lander’s biggest piece of advice to anyone with MS is to fight it. He strongly advocates the use of any of the disease-modifying drugs and says that when he gives himself an injection, he thinks, “Wow! Look what I did for me.” He still works closely with the Nat’l MS society to promote MS awareness.

Probably the most unique thing about David Lander is his current baseball career: “I use to own a team in Portland. I owned 5 percent of the Portland Beavers, but now I’m a scout for the Seattle Mariners,” he says.

References:

• Nat’l MS Society
• Healthology.com
• ABC News: Chicago