1980 - Volume #4, Issue #6, Page #20
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Minnesota Hog Goes Hollywood
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Now Ed's gone Hollywood. Got himself a pair of custom-made shades. Goes in for shampoos and skin treatments. Gets massages. Has a pad of his own and ignores his old roommates.
Ed, you see, has been on Johnny Carson's show.
And why, you ask, was unassuming Ed on the Tonight Show? Because Ed is a pig.
It wasn't that Ed was a particularly smart pig. Or that he could jump through a hoop or do any other tricks. He wasn't even cute and cuddly. Nor was he the ugliest pig you ever saw.
But he is one of the biggest pigs you'll ever see.
How big is he?
So big that no one tells him what to do. Not even his ,owner, Ron Lieske.
"Ed's a friendly fellow," says Lieske, "but if you want to get him to do something - like get him out of a pen-you just sort of encourage him. Or maybe bribe him with a handful of feed. You don't push him around."
That's because Ed weighs 850 pounds although he is only 2 years old. He'll put on another 300 before he's grown.
Despite all that heft, Ed would have lived the quiet but good life in Minnesota without any fanfare if it hadn't been for his owner, who is an unabashed pig lover.
Lieske likes pigs because they've been good to the Lieske family. His grandfather raised them. His father raises them. His brother raises them and he raises them. He has more than 1,000, virtually all of them breeding stock that he sells to farmers.
One night, while Lieske was watching TV, one of Carson's guests was a zookeeper who had brought along two piglets. She made a few general comments about pigs, but Lieske thought that more could be said to explain to the whole country just what nice fellows pigs really are.
Lieske, who has a degree in agriculture from the University of Minnesota, wrote a letter volunteering his services and enclosed a picture of one of his 800-pound boars.
Back came a form letter saying, in effect, we aren't interested.
But Carson did show the picture on his show one night, mentioning that Lieske was from Henderson, New Mexico.
Lieske decided to persist. He wrote again, pointing out the error and renewing his offer to appear on the show with one of his pigs.
This time, a staffer showed some interest. In fact, there was so much interest that they wanted Lieske to come to Los Angeles in May. Lieske kept trying to explain that it was too hot for a pig to travel. "I'm not sure that guy ever understood that pigs don't have sweat glands and that getting too hot can be extremely dangerous," Lieske said.
It was finally agreed that Lieske would be on the Sept. 24 show.
Lieske drove out with his brother, Glenn, and two friends. Ed and his understudy, Doc, were in a padlocked trailer.
Ed and Doc spent a couple of days at the Los Angeles fairgrounds before Ed was taken to the studio in midafternoon to tape the show.
He was an instant star. "People came over from other studios to see THE PIG. Ed walked right down the hallway without any trouble," said Lieske.
Ed never did get nervous. He munched some corn meal from Carson's hand, wore his dark glasses and, in general, was as nonchalant as a star ought to be.
The same can't be said for Lieske. He admits having been "pretty nervous" although he did remember to get in a plug for the pork industry.
And he explained that Ed is from the Large White breed of hogs (frequently called Yorkshires) that was imported from Ireland.
The Lieskes have sold hogs to farmers in several states, Canada, Argentina and Japan. And their fame is spreading, thanks to Carson.
Doug Henning, the magician, has called and is interested in having Ed on a TV special. Seems Henning wants to make Ed magically appear in a large box that was empty a moment before. Last week, Ed was the guest of honor at the Farm-City Hub Club Radio Breakfast in New Ulm, Mini. (The breakfast was a promotion for National Pork Month.) And inquiries have been coming in from shopping centers wondering if Ed is available for promotional appearances.
Lieske said that he may have to limit the appearances for both his sake and Ed's.
"We have to be careful and not let him (Ed) get sick from carting him around. As for me, well I'm still enjoying it but I can see how the attention would get old after awhile."
He doesn't expect that to happen because in two or three months he expects to be known as plain old Ron Lieske, the 28-year-old pig man from Henderson.
And Ed probably won't even be able to find his dark glasses.
Reprinted with permission from the Minneapolis Tribune.
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