by Hank Brockett
In front of him, two young adults stood at the brink of marriage. From his sheet the deejay read aloud the solemn vows of matrimony. If you closed your eyes, the sounds of marriage seemed so very familiar.
But when the world of radio enters the real world, the sights can’t be ignored. To the right of the deejay-turned-minister, a Fox television cameraman stands just a few feet away. From above, a spotlight falls on the wedded couple. And from the audience, the audience raises its arms from the armrests and applauds with pride.
“I’m more nervous than you guys are,” said the minister after fumbling the order of vows.
It was a match made in the movies and a wedding made in the movie theater.
The phone call
To Josh Eddy, Madcow’s Morning Madhouse brought some humor to the morning workday. The Coal City native said the Q101 show, with its outrageous characters and humor, made him a devoted listener. But before Dec. 10, there were no hints that just one month later he would become a devoted husband - with some help.
Eddy met Chris Thornton nearly four years ago when both were working at the Empress Casino. Their love blossomed and during the Christmas season of 2001, Eddy proposed.
Like many young couples, though, Eddy wanted to make sure the couple had a home before going through with the ceremony. So the 24-year-old bided his time while living in a Coal City apartment, somehow growing used to the rumble of a train passing nearby.
Amid the likes of characters like Turd and Cowboy Ray, “Mancow” Mueller announced one of his show’s synergistic contests. With the help of Twentieth Century Fox, Budweiser and the Mancow show, one lucky listener would win a wedding package as part of the promotion of the comedic film Just Married.
The most convincing argument would win all-expenses-paid bachelor/bachelorette parties in Las Vegas, a Chicago wedding, a House of Blues reception and a honeymoon to a Sandals resort. But what reason could reach this sometimes shocking disc jockey?
Eddy knew the answer.
“So I thought, what the heck, I’ll give it a try,” said Eddy. “Actually, I started to dial and I said, ‘I don’t even know what the number is.’ I hear him say all the time that it’s 591-5COW but I didn’t know what the area code was. I tried dialing and thought, ‘Oh, I’m not going to get through,’ and then got right through.”
The key to Eddy’s argument came from his longtime listening. Die-hard fans know Mancow’s disdain for Joliet, and Eddy said he thought that might be his ticket to tuxedos.
“He’s like, ‘Why should I give you this prize?,’ “ said Eddy. “And I told him, ‘Well, my girlfriend lives in Joliet so I want to marry her and move her out of Joliet because I know how you think of Joliet.
“He said, “Well, that’s a pretty good reason.”
One month of chaos
Just three days after the steel city slam, Josh and Thornton were off to Las Vegas. There, among other various contest winners, Just Married stars Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy hosted the respective bachelor and bachelorette parties. Both said the getaway proved a great and memorable party.
But for as fast as a Vegas vacation can fly by, a one-month wedding preparation became an even bigger blur. With little information coming from the contest organizers, the couple spent countless hours on the phone with friends and family notifying them of the high-profile nuptials.
Ah, the notification. Something Chris remembers well.
“He was lying to me, that’s what I thought,” she said. “He never lies. But I always bugged him about our wedding date and he would say, ‘Oh, give it time, give it time.’ Then one day out of the blue he calls me and tells me we’re getting married.”
Once all the details became clear, convincing Chris and their respective parents grew easier. Surprisingly, most everyone supported the couple’s unconventional means. The future blushing bride always dreamed of a far-off wedding on the beach, but a theater that once played the movie The Beach would do.
Her dad, though, needed convincing.
“Her dad was a little skeptical of the whole situation,” said Josh. “He was afraid Mancow was going to do something stupid, make a joke of the wedding or one of the other guys in the show was going to run around naked or something. “I don’t think he was happy until the day of the wedding.”
The wedding day rushed by even faster than the prelude. All 150 of the phone invites were out as the couple raced up to Chicago on Jan. 9 to the Mancow radio show.
There, the couple served as marriage consultants for two hours, helping the deejay deal with his own impending nuptials and meeting chef Wolfgang Puck in the process.
Later that evening, the couple found the Loews theater on N. Michigan Avenue. In one theater, a deejay who registered as a minister of the Universal Life Church online awaited. But first, Josh and Chris had to make their entrance.
“When we came down the escalator, it was like we were celebrities,” said Josh. “People from Fox and others were just snapping pictures like crazy. We were like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on here?’”
After some singing by the “not all there” Cowboy Ray, Mancow entered into his ceremony. The loquacious speaker seen just earlier in the day became as nervous as a first-time caller.
“Mancow was more nervous than the both of us, I think,” said Josh.
The days after
Two “I-do’s” and one kiss later, the party headed to the House of Blues.
‘It was such a big party,” said Josh. “It was a blur, though. It flew by, we were just having so much fun.”
By then, Chris’ dad could relax. After the ceremony, he stopped Mancow in the hallway and thanked him for being the straight man on one special night in his daughter’s life.
The morning after, the couple put off more rest for one last appearance in “the Madhouse.” During the last 15 minutes of the show, the deejay grew nervous one more time. His minister credentials were as flimsy as the validity of a personal web page.
Enter George Foreman.
The morning’s guest, in addition to being a former heavyweight boxing champion, author and grill maestro, was a registered minister by more conventional means. One more “By the power vested in me ...” speech later, the Eddys kissed again.
More than a month later, the newlyweds still are awaiting word on their honeymoon plans and destination. While watching home video from the night, they smile at the spectacle of it all. Josh still listens to the show most every morning, thankful for the one night when Mancow showed his earnest side.
“It wouldn’t have been very good if he hadn’t taken the whole thing seriously,” said Josh. “I’m just glad he didn’t make a joke of it.”