Events

A CRESCENT CITY ICON HAS DIED

COVINGTON LA – Farewell to Dr. Morgus the Magnificent. Actor Sidney Noel Rideau died of natural causes on Thursday morning at Christwood Retirement Community in Covington, according to his daughter Natalie Rideau.

Sidney Rideau was born on Christmas 1929, hence his stage name, Noel. He graduated from Alcee Fortier High School and attended Loyola University, where he studied communications. During the Korean War, Rideau served for eight years in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

Rideau first reached a wide audience when he hosted WWL radio’s morning “Dawnbusters” program in the mid-1950s. The Dr. Morgus character Rideau invented first debuted on WWL-TV in 1959. Over time, the self-assured scientist toyed with everything from teleportation to lycanthropy to cloning. Morgus was a lovable character who wanted to do good but always screwed up in the end. His hooded lab assistant Chopsley was always there to mess things up for him.

By 1962, the Morgus character was so popular that Rideau was invited to star in a full-length feature film, “The Wacky World of Dr. Morgus,” a tongue-in-cheek Cold War spy thriller.

Rideau relocated the Morgus show to Detroit in 1964, then returned to New Orleans for a few more episodes before the show went off the air for almost 20 years. But in 1987, a revival of the show returned with 52 new episodes.

Morgus’ sidekick Eric was portrayed by an Apple II computer.

Morgus has remained a Crescent City icon for almost six decades. Natalie Rideau said that, recently, she discovered a social media meme that announced that Morgus had discovered the cure for the coronavirus.

His family plans a private funeral service at a later date. He was 90 years old.

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SABINE PASS, Texas — Hurricane Laura is an “extremely powerful Category 4 hurricane” with “unsurvivable storm surge” of up to 20 feet and 145-mph winds, gusts up to 195, when it reaches the Gulf Coast on Wednesday night and early Thursday, the hurricane center said.

Laura, which grew to a Category 4 storm Wednesday afternoon with 140 mph winds, is forecast to bring “potentially catastrophic” storm surge, fierce winds and flash flooding to eastern Texas and Louisiana. Power outages are expected throughout the region into Arkansas and several other states.

Laura is now the strongest August hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico since infamous Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach said.

People were ordered to evacuate as the storm approached, Holly Beach, Cameron and Lake Charles, Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur.

The Trump administration is in close contact with local officials, the governor’s of Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, for immediate federal aid.