Jameel grew up listening to the great radio shows of the 1930s and 1940s. His favorites were the comedians: Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and Red Skelton. From a young age, he knew he wanted to become an entertainer. After the war, his savings bonds matured and provided him enough money for a year of study at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. So, he left Ohio to follow his dreams.
After his money ran out, he picked up some roles here and there until one day, he was recommended for a bit part playing a new character on the Red Skelton Show. Skelton took to Jameel right away and he appeared on Skelton’s show over a period of about a year. He picked up some other roles and even landed a small part in a big movie. But just as things were picking up, Jameel was drafted into the army.
When Jameel returned home a few years later, his father had passed away, he and his family had no money, and his career had dried up. So, he knew he had to quit the business to take care of his family. But, Skelton would have none of it. He gave Jameel emergency money to send home to his mother and then hired Jameel as kind of a personal assistant. His duties included occasional performance time, but mostly involved working behind the scenes.
Jameel worked with his childhood hero for about a year until the itch to jumpstart his career was too much for him. This was in the late 1950s and he spent the next 25 years with an up and down career until he got his big break. Of course, early on, he knew that his name, Jameel Farah, needed to be Americanized if he were to work in the entertainment industry, so he changed his name to Jamie Farr. To most of the world, he's know as Maxwell Q. Klinger from the T.V. show, M*A*S*H. He remained friends with Skelton until the legendary performer’s death.
It's an amazing story, one you don't hear everyday. But, it raises a question. How far can a dream go? Can it be fulfilled beyond what we could ever ask or think? Can stories like this create hope that our dreams are worth dreaming? In addition, is it too late to start dreaming; are only childhood dreams honored, and only for a select few?
Think about it! Paul McCartney dreamed the song Yesterday. He woke up with the tune in his head and he went around for days asking people if they’d heard it before. After a while, he realized that he had dreamed an original song. So, he wrote lyrics to it and it has become the most recorded song in music history, recorded by over 2,200 people.
As believers, stories like this should give us hope. Our spiritual heritage is steeped in dreams. Ultimately, Old Testament dreams birthed New Testament realities. And, according to Acts 2, dreams are our business. But dreams aren't meant to stay only dreams. They must be enacted. Jameel had to go to California for his dreams to be set in motion, and McCartney had to take the chance and record his song before it could make it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recorded song in history. And let's not forget that when Jamie Farr showed up on the set of M*A*S*H to say a handful of lines for a one-day shoot, he stayed on the series for the eleven-year run of the show. I bet that was more than he could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
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