Me and Underdog: The Brilliance of Suzanne Muldowney

In the late 80s/early 90s a mysterious Underdog roamed the streets of New York. I would see this lady dressed in full on costume here and there and wonder, and I knew her from her appearances on the brilliant late night public access show Beyond Vaudeville, probably the craziest talk show ever to air. Were they putting us on? You just never knew...the host Frank Hope was so deadpan and so obviously enraptured by his guest, themselves an eccentric collection of semi-b list celebrities (Soupy Sales, Joe Franklin) and work-a-day oddballs. Underdog fit right in. (I bought a DVD best of Beyond Vaudeville and it's even better than I remembered. No rose colored glasses here). Later on I heard her on the Howard Stern show, but in recent years I've lost track of Underdog. A quick search shows that her legend lives on and she's still active, though, sadly, recovering from a serious cat bite. And when I found this old photo of me and Underdog (Suzanne Muldowney) taken at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade many years ago, I was reminded of how thrilled I was to meet her at the time. Scroll down below too for a youtube clip of Underdog's greatest hits as well as a clip from just last month.