After 33 Years, Capt. Dynamite’s Work Is Still a Blast

A 70-year-old daredevil who bills himself as Capt. Dynamite and explodes a coffin while he is inside says federal agents are wrong to charge him with endangering neighbors because “I don’t blow up anybody but myself.” Patrick Albert O’Brien pleaded not guilty in Houston to a misdemeanor charge of illegally storing 18 pounds of dynamite. He was released on personal recognizance bond. The charge was filed in 1984, but O’Brien wasn’t ordered to court sooner because federal agents couldn’t find him. O’Brien, who says he began his career by performing motorcycle stunts 50 years ago, uses the dynamite in a traveling road show, performing at county fairs, shopping centers and sports events around the country. He’s been blowing himself up for 33 years. In the stunt, O’Brien climbs into a paper coffin surrounded by dynamite and sets off the explosives. The blast usually knocks him unconscious for a few seconds, O’Brien said, and over the years has damaged his hearing. “It’s like drinking a half-pint of whiskey all at once,” he said of the explosion. “But it’s a living. It beats picking cotton.”

--Entertainer Mickey Rooney, 66, missed a curtain call when he failed to appear at Senate hearings in Washington to urge an end to job discrimination against the elderly. But committee staff members said a spokesman called to say Rooney’s plane had returned to Los Angeles due to mechanical trouble, and that he had viewed this “as an omen from God and would not get on another plane.”

--When the purser yells “All ashore who’s going ashore!” as the ship is ready to leave the Bahamas, William Robertson stays aboard. At least he has for 61 consecutive weekends, sailing between Port Canaveral, Fla., and Nassau. The 84-year-old passenger, known also as “Capt. Snuffy,” has no plans to go ashore. He enjoys the red carpet treatment, including reserved seating anywhere he wants it and dining at the captain’s table. But the special treatment hasn’t been cheap. He’s paid $25,000 for the three-day cruises aboard one of Premier Cruise Lines’ two vessels over the last 15 months. Robertson, who got his nickname from a burlesque comedian, was recognized as a permanent passenger by Premier crew members after his sixth cruise. It’s ships and shipboard camaraderie that Capt. Snuffy loves, not the destination. In fact, he usually steps off the liner in Nassau only long enough to get an ice cream cone.