Jerry Blavat Death, Cause, Jerry Blavat Dead or alive? – Gerald Joseph “Jerry” Blavat ‘The Geator with the Heater” “The Big Boss with Hot Sauce,” PA DJ died allegedly at the age of 82. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania icon is currently hospitalized for bad autoimmune disorder and his is alie an not dead said a Facebook user. “For those who are wondering: Jerry Blavat(The Geator With The Heator) is not dead.
He is, however, in the hospital with a bad autoimmune disorder that has been making it hard for him to breathe. He’s been there since at least late December. Send your thought’s prayers, and good vibes to him.” said in the statement.
In 1981, Blavat was having dinner with Greek mob boss Chelsais “Steve” Bouras and several other guests at a restaurant in South Philadelphia when Bouras was killed in a contract killing.
In the early 1990s, a New Jersey State Commission of Examination investigation into the influence of organized crime in the liquor industry revealed Blavat’s association with the Bruno-Scarfo crime family. Thomas A. DelGiorno, a former Scarfo family capo, stated throughout the investigation that Blavat frequently paid a “street tax” to the criminal family, purchased a $40,000 yacht for crime boss Nicodemo Scarfo, and was one of several individuals who purchased a Florida condominium for Scarfo.
In exchange, the criminal organization arranged jobs for Blavat throughout the state and also kept union activists out of Blavat’s nightclub. Del Giorno also testified that Blavat frequently functioned as Angelo Bruno’s driver. Blavat has frequently claimed the Fifth Amendment and denied any wrongdoing. Blavat made his debut on the original Bandstand on WFIL-TV in 1953 alongside Bob Horn and Lee Stewart. In 1956, he handled a nationwide tour for Danny and the Juniors, and in 1958 and 1959, he served as Don Rickles’ valet.
He began his radio career in 1960. His program was syndicated in Camden, Atlantic City, Trenton, Pottstown, Wilmington, and Allentown by 1963. He said he refused to follow a playlist, “performing music from the heart, not a research chart.” During the 1960s, Blavat was a partner in the Lost Nite and Crimson record labels alongside Jared Weinstein and Jerry Greene, the founder of Collectables Records. Collectively, the three also owned Record Museum, a defunct Philadelphia-based record store chain.
Blavat continues to broadcast on local radio seven days a week and perform at multiple record hops and events in the Philadelphia metropolitan region each week.
Since January 2002, he has produced annual concerts of oldies at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. He was a columnist for the Atlantic City Weekly for more than two decades, and he currently writes his column, “Geator Gab,” exclusively for the New Jersey Free Press. Since 2010, he has been a member of the New York Friars’ Club, and since 2011, he has hosted Time Life’s annual Malt Shop Memories Cruise.
Since 1972, his Margate, New Jersey nightclub, Memories, where he continues to DJ during the summer, has been functioning. Blavat is a DJ for oldies radio station WVLT (FM) 92.1 in South Jersey, for the University of Pennsylvania’s public radio station WXPN in Philadelphia, for radio stations WTKU-FM and WOND in Atlantic City, WBCB (AM) in Bucks County and Trenton, and WISL (AM) in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, as of 2020. Jerry expanded his radio network in 2020 to include the Florida internet radio station Tyme 102.9 WTYM-DB.
Running Press published Blavat’s autobiography, You Only Rock Once: My Life In Music, in July 2011. Two years after its third printing, it was published in paperback and audiobook format in 2014.
In a 2018 reader survey held by Philadelphia magazine, Blavat was selected “Best Philly Icon.”
From 1965 to 1967, Blavat produced and hosted a weekly television show in Philadelphia titled The Discophonic Scene, a dance show for “all my yon teens” similar to American Bandstand (which originated in Philadelphia a decade earlier), referring to himself as “the Geator with the Heater” and “the big boss with the hot sauce.” He appeared as a guest on The Mod Squad, The Monkees, The Tonight Show, and The Joey Bishop Show, among others. He appears in the movies Desperately Seeking Susan, Baby It’s You, and Cookie. In 1972, Blavat owned the nightclub “Memories” in Margate, New Jersey.