In 1970, English walked from his home in La Jolla, CaliforniatoVancouver, Canada[5] with his cousin, Valerie Mays, in hopes of spreading awareness about environmental pollution and smog.[6][2][7] Upon returning home, crowds deemed him a local celebrity. English was tipped to do a publicity stunt to help build his popularity. This started his desire to attempt setting world records[5] such as throwing 200 bottles with messages into the ocean[8] and living in a car on a dealer's lot for a month.[8] In 1975, English played Pong[9][10][11] for seven days in a Mission Valley trailer.[5] By 1979, English's record for the Twist was the only record that remained unbroken.[12]
English set his first four world records in under a year, from July 1973 to April 1974.[12] After flipping through a book of Guinness World Records, he decided to do the Twist.[5] English set the Twist record at 102 hours, 28 minutes and 37 seconds[13] which began on July 11 and continued through July 16th in La Jolla.[14] He set the record for water treading for 18 hours, 28 minutes and 37 seconds[15] in a La Jolla pool.[5][13] He set another record by kissing 3,000 women in 8 hours.[16][12]
In 1974, English set the record for sleeplessness after a waterbed shop[13] on University Avenue wanted to play part in his attempts by allowing him to do it in their front window. Starting at 10:30am on March 20,[17] he did not sleep for 12 days, 5 hours and 15 minutes.[5] To pass the time, English drank coffee,[18] smoked cigarettes and played Monopoly with friends.[13] When he finally slept at 10:30am on April 1,[17] he was out for 26 hours.[5][13] Because of health and safety concerns,[18]Guinness discontinued the category after that.[5] English later proposed the idea that he would like to swim the English Channel.[3] English attempted to swim the length of the Mississippi River in August,[19] but was held up because of weather and damage to a camper and rowboat.[20][21] On December 27, English set a joke telling record over 5 hours and 15 minutes at Winner's Circle Lodge in Del Mar.[22][5]
In 2022, Thorn Brewing Company named a beer after English called Full Tilt Boogie Hefeweizen.[24] In 2021, filmmaker Tyler J. French recorded over 60 hours of footage of English for a documentary about him called Full Tilt Boogie, Daddy-O.[5] The film was submitted to Sundance Film Festival.[13]
