Fellow Breast Man Roger Ebert

Poolside: an Urgent call . . .

Roger Ebert is one of the best ever - perhaps the finest -  movie/film critics in the world over the past 50 years (Take that, Paulene Kael!).  He and partner Gene Siskel (R.I.P.) created the "thumbs up/down" rating shorthand and had true chemistry as a reviewing team. 

Roger is a fanatic, on par with Peter Bogdonovich; he's also always honest and thoughtful - and I think quite fair - in his reviewing.  I appreciated this review of Roger's.  I still disagree with RE about Ryan's Daughter, though....

Thumbs Up !

Usually treated as an amusing footnote to his bio, the young Ebert of 1970 dabbled in debauchery with my hero Russ Meyer as screenplay collaborator on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

Ebert Surrounded - the Gang's All Here

In the spring of 2005 I finally got to meet Roger when he was honored with a CINE Lifetime Achievement Award on M street NW in Washington DC.  A friend had invited me to the event at National Geographic TV, and after seeing the Raymonds (Patient Zero progenitors with their high-quality PBS innovation "American Family" that indirectly begat today's 'reality' sewage) honored, I caught up with Roger.

First stop (establishing shot): Men's Room.

"Porter Hall," I introduced myself.  Ebert brightened, quizzically. "We have a good, mutual friend - RM" I continued.  "How do you know Russ?" asked Roger, and we were off.

Initial exposition and plot-set-up.  Backstory.  All that rot.  Choice private anecdotes for validation (see below).  Confirmation.  Camaraderie.  Continuity.  Drama, pathos and everything else, in ten minutes chat and a stroll from the Sumner School building down to the street, round the corner and a sidewalk parting at the cab on 17th street, NW.

Ebert instantly connected the dots - he had heard Russ talk of his Washington 'insider' buddy, referring always to a "Porter Hall," whose original namesake is a shady character whom Ebert/Meyer contrived in the BVD script, played to a villainous T by Duncan McLeod.  Well, that insider is yours truly.

Two Gentlemen without Equal

Roger and I lamented RM's passing the previous September.  By his words about Rus,s it was instantly, abundantly and cantilevered-ly clear that Roger had been as genuine and devoted a friend as any man could ever have.

Now, Russ was without doubt the best raconteur I ever met, with a genius for tale-telling, a vocabulary that he could have copyrighted, and a bottomless well of incredible stories ("Hemingway rousted us out of our fartsacks and paid our way into the best whorehouse in Paris"... "I screwed Uschi all that summer on the carpet of my office at Fox!"... "Ebert got blown by the pool!" ... etc.).

On and On . . .

The bond between Roger and Russ was borne out by the hours of tales RM had spun with me about his exploits with the youthful Ebert, which are more fully chronicled and liberally sprinkled throughout RM's 19-lb., three-volume "Breast of Russ Meyer."  And RM loved to recount these hi-jinks when we were out on the town.  Once, over huge portions of liver and onions at the Daily Grill in Palm Desert, Russ referred to Ebert (with obvious gleeful affection) a "that Moravian bastard!"  Russ was a demanding friend - he had no distractions in his own life other than self-selected obsessions, and he offered little and grudging latitude to those of us whose attention he craved; yet, although he no doubt vied competitively with her for RE's attention, RM always spoke with highest regard for RE's wife Chaz.

When we met, Roger was already struggling with the cancer that would eventually ravage his larynx, shoulder, jawbone, and facial structure.  Head held high, he soldiers on un-deterred, and un-abashed, just like his best friend.

News: Roger Ebert passed away April 4, 2013.

Rest In Peace, and See You At The Movies. 

Rockin' the Vote with Martha Quinn - My MTV All-Nighter

As an unsullied early-career kid, circa 1982-83, I had but one dream: to move to NYC and work in business development for MTV.  I got my shot in 1985, but before then something even more magical happened: I met and of course fell in love with Martha Quinn.

My Martha: Ah, the Eighties ...

Well, we all were in love with Martha, once she and her confreres hit the airwaves in August '81. But of course I was sure that I loved her more than anyone else possibly could.

California My Way - 5th Dimension, later Main Ingredient

So it's late 1983, and I'm an east coast boy on his first visit to California. Had already hit the beach in Malibu with Dick "Laugh-In" Martin, then rented a car and drove in a SoCal freeway Lot-49-and-L.A.-Woman revery down "the 5" and then east and west on Ball Road, bulked at Spaghetti Station, before checking in to the Anaheim Hyatt on the Disneyland perimeter for two days of the Western Cable Show.

I quickly found out where the night's action would be: upstairs at the WASEC reception.

Deep Purple: Place in Line

Bob Pittman was there, I schmoozed him a bit, hung with the marketing guys for a while, and then I spotted her, perched on a stool at the countertop, and lighting up the hospitality suite with her smile and laughter.  Martha Quinn - tiny as a mouse, and bubbly like new champagne. Chortling along: uplink site techie Paul Beeman, a jolly middle-aged guy from the Smithtown TOC.

Diamond Dave - Always On

What developed next was a boisterous, high-pitched music trivia game between the three of us, and it went on for over three hours.  Her handler got cranky because Martha was engrossed with us instead of working the crowd, but finally gave up and left us alone.  Forward we rolled like Def Leppard - On Through The Night.

I'll Join You In That Time Capsule

Martha really knew her 60's stuff, 80's Thompson-Twin techno/poppy-pop, and folk music, and she of course had the inside track on all the acts of the moment including the L.A. hair-metalers.  Beeman was an encyclopedia - acts, songs, dates, labels and chart position.  I held my own on heavy metal/NWOBHM, 70's soul/R&B, San Francisco sound - and early 50's vocal groups.  It is safe to say that we all showed each other up, and blew each other away.  Over and over and over.  I could hear music....

*  *  *  *  *

We stayed up nearly 'til sunrise.  Paul disappeared.  Great breathtaking fun, lots and lots of jazzy, twinkly eye contact.  Where would it end?  Well, it would end back in New York....

All Within Reach ... If You Know What To Do.

Naturally - what a rube! - I imagined/hoped that this night was just the beginning.  We exchanged numbers in the Hyatt lobby, agreed to each think about a trivia question that was really just a conversation continu-er concerning Van Halen and the high number and interesting selection of cover songs they had produced and might next produce, and we made vague plans to see each other in New York.

Martha in Malibu - I Want My ...

I had to call through the MTV switchboard many, many fruitless times for her (it was obvious there was a never-ending queue of clowns calling and panting for her, and I guess I was one, albeit ultimately with an edge of slight legitimacy), and we did indeed re-connect later that winter, for coffee on Astor Place, and separately, briefly and awkwardly, at the Cherry Lane Theater, but the magic was gone.  She was in her world, and I a visiting nobody from Nowheresville.

I later had opportunities to cross paths at the end-of-'84 MTV New Year's Eve Party, and at the 1985 MTV Music Awards, but by then fate had cruelly decided that nothing would materialize.

Still, ....

Keep Counting, Florida !!

My shining moment with Madame Secretary, here.

Cheers, all!

Katherine Harris, at the Orchid Ball
"Those Who Do Not Learn From Their History Are Doomed To Repeat It ! "

Winston Churchill,   paraphrasing George Santayana 

Presidents and Near-Presidents I've Met, or Nearly Met

You've Spoken, and We've Listened: with the Presidential Election imminently upon us, I can't resist re-stunting these posts for you, the well-informed electorate.

Like an erstaz Forrest Gump?  Zelig?  Joe Garagiola?  I have blundered across the paths of more than one person who occupied or lusted to occupy the Oval office... or the U.S. Naval Observatory... and a couple who helped determine the outcome of a Presidential campaign or election.

Meet a few of them here:

• Alan Cranston (D, 1984)
• John Edwards (D, 2004, 2008)
• Tony Goldwyn (R, 2012)
• John Glenn (D, 1984)
• Katherine Harris (R, 2000)
• Donna Rice [Gary Hart (D, 1984, 1988)]
• Fritz Hollings (D, 1984)
• John F. Kennedy (D, 1960)
• Teddy Kennedy (D, 1980)
• John Kerry (D, 2004)
• Hadassah Lieberman [Joe (D, 2000)]
• George McGovern (D, 1972)
• George Stephanopoulos [Bill Clinton (D, 1992)]
• Mo Udall (D, 1976)

To come:

• Tipper Gore [Al Gore (D, 1992, 1996, 2000)]
• H. Ross Perot (I, 1992)

Mo Udall, Sweetheart of Theta Delta Chi

Well, it was a snowy, snowy winter's Saturday night, of which we had many, on the Hill.  Morris Udall (D, AZ) who had tried to capture the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination by running to the left of Jimmy Carter, visited the campus to speak in the Hamilton College Chapel.

Have a Drink on Me, Mr. President

My politico friends attended, I didn't.  I was at the Pub.  But some of the leftest-leaning students on the Program Board, who'd brought ol' Mo to Clinton, were upperclass members of Theta Delta Chi where I had friends, and where a second-shift party was to occur as the Pub was closing.

In the inexorable political movement of the moment, I followed in the hip-deep, snowy peloton of the happy throng ... to the promise of more beer.

Never Fail

Inside, it was elbow to elbow, cheek-by-jowl, and I found myself braced in a huddle of Psi U varsity basketball players just outside TDX's dimly-lit "library." Into the scene came Mo, himself a former pro hoopster with the [original] Denver Nuggets.  Lots of back-slapping and Q&A about the Continentals' prospects ('77-'78: ECAC finalists, 23-3) - "Go Conts!" we loved to shout.  So yours truly, head and shoulders shorter than the gaggle, was suddenly face to face - or chin to chest - with the Senator.

"What's your name, son?" he boomed.

"Tom.  And I loved your speech!"

But for 7,500 votes to Carter in the Wisconsin primary two years before, Big Mo might have been in the White House that night in January, 1978.  Instead, he was holding forth in Clinton, NY with clowns like my friends and me, leaning on a broken-down frat-house piano in the Great Hall of TDX.

I know that we were all right where we belonged.

R.I.P. George McGovern - My Co-Pilot

He led thirty seven missions as a B-24 pilot in World War II, but my thrill was to sit across the aisle from George McGovern when we flew our joint mission as passengers on the Eastern Shuttle, from Washington DC to New York City, one autumn morning in 1986.

We found ourselves seated in aisle seats opposite each other.  Aloft, I allowed the Senator a few moments to enjoy the New York Times before catching his eye.  "Senator McGovern, what an honor - I worked for you in 1972!" I blurted out.  He smiled, closed his paper, and said graciously "Really? You can't possibly be old enough to have worked on my Presidential campaign!"

What I Wouldn't Give for a Little Un-Interrupted Newspaper Time!

"But it's true," I said:  "I was 13, and I passed out McGovern-Shriver leaflets all over my neighborhood in Massachusetts!"

"Ah, Massachusetts," he winked, and then said "Whatever you did there... it worked!"

Then he asked me what part of Massachusetts I came from.  "Well, Amherst."  I shared with him the interesting fact that, when the entire US save for Massachusetts and Washington DC had voted to re-elect Nixon, our perky little burg had gone all-in for McGovern - with 93% of the popular vote!  Nixon collected 5%, and Wallace 2%.  Yes, we in Amherst were a bit out of the mainstream, even then.

Here is a nice clip of George signing books in Amherst a little earlier this year.

 
At all this he laughed, adding "What a great, great town.  Academic town.  Had a lot of good support there!  Probably thanks to all of your hard work!"

I wasn't sure I'd changed anyone's mind on West Street or Mill Lane, but said lots of people including my parents had worked very hard for him, and were proud of what he hoped to accomplish for the country.  We made a bit more conversation, landed, grabbed our respective overcoats from the overhead bins, and bid one another adieu. 

Rest In Peace, Good Man
July 19, 1922 - October 21, 2012

On-Air with Diane Rehm

Diane Rehm at the mic. and kicking it

I took communion - or ate glazed donuts - as a member of St. Columba's Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, with a variety of notables - Ray Suarez, Mort Kondracke, Judy Woodruff, and occasionally (C&E) James Baker.  Also in the lifeboat with us?  NPR's wonderful Diane Rehm.

Tea & Simit by the Bosphorus: and NPR on the radio!

Diane and husband John were among the faithful, and among the very involved.  I enjoyed meeting and getting to know Diane, and especially hearing her distinctive voice.  Mesmerizing!

We two exotics spoke once or twice about our shared roots in Turkey - she from Mersin and I, Istanbul - and in fact it was Diane who recommended the new Cafe Divan on Wisconsin Avenue, NW when it opened, as the place I must go for döner kabap.  She knew her stuff.

Today, at 11:00 a.m., Diane is presenting a fantastic program on Claude Debussy and I wouldn't miss it for all the world. Neither should you!

Joan Garry Is Alright

Advocacy can be a blood sport, but there are some who lead with great class and one of these is Joan Garry, whom I knew before she was running GLAAD. 

Joan and Eileen

Joan is civilly-united to a good old friend of mine, Eileen Opatut, and when we first met in 1985, Joan had the coolest job on earth (well, I thought so): business development at WASEC, the holding company that was building Nickelodeon and MTV rapidly into the megaliths they have become.

Eileen had many cool jobs herself picking programs for National Geographic, next 'programmes' for the BBC, and later suffering as EVP of Programming for the Food Network - yumm, and with a title like that you never have trouble getting a table at a good restaurant.

Speaking of TV, does it seem lately as though the number of LGBT characters on TV is increasing?  I think so too.  GLAAD has worked on this front as well as on many others.

I haven't seen Joan in years - too many - but I like her a lot.  She writes for HuffPost sometimes and here's a really nice article sharing her frank assessment of The Kids Are Alright.

Will TV shows and movies move the meter and get us to a day of peaceable coexistence?  That's putting a lot of responsibility on the the TV and film folk, more than they probably can shoulder alone.  There is still a ways to go: see Joan's honest and personal article here about separate but equal.

But in my own lifetime we are already now miles down the road from the benighted past.    :-)