Just an interesting read.....
Posted on 06/24/2019 6:59:42 AM PDT by Rummyfan
In London fifty years ago today - June 22nd 1969 - a nightclub manager Mickey Deans walked into the bathroom of his rented house in a Belgravia mews and found his wife of three months dead. Judy Garland was just forty-seven. The cause of death was an accidental - or, as the English coroner put it, "incautious" - overdose of barbiturates. Talent requires a certain managerial competence, which is why Frank Sinatra died at eighty-two owing Capitol Records an album and his pal Judy died a little over half that age and leaving an estate worth $40,000. We shall have a couple of Garland-themed pieces this weekend, starting with this much requested obituary for Sid Luft. Miss Garland was equally "incautious" in her choice of husbands, but Sid last longer than than anyone. This piece is anthologized in my book Mark Steyn's Passing Parade, and on its first appearance in 2005 earned a lot of praise.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Just an interesting read.....
Fame has it’s price better know how to handle it.
In addition to his other talents, he is the best raconteur I know of. He can keep you spell-bound with story as only he can tell it. Michael Savage is also a good story-teller. But I think Steyn is a genuine raconteur.
40 small?
Steyn radiates warmth, caring, good humor, and self-deprecation which makes me want to listen. I find Savage to be the exact opposite on all counts.
I don’t doubt you. I am certain that Savage is “bipolar”.
But, if you didn’t hear him during his start, years ago on KSFO, you missed something. The earlier poster was right. He could certainly tell a story.
I don’t know him, and I probably wouldn’t want him as a friend, but I still remember “Savage’s” childhood green suit and the “weave”. His story of the burly-armed cook, his friend, with his hairy arm deep in the tuna and mayonnaise, mixing, always mixing, while cigarette ashes fell from the cigarette in his mouth, is still stuck in my head, too.
When Savage started, he told great stories, prepped for his show and had intriguing and thoughtful guests. It was a great show for conservative talk radio.
His head got way too big, of course, but no bigger than Hannity’s, and he didn’t repeat himself as much.
When he got thrown off of KSFO he went fully around the bend.
Steyn’s writing is unique and without peer. He veers all over the place but everything is always neatly tied to his main theme. This piece is a perfect example of that. He is always great fun to read. Thanks for posting.
I didn’t know any of the back story to Judy Garland and Sid Luft. This sentence caught my attention: “The second Judy went straight from Andy Hardy’s barn to premature middle age, and emerged as the most dynamic stage presence since Al Jolson: a ballad singer whose taste in songs was second only to Sinatra’s, a great comedienne, and a rueful raconteuse.”
She sounds remarkable. Too bad it ended so badly for her.
After KSFO switched to a talk format in 1994, I enjoyed the KSFO morning show with Lee Rodgers, Melanie Morgan, and Tom Benner (known on the air as traffic reporter “Officer Vic”) while it lasted. My commute was short, so I never heard more than 10 or 15 minutes of it. I never heard Savage in the early years.
Sounds like he may have been having a lapse when he wrote this:
"but Sid last longer than than anyone"
Lee Rodgers was one of the best. He also “prepared” and so had a real show. I was listening to him when the Twin Towers were struck.
I couldn’t stand Melanie. She would always jump in with the stupidest things to say. Clearly a case of sleeping your way into a job. Lee was a saint to put up with her.
Listening to Savage is a lot like walking through a mine field. You never know when something unpleasant is going to hit you.
I always thought she was a good foil to him. I enjoyed her silly and snarky comments. He was clearly the thoughtful one, though.
“Listening to Savage is a lot like walking through a mine field. You never know when something unpleasant is going to hit you.”
Absolutely true! You had to have a willing finger for the “Power” button or channel select.
But, I guess I thought the good stuff was worth it. I thought he was authentic, authentically crazy, but authentic. I never thought Sean Hannity was.
Tom Benner (”OV”) can still be heard on KSRO in the North Bay, as was Melanie Morgan until she retired a year or two back.
The few gold nuggets were not worth all the treacherous walking through the mine field. There were far more “BOOMs” than nuggets.
“The few gold nuggets were not worth all the treacherous walking through the mine field.”
I agree.
The other thing that is super annoying about him is the way he’s constantly slamming other conservative hosts, like Rush, Sean and Levin.
He’s insecure to the max and is in a permanent state of self adulation.
He’s also inconsistent and disloyal. He can change his opinion of somebody at the drop of a hat. Like one minute he’s praising Trump, tem minutes later he’d be trashing him.
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