ON THE LETTERMAN SHOW

ALL TOO QUICKLY

The writer on the David Letterman Show September 29, 1980

    The day before Dave Letterman departed Indiana for what has become an historic future, we had a picnic on our wooded property in southern Indiana.

     His pick up truck was loaded and he was a bit apprehensive. He and his then wife Michelle and Lana and I had packed a lunch and were there to give him a send off. Dave was in what Jay Leno would refer to as his Dinty Moore fashion stage. Dave had calculated how long they could survive before he or she got jobs. He was ready to work at a gas station if need be.  

    We had been a big supporter of his move. I was convinced he'd make it, big. Dave was, as he often can be, more doubtful. But the point was, he was giving it a go.  Oh, how things would have been different for all of us if he had not spooled up the courage to give it a shot. It took guts going from Indiana to Hollywood.

     In the last couple of months I have been interviewed by people from the New York Times, magazines, papers and local television stations. I have said repeatedly, as I have since the late 70's, Dave is one of, if not the most, innovative user of television and technology. Way back I told an author writing a book about Dave that he was able to build on the innovative genius of Ernie Kovacs in terms of how to use the medium and technology to entertain. He raised the bar and created a new standard for the format even disposing of what was a kind of artificial formality about television programs.

      I remember sitting one evening in our east side Indianapolis apartment watching our favorite, the master, Johnny Carson.  Johnny was doing his Carnack bit, supplying questions to the answers read by Ed McMahon. Dave was supplying his own lines and they were better than Johnny's.

     In the early days I hosted a morning radio magazine show  broadcast on two stations. I hired Dave to write a kicker "essay" to run two or three days week to close out the hour.  He'd write, call me to run through it, then later we'd record it. Often he was not sure what he had written was funny. I tell you in all honesty it was brilliant. I remember laughing so hard sometimes that I'd almost drop the phone. It was a genesis of his  brand of humor that is now so well known. But being original and cutting edge there were a few in news management who did not appreciate it. There were times when getting the checks to Dave was delayed because the boss had not written a requisition, so there were weeks when I paid him the $25 to $50 out of my pay, which at the time was $150 a week. Neither one of us had much money, but it didn't matter. The important thing was to get his work on the air.

      A couple of years before that Dave took my shift at a little AM radio station in Muncie Indiana. Lana and I were married in April and we were going to honeymoon in Europe until August-that was back in the days of Europe on budget plan. Dave took over my mid-day shift which included doing news casts and then an afternoon drive time shift of playing hit music. I told him he'd need to play it straight doing the news, but could have fun on the DJ shift.  He did both. And as I have said before, "Look where it got him!"  That is facetious of course because what got him there was a rare and unique sense of humor and amusement.

     I'm a bit stunned that my old friend is wrapping up 33 years, an historic television record. I told someone many years ago that I thought Dave would be in the pantheon with names like Carson, Benny, Hope, Kovacs, Allen, and Berle. He's there. He's made us laugh and he's been clarifyingly honest. He's inspired generations of new entertainers. He is indeed one of the greatest.

     I think of all of his bits and shtick what I enjoy most is hearing Dave laugh, when he is genuinely amused. I'd love to again spend some time with him, but what I hope most for him in his retirement is that he'll find a lot of reasons to laugh, genuinely. 

      

       And Dave, next time I'm on your show, make sure the graphics operator knows how the name is spelled.

LANA'S TOP 10 FOR DAVE

   Lana tries her hand at comedy writing as a salute to Dave.

    THE TOP TEN THINGS DAVE WILL PURSUE WHEN HE RETIRES

    10- Open a Pizza Parlor in Muncie

      9-Be a judge in the Westminster Dog Show

      8-Teach Harry how to mow the lawn

      7-Run off to Italy with George Clooney

      6-Be the oldest Rookie at the Indy 500

      5-Open a Hardware Store

      4-Play bocce on Thursday with Jon Stewart

      3-Become a florist like his Dad

      2-Move to California and smoke weed with Ophra

      1-Finally get a real job!

       See you down the trail.

LABOR DAY

A WORKING DAY

     Labor day was just one more working day in a newsroom.  Yet there was a kind of cosmic foreshadowing that occurred in my kid hood.  

       As a grade school kid I became fascinated with radio news. There was something special about those voices coming in from great distances, telling about events of significance.  Perceptive man that my father was, he made sure I paid attention and thought about the process.  As it turns out, he knew the local radio and TV newsman.  

      Fred Moore Hinshaw had been an NBC announcer and legend had it that he and Lorne Greene (later of Bonanza) were the deep voices of NBC East and West back in the days when radio news reached more people than TV.  Fred came to Muncie Indiana, following his wife who was the local drama teacher.  Fred became a founder of the local television station and its news director.  Hinshaw Edits the News not only aired on radio, but in the early days of television, became the only source for local news on the tube.  Dad made sure I watched and listened to Hinshaw edit the news.

      Well one labor day, a rare day for my dad to be home and not at work, he loaded me into the car and we drove a ways into what I recognized was a "nicer" part of Muncie. The homes were larger, many of them were brick and they all had beautiful large yards with plenty of shrubs, hedges and shade trees. There on a slight slopping large green lawn was a man, sweating and wearing a cap as he shoved a lawn mower, the non powered type, over the lawn.  Dad pulled to the curb and honked.  The fellow turned, recognized dad and came over to the car.  It took a moment for me recognize the sweating man as Hinshaw, from Hinshaw Edits the News. I was stunned.  

     Dad and he chatted about politics and then said I was interested in the news.  I can't remember what passed in that conversation, but I was struck by the fact the man on the radio and television was mowing the lawn. At our house, my brother and I mowed the lawn.  

     Then that evening as the clatter of the teletype and the announcer intoned that Hinshaw Edits the News I was struck by the fact the man behind the desk with the deep voice and serious look had been the profusely sweating fellow on the nice lawn.  I'm not sure what I expected, that perhaps Hinshaw never left the station, was always on alert for news.  It then dawned on me that on this big deal holiday when working men and women had the day off, this guy was  there, working.  And just a few hours earlier he had really been working, breaking a sweat on a beautiful lawn.

     By the time I was working in a newsroom, I was not at all surprised by the fact that a holiday, even for working men and women, didn't mean a thing other than the stories we covered-parades, picnics and people working in their yards.  Like Christmas, New Year's eve and Thanksgiving, it was just another day of work.

     A quick post script.  Years later when I was in college and working as a radio news reporter in Muncie, my boss was Fred Moore Hinshaw. He was a brilliant writer, journalist, thinker and a bit of a rascal poet. Had he chosen the lights of a big city he would have succeeded, might even have been Chet Huntley.  He chose family, home and making a contribution where he lived, even if it meant sweating a couple of times on Labor Day.  My dad and Fred were of the same generation.  They were great teachers.

    See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) A SIDE TRIP

ROCK RADIO WARS

My long time pal, former colleague and blog mentor

Bruce Taylor, a.k.a. The Catalyst has been

dumbfounded about why I would leave the climes

of the California Central Coast for the bone chilling

temperatures of Indianapolis, especially since the 

Super Bowl is a couple of weeks away.

The reason is a red carpet premiere of a

a documentary in which I am interviewed.

Film maker David Fulton has flown a few of us who now live

on the west coast back to Indianapolis for a round of 

radio and TV interviews, VIP events and the screening

itself. Here's the trailer.

In the last couple of days I've been able to catch up with

former colleagues, see old friends and catch a whiff of the

Super Bowl mania in Indianapolis.

I've been on the 3 major television stations 

including where I anchored for many years.

 David was surprised by how cordial all of the 

television people have been.  I told him that is 

partially a result of having been colleagues

with people who now staff the stations.

The journey also provided a chance for a sentimental

visit to Muncie, home of my Alma Mater Ball State, 

my kid hood home and where my family members are

interred. It is also home to the Pizza King which is the 

home of the ground beef, barbecue pizza.

So, Bruce, even though it has not risen above

20 degrees, there has been some benefit indeed!

The VIP Party, Red Carpet, Limo ride and all of that

is tonight.

See you down the trail.