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THE TALKATHONIES PART 2: MEET BOB GRANT
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By
Raymond De Felitta
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Long before the advent of Rush Limbaugh, there was Bob Grant, a legendary New York "conservative"talk radio host who broadcast on WOR for much of the 1970s before leaving for WABC in the eighties and, after getting fired, returned to WOR again in the 90s. (One of his firings was due to his having referred to New York's African-American Mayor David Dinkins as "that mens room attendant"). Grant's act is largely one of yelling at callers who call in with political gripes or complaints about Grant himself. He eschews the long monologue format of Limbaugh, though he does occasionally drift into a ruminative state of mind, and has no sidekick or news segment or even, very often, guests. (Though he did, apparently, have David Dukes on a number of times. Hm.) He accuses most callers who speak with accents of being in the country illegally, contemptuously calling them "pal" before screaming "get off my phone!" and moving onto the next caller. Though Grant always opened the show with the claim that it was everyone's right to "be heard", and that was what the function of his show was, the calls would immediately degenerate into abuse and tirades. (I have a theory that this is where Fox News "fair and balanced" shtick came from--a kind of wink at Grant's own completely false claim at the top of his show). It's his complete lack of courtesy or even interest in any other point of view than his own that I find so bleakly hilarious.
Grant made national headlines in 1996 when he was fired again for mocking the plane crash death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. You may (or may not) remember that there was a slim chance of hope for survivors of the crash and Grant speculated that he thought Brown might be alive. Then he added: "That's because I'm essentially a pessimist".
It's odd to hear how much more moderate old 'conservative talk' was--the below clips are from the early 1990s and, save for some prickly nationalism and insulting third world slurs, Grant sounds basically like a right-leaning liberal. But it was really something of an act--the joy of Grant's show is his increasingly irascible and unreasonable attitudes toward the callers, many of whom appear to enjoy the abuse. Like him or loathe him, Grant is an excellent example of what makes a true broadcaster; he has the ability to make you want to stay and here what he's going to say next.
Having very much enjoyed 'Stan and Ollie', the Laurel and Hardy biopic, I've been immersed for the past few days in gathering up the shards of unseen L&H material that for some reason I've missed over the years. Mostly this consists of their silent films, which I never had any real interest in--what are L&H without their voices? Well, I was wrong. The silents are delightful and I'm plowing through them at a rapid rate. Then there are the lousy Fox films of the early-mid forties of which I've only seen two--'Jitterbugs' and 'The Bullfighters' and which, honestly, I feel it might be better off to avoid. L&H without Hal Roach simply were not themselves--I have a feeling that Stan would have resented hearing that, but Roach provided them with the freedom to work at their best and most comfortable level (and beside, he had that Marvin Hatley music). Then there are the multi language shorts which are interesting to behold, in a limited ...
Above is one of the strangest show-biz artifacts I've ever come across. Apparently there is a Lucy/Desi museum in Jamestown New York (birthplace of both Lucille Ball and Lucy Ricardo). Among the large collection of memorabilia is a full reconstruction of the set of the Ricardo's apartment. Above you'll see a short, shaky but quite delightful look at it. It's in color too, thus giving the much-viewed set a strikingly strange reality. The spinet piano is there, residing in the center of the room under the bay window, as is the fireplace, the couch, the kitchen--the whole sheer. I always loved the way the address of the building changed from episode to episode (though it was always on East 68th Street). I also dug how loopy the floorplan was. The Mertz's building was a brownstone which would have been no more than 20 feet wide, but somehow the three rooms are stretched out over a space that would have to be at least 40 feet wide, with the kitchen incongruously on a...
Above is another one of those priceless documentary looks at New York life in the late 20s/early 30s courtesy of the Fox Movietone News camera, an early sound-on-film system that enabled recordings of everyday life and events without having to set up cumbersome equipment which in turn would usually freeze the on-camera participants--these glimpses feature entirely natural behavior of people who are only dimly aware at best that they're being filmed. Here we see a group of children, ages 5-7 roughly, playing in a park on West End Avenue and 106th Street in January of 1930. A teacher leads them in a couple of songs while their mothers sit by on the benches, wearing those funny 1920s Cloche women's hats that so symbolize 20s fashion that to wear one now would be a clear indication that you were on your way to a 1920s themed party. What has this to do with Veterans Day you may ask? As I estimated the children's ages as I did, that would mean they were born somewhere between...
Grant made national headlines in 1996 when he was fired again for mocking the plane crash death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. You may (or may not) remember that there was a slim chance of hope for survivors of the crash and Grant speculated that he thought Brown might be alive. Then he added: "That's because I'm essentially a pessimist".
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