Grim Reader, Aug. 26, 2011: Clair George, Edie Wasserman andJoey Vento

by Michael Schaffer

AUGUST 26, 2011 TAGS: OBITS, NEWSPAPERS ADD A COMMENT

Greetings, obit readers! HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS WEEK IN DEATH: Scandal-trapped superspy Clair George, Canadian opposition boss Jack Layton, and Hollywood grande dame Edie Wasserman all did star turns on the obit pages. Plus, there was Ronald Reagan’s last surviving classmate, Richard Nixon’s Air Force One Pilot, and the man who wrote Dwight Eisenhower’s obituary. Let’s see what you missed:

SPYMASTER: There are lots of obits this week for Clair George. The New York Times seems to have farmed out its lede to John Le Carre: “Clair E. George, a consummate spymaster who moved the chess pieces in the Central Intelligence Agency’s clandestine games of intrigue before being convicted of lying to Congress about the Iran-contra affair,” it declares. The obits’ judgments seem to vary. The Times -- which quotes an old colleague who said George “exudes trust and friendliness but in fact is duplicitous as hell” -- plays up the illegality of Iran-Contra and quotes a special prosecutor’s assertion that his perjury conviction would be good for the country. The Washington Post, meanwhile, quotes extensively from George’s subsequent semi-apologies and assertions that he hadn’t meant to lie. (Everyone agrees he was trying to protect his beloved CIA.) The Post’s coverage also has a nice portrait of George as a non-traditional CIA man, a son of coal country rather than Yale. “If you wanted Paris, he’d send you to Somalia, and when you were done in Somalia, he’d send you to Paris,” an old colleague says of George’s management style. “He wanted to know if you were a committed operator, or are you a dandy who wants to be pushing cookies around the diplomatic circuit?”

CANADIAN OPPOSITION CHIEF: Jack Layton, the leader of Canada’s left-leaning New Democratic Party, made a career of coming in third -- or fourth -- in national elections. But this year, his party finished second, becoming the country’s official opposition and, according to the obits, bonding the population to the “folksy and charismatic” (Associated Press) pol who “avoided attacks on opponents, sought consensus on issues and promoted moderately left-wing causes” (New York Times). He was selected as the person Canadians most wanted to share a beer with. The Toronto Star obit notes that one of his most important legacies was the least expected: His party shocked even itself last spring by sweeping Quebec, devastating Francophone separatists: “Federalists everywhere will be grateful to Layton for the knock-out blow he dealt to the Bloc Québécois.”

TERROR EXPERT WAS TERRORIZED: Paul Wilkinson helped invent the academic field of terrorism studies, says the Independent, and “became one of the most sought-after figures in commenting on terrorism and in advising the authorities.” How visible? Well, for his trouble, the IRA tried to kill him. The organization’s bomb was defused.

MRS. HOLLYWOOD: Edie Wasserman was one-half of the couple once known as “Mr. and Mrs. Hollywood,” says the Los Angeles Times. And although coverage of her focuses mostly on the philanthropic work she did with the money earned by her mogul husband, Lew, the obit hints at her role in his rise: She gathered information from a social circle of Tinseltown women -- “the first Hollywood wives club long before the term had any negative connotation” -- that Lew used in business. A dedicated Democrat, she also cultivated useful ties with Ronald and Nancy Reagan, whom her husband ignored.

ALSO IN MOVIELAND: Chilean-born Raul Ruiz was a “prolific director of cryptic films,” says the New York Times. “Although most of his films were made while he was an exile in France, his work was part of the fabulist tradition that runs through much Latin American literature,” explains the Guardian. … The Guardian also remembers Gualtiero Jacopetti as the auteur of the “shockumentary” genre, sending up American racism, western consumerism, and postcolonial Africa in controversial, jarring documentaries. The obit calls his Mondo Cane “the strangest commercially successful film in the history of cinema,” which strikes Grim Reader as quite an assertion. ... And while Reza Badiyi’s oeuvre may not be so highfalutin’ -- he directed TV shows like Get Smart and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine --a Los Angeles Times obit explains why he gets major coverage: He holds the record for directing the most hours of episodic TV, including series from The Rockford Files to Baywatch. For a time, he was Jamie Leigh Curtis’ stepdad. (Curtis was Wasserman’s goddaughter.)

GODFATHER OF SHOCK: Bob Sherman “laid the foundation for shock-jock radio,” a scholar tells the New York Times. Running a New York station in the early 1980s, he hired Howard Stern and brought Don Imus back from Cleveland. Profane skits -- and ratings gold -- followed. In the Long Island Press, legenday ad man Jerry Della Femina describes Sherman as a guy who relished a fight.

REAGAN’S LAST CLASSMATE: The Chicago Tribune catches the death of Willie Sue Smith Stewart, 101, the last surviving college classmate of Ronald Reagan. Stewart came from an African American family that had achieved a middle-class position in her native Texas. She spent her career as a teacher, reminiscing about having passed notes between the future president and a girlfriend.

S&L SCANDAL FIGURE: The Denver Post’s obit for Ken Good recalls him as “a wheeler-dealer real estate and development tycoon who led a lavish lifestyle,” focusing almost exclusively on his connections to the 1980s-era scandal at Colorado’s Silverado bank, where a son of President George H.W. Bush sat on the board. A great St. Petersburg Times obit chronicles his subsequent adventures helming a development that changed the face of Tampa. “The story of Florida is the story of men like Ken Good,” the piece begins, noting Good’s arrival in a Maserati sports car and his penchant for giving bigwigs rides in his private jet. “He left four years later in a fog of bank repossessions, but he had set in motion a wave of home building that would direct development — and the very shape of Tampa — for the next two decades.”

TOOK NIXON TO EXILE: Ralph Albertazzie was the pilot of Air Force One during Richard Nixon’s presidency. He took the president to China and snuck Henry Kissinger to secret talks. But his most memorable flight was the one where the plane abruptly changed names: Albertazzie calculated the plane’s location above Missouri at the moment Gerald Ford took his oath of office and the Air Force One designation -- reserved for planes carrying the chief executive -- vanished from the rest of the flight. The obits all feature maudlin descriptions of the final voyage. Unlikely afterlife: Albertazzie went on to write what the Los Angeles Times calls a “well-received” thriller about a presidential hijacking, and later served as Commerce Commissioner in his native West Virginia.

COVERED KENNEDYS: Joseph Mohbat was a journalist who later became a flack for the Democratic National Committee -- where he was one of the first people to learn of the Watergate break-in. The best stuff in the Washington Post obit involves his closeness to the Kennedys while covering RFK’s campaign; at times, he held the candidate so he wouldn’t get pulled out of the car by crowds. He’s quoted as saying he knew it was crossing a line, but he couldn’t bear the thought of Bobby getting hurt. Fun fact: He’s believed to have written the shortest lede in Associated Press history, on the passing of President Eisenhower: “Ike is dead.” Less succinct: Mohbat’s lede on January 21, 1969: “Richard M. Nixon assumed the splendid misery of the Presidency of the United States and with it the awesome burden of leading a divided nation in a strife-torn world.”

DEATH COMES IN TWOS: SONGWRITER DUO MEMBERS EDITION: Nick Ashford was “One-half of the legendary Motown songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson that penned elegant, soulful classics for the likes of Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye and funk hits for Chaka Khan and others,” says the Associated Press. The pair were also married for 38 years, and had a hit of their own called “Solid as a Rock.” ... and Jerry Leiber was “one of the most important songwriters in the history of rock & roll – whose 60-year partnership with Mike Stoller produced ‘Stand By Me,’ ‘Hound Dog,’ ‘Jailhouse Rock,’ ‘Young Blood,’ ‘On Broadway,’ ‘Yakety-Yak’ and countless other classics,” says Rolling Stone. Uncomfortable quote: “Most of the acts that Leiber and Stoller worked with were black. "I felt black," Leiber told Rolling Stone in 1990. “...I wanted to be black for lots of reasons. They were better musicians, they were better athletes, they were not uptight about sex, and they knew how to enjoy life better than most people."

CHEESESTEAK IMPRESSARIO: Finally, Philadelphia cheesesteak restaurateur Joey Vento is remembered primarily as a political polarizer -- even in his hometown, where a Philadelphia Daily News editorial opens not with his role as founder of one of the city’s top steak joints but with his culture war cameo: “Beloved in the gritty South Philly neighborhoods of his birth for his generous spirit, Vento was also a lightning rod for controversy after he launched a campaign insisting that his customers order in English.” The controversy follows him to the grave this week, as the right-wing American Spectator praises Vento while a Philadelphia Magazine contributor declares that “his legacy will also be that he seemed to believe that some people deserved to be treated differently because of their culture.” Just to show Grim Reader has a sense of humor, here’s the report from Univision’s “Filadelfia” bureau.

Michael Schaffer’s Grim Reader appears Friday in Obit. He is the author of One Nation Under Dog, about culture and the American pet industry.