tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post4726689173958432189..comments2024-03-27T22:27:16.556-04:00Comments on It's About TV: Don Pardo, R.I.P.Mitchell Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-27086817731062157112014-08-21T08:22:58.599-04:002014-08-21T08:22:58.599-04:00Pardo's description of the staff announcer job...Pardo's description of the staff announcer job still held in radio until the 1990s. DJs had to operate the transmitter, get taped programs ready and play them at the right time, play commercials inside of sports broadcasts and such---nowadays you pretty much walk into a room, stop the continuous stream of pre-recorded music and commercials to talk, and then start it up again. It still requires talent to do it well, but I suspect that there are many talented people on the air today who would seem less talented if they still had to do all the other stuff at the same time.jbhttp://jabartlett.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-40364619185165010302014-08-19T21:02:36.175-04:002014-08-19T21:02:36.175-04:00People are dying these days who have never died be...<i>People are dying these days who have never died before ...</i><br /><br />That's the feeling I've been getting the last couple of weeks.<br /><br />Last week, Robin Williams, Lauren Bacall, and Ed Nelson (in the order that I found out about them).<br /><br />Very late last night, I learn about Don Pardo.<br />So I look at all the clips (you missed a couple - did you see the 90th birthday clip, where he blows out all the candles on the cake, while Mike Huckabee is watching off to the side?), and wondering why the news didn't make the newspapers here, and checking out the showbiz news shows (surprisingly little coverage), and cruising the websites ...<br /><br />I don't suppose you've ever heard of Michael A. Hoey.<br />He spent a lifetime in movies and TV - literally.<br />His father was Dennis Hoey, who among many other roles was Inspector Lestrade in the Rathbone-Bruce <i>Sherlock Holmes</i> movies.<br />Michael Hoey went into film on the other side of the camera, as editor, writer, producer, and director, in both movies and TV, from the '60s though to the early '90s.<br />In his retirement, he turned to writing, producing four books:<br /><i>Elvis, Sherlock, And Me</i>, an autobiography;<br /><i>Inside <b>Fame</b> On Television</i>, about the series he worked on in many capacities throughout its run;<br /><i>Sherlock Holmes & The Fabulous Faces</i>, about the Rathbone/Holmes films and the performers therein;<br /> <i>Elvis's Favorite Director</i>, a biography of the veteran director Norman Taurog, who was Hoey's mentor.<br />I have the first three; the fourth one just came out this year, and I'd been meaning to order it.<br />I finally did, just now - after I read that Michael Hoey passed on this past Saturday.<br />I saw the news in Mark Evanier's <i>News From ME</i> blog, which deserves a spot on your sidebar.<br />All of Michael Hoey's books are well worth your time - and I say that sight unseen about the fourth one, which I won't receive until later this week, but the other three are definitely worth it.<br /><br />Okay, I went off-topic here, but this whole mortality thing is getting to me, and this is how I'm dealing with it, so there too.<br /><br />* ... and if there's a Don Pardo memoir out there somewhere, sign me up for a copy.<br />( It'll look good next to the books I already have on Bill Cullen and Johnny Olson ...)*<br />Mike Dorannoreply@blogger.com