Katherine Dunn followups: A/V Club. NYT.
Harlan Ellison, the science fiction author and screenwriter, hailed it as “transformative.”
Julius La Rosa, who was a noted singer of the 1950s, but is perhaps most famous for being fired on the air by Arthur Godfrey.
On Oct. 19, 1953 — 23 months after Mr. La Rosa’s debut — Mr. Godfrey retaliated in a morning segment heard only on the radio. Mr. La Rosa had just finished singing “Manhattan” when Mr. Godfrey delivered the sentence in his solemn foghorn voice.
“That was Julie’s swan song,” he said.
…
The dismissal stunned Mr. La Rosa and the Godfrey audiences, whose reaction was largely negative. Most media critics also chastised Mr. Godfrey, whose avuncular image began to crumble.
Damn, hadn’t heard about Harlan Ellison. I have a copy of his “Stalking the Nightmare” somewhere which has a *hilarious* recounting of when he goes hired by Disney – and then fired on his first day.
Never mind – read too fast. :-/
No worries, boss. I think I’m more to blame for not making the context of that pull quote clear.
And yes, the Disney story is a classic. I’m trying to remember if he ever published the “Did you really mail a dead gopher to an editor?” story; I know it was on one of the record albums from the Harlan Ellison collection.