Hugh Downs, long time TV guy and good Akron boy. (“20/20”, “Today”, “The Tonight Show” with Jack Parr.)
In February 1960, Mr. Paar, no stranger to volatility, became furious after NBC removed a joke from the show for reasons of taste. (The joke, tame by today’s standards, involved the use of the term “water closet,” meaning bathroom.) He decided that the best way to teach NBC a lesson was to walk off the next night’s show as it was being taped, leaving Mr. Downs in charge. Mr. Downs assumed the host’s chair immediately, if not confidently: at one point he looked into the camera and plaintively said, “Jack, come back.” The show aired as scheduled, walk-off and all.
Mr. Paar did come back, to the surprise of nobody, but not until 25 days later. In his absence Mr. Downs — who years later would diplomatically remember his former boss as “quite a bundle” — ably assumed his duties as “Tonight Show” host. The Times critic Jack Gould saluted Mr. Downs for having “in most trying circumstances carried off the situation with dignity.”
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Andrew “Jack” Whittaker Jr. The name may not ring a bell right off: he hit the Powerball for $315 million in 2002, took a lump sum payout of $113.4 million post tax…and it didn’t work out quite like wanted.
…he quickly fell victim to scandals, lawsuits and personal setbacks as he endured constant requests for money, leaving him unable to trust others. He was often quoted as saying he wished he had torn up the ticket.
His wife left him. A friend of his drug-addicted granddaughter was found dead at his home in 2004. Three months later, his 17-year-old granddaughter was gone, too.
His daughter, Ginger Whittaker Bragg, died of cancer in 2009 at 42.
And in 2016, he lost a Virginia home to a fire.
Byron Bernstein. I’d never heard of him, but he was a popular Twitch streamer under the name of “Reckful” and noted World of Warcraft player. He was 31.
The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside of the United States or are looking for other help, TVTropes has a good page of additional resources.
Sad to see Hugh Down passing. I also saw Johnny Mandel down a few days back. The song that sticks in my head the most is the theme from the Sandpipers, The Shadow of Your Smile.
That song sticks in my head, because when I was a senior in high school, my jazz band went to another school, to watch a performance by Woody Herman and the Thundering Herd. Before the concert, which was at 7 o’clock that evening, we got to meet with the section that played our instruments. In my case, the saxophones.
The one song that really stuck with me, and that one of the tenor sax players used to explain how important it is to play with feeling and not to just play notes, was The Shadow of Your Smile.
That was actually my first real concert. I not only learned a lot, but I got to hear a group that was tight, and professional.
Years later, when I was playing professionally, I went to a college jazz clinic,and got to sit in with Chris Vadala, the sax player who was with Chuck Mangione, when Chuck was making songs that got air play on the radio, in the late 1970’s. And I was advanced far enough that I was able to pick up much more of what he taught the sax players there, who were mostly college kids, while I was just an old guy in a rock band.
Happy 4th of July, and may all of your summer be blessed and may you remain safe and healthy.