Oldies But Goodies

For those of us on the west coast the name Art Laboe has special meaning as a radio legend and broadcast pioneer. Mr. Laboe died from pneumonia at his Palm Springs home last Friday night. He was 97 years old. He is credited for coining the phrase "Oldies but Goodies," and had been involved in radio broadcasting for most of his life, right up to the very end actually.

Mr. Laboe was born Arthur Egnoian in Salt Lake City to an Armenian-American family in 1925. He got his start in the industry at 18 years old with San Francisco's KSAN radio. He changed his name to Laboe after serving in World War II and moved to Los Angeles, where he quickly developed his own, special radio personality.

He was one of the first DJs to play rhythm and blues and Rock 'n Roll in California. His live DJ shows attracted a fanbase of people of all ages, ethnicities, and walks of life. In time, Mr. Laboe grew to become a record producer, concert promoter, and radio station owner. His shows were incredibly popular, and his fan-base continued to grow over the span of his very long career, with his final show produced last week and broadcast to the public Sunday night.

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Another entertainment biggie died this past Tuesday. Actress Dame Angela Lansbury died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at the age of 96. Miss Lansbury had one of the longest careers in show business, spanning more than 80 years.

She was born to an upper-middle-class family in central London. To escape the Blitz, in 1940 her family moved to the United States, where she studied acting in New York City. Proceeding to Hollywood in 1942, she signed to"MGM" and obtained her first film roles, in "Gaslight" (1944) and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945), earning her two Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe Award.

She appeared in 11 further MGM films, mostly in secondary roles, and after her contract ended in 1952 she began working on the stage in addition to her film work. Although mostly known as "B-list" star during this period, her appearance in the film "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) received widespread acclaim and is cited as being one of her finer performances leading her to her third Academy Award nomination.

Moving into musical theater, Miss Lansbury finally gained stardom for playing the leading role in the Broadway musical "Mame" (1966), which earned her her first Tony Award. She eventually won four others, including for what is undoubtedly her best known stage work in "Sweeney Todd" in 1979.

But it was her television series,"Murder She Wrote," that made her a household name. She played Jessica Fletcher for 12 seasons, from 1984 to 1996 on the hit CBS show. And then she gained a new generation of fans for her voice work playing Mrs. Potts in Walt Disney Studio's "Beauty and the Beast" in 1991. Miss Lansbury was just five days shy of her 97th birthday when she died.

And speaking of birthdays, (which are always preferable to death days) happy birthday to my little wife! Ordinarily I don't make a habit out of publicly writing birthday wishes to my loved ones in my weekly column, but I would be remiss (whatever that means) if I didn't acknowledge my wife's milestone birthday this week. Many men would hesitate to divulge the age of their wife since many women prefer to remain, er, shall we say ageless and many men would rather not ruffle the feathers of their better half. While my wife is indeed ageless in the best sense, she nevertheless has no problem with people knowing her numerical age. Vanity in regards to age is not one of her traits.

Happy 80th birthday to my beautiful wife. Still as cute as a button.

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