CARSON'S LEGACY: He knew when to quit

Bucks County Courier Times ^ | 25 January 05 | J.D. Mullane

[TASMANIANRED]

What passes for talent these days makes me ill.

Flash in the pan wanna be's.

Sophia Lauren was a star for 30 years and stayed beautiful, so did Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor.

The big male actors, Fonda, Stewart, Glen Ford, John Wayne,..

What passes for talent these days is rancid yak dung.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Wayne Newton's gay?

[Caged in Canuckistan]

Barry Sanders also comes to mind.

[devolve]

You'd think NBC &/or the media could have put up a more entertaining tribute site for Johnny Carson.

At least one 1/2 as good as this one :

[ enable Javascript for "mouseovers"
and click for the original audios ]

http://pro.lookingat.us/HeresJohnny.html

[Captain Peter Blood]

Wayne Newton isn't gay but there is a story there. My Father had a very good friend that was trumpet player and he played in one of the Las Vegas Casino house bands and was there from about 1955 to 1975.
He told me that Newton was born with both female and male organs. He went through many years of hormone treatments and I would guess and operation to stay a male.
If you happen to catch him way back in the early 1960's when he was doing a lot of TV shows you did have to wonder about him with that voice. Anyway that is the story I got.

[monkapotamus]

If memory serves, in the closing weeks (maybe a couple months not sure) before Carson's retirement, Gary Shandling was a guest. He was of course also a frequent guest host. Carson told him on air, paraphrasing, "you were always my favorite guest host." Remember this is right before Leno took over. Ouch.

[fatima]

I saw my Dad a week before he died.He came to visit me at the hospital because I almost died.He asked me if I was a good girl,I remember that.I said "Yes Dad I am" and they were the last words he said to me.He died 3 days later ,I was still in the hospital.

[monkapotamus]

I recall that this is around the time Dennis Miller had his syndicated show. This caused a big feud between Miller and Leno, which as we see, finally blew over.

"I saw the movie. Leno's manager, producer at that point, was bullying guests into appearing on Leno's show first and threatening them if they didn't, they would never be invited back."

[Lancey Howard]

No man in sports has ever come close to Koufax in his prime

Well, there's Wayne Gretsky....

[Lancey Howard]

Carson told him on air, paraphrasing, "you were always my favorite guest host."

I have a feeling that that zinger was for the benefit of Joan Rivers. Joan was quite obviously Carson's favorite guest host for years and then she took him on head-on with her own show and Carson never forgave her.

[Lancey Howard]

He told me that Newton was born with both female and male organs.

So, if somebody told Newton to go eff himself, he actually COULD??

[OneTimeLurker]

"Carson lived to 79. 3 years longer than the average life expectancy of a man. When are we going to see the stories about how smoking extended his life?"

Just to pile on, you also have to consider the quality of health care that Carson received compared to the average person. I am sure that played no small part in keeping him alive with emphysema as long as he was.

[Jenya]

Good point. Emphysema is a debilitating disease. My aunt chain smoked all her life, and was diagnosed with it. The thing with emphysema is that if you quit when you're diagnosed in the early stages, it won't progress. It won't reverse itself either.

My aunt kept smoking after she was diagnosed. The last two years of her life, she was in a nursing home, had to use oxygen and had only 20% lung capacity. Every breath was a struggle.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

If you are trying to justify your smoking to yourself, I'd suggest you consider thinking about what your long, slow, agonizing death will do to those around you.

The regrets come only after the suffering starts. Until then it's usually what-the-hell and a whole lot of gallows humor.

One of the main reasons I never started smoking was the fact that I'm an asthmatic and in my youth used to suffer from terrible, extended asthma attacks that left me at the brink of suffocation. I told myself that if smoking was going to leave me in that condition, I wanted no part of it.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I don't know which one it was but Leno's agent banning Travis Tritt was the start of her downfall.

[SAJ]

The greatest NFL running back in history, Jim Brown, also quit the sport while absolutely at the top of his game. 7 rushing titles in 8 years? Bye, I'm gone.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

It was Travis Tritt and Tricia Yearwood's agent Ken Kragen who revealed what Helen Kushnick was doing behind the scenes.

http://print.google.com/print/doc?articleid=rQNAeiasTxI

[SAJ]

Ahhhhhh, yesss, the ''Copper Clapper Caper'' (g!)

Webb, always famed for his deadpan delivery, almost, almost lost it during that bit...Carson was just amazing.

[SAJ]

You'd best look up a nobody named Jim Brown, I think. (w!)

[Cobra64]

Hey, Do you know where I could get a copy of that ditty of Claude's copper clanger from Cleveland?