Larger than Life.

A Highly Personal List of Vivid Souls, Otherwise Departed,
Who Speak to Us Still.
by

William O’Shaughnessy
December, 2004

I got away from the microphone for a few days last week to stroll along a deserted winter beach with a pretty girl who had only a month ago lost her father.

Bernard F. Curry, Jr. (Nancy called him “Papa”) was an extraordinary man – personally, professionally and in the way he carried himself.

At 6’ 4”, he was larger than life.

The great Mario Cuomo drew the measure of the man and called him “Paul Bunyan.” Papa, who was always a little more “conservative” than the rest of us who loved him, returned the favor by referring to Mr. Cuomo as “Robin Hood!”

My own profession, what I do for a living, has enabled me to observe a great many other strong, rich, vivid souls who I believe also left us too soon.

Some I worked with at the original WNEW, during that station’s halcyon days, and at WVIP, WVOX and WRTN. Others I encountered at a distance and only for brief, fleeting moments.

I’m talking here, mind you, only about absolutely vivid, luminous individuals who painted color into our drab existence and made a difference during their time, members in good standing of a unique fraternity who took their stand against convention and dullness as they went about the business of salvation. Each was sui generis, altogether unique and able to be defined only in their own terms.

Really the only thing these marvelous souls have in common is that they are no longer with us.

Or, I wonder, are they …?

For although they’re gone to another, and we are sure, a better world, (thank you, Malcolm Wilson), their brilliance and dazzling turn on this planet lingers still in my brain.

Some left us many years ago. My own father departed in 1974. But they are not so far gone into that Great Beyond that they are beyond retrieval while walking in the winter sunshine. They instruct us. They inspire us. They still reside quite clearly in the archives of our mind and in the memories of many others. Not all were attended by notoriety or fame.

I realize that countless other generous, noble, accomplished and worthy souls departed this planet during my already long life. Those simple folk resided in quiet anonymity and lived lives far from the glare of celebrity. But the music of this colorful and unique choir came rushing back to me as we walked the Lyford Cay sand in the Bahamian sunshine of early December, 2004.

Although I have placed them in alphabetical order, no computer cooperated in this compilation which was assembled only from the archives of my mind. Hence, this unique roster of disparate, endearing characters comes not from any source other than my own fading memory. No Lexis-Nexis, Google or Internet search engines were engaged.

Dying is something you have do all by yourself. It’s a solo. But these marvelous, vivid characters all belong to a rich breed which heard and still plays a bold, beguiling and endearing music.

Their light still shines:

Val Adams, Spiro Agnew, John Aiello, Ken Ake, Andy Albanese, Ethel Albertson, J. Lester, Albertson, Henry Alexander, Mel Allen, Garner Ted Armstrong, Louis Armstrong, Les Arries, Fred Astaire, Msgr. Terry Attridge, Angelo Badolato, Al Balletto, Edward Larabee Barnes, Andre Baruch, Mort Bassett, William “Count” Basie, Jack Beaton, Rocco Bellantoni, Jr., Max Berking, Dick Berkoff, Hilda & Bill Berkowitz, Glenn Birnbaum, Sam Bingham, John Bodnar, Gen. Omar Bradley, Claude Braun, Rosemary Breslin, George Burchell, Marty Burke, John Burns, Gordon Burrows, William Butcher, Elizabeth “Miss” Cadoo, Bob Cammann, Jimmy Cannon, Joe Canzeri, Nino Cardinale, John Chafee, John Chancellor, Sir Harold Christie, Stanley W. Church, Rosemary Clooney, Ellen Cody, Roy Cohn, Nat “King” Cole, Cy Coleman, Bill Condon, Frank Connelly, Sr., Bob Considine, Terrence Cardinal Cooke, Burt Cooper, Howard Cosell, Noel Coward, Pat Cunningham, Immaculata Cuomo, Bernard F. Curry, Jr., Shirley Dames, Fred Danzig, Jerry Danzig, Judge Richard Daronco, Joan Daronco, Chuck Davey, Henry deKwiatkowski, C. Glover Delaney, Matt Dennis, Joseph Paul DiMaggio, Charles F.X. Dolan, S.J., Edwin B. Dooley, John E. Dowling, Hughie Doyle, George Duncan, Perry Duryea, Jean T. Ensign, Mary Ensign, Howard Epstein, Joe Evans, Jinx Falkenberg, Keith Fallon, Bill Fanning, James A. Farley, Jim Farley, Jr., Bob Faselt, Mario Faustini, Boris Feinman, Jim Feron, William Fitzgibbon, Bob Fitzsimmons, John “Chippy” Flynn, John Fosina, Mims Fredman, Joe Gagliardi, Lee Gagliardi, James William Gaynor, Arthur Geoghegan, Commodore Bill Gibbons, Anthony B. Gioffre, Charles Goodell, Jack Gould, Milton Gould, Billy Graham, Bob Granger, Buddy Hackett, Arthur Hailey, Gabby Hayes, Phil Hollis, John Holmes, Townsend “Tim” Hoopes, Ed Hughes, Jacob K. Javits, Bill Jeffries, Jack Joyce, Helen Kasper, Nancy Q. Keefe, Jane Hoey Kelly, Shipwreck Kelly, Murray Kempton, Bobby Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, Stan Kenton, Katherine Kerrigan, Claude Kirschner, Sam Klein, Fred Klestine, Bill Klinger, Bob Klose, Paul Kovi, Rainer Kraus, Pete Kriendler, Bill Kunstler, Bunny Lasker, William Van Duzer Lawrence, Tom Leahy, Rita LeDuc, Louis Lefkowitz, Fr. Peter LeVierge, Arthur Levitt, John V. Lindsay, Mary Lindsay, Jimmy Lodato, John Loeb, William Luddy, Peter Maas, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Gavin K. MacBain, John Malone, Squeegie Mangialardo, Ralph Martinelli, Jack Masla, Mary Margaret McBride, Charles F. McCarthy, Bob McCooey, Suzannah McCorkle, Frank McCullough, Sr., Theresa McDermott, Mamie McDonough, J. Raymond McGovern, Br. Joe McKenna, Sandy McKown, Mabel Mercer, Ben Mermelstein, Robert Merrill, Edwin Gilbert Michaelian, Mario Migliucci, Stanley Miller, Alfred Moccia, Archie Moore, Garry Moore, Harry Moore, Walter Moore, Hugh Morrow, Kermit Moss, Arthur H. “Red” Motley, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, William Hughes Mulligan, Jerry Nachman, Eve Nelson, Bud Neuwirth, Richard M. Nixon, Alex Norton, Gus Ober, Jack O’Brian, John Cardinal O’Connor, Harry O’Donnell, Paul O’Dwyer, Paddy O’Neil, Francis X. O’Rourke, Catherine Tucker O’Shaughnessy, Jack O’Shaughnessy, William Mac O’Shaughnessy, Babe Paley, William S. Paley, Gene Paluzzi, Tom Paris, James O. Parsons, Varner Paulsen, Bob Peebles, Augie Petrillo, George Plimpton, Ed Radbill, Tony Randall, John Randazzo, Cary Reich, Carol Fernicola Reilly, Victor Ridder, Volney “Turkey” Righter, Jackie Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson, Nelson A. Rockefeller, William Pierce Rogers, Kyle Rote, William A. “Billy” Rowe, Br. Darby Ruane, Ken Ryland, Howard Samuels, Lou Sandroni, Ruby Saunders, Irving Schneider, David Schoenbrun, Bill Scott, Paul Screvane, Hugh Shannon, Joe Shannon, Toots Shor, Frank Sinatra, I. Philip Sipser, Walter “Red” Smith, Warren Spahn, Jeff Sprung, Dennis Stein, Adlai Stevenson, Gary Stevens, Martin Stone, Ellen Sulzberger Straus, Al Sulla, Edward O. “Ned” Sullivan, Joan Dillon Sullivan, John Van Buren Sullivan, Sylvia Syms, Sol Taishoff, E.P. Taylor, Harry Thayer, Jack Thayer, Walter N. Thayer, Mel Torme, Neal Travis, Marietta Tree, Dom Unsino, Joe Vacarella, Jerry Valenti, Bill Voute, Bea Wain, Paula Walsh, Fr. William Warren, Will Weaver, Walter Weiss, Ann Whitman, Jock Whitney, Chuck Wielgus, Alec Wilder, George Williams, William B. Williams, Katherine Wilson, Malcolm Wilson, “Admiral” Frank Young.

I will leave it to the priests and rabbis to confirm all our preaching and teaching too about an afterlife. On such matters the clergy speak with a sureness which eludes a sinner and struggler like me. So if you want a little more firepower on the matter, go and bother some guy with a Roman collar who knows Latin. Robert Tucker, Joe Cavoto, John O’Brien, Edwin O’Brien, James McCarthy, Patrick McNamara, Charlie Kavanagh, Kevin Mackin, Emil T., John Sturm, Joe O’Hare, Felix McGrath, Bill O’Brien, Henry Mansell and my one smart rabbi, Amiel Wohl, can give you inside information on the hereafter.

As you can see, those I remember and celebrate are of quite disparate tribes and persuasions and operated in many different venues. Some passed through life attended by a sweet generosity of spirit and others came and went accompanied by loud, raucous night music. But we heard their unique sound too.

I liked them all. And loved many of them. Even now.

There was something very special about each of these dearly departed.

And thus I’m absolutely persuaded they’re here with us still.

And so is Papa, Nancy.
# # #

William O’Shaughnessy

is President of Whitney Radio and Editorial Director of stations WVOX and WRTN, Westchester, N.Y. He is a former chairman of Public Affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters and served as president of the New York State Broadcasters Association. During his 18-year service at NAB, he specialized in free speech and First Amendment issues.

He presently serves as an officer of the Broadcasters’ Foundation of America, based in Greenwich, Connecticut.

A self-styled “Rockefeller Republican,” he was active in the presidential campaign of President George H.W. Bush and served as chairman of Republicans for Cuomo during each of the Governor’s three successful campaigns for governor of New York.

He is author of “AirWAVES” (1999) and “It All Comes Back to Me Now” (2001), collections of his radio commentaries, essays and interviews, published by Fordham University Press. His third book “More Riffs, Rants and Raves” Talk Radio was released in April, 2004.

Contact: 

Cindy Hall Gallagher

914-235-3279

cindy@wvox.com

WVOX
1 Broadcast Forum
New Rochelle, NY 10801
Phone: 914-636-1460
Fax: 914-636-2900
e-mail: don@wvox.com