Rant #1,378: Passings

Well, we got some more snow to shovel ...

But beyond that, the combination Valentine's Day/President's Day holiday weekend went OK at my house.

We didn't do much of anything, which is almost always a good thing.

I was so tired that from Sunday evening to Monday morning, I slept about 12 hours, which is something I haven't done in probably years.

But anyway, two people passed this weekend that are worth at least a mention here, but volumes elsewhere.

Gary Owens died, and if you don't know who he was, well, I am going to tell you now, but I guarantee you have heard his voice somewhere, even if you don't know who he was.

Owens was the veteran disk jockey who appeared on just about every sitcom in the 1960s and early 1970s, usually playing if not himself, then a unnamed disk jockey.

He was on every show from "The Munsters," to "The Monkees" to "I Dream of Jeannie," and his voice was heard over the radio and TV very regularly.

But Owens if best known as one of the cast of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," where he played, of course, the show's announcer..

Here he was front and center, often introducing the show before the regulars came on, in his deep voiced, deadpan delivery that he made famous during that period.

He was one of the cast, but basically, he was the announcer, and although he didn't become as popular as, let's say, Goldie Hawn, Joanne Whorley or Arte Johnson, he was integral to the looniness that made that show so very popular.

His career continued after that show ended for 40 more years both on radio and TV, and he was the announcer on Antenna TV since its inception.

Lesley Gore also died during this holiday period, and again, if you don't know who she was, you certainly have heard her music.

Gore was the prototypical New Jersey teen who had a great singing voive and lots of talent as a writer, and she burst onto the scene in the early 1960s with a ton of hits, most with a certain sadness tied into them that hadn't been heard in teen music up to that time.

"It's My Party," and "Judy's Turn To Cry" started her off to stardom, but her anthem "You Don't Own Me" has been cited as the first popular song that talked about women's independence, certainly a precursor to the Women's Liberation movement that came about in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

She also helped to introduce her producer, Quincy Jones, to the world through her music.

Gore had many hits in the 1960s, appeared all over TV and the movies, but when all that came to an end, she became more of a songwriter, and her and her brother basically wrote the "Fame" soundtrack, which was the musical background for the hit movie and TV show.

Gore kept a secret all of these years, but finally, in 2005, she announced that she was gay.

Anyway, I had one experience, if that is what you want to call it, with Gore, probably about 20-25 years ago.

When I was doing entertainment reporting, I was asked by a producer to be part of the ersatz crowd during a pledge break special on our local Channel 21 here on Long Island. They had recreated a cabaret/lounge on the set, and I was to sit at one of the tables, listening to the acts that they brought out, in between Cousin Bruce Morrow's warbling about pledging money for the TV station.

The taping featured Randy and the Rainbows and Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge, but Gore was the star. She sang a few songs, and that was that.

I was about 15 feet away from her the whole time. I guess I got on TV, but who cared; Gore was superb, her voice was still there, and she looked terrific.

Anyway, the superstitious among us say that things happen in threes, and it leads me to wonder who else from my past will soon be leaving us.

Yes, it is a morbid thought, but it does seem to happen this way.

Goodbye, Gary and Lesley, you made our lives that much richer by doing what you did.

I cannot post YouTube videos here anymore, but you can find a wealth of material there on these two artists. Check it out!

Now, to the snow ...