Page 16 - Boca Club News - April '21

Page 16, Boca Club News

The Arts

Book Review: “Even This I Get to Experience”

By Nils A. Shapiro missions over Europe; a life in must be crazy, Jon, because despite all that’s happened, I keep
the world of entertainment, hearing this inner voice saying, ‘Even this I get to experience.’”
The Remarkably Candid, with sub-lives in television, Even with all of that, Lear left out in that passage another
Fascinating, Self-Revealing radio, movies, and music; a life very important achievement, which in the telling includes a
Autobiography By Showbiz Genius as a political activist; a life in very funny—but profound—message. In 1983, he gets advance
Norman Lear philanthropy; a late-starting life notice that the Television Academy is going to establish a Hall
as a spiritual seeker; three lives of Fame, and that he will be among the first six to be inducted,
If you watched the recent Golden as a husband, six as a father along with Milton Berle, Lucille Ball, Paddy Chayefsky, David
Globes Awards ceremony, you know (with my youngest born forty- Sarnoff and William Paley. Although instructed to keep the
that one of the well-deserved highlights was the beautiful, eight years after my eldest), and news confidential until the official announcement is made,
brilliant and moving acceptance speech by 99-year-old four as a grandfather. Lear decides to call his mother in the hope that perhaps, for the
entertainment industry legend Norman Lear when he received “In the course of all these first time in his life, she will acknowledge him as worthy and
the Carol Burnett Lifetime Achievement Award. lives, I had a front-row seat at deserving. (We have learned earlier of his difficult childhood:
There could be no better time than now for you to appreciate the birth of television; wrote, His father, a crook, but whom he worshipped, was sent to jail
the full creative talent and wisdom of this extraordinary man produced, created or developed more than a hundred shows; for three years when Norman was nine years old; his mother
by experiencing the autobiography that Lear began when he had nine on the air at the same time; finished one season left with the daughter, leaving Norman with relatives and
turned 90 and published two years later, in 2014. This 438-page with three of the top four and another with five of the top neighbors until his father was released.)
volume is stunning in so many ways: as a record of enough nine; hosted Saturday Night Live; wrote, directed, produced, When his mother hears the news of her son’s induction into
achievements to have filled half a dozen lives; as proof of the executive-produced, or financed, or financed more than a the TV Academy’s Hall of Fame, she replies, “Listen, if that’s
prodigious memory he clearly possessed even then, at that dozen major films; before normalization, led an entourage what they want to do, who am I to say?”
age, recalling details from childhood to every business deal... of Hollywood writers and producers on a three-week tour of (Having strived for more than half a century to earn an
and, perhaps most impressive of all, his obvious decision to China; founded several cause-oriented national organizations, expression of pride from his mother—in vain—Lear finally
throw caution to the winds, bare all, and express his opinions including the 300,000-member liberal advocacy group People describes her as a “farbissiner...another Yiddish word, which
about everyone in his life, from his parents and other family For the American Way; was told by The New York Times that is most easily translated as ‘sourpuss.’ But a sourpuss is a
members to his three wives, six children, the many famous TV I changed the face of television; was labeled ‘No. 1 enemy farbissiner in the face only. A true farbissiner is a sour soul.
and movie performers and executives he has worked with—and, of the American family by Jerry Falwell; was warned by Pat Sour souls stain the company they keep. They wake up to piss
unsparingly, himself. Robertson that my arms were ‘too short to box with God’; made on the day, and not just their day. A farbissiner doesn’t earn
The result is a book that is both deeply thoughtful and it onto Richard Nixon ‘Enemies List’; was presented with the the title until she is pissing on your day, too.”)
hugely entertaining. National Medal of Arts by President Clinton; purchased an Despite his many successes, all has not been a bed of roses in
To get an idea of who Norman Lear is—and why he has original copy of the Declaration of Independence and toured Lear’s life. It’s been a roller coaster that includes two divorces—
been both named a Kennedy Center Honoree and received the it for ten years in all fifty states; was ranked by Entertainment the first from a suicidal wife, the second from a woman who felt
Golden Globe Award, among many other career tributes—here Weekly fortieth among the ‘100 Greatest Entertainers of the her own feeling of self-worth decline with each of her husband’s
is an excerpt from the book’s Preface: Century’ (twenty-nine places ahead of the Sex Pistols); ran the new successes. However, marriage number three, in 1987, has
“In my ninety-plus years I’ve lived a multitude of lives. Olympic Torch in the 2002 Winter Olympics; blew a fortune in been magic—a deliriously happy one. But he doesn’t flinch
There was that early life with my parents and relatives; a a series of bad businesses; and reached a point where I was from his own faults and covers them with as much honesty,
life as a kid with my blood buddies Herbie Lerner and the advised that we might even have to sell our home. both positive and sharply negative, as he describes the many
Schwarz twins; a life in high school zeroing in on the humor “Having heard that we’d fallen into such dire straits, my son- famous people he has worked with over the decades.
in our existence; a life in college cut short by World War II; in-law phoned me from New York and asked how I was feeling.
a life as a crew member in a B-17 bomber flying fifty-two My answer was, ‘Terrible, of course, but then I added, ‘but I Book Review on page 17

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