European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 1, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Until the martinis cigarettes got him Harry gave Mem hell Andy Rooney Tribune Media f you have a Clear impression of what Harry Reasoner was like from having seen him on television i can Promise you you arc wrong. Whatever you think he was like he Kasnot like that. I could not possibly explain to you what Harry really was like even if i was sure i knew myself. He Wasny to like anyone you Ever knew. Our careers in television were inextricably mingled for 25 years. I wrote hundreds of scripts for him and always labelled his part a the i was needling him but he always was the Star . We first met when we worked on a morning broadcast called Calendar. From those Early Days our Little joke was to Greet each other with a Good morning no matter what time of Day or night we saw each other. A Good morning a wed say when we met for dinner. Harry was a difficult person to be Good friends with. Simple is the last thing he was. If i told you everything i know about him you would in All probability not like him As much As i did until you got to know him better. Then you a like him a whole lot. In pure intellect Harry was the smartest of All the television correspondents a but he did More dumb things than any of them. He would not have died at the age of 68 if this were not True. He smoked three packs of cigarettes a Day. He drank martinis a lot of them. Four years ago he Mike Wallace gives a sign off kiss last Spring to Harry Reasoner who died aug. 6. Had his cancerous left lung removed and continued to smoke heavily. �?o1 can Stop drinking if i have to a he said quietly one Day two years ago. A but i can to Stop that was the last time i said anything to him about smoking. He died of almost everything. His other lung his liver and his kidneys had deteriorated and in Early june he had brain surgery. I Hope the surgeon knew this was a special brain when he operated on it. When he was in his 20s, Harry wrote a novel called Tell me about women. It said a lot about Harry a attitude toward women and life. He was a romantic. He liked Small dark candlelit restaurants and dinners with Beautiful women. Kay Carroll of Minneapolis was Beautiful. They were married in 1946, As soon As Kay graduated from Law school. After 34 years and seven children they were divorced because. Well because they were Harry and Kay. Kay died five years ago and Harry married a Nice Young woman named Lois Weber. Harry was born in Dakota City. Iowa and grew up in Humboldt right next door. His father was a school superintendent who died in a fall off a Cliff in Harry a presence. Harry told me that just once. He did no to offer any details and made me feel i should t ask any. In 1972, we went to Humboldt to make a film called a Small town in Iowa. Those two weeks in Humboldt were a Happy time for Harry. 1 remember wondering if he might not have been happier if head stayed there and not left to become famous. Harry was Good to talk to. He liked the Bond established Between two people who understood More than they were saying to each other. He loved humor and used infrequently with his Quick Short laugh. In the Hospital one night there were tubes and dripping bottles hanging Over him everywhere. I held his hand. His eyes were closed. Lois said if i spoke up he might recognize that 1 was there. Quot Harry i said in a loud voice. A Good morning a head have smiled through his pain if there had been any of his great cognitive Power left. He did not and while his heart beat for three More weeks i knew then that he was gone. My life is riddled with holes where great friends once were. When i first met Harry Reasoner he was 40. He liked working in new York and living in Connecticut but even then he was uneasy about being so far from Home. 1 remember him saying that a person should be buried in the ground where his roots Are. Harry a roots Are in Humboldt and that a where he a buried. I am a writer who tries to put Down one word after another in a direct and logical Way. I often fail to say precisely what i mean. I have failed Here if you done to know that i am writing with tears in my eyes. Andy Rooney is a former stars and stripes All relative when it comes to film direction by Deborah Mitchell the new York times one of the surest ways if not one of the quickest to break into acting is to have your child grow up to direct feature films. Consider the Mother of the gangster played by Joe Pesci in last years Good fellas. She insisted on feeding a meal to her son and his friends while they were on their Way to Bury a body the Plum part was awarded to Catherine Scorsese the Mother of the films director Martin Scorsese. One of the funniest lines in the 1989 comedy when Harry met Sally a a woman ordering lunch after overhearing Meg Ryan simulate an orgasm in a Deli tells the waiter a a in la have what she shaving a was delivered by Estelle Reiner the Mother of the movies director Rob Reiner. And the father of a family of accountants in. Lot k who stalking a Man who laughed frequently but never spoke in the 1989 comedy directed by Amy Heckerling was played by Heck Erlings father Louis Heckerling a retired certified Public accountant. With All of Hollywood to choose from Why go to mom and pop to cast a role even a Cameo parental relationships after All arc the meat and potatoes of the analysts work the stuff of the subconscious. Arc directors out to prove to their parents that they be finally made it docs the child want to throw Money and Perks at the Parent a r is there something quietly condescending at work a Way of establishing that now that the child can offer the Parent a Job he or she can Tell the Parent when to show up and when to leave John Landis whose Mother was a bag lady in his 1983 film trading places and has had Small parts in Many of his other films has a simpler answer. He casts his Mother and Stepfather whenever possible because As he puts it its Hollywood has a tradition of using nepotism to launch a relative in films. Francis Coppola virtually gave his father a musical career by hiring him to score the first godfather movie in 1972. Before his death last april at the age of 80, Carmine Coppola had collaborated with his son on seven other films. Bill Leeds Fame As a composer and musician increased after he composed the scores for the first four films made by his son Spike Lee. Bill Lee also had an acting role As the father Sonny Darling in his songs Early film she s gotta have it not All cases of nepotism prove As successful. Patricia Hitchcock daughter of Alfred did no to have much of a career outside her fathers movies. And when Coppola cast his daughter Sofia in godfather Iii the critical drubbing recalled the reception Anjelica Huston received in her first role a the disappointing 1969 movie by her father John Huston a walk with Long and death. In 1985, Huston directed his daughter to an Oscar in prizzi s Honor. In 1948, Huston and his father the established actor Walter Huston won Academy awards for the treasure of the Sierra Madre. Landis though Isnit out to carve an award winning acting career for his parents. Before retiring last year his Stepfather was a construction estimator for the City of los Angeles and his Mother worked in a Bank. They Arentt taking acting classes they done to talk about the method. Most of the parents even those who Are card carrying members of the screen actors Guild done to regard themselves As professional actors. Their children Arentt hiring them to augment their pensions or to establish second careers. There a something else going on. Landis May Call it fun but other directors use different words a love guilt repayment issues that Are often discussed in an analysts office. A maybe its because its August a says or. Harvey Roy Greenberg a clinical professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and author of the movies on your mind an analysis of classic films. A but 1 think there a a generally benevolent idea at work Here an idea of a debt repaid maybe a Little stroking of parental 1, 1991 sunday a Page 7
