Last week the post office had a very heavy box for me to pick up. You’ll never guess what was inside.
There were twelve books in there. (I know – you’re seeing eight.) One was a blooper (my jacket and cover, but someone else’s pages in it1 – but it’s being replaced). Two immediately went out in the same morning’s mail, one to Brandon and one to Dave’s daughter. Most of the rest of these went out over coming days – two to folks who lent me photos, the remainder to people who were helpful in various ways.2 I have another box of books on the way, and most of those are earmarked for other folks who were helpful.
I have enabled the book for distribution, which means over the coming days and/or weeks IngramSpark will disseminate the data to the various book exchanges and you’ll be able to order a copy through your preferred bookseller. I am also in the process of setting up a Bookshop affiliate account, and will provide a link for you to order the book through that link.3
(Ed. note: Here’s a link that will do for the time being.)
I also plan to order a supply of books to keep on hand here, which I will need for readings and what not, and I’ll find a way to offer them through this site if you want a signed copy. I have to anticipate these things because it usually takes two weeks from order to delivery4, and since a case of books involves a certain amount of money, I have to plan ahead. But I’ll make it work out.
As you can see, it’s not a small book. But I think you’ll find it worth the cover price when you have it in your hands. Stay tuned – you’ll soon be able to do just that.
There come times when you have to make big decisions. A few weeks ago, I made one. For a variety of factors, a deal I thought I’d made to get the book published wasn’t progressing as I’d hoped. I’ll spare details on this, but some thoughts came to mind, and they were provoked by people I admire.
The first was from the subject of my previous book, who had struggled to get his first novel published. One night, talking about the frustrations he’d suffered, he suddenly had an inspiration: “Hellfire, we’ll publish it ourselves.” And so he did, raising some money and getting it privately printed.1
I also thought of an observation Natalie Merchant2 made in a recent interview. When she went solo she could have become a big-time pop star, but that’s not what she wanted. What mattered to her was doing the work she wanted to do, and doing it her way. One of her projects3 took a long time and required her to spend a massive amount of her own money, which took her nearly a decade to recoup. But it mattered that much to her to stay true to her vision, so she took charge, spent the money and did the hard work, and has never regretted it.
That kind of thing chewed at me as I thought about Peace. I’ve spent this long working on the book, rounding material up, doing all the things one must do in order to write a biography. I’ve been through it before, how it feels to turn over the product of a very intimate and personal process to a publisher, who will then turn it over to people you don’t know and who don’t know you, and then your work becomes subject to their vision. I had a vision of how I wanted Peace to look, how I wanted the cover to look, how I wanted the interior to look. I couldn’t be guaranteed of that if I went with an outside publisher. I wouldn’t have the control I wanted. I knew what I wanted, I knew how I wanted it to look, and I didn’t want to sacrifice that. This had to be done my way.
As it happened, I had the tools and know-how already. I have InDesign and Photoshop and Illustrator. I have close to 35 years of experience with document layout and design. I’ve got more than two decades’ experience with Photoshop and Illustrator. Why not see what I could do? One long weekend4, that’s what I did. I had Brandon give the text a very careful read, and he caught a lot of things that got past me and made the whole thing much stronger.
A scene I know very, very well. But it’s an amazing tool.
The other bonus is that it’s really easy to self-publish these days, especially if you can supply press-ready PDFs. And, as it happened, that’s what I know how to do, and IngramSpark could do the rest. And, last Friday, the result came in the mail:
And here it is, almost ready for your shelves.
Mind you, this is the printed proof. The moment you send something off, you find a whole lot of things got past you, and I have spent the last several days fixing those last little things. Some of them were fairly important, and others of them were tiny. I knew, though, if I didn’t fix them I would kick myself every time I saw them. As the great Dan Gurney once observed, “If you have the chance to make something beautiful, and you don’t…well, what does that say about you?”
Even then, even with all its imperfections, I was impressed by how it looks. It’s a solid book. The dust jacket is even more gorgeous than I imagined it would be. The paper inside is bright and opaque. The binding and cover feel nice and solid. This book looks and feels the way I hoped it would, and I am happy with it. It’s not the deal I would have gotten had I been able to interest a big-name publisher, but I’ve more than made that up by the fact that I have been able to this my way and make the book, in appearance and in substance, the way I wanted it to be.
The final revisions will be sent to Ingram in the next few hours. Once that file is properly in place and I’ve approved the e-proof, expect the book to go on sale really soon after. You’ll be able to get your local bookstore to order it in, and I’ll also be setting up a link here for you to buy it through this website.5 There’s also a chance I may have a limited supply of signed copies later on, too.
Stay tuned. It’s almost here, at long and blessed last.
A post I regret needing to make: Barbara Walters has died at age 93. I can’t say I’m surprised, as I knew she was not in the best of health, but it doesn’t make the news any less of a punch to the gut. There’s no way to calculate what women in journalism, and women in broadcasting, owe her. It’s better for others to cover that ground, as they will, and so I shall leave that to others better qualified than I am.1
Instead, it’s worth remembering that someone who helped her get her career started was Dave Garroway. It was while he was host of Today that she was hired as a writer, and she spoke often of how important that was in helping her get her start.2 As part of this hastily-assembled memorial post, here’s a clip in which she talks about Dave Garroway, what she remembered about him, and what made him special.
A few years back I wrote about the 1954 and 1955 productions of “Babes in Toyland,” staged by Max Liebman with an all-star cast that, not incidentally, included our own Dave Garroway. In the spirit of the season, a kind soul has posted the 1954 production, and I present the link for your enjoyment. Be sure to catch all the inside jokes in Santa Dave’s conversations with his young friend (not to mention the “sweater girl” comment that was axed from the 1955 production after being criticized as too racy for young ears).
From all of us here, whatever you celebrate or observe, may it be wonderful, and may it be filled with…peace.
It’s been busier than I’d like of late, and that’s where I’ve been. On the other hand, it means a lot of cool stuff has accumulated. Let’s begin with this image, which is from a large-format negative I recently acquired. It’s from December 7, 1954, and Dave’s expression captures what I’ve spent a lot of time feeling because of work.
Next up, check out this really cool interview with my friend (and collaborator) Brandon Hollingsworth on my friend Mitchell Hadley’s It’s About TV. The topic isn’t Garroway, but Brandon is always worth listening to and Mitchell’s blog is always worth reading.
Now let’s take a trip back in time: it’s 1958, and here’s a brief glimpse at the RCA Exhibition Hall. No glimpse of the Today set in its final months, alas, but it’s the Exhibition Hall and that’s worth checking out any time.
Finally, here’s a chance to see just how well I can bury a lede: at this link, you can get a glimpse of the image that will be on the cover of Peace: The Wide, Wide World of Dave Garroway, Television’s Original Master Communicator. (It’s also a chance for me to say that working with the estate of Raimondo Borea, and with Jon Gartenberg, could not have gone better or happier, and I gladly recommend both to you.)
As a bonus, here’s a visit Dave made to Bob and Ray’s TV show shortly before Today made its debut.
:: We’re still here and we’re doing okay, incidentally. There just hasn’t been anything to report. The manuscript is still in the editing/review process, which from experience I know takes time. I also haven’t made many new discoveries, and even if I had, the day job keeps getting in the way. Good things are to come, and soon, I hope. Stay tuned.
Today is a day that should be celebrated everywhere, with cake and ice cream for everybody, for it was on this day in 1913 that our beloved Dave Garroway was born. Not to mention, it was on this day in 2017 that this website was officially launched. It was a birthday tribute to Dave, a way of keeping his memory alive in a world where he’s so often been forgotten.
Five years ago, if you’d asked me if the book would be completed by now, I’d have told you that I hoped it would be, but it was a tall order. I’d love to get the James Webb Space Telescope to look back five years and tell me “yes, it will be.”1 The book is being proof-read; I’ll make whatever alterations are advised, and then it’ll be off for layout and the next steps, and of course I’ll say more about that when the time is right.
The end of the writing process is so much of why it’s been quiet here, but I thought we’d celebrate Dave’s birthday by taking a look at some favorite pictures I’ve accumulated over the years. For various reasons, none of these will be in the book2 but there’s no reason why we can’t take a few minutes here to enjoy them.
Happy birthday, Old Tiger.
The principals of the Chicago School pose for a family portrait. Our Dave is in a typically relaxed pose on the couch. (NBC photo)Nearly two decades later, Garroway returns to the Chicago studio to appear in a special. (NBC photo)A younger Garroway goofs around for the photographer in a Chicago studio. (NBC photo)On top of the news in the RCA Exhibition Hall. (NBC photo)My favorite photo that I couldn’t get for the book: daughter Paris visiting dad at work. (NBC photo)Reviewing a “Dave Garroway Show” script with cast members Shirley Harmer and Jill Corey. (NBC photo)Publicity shot for “Dave’s Place,” his November 1960 prime-time special. (NBC photo)The lights down, another “Today” comes to an end. (NBC photo)
You may recall that several years ago I wrote about one of my most cherished artifacts, my RCA BK-4 “Starmaker.” The Starmaker, you may recall, was that unusual foot-long microphone that Dave Garroway and his fellow on-air staffers on Today used for the first few years.
Dave wearing a BK-4 on a harness for hands-free operation. (NBC photo)
My Starmaker was in excellent condition, with only one weird scar across the front below the RCA emblem. I figured it was just something that happened while it was being used. From time to time I toyed with the idea of sending it to a microphone specialist for a checkup, but figured it would be one of those “someday” things when I had fewer pressing needs.
A few weeks ago, somebody contacted me about something and, in that way conversations go, the topic of the BK-4 came up. It occurred to me I should pay the little one some attention, so I got it out of storage. What I saw broke my heart. I’d spooled up that super-long cable and placed the microphone atop it. Bad idea, it turned out. The old cable jacket had eaten into the paint, leaving two big and ugly scars across the front of the microphone. The microphone itself was not damaged, but the paint was ruined. I felt kind of sick about it, especially since my own negligence had done this. (I think that weird little scar I mentioned earlier, the one that was already on the microphone, was the result of a similar cable jacket burn.)
I’m going to spare you pictures of the microphone with the paint damage. Instead, here’s a photo of Gilda silently reproving me for being such a doofus with a priceless artifact.
Now, I could have fixed this myself with some careful sanding and a can of spray paint, but I didn’t feel right doing that. An artifact like this deserves the best treatment I could find. And that’s what I decided to do.
I boxed the Starmaker up and sent it off to New Jersey. That’s where Clarence Kane runs ENAK Microphones and Repair Service. Clarence worked for RCA back in the day and, when RCA got out of the microphone business, set up his own service center to keep microphones going. Clarence is now assisted by Luke Petersen, who has been very busy the last several years learning the ins and outs of dozens of microphone types. But instead of telling you about these two, maybe I should let this neat little film speak for me:
I sent my Starmaker off a few weeks ago, and I expected it to take a while. But early last week I got an invoice, and last Thursday UPS brought me a box, and with my heart wedged between my adenoids I cracked the thing open. Inside, very carefully packaged, was my beloved Starmaker…
Complete with a neat little thank-you from Clarence and Luke. I appreciate that, gentlemen…but it is I who should be thanking YOU.
…looking better than it’s looked in forever. Not only had the paint been accurately redone (while preserving the NBC-TV rollmark on the back!), but at my request they had also given it a check-up and installed a new cable with a standard XLR connector (and, also at my request, returned the old cable for historical purposes). All I need is a good pre-amp, and I could put this little one back to work, which is what I think it wants to be doing anyway.
To say I’m happy is an understatement. I was positively giddy over it. And while the reconditioning job was not inexpensive, I have absolutely no regrets. I owed it to that microphone, not only for what my carelessness had done, but also to make sure that microphone will be in good shape for its next 70 years.
If you have an old microphone that needs service, give the folks at ENAK a call or send them an e-mail. I highly recommend them.
:: Things are quiet on the book front, which is much of why you haven’t heard much from me in a while. Right now the main thing is waiting for some paperwork to come down, and waiting for the recommended edits from the copy editor. Things are in work, though, so stay tuned.
I don’t know if you felt a little shift in the universe or not a little after 2 p.m. our time Sunday. If you did, it was caused by a Microsoft Word document, about 412,000 bytes, being transferred via e-mail to the publisher.
I wish I could say it prompted great celebration here, or even some kind of release. But, to be honest with you, it was the culmination of several straight days of making last edits, hoping to be sure the format met as many of the publisher’s requirements as possible. I went through that document – all 494 pages of it, by the time it was done – several times. By Sunday afternoon, I had officially reached the “I’m done” point, and sent it on. Not only was I satisfied things were as in order as I could make them, but I was tired from reading it, and I just wanted it over with. I was numb.1 I went in the kitchen and got a can of Coke2 and a little snack. And that’s how I celebrated.
What happens next? Well, the publisher will send the file to a copy editor, who will go through it very, very carefully. Anything that’s amiss in it, I’ll have to correct or otherwise bring in line with house style. Nor is my work completely done, either, because I have two or three photographs that still need resolution of rights and permissions.3 Once all of that is squared away, I can forward the image files and captions to the publisher.
Then, for the most part, my work will be done for a while, at least until it’s time to review edits and then (soon, I hope) galleys. Then, at some point after that, along will come completed books. And then, I hope will follow the really fun part, which will be some kind of tour (I hope) and speaking engagements and what not, and those are fun, and I hope there will be more than a few of those.
Anyway, for now, there you are. This project is a lot closer to being done, and the dream Dave Jr. had for so long is a lot closer to coming true. I wish Dave was here to see it, but I can’t help thinking he knows.
:: As horror has unfolded on another side of the world over the last month, this is a time more appropriate than most others to pray for the thing Dave Garroway wished: peace. Do so, please.
