2.19Feb

Golden Age of Show Business
By: Earl Wilson, Jr. / Golden Age of Show Business
When I think back to my youth, it seems
like it happened last night: I remember
falling in love with Ginger Rogers, Liz Taylor and
Kim Novak. I mirrored the smile of Cary Grant; I
ached to sing like ‘Ol Blue Eyes himself. And when
my parents sent me to dance school, it was the polished elegance of
Fred Astaire that I practiced on the dance floor.
The person I am today was formulated early in life – especially at the
movies during the Golden Age of Show Business. It was Spencer Tracy
and Gregory Peck who seemed to have what I wanted to wear as my
own mantle.
While we have drifted away from those vibrant bygone days, the
wonderful innocence of my youth (1940s - 1980s) are still the memories
by which I live.
During my dad’s celebrated writing career, he penned more than
11,424 newspaper columns that were syndicated from coast-to-coast
– a much-talked-about entertainment column: “It Happened Last
Night” that was carried by hundreds of newspapers across the country,
chronicling New York City nightlife to millions of readers. The column
was always signed: That’s Earl, Brother.
Readers of The New York Post (where Dad’s entertainment column
appeared for 40 years) and the millions of others around the nation
who read his six-day-a-week column in national syndication will
remember my dad, Earl Wilson. He worked an 18-hour day (much of it
in the after-dark hours) accompanied by his wife, my mom Rosemary
Lyons – better known to his readers as ‘’B.W.’’ (Dad’s abbreviation
for “Beautiful Wife”). Together they covered the New York showbusiness
scene every night, hobnobbing with all those larger-than-life
personalities I was trying to emulate.
Not only was Dad a hard-working newspaper journalist, he authored
books, hosted
a late-night
NBC television show,
and his radio show,
wrote for TV Guide,
and appeared in many
Hollywood movies. Some
say Dad was famous for
interviewing the famous:
apparently, he was the
first to interview Marilyn
Monroe and he broke the
story of MM’s connection to JFK and his brother Bobby.
The author and his dad
It seemed like my dad knew everyone, from Groucho Marx to Lucille
Ball. (In a 1956 TV episode of “I Love Lucy” called “The Fox Hunt,”
Lucy and Ricky are visiting in London when she attempts to impress
royalty after being introduced to a baron. She casually mentions she
knows “the Earl of Wilson,” serving as a nod from Lucille Ball and Desi
Arnaz to their newspaper friend.)
Starting with the next issue, take a trip with me down memory lane
to a magical and enchanting era - universally treasured memories that
were archived by my dad, Earl Wilson, and me.
Earl “Slugger” Wilson, Jr., son of Earl Wilson — archivist, author,
playwright, raconteur, song stylist and Grammy-nominated
composer/lyricist singing his truth. Truth needs to be sung.
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