Mark Simone and Dan Rather were just a few of the big names on hand two weeks ago at Le Cirque in Manhattan to help Bill O’Shaughnessy launch his fourth book VOX POPULI: The O’Shaughnessy Files.
Talk of the Sound was provided a copy of the remarks courtesy of Mr. O’Shaughnessy.
Introduction/Mark Simone:
Good evening. Welcome to Le Cirque … and this is a good evening! We have a beautiful night here and a great gathering … and a lot of amazing people here at this impressive event to honor William O’Shaughnessy and his new book. It’s a star-studded crowd, to be sure. I see many stars – and several studs – right over here! Just looking around the room, some of the people I’ve met here tonight: Gay Talese … Cindy Adams … I have to be honest, I’m the only here I’ve never heard of! Truly, it is a great crowd tonight! Wow!
We’re all here in honor of Bill O’Shaughnessy. This is the long-awaited fourth book. The first three were huge best-sellers. And I can’t wait to read this fourth one. A lot of people have asked me how I know O’Shaughnessy. He is an amazing figure in New York City. He knows everybody. His book is about New York … and all the legendary figures in our town. He has become one himself.
A lot of people want to say a few words … one in particular … let’s welcome another New York legend … Dan Rather. He has been written about by O’Shaughnessy … an iconic figure in television news, as we all know. And I thought it would be entirely appropriate for him to say a few words about the amazing Bill O’Shaughnessy and just what he means to all of us. Please welcome Dan Rather … one of the great figures in journalism and television. A living legend himself … it’s a great honor to have him here tonight …
Dan Rather:
Good evening everyone. Let’s make no mistake: this party is for Bill. We’re here to promote the book. If you haven’t bought a copy … if you haven’t bought five copies … Bill would never tell you this: that would be very much appreciated! Don’t forget, the party is about the book. But more than that … it’s about our mutual friend, Bill O’Shaughnessy.
And if it weren’t for Bill, and perhaps only a very few others – but primarily for Bill – an itinerant crowd might think that Americans were dying out. That is … those studying hard, working hard, playing hard … those who have integrity, loyalty, and a sense of humor about themselves.
And there was a time in this country when it was filled with such people … people whose necks would swell and forearms would get larger if you tried to tell them where to line up or what to think.
But on the other hand they, these Americans, had great tolerance for other people. And in those days … it was not so long ago … that conservationists and conservatives were considered to be people who stuck by the Constitution no matter what the cost. And liberals or progressives were those who believed in the Bill of Rights no matter who was against it.
If you think about it … it hasn’t been that long ago that our country possessed such people. And so we’re really lucky to have one of the last of that kind of American … the great O’Shaughnessy. Bill, congratulations on the book …
Maria Cuomo Cole:
Bill O’Shaughnessy has been special to all of us in the Cuomo family for a long, long time. My father is sorry he’s not here for Bill and to greet all of you. Daddy asked me to share his thoughts about “Brother Bill” …
Governor Mario Cuomo:
By telling us a lot about others, as he has in his interesting and well-written new book “Vox Populi,” Bill actually tells us about himself too.
I remember a line from the preface of C. S. Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters,” in which Lewis was describing the subtleties of the Devil’s mind and how evil comes at you in a lot of simple and familiar ways and has Screwtape saying at one point… “What Hell wants is a man to finish his life having to say ‘I now see that I spent most of my life not doing either what was right or what I enjoyed.’”
For the quarter of a century I have known him, Bill has spent most of his time doing things he ought to have been doing ― and enjoying it.
Blessed with the great Gaelic gift of words, a sharp mind, deep conviction and the capacity for powerful advocacy, Bill has been able to inspire the fainthearted, guide the eager and charm almost everyone he’s met.
As he has proven again with his new book, he’s a gifted writer of essays and books, of simple truths and powerful political arguments, especially in support of his favorite cause… free speech and a free press.
He is also an elegant, entertaining and, occasionally spellbinding speaker.
And most of all ― and I suspect this is what has won him so many friends ― he has a good heart.
I have read it in his writings, I have heard it in his speeches and seen it manifest in his many acts of philanthropy.
And I have been moved by it in a thousand conversations. He’s interested in a lot of things, but he’s interested more in people than things… not just the dazzling people, not just the scintillating celebrities and the movers and the shakers.
Ask him about his trip to Italy and he’ll tell you about a barber he met before he mentions the great cathedrals.
Ask him about his trips to Lyford Cay or Sun Valley and he’ll talk about the fabulous black woman he heard deliver a sermon that moved him to tears, or the kids he met on the slopes whose bright minds amazed him.
And always, if you push the discussion with him, you’ll find out that not far from the surface he’s driven by a profound impulse to use his own great gift of life, to find more fairness, justice and, yes… ― “sweetness” ― in the world… or perhaps even to create some himself, if he hasn’t found enough.
# # #
So I toast you, Bill:
Thank you for all you’ve meant to me, Matilda, my family, and everyone here… and all those you’ve touched but couldn’t be here.
In the words of Teilhard,
“May you keep going forward, doing what you do and loving it. Believing ever more firmly.”
“And may the Lord keep alive within you a great delight in the world and a great gentleness.”
“May He help you to be, to the very end, fully and passionately human.”
Congratulations Bill on your most recent success.
William O’Shaughnessy:
I was wondering … all day …what it is I could say to you in the few moments of your lives given to my keeping.
First of all: thanks to Mark Simone, whom I have admired since his days at WNEW-AM of sainted memory.
And the great Rather … an iconic figure in our tribe and a graceful, generous man.
And what can I say about the luminous Maria Cuomo Cole for bringing those stunningly beautiful – and totally undeserved – remarks from the great philosopher-statesman of the American nation … and the individual I most admire in public life. I thank Mario Cuomo for those remarks … and for his spectacular daughter who delivered them.
# # #
Thank you for your gift of your presence and, for many, actually most here assembled, for your relentless and unyielding friendship of so many years.
I won’t intrude for very long on your evening (you know you’re in trouble when you hear that!)
Many of you have been through a lot with me and mine … especially in the past year.
And so you know … there has been some sadness … things we couldn’t fix … that I couldn’t make right.
But there also have been, with it all, some wonderful moments, even some sweet moments during the recent chapters of my already long life.
The book which you have come to launch and celebrate on this winter’s night is born as we also mark our 50th year in broadcasting … and the 50th anniversary of WVOX.
During my time at the People’s business … as the permittee of our powerhouse with a blazing 500 watts of power … WVOX (after whom the new book is named) has been blessed by the confidence and encouragement of some marvelous individuals. They’re right around you … as they have been around me … enveloping us with their love and generosity.
Many/most of us in this glorious saloon tonight make our living with words (in my case, awkwardly, inarticulately and imprecisely). First of all … I’m in big trouble: standing before Ken Auletta, Sidney Offit, Lisa Foderaro, Phil Reisman, Gay Talese, Barbara Taylor Bradford, my shy, retiring neighbor Mrs. Adams, Reid Pillifant, Phil Mushnick … Real Writers!
As a young man I was powerfully inspired by Jimmy Cannon … Gay Talese …Pete Hamill … Jimmy Breslin … Bill Saroyan … Wilfred Sheed … Whitney Balliett … and, always, by the writings and pronouncements of a failed baseball player … Mario Cu-ohmo. (I am not worthy to loose the strap on their sandals. And certainly not of Mario’s who I have written about in this book and whom I so admire.)
It doesn’t come easy to me – this writing business – as the Fordham editors will confirm. I’ll never write anything like Jimmy Cannon did when, late in his career, Ray Robinson was getting the hell pummeled out of him by a third rate club fighter and Cannon wrote this stunning line: “Nijinsky is dancing in the hallways of Times Square to the sound of a kazoo …” If only I could write just one line like that …!
And, in my very best moment, sitting over, caressing a yellow legal pad, I’ll never be capable of an opening like Breslin conjured up when Churchill was near his last moments: “The pigeons were on the statue of Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square, while a few blocks away at Number 10 Downing Street, Sir Winston Spencer Churchill lay dying. He was a man of beef and brandy and cigars and the last great statue of the English Language.” And who can ever write (or dress!) like Talese … when he wrote about the Great DiMaggio or “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” for Esquire. He’s got a new piece about a Russian diva in this week’s New Yorker. And a book of his sports writing “The Silent Season of a Hero” just came out.
(You can see many of these real writers’ current books right out there on the table across from the bar … Ken’s take on Google … Barbara’s new novel … the latest from Sidney Offit … and Jane Bryant Quinn).
## #
Bob Minzesheimer, the USA Today book chief said re: my first book … “Some pretty good stuff in there … but it’s a N.Y. book.” He declined to review it. Well, I wear that as a Badge of Honor! Thank you, sir!
But Fordham University Press said: Bring it on, baby!
As with all the others: Book IV even has an Index. Toots Shor once told me: “With our kind of friends … you gotta have an index … so they don’t have to read the rest of the stuff once they find their name!”
So you can actually pick around in this one. Dr. Kissinger once famously accused our stuff of being “like potato chips.” You can pick and choose … and nibble around.
My own personal favorite parts were all written by others. You’ll find stunning wisdom from Mario Cuomo and his reflections on a life well-lived for the 92nd Street Y.
And there are pieces we’ve done in sadness and in sorrow about the departures of Tim Russert – who I still miss every day – that found favor with his wife Maureen Orth and his son Luke … Wellington Mara (Mr. Mara) … Bob Merrill … Paul Curran … Harry Belafonte’s gorgeous eulogy for Ossie Davis … Jimmy Breslin and Mario Cuomo’s tributes to Jack Newfield … and about a 22 year-old young man many of you knew …
# # #
I’ve been called a First Amendment “voluptuary.” I like that appellation. So does Frank DiGiacomo. But in our revulsion and contempt for government intrusion, I have shamelessly plagiarized from Erwin Krasnow, Patrick Maines, Harry Jessell, John Eggerton, Ward Quaal, Floyd Abrams, Ogden Reid (Ambassador Reid graces this occasion with his presence) and Mr. Cuomo himself.
Finally, in my previous books I’ve written of some memorable and vivid “Only in New York” figures: Nelson (you have to ask!) … Toots Shor … Cardinal O’Connor … Malcolm Wilson … Jack Javits … Pat Moynihan … and John Lindsay.
I’m pleased to note that some other past and present icons whose genius knows no season have joined us tonight: Mrs. Marian Javits … Robert Royal Douglass … Senator Roy Goodman … Mayor David Dinkins … Sy Preston … Joe Franklin … George & Mariana Kaufman … Costas Kondylis, the great architect … Jim Cunningham, who knows New York State like no other … Dennis and Karen Mehiel … and Francine Lefrak & Rick Friedberg … Bill Mulrow … … Kevin Barry McGrath, Esq. … Bob Zimmerman.
# # #
Permit me only a few words about Fordham University Press, whose international reputation for scholarship I hope I’ve not damaged with my four anthologies. The elders of this great Jesuit University Press in the City of New York are all here: Fred Nachbauer, director … Eric Newman, managing editor … Kate O’Brien … Loomis Mayer … Margaret Newman & Marie Hall … Katie Sweeney … Professor Helen Tartar … and Anthony Chiffolo – formerly of the Press. You can read what I really think of them in the Acknowledgements section!
Director Nachbauer overheard someone say they can’t wait for a fifth book. And he started to jump out the damn window!
Anyway … it’s our first book since 2004. As many of you know, we’ve been a little “distracted.”
Happy Rockefeller once sent me a sweet note. “Good friends rally round when life turns sad and difficult …”
And in the last few years great souls have come rushing back into my life … some I haven’t had time for in the last 10 years … Karen and Jeff Bernbach … Barbara and Joseph Migliucci … and always and, in every season, Cindy Hall Gallagher … Joe Spinelli … my own Matthew, David and Kate and my grandchildren to whom this book is dedicated … the Plunketts, Bill and Caryl … and of course Matilda and Mario … Anita Oken … Gregorio Alvarez … and Andrew, Maria (who spoke so beautifully for her father) and Kenneth … my oldest friends Joe Reilly and John Kelly … Fr. Kevin Mackin (a three Hail Mary’s for a homicide priest! … the misguided Franciscan who gave me an honorary degree) … the brilliant and benevolent Alan Rosenberg … Joseph Montebello & Ron Leal and all my Litchfield neighbors … Renate & Thomas McKnight … Kate & John Fahey … Charlie Gill … Mike Fasano … Brian McCormick … Tara and Arthur Diedrick … Judge Annie … a great guy, a reliable friend Ray Oniglia and his Ellen who hears the same music … and my Manhattan pal generous Robert Blau. (Please – all of you – tell James and Charlie the food was good and we served top shelf booze!)
Speaking of which, Spinelli just called. He’s backed up at O’Hare in Chicago. I once inquired of Mr. Shor, the estimable saloon keeper, who is the toughest guy he ever met. (I figure he’s not going to tell me Jackie Gleason!) Toots said: “You mean if I were trapped in an alley … or they were coming up the backstairs …?” I said, Yeh … something like that.” He thought for a few seconds “In that particular situation … I would take Shipwreck Kelly with his fists (who I’ve written about in an earlier book) … or Sinatra … with a broken beer bottle in one hand.” I would take any one of you here assembled. (If Joe Spinelli were not available!)
I’m glad to see George Fletcher, the chief of the New York Public Library who presides over 8 million volumes. (George … I’m wondering … do you think you could find a … little … room … for just one more?)
# # #
I also see some of New York’s greatest doctors who have helped me confront the diminishments we all suffer. Rich Pisano … Marc Eisenberg … Fritz Ehlert who stopped my heart and started it up just last week just like that … Steven Butensky (and his dazzling Di – mother of Max) … and the estimable David Breindel. There are a few others not here: Paul Pellicci, Ken Porter and Bernard Kruger. (And like Cindy Adams, I’m keeping a list of everyone who’s here … and everyone who’s not!)
While I’m at it … I want you to meet a woman I so admire: Michele Silva, Esq., a brilliant writer and speaker and advisor … a saintly woman in a “murky” profession. She’s a matrimonial lawyer! One of the best in the business.
# # #
Also my colleagues in the public press: Peter Applebome of the New York Times … Janine Rose & Kevin McCabe of Cablevision … Lisa Foderaro, New York Times … Frank DiGiacomo, the “Gatecrasher” feature columnist … Mrs. Cindy Adams, my neighbor … Phil Reisman of Gannett … David Patrick Columbia, the social arbiter … Don Pollard … Wendy Moger Bross … Phil Mushnick … Michael Dandry … Ralph Martinelli of Westchester, 914, Inc., Hudson Valley … Joan Jedell … Julian Niccolini, of the Observer … and my old friend from the Post: Ken Chandler who is now guiding Newsmax.
We even have two of the best criminal lawyers: Barry Slotnick and Murray Richman. Just in case …!
From my favorite Watering Holes are the great Ringmaster Sirio himself and Dino Arpaia & Niccolini of the estimable Four Seasons.
Finally, thanks to the Music Makers: Daryl Sherman … Bob Hardwick (elder of Dutch Treat) … and Jill McCarron who played for us tonight.
# # #
All of you have been willing to weigh my many inadequacies less diligently than you assess what you’ve found commendable in my stewardship of those radio stations … and I hope your forbearance will extend to this book.
I am one fortunate Irishman …
Now, in the immortal words of Mr. Bernard Shor: “Let’s have another drink …!”
