CONVERSATIONALIST: One who converses a great deal or who excels in conversation.
Before the world-wide success of Oprah Winfrey and
the over-saturated television and radio market of seem- ingly endless varieties on the talk show format, Dick Cavett was putting his individual stamp on creating a format for memorable success with The Dick Cavett Show. His intellect, style and respect for his guests shined through in creating an up-close and far more personal glimpse of the art of conversation with each entertainer or noted personality. Cavett’s fascination and interest in movie stars goes
ett
back to his childhood. “Oh god, I suppose about the time when I realized there were film stars. It was a little after the time when I was a kid, I thought that what was happening on the movie screen on a Saturday afternoon was actu- ally happening behind the screen and they were lighting it someway, so that it came through.” Little did he know at the time, that in his lifetime, he
would have the opportunity to sit across from and speak with the cinema luminaries who lit up the screen before him at the movies when he was a kid. The Dick Cavett Show presented just this very format of conversation with not only stars…but musical artists, authors and politicians from 1968 through 1974. During those successful years on ABC television, Cavett was the critics’ darling and con- sidered the “thinking man’s talk show host.” When asked about this moniker describing him, Cavett responds, “The thinking man…well, some people would question what a thinking man would be doing watching any television, but I think that attitude is sort of passé by now. I don’t know. I know you don’t want to be labeled an intellectual because that sounds pretty boring. I think I got that by not
knowing any better than reading the guest’s books all the way through…until I realized you don’t have to do that exactly. I mean, a 400-page book and then your guest is there for eight minutes out of three other guests and you think, ‘Why ruin my whole weekend sometimes reading an interesting book?’” Rather than elaborate on the numerous legends of the
silver screen with whom Cavett has had the pleasure of speaking…which film star or current crop of stars would he enjoy talking with today if given the opportunity? “Meryl Streep. But if you mean the young ones…the ones who appear on the magazines…I don’t know who the hell they are. This is not to say that there aren’t a lot of really good actors but who are the counterparts of the ones on my Hollywood Greats DVD box? Hepburn, Davis, Mitchum, Groucho, Brando, Lucille Ball…all those people, my god... Fred Astaire. It seems like there were redwoods then and there may be slightly smaller trees now (laughter).” Agreeing whole-heartedly, the discussion turned to the use of the words “icon” or “iconic.” These days, the word seems to be attached to anyone remotely reaching a pin- nacle of success. When the words are brought up, Cavett says teasingly about overusing the words, “Yes. Just now by you…twice. Yeah, but you know, for decades, show business and the world got on without the word ‘icon.’ Is there ever a way of tracing where it started? Is there a computer capable of saying where ‘icon’ was first used in a broadly disseminated moment on something? The word sounds like a Russian holy painting or something.” With as many guests in the field of popular culture who Cavett has interviewed, was there ever a bad apple in
APRIL 2011 | RAGE monthly 39
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