(Note: This book review is part two of two installments. I told you I would have this up by the weekend. With MacBook Pro, Anything is Possible:-)
(Special Update: Many thanks to my friend Nelson Davis for editing this re-published 2nd installment: not only are you a great editor Nelson, but you wear groovy hats as well :-)
Sadly, Reid
and Dreesen were wrong, eventually becoming disillusioned by the reluctance of
booking agents, club owners and media outlets to hire them; their frustrations,
economically and personally, began to mount.
It was as if a prophecy, made by the eminent Marvin Junior of the
singing group The Mighty, Mighty Dells, had eventually come true.
“It’s a game they play called Divide and Conquer,” Marvin Jr. told them. The Dells had supported and befriended Reid and Dreesen in the early 70’s, when Tim and Tom were The Dells’ opening act at the 20 Grand Club in Detroit.
True enough,
the cumulative effects of financial hardships, broken marriages and the
reluctance of an American entertainment industry to understand and assimilate
the value of their act, caused Reid and Dreesen to part ways. Ironically, it
also made them become better artists; working individually, they were forced to
identify their hindrances to progress, set clearer goals and determine their
value as artists.
Rapoport’s
fast-paced style as a sports journalist allows the reader to visualize Reid and
Dreesen’s career arcs as a process of self-development. He seamlessly weaves Reid and Dreesen’s
stories into multiple levels and layers of narrative.
The first
layer should be required reading by would-be artists as a textbook on “How to
Survive In Show Business Without Losing Your Mind.” Reid and Dreesen cultivated mental toughness
and thick skin to afford the price of success in Hollywood
On this level
we experience what it means to be “less-than-a-dollar-a-day” homeless in Hollywood
Yet, we also
see the value of being prepared, as Dreesen and Reid make the most of each and
every miniscule opportunity: Dreesen stepping in at the last minute to replace
Bill Cosby on Sammy Davis Jr.’s television program; Reid regaining his
self-confidence by honing his skills as a standup comic in topless bars, while
maintaining a vow of celibacy.
The book’s
second narrative layer should be studied by interculturalists as original
source documentation describing the fundamental value of leveraging diversity
to eradicate racism, developing cultural humility and profiting from identity
development.
As a culture
worker, Reid demonstrates how frankness often trumps cross-cultural
misunderstanding when describing the behind-the-scenes impact his introduction
of a Carl Carlton song, “Bad Mamma Jamma,” forced him to translate word
pictures-as-foreign language to network executives of the WKRP television
series who, in their ignorance, interpreted the song title as obscene. Dreesen similarly demonstrates how to
overcome status anxiety by utilizing poverty culture insight as he describes in
detail the level of intimacy he cultivated with his mentors, Sammy Davis Jr.
and Frank Sinatra. In spite of their
status differences, they practiced deep honesty and respect for one another,
onstage and off.
If all art is
political, Reid and Dreesen’s examples reveal that all artists pay a heavy
price to produce products in sociopolitical climates when political will is
scant, but that investments in relationships, while remaining flexible, can
empower artists during difficult economic and political times. This is significant in a third narrative
layer, for we are reminded how much America’s entertainment industry resembles
gangster boogie: after all these years, we finally learn the true reason Reid’s
Emmy Award-winning, critically acclaimed CBS television series, “Frank’s Place,”
was cancelled (from the voice of the late CBS news anchor/godfather Walter
Cronkite no less). Yet we find it is
because of such setbacks, Reid’s career blossomed as an actor, director,
producer and owner of his own independent film studio, winning him recognition
and respect in the global film industry.
Similarly, Dreesen speaks from the heart of a lion, breaking down the
history of the casino industry and its impact on the entertainment industry: as
the national market expanded to absorb places like Atlantic City,
The red thread
Rapoport uses to hold all these narrative layers together is side-splitting
humor— the incident when Tim and Tom decide to hire a songwriter to write them
a theme song is worth the price of the book alone. Moreover, their entire story reads like a
“who’s who” of the past four decades of American show business, considering the
diversity of cultural icons with whom they have collaborated: Carl Reiner,
Johnny Carson, Don Cornelius, Merv Griffin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr.,
Stevie Wonder, The Mighty Dells, Hugh Hefner, Della Reese, George Clinton,
Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Dianne Carrroll, Dionne Warwick, Smokey Robinson,
David Letterman, Richard Pryor, Jay Leno and countless others.
One can easily imagine that if Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr. teamed up to make a feature film based on Tim and Tom’s true story, they would break the box office open. In the meantime, we are fortunate to have this book to savor. It is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the intricacies of entertainment culture and significantly, how genuine pioneering work tastes, sounds, looks and feels.
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