Look back at some unforgettable characters 鈥� again!
It’s the New Year. I’m pretty sure you already knew that.
Well, I think of all the years leading up to 2024 as “Old Years.”
I’ve had my share of “Old Years.”
Why, you ask? Because I’m old. And stop asking me questions!
There are times when I like to look at some of the columns I’ve written during some of those “Old Years,” to find out if they still hold up.
I wrote one column in January of 2007 that served as the perfect example of how willing I am to shamelessly name-drop when I get a chance.
Back then, I wrote about how everybody, to some degree, has had people who’ve touched them; made them think; gave them hope; or made them laugh over the years.
Morrie Berman was one of those folks for me.
Mr. Berman had been a longtime photographer for the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph and Post-Gazette.
I met and interviewed him while I was a reporter for the NBC-affiliated TV station in Phoenix – where Morrie retired.
Over several days, Berman showed me thousands of the pictures he’d taken during his career lasting from 1950 until 1975.
He pulled out stacks of pictures of labor strikes, meetings, fires, wrecks, church services, and sporting events.
He proudly showed me one of those pictures was that of Clayton Moore (television’s Lone Ranger).
He was coaxing a little girl wearing leg braces – as she dropped her crutches, so she could reach a silver bullet Moore was holding out for her.
Morrie told me she’d never walked before that happened. That she took her first steps in front of the Lone Ranger – as he was taking their picture.
Ironically, a couple of years later, I happened to interview the Lone Ranger/Clayton Moore when he was the Grand Marshall for an Arizona parade.
Sadly, because of his advancing years (he was nearly 70 years-old at the time. Which is five years younger than I am now), he had great difficulty mounting his horse. So much so, that he asked my photographer to not shoot any video of him struggling to get onto his horse.
I couldn’t help but think about that little girl he’d (supposedly) helped with his silver bullet. That there was no silver bullet that might have helped him the day of that parade.
Despite all of the many awards Berman managed to win over the years, the one picture that earned him the most acclaim was that of bloodied New York Giants quarterback Y.A. Title after he’d fallen on his knees in the endzone at Pitt Stadium in 1964.
It’s one of the most famous American sports pictures on record. In one frame, Berman had encapsulated the brutality of America’s most popular contact sport.
Legendary jazz musician Miles Davis was certainly unforgettable.
When I moved to L.A. in 1984, I went there to work as a reporter for the TV show – “Entertainment Tonight.”
On my first day doing interviews, I was assigned to interview Mr. Davis.
I nearly panicked.
He was known for exhibiting his irascible nature during interviews.
I envisioned myself crawling away from him in pain if I asked him the wrong, stupid question.
Fortunately, we got along well. He answered every question as if I’m not as stupid as I look.
In fact, his wife, Cicely Tyson, hovered nearby, and the interview went so well, they even extended an open invitation to hang out at their Malibu bungalow if I was in the area.
Edward Owens.
Not Edward A. Owens. Edward “Jack” Owens.
I first met him on Oct. 17, 1948 – the day I was born.
He was my father.
Just about everybody who knew him knew he was an unforgettable man.
His ingenuity and indefatigable energy were on full display throughout my youth.
When I first wrote about these unforgettable characters in 2007, I wrote about my father, too. He had just died in 2006. I couldn’t stop thinking about how unforgettable he’d been for me.
The most unforgettable person I’d ever known.
Al Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 50-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.