The Last Great Fight Author Joe Layden Ponders the Demise of Boxing by Ronald Sklar With the increasing fragmentation of American entertainment, there is bound to be a few old traditions that will go the way of vaudeville. One of the more unfortunate examples as of late is the sport of boxing. Once the king … Continue reading
Richard Price Living a Lush Life in Some Small Dive by Ronald Sklar Since he was a mere twenty-four, writer Richard Price has been greatly admired for his amazing ear for dialogue, his seemingly seamless writing style and his compelling urban plots. His new novel, Lush Life (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux), about worlds colliding on New York’s … Continue reading
Christopher Knight My Fair Knight by Ronald Sklar Christopher Knight may have once starred on VH1’s The Surreal Life, but his own real life was as real as reality gets, at least as real as any ex-Brady could hope to have. “My dad was an actor and a struggling one at that,” he says from his … Continue reading
Charlie Gracie What More Could You Ask? By Ronald Sklar Usually, it’s the other way around for Paul McCartney, but in this instance, it was Sir Paul who had always wanted to meet a certain musician who had influenced him in his early years. The year: 2000. Philadelphia native Charlie Gracie, the influence in question, was scheduled … Continue reading
Lesley Gore Out There on Her Own by Ronald Sklar Lesley Gore was scoring monster hits long before the age of Britney, Lindsay and Jessica. Her signature song, “It’s My Party (And I’ll Cry If I Want To)” is one for the ages, enduring longer – and remaining more recognizable and beloved – than any … Continue reading
Mike Papantonio Progressively Speaking by Ronald Sklar Say what you want about lawyers – and you probably do – you can’t accuse attorney Mike Papantonio of selling his soul to the highest bidder. In fact, the only green he cares about is environment-friendly, safe for babies and other beings who will eventually inherit the earth. … Continue reading
Thomas Hine Brings on the Funk by Ronald Sklar The seventies is the decade that gets no respect. And yet, try as we may, we can’t shake its booty. Any repeated attempt at initiating an eighties nostalgia craze is as dead as the recording industry. Even self-conscious VH1 superior-fests that wax nostalgic about the nineties … Continue reading
Barry Williams Time To Change by Ronald Sklar Think of it this way: about forty years ago, you land a job. It’s a good job and you feel lucky to get it. You like it. Everybody else likes you in it. It’s a good gig. You stay at this job for about five years, then … Continue reading
Joe Franklin The Man Who Invented Talk by Ronald Sklar Joe Franklin, from his infamously nostalgia-cluttered midtown office, claims that he hosted television’s very first talk show. In fact, he insists that it was he who developed the very idea of the eternal genre. “I was hosting a radio show called ‘Vaudeville Isn’t Dead,’” says the Bronx-born … Continue reading
Darren Daulton What He Knows by Ronald Sklar “Don’t shoot the messenger,” says legendary former Philadelphia Phillies’ catcher Darren Daulton, responding to his many, many critics of late. Daulton, being the messenger in question, has only recently begun to share his newfound knowledge of spirituality and metaphysics, of aspiring to and traveling between various planes … Continue reading
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