thedrifter
04-11-07, 09:04 AM
Posted on Wed, Apr. 11, 2007
An adventure with the I-Man
BY RICHARD HYATT
When I met Imus, it was in the morning.
"Imus in the Morning" was broadcasting from the Georgia Governor's Mansion on a brisk morning in 1997. Zell Miller was governor. He was a frequent guest since, as Marines, he and Don Imus shared an unexpected kinship.
I was among the crowd, not to report but to hawk a book. My biography of Zell Miller had been in bookstores for a few days and there was a chance I would get to talk about it on the air.
My publisher just happened to have a few books with him and he slipped one to Imus who was set up on the porch, live on radio and on MSNBC.
I went under a giant tent set up on the lawn to get something warm. On TV, I saw the shaggy-haired Imus fumbling through the pages of a book.
It was mine.
"Who wrote this thing?" he asked no one in particular. As he checked to see who the author was, viewers saw the front cover.
I could hear the ringing of cash registers in bookstores across America. Then he started to mumble.
"It's some guy from Columbus, Ga.," he said. "Bet he's married to his cousin."
Cash registers went silent. I drank my coffee and kept my mouth shut. I wanted to be invisible.
That was my brush with Imus, and I remembered the insult when I heard his comment about the women's basketball team at Rutgers.
I've been acquainted with Imus since I bought a collection of his radio skits on a 33 rpm record. That dates the album and me.
My favorite was a takeoff on a faith healer trying to heal a person who couldn't sweat. His character was somewhere between Oral Roberts and Billy James Hargis, a preacher who railed against the devil and communists.
This was before jocks started to shock. Imus was blatantly outrageous, but not hateful.
Since he showed up on MSNBC, I've watched infrequently. I don't enjoy watching someone do a radio show on television.
To me, the I-Man has always been creative and topical. He could make me laugh and make me cringe. Listening to him was more like hearing guys cut up in the closing minutes of happy hour.
Imus wasn't as vile as Howard Stern, whose show includes topless women and drunken dwarfs. On Imus, you hear presidential candidates, country singers, obscure authors and a cast of unexpected guests.
His humor doesn't discriminate. It's nasty to everybody. He pushes the envelope then pushes some more.
Now he has pushed that envelope over the edge. People are picketing him and bosses are suspending him. Imus might not survive.
The morning Imus told the world I had married my cousin, we had a chance to talk face to face.
"By the way," I told him. "My cousin and I got a divorce."
Contact Richard Hyatt at 706-571-8578 or rhyatt@ledger-enquirer.com
Ellie
An adventure with the I-Man
BY RICHARD HYATT
When I met Imus, it was in the morning.
"Imus in the Morning" was broadcasting from the Georgia Governor's Mansion on a brisk morning in 1997. Zell Miller was governor. He was a frequent guest since, as Marines, he and Don Imus shared an unexpected kinship.
I was among the crowd, not to report but to hawk a book. My biography of Zell Miller had been in bookstores for a few days and there was a chance I would get to talk about it on the air.
My publisher just happened to have a few books with him and he slipped one to Imus who was set up on the porch, live on radio and on MSNBC.
I went under a giant tent set up on the lawn to get something warm. On TV, I saw the shaggy-haired Imus fumbling through the pages of a book.
It was mine.
"Who wrote this thing?" he asked no one in particular. As he checked to see who the author was, viewers saw the front cover.
I could hear the ringing of cash registers in bookstores across America. Then he started to mumble.
"It's some guy from Columbus, Ga.," he said. "Bet he's married to his cousin."
Cash registers went silent. I drank my coffee and kept my mouth shut. I wanted to be invisible.
That was my brush with Imus, and I remembered the insult when I heard his comment about the women's basketball team at Rutgers.
I've been acquainted with Imus since I bought a collection of his radio skits on a 33 rpm record. That dates the album and me.
My favorite was a takeoff on a faith healer trying to heal a person who couldn't sweat. His character was somewhere between Oral Roberts and Billy James Hargis, a preacher who railed against the devil and communists.
This was before jocks started to shock. Imus was blatantly outrageous, but not hateful.
Since he showed up on MSNBC, I've watched infrequently. I don't enjoy watching someone do a radio show on television.
To me, the I-Man has always been creative and topical. He could make me laugh and make me cringe. Listening to him was more like hearing guys cut up in the closing minutes of happy hour.
Imus wasn't as vile as Howard Stern, whose show includes topless women and drunken dwarfs. On Imus, you hear presidential candidates, country singers, obscure authors and a cast of unexpected guests.
His humor doesn't discriminate. It's nasty to everybody. He pushes the envelope then pushes some more.
Now he has pushed that envelope over the edge. People are picketing him and bosses are suspending him. Imus might not survive.
The morning Imus told the world I had married my cousin, we had a chance to talk face to face.
"By the way," I told him. "My cousin and I got a divorce."
Contact Richard Hyatt at 706-571-8578 or rhyatt@ledger-enquirer.com
Ellie