Obit: Les Crane, Talk-Show Host, at 74

[CrankyYankee]

[EDIT]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/arts/television/15crane.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin


[EDIT-post truncated because originating material is copyrighted.]

 

[bpatrick]

ABC was trying to do something different in late-night when
they hired Crane to go against Carson. Actually, he would have
been more at home in today's daytime talk-show world.

He also had a hit record, "Desiderata," in the early '70s, and I
think he did some software designing as well.

And wasn't he married to Tina Louise at one time?

 

[LKellerIII]

There's some additional information on Crane on the San Francisco radio board. He was a Top 40 DJ and Program Director there in the early 60s on KYA. Worth noting is his excellent late night talk show on KTTV-11 for a couple of years in the late 60s - probably syndicated.

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,104222.0.html

 

[Corky Marlowe]

He also had a hit record, "Desiderata," in the early '70s
Embarrassing Revelation Of The Day: I think I had that record. Not the single. The entire album. It was all spoken recitations, and he had a really deep smoker's voice, kind of like a non-New York accented Larry King.

"You are a child of the universe...No less than the trees and the stars, you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should." Pretentious much? (Must have made an impression, because I still remember it.)

 

[LKellerIII]

Crane was interviewed a few years ago, and said that hearing Desiderata many years later made him gag.

Here's a link to the satirical take-off, called Deteriorata:


http://www.mendosa.com/fluke.html

 

[NeilRattigan]

Crane won a spoken word grammy for Desiderata.

At least ABC tried to compete with Johnny Carson in the mid 60s.

When Crane's audience had a question or a comment, he would hold a shotgun microphone that looked like a real shotgun!