It ever fails.
The moment a shocked public learns that a major celebrity met an untimely death, hundreds of adoring fans race to the book, music, and video stores in search of anything this person had accomplished in their all-too-short life.
The most recent case was when country/folk singer John Denver died Oct. 12, 1997, in a plane crash. The only memory I had of Denver was when I saw him on a TV special with the Muppets back in either the late 1970s or early 1980s. I still haven’t seen his 1977 debut movie, “Oh God”, and I had only heard two of his songs on the radio; “Sunshine” and “Rocky Mountain High.”
But last month, a television commercial promoting the late singer’s double compact disc collection of his greatest hits reminded me that I had heard more than just two lyrics over the years from “Annie’s Song” to “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.”
It was at that point (and NO I am not ashamed to admit this) that I bought one of Denver’s greatest hits on CD. A search that was meant with slight disappointment when I learned two days after the singer’s death that all his music at Best Buy and Blockbuster Music were sold out.
And it isn’t just music icons who die unexpectedly that a search for their various works becomes a nationwide manhunt. When actor Robert Mitchum died over the summer, I was one among several customers who was told by a video store clerk that the original “Cape Fear” (1962) and “Night of the Hunter” (1955) were on moratorium.
A couple days after Princess Diana died, used bookstores were cleaned out on anything that had to do with her and the royal family. All that was left on the front counter was the July 1997 issue of Vanity Fair wrapped in a sealed plastic see-through bag. The magazine, which cost $20, featured a cover story on the princess posing in a couple of expensive dresses scheduled to be auctioned off later that month at Sotheby’s in New York.
And whenever an actor, musician, or prominent figurehead dies young, it is a sure bet the tabloid TV shows and print journalists will end their televised tributes and commentaries saying how unexpected it was for the tragedies to happen to someone like Denver, who was on the verge of making a musical comeback or Princess Diana, who was beginning a new life apart from the Royal Family.
There is a painting I saw a few years ago at a custom framing store titled “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” The portrait featured 1950’s icons Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Humphrey Bogart crowded around a counter where Elvis Presley tended bar.
It didn’t take me long to figure out the painting’s message. These beloved icons were stars who had gone before their time; a portrait of promises never fulfilled. If someone were to do an updated version of the painting today, Marilyn, Jimmy, Bogie, and The King would be joined by several people whose futures were cut short.
The list is endless from politicians like John and Robert Kennedy, musicians such as John Lennon, Selena, and Stevie Ray Vaughn to actors like John Belushi and River Phoenix.
Talents who left behind motivational speeches, writings, music, films, and charitable lifesaving causes. If you can’t get your hands on such memorabilia at the time of their deaths, wait a couple weeks or a month and the merchandise will be back on the shelves.
“Night of the Hunter” and “Cape Fear” were re-released on video a month after Mitchum died. And you can’t walk into a bookstore now without seeing two shelves of magazines and books dedicated to Princess Diana.
I have no doubt a month or two from now, music stores will be well stocked with John Denver CDs again.
And if not, I’ll just have to watch for the advertisement of that greatest hits collection I saw advertised on TV fast forwarding through dozens of commercials on the VCR while watching reruns of “The Rockford Files” and “All in the Family.”
©11/5/97
The moment a shocked public learns that a major celebrity met an untimely death, hundreds of adoring fans race to the book, music, and video stores in search of anything this person had accomplished in their all-too-short life.
The most recent case was when country/folk singer John Denver died Oct. 12, 1997, in a plane crash. The only memory I had of Denver was when I saw him on a TV special with the Muppets back in either the late 1970s or early 1980s. I still haven’t seen his 1977 debut movie, “Oh God”, and I had only heard two of his songs on the radio; “Sunshine” and “Rocky Mountain High.”
But last month, a television commercial promoting the late singer’s double compact disc collection of his greatest hits reminded me that I had heard more than just two lyrics over the years from “Annie’s Song” to “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.”
It was at that point (and NO I am not ashamed to admit this) that I bought one of Denver’s greatest hits on CD. A search that was meant with slight disappointment when I learned two days after the singer’s death that all his music at Best Buy and Blockbuster Music were sold out.
And it isn’t just music icons who die unexpectedly that a search for their various works becomes a nationwide manhunt. When actor Robert Mitchum died over the summer, I was one among several customers who was told by a video store clerk that the original “Cape Fear” (1962) and “Night of the Hunter” (1955) were on moratorium.
A couple days after Princess Diana died, used bookstores were cleaned out on anything that had to do with her and the royal family. All that was left on the front counter was the July 1997 issue of Vanity Fair wrapped in a sealed plastic see-through bag. The magazine, which cost $20, featured a cover story on the princess posing in a couple of expensive dresses scheduled to be auctioned off later that month at Sotheby’s in New York.
And whenever an actor, musician, or prominent figurehead dies young, it is a sure bet the tabloid TV shows and print journalists will end their televised tributes and commentaries saying how unexpected it was for the tragedies to happen to someone like Denver, who was on the verge of making a musical comeback or Princess Diana, who was beginning a new life apart from the Royal Family.
There is a painting I saw a few years ago at a custom framing store titled “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” The portrait featured 1950’s icons Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Humphrey Bogart crowded around a counter where Elvis Presley tended bar.
It didn’t take me long to figure out the painting’s message. These beloved icons were stars who had gone before their time; a portrait of promises never fulfilled. If someone were to do an updated version of the painting today, Marilyn, Jimmy, Bogie, and The King would be joined by several people whose futures were cut short.
The list is endless from politicians like John and Robert Kennedy, musicians such as John Lennon, Selena, and Stevie Ray Vaughn to actors like John Belushi and River Phoenix.
Talents who left behind motivational speeches, writings, music, films, and charitable lifesaving causes. If you can’t get your hands on such memorabilia at the time of their deaths, wait a couple weeks or a month and the merchandise will be back on the shelves.
“Night of the Hunter” and “Cape Fear” were re-released on video a month after Mitchum died. And you can’t walk into a bookstore now without seeing two shelves of magazines and books dedicated to Princess Diana.
I have no doubt a month or two from now, music stores will be well stocked with John Denver CDs again.
And if not, I’ll just have to watch for the advertisement of that greatest hits collection I saw advertised on TV fast forwarding through dozens of commercials on the VCR while watching reruns of “The Rockford Files” and “All in the Family.”
©11/5/97
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