{"id":1446,"date":"2019-08-11T22:36:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T02:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=1446"},"modified":"2019-08-11T22:36:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T02:36:58","slug":"heedlessly-controversial-remembering-oscar-levant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2019\/08\/heedlessly-controversial-remembering-oscar-levant.html","title":{"rendered":"“Heedlessly Controversial” — Remembering Oscar Levant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Reviewing Sony Classical\u2019s invaluable new Oscar Levant tribute in the current \u201cLos Angeles Review of Books,\u201d I write: \u201cThat Levant was what he seemed was doubtless a key to his appeal. His authenticity has never appeared more exceptional: no present-day mainstream media personality \u2013 not even our President — is as heedlessly controversial as was Levant every time he opened his mouth.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also remark that Levant \u2013 who as pianist, movie star, radio and TV personality embodied an American cultural moment one lifetime ago — inhabited \u201ca public community of erudition that no longer exists.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I begin:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before \u201cHere\u2019s Johnny!\u201d, late-night TV meant the Jack Paar Show. Paar was as emotionally unbuffered as Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Conan O\u2019Brien were caustically remote; simply but knowingly, he wore his heart on his sleeve — and never more than when his guest was Oscar Levant. Paar variously called Levant \u201ca man for whom living is a sideline,\u201d \u201cmy favorite far-outpatient,\u201d and \u201cone of America\u2019s true geniuses.\u201d He also quipped: \u201cHe\u2019s as nervous as he is clever \u2013 for every pearl that comes out of his mouth, a pill goes in.\u201d He enjoined his audience to bear in mind that \u201cappearing here is good for Oscar; he looks forward to it; he enjoys an audience\u2019s warmth again. Just coming here is therapy for him.\u201d        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The object of these observations would sit slumped in a chair, his legs carelessly crossed to disclose a swath of flesh above the sock. He smoked and grimaced helplessly and continuously. His discourse consisted entirely of impromptu one-liners, delivered off-handedly with occasional eye contact. His thick features were battered and sleep-deprived. That he was self-evidently a wreck of a man equally excited Paar\u2019s interest and compassion.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levant said: \u201cYou know, the only reason I\u2019m appearing here is that there are no more beds in the mental institution.\u201d And: \u201cYou have the most responsive audience since Adolf Hitler in the good old days.\u201d Asked what he did for exercise, he replied: \u201cI stumble and then I fall into a coma.\u201d Informed that \u201cwe have a bunch of pills here you know . . . ,\u201d he interrupted impatiently: \u201cI took them, they\u2019re nothing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TO READ THE WHOLE REVIEW: <\/strong>https:\/\/lareviewofbooks.org\/article\/completely-unmasked-at-all-times-on-the-complete-piano-recordings-of-oscar-levant\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewing Sony Classical\u2019s invaluable new Oscar Levant tribute in the current \u201cLos Angeles Review of Books,\u201d I write: \u201cThat Levant was what he seemed was doubtless a key to his appeal. His authenticity has never appeared more exceptional: no present-day mainstream media personality \u2013 not even our President — is as heedlessly controversial as was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-nk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1446"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1453,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions\/1453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}