Thursday, January 15, 2009

R.I.P. Khanservative   [Jack Fowler]

Many moons ago, opening the mail at NR, there in my hands was an order for a book from one Ricardo Montalban of California. Could it be? Mr. Corinthian leather — a subscriber?! Let's find out. Ed Capano, then the Publisher, wrote the customer, and indeed it was that Ricardo Montalban. He called. When you get a live one at NR, you yank the hook, and the conversation eventually got around to: "So Ricardo, would you do a National Review subscription commercial?" He hemmed a little and hawed a little — at 70-something, getting work in Hollywood was hard enough. He begged off, but promised to come visit us the next time he was in New York. Adios and click. Five minutes later, there's a call for Ed. It is Montalban, chastising himself — something along the lines of "What am I, a man or a mouse?!" and saying of course, he will do the NR commercial. But it wasn't to be (we believed him about how doing such might boomerang with bookings, so we didn't press the matter further). A few months later he was in NYC, and he did come to lunch (with his stunning wife, Georgiana, Loretta Young's sister) and regaled us with stories (interesting tidbits such as über-Catholic Christopher Hewett, a.k.a. "Mr. Belvedere" and "Roger DeBris" from The Producers, handing out Miraculous Medals on the set of Fantasy Island). Ricardo Montalban was an absolutely delightful man. We met him again in L.A. when he came to a National Review Institute dinner (where, nobly perturbed, he stood up and hushed the chattering crowd because Bill Bennett was speaking. Just the hint of the wrath of Khan was enough to bring instant silence).

We hope to meet him again. R.I.P. friend and subscriber and financial support of Bill Buckley's brassy fortnightly.

And, by the way, Khan aside, his best film was Battleground.

01/15 01:59 PMShare