When Elvis died it was a big deal. Ripping of hair and gnashing of teeth and a general moaning of lose among a lot of tubby old women that were shown over and over again in the streets outside of Graceland. There was a two hour tribute show after the news went off. Tabloids devoted entire issues to The King of Rock and Roll.
Much the same thing happened with John Lennon was killed. To me the most amazing part of the story was the common knowledge that John Lennon walked back to his apartment every night around midnight and you could get an autograph by hanging around his door. Again there was a two hour special after the news and tabloids devoted to things such as the photo of his body laying on a slab at the morgue.
John Wayne also got this treatment when he died. I don’t remember there being a lot said about Sinatra, but then, I was not really much of a fan of old Blue Eyes.
Now we can flash forward to a couple of years ago, a has been comic actor-John, son of Tex Ritter great country singer-died. . .and got the superstar TV treatment. Now John Ritter was a nobody, a zip, a kind of cute guy that looked kind of gay so fit the part of Jack Tripper to a tee. It was kind of a feel good story that the old boy had a new sitcom, but really, it was not exactly The Cosby Show, if you know what I mean. So when he died there should have been the usual one line in the obits along the lines of Three’s Company Star Dies. Instead it was a circus about what a great man this no body way.
John John Kennedy was another nobody that got the Great Star Treatment when he died. He had famous parents, and I guess that was enough in his case, as he never did a damned thing on his own.
Now we have Anna Nicole Smith, who can’t technically be called a has been as she never did anything besides pose for Playboy, oh and marry a bazillionaire who promptly died. She is now getting the Great Star Treatment and it is even more baffling than John Ritter.
