Don Imus Remembered

By Carol Mell, 5-09-07

With the flap over Don Imus and his unflappable mouth, I got to talking with my father-in-law, Dean Mell. Dad was the national news broadcaster for NBC at Rockefeller Plaza in New York when Imus began his career there.

“Career-wise,” Dad said of Imus, “he worked on the railroad, was a gandy dancer I think, working in the Mojave Desert in California. He was always a mouth. His fellow workers used to say, ‘with a mouth like yours you ought to be in radio.’ I don’t know if they thought he’d be good in radio or they just wanted to get rid of him.”

Imus, according to Dad, got his first radio job somewhere around Needles. The owner of that station also owned a station in Stockton where Imus was soon reassigned.

In Stockton, now in radio range of San Francisco, Imus became a favorite of the late, great columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle, Herb Caen. Imus’ name appeared regularly in Caen’s column. The recognition jump-started his career as he leapfrogged from Cincinnati and on to New York.

Dad was working for NBC when Imus showed up one floor below around 1971.

“NBC’s radio was floundering,” Dad remembered, “their morning show was not making it. They got rid of their old-timer when they got interested in Imus. They just wheeled him in and turned him loose.”

Dad’s job was to go down to Imus’ studio and do five-minute news spots on the hour.

“Should the Supreme Court permit Oral Roberts between two consenting adults?” was Imus’ first introduction to Dad’s news segment.

Dad and the half-hour news guy, Charles McChord who went on to have a career with Imus, were floored by Imus’ style and unpredictability. He was young and brash and often drunk or high or both.

“There was nothing like him on the air. We never knew if he’d show up to work. He was completely irresponsible. He usually wore overalls, sometimes an American flag shirt. I’d go back upstairs (to the news office) and I’d be laughing. That didn’t go over well with my superiors.”

In those early days with NBC, Imus satirized such characters as David Brinkley and Lyndon B. Johnson. He also had a stable of fictional characters.

“He did the Right Reverend Billy Joe Hargis,” Dad said, “a take off on a political figure at the time and a con man. Hargis was the founder of the ‘First Church of the Gooey Death and Discount House of Worship.’ He was always pitching his newest item for sale like his ‘Holy Land,’ which was a take off on Disneyland or the ‘Heaven Heart Line, so you could just pick up the phone and talk directly to ‘Him.’ He never mentioned Jesus, only ‘Him.’”

To perform “His” most magical trick yourself, Imus as Hargis, offered the “Walk on Water Kit” complete with pumps under the armpit that pushed air through hidden tubes to pontoons under your feet. Another of Imus’ characters was “Brother Love,” a stereotypical black preacher. All his sermons implied his lustful eye was on his female parishioners and his interest was on the collection plate. This character, according to Dad, showed his long-time satirization of black culture and speech.

“Imus always used jive and street talk. He told Polish, Jewish and Black jokes. He like to say he was an equal opportunity insulter. I think the flap over the Rutgers Women’s basketball team caught him unawares. That was just his normal schtick.”

Dad left New York one year after Imus arrived, going to Spokane, Washington to build an NBC affiliate radio and TV news program.

“I kept in touch through friends,” Dad said. “Imus matured. He married and kicked his habits. I could tell he was a different guy. He got more into political stuff. As an interviewer he would ask really good questions while still calling his subject names.”

Imus, Dad is sure, was unaware he’d crossed a line with his ill-fated comment about the female basketball players.

“He didn’t think much about it. He was the original shock jock,” said Dad. “That kind of talk was right up the line until that moment. His whole career he’d used elements of black culture, whatever expression was in all the music. He’d done that for years, it was second nature to him. They wanted him to skate on the thin edge all the time.”

Dad and my mother-in-law, Bonnie, believed Imus when he said he “is a good guy who did a bad thing.” They point to the millions of dollars he raises for charity. In New Mexico he maintains a cattle ranch in Ribera for children with serious illnesses. As Governor Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign was getting under way, Imus called him a “fat, sissy boy” during his morning show. Imus was angry because Richardson had not pushed $600,000 through to remodel an old school in Ribera into a community center. It was national blackmail but the school got the money soon after and Imus changed his tune on the air calling Richardson the man for President.

That’s a lot of power for one person.

“Those young women were not a good target, not fair game,” Dad said. “He knew he’d gone too far because he apologized. He would never apologize if he didn’t think he’d made a mistake. As for the advertisers, everybody knew what they were getting into when they bought Imus.”

If Dad is right that Imus used black idioms from music for years, then the fact that he called young black women “hos” means only that he is a mocking bird, mimicking the culture around him. After the song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” won an Oscar last year, should we be surprised that Imus thought such language was now accepted in the mainstream?

Dad and I agreed that we don’t need to worry about Imus. With a pending lawsuit he could end up richer than ever and no doubt he’ll be back on the air. The Rutgers Women decided to forgive him, being much bigger and better characters than Imus will ever be. I’m sure we will forgive him, too. When a performer falls from the high wire and doesn’t die, we just think all the more of him.

As for Dad, he doesn’t think Imus thinks of himself as a performer. “He was just a mouth,” he said again.

I usually sign off here with these words - You’re danged if you do and danged if you don’t so you might just as well, but I see now this rule applies to ordinary mortals only. In the case of celebrities like Imus, the rule should read something like - whatever danged thing you say or do, it’s all good publicity.

That just leaves one question, “should the Supreme Court permit Oral Roberts between two consenting adults?”