Goodby On Riney
March 31, 2008
Jeff Goodby has put fingers to keypad and penned an obit for the departed Hal Riney for AdAge.
“Riney loved characters, individuals, people who thought for themselves. I’m not so sure he loved mankind all that much in the larger sense. He was famously grumpy and irascible. But to get inside his friendship was to be in one of the most predictable places imaginable. He was able to capture optimism about this country that bordered on sentimental. In this place were all too many dogs and pickup trucks and distant harmonicas on the wind. It was an unrealistically nostalgic portrait, but I’m convinced that Hal believed this optimistic readiness was still inside each of us somewhere, even today. It was something that, as an American, you wanted to believe in so badly it ached.”
It’s really quite lovely.
“Someone asked me yesterday how Rich and I feel about having him gone, and I thought of John McEnroe saying that when Björn Borg retired from tennis, the game wasn’t fun anymore. Not that we’re John McEnroe; we’re more like Ray Spencer, the third man on my high-school tennis team who could surprise you now and then. But Riney was certainly the Borg of his time, whacking those hard topspin things at you mercilessly. Just try coming to the net.
I miss it already. And it’ll only get worse.”
March 31, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Jeff Goddby is a class act.
March 31, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Agreed.
March 31, 2008 at 2:53 pm
It is the mark of good eulogists to engender in the audience a greater respect for themselves than the departed even if unintentional.
When great eulogists move on (George Jessel, William F. Buckley Jr., Brutus), their loss is magnified since they aren’t around to speak on their own behalf, excepting perhaps Lou Gehrig who anticipated his demise so movingly that he did it better than Gary Cooper.
WFAN, a while back, had a discussion about sports Mt. Rushmore figures, i.e., four for each major sport who would be on a Rushmore for their sport. Example: boxing: Ali, Dempsey, Louis…and a debate about the fourth. Someone asked me about an advertising Rushmore and I figured, well, Bernbach, Ogilvy, J Walter Thompson…and the fourth was debatable. But a lot of votes came in Riney.
March 31, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Touchet JG. Hal Riney a true classic
March 31, 2008 at 4:49 pm
A relic from the days when craft was paramount over distribution channel.
March 31, 2008 at 5:19 pm
It will (and is) only getting worse.
Finally a guy at the top not spouting fake, bullshit optimism.
April 1, 2008 at 1:11 am
I have always favored fake, bullshit pessimism. It is so sincerely optimistic.