Letter to the Messenger

on February 2, 2017

Submitted by Helen Roser

Now it can be told. Instead of a respectable government para-legal, I should have been an entertainer. The ham in me adored the thunderous applause.

It was in the days when CBS Television had its first three-camera show. It was taped and would circulate for two years. Very big deal.

I was invited to be a jury member on the new show called “Face the Facts”, about trials. The director told us: “This is for entertainment, not a legal education. Let them enjoy it.” He meant our studio audience as well as the television watchers.

One trial was about a truly dumb housewife who blew up her kitchen by using her new gas stove which the installer had told her was not ready for use yet.

When it was my turn to give my verdict and reason, I supported the wife. “She was just trying to prepare a nice meal for her hardworking husband”, I said piously. There were shrieks of delight from the studio audience (who apparently were mostly women) and wild applause.

I resisted smiling as I thought of men watchers who probably were saying to each other: “Isn’t that just like a woman?”

Eventually, I learned that, better than applause, is an audience  who are nearly falling out of their seats laughing. I should a been a comedian.

 

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On I Shoulda Been an Entertainer