Farewell Book of the Day: Laughing With Garry Marshall

Garry Kent Marshall (1934-1981)

Author, actor, director

Today Garry Marshall is cracking ‘em up in Heaven. “Lemme tell you about my last joke,” he says. “I’m lying there in the hospital, stroked out, pneumonia, and I hear the head nurse whispering to another one to turn off the TV.

“'Scott Baio’s gonna be in the Republican Convention tonight,” she says. “Chachi picking presidents? If Mr Marshall hears that, it’ll kill him.'”

“And here I am!”

That was Garry Marshall, who died last night. An Italian kid from The Bronx (his dad changed his named from Moscarelli) who seemed quintessentially Jewish (but was raised a Presbyterian, with a side dip into Lutheranism, to make his mother happy), he was a born joke writer, cranking them out for Jack Paar and Joey Bishop.

Then he segued into sitcom writing: Dick Van Dyke, Danny Thomas and The Lucy Show used his gags.

He went into TV production and struck gold: The Odd Couple, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mork & Mindy. Having run the table, he went into directing movies: Beaches, Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries franchise, The flamingo Kid, Nothing in Common, Dear God, Runaway Bride, and the tragicomic Dan Aykroyd/Rosie O’Donnell S&M romance, Exit to Eden, were among his credits.

He mostly played character parts as an actor, but made them memorable: the baseball team owner in A League of The Own; the bemused network chief in Soapdish; the conflicted father in Twilight of the Golds.

He had a good life, and deserve to be remembered with joy and years of reruns.

Henry Bemis Books remembers Garry Marshall in another hat: author (you can see him wearing it, on the cover! [rimshot]).

Garry Marshall, Wake Me When It’s Funny: How to Break Into Show Business And Stay There (Adams Publishing, 1995, 1st ed., 1st printing). ISBN 1-55850-526-1. Actor, writer, and director, Marshall created 14 hit TV shows and directed major movies over a 35-year career he revisits in this memoir written with his daughter, Lori. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, good condition, extensive underlining by previous owner (but at least the lines are straight). Autographed by both authors. HBB price: $20.

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