And now the great Beauty has faded and the Mighty Beast has lost his voice: for yesterday afternoon came the final performance of "Beauty & The Beast, the first of the Disney Broadway musicals that opened on April 18th, 1994. Back in those days, I was still in the talent agency business-- and that seems like so long ago. I was privleged to see it just once and for me it was simply perfect-- a joy in both story and song and a plot that Walt Disney, himself would have adored. What an amazing tribute to the composers Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman. Of course, my dreams are to write that great Broadway musical and I can only hope that God is willing to see me through that great dream. What will happen with "The Little Mermaid that opens next November in this same theatre will be hard to say now. I wish Mr. Menken and his new colaborator all the best. And great sadness because the great Tom Snyder has seccumbed to leukemia. He was seventy-one years old. I probably watched him more than any other reporter on television except perhaps for the late Jerry Dumphy.Tom started as a local radio reporter in Milwaukee, then moved to TV news, and eventually anchored local newscasts in Philadelphia and, later, Los Angeles. From 1973-82 he hosted The Tomorrow Show on NBC, following The Tonight Show on weekday mornings. It was one hour long, usually with just one guest, and Snyder asked interesting questions and offered irrelevant but amusing asides. He was always smoking on camera, so clouds of tobacco fumes floated around his head like a snazzy special effect. Once during an interview with great magician Doug Henning, the amazing Tom Snyder was chased into a restroom by a tiger that Henning had brought to the interview-- funny stuff. I was watching clips of interviews he did this morning-- that with Howard cossel, Muhamed Ali, Charles Manson and Elton John were simply amazing things to watch. Well another day of work-- onward and forward with God's grace and incredible help. I sure had a great sales day last Friday: a $5000 plus day.
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