Not even a week into the new year....
BOB EINSTEIN (1942-2019):Bob Einstein, who died on Wednesday, of cancer, at the age of seventy-six, was the king of the dummy gag. As the recurring character Super Dave Osborne, a hapless stuntman in the mold of Evel Knievel who appeared on late-night variety TV and, later, on shows of his own, Einstein had a fake version of the character walloped by a wrecking ball, flung out the passenger window of a moving car, dropped from the top of Toronto’s CN Tower, crushed by a piano, driven off a pier, knocked from the top of a speeding bus, and, among many more indignities, whacked in the crotch with a golf club.
[He] reëmerged later in life as part of Larry David’s coterie of Hollywood weirdos on “Curb Your Enthusiasm”—funny enough to run with the crowd but not famous enough to play himself. As Marty Funkhouser, an obtuse and aggrieved friend of David’s, he got to explore his Jewishness and the rage that had lived just beneath the surface of Super Dave.
Marty Funkhouser is a singular character in American comedy—earnest and petty and mean and kind and dumb—and perhaps the truest expression of Einstein’s famed wit and bitter sense of humor. But when I think of Einstein I’ll think of that Super Dave dummy being smashed, smushed, and otherwise maimed—with the laugh track screaming—yet always coming back for more.
Super Dave, in Memoriam: Bob Einstein’s Mass-Culture ParodyIan Crouch, The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/super-dave-in-memoriam-bob-einsteins-mass-culture-parodyDARYL DRAGON (1942-2019):A classically trained pianist, Dragon played keyboard for The Beach Boys from 1967 to 1972. He was given the nickname "Captain" by lead singer Mike Love due to Dragon's penchant for wearing a captain's hat onstage.
In 1971, Dragon met his future wife, Toni Tennille, when she hired him to play piano for a musical called Mother Earth. Shortly thereafter, Dragon suggested that Tennille join The Beach Boys on their next tour as an acoustic pianist. While on the tour, Dragon and Tennille soon began a romantic and musical relationship, performing in smaller venues together when not on tour with The Beach Boys.
Going by the stage name The Captain and Tennille, the duo quickly formed a following. On the strength of the song "The Way I Want to Touch You," the team scored a record deal with A&M Records in 1974. Their song "Love Will Keep Us Together" climbed to No. 1 in 1975, where it remained for four weeks. It won the Grammy for record of the year that same year.
Follow-up hits included “Do That to Me One More Time,” “Shop Around,” “I’m On My Way” and “Muskrat Love.”
Between 1975 and 1979, five of their albums hit gold or platinum.
Dragon and Tennille were married in 1975 and stayed together until they divorced in 2014. They still remained close, and Tennille was at his side when he died.
"He was a brilliant musician with many friends who loved him greatly. I was at my most creative in my life, when I was with him," Tennille told the Hollywood Reporter.
On
American Bandstand in 1975:
HERB KELLEHER (1931-2019):Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines’ affable cofounder died at the age of 87. Sadly, we lost a friend and a mentor, as did countless others.
[He was] repeatedly voted as the best CEO in the airline industry. And according to Fortune magazine, which consistently recognizes Southwest among the world's top 10 most admired companies, Fortune noted, "Kelleher was perhaps the best CEO in America." Herb has been called a pioneer, fierce competitor and innovator. All of those labels ring true, but Kelleher was more than that.
He changed the world.
Herb and the people of Southwest Airlines created the greatest success story in the history of commercial aviation. They did it with a disruptive business model and a hard-to-replicate culture that business schools tout in case studies and airlines and business all over the globe try to emulate.
For almost 30 years we’ve been asking, “What if you could build a company that is as human as the human beings in it? What if you could create a culture that inspires impassioned people to come to work fully-awake, fully-engaged, firing on all cylinders because they know they are doing epic work?"
Herb did it.
20 Reasons Why Herb Kelleher Was One Of The Most Beloved Leaders Of Our TimeKevin and Jackie Freiberg, Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinandjackiefreiberg/2019/01/04/20-reasons-why-herb-kelleher-was-one-of-the-most-beloved-leaders-of-our-time/#687e32a6b311