Cubed

Know these women up here? Really? You don't?

Well let me get back to that in a minute.

I'd say most people cherish those pictorial moments when they've been captured with a star athlete, a President, a movie star. Not Me.

Here's the picture going up on my mantle. I'd rather be captured as friend of those behind the scenes, the ones that MAKE IT HAPPEN. In this case, THE PRODUCERS.

Wasn't it General Douglas Mac Arthur, who said to congress as he was being booted out of military, " Old producers never die, they just produce something else?"

Okay, it wasn't producers, (rather soldiers) but it also wasn't Mac Arthur who coined the sentence.  And I don't see him out there "fessin' up." I think my artful editing is less of a crime than his lack of attribution.

But, ah, I'm getting off message.

I heard Harry Smith on the CBS morning show proclaim this to be the 40th anniversary of the work cubicle.  Ironic, since that's where I found the two women you see up there.  They were hard at work in their cubicles at High Noon Productions.

The woman on my left? Glenna Stacer-Sayles.  On my right? Muffy Steinhoff. They are both PRODUCERS in case my foreshadowing fell short of the target.

I worked with both of them in news back in the 80's and 90's. I knew Glenna when she was just Stacer, and Muffy Steinhoff was nee Shumway.  (I'm not kiddin when I say they haven't aged a bit, certainly not in my perception.) 

This picture is a second TAKE. Just like a producer, Muffy demands a reTAKE because she blinked.

So what are they producing now? That's why I think it's interesting for YOU to see them.

I'll bet a huge percentage of you reading this have seen their work. Food channel freaks?  Ever watched "Unwrapped"? Well that's Glenna's nut to crack. Cool Tools on HGTV? That's Muffy's fault.

We had a wonderful time picking our way through the past.  Isn't it amazing how much hyperbole accompanies reminiscence?  We jammed a lot of stories into an hour together.

That's kind of it for now.  I just wanted to let you see what a producer looks like.  You'll never see their faces on billboards or cabs. That's even though they are a lot better looking than Zero Mostel.

Oh, wait.  I'll bet you'd like to see that first take where Muffy blinks.

 

She is going to slay me. It is ...kind of like when a reporter wants another ten seconds for his or her story?

Oh, some day let me show you the picture of me with my arm around "Flo Jo," and then there's that shot of me by Air Force One where I'm shouting at Nancy Reagan, "Why do you always wear Red?"

OKAY, that's it.