Between You and Me by Mike Wallace

Author:Mike Wallace [Wallace, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-07-08T14:40:52+00:00

I C O N S A N D A R T I S T S

I also reminded him about his controversial criticism of Picasso, whose works he had disdained as “artistic decadence.” He elaborated on that indictment: “What I meant to say there, that when art comes to be made out of art rather than out of the meanings that are in life, it is entering into a period of decadence. Now, from this I would say that Picasso represents, more than any artist, that peculiar state because he makes pictures out of pictures all the time.”

In the 60 Minutes profile, I noted that Benton and his wife, Rita, spent half the year on Martha’s Vineyard and the other half at their home in Kansas City. What I did not mention was that my wife and I were among their summer neighbors on the Vineyard. Before I did the story on him, Benton and I had, at best, a nodding acquaintance.

That was mainly because his family lived up-island, near Chilmark, the site of a lively art colony; our digs were in Vineyard Haven, where distinguished authors (like my friend Bill Styron) and stellar journalists (like my friend Art Buchwald) preferred to estivate.

One day in the summer of 1974, a little over a year after my piece onBentonwas broadcast, he called me to request a favor. He had beenasked to take part ina lecture series at the Methodist Church inEdgartown, the purpose of which was to raise money for the Martha’s Vineyard Arts Association. The problem was that Tom Benton had no stomach for making speeches of any kind in any forum, so he had agreed to participate only onthe conditionthat he could bring along Mike Wallace and the 60 Minutes profile to serve as props or helpmates. I readily gave my consent to that arrangement.

Evenunder those circumstances, whenthe fateful evening arrived, Tom showed up at the church with a case of the jitters. Fortunately, I had anticipated his outbreak of last-minute stage fright, and I had the perfect remedy. Fully aware of his lifelong fondness for the sauce, I had come equipped with a flask that contained his favorite

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