Word: cavett
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Such moments are infrequent. On a talk show that really lives or dies on the quality of the conversation, Cavett conducts the chatter at a brisk tempo and with a sense of timing and effortless whimsy that can fracture a guest as well as an audience. Once Norman Mailer teased Cavett about Rival David Frost. When Mailer rose a moment later, a book fell from his pocket. Quipped Cavett: "You dropped your copy of Dale Carnegie." Last week, after Cavett Idol Groucho Marx had trespassed repeatedly on Truman Capote's attempts to complete a sentence, Cavett asked Groucho...
Though he now has his doubts about the meaning of it all, Cavett seems to have been destined to become the host with the mots. In Gibbon, Neb., and later in Lincoln, he was reared on words. His father Alva, who was then a high school English-lit teacher, read Shakespeare to his son when he was a toddler. By the time he was four, Dick was reciting A.A. Milne. He was also developing a remarkably resonant and deep voice, and that, coupled with the fact that he was exceedingly short (he is now a touch under...
...have a feeling," says Cavett, "that about 90% of my life has been shaped by my voice, both as an embarrassment and as an advantage. There was always the terrible incongruity of this deep voice barreling out of this little body. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was aware that it was ludicrous, that it took on an importance that wasn't really there. By the time I was in the fourth grade, I sounded exactly like my father on the phone...
...proved some physical prowess by becoming expert in gymnastics, but his real world was all make-believe. Like Johnny Carson, a transplanted Nebraskan, young Cavett took up magic. He gave shows in his basement, and by the time he was a teenager, he was pulling rubber chickens out of his hat for pleasure and a fee before P.T.A. groups. He had his own weekly radio drama show on the local station while he was still in high school. He was living his show business fantasies in the highest style available to a boy, but that was not enough...
...while, Cavett played an active role in the selection of guests for his show, but he has now given that responsibility largely to his executive producer, John Gilroy. A staff of 29 people?many of whom seem to be merely decorative, but very decorative, young women?put the show together. Gilroy meets with his staff each morning to discuss the booking of guests. In his office there is a huge display of file cards listing the guests' names; the cards are shuffled constantly to produce the best mix ("A good dinner party," says one staffer). "Talent coordinators" are then assigned...