Word: fullers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...book's hero-villain is Herb Fuller, "America's beloved humorist," a folksy monster of a television star. Fuller is presented as a platinum-plated s.o.b., the kind of man who would not only sell his grandmother but, in the end, not deliver her. In his programs he mixes corny piety with dirty jokes, drinks raw gin from a water tumbler while broadcasting. Like an alcoholic stashing away bottles in convenient places, Fuller stashes away girls in convenient apartments. He once hired a psychologist to find out what kind of music has the most relaxing effect on women...
When the story opens, Herb Fuller has just been killed in a car crash, and studio bigwigs are arranging the funeral: "First off we thought of St. Patrick's ... an ideal place . . . They were nice about it, but they wouldn't buy. I think they were afraid of the crowds, but the clincher for them was that Herb wasn't a Catholic...
...Finally, Fuller lies in state in a TV studio ("The corpse is wearing a blue serge suit. That was a Command Decision") and a young TV hopeful named Ed Harris is assigned to write a memorial show. As Scriptwriter Harris keeps digging into the soft, rich dirt of Fuller's life, the reader will never find out more than that a heel is a heel is a heel, but he will get a behind-the-camera TV education. He will learn how to tell an executive's importance from the kind of humor with which the doorman greets...
...opinion to declare martial law. The National Guard took over. Phenix City was as dead as any 100-year-old harlot ought to be. During the next six months, a grand jury voted 741 indictments, including three for the murder of Lawyer Patterson. The accused: Chief Deputy Sheriff Albert Fuller, convicted as the triggerman, was sentenced to life in prison; County Solicitor Arch Ferrell was acquitted of complicity; Alabama's Attorney General Silas Garrett, still in office at the time of the murder, has not yet been brought to trial...
McMaster: That's a good maxim for all walks of life, a good way of running the world: freedom of individual interpretation accompanied by universal cooperation . . . This is progress: learning by past experiences and applying the knowledge toward a fuller life ... a greater tolerance for others who may arrive at their conceptions of God and truth in regions different from our own. The past is like a rear-view mirror of a car. If you drive carefully, observing safety rules, you must refer to it . . To insure [progress, we must insure] the freedom to explore, create, originate and improvise...