Word: gong
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Amateur Night, a blend of revival meeting and The Gong Show, the Apollo audience is the true star. A favored artist -- say, the 300-lb. gent whose falsetto carries him through an all-stops-out aria from Dreamgirls -- wins whooping applause from this Colosseum of 1,500 self-appointed Caesars. Less appreciated acts -- the Whitney Houston clones and clumsy break dancers -- are pelted with catcalls until a figure known as the Executioner darts across the stage in clown garb and chases them into the wings. Usually the performers soldier on to the end, broken but unbowing. Surely, as starmaker...
...intrusion safe only for a retiring politician. Reagan never liked the press conference, but he learned to use it. Bush most likely will go to smaller groups, more frequent encounters on subjects of the day -- precisely what panels of journalists have recommended in order to get away from Gong Show news...
...GONG SHOW. Getting booed is an unavoidable part of the campaign trail. How one responds to it, however, is crucial for the TV image. When Dukakis faced rowdy antiabortion demonstrators in suburban Chicago last week, he tried to settle them with lawyer-like reasonableness ("I respect your right to disagree . . .") but looked sweaty and abashed on the screen. Bush's reaction to boos from shipyard workers in Portland, Ore., was similar, except for the forced-folksy dropped g's ("You're exercisin' your right; I'm exercisin' mine"). Bush's performance, however, depended on the particular network vantage point...
Bush's running mate has avoided the gong for now, but Quayle's early response to questions about his military service and other matters was wobbly and defensive, like a fifth-grader trying to explain his missing arithmetic homework. When reporters accosted him at his Virginia home while he was emptying garbage, Quayle reacted with evident anger ("I'm getting a little bit indignant about one bum rap after another . . .") but sounded petulant rather than persuasive. His self-confidence has grown since then, though his overeager, puppet-like demeanor still reminds some critics of Howdy Doody...
...their satisfaction, that is precisely what front-page stories soon reported: discreet phone calls to 20 candidates, quiet background checks by Washington Lawyer Robert Kimmitt, and no public tryouts. "George Bush knows all these people well," said Campaign Manager Lee Atwater. "We don't have to run a political Gong Show." But the process may soon get bumpy; Bush tends to waffle when faced with conflicting advice because, as an aide puts it, "he hates to disappoint anybody, especially his friends." Herewith, scouting reports on the leading contenders, roughly in the order of their standings...