BY OSSIE DAVIS
October 2003

These eloquent remarks by the great American actor, playwright, and social activists are a love letter to a suburban city.

One of the things that has enabled me to survive all these years is that New Rochelle’s rich community culture was always here.  The city has its own distinct history.  It was founded early on by the Huguenots seeking to escape oppression.  It was also the home of Thomas Paine, a man who means a great deal to American history.  He gave us the name “United States” and spoke to us in the American Revolution and inspired us.  He also declared himself a citizen of the world.  He went around joining all the revolutions of the world until he made himself a little bit “unwelcome” in more than one place.  And then he came to New Rochelle to die.  He did die here.  But somebody−after he did us the honor of dying−took his bones away to England or some other place.  We don’t know, but we are searching diligently.

        New Rochelle also became a focal point of civil rights agitation in the North because a group of citizens led by attorney Paul Zuber decided to sue New Rochelle on the basis that our schools were not integrated according to the mandates handed down by the 1954 decision [Brown v. Board of Education].

        Therefore, New Rochelle became a place that was much in the public’s eye and mind.  Even before Ruby and I moved here, there were demonstrations, meetings, and civic activities to which we were invited and to which we came.  And we−Ruby and I−became interested in New Rochelle because that was the place where basic decisions about integration were going to be made, and our focus was particularly on that.

        In February of 1963 Ruby and I moved from Mount Vernon to new Rochelle.  We’ve never regretted it.  New Rochelle has always been very kind to us, although there were instances where prejudices and hatred and all of those things common to the black experience also happened to us in New Rochelle.  But by and large it’s been a warm and welcoming city.  We brought our kids here.  We put them in school.  And we tried to do our best to become citizens of New Rochelle.

        Actors are transient by nature.  Actors don’t stay too long.  The checks we get don’t always pay the rent.  So we’re constantly on the move.  But after all these years of flights from one city to the other, New Rochelle is the place we most gladly call home. 

        I met a man named O’Shaughnessy at WVOX.  He was a marvelous, tall-looking guy who had this radio station down in the basement at Huguenot and North.  I was at the station, involved in some debate about something and I got to know him.  And over the years, as I listened to him, I began to respect him.  I wound up liking the guy, to my great amazement and satisfaction!  So how can you go wrong in a city that has someone like William O’Shaughnessy?  If we ever do find the bones of Thomas Paine, we’re going to deliver them to Bill O’Shaughnessy because he will know what to do and where to place them to give them the proper honor.

        I think Bill O’Shaughnessy−and Nancy, in particular− deserve the greatest credit of all for keeping alive the “arts and crafts” of citizenship on a personal and city level.  I can’t picture New Rochelle without them being there to attend it, to nourish all the magnificent aspects of the city where those personal qualities we love so are brought to life and practiced.  Bill and Nancy care about every aspect of New Rochelle.  And watching them and being associated with them has given Ruby and me a chance to care, too.  We’ve become deeply embedded in the city and culture of New Rochelle. 

        Another thing that invited us here was that they were getting ready to build the mall down by the post office, and there was great agitation as to whether or not there would be blacks working on the construction crews.  So there was agitation and demonstrations, and Ruby and I were right in the middle of that, too.  There were always places you would see young men hanging around because there were not many employment opportunities.

        One of the things we noticed about New Rochelle was its economic base.  I think there was a big Pepsi plant that is no longer with us, but there were no big factories here, no big source of employment.  So we recognized that the economy of New Rochelle was, as far as we were concerned, service oriented.  The jobs we had from the old tradition, when the rich moved out of New York and settled in New Rochelle and brought with them their servants, the black folks who worked for them, those traditions no longer remained, but that kind of pattern still seems to take place.  Even to this day we have the rich and the poor here in the so-called Golden Apple.

        New Rochelle now is a typical American suburb, undergoing some hard economic blows.  But it attracts those from the inner city out to the suburbs.  So we have now a new mix.  New groups are coming into New Rochelle.  But they come as we came in.  And the problems we posed are the problems attending these new immigrants today: the Mexicans, the Hispanics, the Portuguese.  So we are caught up as a city in an effort to solve basic problems which are happening to cities all over the country.  And America has not yet decided what it wants to do with cities like New Rochelle.  And we’ve got to help make that determination.

        One of the reasons New Rochelle has experienced a downturn over the last fifteen years was the failure of our high expectations about the performance of the mall downtown.  That was installed to be an anchor, a centerpiece to replace the old mercantile institutions that used to be here.  There also used to be a Bloomingdale’s here.  There was another big store on the corner of Main and North called “Arnold Constable.”  We thought if we built the mall and put in theaters and places for sales and anchored it with Macy’s that would serve to attract into the city other elements that would create a thriving downtown area.

        It worked for a while, but then a changed took place in the fortunes of the mall and certain things happened.  The railroad station was the center where people came and gathered and went from one spot to the other.  But with the automobile, you didn’t really need the railroad station to hold the city together in the same way.  The wealth and influence drifted north, leaving behind pockets of less affluent establishments, businesses and residential areas.  And when the mall imploded the city came up against some hard times.  And if you walk downtown now, you see empty lots where thriving small businesses used to be.

        New Rochelle is not unlike a lot of cities in New York, along the Eastern Seaboard, and in the Midwest.  The life of cities is changing rapidly and I don’t think the leadership in this city was sufficiently astute and aware of what the solutions should be to handle the change.  We’re all struggling.  We’re all rooting around here and trying to come up with a solution and we haven’t done it yet.

        My vision of New Rochelle springs from my appreciation of how the city got started in the first place.  I think of the persecution of the Huguenots and their friends long ago when they were driven out of Europe and came to this country.  They found a new opportunity and they built a new community that was a symbol of what could happen and what should happen.

        It was an American legend and ritual that the poor and oppressed could come here and turn their life around with hard work.  New Rochelle symbolizes that to me.  There is a welcome, a welcome from the black community, from the Jewish community, from the Irish community, a welcome in New Rochelle that was a little more gracious and open than you would expect in other cities. 

        New Rochelle claims that it was the birthplace of show business.  It had a particular tie to Broadway other communities did not have, and some of that “atmosphere” and thought went into the lifestyle of New Rochelle.  So you noticed that New Rochelle had an extra wide opening of its arms: Come, come, see what we can do!

        So I’ve found there has been a welcome.  But the openness that must eventually characterize us as an American civilization has impediments in New Rochelle as in other places.  What I’d like to see from New Rochelle is that the problems of poverty, exclusion, and racism should be attacked, and we should set ourselves up as the “Queen City by the Sound” as an example how to be, above all, Americans.

        We all can be proud of the ethnic identity we’ve brought to this country, our past histories, what we’ve made for ourselves individually and as a group.  But should not a city say to itself: “Look, what we want to do is become whatever we are now, to become Americans in the best sense of the word?”  So that old Tom Paine and his ghost would look upon us and smile.  So this would serve as a model for the world.

        My prayer, my hope, and my expectation is that New Rochelle can do that.  I refuse to live in a place where there’s no hope, no expectations.  And thus I dream big.  And if I’m going to fall and stumble, fine.  As long as I have a chance to get up and dream again.  I don’t know when we can turn it around.  I don’t know when we can turn it around.  I don’t know when we can say to the world, “If you want to see what democracy really means, come and see New Rochelle!”  But one day it will have to happen.

        My children are here.  They’ll have to see to it.  My friends are here.  They’ll have to see to it.  Bill O’Shaughnessy is here and he’s promised me personally that he’s going to see to it!  So I rest easy under those assumptions.

        One of the most exciting pieces of news I’ve heard occurred a few weeks ago.  Governor Pataki, County Executive O’Rourke, Mayor Idoni, and Sister Rhoda Quash were there.  The governor came bearing a check for $4 million.  The money came from a state-sponsored development fund.  That $4 million is to help get us started on a project called “New Roc City.”  New Roc City is going to dismantle the old mall and do some rebuilding.  There will be three components to it.  There will be a multiplex cinema.  There will be a super-superstore.  That’s the second unit.  And then there’s going to be an ice rink where people can come and skate.  And I think $148 million will be spent.

        In their proposal and discussion, they say 600 temporary jobs will be there when it is complete.  That’s good news.  The city fathers have to make sure that when these jobs are allocated, that we allocate them according to how New Rochelle really is.  So everybody will get his or her slice of the pie.  That makes for peace in the city, justice in the city, and community pride in the city.  So I was very glad to hear about that.

        I called my old friend Napoleon Holmes.  I called Bill O’Shaughnessy.  I even called the governor and the mayor and said: “Hey, what’s happening?  What’s going on?”  So we’re all excited!  This is going to change the inner city−the core of the city.  And if we strengthen that, if we make that a place that is shining and attractive, then the rest of New Rochelle will also begin to rise.  New businesses will come.  And we hope that among these new businesses will be places for young entrepreneurs: women’s stores, black stores, Hispanic stores, Indian stores, Mexican stores, Asian stores, and the stores of the merchants who are already here.  A rich cultural as we all commercial mix that has its own excitement.  I can’t wait!  If I had a hammer and a saw, I would go out and start building today!

        Every miracle has its own cost.  You have to be sure that the miracle has a blessing.  For example, when we allow these big units to come in, we must make sure they don’t destroy the small groupings that might serve the same need, which constitute the life of the community itself.  It is all well and good to have a super-superstore, but not if it comes at the expense of the periphery to keep something alive.  We mustn’t throw them out.  We mustn’t exclude them.  To be fair and just we must make room for the big.  And we also must make room for the small.  A balance is what we need here.

        To communicate with each other, each group, each segment should start now.  We shouldn’t wait for a flash point or when a social disturbance occurs and we have to come up with a social disturbance occurs and we have to come up with a picket line and do demonstrations.  I much prefer that we, as a city, begin to answer the questions before they are raised.  Let us make sure, at the highest level, that justice is done, that economic justice is done, that civic justice is done, that the interests of all our groups are taken care of.  We must do that. 

        This is New Rochelle.  The city is mine.  The streets are mine.  When I walk, the trees are mind and the stones and lakes and rocks.  The good parts are mine.  The bad parts are mine.  The drunk on the corner is mine.  The girl going to school is mine.  The police force is mind.  Its newspaper is my newspaper.  Its radio station is my radio station.  Oh, is it ever!  Its churches are my churches.

        I belong to this community.  I love it. 

The Cabaret World on the distaff side is populated mostly by overly theatrical divas and coloratura belters who energetically emote and perform as they overwhelm every intimate, sweet, delicate and sophisticated song by making them resemble a booming bel canto aria.

There are a few exceptions. Most prominent among female cabaret singers who don’t fall into this “show-off” category these days is, of course, Diana Krall. While many singers attack sophisticated and sensitive lyrics, Krall brings a gentle, easy, intimate and respectful approach to her work.

I’ve got nothing against an authentic theatrical belter. I loved Ethel Merman. But I flee from the nasal, one-note wail of Streisand’s delivery. Tierney Sutton, a west coast singer, is another performer, like Krall, who knows how to caress a lyric and resists the temptation to propel it into the higher rafters. And Sylvia Syms, Blossom Dearie,  Daryl Sherman, K.D. Lang and June Christy were perfect examples of what we admire. Also Susannah McCorkle.

Two other girl singers stand out in our musical memory: the lush, creamy, romantic voice of Doris Day … and the tightly-wound, tortured genius of Judy Garland whose appealing and accessible persona would let her get away with many high register notes just because she was so absolutely sui generis.

And don’t forget when they asked Louis Armstrong who was the best girl singer of all time, Satchmo replied: “Uh … you mean besides Ella?”

Speaking of which, the glorious Rosemary Clooney. When I asked her one day about Sinatra’s insistence of “finishing a word” and not ducking the sibilant “S” (Polkadotsss and Moonbeamsss) … Rosie Clooney said “William … how else would you do it?” 

Many girl singers of today could also study Billie Holiday who never had to shift into a “Look at me – I’m an ‘entertainer’ – ‘a performer’” mode as she bestowed her uniquely sinuous, supple way on a lyric. My late friend Nat Hentoff once called Lady Day “the best and most honest jazz singer.”

I’ve recently discovered a marvelous singer Rebecca Kilgore who is based in Portland, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. She can really sing without resorting to that high register belting. She is sometimes billed as “Becky Kilgore.” By any name, she is very special.

THE BOYS

Much could also be learned from those gentlemen who approach the Great American Songbook with a becoming restraint and laid-back respect. The incomparable Sinatra, with his exquisite, sensitive phrasing, serves as the model and guide.

Melvin Howard Torme and Tony Bennett got it. Ditto Matt Dennis, Murray Grand, Richard Rodney Bennett, Steve Ross, Eric Comstock, John Pizzarelli, Ronny Whyte, Charley Cochran and a Connecticut man named Norman Drubner, who has embarked on a second career (he’s produced seven beautifully curated and assembled CD’s!) are examples of singers who know how to “gentle” a lyric. Also Doug Williams, a singer and pianist in Naples, Florida and Cape May, New Jersey in the summer.

And Chet Baker is being discovered all over again for his lush, haunting vocal renditions and deeply-felt romantic ballads to which he brings an intimate, almost intoxicating style in which he barely whispers.->

MABEL MERCER

Mabel Mercer, whom I adored, and who was a dear and luminous friend, could get away with a few high, other-worldly trills in her English accent as she sat so grandly on a stage in her wing-back chair dispensing the genius of Alec Wilder, Noel Coward and Cole Porter. Many worshiped her, including Sinatra who sent her a telegram “I learned more than most of them.” Mable Mercer was to cabaret and song what DiMaggio was to a baseball diamond, Pele to a soccer pitch, and Michael Jordan to a basketball court.

COLE PORTER … KNEW

And then, thank you God, there was the great Fred Astaire who is firmly ensconced in the pantheon of great singers and entertainers as was Miss Mercer. Cole Porter was said to have preferred Astaire’s style and classy way with his brilliant and witty songs to all others. We’re talking great entertainers here as well as singers or warblers and, in our time, we also treasured Bobby Short with his vast repertoire of romantic and sophisticated, endearing songs.

SOCIETY SALOON SINGER

And there was the delightful Hugh Shannon, the saloon singer who was adored by Bricktop and Ahmet Ertegun and a huge posse of swells – the wealthy and influential denizens of upscale venues and resorts.  Hugh played the Hamptons, Capri, Rome, the Virgin Islands, Provincetown and Manhattan. John S. Wilson, the revered Times critic called Hugh Shannon “the last of the great saloon singers” … and the progenitor of a new generation of piano singers. He left the pencil spotlight over his perch at the Steinway in all those sophisticated places on October 20, 1982. I know the date because we were pressed into service to deliver Hugh’s eulogy before almost a thousand fans and admirers at St. Monica’s Church on the upper East Side. You should know I wasn’t the first choice for the honors as Patrice Munsel was scheduled to speak but begged off the night before. (My remarks appear in our book AirWaves). Bobby Short was there sitting among the swells and ladies who lunch who were destined for Mortimer’s as soon as I mercifully yielded the podium. Hugh Shannon, with his gleaming choir-boy looks and raspy, exuberant delivery from his warm voice aged in saloon smoke and worn to a glowing hoarseness was just perfect as when he crooned Cole Porter’s “Down in the Depths of the 90^th Floor.” ->

“The crowds at El Morocco punish the parquet … and the couples at “21” clamor for more … while I sit above the town in my regal eagles nest … down in the depths of the 90^th floor.”

He also knew the Rodgers and Hart song “You Are Too Beautiful.”

A FINAL PLEA

But save us from those earnest female “Bar the door, Nelly” emoters and coloratura divas with their upper register trills.

William O’Shaughnessy, a former president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, was chairman of Public Affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.  He has been a point man and advocate for the broadcasters of America on First Amendment and Free Speech issues and is presently chairman of the Guardian Fund of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, the national charitable organization.  He is also a longtime director and member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation. He has operated WVOX and WVIP, two of the last independent stations in the New York area, for over 60 years as president and editorial director.

He is the author of “AirWAVES” (1999) … “It All Comes Back to Me Now” (2001) … “More Riffs, Rants and Raves” (2004) … and “VOX POPULI: The O’Shaughnessy Files,” released in January, 2011. He has also written “Mario Cuomo:  Remembrances of a Remarkable Man,” a tribute to his late friend Governor Mario M. Cuomo. His newest book RADIOactive for Fordham University Press, another anthology with interviews, commentaries, speeches and tributes was published in 2019. He is presently working on Townies, a paean to those without wealth, influence or high estate in suburban Westchester County, the heart of the Eastern Establishment.

Contact:

Cindy Hall Gallagher
cindy@wvox.com

5/7/21

We are very sad to learn that Jonathan Bush, brother of President George H. W. Bush and uncle of President George W. Bush died earlier this week in Hobe Sound.

He was also the father of our friend William “Billy” Bush and attended many Foundation events at the American Yacht Club and Le Cirque.  He showed up at one of our dinners with the Whiffenpoofs Yale singing group.  Jonathan was also a regular attendee at my book launches.

Mario Cuomo adored the guy and once said “He was the Bush they all wanted to be.”            

Jonathan was also a contributor to our Guardian Fund … and defended Don Imus and others of our tribe when they were subjected to censorship.

I had many phone calls when his son Billy was under attack.  He was not happy with our friends at the network for not standing up for his son and heir.

The attachments show what a lovely and gracious guy he was.

Download attachments below

William O’Shaughnessy
President & Editorial Director
914-235-3279
wfo@wvox.com

A Whitney Global Media Commentary
April 15, 2021
by William O’Shaughnessy, President & Editorial Director

“My journey started at the bottom.

I’ve done well for myself, and I’m proud of that.

But my journey, like those of so many who’ve come to this city for opportunity, wasn’t always easy.”

That’s the opening line of Ray McGuire, our choice for the next Mayor of New York City, and it says it all about this proud but humble exemplar who’s the very best candidate — the only candidate — with the heart, the smarts, the empathy, the intelligence, the experience, and the innate belief in the enduring power of the American Dream to transform our great metropolis from its post-pandemic malaise into the shining beacon of opportunity for all that it once was and will be again!

Raised by a single mother in Dayton, Ohio with no money, but accompanied by plenty of sacrifices, Ray McGuire knew from a young age that education was the key to a brighter future. Inspired by a 5th grade teacher’s early praise, he bootstrapped a scholarship, and his family made more sacrifices to get him that better education. At 16, he flew alone to Connecticut to make good on a challenge to “test himself” against the best of the Eastern Establishment and scored a scholarship that brought him to the premier Hotchkiss prep school. From there it was on to Harvard for an undergraduate degree and then Law and Business degrees. These schools knew there was something special about this guy.

From Harvard he came to New York for a job on Wall Street and made his mark at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Citibank – and with Joe Perella, the savvy investor – in jobs they all recruited him to accept. Why? Because they knew. They knew he was the young man who could generate $20-plus billion a year in revenue, manage multi-billion-dollar deals, and guide CEOs in creating jobs.

Creating good jobs – that’s as important to Ray McGuire as the mega deals. As a Citi Foundation Board member, he helped the firm improve the lives of people in low-income communities, and worked on a brilliant and comprehensive Report confronting the economic impact of systemic racism.

From the streets to the suites – unbossed, unbound and unstoppable as a catalyst for success – that’s Ray McGuire.

Listen to him describe his journey in an interview called “The Closing” on YouTube and you’d hire him for damn near any job in the country – because his belief that all of us can achieve positive transformation is not only genuine but backed up by Ray McGuire having lived it himself. He may have risen from bootstraps to boardrooms, but his desire to build the foundation for others to take an equivalent journey is what his candidacy is all about.

Sure he lives on Central Park West, but he’s also troubled by “systemic inequities” in the City and understands first-hand what it takes for Black and Brown people to rise above the shackles of circumstance.

When we first heard Ray McGuire on our FM station WVIP, he was reaching out to the Jamaican and Caribbean communities – for votes, to be sure, but more so to offer hope and genuine solidarity.

Ray McGuire is not afraid of Capitalism and has a sincere appreciation of what it could do for Black and Brown people. In fact, in a City so blessed with majestic and magnificent bridges, we believe Ray McGuire is the bridge between the corporate milieu and the communities of color, between the private and the public sector, and between the bricks and the boardroom cultures.

New York City is a culturally and demographically rich community. When Ray McGuire is mayor, people from all the “neighborhoods” will have a seat at the table.  With his proven leadership skills, Ray McGuire is the bridge to having them work together.

Jay-Z, Diddy, and Nas – the music world’s most currently prominent voices of the People – support Ray McGuire because they know he’s the guy with the beat that can unite every culture in our City, whether ethnic, corporate, or creative, and tackle all the pressing problems – even the “unsolvable” ones like segregated schools and segregated neighborhoods.

He has brilliant and sensible economic plans, he worries that we’re not building middle class housing, or what he calls “workforce” housing, for the people who run and sustain the City, and he is very clear that rich developers need to invest in the City. (“People shouldn’t have to pay 70% of their income in rent just to maintain a roof over their heads,” he says.)

As he deconstructs the deficiencies of New York City’s housing Policy and focuses on moving low-income people to middle income abodes, Ray McGuire talks of turning hotels into housing, cutting the red tape that always harms those with the least clout the most, and ending the deleterious “tradition” of New York being the most difficult City in which “to get things done.”

We also like Ray McGuire because he’s studied the great issues of the day. And this fellow really means it when he gives primary importance to Education. Beholden to nothing but improvement, and boldly unafraid, he declares, “I will prescribe every model that gets kids a quality Education.”

Unlike so many mayors of the past, Ray McGuire is not out for self-aggrandizement, and he’s not a one trick pony. He always wants to look “at the entire equation” – on relief for tenants and landlords, on tax policies and growth initiatives, on the value of middle-income homes, and on even tougher, politically charged challenges.

While talking about the City he loves, Ray McGuire’s eyes mist over when he says, “There are very few Black people who haven’t had an “episode” with Police. That’s our reality!” We have to change the culture of Police.” But he doesn’t like the language of Defund Police. (Remember, he wants to look at every model.)

My former father-in-law, the late Walter Nelson Thayer, who was president of the Herald Tribune of sainted memory, and ran Citizens for Eisenhower (and was a pillar of the Eastern Republican Establishment), once told me “Men and women of quality will not submit to the rigors of public service. They get a degree in Political Science … and immediately gravitate to Wall Street for the bucks.”

Ray McGuire breaks that mold in a way our City needs right now!

When he can get away from the boardrooms, he plays spirited pick-up basketball games at public playgrounds where he talks admiringly about folks “who’ve got game.” This guy’s “got game.”

He’s articulate and thoughtful. He responds to every email and voicemail and takes great pride and satisfaction in mentoring youngsters and people not of high estate.

What a magnificent role model Ray McGuire will be if the Great City is fortunate enough to install him in City Hall.

Just how special is this Raymond McGuire? … You have only to view the great majority of the current crop of big city mayors as they bumble and stumble their way through important and timely civic pronouncements to try to calm things following police shootings, riots in the streets, floods, urban unrest or just the everyday minutia of governance. The bigger the city, it seems, the more feckless, limited and inarticulate the bumbling mayor.

We find McGuire’s love for the City genuine and very important. There is no question Ray McGuire’s leadership can pull the City together.

If the Great City on which we depend wants to avoid and steer clear of a cringe-worthy and limited chief executive … they will elect this gifted, articulate and extraordinary man – Ray McGuire.

We hope WVOX’s friends at 1460 in the Bronx and Westchester will now step up with financial and vocal support for his long-shot campaign. And we commend his candidacy to the favorable judgment our many Caribbean, Jamaican and Hispanic friends on 93.5 WVIP.

We are persuaded that absolutely no one or any other candidate who aspires to lead New York City during this perilous time is as bright, as astute, as gifted and dynamic as Raymond J. McGuire.

Mr. McGuire is head and shoulders above all the others – not alone because of his obvious ability and awesome talents … but because of his ample heart and becoming sensitivity.

If you sent to Central Casting and said, ‘Send me a superior candidate who will be a great mayor’ … they would send Ray McGuire.

This is a WVOX and WVIP Editorial of the Air. This is William O’Shaughnessy.

William O’Shaughnessy, a former president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, was chairman of Public Affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.  He has been a point man and advocate for the broadcasters of America on First Amendment and Free Speech issues and is presently chairman of the Guardian Fund of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, the national charitable organization.  He is also a longtime director and member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation. He has operated WVOX and WVIP, two of the last independent stations in the New York area, for over 60 years as president and editorial director.

He is the author of “AirWAVES” (1999) … “It All Comes Back to Me Now” (2001) … “More Riffs, Rants and Raves” (2004) … and “VOX POPULI: The O’Shaughnessy Files,” released in January, 2011. He has also written “Mario Cuomo:  Remembrances of a Remarkable Man,” a tribute to his late friend Governor Mario M. Cuomo. His newest book RADIOactive for Fordham University Press, another anthology with interviews, commentaries, speeches and tributes was published in 2019. He is presently working on Townies, a paean to those without wealth, influence or high estate in suburban Westchester County, the heart of the Eastern Establishment.

Contact:

Cindy Hall Gallagher
cindy@wvox.com

William O’Shaughnessy
wfo@wvox.com

A WVOX Commentary
By William O’Shaughnessy
February 16, 2021

New York State has had 56 governors … including John Jay, DeWitt Clinton, Martin Van Buren, two Roosevelts: Theodore and Franklin Delano. Also Grover Cleveland, Alfred E. Smith, Herbert Lehman, Hugh Leo Carey, Averell Harriman, the incomparable Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, Malcolm Wilson of sainted memory and Mario Matthew Cuomo who was called “the great philosopher-statesman of the American nation.”

And now Andrew Mark Cuomo.

There are also governors abroad in the land these days who preside over 49 other states. Andrew is head of their exclusive club.

Not one … not one of them knows the levers and rhythms of governance as well as Andrew Cuomo who presides over a Budget of $177 Billion. He employs 340,000 State public servants and controls many boards, corporations and authorities. The Gross National Product of his fiefdom is $2.5 trillion. 

Theodore Roosevelt and Nelson Rockefeller were more dynamic. Malcolm Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt were more articulate. (I would rather be drinking of an evening at the “21” bar with Hugh Carey.)

Mario Cuomo was a greater thinker and more inspiring with a magnificent soul. His son and heir has a reputation (undeserved) as a bully, a control-freak, and an authoritarian.

But. But in his best moments, he resembles his magnificent father.

President Biden praises him for his “skills, guts and experience. He’s a damned good friend of mine.”

The same people who now criticize and demean Andrew are, for the most part, the very same haters who never forgave Mario for his views on capital punishment (“vengeance doesn’t work”) and abortion (he despised the “violence and vulgarity” thereof).

So Andrew Cuomo is a great manager, a skillful and enlightened steward of the State. You gotta give him that.

Even his mother, the beloved Matilda Cuomo, calls him “the Energizer Governor” and occasionally “The Mechanic.”

Her way of saying there is no one better or more astute at governance than her son, the 56^th governor of New York.

So just forget his ill-timed book (of which I was the purchaser of 200 copies) or his damned Emmy Award.

I have never said he’s perfect. I am drawn to his defense and cause not alone because he is a son of Matilda Raffa and Mario Matthew Cuomo. But I do believe it’s in the genes … the genes … that make him so extraordinary. We might remember that as they pile on a governor who works so damn hard in our service.

William O’Shaughnessy, a former president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, was chairman of Public Affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.  He has been a point man and advocate for the broadcasters of America on First Amendment and Free Speech issues and is presently chairman of the Guardian Fund of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, the national charitable organization.  He is also a longtime director and member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation. He has operated WVOX and WVIP, two of the last independent stations in the New York area, for over 60 years as president and editorial director.

He is the author of “AirWAVES” (1999) … “It All Comes Back to Me Now” (2001) … “More Riffs, Rants and Raves” (2004) … and “VOX POPULI: The O’Shaughnessy Files,” released in January, 2011. He has also written “Mario Cuomo:  Remembrances of a Remarkable Man,” a tribute to his late friend Governor Mario M. Cuomo. His newest book RADIOactive for Fordham University Press, another anthology with interviews, commentaries, speeches and tributes was published in 2019. He is presently working on Townies, a paean to those without wealth, influence or high estate in suburban Westchester County, the heart of the Eastern Establishment.

Contact:
Cindy Hall Gallagher
cindy@wvox.com

The Cabaret World on the distaff side is populated mostly by overly theatrical divas and coloratura belters who energetically emote and perform as they overwhelm every intimate, sweet, delicate and sophisticated song by making them resemble a booming bel canto aria.

There are a few exceptions. Most prominent among female cabaret singers who don’t fall into this “show-off” category these days is, of course, Diana Krall. While many singers attack sophisticated and sensitive lyrics, Krall brings a gentle, easy, intimate and respectful approach to her work.

I’ve got nothing against an authentic theatrical belter. I loved Ethel Merman. But I flee from the nasal, one-note wail of Streisand’s delivery. Tierney Sutton, a west coast singer, is another performer, like Krall, who knows how to caress a lyric and resists the temptation to propel it into the higher rafters. And Sylvia Syms and Blossom Dearie were perfect examples of what we admire. Also Susannah McCorkle.

And don’t forget when they asked Louis Armstrong who was the best girl singer of all time, Satchmo replied: “Uh … you mean besides Ella …?”

Speaking of which, the glorious Rosemary Clooney. When I asked her one day about Sinatra’s insistence of “finishing a word” and not ducking the sibilant “S” (Polkadotsss and Moonbeamsss) … Rosie Clooney said “William … how else would you do it?” 

Many girl singers of today could also study Billy Holiday who never had to shift into a “Look at me – I’m an ‘entertainer’ – ‘a performer’” mode as she bestowed her uniquely sinuous, supple way on a lyric. My late friend Nat Hentoff once called Lady Day “the best and most honest jazz singer.”

Much could also be learned from those gentlemen who approach the Great American Songbook with a becoming restraint and laid-back respect. The incomparable Sinatra, with his exquisite, sensitive phrasing, serves as the model (and guide).

Melvin Howard Torme and Tony Bennett got it too. Ditto Matt Dennis, Murray Grand, Richard Rodney Bennett, Steve Ross, Eric Comstock, John Pizzarelli, Ronny Whyte, Charley Cochran and a wealthy Connecticut man named Norman Drubner, who has embarked on a second career (he’s produced seven beautifully assembled CD’s!) are examples of singers who know how to “gentle” a lyric. Also Doug Williams, a singer and pianist in Naples, Florida and Cape May, New Jersey in the summer.

And Chet Baker is being discovered all over again for his lush, haunting vocal renditions and deeply-felt romantic ballads to which he brings an intimate, almost intoxicating style in which he barely whispers.

But save us from those earnest female “Bar the door, Nelly” emoters and coloratura divas with their upper register trills.

William O’Shaughnessy, a former president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, was chairman of Public Affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.  He has been a point man and advocate for the broadcasters of America on First Amendment and Free Speech issues and is presently chairman of the Guardian Fund of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, the national charitable organization.  He is also a longtime director and member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation. He has operated WVOX and WVIP, two of the last independent stations in the New York area, for over 60 years as president and editorial director.

He is the author of “AirWAVES” (1999) … “It All Comes Back to Me Now” (2001) … “More Riffs, Rants and Raves” (2004) … and “VOX POPULI: The O’Shaughnessy Files,” released in January, 2011. He has also written “Mario Cuomo:  Remembrances of a Remarkable Man,” a tribute to his late friend Governor Mario M. Cuomo. His newest book RADIOactive for Fordham University Press, another anthology with interviews, commentaries, speeches and tributes was published in 2019. He is presently working on Townies, a paean to those without wealth, influence or high estate in suburban Westchester County, the heart of the Eastern Establishment.

Contact:
Cindy Hall Gallagher
cindy@wvox.com

The Last Townie
A WVOX Commentary
By William O’Shaughnessy
December 15, 2020

“Don” Dominic Procopio was an agreeable and beloved presence in our city for as long as we can remember and he was powerful. 

He owned a wine company and was chairman of our Civil Service Commission. Mr. Procopio was also the Padrone of the Casa Calabria over whose annual dinner he presided.

The Calabria dinners would begin promptly at 6:30PM and continue until well past midnight with the main course not being proffered until 11:30PM. The organizers and exhausted waiters would then mercifully push a rolling Venetian table onto the floor in the wee small hours loaded with sweets and cappuccinos laced with anisette.

Many hundreds of our neighbors and a posse of judges attended these soirees to toast and pay tribute to “Don” Dominic. One of them, Mr. Justice Frank Niccolai, served as master of ceremonies at the specific request of “Don” Dominic. 

Among the honored guests were Billy DeLuca, a child of the west side who is now one of the most important beer and beverage distributors in the country and Nick Trotta, who ran the Presidential Protective Division of the US Secret Service.  At table were also any lawyer who ever aspired to a judgeship in the region. 

By day, Dominic Procopio presided daily at a Posto 22 luncheon which was attended by police commissioners, city managers past and present and all the elders of city hall whose ranking could be determined by how close they were seated to Mr. Procopio. 

I’ve accused him of being “beloved.” And he was that. “Don” Procopio was a politician the way those of our father’s time imagined them to be as he constantly did favors for the less fortunate and those without standing or stature in our home heath. 

He was also a great patron and supporter of this particular radio station WVOX.  And we loved him for it.

With “Don” Procopio’s passing an era ends in the Queen City which now officially and forevermore becomes a “make it happen … do what it takes … gettin’ it done … aging city … firmly fixed in the so-called modern era with its uncaring, unfeeling … at arm’s length … way of doing business.

The man was up there in years and he battled multiple-myeloma, pneumonia, skin cancer on his handsome head and, near the end, Covid, all of which ultimately combined to overwhelm and take down this good and widely respected soul.

I’m writing a book called “Townies” and you can be damn sure there will be a chapter on one “Don” Dominic Procopio. 

But right now, I’m just very sad, as is our entire city. 

William O’Shaughnessy, a former president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, was chairman of Public Affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.  He has been a point man and advocate for the broadcasters of America on First Amendment and Free Speech issues and is presently chairman of the Guardian Fund of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, the national charitable organization.  He is also a longtime director and member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation. He has operated WVOX and WVIP, two of the last independent stations in the New York area, for over 60 years as president and editorial director.

He is the author of “AirWAVES” (1999) … “It All Comes Back to Me Now” (2001) … “More Riffs, Rants and Raves” (2004) … and “VOX POPULI: The O’Shaughnessy Files,” released in January, 2011. He has also written “Mario Cuomo:  Remembrances of a Remarkable Man,” a tribute to his late friend Governor Mario M. Cuomo. His newest book RADIOactive for Fordham University Press, another anthology with interviews, commentaries, speeches and tributes was published in 2019. He is presently working on Townies, a paean to those without wealth, influence or high estate in suburban Westchester County, the heart of the Eastern Establishment.

Contact:
Cindy Hall Gallagher
cindy@wvox.com

A WVOX Commentary
By William O’Shaughnessy
November 25, 2020

The city development commissioner Luiz Aragon is leaving.

Time to see what he has left in his wake.

He leaves an urban landscape once loaded with potential and opportunity, now littered with concrete and glass buildings with no lineage or character … and urban architecture without style, dignity or reference to the City’s hallowed background or its remarkable multi-cultural history.

These soulless structures could exist in Tulsa, Jersey City, Dayton, Flint, or Oklahoma City. They don’t belong here. Which is not to say the City hadn’t slipped into a slow, inexorable decline over the years as we turned away Lord & Taylor, Ikea, the United Nations and other suitors.

The rents for these behemoth boxes are still out of reach for cops, firemen, nurses, first responders, waiters, bus boys and teachers who don’t need or require “concierge” service when they come home spent and exhausted after a hard day’s labor.

Mr. Aragon, Mayor Bramson and the desperate, needy city council of the last several years bought in hook, line and sinker to the blandishments of a posse of high-rolling “What’s in it for Me?” developers who pushed generic designs and plans appealing to the lowest common denominator. They dazzled the elders at City Hall with developer-speak phrases like “crowdsourced placemaking.”

The great international architect Renzo Piano once memorably said, “You can put down a bad book. You can avoid listening to bad music, but you cannot miss the ugly tower or that block of concrete that despoils the skyline of the city.”

There was no concept or mandate to innovate or be bold in all of this. A design concept, no matter how large or small, is the catalyst for a project and its development. In our downtown especially there is no music, no narrative, no intellectual public engagement for these soulless buildings, except gobble-de-gook like that “crowdsourced placemaking.”

It’s been observed that “Architecture is a social act and the material theatre of human activity.” But we showed no concern when confronted by drab aesthetics with drab, multi-cultural faux brick, plastic mullions, fake and weird styling cues – both inside and out. Sadly New Rochelle has become a ubiquitous bastion of bad architecture. We’ve become a victim of homogeneous planning.

Across the country we know that passionate civic activism has helped put an end to some very bad projects, private, as well as public. But not in New Rochelle where we begged developers to “Roll over and Pet me …”

In recent years, our bourgeois mentality and perceived materialistic values stifled any unconventional or creative approach.

Blame it on the seeming paucity of urban planners today and speculators who are lacking in courage and vision that once distinguished the urban planning profession. Mind you, I’m not trying to urge or impose any pinched restriction or “artsy-fartsy” approach to the downtown opportunity.

But shouldn’t the City, when contemplating Renewal, be allowed to have its surprises and contradictions in the dull, colorless urban landscape?

I’m not saying we should only have done business with developers who covet, understand and appreciate the architectural and conceptual genius of the likes of Renzo Piano, Santiago Calatrava, Enrique Norton, Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Lord Norman Foster, Richard Meier, Robert A.M. Stern, the late Eero Saarinen, Michael Graves, James Polshek, Oscar Niemeyer, Costos Kondylis or Ren Koolhas.

Thanks to my compadre Gregorio Alvarez, we’ve actually met and spoken with Santiago Calatrava, Lord Foster, Richard Meier and the late Costos Kondylis. Although they have designed brilliant buildings all over the world, they would gladly have taken a shot with poor, desperate, needy and too long ignored New Rochelle. But the greedy developers selected by the mayor, Luiz Aragon and our genius Council thought your City was not ready for prime-time creativity and the brilliance of a quality, imaginative urban architect.

As it struggled in years gone by, we were able to observe the genius and dedication of Mayor Alvin Richard Ruskin for many years as he fought to retain Bloomingdales, Arnold Constable and build a Macys. The liberal Republican was admired by both sides … even by the Teddy Green-led conservatives. He was also encouraged by Hughie Doyle, Joe Evans and Elly Doctorow, Rocco Bellantoni, Joe Fosina and other Forward-looking people on the high council of our city.

Some blame has to go to the Board of Education of the day and age. When it was appointed by the mayor it was populated with lawyers, judges, successful business executives and wonderful women like Mary Jane Reddington and Ruby Saunders. 

It should not be a popularity contest as it is now for the one who can get the most votes … and run by a superintendent answerable to no one.  Once a year they come around and show themselves only at Budget time.

We have very high regard for several of those in City Hall … starting with our skillful, dedicated and hard-working city manager Charles Bowman “Chuck” Strome. He knows the levers, the buttons and the tedious minutia of government better than anyone. Only Paul Feiner, George Latimer and Andrew Cuomo, the Governor himself, and very few others are in his league. Nita Lowey certainly is. Chuck is certainly a great recruiter. He finds talented people and protects them from the political winds. There are several other stellar players in City Hall, even to this day, including Police Commissioner Joe Schaller who succeeded the legendary Patrick Carroll.  And Fire Chief Andy Sandor.  And thank God we have a wonderful individual like “Don” Dominic Procopio heading up the Civil Service Commission. And our City Court, headed by Judges Anthony Carbone, Susan Kettner and Jared Rice. Jimmy Generoso is perhaps the best court administrator in New York State. We also have high regard for Paul Vacca, our longtime building inspector.

The Board of Education? Forget it! We’d need Jimmy Breslin (The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” to describe that group.)

Who then to blame for the very bland stew of unimaginative apartment behemoths that development commissioner Luiz Aragon leaves behind?

We blame the city council. What we wouldn’t trade for a Walmart, a Target, a Wegman’s, a Bed, Bath and Beyond or a Best Buy! We’d even settle for a good deli!

In recent years there has been occasional glimpses of taste, sophistication and genius provided by Louis Cappelli who gave us a splendid example with his Trump Tower, still the most attractive downtown structure. Cappelli is also doing the right thing with his new building where the Standard Star and Marty & Lenny’s once stood. There is another attractive building in the hood: the Valenti-Montefiore building is a worthy structure built by John and Charles Valenti and their father Jerry of sainted memory. 

We even look back on those heady days when developers Norman Winston, David Muss and a marvelous character named Spencer Martin (who worked out of our office) at least gave us a Macy’s and, for a while, a mini-shopping center.

And what of David’s Island that lays forlornly rotting in the sun? We lost The Edison Company.  And even Donald Trump because they wouldn’t give him a bridge which would connect to overgrown and crumbling Fort Slocum out in Long Island Sound. It’s a prime piece they still don’t know what to do with.

The problem is not just downtown with all the dull, boxy, high rise apartment buildings.

We have been richly endowed by our Creator with nine miles of natural shoreline. We’re not landlocked like poor Mount Vernon. But the elders of the City have done nothing about that precious waterfront resource. Davenport Neck is slowly disappearing, and Five Islands Park is underutilized, while Premium Point remains a guarded and pristine haven for the wealthy.  Even Mamaroneck has done better with its waterfront via Harbor Island Park.

We also have a rich cultural heritage that once attracted Norman Rockwell and America’s greatest artists and illustrators.  Among the City’s prominent citizens were Lou Gehrig, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Frances Sternhagen, Lee Archer, Don McLean, Andrea Mitchell James Fenimore Cooper, Thomas Paine, Carl Reiner, Ken Chenault and three other chairman of AMEX, Vin Draddy, Richard Roundtree, Peter Lind Hayes, Robert Merrill, John Jay, Farouk Kathwari, Tom Rogers, Joe Klein, Governor Malcolm Wilson, Whitney Moore Young, Hugh Price, Willie Mays, Ben Ferencz, Frankie Frisch, Eddie Foy and the Seven Little Foys.

And … YOU … who subsidized all this with lavish tax breaks!

Unfortunately, all this was lost on Luiz Aragon.

And Noam Bramson.

# # #

Postscript: We’ve been pretty tough on Mr. Aragon. It’s not personal. He is, in every telling and by every account, a very nice man with good intentions.

Let us just say … he got what he could.

The same for Bramson.

However disappointing.

William O’Shaughnessy, a former president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, was chairman of Public Affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.  He has been a point man and advocate for the broadcasters of America on First Amendment and Free Speech issues and is presently chairman of the Guardian Fund of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, the national charitable organization.  He is also a longtime director and member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation. He has operated WVOX and WVIP, two of the last independent stations in the New York area, for over 60 years as president and editorial director.

He is the author of “AirWAVES” (1999) … “It All Comes Back to Me Now” (2001) … “More Riffs, Rants and Raves” (2004) … and “VOX POPULI: The O’Shaughnessy Files,” released in January, 2011. He has also written “Mario Cuomo:  Remembrances of a Remarkable Man,” a tribute to his late friend Governor Mario M. Cuomo. His newest book RADIOactive for Fordham University Press, another anthology with interviews, commentaries, speeches and tribute was published in 2019. He is presently working on Townies, a paean to those without wealth, influence or high estate in suburban Westchester County, the heart of the Eastern Establishment.

Contact:

Cindy Hall Gallagher
cindy@wvox.com
914-235-3279

Michael Scott Shannon

Notes

Re:

The Legendary “Z Morning Zoo”

I’m a Radio guy.

I write books, editorials and commentaries about the great issues of the day. And I’ve occasionally been introduced as an “author.” But I flee from that lofty description.

Breslin was a writer. So too are Malcolm Wilson, Sam Roberts, David Hinckley, Daniel Silva, Robert Harris, Pete Hamill, Lance Morrow, Bill Saroyan, Tracey O’Shaughnessy (no relation), Michael “Lionel” Lebron, John McKenna and Mario Cuomo. They were writers. Also a lawyer named Michael Assaf.

I am a hack writer who struggles mightily and unsuccessfully with the English Language.

But I’ll gladly embrace the appellation “Radio Guy” any time, even in my dotage.

And I’ve always had great respect for disc jockeys who get up each day to strap on earphones and go in a radio station to entertain and inform.

Some of them view the instrument of communication over which they preside for a few hours each day as more than a jukebox.

A few even resemble social commentators and, lacking that, they aspire to be agreeable companions.

In high school in Buffalo I loved Fred Klestine and the five guys who all used the moniker “Guy King.”

And then, much later I discovered a guy from Babylon, N.Y. named William Bernard Breitbard, which name he didn’t use. Instead, he addressed the microphone as William B. Williams.

He went to work in a place called the “Make-Believe Ballroom” which was housed at an iconic radio station with the legendary call signs WNEW.

William B. became a great and wonderful friend.  And it was a sad day when Variety asked me to eulogize him when he left us with the music still playing.

And then, speaking of legends of the air, I became a fan of one Michael Scott Shannon who presided over an obscure New Jersey station Z-100.

Scott is a lot more than a hippy dippy, finger-snapping “Rodney Radio” disc jockey.

In his best moments he’s also a gifted and skillful social commentator, very knowledgeable and worldly about the great issues of the day.

And so he assembled a marvelous and beguiling cast of characters to populate his now legendary Z Morning Zoo.

They played Cindy Lauper. I had no idea who the hell Cindy Lauper was. I still don’t … but I understand she’s pretty talented and a big deal on Broadway.

Scott, who has become the pre-eminent Radio guy of our time was the ringmaster, the interlocutor, the glue and seasoning that drove the inhabitants of the “Zoo,” and his genius held it all together.

I can still remember some of the most delightful off-beat personalities from that show. Everyone on my block … including Yours Truly … was in love with a dame named Claire Stevens!

And the most beguiling of all, of course, was one absolutely outrageous, but endearing character named “Mr. Leonard,” who wore a lime green leisure suit and cherry red pumps. He was always getting in trouble …  like when he covered the visit of Princess Diana “on assignment for Mr. Scott Shannon” and got rousted by the British Secret Service when they caught Mr. Leonard hiding in the bushes with his “Z Morning Zoo” microphone! (“Don’t you know who I am … ?”)

And we remember when he charged out the radio station door in high dudgeon to “have a word” with someone who had the “audacity” to take his personal parking spot.  The confrontation didn’t last long, however, when Mr. Leonard found out the car belonged to Hulk Hogan!

“Oh, sorry, so sorry Mr. Hulk Hogan … I didn’t mean nothing by it when I said those terrible things to you and threatened to beat you … I was just kidding! Hah, hah, hah …”

So many delightful moments …

So much fun.

Such great Radio.

I didn’t just enjoy their antics. Many nights I would stand at the “21” bar and pummel one and all who would listen with my admiration for this Scott Shannon.

Apparently, I was not alone in my enthusiasm. In a short time, the station had a meteoric rise and went from “Worst to First” in the New York market.

Scott then moved on to also program WPLJ and re-invigorate WCBS-FM.

He is the best of what we are.

And he is equally at home with high rollers like Ken Langone, the late Jack Welch, his “patsies” at Westchester Country Club and the swells at Lost Tree in Palm Beach.

Shannon is also possessed of those generous genes which inhabited William B. Williams. Scott has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Blythdale Children’s Hospital and he tees off with his sketchy, 18-handicap at our Broadcasters Foundation of America, and many other, charity golf tournaments.

# # #

An observation: You’ve heard the phrase “He’s got a face for Radio.”

I don’t want you to think I’m “sweet” on the guy. But, Scott Shannon, with those beautiful cheekbones and exquisite jawline indeed has a face for … Television.

But maybe, just maybe, that would ruin everything. He’s so damn good at what he does.

I’m glad he’s my friend.

He’s a great entertainer.

And a class act in every season.

(Oh, and his daughter works in the White House for the President of the United States.)

William O’Shaughnessy, a former president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, was chairman of Public Affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.  He has been a point man and advocate for the broadcasters of America on First Amendment and Free Speech issues and is presently chairman of the Guardian Fund of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, the national charitable organization.  He is also a longtime director and member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation. He has operated WVOX and WVIP, two of the last independent stations in the New York area, for over 60 years as president and editorial director.

He is the author of “AirWAVES” (1999) … “It All Comes Back to Me Now” (2001) … “More Riffs, Rants and Raves” (2004) … and “VOX POPULI: The O’Shaughnessy Files,” released in January, 2011. He has also written “Mario Cuomo:  Remembrances of a Remarkable Man,” a tribute to his late friend Governor Mario M. Cuomo. His newest book RADIOactive for Fordham University Press, another anthology with interviews, commentaries, speeches and tributes was published in 2019. He is presently working on Townies, a paean to those without wealth, influence or high estate in suburban Westchester County, the heart of the Eastern Establishment.

Contact:

William O’Shaughnessy
wfo@wvox.com