Johnny Carson's passing brought back a memory of meeting him years ago. During my Green Giant years we sponsored the Tonight Show and Carson was always generous with his Jolly Green Giant jokes--always...always in good fun and taste. One year, during the National Food Brokers' Convention in New York, we invited him to speak at a meeting of our Brokers, perhaps 200 or more. He'd been ill all week and not appearing on his nightly show. We were told by his producer they'd let us know if Johnny would be at our meeting. Saturday morning arrived (the meeting was that evening) and the call came: yes, he'd be there. I met with him back stage in the Ballroom of the Plaza Hotel and we waited for the cue for him to go on. Knowing something of his background, growing up in a small town in Nebraska, I mentioned to him that I was from a small town in Minnesota. So we chatted easily, casually for awhile about small town living until it was his time to go on. As he strolled out to the podium and stood there for a moment, I noticed his foot tap-tap-tapping in almost a nervous way and I thought to myself, "Gee, the big time entertainers get a little stage jittery, too." Then he looked out at the assembled group and said, "May the Bird of Paradise fertilize your green beans." And he was off and running on a monologue that ran 20 minutes or so. No notes and I doubt he'd spent much time preparing. Johnny Carson didn't invent the monologue but he maybe did it better than anyone before or since. From everything I ever saw of Johnny Carson we was a class act through and through. When news of his passing flashed across the TV screen the other evening I thought of our conversation that evening back stage at the Plaza Hotel many years ago. Entertainers: they don't make 'em that way anymore.
--Don Osell
