(no subject)
I was born in 1980, so my research and recollection of Wally George is based mostly on reruns. Wally had a hit TV show that aired from 1982 until around 2002 when Wally was too sick to go on. His charismatic ways about interviewing the septic tank of Los Angeles is something that will be remembered, but rarely inspirational. In high school I was into loud, fast, punk rock music, and along with the aggression, came some pretty deep political satire. Songs like Kinky Sex Makes The World Go Round by The Dead Kennedy’s, and I Hate The Rich by The Dils had lyrics full of content to persuade my young mind into thinking big government, especially the right wing, were crazy money hungry war mongers. So I researched who Pol Pot was, and why Reagan hated the poor, and found some fuel for my own personal politics. I had a pretty good idea about where I stood politically, and my mother is a bleeding heart liberal. My father on the other hand has voted Republican since he was 18, but we never really argued, we just both knew the other was wrong.
When I turned 16, I got a job at a local grocery store, and had to work the 1pm - 12am shift twice a week. I would get home around 12:30 and while getting ready for bed, I would watch Wally George on the public access channel. I disagreed with, and hated just about everything he had to say, but I had to watch. This guy was my new hero. There was no “teeter-tottering” with his politics, with a stars and stripes neck tie and a framed picture of a space shuttle in lift off behind his desk, he was on a mission to clean up America of the low life drug addicts and “bimbos” who frequented his set. His views were steadfast, and there was nothing that could stop him from being right. Television, and politics had never been the same.
Wally George was born in Oakland to a has-been Hollywood actress and a longshoreman who ditched the family before Wally had gotten to know him. He landed his first radio show when he was 14 , and was a regular volunteer at the Republican Party. When he was 15, his proudest moment was when he rode in a parade with Vice President Richard Nixon. Later on he became the producer and co-host of one of his political mentors, LA Mayor Sam Yorty. Working with Sam, Wally learned the way of right wing politics, but knew he had to go on to bigger and better with his own show, so in 1982, Wally George started “Hot Seat”, filling the 12:30am time slot on KDOC.
In the 20-year lifespan of the show, Wally interviewed great leftists such as Timothy Leary and Tom Metzger. He also dipped into the heart of entertainment with lots of big-breasted mud wrestlers, and the late great Il Duce from The Mentors. Il Duce and other Shock Rockers like Gwar were a favorite on the show, which made me question Wally’s truth in right wing politics. While calling the mud-wrestling women “BIMBOS!” he would at the same time be persuading them into mud wrestling with him. For a man with such high moral values and distaste for the liberal freedoms upheld by the left, Wally sure loved his strippers.
Wally didn’t interview his subjects like anybody else at that time, In a 1984 interview Wally said,
“They say that I’m a lunatic, that I’m a maniac. But why do you have to smile at your guests and be nice and let them say what they want? … That’s why I relate to (the audience). They relate to me, I just come across as a down to earth guy who’s speaking not so much from a highly intelligent brain but who’s speaking from his heart and gut.”
And Wally wasn’t kidding; an intellectual brain was certainly not the kind of interviewing skills used for his guests. He would berate them with loud insults, calling women “Bimbos” and anybody else who didn’t agree with him “Communists”. Being a so-called Bimbo or Communist was reason enough to prove Wally right.
“Hot Seat” acclaimed its highest publicity when Wally told a guest who was against the United States invasion of Grenada, that he was un-American. He also threw in that all anti-war activists should be sent to El Salvador or a country of equal social corruption because they were as good as illegal immigrants (Wally didn’t take too kindly to immigrants). After Wally’s signature “Get off my set!” salutation, the guest stood up, grabbed the edge of Wally’s desk and smashed it into the ground. This moment was shown on network news as being the birth of “Combat Television”. When Wally had two women on the show who were arguing about the possibility of a woman running for presidency, Wally’s response was “could not”. The women said to Wally “could to”, to which Wally wittingly responded, “Could not, Bimbos”. End of argument.
Wally’s popularity in 1984 did not come out of the blue, for that was when Reagan was reinstated for a second term. Reagan was no stranger to American “freedom” and “liberty” keepsakes. In 1986, America went under the knife for a whole new look, complete with Jerry Fallwell’s Moral Majority name change to Liberty Federation, and a Liberty University. 1986 was also the year of the Liberty Weekend, celebrating the 100th birthday of the Statue of Liberty. Time magazine noted that the celebration of the “American spirit of freedom” left “no cliché unturned”. So it’s no surprise that Wally George, American flag necktie and all, was an extremely popular television personality.
However, Wally George wasn’t so popular with the ladies, or his own family. He fathered two daughters and a son. One daughter is a semi-famous actress named Rebecca De Mornay. She was taken away from Wally at an early age and lived in London untill the age of 18. When she moved to Hollywood, Wally claims to have helped her get on her feet as an actress, which led to her role with Tom Cruise in Risky Business. The problem was that she didn’t agree with Wally’s politics or way of life, so they were not on speaking terms up until his death in 2003. Wally died alone, bankrupt in his Garden Grove apartment at the age of 71. He paved the way for other shock-jock tv show personalities such as Jerry Springer and Geraldo, and will always have a place in the right side of my heart.