From Hollywood and Vine Mystery man turns out the gags
Published 6:00 pm Wednesday, January 31, 2007
“Television won’t matter in your lifetime or mine,” said Rex Lambert, editor of Radio Times in 1936. Lambert could have been speaking directly to Freeland radio artist, writer, director David Ossman when he said that and for Ossman, that line would have been prophetic.
Ossman grew up at the corner of, as he says, “Radio and Vine,” in 1940s Hollywood.
Like many families, his had no TV during the early ‘50s so he listened to all kinds of radio, including many live comedy, drama and mystery programs. It transformed the rest of his life.
For a kid who’s favorite radio shows included The Lone Ranger, Fibber McGee and The Great Gildersleeve, and one who also admired the great writers and radio artists of the day like Ray Bradbury and Norman Corwin, Los Angeles must have been a heady place to live. Everything was happening in L.A. and Ossman was growing up smack in the middle.
His career began with an unusual plot twist; as a poet who finished his studies in New York City at Columbia University. He credits poets as his earliest influences.
“I entered the field of radio interview and documentary with a series called ‘The Sullen Art,’ which then became a book in 1963. This was a series of interviews with the new poets — Beat, post-Beat, New York School, little mag editors, etc.,” Ossman recalled.
“I left the world of that poetry when I realized it sucked. I had rock ‘n’ roll!”
Ossman never really left poetry behind, though. He continued to incorporate poetry in much of the work that he did later, often using it in the world of radio that became his new habitat.
As one of the founding members of Firesign Theatre — dubbed one of the “30 greatest comedy acts of all time” by Entertainment Weekly — Ossman has written and produced major broadcast series and countless other performances for some of the best radio programs across the country since the 1960s.
He went on to win many awards and to become a Grammy nominee for work that included plays for radio, television and theater, poetry, cabaret and rock-n-roll humor, broadcast journalism and a number of historic firsts in FM broadcasting.
Now, he’s off to do something new. Ossman’s first mystery novel, “The Ronald Reagan Murder Case (A George Tirebiter Mystery),” has just been published by Bear Manor Media.
The book is a classic crime mystery set in 1945 Hollywood, where the likes of Ronald Reagan and Raymond Chandler hobnob with B-movie director George Leroy Tirebiter.
It’s the Golden Age of radio and B-movies and Tirebiter finds himself tangled up in a web of a Tinseltown slaying surrounded by nudists, spies, stars and a hard-boiled “Dick.”
George Leroy Tirebiter had a long and distinguished career in American entertainment and politics, and Ossman creates the perfect vehicle with which to tell his story.
Deliciously atmospheric, the story immerses the reader into a time and place that present-day Pacific Northwesters can only dream about (or see on film.) It is ripe with edge-of-your-seat suspense, sultry dames, quick-witted detectives and a wonderful sense of the sights, sounds, cocktails and sensibilities of 1945 Hollywood.
It is also written by one of the funniest comedy writers of our time and one who is generous here with witty references and laugh-out-loud digs. Pick it up, it’s worth the read.
Fresh from the finish of his first book, Ossman is now focusing his talents on directing the upcoming production of “Seven Keys to Baldpate” at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.
Written originally by playwright George M. Cohan, who was known as “the man who owned Broadway” in the early 1900s, the play was adapted from the novel by Earl Derr Biggers. It was a critical and commercial success when it was first published in 1913, and was billed as a work that incorporated mystery, satire and romance. The novel immediately attracted the interest of Cohan, who bought the theatrical rights. It was later filmed several times throughout the 20th century.
Ossman said he chose the play because it was recommended to him by one of his Firesign Theatre partners.
“I saw the possibilities in the pre-World War I timeframe and ragtime music, along with the silent movies. When I found it was in public domain, I realized I could have my way with it,” he said.
Ossman holds back none of his “kid-in-a-candy-store” comedic instincts in his version of this 1914-period farce.
Novelist Billy Magee makes a wager with his wealthy friend that he can write a novel in 24 hours given the proper circumstances. He is given a key to the Baldpate Inn and is told that it is the only one. But he soon learns that he is one of seven different people who claim ownership of the only key.
As the play unfolds, the inn becomes a rendezvous for several mysterious key holding characters — a gang of political scalawags, ex-convicts, adventuresses, ghosts and detectives.
Billed as a “mysterious melodramatic ragtime farce,” the play is the perfect match for Ossman’s expert command of comic shtick.
“Comedy mysteries come naturally to me — I’ve done SciFi with ‘Mark Time, Star Detective of the Circum-Solar Federation,’ poetic noir with ‘Max Morgan, Crime Cabby,’ and the butler who-dunnit in Firesign’s radio parody ‘Nick Danger.’”
Ossman said he is interested in reminding people of the historic roots of things we take for granted. “Vaudeville was said to have been killed by TV. That was only 50 years ago and the ‘Amateur Hour’ is very much with us still.”
“The Ronald Reagan Murder Case (A George Tirebiter Mystery)” can be found at 1504 Coffee in Freeland, The Moonraker Bookstore in Langley, at Amazon.com or BearManorMedia.com or through the author. George Leroy Tirebiter will be on hand to sign copies of the book after the Friday, Feb. 16 performance of “Seven Keys to Baldpate.”
“Seven Keys to Baldpate” opens Friday, Feb. 9 and runs through Saturday, Feb. 24 at WICA. Call WICA at 221-8268 or visit www.WICAonline.com for tickets and info.
Patricia Duff can be reached at 221-5300 or pduff@southwhidbeyrecord.com.
