The best phone message that I ever got at an office was, “Henry Gibson called—it sounds important.” It wasn’t really important. The gentlemanly actor was simply saying hello while he was on the East Coast. It had been several years since I’d interviewed him for NY Press, but he was just a friendly guy.

Gibson’s death is yet another marker in the lousiest year ever for celebrity obituaries. Someday, I’ll get around to posting the entirety of that 1997 interview. Reading it yesterday, I was happy to be reminded that Gibson got his start on television by conning Mike Wallace. The host of PM East/PM West was convinced that Gibson—a Pennsylvania native fresh from studying at the Royal Academy of London—was a young poet from Fairhope, Alabama.

I certainly won’t try to claim the lovable Leftist for the conservative cause. His poems—which he began performing in 1961—were often political. They just weren’t predictable. Gibson personally offended President Carter with a poem in the Washington Post that protested the reinstated draft. There was also this small gem, which was likely very prescient:

         Spite
         by Henry Gibson
         Madalyn Murray O’Hair
         Cried “God!” But no one was there.

For the moment, here’s a longer excerpt from my interview. It elaborates on something I mentioned earlier here. Gibson’s discussing his days as a regular on Laugh-In, and the controversy when legendary hawk John Wayne was brought in as a guest:

He was booked on the show, and I was asked to write a poem for him. I said, ‘No, I’m not going to write a poem for him.’ Perhaps it was childish of Lily [Tomlin] and me, but we reacted to the John Wayne that was exposed to us. We didn’t like what he represented. Instead, the poem was written by the head writer, Paul Keyes, who also wrote jokes for Nixon. They asked about me giving [Wayne] one of my flowers, but I said that I’d have a special one made for him. It was red, white and blue, which was my small comment on the matter.

The day of the taping, I arrived at the studio for what was an early call—around 11 a.m. And the guard tells me that John Wayne has been on the set since 8 a.m. John Wayne was from the movies, you know, and he thought an early call meant to be there that early. So I found him, and he was pacing like crazy since he had just been drinking coffee all that time. So he saw me and he said, ‘Henry, I’m supposed to do a poem. Can you teach me that little sissy walk you do?’

Well, how can you hate the guy after that? I took him outside and I showed him the walk. I wouldn’t let him wear my peace symbol, though.

I should note that the versatile Gibson was always impressive as a screen villain, with a particularly creepy (and banal) turn in 1999’s Magnolia. And don’t forget Henry Gibson as a recording artist. He penned “200 Years” for the Nashville soundtrack, and the song became the B-side of the 45 of Keith Carradine’s “I’m Easy.” The patriotic tune honored our nation’s bicentennial in an overblown style. The John Birch Society asked for permission to use it. Gibson said no, and the Birchers probably went looking for something by Leonard Cohen.

 

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