Eddie Fisher....I guess for me that comes under the category of .... "I thought he was....."
I only saw Eddie Fisher
live once. In March of 1969 I was in the audience for a taping of the MERV GRIFFIN SHOW in New York. This was the show with Arthur Treacher as his sidekick. The first guest was this almost total unknown named Malcolm McDowell and he was promoting his film IF.
Then came Eddie Fisher. He was so drunk that I kept expecting him to fall out of his chair. He rambled on and on about nothing important, and then Merv asked him to sing. He staggered over to the orchestra and I kept thinking that this was going to be a trainwreck. All of a sudden the orchestra, or rather an orchestra, starts playing and old Eddie tries very unsuccessfully to lip sync to this great new song. It was a total embarrassment. He couldn't remember the words, he wasn't even close to coming in on the right note. It was awful.
But when I watched the show when it was broadcast, that director had done wonders. The song looked to be the only good thing about his appearance. They cut in and out with the cameras. They faded out with one caemra and came up behind him with another. It was amazing. You would think that he never missed a word.
