Andy Rooney - Andy Rooney: 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit

Product Description

Chairs. Neat people. Ugliness. War. Over six decades of intrepid reporting and elegant essays, Andy Rooney has proven a shrewd cultural analystunafraid to question the sometimes ridiculous, often surprising facts of our lives. Rooneys great gift is telling it straight, without a hint of sugar coating, but with more than a grain of truth and humor. His take on America? Its just amazing how long this country has been going to hell without ever having got there. On food? Theres more dependable mediocrity than there used to be.

About the Author

Known to millions for his regular commentary on the television news magazine 60 Minutes , and his syndicated newspaper column, Andrew A. Rooney is the author of numerous bestselling books. He has published five previous books with PublicAffairs: My War , Sincerely, Andy Rooney , Common Nonsense , Years of Minutes , and Out of My Mind . He lives in New York.

60 Years of Wisdom and Wit

Also by Andy Rooney

Out of My Mind
Years of Minutes
Common Nonsense
Sincerely, Andy Rooney
My War
Sweet and Sour
Not That You Asked...
Word for Word
Pieces of My Mind
And More by Andy Rooney
A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney
The Fortunes of War
Conquerors Peace (with Bud Hutton)
The Story of The Stars and Stripes (with Bud Hutton) Air Gunner (with Bud Hutton)

60 Years of Wisdom and Wit

Andrew A. Rooney
With an Introduction by Brian Rooney

PublicAffairs New York

Copyright 2009 by Andrew A. Rooney. Introduction copyright 2009 by Brian Rooney.

Published in the United States by PublicAffairs, a member of
the Perseus Books Group.

All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.

All photographs in this book, unless otherwise indicated, are from the authors collection and/or the CBS photo archive. Additional photography by Keith D. Kulin. With special thanks to Susie Bieber and Morgen Van Vorst for their editorial work. Ziggy 1995 Ziggy and Friends, Inc. Reprinted with permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.
Doonesbury 1982 G. B. Trudeau. Reprinted with permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107.

PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail special.markets@perseusbooks.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rooney, Andrew A.
Andy Rooney: 60 years of wisdom and wit / Andrew A. Rooney ; with an introduction by Brian Rooney. 1st ed.
p. cm

ISBN 978-1-58648-773-7 (alk. paper)
1. American wit and humor. I. Title.
PN6162.R629 2009
814'.54dc22

2009029909 First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Timeline ix Introduction by Brian Rooney xv

vi Contents

Contents vii

The Urge to Eat 208

viii Contents

Timeline

January 14, Andrew Aitken Rooney is born in Albany, New 1919 York, to Walter Scott and Ellinor Rooney.
19321938 attends The Albany Academy
writes for student magazine The Cue

1938 1941 attends Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, where he becomes editor of Colgates magazine The Banter

1941 drafted into the Army, heads to training in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, followed by Camp Blanding, Florida

arrested outside St. Augustine, Florida, for sitting in the back of the Army bus alongside African American soldiers

1942 marries Marguerite Howard
arrives in Perham Downs, England, with the 17th Field Artillery
joins the Armed Forces newspaper The Stars and Stripes in their London office

meets United Press reporter Walter Cronkite, Stars and Stripes correspondent Don Hewitt (who would become the executive of 60Minutes ), and Edward R. Murrow

1943 flies with the Eighth Air Force on the second American bombing raid on Germany x Timeline
1944 lands on Utah Beach in Normandy, three days after D-day
encounters Ernest Hemingway at hotel outside Paris and finds him ill-mannered
enters Paris with the French Army the day the city is liberated from Germany
Air Gunner (written with Bud Hutton) is published
1945 discharged from the Army
1946 The Story of the Stars and Stripes (written with Bud Hutton) is published

MGM buys movie rights to The Story of the Stars and Stripes for $55,000 (Rooney and Hutton are hired by MGM to work on the script)

assigned by Cosmopolitan to cover postwar Europe with Bud Hutton in ten pieces
1947 returns to Albany, New York, and embarks on a freelance career

Conquerors Peace: A Report to the American Stockholders (written with Bud Hutton), which derives from the Cosmopolitan assignment, is published

daughter Ellen Rooney is born

1949 joins CBS as a writer for megawatt radio and TV personality Arthur Godfrey; writes for The Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts and Arthur Godfrey Time until 1955

1950 daughters Emily and Martha Rooney are born
1951 son Brian Rooney is born
Timeline xi
1952 begins his love affair with woodworking
1957 adapts E. B. Whites essay Here is New York for TV

1959 1965 writes for The Garry Moore Show , for Victor Borge, Herb Shriner, and Bob and Ray and contributes to CBS News The Twentieth Century, Adventure, Calendar, and The Morning Show

1962 The Fortunes of War: Four Great Battles of World War II is published

begins work with CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Harry Reasoner on a series of TV specials that include pieces on bridges, hotels, and the English language

1964 writes his first television essay, An Essay on Doors
1965 writes television essay on Frank Sinatra narrated by Walter Cronkite and produced by Don Hewitt
1966 receives Writers Guild of America Award for best TV documentary for The Great Love Affair

1968 writes Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed , narrated by Bill Cosby, and is awarded a Writers Guild Award and an Emmy Award for his script

appears for the first time on television on the 60 Minutes broadcast Digressions with Palmer Williams
1970 quits CBS after their refusal to air his An Essay on War

1971 An Essay on War is aired on PBSs The Great American Dream Machine and receives a Writers Guild Award; for the first time, narrates his own piece on air

joins ABC, following Harry Reasoner
xii Timeline

1972 returns to CBS to continue write, produce, and narrate full-length pieces for 60 Minutes and to write for various CBS broadcasts

1974 writes and appears in his celebration of New York, In Praise of New York City
1975 writes and stars in the CBS prime-time feature Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington
is awarded a Peabody for the piece, as well as a Writers Guild Award for best TV documentary

1976 writes and stars in the CBS prime-time feature Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner, for which he receives a Writers Guild Award

1977 writes and stars in the CBS prime-time feature Mr. Rooney Goes to Work

1978 Don Hewitt airs Rooneys humorous on-air segment Three Minutes with Andy Rooney as a summer fill-in for the Point/Counterpoint face-off between Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick

A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney replaces Point/Counterpoint
receives an Emmy Award for Who Owns What in America