David Rosenthal: evaluation

Transcript context

…And literally when you say gofer, he was the guy that when they would say, “We need two hours to do this thing. Go hang out with the talent so that we can tell you to tell him to come back when we’re ready.” That was his job. Yeah. Obviously, we’re going to get into this in a sec, but literally, his big break comes when he works on a television special with Frank Sinatra. Frank needs a mouthwash. “Bob, go run to the pharmacy. Go get a mouthwash.” That kind of stuff. In a great New York Times interview (that we will link to in our sources) with Maureen Dowd, Bob says, “I never viewed myself as exceptional, so whenever I got a job, I was relying on hard work more than anything and a level of enthusiasm and optimism,” and Bob is nothing if not an optimist. He said, “When he went to ABC, everybody there went to Stanford, or Dartmouth, or Columbia. I went to Ithaca college. I didn’t have an inferiority complex, but I knew I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t wear Gucci shoes, I didn’t wear Brooks Brothers clothes. I couldn’t afford any of that stuff, but I knew I had a work ethic that was prodigious. What happened early on is people started relying on me because they knew if they asked me to get something done, I would get it done,” and that is what Bob does. As we alluded to, shortly after he gets there to ABC, he gets his big break. They’re televising a big special from Madison Square Garden called, The Main Event hosted by “the chairman,” Frank Sinatra. It was like a boxing-themed musical number. Television was different back in those days. So, he meets Frank, he meets the chairman by getting him mouthwash. Frank says, “Hey, what’s your name, kid?” and he says, “Bob,” and Frank’s like, “Great job,” and he gives him $100 bill. I did not know that he was the chairman. I didn’t know that was a nickname. I’m reading the book and I was like, “The chairman of ABC? Who’s this chairman that he’s meeting?” I am an idiot.…

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