Art Buchwald

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Arthur "Art" Buchwald (born October 20, 1925) is an American humorist best known for his long-running column in The Washington Post newspaper, which concentrates on political satire and commentary. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Outstanding Commentary in 1982 and in 1986 was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Buchwald is also known for the Buchwald v. Paramount lawsuit, which he and partner Alain Bernheim filed against Paramount Pictures in 1988 in a controversy over the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America. Buchwald claimed Paramount had stolen his script idea. He won, was awarded damages, and then accepted a settlement from Paramount. The case was the subject of a 1992 book, Fatal Subtraction: The Inside Story of Buchwald V. Paramount by Pierce O'Donnell and Dennis McDougal.

As of April 5, 2006, Buchwald is in a Washington, D.C. area hospice. Although his kidneys are failing he has elected to forego kidney dialysis, saying that he wishes to finish his days his way and to avoid end-of-life ailments that befall so many elderly individuals.

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Biography

Art Buchwald is the son of Joseph Buchwald, a curtain manufacturer, and has three sisters Alice, Edith and Doris. He grew up in a residential community in the Queens Borough of New York City. He did not graduate high school, and ran away from home when he was 17.

He wanted to join the Marines but was too young so he lied about his age and bribed a drunk with half a pint of whisky to sign as his legal guardian. The drunk thought it was a wonderful idea because it was so patriotic! When Buchwald turned 18 the Corps found out what he had done.

From October 1942 to October 1945, he served with the U.S. Marine Corps, attached to the Fourth Marine Air Wing. He spent two years in the Pacific Theater and was discharged from the service as a sergeant.

On his return, Buchwald enrolled at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on the G.I. Bill. At USC he was managing editor of the campus magazine Wampus; he also wrote a column for the college newspaper, the Daily Trojan.

In 1948 he left USC, without having earned a degree, and bought a one-way ticket to Paris. Eventually, Buchwald got a job as a correspondent for Variety Magazine in Paris. In January 1949, he took a sample column, on which he had been working, to the offices of the European edition of The New York Herald Tribune. Titled Paris After Dark, it was filled with scraps of offbeat information about Parisian nightlife. Buchwald was hired and joined the editorial staff. His column caught on quickly, and Buchwald followed it in 1951 with another column, Mostly About People. They were fused into one under the title Europe’s Lighter Side. The column in which Buchwald explains Thanksgiving Day to the French people in 1953 is reprinted every November with ceremonial regularity.Buchwald’s columns soon began to recruit readers on both sides of the Atlantic. On August 24, 1959, TIME magazine, in reviewing the history of the European edition of The Herald Tribune, reported that Buchwald’s column had achieved an "institutional quality."

During this particular time, while in Paris, he became the only correspondent to substantively interview Elvis Presley, both at the "Prince de Galles Hotel, where the soon-to-be Sgt. Presley was staying during a week-end off from his Army stint in Germany, as well in places like "Le Lido", where Buchwald witnessed, first hand, Presley's interaction and that of his entourage, with the girls at the world's most famous nightclub. Presley's impromptu's performance at the piano, as well as his singing for the showgirls after most of the customers had left the nighclub, became legendary following its inclusion in Buchwald's bestseling book, "I'll always have Paris".

Buchwald returned to the United States in 1962 and is at present syndicated by Tribune Media Services. His column appears in some 300 newspapers.

Buchwald has written some 30 books, including Leaving Home (Putnam, 1994); I’ll Always Have Paris (Putnam, 1995); I Think I Don’t Remember (Putnam, 1987); and Stella in Heaven: Almost a Novel (Putnam, 2000). Buchwald's most recent book, Beating Around the Bush (Seven Stories, 2005) is a collection of his newspaper columns.

Buchwald has three children and currently lives in Washington, D.C.

In 2000, at age 74, Buchwald suffered a stroke that left him in the hospital for over 2 months. With much therapy, he has since largely recovered.

On February 16, 2006, the Associated Press reported that Buchwald had had a leg amputated below the knee and was staying at Washington Home and Hospice. The amputation was reportedly necessary because of poor circulation in the leg.

Buchwald seized on a unique opportunity during his stay at the Washington Home. He invited Diane Rehm to interview him, which served as what people from the fields of hospice and palliative care would call a "life review." It also served as an opportunity to say goodbye to a national audience. During the show, which aired on February 24, 2006, he revealed his decision to discontinue hemodialysis, which had previously been initiated to treat renal failure secondary to diabetes mellitus. He described his decision as his "last hurrah", stating that, "if you have to go, the way you go is a big deal." He reported that he is "very happy with his choices" and is eating McDonald's on a regular basis. While exhibiting mental cloudiness at times, his humor and charm remained evident throughout the interview.

Buchwald was later interviewed with Miles O'Brien of CNN in a segment aired on March 31, 2006. Buchwald discussed his living will, which documents his wishes for his doctors not to save him if he falls into a coma. As of the date of this interview; Buchwald was still writing a periodic column. In the interview, he described a dream in which he was waiting to take his "final plane ride." But the flight was cancelled and he was told he would have to fly on stand-by. He interpreted this as it wasn't his time to die just yet.

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External links

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