#995: Box Office Poison?

There can be little doubt that this past Thursday contained the most memorable evening of Joe Biden’s half-century in politics . . . and for all the wrong reasons. The long-anticipated presidential debate between Trump and Biden turned into a clash between optics and reason whereby the latter was easily trounced by the former. There is no denying that Joe Biden looked and sounded old; his raspy functional dysphonia (common in nearly half the people over age 65) turned out to be no match for Trump’s irksome hyperkinetic dysarthria. Because optics play such an overwhelmingly important role in 21st-ceutury televised political encounters, Biden’s perceived loss to a man who managed to tell more than 40 out-and-out lies without breaking stride, shouldn’t be considered all that mystifying. But the Democratic response to Biden’s perceived failure is. Truth to tell, this one debate has, in the eyes and minds of many Biden supporters, made him what we Hollywood Brats would call "Box Office Poison.”

Newscasters of all stripes and persuasions seemed far more interested in talking up Biden’s vocal and mental blunders and lapses than the wall-to-wall lies told by Trump. My g-d . . . Biden was even chided for choosing the wrong side of the stage to stand on; camera right, which had him looking at where the moderators were seated rather than directly into the camera(s). Trump, a former television star, knew to stand on the left, which permitted him to look straight away into the camera, thus making it seem, by comparison, that Biden was staring off into space. Biden’s blunders and miscues had Democrats questioning whether or not he was up to the job; whether Biden should drop out of the race in favor of, say, Governors Gretchen Witmer (MI), or Gavin Newsome (CA) or Josh Shapiro (PA) or Roy Cooper (NC); or VP Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg or Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo; New Jersey Senator Cory Booker or even former First Lady Michelle Obama. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no one, to the best of my knowledge, called upon Donald Trump to bow out of the race . . . either because he is a convicted felon (34 counts) or a serial liar (30,573 lies during the 4 years he served as POTUS) or because he has - in the words of President Biden - “The morals of an alley cat.” The debate was so debased and unprofessional that this statement would turn out to be the most memorable line of the evening. As for Trump, who ever dreamed that the memorable rebuttal would be “I did not have sex with a porn star”? I for one could care less who can drive a golf ball farther or who has a lower par. I for one am far, far more concerned with who can surround himself with wiser, more fully experienced advisors . . . and then keep them for the whole 4 years. BTW: did you catch Trump’s turning Biden’s ability to keep his cabinet and staff together into a negative? He actually criticized him for not firing more people!

And yet, Biden is now, in the minds and fears of many Democratic office-holders, major financial backers, and political influencers “box office poison.” At first glance, the very term “Box Office Poison” seems incongruous in the vast world of competitive professional politics. It seems a better fit from the place called Hollywood . . . both the literal city composed of 3.51 square miles ((9.1 km) and the figurative term for a vast world of dreams . . . and the place I was born three-quarters of a century ago. To be certain, politics has long had a show-business aspect to it. Ever notice how nearly every Warner Brothers film of the 1930s and 40s (save Westerns) had at least one kitchen scene in which there was a framed photo of FDR on the wall? Or that Hollywood stars came out in force to raise funds during both world wars and signed on to give up-and-coming stars pointers on proper diction and deportment?

I don’t know if President Biden is a movie fan, let alone knows much Hollywood history. If not, I am here to tell him that he is in good company . . . this “Box Office Poison” nonsense. Let me explain. Back on May 4, 1938, the Independent Theater Owners Association prublished a red-bordered, full-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter bearing the title WAKE UP! Hollywood Producers. The hit job, written by the association’s president, Harry Brandt, began:

Practically all of the major studios are burdened with stars—whose public appeal is negligible—receiving tremendous salaries necessitated by contractual obligations. Having these stars under contract, and paying them sizeable sums weekly, the studios find themselves in the unhappy position to having put these box office deterrents in expensive pictures in the hope that some return on the investment might be had. This condition is not only burdensome to the studios and its stockholders but is likewise no boon to exhibitors who in the final analysis, suffer by the non-drawing power of these players. . .

The article went on to provide a list of major motion picture stars who, in Brandt’s opinion, were “Box Office Poison.” Among them, unbelievably, were such fan favorites as Katharine Hepburn, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, John Barrymore and Fred Astaire. While it is true that several of these actors had starred in relative “stinkers” in the preceding year or two

Hepburn in Quality Street and Holiday;
Garbo in The Painted Veil and Conquest;
Fred Astaire in A Damsel in Distress and
Joan Crawford in The Shining Hour and Mannequin

They were all able to quickly bounce back and remain at the top of their game for decades to come:

In 1939 Garbo starred in Ninotchka, for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination;
Hepburn would return to Broadway, starring in The Philadelphia Story, buy its rights, sell the rights to MGM, star in the film and continue acting with her “name above the title” for another 50+ years
Within 8 years, Joan Crawford would win a Best Actress Oscar for Mildred Pierce and then continue acting for another 30 years
Fred Astaire would make another 40 films including Easter Parade, On the Beach, and Finian’s Rainbow.

What these stars had in common - besides G-d-given talent - was indefatigable drive, a work ethic to beat the band, self-confidence and what today might be termed a “posse” . . . people who believed in them with all their hearts and souls. They also had proven track records of accomplishment and the ability, when seemingly down and out, to, in the words of Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields song sung by Fred Astaire in his 1936 hit Swing Time: “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.”

At a time when many of the nation’s editorial boards and everyday voters are urging Joe Biden to throw in the towel and hand off the Democratic nomination to another, younger, more appealing candidate I urge extreme caution. This would be foolhardy . . . and for several reasons. First, to wait until August 19 - the date the Chicago convention begins - would mean going 8 weeks without a standard bearer. It would also mean that during those 8 weeks, a handful of potential replacements would be spending the lion’s share of their time raising hundreds of millions of dollars, introducing themselves to the American voting public, and fending off all the lies being spread about them by the MAGA machine. Then too, they would all have to be hiring staff on contingency, working 24/7 on putting together a platform , and putting their daytime jobs on hold.

But most - and worst - of all, it would be virtually benching the one candidate who has the best chance of saving democracy from autocracy. My recommendation to President Biden (such unmitigated chutzpah on my part!) is that he raise the temperature by continually reminding the public that the alternative that America faces is a country led by a man who does not know the first thing about governing; a man who is a convicted felon; a man who demands not advisors and aides but toadies and sycophants; a man who is in thrall to the world’s worst despots and covers up all his failures by blaming them on others. At the same time, President Biden must continue telling the truth about what he and a divided government have been able to accomplish on behalf of the American people and indeed the world.

Believe me, when I tell you that I haven’t slept much since the debate. I have been going over and over in my mind whether to recommend finding a new nominee or sticking with Joe Biden. I know there will be plenty who disagree with me, but I’m going to redouble my efforts on behalf of Uncle Joe. No one else has the knowledge, wisdom, and experience as Joe Biden. No one else has a team as dedicated to making government work for all of us as Joe Biden. No one else can defeat the Felon of Fifth Avenue, the Misanthrope of Mar-a-Lago.

So far as what we, the Democratic base and those who are yet undecided can do is first, to make a small contribution to the Biden/Harris campaign (https://joebiden.com/donate-by-mail/). Each contribution provides a bit of money and a vote of confidence. The money is reportable; the vote of confidence is invaluable. Second, don’t give up on Joe Biden. He is not box office poison. He is a man who has devoted most of his life to working with and on behalf of the vast majority of Americans who take promises seriously, believe wholeheartedly that a return to the past cannot and will not improve the future, and greatly prefers a gentleman to a rank bully.