Monday, February 22, 2010

Plimpton's Moment in the Sun

You know how Saturday Night Live used to go to commercial by showing random people in the audience with humorous captions underneath? When Anthony Perkins hosted, back on March 13, 1976, at one point they showed a dude in the audience, over the caption ROOMED WITH WENDY YOSHIMURA - and it was our old friend George Plimpton.

That couldn't have been coincidence, could it? I doubt it. Lorne Michaels was always too invested in having celebrity friends, and Plimpton too concerned about being seen in all the proper New York spots, for it to be happenstance. I'm pretty sure they would have set it up beforehand.

This little incident does not merit a mention either in Live From New York or in George, Being George, the Plimpton oral biography. I guess I'm the only one who cares, which wouldn't be the first time.

No, I have no idea who Wendy Yoshimura was.

3 comments:

  1. Wendy Yoshimura was arrested with Patty Hearst when the San Francisco police finally found her in September, 1975. So the gag is that Plimpton was rooming with the SLA.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. I did know that when the police (except wasn't it the FBI?) finally burst in on Patty, she was so surprised she wet her pants.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There was a guy from my high school who was in the audience at SNL in the late 70s and dozed off. They went to commercial with a close up of him and the caption "Lost Interest at 11:59."

    ReplyDelete