Who Can You Trust?

Over half a century ago Johnny Carson had a television game show, 'Who Do You Trust.' Ed McMahon was Johnny's sidekick even then. Aside from it being a precursor to Johnny and Ed teaming up for decades on the 'The Tonight Show' the title should have been taken as a cautionary warning for all to pay attention to as life is navigated through.

I had heard Clifford Irving has passed away at 87, but I hadn't yet caught up to the NYT obituary until just now. I sometimes fall behind in reading the papers. Being behind in reading the papers can have advantages. Things that were worrisome on a given day, or in a given week, lose their importance when left to simmer for a week or so. Just wait, the weather will change. All the worry can go away when you're behind.

The disadvantage however is when I glance at the TV listings and tell myself I want to watch, or DVR a certain show. A show that has now aired perhaps as much as two weeks ago. I try to really skip the TV section when I'm significantly behind.

You really have to be of a certain age to know who Clifford Irving was. When your fame is achieved when you're in your early forties, and you pass on when you're nearly 90, there is more than a generation of people who don't know who you were.

I always like the idea of what Cliff did: fooled the publisher McGraw-Hill into believing that he had achieved exclusive access to the ultra-reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes and was now able to produce a definitive, authorized biography. It was big news, and it earned Cliff big bucks in advances.

It was all a hoax, but it played on everyone's insatiable curiosity of Howard Hughes's life. I loved the story as it unfolded, and got some joy out of the fact that one of the minor players that were in the Irving retinue was a saucy nightclub singer Baroness Nina van Pallandt.

Nina is still with us at 85. She was Clifford Irving's mistress at the time of the hoax and received her share of publicity. Cliff it turns out was married six times before he shuffled off, so it is probably safe to assume he never slept alone at anytime. Except of course, I'll also assume, when he spent time in prison for the fraud.

The Richard Gere movie 'The Hoax' is worth watching for historical reasons and to watch a hoax unfold with near perfection. And to also see the casting lineup that included Alfred Molina, Marcia Gay Harden, Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis, Eli Wallach and Julie Delpy as Nina.

Aside from being a New Yorker of a certain age, you have to be a somewhat keen-eyed, cynical one who delights in word play that remembers the McGraw-Hill building on Sixth Avenue that had the branch of a bank on its ground floor: The Irving Trust Company.

Who do you trust?

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