And Now, a R-r-really Big Shew

He couldn't dance. He didn't sing. And he bungled jokes. His malaprops and mannerisms endlessly inspired comic impersonators. "Let's hear it for the Lord's Prayer," he once croaked, after a tenor had sung it. During a lavish encomium to the Supremes he forgot the trio's name and concluded lamely: "Here are the girls." Looking somewhat like a Great Stone Face transplanted from Easter Island to Broadway, he would rock back and forth onstage, hands across chest or clutching his kidneys, while in baleful voice he introduced a succession of comedians, jugglers, rock bands and animal acts.

If charisma were all that...