OBITUARY: Don Lane. Entertainer. Born New York City, November 13, 1933. Died Sydney, October 22, age 75.
DON Lane, the Lanky Yank, was once Australia’s most popular and highest paid television personality. In the 1970s and 80s The Don Lane Show was must-see television, winning its host a swag of Logies, including the gold.
His show was based on the US hit The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and Lane put his stamp on a successful formula and brought a little Hollywood glitz into Australian loungerooms. His interview style was friendly, laid-back and unpretentious. He was an irrepressibly generous television performer who seemed to have entree to all the stars; with his famous determination, he would not take no for an answer.
Lane was born Morton Donald Isaacson in New York on November 13, 1933. He grew up in The Bronx with his Jewish father Jacob, a policeman, and Catholic mother Dolly (who later converted to Judaism). He took his stage name from American singer Frankie Laine. He was drafted into the US Army in the early 1950s and served as an artillery officer. Lane later toured for two years entertaining the troops.
He was singing at the Copacabana nightclub in Hawaii when he was recruited by Channel 9 out of Sydney to replace talk show host Dave Allen, who had left his series suddenly (fellow entertainer Wayne Newton recommended him).
Lane was initially given the host’s chair for six weeks, but within a month had been signed to a long-term contract.
He migrated to Australia in 1965, building a career as a leading nightclub performer before his almost accidental move into television. The Don Lane Show debuted in 1975 and he worked for the Nine Network until the final episode aired in 1983. It ran for 2 1/2 hours and featured stars who had previously appeared on his show, including his good friend Sammy Davis Jr, Phyllis Diller, David Bowie and John Farnham.
There is no equivalent of Lane in Australia today and for younger generations it is almost impossible to envisage just how big he was. Rove McManus may be popular, but he doesn’t have the same Las Vegas pizazz. With his sidekick Bert Newton, the brash New Yorker developed an inspired mix of celebrity interviews, stunts and buffoonery that lasted for years. It was an era of hefty salaries and giant expense accounts. Stars who appeared on his show included Robin Williams, Billy Connolly, Dame Edna, Tony Curtis, Peter Sellers, ABBA and Kiss.
Lane had a great sense of humour: he gave his friend Newtown the famous nickname Moonface. “What a wonderful country it is when a lanky New York Jew can come here and team up with a tubby Melbourne Catholic and form a duo that is more personable, more entertaining than even Mike and Mal Leyland,” joked Paul Hogan, another of Lane’s friends.
“We were magic from the time he walked out from the curtain,” Lane told the ABC in 2003 of the partnership. “You don’t try to explain those things. You just take them and you use them and you enjoy them, and most of all you appreciate them because they don’t happen often, they happen once in a rare while.”
Newton credits Lane with reinventing the variety show, saying that without him the genre may not have survived. “(Without him) I think variety would have died early in the piece,” he says.
“Don was certainly the most generous performer that I worked with; he didn’t mind where the laughs were coming from and who was getting the laughs. All I can say is that I can’t think of anyone who I liked more in the industry, anyone I enjoyed working with, more than Don Lane.”
The Lanky Yank – he stood 193cm – also loved sport and was ahead of the game when it came to personal fitness. He hosted American NFL broadcasts, which included live broadcasts from Super Bowl XXVII and Super Bowl XXVIII, covered NCAA basketball for the ABC and was a commentator for the NBL on Foxtel. For more than 10 years he coached students in basketball at St Aloysius’ College in Sydney, earning a CAS (Combined Associated Schools) Championship in 1999.
As with any life carried out in the public eye, there were a few bumpy patches. In 1968, as well as winning best male personality and best show for Tonight with Don Lane, he was charged with importing marijuana, but was successfully defended by then barrister Marcus Einfeld. He had a long-running feud with television host and comedian Ernie Sigley, and while his show rated through the roof from 1975 to 1983 he also sparked headlines and controversy.
He notoriously told psychic debunker James Randi to “piss off” on national television, causing a furore.
Guests such as Liza Minnelli, Davis Jr, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Kirk Douglas, Sellers, Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and Bob Hope brought Hollywood glamour closer to Australian viewers than ever. An appearance on The Don Lane Show would guarantee sell-out shows for visiting performers.
Leading comedy writer Mike McColl Jones wrote gags for him through the 70s and 80s. “Promoters loved us,” he recalls. “There was nothing bigger than us. Australians would stay up in their droves and go to bed with a laugh.” Even prime ministers Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke went on the show. (Highlights of the Hawke interview can be seen on YouTube.)
Using then-new satellite technology, the live crosses that he did into stars’ homes and dressing-rooms gave the impression he knew all the world’s greatest performers. The Don Lane Show’s executive producer Peter Faiman, best known for directing Crocodile Dundee, remained friends with Lane. His wife, Jennifer Jobson, was Lane’s best friend and confidante, and visited him every day.
“Everyone forgets the massive influence of the show,” Faiman says.
“It regularly produced headlines around Australia. He was surprising, unpredictable, always affable, always warm, always extremely open. He was unquestionably one of the major players in defining night-time entertainment in Australia. He was volatile but at the same time always professional and personally very charming.”
Increasing frailty meant that Lane had not been seen in public for years. Friends say Lane’s condition slowly worsened, but there was no defining point at which his dementia became obvious. He was admitted to a care facility last year. Faiman says Lane’s personality and sense of humour had helped him deal with the condition.
Lane was charismatic both off and on stage. Bob Phillips, producer of The Don Lane Show, says Lane always loved women, and in return was loved by them.
His illness had come as a shock to friends, partly because he was a “total health nut” who rarely drank, built his own tennis court and hired a tennis coach, and was always downing vitamin supplements.
“There were very few people we didn’t get on the show, every major act in the world was interviewed by Don,” Phillips says. “The public (was) immensely curious about him. He wasn’t a big star in America, but we didn’t know that. We thought he knew all these people personally.”
Lane was married twice; he remained good friends with Jayne Ambrose, his manager and agent, who married Lane 20 years ago. Their son P.J. Isaacson, a former professional basketball player who Lane encouraged to go into show business, is in Australia. He relocated because of concern about his father’s health.
For Lane, what was supposed to be a temporary sojourn in Australia led to him becoming one of the country’s most popular entertainers, ultimately winning 15 Logies.
He was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame in 2003, in what was one of his last public appearances.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/lanky-yank-don-lane-bows-out-at-75/story-e6frg8qo-1225790185894