In newsrooms, it’s known as the “dreaded local angle.”
When a celebrity dies, you have to note some nearby connection, no matter how remote, that ties the deceased to the local reader.
The thinking is that local folks don’t really relate to or care about some Nobel Peace Prize recipient who passed away unless they know that she once spoke at the community college campus or happened to have a third cousin who one time lived in town.
Well, it turns out that Milwaukee actually figures into the success story of Joan Rivers.
As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, Rivers told the late Tim Cuprisin in 2006 that in the 1960s, when she first became a hit on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Milwaukee helped her break through as a national star. From the interview:
“And my agent came and said to my husband, ‘She’s too New York and she’s too Jewish, she’ll never break through.’
“My husband says, ‘Pick the worst city in America for comedy, and send her there, ’cause you guys are crazy.’
“And they sent me to the Pfister (Hotel in Milwaukee), and it was fabulous. I have such a warm spot for Milwaukee. My agent finally said, ‘Maybe she can be national.'”
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The video above, from the IFC Films documentary “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” shows her dealing with a heckler at a performance in Wisconsin.
Click here for a photographic retrospective from the Journal Sentinel.