On every episode we choose a celebrity who died between 1 and 10 years ago. We then go through a series of structured categories. We start by rating the first line of their NYT obituary on a scale of 1–10. We then look at their life stats, we speculate on their inner lives, and we ultimately answer the question "Would I want that life?" Each category helps weigh the desirability of a given life. Our approach is that of an empathetic biography. Our dead celebrities cross many categories of fame, including film, TV, sports, music, politics, literature, and more. Our goal is to make serious topics fun.
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episode 52: Electric Vanities (Tom Wolfe)
This person died in 2018 at age 88. When he graduated college in 1951 he had enough skill as a baseball player to earn a tryout with the New York Giants. He earned his PhD in American Studies from Yale in 1957. Beginning in the 1960s he helped create the enormously influential hybrid of fiction techniques into non-fiction known as the New Journalism. He was instantly recognizable as he strolled down Madison Avenue — a tall, slender, blue-eyed, boyish-looking man in his spotless three-piece white bespoke suit. He authored The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, and Bonfire of the Vanities. Today’s dead celebrity is Tom Wolfe
Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Jacob Weiss. Sign up for our newsletter at famousandgravy.com for news and updates on the show. Also, enjoy our mobile quiz game at deadoraliveapp.com
If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 41 “Viva Bojangles” (Jerry Jeff Walker) and Episode 23 “Book Rancher” (Larry McMurtry).
Transcript of this episode
New York Times Obituary for Tom Wolfe
Famous & Gravy official website
Famous & Gravy on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
Article by Michael Lewis on Tom Wolfe in Vanity Fair
“The Making of Tom Wolfe’s Radical Chic” in Vulture
Trailer for ‘The Right Stuff’ movie
Trailer for The ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’ movie
Tom Wolfe’s guest appearance on The Simpsons
HPB.com
Dead or Alive Quiz Game
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