I... I...

I must admit I thought he died years ago. Hey, I don't keep up with former Hollywood Squares panelists.

Him and Abe Vigoda.

His 'squares' work, while good, top notch stuff, will eventually fade. It is his contributions to The Match Game that will live on forever. There Nipsy truly pushed the envelope. There Nipsy smiled, and we all learned what daytime TV could be, its potential revealed.

'Pro' and 'con' are opposites
That is plainly seen
If 'progress' means to go forward,
then what does 'Congress' mean?

-- Nipsey Russell

He used to be a carhop at the Varsity restaurant, which survives to this day, across I75/85 from the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta. In fact, the last time I even thought of Nipsey Russel was when I stopped in for 3 naked dogs with onions and some fries.

"...he will be remembered for his role of the Tin Man in the 1978 "The Wiz." The movie was a box office failure, but since the movie has been considered a cult classic. "

Why is it that every shitty movie that bombs is later called a "cult classic"?

Am I the only one who sees the hand of Rove in this?

Flip Wilson, please check in. We're worried sick.

Oops. I guess they already silenced Flip.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0933400/

There's a tribute to Nipsey at The At Large Blog.

I was having lunch with coworkers. He and Buddy Hacket were in the resturant leering at me. I complained to my boss that these two street people were staring at me and he told me who they were. They really did look like bums. And that's my story. :)

Buddy Hackett, sure. That's the added touch that almost makes your story believable. But Nipsey? Nipsey could have had any woman (or man) he wanted, and wouldn't be caught dead hanging round some lunch counter ogling streetwalkers.

Maybe this is how you get your thrill, making yourself important, telling your little tales of great men 'leering' at you, ("Ooohh, officer, I was just in the pharmacy and Abraham Linclon pinched my ass!") but not here. Not today, cause this here's 'Nipsey's place' today.

Sell it somewhere else, sister.

I wonder if he's the "third" of the Don Adams-Bob Denver "death comes in threes" trio. If not we've entered the TV Poet death trio, Henry Gibson is bound to be included. Henry even wrote me a poem once.
The bullmoose doesn't drink, smoke, or chew
His only hangup is he sniffs glue
If I were a bullmoose I would too.

Now that I think about it anyone with such a low estimation of life as a moose probably deserves to die.

Actually, it was at a resturant in Brentwood and you're just jealous.

Oops. I guess they already silenced Flip.

Damn that Rove!

He can't possibly be evil enough to go after Don Adams, can he?

Remember HOLLYWOOD SQUARES greatS PAUL LYNDand ROSE MARIE? then there was WALLEY COX and CHARLE WEAVER and i do beleive NIPTSY RUSSEL was on THE MATCH GAME DUMB DORRIS IS SOOOO DUMB HOW DUMB IS SHE?

My dad used to go to a club regularly in Harlem in the late '50s and '60s. One night, Dad arrived there over 2.5 hours later than his friends. He'd gotten lost on his way to pick up a first date...where she was staying for the Summer: New Jersey. (He liked her a lot.)

She was fuming by the time he finally called, about an hour and a half after he was supposed to pick her up. Her sister and brother-in-law convinced her to go out anyway.

Dad didn't tell her too much about where they were going, nor what they were going to see. She remembers walking 6 blocks from the car to 125th Street, pretty upset. It was late at night, she was a 19-year-old small town girl from Massachusetts, and nervous walking around so late. She was pretty sure there wasn't going to be a second date.

But she was amazed when she walked into the club, filled with about 100 people. (Of course, you know who it was onstage.) She'd seen Nipsey on tv before. But she was pretty shocked to see him there in this smaller club, and even more so to hear him call my father by name.

Nipsey, mid-act, stopped and yelled, "Harvey! Where the Hell have you been? And you've got a pretty lady on your arm! What the hell is she doing with you? Did you kidnap her?"

He didn't buy Dad's excuse. "Yeah right, you're always late!" Then started riffing on Dad, cracking everyone, including my father, up.

Dad and a bunch of his friends would go there all the time just to see Nipsey. They'd sit through all the other acts to watch all of his sets, for hours. And he would razz them from the stage. Then he'd come over and sit with them whenever he wasn't performing, and be "absolutely hysterical," my Dad said.

And if you haven't guessed by now, the girl did go on a second date with Dad. The "pretty lady" was my mom.*

Nipsey was a smart, sweet, articulate man, onstage and off, according to my parents. He was always the nicest guy in the room, and that you could help but smile to be around him. "I don't think anyone has a picture of Nipsey with anything but a smile on his face," Mom said.

Dad wondered why he wasn't more famous, and then he got "Car 54" and broke out. He still performed at the clubs, though. My parents lost touch with him after they moved away from NY.

Talked to them today about it, finally, and they had nothing but fond memories about him.

They told me what Letterman said, "No one ever said an unkind word about Nipsey, and Nipsey never said an unkind word about anyone else."

Dad said, "That's completely true. Well, if you don't count how he would make fun of my hair."

*I'm sad for his passing,
But tho' I'm forlorn,
I'm grateful to Nipsey,
'Cause of him, I was born.

Hope you're cracking them up upstairs, Nipsey.

P.S. If you don't believe me, I'll give you my dad's phone number and you can call him.