Tony Brunton, R.I.P.

Tony just left us for the broadcasting studios of heaven at the age of 76, following a heart attack. When you speak of people who are larger than life, he will always come to my mind. Larger, more outrageous, either a dreamer or someone whose imagination has run away with his reason.

Tv news anchors in those black-and-white days wore blue shirts; they photographed as white, without making your face dark as a real white shirt would. The shirts were called “tv blue,” and were standard. But not in radio, unless you were Tony Brunton and wore them all the time as you edited the news and presented it in a small booth, miles away from anything remotely resembling television.

“What’s the ‘right now’ angle on the story?” he wanted to know, through stickers put on all the newsroom typewriters. Well, what is the “right now” angle? I was doing a story on the Miss America contest, held last night, during which Miss Kentucky, or some such, was crowned. There was no “right now” angle; she was in parts unknown doing things equally unknown. My opening: “Miss Kentucky is enjoying her first day as Miss America 1959, following her coronation last night… (blah blah).”

His motto seemed to be, “When you aren’t official, then b.s. your way into wherever you need to be.” Works for me. The WICC News wagon had a blue flashing light on it and one time we had to cover a plane crash in Brooklyn; off it went, far above the speed limit, blue light flashing and cars giving way for wild man Tony.