Alan Alda made an appearance on The Late Show last night. He was a delightful guest, talking about acting and his podcast series, Clear + Vivid.
Alan Alda is now eighty-five. How did that happen? He was the speaker at my college commencement, Fordham College, 1978, forty-three years ago. Forty-three years ago: how did that happen? I remember just one point Alda (FC ’56) made, which I think was the point of his address. He tasked graduates with asking themselves, every now and then, this question: “What are my values?” I remember it as a suggestion to check in with yourself, a way of asking “Is this who I am, who I want to be?”
I can find no account of the commencement to let me know if my memory is accurate. But here’s an Alda commencement address from 2015 that touches on a similar theme.
My dad once did tile work in the house of Alda’s next-door neighbor in Leonia, New Jersey. So being the kind of dad he was, he took a copy of the commencement program with him and knocked, hoping to get an autograph for me. I think he said a maid answered the door. Alan Alda wasn’t home. I think that if he had been home, he would have signed.
[In 1978 the fake Vonnegut commencement address Alda read in 2015 hadn’t yet been written. A 2017 article notes that Alda flew back to Leonia from Los Angeles every weekend while working on M*A*S*H. Perhaps he was out west when my dad knocked. Important: I had no idea what my dad was up to.]
Thursday, August 12, 2021
Alan Alda now and then
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comments: 2
Lee,
I hope you get this. You'll find me in LinkedIN, I'm in Florida these days, wcarey2@gmail.com.
I knew I'd be finished in December of 1978, though I'm a true Class of '79.
So, I felt entitled to attend YOUR class's ceremonies (no cap and gown, no Rosie Ruiz) so I could hear Alan Alda's talk.
And, like you, it left a big mark.
I remember him opening with being funny telling jokes, about Fordham in his time, about life, about MASH. For anyone else reading, he was the star of the top hit TV show in America.
And after the opening jokes, he looked out at the crowd and said, look, years from now, you aren't going to remember one of these jokes I just told.
But I hope you remember this: You got here, because you have a lot of support, your parents, your family, your firends. So hold on to your values. You'll go out in the world and you'll be tested by things in the world, and those things will test your values. But hold on to what you value and what you know, don't let people or circumstances make you compromise your values.
I'm paraphrasing, yes, but I went on to a career (ironically, CBS, where I met him about ten months later and it inspired me to write a spec script for MASH that had me visiting the set in L.A. almost a year to the day of that commencement) (and no, it didn't sell, they sat me down, told me I did great, and naded me the only and first two parter that was going to open the September 1979 season, and wanted me to know they hadn't ripped off my idea!)
If you have a copy of the exact words, I'd appreciate it, I never find it online and came looking for it today and found you.
I have given that talk COUNTLESS times to classes at Fordham, to other high schools and colleges, to newsrooms and television stations, and it never grows old and in today's polarized world, and as I myself age and am older than Alan was then, I realize some of my audience looks at me and thinks I'm quaint, not a "player," and may get easily bored with its message.
F**k them. They are the ones that need it most, and with any luck, they remember me when they need it down the road.
Best regards,
Bill
Class of '78.5 :)
Bill, I’m guessing that you’re hoping an old classmate sees this. If so, I hope they do.
Thanks for your recollections of Alda’s talk. Maybe the text is out there somewhere.
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