Olbermann and Thurber…

New York Magazine’s Matt McCue writes about Keith Olbermann’s appearance at a James Thurber event last night…

While in college at Cornell, Olbermann watched a PBS special by William Windom that turned him on to the works of Thurber. Then, this past March, Olbermann was sitting in a hospital, reading Thurber stories to his dying father as he fell asleep. “My father said to me — he had never said anything like this in my entire career — ‘You should read this on your show,’” Olbermann remembers. “I said, ‘I can’t imagine it would really fit that well. It’s a newscast, more or less. How would I?’ And my father said, ‘Have I ever suggested something like this? It would be tremendous. I enjoy it. You should do it.’ How could I say no in that position?”

Olbermann gave one test reading and realized he had a slight dilemma. “I said to my father, ‘You know, these sorts of things are copyrighted and there is a small chance that a fee may be required.’ If we run a movie clip, for instance, somebody from Mr. Spielberg’s , will call and say, ‘That will be $10,000 for the three seconds of Star Wars you just used.’”

But he told his dad he’d give it a shot. “And that’s when I heard from Thurber’s estate,” Olbermann said. “I said to my dad, ‘Here is an email from the literary trust. It’s got to be a bill.” And it was anything but. It was the most wonderful, genuine invitation on behalf of Rosemary Thurber (James’s daughter) to read whatever I wanted on the air and off, and even to edit the work for time, if necessary. Which is basically like saying, ‘You’re not actually a heart surgeon, but go on in.’ Well, the ratings response was marvelous. In fact, on Friday nights it represented an increase in our ratings and that pleased my employers.”