The other night someone I know and yours truly watched Masterpiece Theatre's The Unseen Alistair Cooke with great interest. After all, I had interviewed him, and conducted a friendly correspondence, while writing my dissertation. He had been unfailingly polite and helpful, unlike some PBS types. He invited me to his home, and we conducted our conversation in his library, painted red, overlooking Central Park, bookshelves featuring the complete WPA guides to the United States, arranged geographically, like a map of his travels. So it was nice to see his familiar face, and more to the point, hear his familiar voice--as well as clips from home movies featuring Charlie Chaplin and Adlai Stevenson, among others. I had never met either of his formidable wives, only knew of his children by reputation before seeing this picture--and now that it has been screened, see why he didn't talk about them much...What was left out of this picture is well-covered by the late Nick Clarke's Alistair Cooke: A Biography
, so I won't nit-pick the omissions. For me, no one better symbolizes 1950s New York sophistication than Alistair Cooke. Here are few angles left untouched by the show:1. A major influence on Cooke's life and work was Arthur Quiller-Couch, Cambridge don and literary critic. He taught at Cambridge when Cooke studied there. What "Q," as he was known at the time (take that Miss Moneypenny!). did in print Cooke did on the air.
2. Cooke was seen as an American by the British. Indeed, he was resented by many at the BBC for becoming an American citizen in 1941, viewed as a coward and a traitor who abandoned his nation during the Blitz for the safety of the USA (the US was not at war yet). He had a New York accent while hosting Omnibus.
3. Cooke was a friend and admirer of H.L. Mencken, the sage of Baltimore. He saved his house from destruction, and championed Mencken's Americanist approach to literature and history. He stood by Mencken even after his career ended in disrepute due to German sympathies during WWII.
4. As a journalist, Cooke wrote one of the seminal accounts of the Cold War: A GENERATION ON TRIAL - USA V ALGER HISS
. The book was remarkably even-handed, praising Richard Nixon (he was described as "handsome"). 5. Cooke made a number of publicity films for the UN during the 1960s, after Omnibus folded. They are quite interesting, and would have given some context to his trans-atlantic internationalism.
6. His son John Cooke was Janis Joplin's manager, he discovered Janis dead from an overdose of alcohol and pills.
7. Cooke hated the 1960s, calling it a "ghastly" decade.
8. When he died, Cooke's bones were stolen by a criminal human medical spare parts ring, a crime covered widely in the press. Here's a link to the BBC account:
An investigation is under way in New York into allegations that the bones of the late broadcaster Alistair Cooke were stolen before his cremation.IMHO, Cooke would have enjoyed his posthumous notoriety. For a newspaperman and reporter, it was a great final story...
Cooke, known for the Letter from America he broadcast for the BBC, died almost two years ago, aged 95.
According to the New York Daily News his bones were stolen by a criminal ring trading body parts.
They were later sold by a biomedical tissue company now under investigation, the paper claims.
When Cooke died of lung cancer that spread to his bones in March 2004, his body was taken to a funeral home in Manhattan.
Two days later, relatives of the iconic broadcaster received his ashes, which were then scattered in New York's Central Park.
Now they have been told that body snatchers allegedly surgically removed his bones and sold them for more than $7,000 (£4,000) to a company supplying parts for use in dental implants and various orthopaedic procedures.
The US attorney general's office in Brooklyn is investigating an elaborate ring involving funeral directors, surgeons and entrepreneurs.
This is a grim and ghoulish tale which has understandably appalled everyone who knew Cooke, says the BBC's Guto Harri in New York.
Cooke's stepdaughter, Holly Rumbold, told the BBC's World at One programme she was outraged by the claims.
"I'm most shocked by the violation of the medical ethics, that my stepfather's ancient and cancerous bones should have been passed off as healthy tissue to innocent patients," she said.
You can read my obituary of Cooke in The Idler, here.