The Third Annual Damon Runyon banquet in October 1996 was one of my favorites, even though just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
We held the dinner in an eccentric venue with terrible acoustics.
We also made the big mistake of catering it ourselves. This led to my inadvertently filling the salt shakers with sugar. (Yes, the prime rib did taste a bit funny.)
The night was redeemed, however, by the dynamic duo of Herb Caen and Molly Ivins.
Memories of that night came rushing back last week when I heard the sad news that Molly had passed away after a long battle with breast cancer.
That year was the only time we gave the award to two people in a single night. Balloting had ended in a tie, so we decided to give both Herb and Molly the Runyon.
We knew Herb was dying of cancer and that this would be our last chance to hear him. What we did not know was that Herb and Molly were huge fans of one another.
“You know, the real reason I am here tonight? It's because Molly Ivins is here,” Herb told the crowd. “Deep down inside, The (San Francisco) Chronicle is a Republican paper,” he added. “We have some liberal columnists, of which I am one, but Molly Ivins is the one we love.”
“Sometimes, two weeks go by without a Molly Ivins column, and then I run into the publisher and say, ‘Long time, no Molly.’ When we run Molly Ivins, I think we're more of a newspaper than we usually are.”
Cynthia Hessin, who was president of the Denver Press Club that year, also had a funny memory of Molly that night: “I picked her up, along with someone else, another woman from the DPC ranks who seemed to know her a little,” Cynthia wrote.
“As I drove to the hotel, the Denver friend gave her trouble for having a missing button on her jacket,” and Molly flipped open the coat to show that all the other buttons were safety-pinned! She was not a bit pretentious.”
Some folks did not care for her liberal politics or her salty language.
But for my money, Molly gave one of the most inspirational talks about journalism at a Damon Runyon banquet.
Let me close here with an excerpt from her talk.
“I am here to speak on behalf of irreverence, improper behavior and the occasional imbibing of far too much liquor. I am here to speak on behalf of mischief, upset and roiling the waters.
I knew there was a problem the first time a younger reporter came up to me and said, ‘Molly, I have been offered such and such an assignment. Do you think this would be a shrewd career move?’
I said — in my ancient wisdom — there are only three questions to ask: Can you do good? Can you have fun? And can you learn?
I, for one, hope to have as the epitaph on my tombstone:
"She never made a shrewd career move."
"I am telling you now that there are many forces out there trying to snuff out the outlaw impulse in newspapers. There are many people who tell us we have serious responsibilities. We answer to the community. We have Professional Obligations. It gets heavier, and heavier, and heavier.
And I just want to urge you to all resist this nonsense. As long as we are raising hell and having fun, we will be doing our job."
