Funny that just last week I was talking to a student about the peculiar little case of Carson v. Here’s Johnny Portable Toilets, Inc., 698 F.2d 831 (6th Cir. 1983). The caption tells the story: a portable toilet company was selling “Here’s Johnny” toilets (advertising slogan: “The World’s Foremost Commodian.” I guess Carson didn’t think that was funny, though I do). Carson sued (and ultimately prevailed) on grounds that this violated his “right to publicity.”
I was a big Carson fan in my day. I’d come home from elementary school and watch “Who Do You Trust?,” his first network show (ABC, if I remember correctly), pretty much every afternoon; I had a serious game show addiction as a child, from which, fortunately, I’ve recovered. And in high school, I’d watch the first half hour or so of the Tonight Show pretty much every night. He was an odd kind of genius; he was rarely hysterically funny, hardly in the same league belly-laugh-wise as the great comics; but somehow he was the most watchable of all. As a friend of mine put it: forget “Here’s Johnny,” what he should’ve trademarked was his smile. It was, I think, an important part of his magic it was without question one of the great smiles ever, totally lighting up his face, seemingly genuine, and it just made you feel good. RIP.
Comments are closed.