JUDGE GARDNER -- The Verdict

The late Andy Devine, who lived among us here in Orange County for a

great many years, was a man of varied and formidable talents.

Most people knew him as a movie actor, a gravel-throated bear of a man

who appeared in countless westerns with the likes of John Wayne and other

famous cowboys.

One of Andy’s least known talents was as a poet -- not a major poet of

the Keats or Shelley category, but good enough to attain the enviable

title of poet laureate of the Orange County Press Club.

It happened this way:

One time the Devines and the Gardners were going to drive to

Vandenberg Air Force Base to visit a friend. On the same night we were to

leave, unfortunately, I had to act as master of ceremonies at the Orange

County Press Club awards banquet.

Not to worry. I would get a ride to the hotel where the banquet was

being held, and Andy and our wives would pick me up afterward. So far, so

good.

There was one small fly in the ointment. Awards ceremonies tend to

drag on and on. It always seems like everyone in the place gets some kind

of award. This particular ceremony was no exception.

So, Andy, Doagie and Katie waited in the bar of the hotel as I handed

out awards to every ink-stained wretch in the county. Since Andy didn’t

drink, the wait began to seem interminable.

Finally, a waitress came to the lectern and handed me a cocktail

napkin on which Andy had scribbled the following verse, which I read to

the assembled members of the press:

“The hour is late

The road is bent,

So cut it short

And let us went.”

I don’t pretend to know anything about poetry. I don’t know whether

that is runic verse or iambic pentameter, but it rhymes. And it had two

results.

First, it certainly sped up the awards presentation. I zipped through

the rest of the program in record time.

Second, at the next meeting of the press club, Andy was selected as

its poet laureate, an honor he held proudly, along with his selection as

honorary mayor of Van Nuys and having a street named after him in

Kingman, Ariz.

As he was fond of saying, it wasn’t quite like winning an Oscar, but .

. .

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His

column runs Tuesdays.