PHANTOM SWAY

    • Death of a Pitchman

     

    You want this, and probably because of Robin Leach

    A lifetime as a writer, producer, hustler and a fine gentleman who was known by the credo “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” unknowingly led us to the land of plastic fantastic.

    Robin Leach – the London-born, Vegas-bred jovial rube – may well be the origin of his species, touting the lives of the rich and infamous, showcasing vast wealth and empires but with very little substance. His platform launched the modern day renaissance of crass splendor and dirty sheets. The likes of the Kardashians, Sheiks of Bel Air and Crisley Knows Best hatched pure dreck custom built for the mobile phone and Instagram minefield of today’s zombie youth.

    But unlike those travesties that show that all the money in the world can’t buy respectability, Robin Leach had a grace about himself; certainly an “insider’s joke” understanding of the ridiculous nature of his signature series Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous. He knew from the onset that this was a vapid attempt to make the filthy rich look interesting and sophisticated – which eight times out of ten was not the case – but it was enough to get us to cover one eye while looking with the other. He realized the car wreck mentality of our very natures.

    “I just can’t (yes I can).”

    We are but loathsome creatures feeding off this sort of empty programming, but that is where Leach’s Vegas showman played us. He knew that for all the mental midgets and their velvet ropes that made us detest the show, the draw of the blue water properties, Italian sportsters and gleaming bathroom chandeliers was just too much to turn away from. Leach burrowed into our closet pleasures. His thick English accent made us feel less disgusted with ourselves. The English could sell you pennies on the pound with those Elizabethan dialects.

    Today Robin Leach died at the age of 76. He’ll be forever known as a clever bloke breaking new ground in reality entertainment television, which no doubt will be written in history as the decline of the modern world – a world where Greek heiresses with large behinds and flat-ironed personalities have more social power than any great thinker, politician, doctor or inventor.

    We have entered the era of our cultural demise and Leach put us on the guest list. It was bloody good fun though.

     

    Justin Press
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