by Abie Torres
My niece, Debbie and her husband Eddie, were with us on Easter. After dinner, Dibbie was thumbing through Besas’ Inside Variety. Pointing to a photo of Roger she said, “Uncle Abie, I don’t remember him.” I told Debbie that Roger was from our London office and recalled the day we, in advertising production, decided to play a gag on Roger and on John Willis. During the UK and Argentina conflict over the Falkland Islands, an Argentine torpedo somehow hit a British ship. The New York Daily News ran a front page photo of the idle ship in the waters of the South Atlantic. We had a blowup made of that front page. When Roger and John walked into the office the next day, we played a tape of Patti LuPone singing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.” Roger’s reply was “That was grand, Thank you. Will talk to you chaps later on.” With that, they went upstairs to meet with Syd.
Roger, it has been a privilege knowing you.