Pete Hamill
It is a most sad day in New York today. Those New Yorkers with the good sense and capacity to know who this great man was, one of The Great New Yorkers of all times. Hamill passed away Wednesday, August 5, 2020, and New York and The World has just become a much less interesting place,” without Pete in it. Hamill may very well be the “Last of The Great Celebrity Newspaperman.” Hamill wrote 10 novels and a couple collections of short stories, and he was a top author, he will most be remembered as a Newspaper Reporter. This he would tell you himself. His style was muscular, sometimes gritty, and always of energetic prose.
Over his career Hamill worked (wrote) for The New York Post, New York Herald Tribune, The Daily News, Village Voice, and New York Magazine. He penned numerous articles for Esquire, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and other magazines. Hamill was at his best telling the story of his beloved city New York. He could seamlessly write great articles on crime scenes, crime, courthouse drama, of New York and the Worlds Power Brokers, and just about anything. He was a natural storyteller, and with so much knowledge with an encyclopedic take of New York, in his later years Hamill was often featured as a speaker in television documentaries the great metropolis, its history, places, events, and characters, The Heartbeat of New York. We all know him for his books and thousands of magazine and newspaper articles, but if you have never seen Pete Hamill talk about New York, people, anything, do yourself a favor and seek these documentaries out. He had a wonderful voice, and he could besides penning a story, Hamill was great at telling (vocally) as well.
Yes we have lost another great one in Pete. I know it sounds cliche “we’ve lost another great,” yes it may sound cliche, but it is as true as can be. When I look around, at such things as books, writings, music, entertainment, and the horrible crap they’ve (so-called musicians) been putting out the past 20 years or so, and the people we’ve lost over the years; Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., John Lennon, Dean Martin, Jimmy Breslin, and now Pete Hamill, the World is so less interesting. Sorry, but there just will never ever be any other entertainer like the great Frank Sinatra, there can’t be, current generations just don’t have the style or class to appreciate this type of greatness. If you have an entire generation listening to shitty crap rap music, and the so-called alternative rock, it proves right there that these people are completely devoid of good-taste. It so so sad, when we had all that great music (R&B, Pop, Standards, Rock n’ Roll) in the 1960s and 70s, that there is so much crap out there today, and practically all the so-called music is so horrible (other than a very few exceptions), “I just don’t get it?” Thank God for books, and Thank God for recordings so we don’t have to listen to all the Shitty Music (except when your in retail shops) that’s out there today, we can listen to the great stuff of the 1960s, 50s, and 70s, and not have to listen the shit they make today (Kanye, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, etc.), yes Thank God for recordings of the past. I feel sorry for the kids of today. We have R&B, Rock n’ Roll, Dean Martin, and Sinatra, and we always have Pete. This great man has passed away, we are thankful that we had him (for 85 years). Pete Hamill has passed away, a very sad day, but his words and his legacy live on, “read him.”
God Bless you Peter Hamill, and thank you for all you gave us. Rest in Peace, you live on in your written word.
A DRINKING LIFE
Pete Hamill
A Memoir
“Read This” !
Pete Hamill with The Great Joe DiMaggio
and NT Daily News Cartoonist Bill Gallo
Pete Hamill at dinner with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
They once dated. Pete also dated Shirley McClain,
and Linda Ronstadt
Two Great New York City Writers
One Italian, One Irish
Gay Talese and Pete Hamill
SUNDAY SAUCE
WHEN ITALIAN-AMERICANS COOK
Daniel Bellino Zwicke
