Quote:
Originally Posted by dilanesp
Yes, Vic, Marje Everett definitely did fire Henson, at least in the sense that he was "involuntarily retired". At the time, my family was quite friendly with Jim Healy, who had his radio show on KLAC (at the time) and who was close to Everett, so we heard the full story. Everett got it in her head that the track needed a "fresh voice", and basically forced him out after the 1982 summer meet. It may have been announced as a retirement, but Everett had told him he had to go. He still wanted to call races and he kept working at Del Mar in 1982 and 1983. He was apparently extremely pissed at Everett about this.
(BTW, this wasn't the first conflict between Everett and Henson: Everett also had significant disputes with Henson when her father was running the tracks in Chicago. This is talked about in Phil Georgeff's biography, because Everett's dispute with Henson in Chicago led to Georgeff getting the job at Arlington Park.)
When RD Hubbard later took over the track, he hated Marje Everett too (he had waged a years long proxy fight to force her out because he thought she was running the track into the ground). One of the things he did to poke Marje in the eye was naming a race after Harry Henson, which is how we got the Harry Henson Stakes which you called a number of renewals of.
So yes, Harry was, shall we say, let go by Hollywood Park after calling the races there for 24 years and attaining iconic status.
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Starting in 1985 I would drive back and forth across the Country to various jobs. I always made it a point, even if it was well out of my way, to go through El Paso so I could visit Harry. Without his help I may have never made it as an announcer.
He never made it sound as though he had been forced out. I do know his eyesight was badly failing. He hated sounding lost, especially for races run at dusk. The lighting at HP was terrible then and frankly never got any better.
I loved everything about Friday night racing there except for the lights. Especially when they ran on the turf. Every silk looked brown when they were running into the far turn.
I know Jim Healy and Marge were very close. But I'm sure you'll agree Healy never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
I'll NEVER concede that Harry was fired.
