John L. Wasserman (August 13, 1938 – February 25, 1979) was an American entertainment

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

for the

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

from 1964 until the time of his death in 1979. Known more for humor and originality than in-depth analysis, he's best known for his creative reviews of bad films, clever skewering of glitzy performers, and passionate advocacy for those in whose talents he believed.

Early life

Son of a political scientist and elementary school teacher, Wasserman attended

Tamalpais High School Tamalpais High School (often abbreviated as Tam) is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises almost above Mill Valley. Tamalpais High Scho ...

Mill Valley, California Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

and was editor of the school paper, the Tamalpais News. Never having graduated from college (he attended Whitman College for two years and the College of Marin for a time, crediting it as his best educational experience), Wasserman worked at many jobs including copy boy at the Chronicle before landing a position at the paper at age 24 when an opening for an assistant critic came up in the paper's entertainment department. His audition review, A GATHERING OF EAGLES with Rock Hudson, landed him the job. The paper's executive editor, Bill German, recalled that John's review "was the only one that didn't bore me." Paine Knickerbocker became his mentor at the paper; Judy Stone was his editor for film reviews.

Writing career

Wasserman's most celebrated writing years were 1970 to 1979, when he inherited the late Ralph J. Gleason's column. His columns covered anything vaguely related to entertainment: film, theater, music, comedy, bodybuilding, the evangelist Billy Graham, strippers, flacks, and even live sex shows at the infamous Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theater. He counted

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, poet

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, Bill Graham and numerous other celebrities among his friends. He could count

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, countless music promoters and crowds of Osmond fans among his detractors. Dressed all in black and always in a hurry, with an infectious laugh, he was a highly visible presence in San Francisco. He was the first person

Marty Balin Martyn Jerel Buchwald (January 30, 1942 – September 27, 2018), known as Marty Balin (), was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as the founder/leader and one of the lead singers and songwriters of Jefferson Airplane and ...

asked to manage

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(he turned it down). He taught an annual "Media and the Arts" extension course for

San Francisco State San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

and was an expert witness in obscenity trials. He served as a stand-in for

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on the set of PETULIA and

on the set of THE ENFORCER. He also did a brief walk-on in the motorcycle film C.C. AND COMPANY. He wrote the first serious review of a male porn film, KANSAS CITY TRUCKIN, for the SF Chronicle.

Death

He died in a car accident on February 25, 1979, south of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, in which two others in another car were also killed. His

blood alcohol level Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes; it is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume or mass of blood. For example ...

was found to be .26, nearly three times the legal limit at the time, and he was driving the wrong way on the freeway.

Posthumous publications

A collection of more than 90 of his reviews and columns, and a narrative about his life based on interviews conducted after his death, by his journalist sister, Abby Wasserman, was published by Chronicle Books in 1993. The book is ''Praise, Vilification & Sexual Innuendo, or How to Be a Critic: The Selected Writings of John L. Wasserman, 1964-1979''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasserman, John 1938 births 1979 deaths American male journalists American columnists Road incident deaths in California Tamalpais High School alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers