Calling It a Career

Retirement isn't what it used to be.  My father's generation usually toiled for the same employer most of their adult life; got the gold watch and headed to Florida or Arizona to settle into a sunny but boring decline.  Golf and dinner at 4:30 PM were pretty much the only events on the schedule until it was time to fall into the hole.

Like everything else, change has come for working men and women.  It's now dads AND moms who have careers and those jobs generally come with serial employers and tenures that don't get you to age 65 or even 62.  It is increasingly rare to find someone who can actually call their own "time out".  For most of us our last day on "the job" is determined by our employer.  And, if you're over 50, your boss may be the one who schedules the surprising day you're put out to pasture.  Many a working stiff is retiring early--and not by choice.

Show business careers have always been especially fragile.  If that is your chosen path it is almost certainly imperative to have a backup profession to ease you past the employment gaps in an often short career.  God knows I got an education in the broadcast racket.  When my radio partner and I got the boot from what turned out to be my seventeenth and final station, we both really assumed we'd be back on the air somewhere in no time.  We didn't count on the entire industry slashing thousands of jobs while  committing suicide via the elimination of compelling content.   These days giant corporations have the idea that paid infomercials for colon cleansers and real estate scams are just what listeners are hungry for.  They also seem confused by those massive ratings declines.  Bankruptsy anyone?

The movie business is in an even greater state of flux.  Audiences are tired of mind numbing content and $12 popcorn when they can wait a couple of weeks to stream the films they care about on their big screen TVs right there at home.  So,  the little noted announcement that show biz icon Peter O'Toole is saying so long to acting is such good news.  He is leaving on HIS OWN TERMS!  He could still work if he wanted, but he doesn't care to anymore.  He turns 80 on August 2 and has decided that he has nothing left to prove and is more than happy to do little or nothing until the ultimate gig in the big "up yonder" has his name on the casting list.  

"The stage and screen have brought me together with fine people, good companions with whom I've shared the inevitable lot of all actors:  flops and hits."  "So I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell."

A classy exit for a classy guy.   We should all be so lucky. 

"Fifty years is enough."