Taking a Leap with O.J. Simpson

 I once saw Orenthal JamesSimpson at Los Angeles International Airport, walking at a steady clip,suitcase in hand. The moment stands out for me because, at the time that Ispotted him, the airwaves were filled with the famous Hertz commercials, inwhich O.J., clearly late for something important, dramatically hurtles overairport barricades to reach the car rental counter. That series of commercials (startingin 1975) struck a chord with the public because they captured what everyoneloved about O.J. in that era: the remarkable football skills, the charm, thehandsome face and resonant speaking voice.

 As a UCLA student I hadplenty of opportunity to root against O.J. and his USC Trojans on the gridiron.Later, I was well aware that he’d successfully made the leap from running backto media superstar. Aside from his commercials, he did TV sports commentary,and honed his acting chops with memorable comic roles as a police detective inthree Naked Gun films (from the guys behind Airplane!). Like therest of America’s media watchers, I thought of Simpson as a big, strong guywith an endearing smile.

 That all changed in 1994 whenSimpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend RonGoldman. Like millions of others, I watched on TV part of the bafflinglow-speed White Ford Bronco chase, in which an apparently suicidal Simpsontried to avoid the L.A. cops sent to arrest him. From that point forward, itwas hard for a West L.A. person like me to ignore what was going on in O.J.’sworld. At the time, I was working for Roger Corman at Concorde-New HorizonsPictures, which had its grubby offices on San Vicente Boulevard in the L.A.suburb of Brentwood. A short walk away was the neighborhood Italian restaurantwhere Goldman had worked and where Nicole had enjoyed her last meal. It quicklybecame a media hot spot, but then went out of business. And my daily drive hometook me past the infamous condo where the two were stabbed to death. You canimagine how much the location’s notoriety added to the traffic on that stretchof Barrington Avenue.

 Of course all the grimexcitement came to a head when the case went to trial—a “trial of the century”that would last a full year. In the course of it, many of the participantsbecame famous,  including defense lawyerJohnnie Cochran, lead prosecutor Marcia Clark, and even judge Lance Ito (whofound himself subject to comic parodies, including “The Dancing Itos” on TheTonight Show with Jay Leno). Also on the defense team was RobertKardashian, now better known as the sire of a fabulously wealthy social media clan. What I remember best about the announcementof the verdict was my personal fear that L.A. might erupt in civil violence.Thankfully it didn’t happen, though in many people’s minds O.J. would never befully clear of the murder charges, despite his eventual acquittal.

Now Simpson himself has succumbed to cancer, but I suspect his fame will linger on. Once a media star, always a media star, right?

 

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