Half A Dick Is Better Than None

I just read Dick Van Dyke's My Lucky Life In And Out Of Show Business.  It's a charming enough memoir, but it has a problem that often happens in the world of entertainment--the best part of his career was short.  About five years, I'd say, from his star-making Broadway lead in Bye Bye Birdie to The Dick Van Dyke Show (creator Carl Reiner chose the name to make his little-known star better-known) which came immediately afterwards, during which he also made Mary Poppins. All the TV, movie and stage work that followed--though some was decent--doesn't compare.

The early years aren't bad, and there are plenty, since Van Dyke didn't hit it big till he was 35.  But the second half of the book, after his best work is behind him (and perhaps he knew that--Reiner was the one who decided to end the Van Dyke show), is almost by necessity a letdown.  He talks about a lot of lesser projects as well as his personal problems--with drinking and with his marriage--but that's not why I read the book.  I would have much preferred another chapter on Bye Bye Birdie, and several more on his sitcom, even if they already get more pages than almost anything else.

Overall, Van Dyke comes across as a very decent everyman who just happened to be amazingly talented.  In fact, I don't think his all-around work on The Dick Van Dyke Show has ever been topped in the medium.