There are few sites I visit whenever I have online access and a few spare moments in which to inform myself. Mark Evanier's (see link on the left) is one of those few. Every so often (too often), one of his beautifully crafted postings hits me hard. So it is with the news (otherwise absent from my usual news sources) that Bill Idelson has died.

Most of the readers of my blog will blink and say, "Who?" A few will say, as I did, "Oh, no!"

Check Mark's tribute to Idelson's wonderful talent. Then come back here.

OK, this isn't about a figure from comic books. But Idelson was - from his youth - involved in one of the finest radio comedies of all time: Vic and Sade. And that's no small accomplishment. His delivery - always on target - shone as brightly as that of performers decades older than he was. [Aside regarding Vic and Sade: Paul Rhymer's classic is an acquired taste that, once aquired, makes its owners life-long devotees. Among them: Ray Bradbury, a member of his own informal group, The Vic and Sadists.]

And I'd hoped to meet him in October 2007, when he was scheduled to attend the Friends of Old Time Radio convention. But his health had failed to the point at which he couldn't attend.

In any case, his career did not end with a show that I never heard while growing up. He went on to a life of creative delights. His website (which will probably be retired) promoted his seminars. And (on a more personal level that never involved me with him but gave an added affection for his work) my daughter handled book design on his Story of Vic & Sade. You'll find that and his Bear Manor Press book on writing at the company's site. I'm not at the moment seeing a listing on his Gibby, a thinly disguised autobiography that Valerie also designed, but it's fascinating.

And that's not to mention his skills as a performer. Among his roles was that of the seldom-seen Herman Glimscher, Rose Marie's boyfriend, on The Dick Van Dyke Show. His was a wonderful, rounded talent displayed in a variety of creative roles in a life devoted to entertaining the rest of us.