Who was Oscar Levant? Sean Hayes is playing him in ‘Good Night, Oscar’ — between his wit and neuroses, the talk shows kept asking for him
CHICAGO — Oscar Levant detested success as much as he craved it.
He was a singular, sardonic mid-20th century cultural phenomenon — the first and still the most authentically revealing reality television star, sweating away in front of the cameras, spilling bean after bean, joke after joke about his mental health crises, his uppers, downers, phobias and rampant, head-spinning self-destruction.
What would Levant have made of his newfound fame, 50 years after his death?
Maybe he answered that question back in 1958, on his Los Angeles-based program “The Oscar Levant Show.” Fred Astaire, his co-star in the MGM musicals “The Barkleys of Broadway” and the beautiful, melancholy backstage romance “The Band Wagon,” was on for a guest shot, with Levant and his co-host, wife and endlessly self-sacrificing caretaker, June Levant.
“Success” came up in conversation. Levant, plainly phobic about the word (and so many others),
