RIP Matthew White

Here's Matt revealing in the moment at the premiere of his dream project.

Today, September 30, is the birthday of my old friend and colleague Matthew White. Shortly after posting my best wishes of the day on his Facebook page, a mutual friend notified me that Matt had passed away earlier this month on September 4. 

Matt's importance to my writing career cannot be overestimated. I made his acquaintance back in 1984 when, having recently left CINEFANTASTIQUE, I submitted some writing samples to VIDEO TIMES (later VIDEO MOVIES) magazine which was also Chicago-based. Matt accepted my samples and made me one of his staff writers, starting off what has become a lifelong deluge of review screeners (then on VHS). After proving my reliability, he flew me to Chicago under mysterious circumstances to invite me to co-author and edit an upcoming series of 12 Home Video Guides for Signet Books. (I remember noticing that Matt was the only guy I'd ever met whose nails were as badly bitten as mine!) He quizzed me about some random names and I must have passed the test because I got the job, which resulted in my earliest works published in book form - and they were displayed in every bookstore in town. Then he took my complaint seriously when I pointed out that all the reviews in VT/VM were just movie reviews, rather than reports on the quality of their presentation. In a single phone call, he accepted my proposed monthly column for the magazine, which he dubbed "Video Watchdog." (I always mentioned his name when giving interviews about VW, which he told me he always appreciated.) The column ran in VM throughout its remaining year of publication, then migrated to other magazines (Michael Nesmith's OVERVIEW and then GOREZONE) before becoming a magazine in its own right in 1990, which lasted for 27 happy years. It still exists, in a form, as this very blog. 

I have memories of certain phone calls we shared. One, when he told me his wife had given birth to a son they were naming Thaddeus (I liked and still like the name), and another when I called to congratulate him on the publication of his book THE OFFICIAL PRISONER COMPANION. As the number was ringing, a Devil spake into mine ear, suggesting that I surprise him by impersonating Patrick McGoohan - which, I must say, I did to truly awful perfection.

"Matthew White?" I inquired with crackling alacrity.

"Y-Yes?"

"Patrick... McGoohannnnnn," I said gravely, implacably. I impressed even myself and I felt a shiver pass back and forth through the telephone line. 

Matt actually gasped and said, "Oh, my God!" - probably fearing a rebuke from on high. I immediately 'fessed up to my real identity, and told him I thought his book was wonderful... I apologized more than once for my prank even before the call ended, and he forgave me... but I still look back on that moment as one of the more random and bewildering sins of my life.

Matt went on to have a career in video production much like my late friend and mentor Robert Uth, who died last year - specializing in themes of history, politics, and war. I reconnected with him on FB back in 2016 and I made sure he knew how important he had been to my own career. I was very happy to witness his late moment of triumph with the Beatles documentary EIGHT DAYS A WEEK; we talked on the phone after its release and he was quite candid about the ups and downs of the project's backstory. He was just starting to feel ready to entertain thoughts of what he might do next, and he allowed there might be a place in that project for me. 

Alas, there will be no more from Matt, but in saying Farewell to him, I must - once more - add my deepest thanks for giving this once-young writer a chance and a future, not to mention one of my most sizable audiences.

RIP, friend Matthew.

(c) 2021 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

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