The Rush Limbaugh-Orson Bean-Andrew Breitbart connection

FPI / February 12, 2020

Returning to his broadcast on Tuesday after receiving treatment for lung cancer, radio host Rush Limbaugh discussed the legacy of the late actor Orson Bean and his son-in-law, the late Andrew Breitbart.

Limbaugh said: “I want to talk about the Oscars for just a second, not the awards themselves. I read the TV rating at an all-time low for this show, the Academy Awards show. And the real thing I want to talk about is Orson Bean. Orson Bean is how I want to get into this. Orson Bean was a healthy, vibrant 91 years old living in California, and he was hit by a car over the weekend and killed. He was a legendary television and movie performer. And he was a conservative. He oftentimes spoke of the Hollywood that existed when he was coming up. It was a Hollywood that loved God and a Hollywood love America, and he lamented its demise. He was the father in law of Andrew Breitbart.”

Limbaugh continued: “Andrew Breitbart from California was a born and bred radical leftist. That’s just the way he came out of the womb. That was his surroundings. That was his universe. He fell in love with Orson Bean’s daughter, and that, of course, necessitated Andrew hanging around with Orson Bean. And one day — I’m really going to truncate this story — one day at Orson Bean’s home Breitbart saw a copy of my first book on the shelf, ‘The Way Things Ought to Be.’ And he started chiding, ‘What the hell are you doing with that? Why you know in the world would you have a book written by some fascist, right-winger on your bookshelf where anybody could see?’ The story goes that Orson Bean said, ‘Andrew take that book and read it, just read it.' Didn’t say anything else just, ‘Take the book and read it, Andrew.’ And Breitbart did. He took the book and read it. Because of the book he started listening to this program on KFI Los Angeles. And became a full-fledged 180-degree convert to one of the most prominent conservative, cultural, pop-culture activists the movement has ever had.”

Limbaugh added, “He was effusive in his explanation for how it happened in my book. It wouldn’t have happened had it not been for Orson Bean. I had mentioned this a couple of times over the years and express my gratitude to Orson Bean. I was just — I got a note. I was in the hospital over the weekend, and I got a note, ‘I’m sure you’ve heard about Orson Bean.’ I hadn’t heard about anything because I’ve had been out of it. So that is when I learn what happened to Orson. Reading about it, I found myself reconnecting with this story, and Orson told the story interjected with Andrew Breitbart’s own words. It’s a tearjerker. And it happened to coincide with the other day the Academy Awards were going to be presented, and that show was an absolute disaster. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how Orson Bean was correct in describing how Hollywood used to be. It used to be every bit Red White and Blue, God, apple-pie America as anyone of us are.”

Free Press International