The day Ted Turner spoke at a Lake Worth chamber event
The late ‘Mouth of the South’ media mogul is remembered by then-chamber chief Mark Foley: ‘It was a trip.’
MAYBE TED TURNER would agree to speak at the Lake Worth Beach Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon.
Sure, “The Mouth of the South” media mogul was a national personality, winner of the 1977 America’s Cup yacht race and the brash owner of a hot new start-up called Cable News Network, launched less than three years earlier in 1980.
But he also owned the Atlanta Braves baseball team, which held spring training just up the road in West Palm Beach.
Can’t hurt to ask, chamber President Mark Foley thought.
So in January or February 1983, Foley mailed an invitation to Turner at his Atlanta office, never expecting a response.
“I was so proud of myself for coming up with the idea,’’ Foley recalled Thursday, a day after Turner died at age 87, “and I was almost startled that I got the response.’’
Turner’s response — short and cryptic, on Turner Broadcasting System stationary — arrived a week or two later at the chamber’s Lake Worth office.
“It was a very weird response,’’ Foley recalled: “‘Hey, I got yours’ — which I guess meant my letter. ‘Maybe around the stadium, spring training. Let’s do it.’ No details or anything.’’
Thinking the odd reply might be fake, Foley called TBS offices in Atlanta and asked to speak to the executive assistant who was cc’d on the letter.
“No, he’s serious,’’ the friendly assistant replied, according to Foley. “That’s just how Ted talks. I don’t alter it because it’s what makes him charming.’’
But there were some conditions: The speech could only happen in March, when Turner was in town for spring training, and the venue had to be close to West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium, where he spent the majority of his time.
Foley, who was a Lake Worth city commissioner at the time, booked the banquet room at the Ramada Inn on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard next to the stadium for Monday, March 14.
An announcement was mailed to the chamber members. Tickets were $15. “We sold out in three days, 300 people,’’ he said.
As soon as Turner arrived at the Ramada, he met briefly with Foley.
“Hey pal, how-ya doing?’’ Foley recalled Turner saying. “What do you want me to say?’’
Foley said he didn’t have anything specific in mind.
“Well,’’ Turner said, “I’ll just wing it.’’
As the crowd dined on chicken and rice, Turner talked for 35 minutes about his upbringing, the family billboard business he took over after his father’s suicide, his boating adventures, his preference for Braves slugger Bob Horner to play third base (a day earlier, Manager Joe Torre put him in left field) and, of course, his new 24-hour cable news network.
When he was done, he asked for questions.
“It was almost like listening to a motivational speaker. He wasn’t a preachy guy. He didn’t try to come off as smarter than anyone in the room,’’ Foley said.
Before the lunch started, Turner walked around the banquet hall, a bloody Mary in hand, making small talk with guests. He shared his hopes for CNN to “take over CBS” and the Braves to win the pennant, according to one newspaper article. (Turner’s hostile takeover attempt of CBS in 1985 failed, but his Braves finally won the pennant in 1991.)
He made time to do a short promotion for WEAT radio and to politely listen as Singer Island resident Manya Joyce suggested that CNN come to Palm Beach County to cover the senior olympics that she was organizing. (The network showed up that summer to film the action in John Prince Memorial Park and other places in Lake Worth.)
When lunch was over, Turner walked back to the stadium and watched the Braves’ 5-0 preseason win over the Texas Rangers.
Earlier that day, Turner spoke at a Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce breakfast in West Palm Beach, according to The Palm Beach Post.
“He was fantastic and generous with his time,’’ Foley said, recalling Turner at the Lake Worth chamber luncheon.
“He stayed a good hour. I remember introducing him. People were just enthralled because his name was becoming very known. It was a trip.’’