How the OJ Simpson saga became a unique American moment
NEW YORK (AP) — A dog’s plaintive wail. A courtroom couplet-turned-cultural catchphrase about gloves. A judge and attorneys who became media darlings and villains. A slightly bewildered houseguest elevated, briefly, into a slightly bewildered celebrity. Troubling questions about race that echo still. The beginning of the Kardashian dynasty. An epic slow-motion highway chase. And, lest we forget, two people whose lives ended brutally.
And a nation watched — a nation far different than today’s, where the ravenousness for reality television has multiplied. The spectator mentality of those jumbled days in 1994 and 1995, then novel, has since become an intrinsic part of the American fabric. Smack at the center of the national conversation was O.J. Simpson, one of the most curious cultural figures of recent U.S. history.
Simpson’s death Wednesday, almost exactly three decades after the killings that changed his reputation from football hero to suspect, summoned remembrances of an odd moment in time — no, let’s call it what it was, which was deeply weird — in which a smartphone-less country craned its neck toward clunky TVs to watch a Ford Bronco inch its way along a California freeway.
Related articles
Ricky Stenhouse punching Kyle Busch could lead to suspension
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. (AP) — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. threw a right hook at Kyle Busch, and suddenly, an2024-05-21A former Russian tycoon who once led separatist region launches a hunger strike in Azerbaijan jail
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A former Russian tycoon jailed in Azerbaijan on charges stemming from his ti2024-05-21FedEx pledges $25 million over 5 years in NIL program for University of Memphis athletes
MEMPHIS (AP) — FedEx on Friday pledged $25 million over the next five years to be used in sponsorshi2024-05-21- Thre have been a collection of memorable and special moments during David Moyes’ European run with W2024-05-21
The unstoppable duo of Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos
CANNES, France (AP) — Before a journalist has even lobbed a question, Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimo2024-05-21She means business! Rita Ora steps out in chic tailored three
Rita Ora looked like she meant business on Thursday as she strutted around Sydney in a grey three-pi2024-05-21
atest comment