Headlong: Missing Richard Simmons · Topic / Pineapple Street Media / Dan Taberski

A Day at the Beach

March 20, 2017·31 min·2 clips

Richard's final chat room message in April 2014 described depression and dark places, shared publicly with strangers who paid a few dollars.

Dan opens by admitting the ending moved. Material teased only days earlier, even within the last twenty-four hours, no longer fits the story in front of him. So he follows the new thread. The boombox, the letter, and the gift-wrapping misadventure get pushed aside for something messier and more immediate: Richard's chat room. A concerned person sends over the transcript from Richard's last visit there in April 2014, two months after he disappeared. Dan says they confirmed it. He also says he will not read Richard's exact words, because they feel too private to repeat. The meaning still comes through. Richard was talking about depression and dark places in a room full of friends, fans, and people who paid to be close. The people listening were scared. MJ33 asks if they can help, Sunny Girl asks to be allowed to help, and Dancer87 says there must be something they can do. They were not overreacting. Dan hears people who logged on as fans and suddenly found themselves carrying a harder question: what do you owe someone who has made you feel that close? That is the knot. Richard's gift was making fame feel like friendship, but that openness made the line between mentor, celebrity, and regular person almost impossible to hold. Dan keeps him as all of those at once. By the end, concern for Richard no longer feels like gossip. It sounds like people responding to something he had already said out loud.

As heard by us

A final chapter that turns a celebrity mystery into something more human.

Dan Taberski closes Missing Richard Simmons by following the story where it actually went, into a chat room and into the blurred line between Richard Simmons as celebrity, mentor, friend, and anonymous participant.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a final episode that follows the story where it actually went.

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