ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 16, 1996 TAG: 9604160036
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
Roanoke will never be the same.
Laban Johnson, actor, director, Roanoke special events coordinator and nationally famous cheap cook, is retiring - early, at age 54.
The plump, funny but alas chronically overextended one-time high school drama teacher finally reached the end of his tether this winter, when a series of health problems culminated in a massive heart attack.
A long bout with pneumonia followed, leaving Johnson so breathless that for weeks he could not speak. He said the doctors have told him his best chance is a heart transplant, which he has decided against.
Johnson - famous for his goofy, long-running PBS television program, "Cookin' Cheap" - had previously undergone heart bypass surgery. He also has a history of diabetes.
He said a "stream of health problems" forced his retirement from the city on disability effective April 25.
He still hopes someday to return to the set of "Cookin' Cheap," which has been out of production for a year, but said returning to his stress-inducing city job is out of the question. "If I'm going to croak, I don't want it to be because I've gotten mad about something," he said.
Johnson was a high school drama teacher for a generation of students before becoming the city's special events coordinator 11 years ago. Former students of his have performed on Broadway and risen to the top of the entertainment industry.
"He helped a lot of people realize a potential they didn't know they had, including me," said Bob Lambert, senior vice president for the Walt Disney Co. - and a former student of Johnson's at Patrick Henry High School.
Lambert recalled how Johnson could put a show together with almost no budget. Johnson also was fond in those days of using famous quotations - with his own wry spin on the meaning.
Lambert called Johnson "quite a character."
Viewers of his weekly television show would surely agree.
Along with partner Larry Bly, co-owner of Roanoke's System 4 Advertising Agency, Johnson has been helping the gastronomically challenged for more than a decade now.
"Cookin' Cheap" is shown on public television stations around the country, sometimes in undesirable time slots - Los Angeles shows it in the middle of the night. Johnson says they are "red hot in Philadelphia."
Begun by Johnson as a solo act on another local television station, the show is often characterized by impromptu singing and dancing, malfunctioning kitchen appliances and - so far as the cooking goes - disaster.
They do not retape when a dish goes awry. "You just do the best you can," Johnson explained. "You can't always start over at home, either."
Production of the show stopped initially due to a dispute between stars and station about which Johnson would not elaborate. By the time the dispute was resolved, health problems had laid him low.
People still write in from all over asking when there will be new shows, said "Cookin' Cheap" director Carol Jennings.
"They like the humor," Jennings said. "They like the fact that it's not a heavy duty serious cooking show. They don't take it too seriously."
Johnson and Bly were featured on Michael Feldman's "Whad'Ya Know?" public radio show when it came to Roanoke in 1994.
"Cookin' Cheap" even inspired a romance by writer Carolyn Monroe, about an earthy cooking show host named "Boondock Bill." Monroe has been a guest on the show.
Johnson is a bachelor and has no children. "I had everybody else's children for so long at school I just didn't think I could take on my own," said Johnson, a native Roanoker who taught school here for 21 years. Many people assume from watching "Cookin' Cheap" that he lives with Bly, said Johnson - but in fact they see each other rarely off the set.
Said Bly: "We've been doing that show for 15 years. It's kind of like being married sometimes ... Thank heavens he's got a great sense of humor. I think it's managed to pull him through some tough times.
"I hope he'll have an opportunity to get back in the studio. Otherwise I think he'll be bored to death."
Johnson also hopes to return to duty at Showtimers, the Roanoke community theater where he sometimes directs plays, and do some substitute work for the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau. He plans to become a docent at Mill Mountain Zoo - where a monkey is named after him.
Actually, Johnson's namesake is a tamarin, which is a squirrel-sized primate from Brazil, said the zoo's education curator, Amy Chattin.
Johnson always made time to help the zoo when he was special events coordinator, Chattin said. "Laban's just done so much for the zoo that we decided he should have something named after him."
Is it a well-behaved monkey?
"Well," said Chattin doubtfully, "it's wild."
Nonetheless, Johnson said he is flattered to have the tamarin named after him - "because they're rare creatures."
As special events coordinator, meanwhile, Johnson had a hand - usually two - in events such as Festival of Lights, the Progressive Music Spectacular; the Christmas parade; Festival in the Park; Tour du Pont; the Commonwealth Games; First Fridays; Beach Party; Class Reunion; and many others.
"He did a tremendous job as events coordinator," said Al Wilson, president of the city's special events committee and a former student of Johnson's. "In addition to the high profile events ... there were a lot of little things that Laban did that the general public probably didn't see."
Johnson kept an events calendar not only for Roanoke but for the New River Valley, Wilson said. He also helped guide people through the city bureaucracy when they wanted to have a block party or hold an event in a city park.
Johnson's office still is full of stacks of paper, Wilson said. "He'll be greatly missed."
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Stephanie Klein-Davis. Laban Johnson, special eventsby CNBcoordinator for the city of Roanoke and co-star of the PBS series
"Cookin' Cheap,' suffered a massive heart attack in January. Johnson
says he isn't cooking much lately but was able to find one of his
more attention-getting aprons, the watermelon. color.