Whatever Happened to Elsa Klensch?

Elsa Klensch was one of the first, if not the first, superstars created by Turner's Folly: CNN. Difficult as it may be to think today, when Ted Turner first launched his 24 hour around the clock news update service known as Cable News Network he was considered to be crazier than a raccoon trying to dial 911. Of course, Ted Turner was crazier than that, but even so, CNN was considered insane even for him. One of the things that it was said Turner was crazy for was that there simply wasn't enough interesting news to justify around the clock coverage. Oh, there has never been a shortage of news, of course, but there was not enough news to interest the collective American intellect to make CNN more than a constantly repeating CBS Evening News broadcast. Turner discovered a simple but pure answer to the other topic of insanity. Namely, that nobody paid attention to news on weekends. And thus was born Style with Elsa Klensch.

Style with Elsa Klensch was a half hour long program that aired every Saturday and featured interviews with every icon of of the fashion world, behind the scenes treatments of fashion shows and, of course, an endless parade of mostly unattractive models looking bored while wearing the most hideous clothing ever designed to sell to gullible rich folk. Style with Elsa Klensch was very popular with women, but also drew some fairly huge male viewers and not just those of them who were gay. Style with Elsa Klensch was also notable, it must be added, for bringing nudity to Saturday morning television. No matter how see-through the material, and no matter the bounce quotient of the material inside that fashion, Style would air. Klensch was chosen as host because of her contacts within the fashion industry as a result of her long career as an editor at such Ugly Betty bibles as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Style with Elsa Klensch ran from the inception of CNN in 1980 until 2001 when the coronation of Dumbya by the Scalia Court abruptly put an end to all appreciation of style in America.