Now I’ve heard everything…
Hi. My nane is Bill Thompson, for those who don’t know me. For those who do know me, my name is still Bill Thompson.
What is this blog and podcast all about?.
For nearly 30 years I met and interviewed some of the world’s most fascinating people: leaders, thinkers, doers, inventors, outfielders abd quarterbacks, spacemen, Nazi hunters, big game hunters, game show hosts, TV sitcom stars, movie stars, star-gazers, navel-gazers, music makers, lawmakers, lawbreakers, novelists, journalists, victims and perpetrators and witnesses, entrepeneurs, and Captain Kangaroo.
The acclaimed novelist Joyce Carol Oates once observed that for me it was like having my own personal seminar every day. And she was right…
Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell: “I was on Apollo 8, the very first flight to the moon, and that orbit was perhaps my most awe-inspiring flight. This was, of course, [Apollo] 13, my most thrilling adventure.”
Sonny Bono: “‘The Beat Goes On,’ my inspiration for that song was Billy Friedkin, the director of ‘The Exorcist.'”
Jane Goodall: “Hopefully, through our institute (you know, we have a Jane Goodall Institute”) I think that people are really going to see chimpanzees as chimpanzees, and not monkeys, apes gorillas and so forth.“
Dennis the Menace creator Hank Ketcham: “One of the early gags I had, it showed a policeman stopping the family car and writing a ticket to Mr. Mitchell. And Dennis sticks his head out and says, ‘You didn’t cat hus, we ran out of gas!'”
Toy compony executive Ruth Handler: “My husband and I were founders of Mattel, in 1945. His great contribution were all those wonderful Mattel toys, such as Hot Wheels. My great creation was the Barbie doll.”
John Denver: “One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was not pursuing films more ardently after the success of ‘Oh, God!'”
Mickey Mantle: “Going into, like, August, the middle of August, I was ahead of Babe Ruth’s record. And I’m thinking, uh oh, maybe I can hit 61 home runs, you know?”
Actor and golfer Leslie Nielsen: “I like wood tees. For whatever reason I like the white tees. I don’t know why, but if they’re blue or red or green, they throw my game off!”
No matter how crowded their schedule, how much in demand they were, how big a speaking fee they commanded .. I had each of them all to myself, one on one, for as much as half an hour.
I could ask them anything I wanted.
I got their books for free, and not one ever turned me down for an autograph or a photo. I introduced many of them to friends, family members, and co-workers. More autographs, more photos.
Excerpts of my interviews were heard daily by millions of radio listeners, and later on the web.
And I got paid to do all this.
By the time I retired from my radio career in 2018, I had amassed a collection of some ten thousand interviews.
What I am doing now, with “Now I’ve Hear d Everything,” is revisiting that vast, massive amalganation of wit and humor and wisdom and emotion and history, and sharing it with you.
Now a note to my younger readers and listeners: some of the people you’ll meet on “Now I’ve Heard Everything” will be new and unfamiliar to you, but to my fellow Baby Boomers, it’ll be a brief but fascinating ride in my DeLorean:
- William F. Buckley, Jr.
- Dave Thomas
- Robin Leach
- Dr. Benjamin Spock
- Leonard Nimoy
- Gen. Colin Powell
- Dan Quayle
- Mickey Rooney
- Hank Aaron
- Martha Stewart
- Judy Tenuta
- Steve Allen
- Bobby Seale
- LaToya Jackson
- Buffalo Bob Smith.
Those three decades of interviews were, indeed, my own personal daily seminar. Let me now make it yours, too.
Now I’ve heard everything.