Vanna White has been turning the letters on TV’s “Wheel of Fortune” since 1982.
But viewers of the show know that Vanna is much more than just a letter turner.
Soon after joining the show, she rose to nearly the prominence of host, Pat Sajak.
I met Vanna White in 1987. She had written a memoir called “Vanna Speaks,” and I interviewed her at the convention of the American Booksellers Association.
So, here now, from 1987, Vanna White.
Vanna White is 63 now. She is signed to co-host “Wheel of Fortune” through 2022.
Tomorrow, June 25th, would have been Anthony Bourdain’s 64th birthday.
That’s why June 25th has been designated “Bourdain Day” by friends of the late chef, author, TV personality, and world traveler.
Bourdain shot to fame some twenty years ago with his book “Kitchen Confidential,” in which he pulled back the curtain to let us see what really goes on in a restaurant kitchen.
But his book also helped elevate food preparation to an elite profession.
I first met him in the spring of 2001….
Anthony Bourdain died on June 8th, 2018, by suicide, while on location in France for his TV show “Parts Unknown.”
Baby Boomers had The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books. Millennials had Harry Potter. And Generation Z grew up with Lemony Snicket.
From 1999 to 2006, author Daniel Handler — writing under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket — wrote a series of books called “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
That’s why his book was called “The Penultimate Peril.|
So here now, from 2005, Daniel Handler, otherwise known as Lemony Snicket.
Daniel Handler turned 50 earlier this year. And although Lemony is in retirement, Daniel Handler is still writing books and poetry.
Father’s Day is this Sunday and all this week on Now I’ve Heard Everything we’ve been featuring interviews about fathers.
Today a conversation with a father and son who have been making us laugh for decades.
Actor-comedian Chris Elliott and his dad, Bob Elliott, collaborated on a 1989 book called “Daddy’s Boy: A Son’s Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father.”
Don’t be alarmed — it’s a parody celebrity tell-all memoirs, and was all very, very tongue-in-cheek — as was our interview just before Fathers Day 1989.
I’m not sure if their book ever did become a major bestseller, although it did get a really nice write-up in the New York Times and a lot of other places..
Chris Elliott remains active and popular in moveis and TV.
Father’s Day is next Sunday and all this week on Now I’ve Heard Everything we’re featuring interviews about fathers.
Few men are as widely praised as Sargent Shriver was. after his death in early 2011. Thousands of tributes hailed Shriver not only for his great public accomplishments — including founding the Peace Corps, building President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty — but also his personal virtues.
He was, in nearly everyone’s words, a “good man.”
I met his son Mark Shriver about a year-and-a-half after his father’s death, in 2012, when he wrote a book about his father, and what he had learned from him in life and in death.
So here now, from 2012, Mark Shriver.
Mark Shriver, who’s 56 noe, is President of the Save the Children Action Network. He and his family live in Maryland.
Few poets ever rise to the kind of prominence enjoyed by Maya Angelou. But of course, she was much more than a poet — essayist, memoirist, and civil rights activist. And not a bad singer, as you’ll hear in a few minutes.
She worked with both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton. I met her a few months later.
Here now, from October 1993, Maya Angelou.
In 2013, Maya Angelou published the seventh volume of her autobiography.
This is an episode of Now I’ve Heard Everything that made me think very carefully about. Given the tensions the entire nation — the world — is enduring right now, I did not want to further inflame things.
But ultimately, I think this interview, from 1992, with former Sgt. Stacey Koon, may provide some relevance and context.
Let’s go back to March 1991. An LA cop makes a late-night traffic stop, pulling over a car driven by a man named Rodney King.
Things quickly escalated, as King resisted attempts to arrest him for drunk driving. Four LAPD officers arrived, to offer assistance — and were caught on video, shot by a nearby resident, repeatedly hitting King with their nightsticks. They Tased him twice.
The ranking officer at the scene: Sgt. Stacey Koon.
After portions of the video were broadcast, all the officers were charged with excessive use of force, and after a high-profile trial in April 1992 in state court, all were acquitted.
The now-famous LA riots followed.
About six months later is when I met Stacey Koon, who had just written a book called “Presumed Guilty.” And as you\’re about to hear, Koon was still angry.
Here now, from October 1992, Sgt. Stacey Koon.
Six months after this interview, Stacey Koon and Officer Lawrence Powell were convicted in federal court of violating Rodney King’s civil rights, and were sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Stacey Koon is 69 now and stays largely out of the public eye.
Filmmaker John Waters has a long, illustrious, and unique body of work.
He started making movies in the early 1960s, but only rose to prominence in the ’70s, and by the ’80s was a cultural icon.
I first met him in the fall of 1986. He had just published a by collection of his writings, a slender little book called “Crackpot.”
So here now, from 1986, John Waters.
That movie he John Waters was talking about, near the end there — yes,. that was Hairspray.
John Waters celebrated his 74th birthday this spring. While he hasn’t made a movie in several years, he was seen earlier this year in an episode of “Law & Order SVU.”