August 2024 – Now I've Heard Everything

White House Memories From FDR Grandson Curtis Roosevelt

August 30, 2024August 25, 2024Bill Thompson

In 1933, a three-yearold boy, his older sister and their mother moved in with the boy’s grandparents – who had a very large house in an important city.

Curtis Roosevelt was that young boy. His grandparents were Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, who had just recently moved into the White House themselves.

And for much of the next twelve years Curtis – nicknamed Buzzie – was a White House resident.

Get your copy of Curtis Roosevelt’s book

But as he later wrote, it was a double-edged sword living with two such compelling figures as Franklin and Eleanor. Life as a normal child was not an option.

Curtis Roosevelt recalled his early life in the White House in a 2008 book called Too Close to The Sun. I interviewed him twice for this book, once in 2008, again in 2010

So here now, from 2008 and 2010, Curtis Roosevelt.

Curtis Roosevelt died in 2016 at age 86.

A conversation with conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr.

August 28, 2024August 24, 2024Bill Thompson

A number of countries require national service from their young men, and Israel from its young women as well

What should the US?

Require national service? No. But more than 30 years ago, a conservative commentator suggested national service as a means of letting America’s young people express their gratitude for the civil liberties we enjoy.

In a book length essay called Gratitude, William F Buckley junior argued for voluntary national service

Get your copy of William F. Buckley Jr.’s book

Buckley founded National Review in 1955, an act many believe launched the modern conservative movement.

And for 33 years TV audiences watched him on “Firing Line. “

By today’s measure, however, Buckley’s views may be seen as less rigidly conservative

I spoke with him in 1990 when his book Gratitude was published.

So here now, from 1990, William F. Buckley Jr.

William F Buckley Jr died in 2008. He was 82.

A conversation with chocolatiers Frances & Ginger Park

August 26, 2024August 24, 2024Bill Thompson

For 40 years a modest family-owned business has been supplying folks in Washington DC with the treat no one dislikes – chocolate.

It was started in 1984 by sisters Frances and Ginger Park, daughters of a Korean immigrant. And their story is as appealing as the morsels they sell at their store, called Chocolate Chocolate.

In fact it’s their store’s atmosphere of family and community as much as it is the quality of their products that keeps people coming back for years.

Frances and Ginger also write books, especially children’s books. And in 2011 they wrote their own story, in a book called, appropriately enough, Chocolate Chocolate.

Get your copy of Frances & Ginger Park’s book

That’s when I met them – and, yes, happily sampled their products.

So here now, from 2011, Frances and Ginger Park.,

The Park sisters are now both in their 60s, and Chocolate Chocolate continues to thrive in Washington DC.

A World War II Double Life: OSS Spy Aline, Countess of Romanones

August 23, 2024August 18, 2024Bill Thompson

It’s 1943, and the war in Europe is raging. The United States and the Allies are looking for every way to gain an advantage over the Axis powers.

And that, of course, includes espionage.

This is where a 20-year-old model from New York comes in. Aline Griffith was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS – which, of course, later became the CIA.

Get your copy of Aline, Countess of Romanones’s book

At “spy school” Aline learned the essentials of being a spy, including how to kill when necessary,

She was then posted to Madrid, Spain, where she became active as a socialite, scooping up intelligence from the gossip she overheard.

After the war, Aline married a Spanish aristocrat, eventually acquiring the title Aline, Countess of Romanones.

And in 1987 she wrote a bestselling book about her World War II spying, called The Spy Wore Red. I first met her the following year.

So here now, from 1988, Aline, Countess of Romanones.

Aline Countess of Romanones, died in 2017. She was 94.

Revisiting Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 Presidential Bid

August 21, 2024August 17, 2024Bill Thompson

The 2024 Democratic National Convention is taking place this week in Chicago.

Back in 1968, Democrats also held their convention in Chicago. That year, the incumbent president had decided not to seek reelection.

With Lyndon Johnson out of the picture, one of the leading contenders for the nomination that year was Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy. His anti-Vietnam War position resonated with a large segment of Americans.

Ultimately, of course, the nomination went to vice President Hubert Humphrey, who lost to Richard Nixon in the November election.

McCarthy remained in the Senate until 1970, and ran for president three more times, but never again held public office.

In 1987 McCarthy wrote a political memoir called Up ‘Til Now. When I met him that spring to talk about it, it was the first of several conversations he and I would have.

For context, in 1987 the Reagan administration was involved in the war in Nicaragua which at the time some were comparing to the quagmire of Vietnam. McCarthy talks about that, and the 1988 presidential race that would ultimately pit Vice President George H.W. Bush against Democrat Mike Dukakis.

So here now, from 1987, Eugene McCarthy.

Eugene McCarthy died in 2005 at age 89.

Ed Bliss, Broadcast News Pioneer Recalls Radio’s Infancy

August 19, 2024August 17, 2024Bill Thompson

Tomorrow, August 20, is National Radio Day, the annual commemoration of the contributions the radio industry has made.

Commercial radio has actually been around for more than 100 years, and, as you might expect, has changed and evolved rather dramatically.

Radio in its infancy was a novelty, and it took years for the medium to begin realizing its full potential as an essential part of American life.

A young boy growing up in the early 20th century was among those we would now call “early adopters” – and he went on to a broadcasting career in which he helped shape what we now know as broadcast 5 news.

Like so many radio journalists of the time, Ed Bliss was a newspaper reporter for several years before landing a job, almost by chance, at CBS radio in 1943.

For the next 25 years Bliss wrote for and produced Edward R. Murrow, and later, Walter Cronkite.

After leaving CBS in 1968 Bliss founded the broadcast journalism program at American University.

And in 1991 Bliss wrote a history of broadcast journalism in America, a book called Now The News.

That’s when I have the chance to spend a few minutes with this legend in my chosen profession.

So here now, from 1991, Ed Bliss.

Ed Bliss died in 2002. He was 90.

How Elvis Presley’s Death Haunted His Confidante Larry Geller

August 16, 2024August 10, 2024Bill Thompson

It’s been 47 years since the king died.

Elvis Presley died at his Graceland mansion in Memphis on August 16,1977 at the age of 42 .

Almost instantly rumors and speculation swirled about, as fans and critics alike struggled for an explanation

Among the utterly devastated were those closest to Elvis, including his family, and his longtime hairdresser and confidante Larry Geller.

Twelve years after Presley’s passing, Geller wrote a book, which he said represented who the real Elvis was. It was titled If I Can Dream. I met Larry that spring to talk about it.

So here now, from 1989, Larry Geller.

Larry Geller turned 85 last week. He and his wife live in Arizona.

If he had lived, Elvis Presley would now be 89.

Do We Owe ’69’s Woodstock To Elliot Tiber?

August 14, 2024August 10, 2024Bill Thompson

It was this week 55 years ago – starting on August 15, 1969, to be exact – that organizers put on what they called an “Aquarian Exposition” in White Lake, New York.

It was a three day music festival that is now widely known simply as Woodstock.

But by one man’s account it almost didn’t happen – if not for him.

Elliot Tiber and his family operated a small, rundown motel in Bethel, New York. And Elliot also owned a permit to hold a music festival.

As he told in his 1994 book Taking Woodstock, that permit, coupled with his friendship with dairy farmer Max Yasgur, helped make Woodstock possible.

I met Elliot when he was on a book tour, which happened to coincide with the Woodstock ‘94 festival.

And if you thought you were about to hear a quiet, sedate conversation with a nearly-65-year-old has-been, get over it. And buckle up, because here’s my 1994 interview with Elliot Tiber.

Elliot Tiber died in 2016. He was 81.

MADD Fpunder Candy Lightner On Death and Grieving/

August 12, 2024August 10, 2024Bill Thompson

Until 1980, drunk drivers in the U.S. frequently got little more than a slap on the wrist.

On May 3,1980 a 13-year-old girl named Cari Lightner was walking to a church carnival when a drunk driver hit and killed her.

Cari’s mother, a 34-year-old woman named Candy Lightner, was appalled to learn that the repeat offender who was behind the wheel probably would face little consequence for the death he caused.

In her anger and grief, Candy Lightner formed a group which she dubbed Mothers Against Drunk Driving, often referred to simply as MADD. And it quickly grew into a powerful grassroots campaign to force states to stiffen the penalties for drunk or impaired driving.

MADD is perhaps the single biggest reason why you now need to be at least 21 to drink legally in every state. MADD claims it has cut drunk driving in half since its founding.

But there was trouble inside MADD. In 1985, Lightner was forced out, after tangling with the organization over what she saw as its increasing focus on bureaucracy.

But candy maintained her work as a victims advocate, and in 1990 she wrote a book about grief and death, called Giving Sorrow Words

So here now, from 1990, Candy Lightner.

Candy Lightner is now 78. She owns her own company, and serves as president of the non-profit We SAve Lives.

50 Years Later: The Legacy of the Nixon Resignation

August 9, 2024August 3, 2024Bill Thompson

Photo by Jim Wallace (Smithsonian Institution)

Today is August 9th — and it was 50 years ago today that Richard Milhous Nixon made U.S. hisory by becoming the first, and so far only, president to resign from office.

He was done in by his involvement in covering up a botched burglary at Democratic p[arty headquarters in Washington’s Watergate office and hotel complex in 1972.

After a long political career filled with Incredible comebacks, this was the one Nixon could not come back from.

The evening of August 8th Nixon addressed the nation with his stunning announcement. And at noon on that Friday, August 9th, Gerald Ford was indeed sown in as president. He told the nation that evening that “our long national nightmare is over.”

Thirteen years later, acclaimed biographer Stephen Ambrose published the first of what would become a three-volume biography of Richard Nixon. What made his trilogy extraordinary was his admission that he had always disliked Nixon, but grew to like and admire him.

The third and final volume of Ambrose’s biography was published in 1991, and by then Nixon had come a long way toward rebuilding his public image.

So here now, from 1991, Stephen Ambrose.

\Richard Nixon died in 1994 at age 81.

Stephen Ambrose died from cancer in 2002. He was 66.