July 2025 – Now I've Heard Everything

Behind the Lens of Laughter: Peter Funt on “Candid Camera” and His Father’s Enduring Legacy

July 24, 2025Bill Thompson

Long before “Punk’d” or “America’s Funniest Home Videos” there was “Candid Camera.” The premise was simple and popular: catch ordinary folks in funny and unusual situations, benign practical jokes as it were.

The show’s creator was a genial, soft-spoken man named Allen Funt.

His son Peter began visiting the set of the show at a very early age. And when his father suffered a major stroke in the early 1990s, Peter Funt stepped in and assumed the leadership role, hosting “Candid Camera” for several more years.

Peter Funt is also a thoughtful and respected essayist and columnist. And in 2013 he published a collection of his essays, a book he called Cautiously Optimistic. He and I talked one day that spring about his essays, and about” “Candid Camera.”

So here now, from 2013, Peter Funt.

Peter Funt is 78 now. He lives in California, and still writes a weekly newspaper column and is a popular public speaker.

Love Beyond Borders: How a Norwegian Makeup Artist & Italian-American Actor Built Forever

July 24, 2025Bill Thompson

Ernest Borgnine was a renowned and very popular Oscar and Emmy-winning actor who enjoyed decades of success in Show Business.

His success in marriage, however, was very rocky. Ernie was married four times before he met a Norwegian-born makeup artist named Tova. She was married once before.

They went into their marriage — his fifth, her second – with a new attitude. And it worked. The Norwegian immigrant and the son of Italian immigrants forged a solid partnership.

Their marriage was so successful, in fact, that in 1997 Tova Borgnine – the founder of Beauty by Tova – wrote a book that she called Being Married Happily Forever.

It was filled with what she called her secrets and strategies, and compromises. I met her when she was on a book tour.

So here now, from 1997, Tova Borgnine.

Ernest and Tova Borgnine were married for 39 years until his death in 2012. Tova died in 2022 at age 80.

The Fond Recollections of Hollywood Legend Garry Marshall

July 11, 2025Bill Thompson

If you’ve ever watched ”Happy Days,” ”Laverne & Shirley,” ”Mork & Mindy,” or any of a dozen other TV shows, you’ve seen the work of Garry Marshall.

If you’ve ever seen ”Pretty Woman”, ”Overboard,” ”The Princess Diaries,” or any of over a dozen other movies, you’ve seen the work of Garry Marshall.

For years one of Hollywood’s most successful, and most popular, producer-directors, you may also know Garry Marshall as an actor, on TVs ”Murphy Brown” and in his sister Penny Marshall’s movie “A League of Their Own.”

In 1995, not long after he turned 60, Garry Marshall wrote a book that was autobiographical-ish called Wake Me When It’s Funny. I got the chance to speak with him when he was on a book tour.

Here now, from 1995, Garry Marshall.

Garry Marshall died in 2016. He was 81.

What the Book of Revelation Reveals — Or Not

July 9, 2025Bill Thompson

There are 66 books in the Bible, but none is more controversial, more studied, and more debated than the final book, the book of Revelation.

Its author is commonly believed to be John, the Apostle of Jesus, but even this fact has been debated. And disputed by some.

Revelation is a book of powerful apocalyptic imagery and language that many see as metaphor, but which others take literally, especially in the context of current geopolitical events.

It was her own fascination with the book of Revelation that led noted Princeton University religion professor Elaine Pagels to take on the task of trying to put Revelation into historical, political, and spiritual context.

The result was her 2012 book called Revelations. She and I met one day early that spring to talk about it.

So here now, from 2012, Elaine Pagels.

Author Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to An Incredible Literary Series

July 9, 2025Bill Thompson

As a writer and a radio and TV personality in the 1970s, Douglas Adams wasn’t having a great deal of success.

That is, until 1978 when he co-created a radio series called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

And when that series became a book, , well, as they say, the rest is history. Millions of people around the world now have a copy of that book and its sequels, which have made Douglas Adams one of the most popular authors of the second half of the 20th century.

I first met him in 1987, when we talked about his book Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Another time we talked about his nonfiction book Last Chance to See, and then in 1992 we met once again to talk about Mostly Harmless, which was, at the time, the latest in the Hitchhiker’s series.

So here now, from 1992, Douglas Adams.

Douglas Adams died in 2001 from a heart attack. He was 49.

Decoding the Life of Alexander Hamilton: Biographer Richard Brookhiser

July 9, 2025Bill Thompson

The smash Broadway play “Hamilton” brought a resurgence of interest in the founding father who helped shape the direction of the young nation.

Fifteen years before the play a book by noted biographer Richard Brookhiser brought Alexander Hamilton to life.

Brookhiser’s 1999 book Alexander Hamilton: American provided fresh perspective and insight to the life of the man who was barely out of his teens on this day in 1776.

Get your copy of Richard Brookhiser’s book

In his 30s Hamilton became America’s first Treasury Secretary. And in his 40s, he was famously shot dead in a duel with Aaron Burr.

But did you know he was also at the center of America’s first major political sex scandal?

So here now, from 1999 Richard Brookhiser.

Balancing Faith And Career: Actress Lisa Whelchel

July 3, 2025Bill Thompson

Her story reads something like a Hollywood fairy tale.

Talent scouts found Lisa Whelchel in her small town in Texas in 1976, casting for “The New Mickey Mouse Clu” on Disney.

Lisa moved to Hollywood and appeared on the show for two years. Then, her big break: the role of Blair Warner on a new show called “The Facts of Life.” Whelchel played Blair for nine seasons.

What many people didn’t know at the time was that underpinning her show business career was a strong faith in God. Lisa had been a devout Christian since age 10.

And, as you’ll hear in this interview, that faith helped shape the way she portrayed characters on TV and in film.

In 2001 Lisa Whelchel wrote an autobiography called The Facts of Life, subtitled And Other Lessons My Father Taught Me. I met her that fall when she was on a book tour.

Here now, from 2001, Lisa Whelchel.

Lisa Whelchel is 62 now. She and her husband divorced in 2012.

Looking at The Battle of Gettysburg Through a Modern Lens, With Radios Mark Levin

July 3, 2025Bill Thompson

The first day of July 1863 was a warm, mostly cloudy summer day in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the first day of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most pivotal moments in the American Civil War.

For three days thousands of soldiers fought heroically, many suffering gruesome injuries and death.

A few months later, President Abraham Lincoln visited Gettysburg and delivered what has become one of the most familiar and revered speeches in American history.

One hundred years later, a Philadelphia man named Jack Levin, the son of immigrants, published a book about Lincoln, his famous speech, and the battle that inspired it.

And 45 years after that, the book was republished, with a new preface written by Jack Levin’s son – nationally-syndicated talk show host Mark Levin.

The book, called Abraham Lincoln\’s Gettysburg Address Illustrated, came out in 2010. And that’s when I had the chance to talk with Mark Levin about it. So here now, from 2010, Mark Levin.

Jack Levin died in 2018. Mark Levin can be heard on his national radio show, and seen on Fox News.