Bill Thompson – Page 17 – Now I've Heard Everything

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.

An Extraordinary Couple: William Cohen & Janet Langhart Cohen

August 7, 2024August 3, 2024Bill Thompson

We’re all familiar with the old saw that “opposites attract.” But how opposite is too opposite?

At first glance it might have seemed that William Cohen and Janet Langhart were just too opposite to succeed as a couple

Cohen was white, Jewish, Republican.

Langhart was black, Christian, and Democrat.

But when journalist Langhart interviewed Senator Cohen, something sparked. And in 1996, they were married. The following year President Bill Clinton appointed Cohen his Defense Secretary.

Get your copy of William Cohen & Janet Langhart’s book

The Cohens’ marriage has been sustained by a mutual empathy, as both have
faced racial or religious discrimination each has experienced since childhood.

In 2007 William Cohen and Janet Langhart Cohen co-wrote a book called Love in Black And White. That’s when I had the chance to sit down for a few minutes with both of them to talk about it.

So here now from 2007, William Cohen and Janet Langhart Cohen.

William Cohen is now 82. Janet Langhart is also 82. They celebrated their 28th anniversary last February.

How ‘Term Limits’ Launched Vince Flynn’s Thrilling Career

August 5, 2024August 3, 2024Bill Thompson

Fed up with business as usual in Washington, DC?

This election cycle may feel like a new phenomenon, but that voter frustration has been around for decades.

Back in 1997 a young dyslexic sales and marketing executive, temporarily employed as a bartender, turned his own frustration into his first book, a self-published political thriller called Term Limits

It got only lukewarm reviews – some even hated it. But readers ate it up. and Vince Flynn’s professional writing career was launched.

His second book introduced us to a counterterrorism specialist named Mitch Rapp, who was then featured in a bestselling series of Flynn thrillers.

Vince was a popular speaker on book tours, so I had the chance to interview him several times over the years. But today let’s go back to where it all started, our conversation about Term Limits.

So here now, from 1998, Vince Flynn.

Vince Flynn died from cancer in 2013. He was 47.

Near-Death Experience: Raymond Moody’s Groundbreaking Research

August 2, 2024July 28, 2024Bill Thompson

Have you ever had a near death experience? A real, honest-to-goodness experience of your life ending as you left your body, floated up to the ceiling, and perhaps walked into the bright light?

Millions of people say they have had a near death experience, a term actually coined by Dr. Raymond Moody in 1975.

But the questions abound. What exactly happens during a near death experience? Some people have one and others don’t? And why do some people choose to come back?

In 1988 doctor Moody wrote a book called The Light Beyond – that’s when I first met him. So here now, from 1988, Dr. Raymond Moody.

Dr. Raymond Moody says he had a near-death experience of his own in 1991 as a result of a failed suicide attempt.

He ruend 80 in June.

Marianne Williamson’s Prophetic Insights: A Woman’s Worth

July 31, 2024July 27, 2024Bill Thompson

The entry of Vice President Kamala Harris into the 2024 presidential race has energized and invigorated millions of American women.

Could it be the culmination of a societal shift that some people saw coming thirty or more years ago?

In 1993 author, speaker, and political candidate Marianne Williamson wrote about the changing landscape of American society in a book called A Woman’s Worth, in which she sought to clarify the critical role women could, and should, play in driving the betterment of our world.

Get your copy of Marianne Williamson’s book

It was the first of several conversations I had with her over the coming years. So here now, from 1993, Marianne Williamson.

Newsweek once named Marianne Williamson one of the 50 most influential Baby Boomers.

She turned 72 earlier this month. She lives in Washington DC.