Author: Bill Thompson

Pearl Harbor Remembered

Bill Thompson

On a quiet Sunday in early December, millions of Americans went about their usual routines.

Folks went to church. Children played out in the yard. Teenagers went to movies. Families went to dinner. People listen to football games on the radio.

And then everything changed.

On the radio came the horrible news that the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had been attacked by forces from Japan

And just like that, America was plunged into World War II.

Back in 1991 as the nation was preparing to mark the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, I took the opportunity to ask anyone I interviewed that year who was old enough to remember, where they were and what they were doing on that day.

You’re about to hear from men and women who on December 7th 1941 were children or teenagers or young men and women, but who later became major figures in American culture and society. Journalists broadcasters, actors, mystery, writers, military leaders and sports heroes.

You are also going to hear some words and terms and songs that by today’s standards are rude, offensive, and unacceptable. We were a nation that had just been punched hard in the face and our anger was fresh and raw.

Gen. James Dozier

Bill Thompson

Fprty years ago this weekend a U.S. Army general who was stationed at a NATO facility in Italy was kidnapped by a Marxist terrorist group known as the Red Brigades.

General James Dozier spent the next 42 days in captivity, before a dramatic rescue.

And, as you’re about to hear in this interview, Dozier’s rescue by Italian special forces actually help break the back of the Red Brigades.

I met General Dozier and his wife Judy several years later. They wrote a book about that harrowing episode.

So here now from 1990 general James Dozier and his wife Judy.

General James Dozier is 90 now.

Mel Torme

Bill Thompson

Does this song help put you in the Christmas spirit?
..
That song was written by Mel Torme. He was born and raised in Chicago. He first sang in public and at age 4, wrote his first song at age 13, and was an actor in a radio show by his teens.

From the 1940s through the 1990s, Mel Torme established himself as one of America’s favorite and most popular singers, songwriters, and the Rangers.

He acquired a nickname: The Velvet Fog. In 1988, when he wrote his autobiography, he actually called o. Ot Wasn’t All Velvet. And that’s what I met him.

So here now, from 1988, Mel Torme.

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Mel Torme died in 1999 at age 73.

William Kunstler

Bill Thompson

The New York Times once labeled William Kunstler “America’s most controversial lawyer.”

What earned him that distinction was his defense of the so-called “Chicago Seven,” a group of young radicals who tried to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

But the Chicago Seven were hardly Kunstler’s most controversial clients. He also represented clients ranging from Jack Ruby to U.S. Marine and Russian spy Clayton Lonetree, to the man known as The Blind Sheikh, the man behind the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

I met William Kunstler in 1994, when he wrote his autobiography, a book titled My Life As a Radical Lawyer.

So here now, from 1994, William Kunstler.

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William kunstler died just a year after our interview, in 1995. He was 76.

Don Shula

Bill Thompson

Last week the National Football League and its fans lost a truly iconic figure, Don Shula, the all-time winningest NFL coach, died at the age of 90.

I met Don Shula in 1995, just a few months before the start of what would be his final season coaching in the NFL. He had written a book on coaching and leadership, along with Ken Blanchard, the prolific author who [s best known for his book “The One Minute Manager.”

Here now, from 1995, Don Shula and Ken Blanchard:

To this day, the 1972 Miami Dolphins team that Don Shula coached is still the only team that’s ever put together a perfect, undefeated season.

Tony Bennett

Bill Thompson

He had his first number-one song in 1951, a tune called “Because of You” — and Tony Bennett has never slowed down since.

Photo: John Mathew Smith

Over his seven-decade show business career, Bennett has proven to be as popular today, among all age groups as we was when he was just beginning his rise to stardom.

In 1998 Bennett finally wrote his autobiography, a book called “The Good Life.” That’s when I met him, and yes, I was hugely starstruck.

So here now, from 1998, Tony Bennett.

Tony Bennett is 93 now. And still making millions happy with his music,

Jill St. John

Bill Thompson

On this Thanksgiving Eve, we’ll be talking a little turkey. And gravy, and mashed potatoes, and lots of other delicious stuff from the cookbook written by actress and cookbook author Jill St. John.

In a long and successful acting career St. John was popular in movies and on television.

She was in Diamonds Are Forever as Tiffany Case, the first American Bond girl.

Later. though, she established herself as a chef and food writer in print and on TV.

I met her a few days before Thanksgiving in 1987, when we had a nice conversation about all kinds of food, and how she came to write a cookbook. And her acting career.

So here now, from 1987, Jill St. John.

Jill st. John is 81 now.

Bob Vila

Bill Thompson

Perhaps no one other than maybe Martha Stewart has helped more Americans gain the confidence they need to do things around the house then Bob Vila has

His popular home fixer upper show on PBS, this Old House, premiered in 1979, and for years afterward top millions of us how to do simple projects ourselves. And sometimes not so simple projects.

I met him in 1986, when he published a reference book and guide for us do-it-yourselfers. And we talked all about hammers, saws, plumbing, and wiring.

So here now, from 1986, Bob Vila.

Danica McKellar

Bill Thompson

If you know Danica McKellar only as Winnie Cooper on TV’s The Wonder Years, from the 1980s, what she has done since the show ended may surprise you.

After The Wonder Years ended in the early 90s, Danica McKellar went to UCLA and got a degree in math.

She now writes books about mathematics, and advocates for education.

In 2007 she wrote a book for Middle school-age girls, called Math Doesn’t Suck.

I had a few minutes with her after an event at a bookstore outside Washington DC.

So here now, from 2007, Danica McKellar.

Danica McKellar will be 47 in January. In addition to her work in math, she still does some acting, and as a producer, as well.

Bob Guccione

Bill Thompson

In the world of men’s magazines, Hugh Hefner was king of the hill for years, as publisher of Playboy magazine.

But in 1965, a then-35-year-old laundromat manager, painter, and photographer named Bob Guccione launched a magazine to challenge the Playboy empire.

He called it Penthouse. And by the early 1980s Penthouse had made Guccione one of America’s richest businessmen.

But Penthouse, Playboy, and Larry Flynt’s Hustler had also by then become the targets of conservative and religious groups, eager to see the magazines banished.

I met Bob Guccione in 1986, at the height of his battles with people like Attorney General Ed Meese, and Rev. Donald Wildmon and Rev, Jerry Falwell’s “Moral Majority.”

So here now, from 1986, Bob Guccione.

Bob Guccione died in 2010. He was 79,