Author: Bill Thompson

Nando Parrado

Bill Thompson

Tomorrow, October 13th. is the anniversary of one of history’s most famous plane crashes.

It was on October 13th, 1972 that a Uruguayan Air Force flight, chartered by a rugby team, crashed high up in the Andes mountains. Authorities tried for days to find the wreckage, but ultimately they gave up, unaware that there were survivors.

For 72 days, they did what they had to do to survive — including, unthinkably, feeding themselves by eating companions who had died in the crash.

In the end, only sixteen people came down from the mountain, including 22-year-old rugby player Nando Parrado.

Their story was told in the book and movie “Alive!” Ethan Hawke played Nando Parrado.

I met Nando Parrado 34 years after that crash, when he wrote a book called “Miracle in the Andes.”

So here now, from 2006, Nando Parrado:

Nando Parrado will be 71 in December. He is a businessman, TV personality in Uruguay, and mmotivational speaker.

Janis Ian

Bill Thompson
https://www.flickr.com/people/33439023@N00

At a time when her high school classmates were studying for exams or preparing book reports, Janis Ian was giving concerts, and appearing on television, and getting awards for her music.

From an early age, Janis Ian made a name for herself as a singer-songwriter. Among her biggest hits, Society’s Child, and At 17.

And in 1975 — 45 years ago this week, in fact, — Janis Ian was one of the two musical guests on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live.

I met her in 2008, when she wrote a memoir. So here now, from 2008, Janis Ian.

Janis Ian is 69 now. Her latest album was released in 2017.

Geraldine Ferraro

Bill Thompson

Tonight, October 7th, Senator Kamala Harris will meet Vice President Mike Pence in their one and only debate of the 2020 election campaign.

Photo: Univ of Texas-Arlington News Service Photograph Collection

Harris is the first woman of color on a major party presidential ticket, and she is only the third woman ever nominated by a major party for vice president.

The first, in 1984, was Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, who was chosen by Democrat Walter Mondale to be his running mate.

Her one and only debate performance was against then-incumbent Vice President George H.W. Bush.

I met Gerladine Ferraro in 1998. The book she had just written was about the strong women who shaped her life, not least of whom was her own mother.

Sp here now, from 1998, Geraldine Ferraro:

Geraldinme Ferraro died in 2011 at the age of 75.

Johnnie Cochran

Bill Thompson

You may know defense attorney Johnnie Cochran best for his participation in OJ Simpson’s dream team in his 1990s trial.

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But Johnny Cochran had a long legal career, and the Simpson case was just one of hundreds that he participated in.

I met him in 2002, when he wrote A Memoir, of his long, storied legal career.

And believe it or not, he said in that book that the Simpson case was far from his most challenging.

So here now, from 2002, Johnny Cochran.Improvement

Johnnie Cochran died less than three years after our iterview, in 2005, at age 68.

Bob Keeshan

Bill Thompson
Photo: CBS Television

Sixty-five years ago this week, a new children’s television show was launched on the CBS networok. Its creator was a man who had actually been part of the supporting cast of The Howdy Doody Show. His name was Bob keeshan. But the world knew him for decades to come as Captain Kangaroo.

I actually interviewed Bob keeshan twice. This interview was the second time, in early 1995. He had written a book for a book filled with ideas for activities they can do with their kids.

That as you’re about to hear, the captain had plenty of practical advice for happy parenting and happy kids.

So here now, from 1995, Bob keeshan.

Captain Kangaroo was seen every weekday morning on CBS for 29 years, then on PBS for five more years.

Bob Keeshan died

Julie Andrews

Bill Thompson

Julie Andrews made her debut as an actress and singer in London in 1948.

She first appeared on Broadway in 1954.

But to audiences of all ages around the world, she may be best known as Mary Poppins, or as Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music.

Photo: Mary Poppins trailer screenshot

I met her in 2009, aftershe and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, had collaborated

poems, solngs a,d lullabies

Tomorrow, October 1st, is Julie Andrews’s 85th birthday.

Roger Ailes

Bill Thompson

Tomorrow night, September 29th, is the first debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

So today on Now I’ve Heard Everything, I wanted to revisit an interview I did over 30 years ago with a man who played a key role in the 1984 presidential debates between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale.

Years before he became head of Fox News — way before there even was a Fox News — Roger Ailes was a media consultant. Most prominent among his many clients, perhaps, was President Ronald Reagan. Ailes was an adviser to the President in his 1984 reelection bid, and was indrectly responsible for one of that campaign’s most memorable, and decisive, moments.

I met Roger Ailes in the fall of 1987. He’d written a book to help coach people in the art of public speaking and dealing with the media. The book promised to reveal the “secrets of the master communicators.”

So here now, from 1987, Roger Ailes:

Roger Ailes went on to become CEO of the fledgling Fox News in 1996. He held that post until 2016 when allegations of sexual harassment forced him out.

Roger Ailes died in 2017, three days after his 77th birthday.

David Cassidy

Bill Thompson

Fifty years ago today, a TV show premiered on ABC, about a family that had formed a rock band. It was called “The Partridge Family,: and its star was a young actor-singer named David Cassidy.

Photo: ABC Television Network

In very short order, Cassidy became a full-fledged teen idol. Girls went crazy for him. He sold out concert Halls.

But as he revealed in a 1994 memoir, life was not exactly what it looked like on the outside.

You know, people often ask me which of my tem tjpisamd-plus interviews with my favorite. It’s hard to pin down one favorite, but the interview you’re about to hear is certainly in my top five. I found David Cassidy, who was it then 44 years old, to be one of the most thoughtful, introspective, smartest, and most likeable people I’ve ever interviewed.

David Cassidy died in 2017. He was 67.

Mickey Rooney

Bill Thompson

In nearly thirty years of interviewing celebrities and big names, I didn’t often get very Starstruck, but this day I did.

It’s hard to overstate how big a star Mickey Rooney was. For decades, he was one of the most recognizable names and faces in all of Hollywood. If you’ve ever watched one of his movies on one of the classic movie networks, you know his Andy Hardy series, and all those hey kids, let’s put on a show movies with Judy Garland.

To the general public, Mickey was known primarily for two things: his height, he was only five foot three, and his marriages, of which there were many.

So when he published his Memoirs in 1994, I jumped at the chance to interview him.

But as you’re about to hear, Mickey wanted to talk about not just the book he was there to promote, but all his other books. I think he was a frustrated author at heart.

Anyway, here now, from 1994, the great Mickey Rooney.

Had he lived, Mickey Rooney would ha veeb 100 today. He died in 2014, at the age of 93.

Kitty Kelley

Bill Thompson

Journalist and celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley first rose to prominence in 1978, with her biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a book called Jackie Oh!

Photo: RaymondBoyd51

But it was her 1986 biography of the legendary Frank Sinatra that make kitty Kelley a household name.

Kelley is a meticulous and very thorough biographer, and in researching Sinatra’s life, she uncovered a lot of things he didn’t want uncovered.

Her book was an instant best-seller, but it also got her sued by Sinatra, and it got her attacked by his powerful friends, including talk show host Larry King, who fancied himself a clothes Sinatra friend, and when Kitty Kelley appeared on King’s late night radio show the night before my interview with her, King rake her over the coals.

When I interviewed her the next day, she seemed largely unscathed by the king interview.

So here now, from 1986, Kitty Kelley.

Kitty Kelley is 78 now. Her last book was published in 2012.