1980s

John Sculley

Bill Thompson
Photo: Judae1

Doing a 13-year career at PepsiCo, including six years as its president, John Scully prove to be something of a marketing genius.

If you’ve ever seen The Pepsi Challenge, well .. that was John Sculley’s idea.

Then he made the switch from selling flavored sugar carbonated water to selling personal computers.

In 1983 Scully became CEO of Apple. And soon, behind his marketing skills, Apple had rival i b m on the run.

In 1987, in the middle of his 10-year run at Apple, Scully wrote a book about his transition from Pepsi. And that’s when I met him.

Two things to note about this interview. No, three things.

First, John Sculley apparently had had the services of a consultant who told him to be sure and mention his book in every answer. So you’ll hear lots of references to the title of his book, Odyssey.

The second thing you need to know is that I learned a very important lesson in this interview. And that is, always check your microphone. It turns out that mine was basically turned off for the entire interview, and I didn’t realize it. That’s why it sounds a little strange.

But the third thing, the most intriguing thing, this is 1987. Very few people had personal computers, yet Scully is talking about things that today seem commonplace. It’s like we went back to the future.

So here now, from 1987, John Sculloey.

John Sculley is 82 now. He remains active in high-tech startups, as well as disruptive marketing strategies.

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Carl Lewis

Bill Thompson

The covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics get underway today. We’ll seen enougbh know who the next athletic heroes will be.

Throughout the 1980s and into the ‘90s, one of the world’s dominant sprinters and long jumpers with Carl Lewis.

In addition to several world championships, Lewis won gold Olympic gold medals in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996.

Sports Illustrated once named him “Olympian Of Tje Century.”

No doubt Carl Louis was one of the world’s greatest athletes. The problem, according to many of his competitors, was that he was much too aware of how good he was, and eager to show it off.

Critics said Lewis lacked sufficient humility. And, they said, he was too aloof.

I met him in the summer of 1990, after he wrote a book called Inside Track.

So here now, from 1990, Carl Lewis:

Carl turned 60 this month. He owns a marketing and branding company.

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Charles Grodin

Bill Thompson
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His first big break in the movies came with a film called The Heartbreak Kid.

But that was just the beginning for Charles Grodin.

Then came Midnight Run. Seems Like Old Times. The Lonely Guy. And, finally, a new generation discovered him in the Beethoven movies.

It looks like the classic success story. But in his 1989 book called It Would Be So Nice if You Weren’t Here, Grodin wanted to reveal how about 1% success overshadowed the 99% rejection actors suffer.

This interview was actually the first of several I had over the years with Charles Grodin, before he went on to become a successful late night TV talk show host.

So here now, from 1989, Charles Grogan.

Charles Grodin died in May. He was 85.

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Naomi Judd

Bill Thompson
Photo: State Farm

Naomi Judd was born “Diana Judd” not long after World War II ended. Her dad ran a gas station in Ashland, Kentucky,

By the time she was in her mid 30s, Judd was a divorced single mom with two daughters, struggling to keep a household going.

That’s when she and her older daughter discovered that they liked to sing and harmonize with each other. And they got pretty good at it.

Before long, they came to the attention of the right people, and in 1983, they formed The Judds.

And for the next eight years, they’ve dominated country music, with a string of #1 hits.

But a 1991, a diagnosis of hepatitis-C forced Naomi to break up the act.

In 1993 she wrote a memoir named after one of their hit songs: Love Can Build a Bridge. And that’s when I met her.

So here now, from 1993, Naomi Judd:

The Judds reunited in 1999 for a New Years Eve concert, and toured the next year. Since then Naomi has done many TV appearances. She is 75 now.

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Al Neuharth

Bill Thompson
Photo: John Mathew Smith

Do you have to be kind of an SOB to be a success?

What kind of connotation does that term even have anymore?

Those were two of the key questions that Al Neuharth tried to address in his bestselling memoir “Confessions Of An S.O.B.”

Al Neuharth was the founder of USA Today, as well as The Freedom Forum, and the Newseum. So apparently being an SOB helped him.

So here now, from 1990, Al Neuharth:

Al Neuharth died in 2013, at the age of 89.

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George Shultz

Bill Thompson

George Shulz served in various positions under three U.S. presidents — in fact Shultz held four different cabinet-level posts over the years.

An economist by training, Shultz came to Washington as Richard Nixon’s first Labor Secretary. He became Director of the Office of Management and Budget a year later, and a year after that Nixon appointed him Treasury Secretary.

Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. and in 1982 chose Shultz as his Secretary of State. Shultz became a key shaper of foreign policy during the Reagan’s administration.

I met him in the spring of 1993, when he wrote a long memoir of his years at the State Department.

So here now, from 1993, George Shultz.

George Shultz died this past February at the age of 100.

Betty Mahmoody

Bill Thompson

Happy Mothers Day weekend to all the moms listening right now.

Today, the story of one exceptionally courageous mom.

Her name is Betty Mahmoody. In the mid-1980s she accompanied her her iranian-born husband back to his native country for what she thought would be a two-week vacation.

But instead of returning to the US, her husband informed her that they would be living permanently in Iran. And that was just the beginning of the ordeal for her and the couple’s four-year-old daughter Mahtob.

Betty Mahmoody tells the story of what happened over the next 18 months in her best-selling book Not Without My Daughter. Her book was later made into a major Motion Picture starring Sally Field as Betty Mahmoody.

So here now, from 1988, Betty Mahmoody…

Betty Mahmoody will be 76 next month. She is President and co-founder of One World: For Children.

Her daughter In 2015, Mahtob Mahmoody wrote her own book about her and her mother’s escape from Iran.

Barbara Bush

Bill Thompson

Sometimes when I interview celebrities, they are exactly the way I thought they would be.

And sometimes, a celebrity would surprise me a little. I was surprised a little by former First Lady Barbara Bush, wife of George H.W. Bush, our 41st president.

When I met her in 1994, when she published her Memoir, I was unprepared for how simple, straightforward, and folksy Mrs. Bush was. It was like talking to my mom or one of her friends over a cup of coffee.

It’s important to remember that Barbara Bush holds a rare distinction in American history: she is only the second woman, behind Abigail Adams, to be the wife of one president and the mother of another.

Now, one thing you will hear us refer to in this interview is a small plane crashing into the White House lawn. It happened just a couple of days before our interview, when a young man stole a light plane and crash landed on the South Lawn.

Oh, and also, you’ll hear why Barbara Bush quit smoking.

So here now, from 1994, Barbara Bush.

Barbara Bush died in April 2018. She was 92. George H.W. Bush died seven montrhs later at age 94.

Jerry Parr

Bill Thompson
Photo: KDT Mom

40 years ago this week, a young would-be assassin put a bullet in President Ronald Reagan.

The man whose quick thinking likely saved the president’s life was Jerry Parr, a member of Mr. Reagan’s Secret Service detail that day outside the Washington Hilton Hotel.

Before anyone was aware that one of John Hinckley jr. shots had actually hit the president, Jerry Parr recognized something was seriously wrong, and he ordered the president’s driver to head straight to the hospital.

The president arrived at the hospital just in time. He collapsed inside the door, and was rushed into surgery.

Jerry Parr, 2nd from left, on March 30,1981

I met Jerry Parr in 2013. He and his wife Carolyn had written a book about that day, and about their lives before and after the assassination attempt.

And as you’re about to hear, Carolyn Parr made what I guess Hollywood would call a cameo appearance at the Reagan shooting scen

So here now, from 2013, Jerry Parr.

Jerry Parr died just two years after our interview. He was 85.

Grace George Corrigan

Bill Thompson

Tomorrow is January 28, and if you are old enough, you undoubtedly have a clear memory of exactly where you were 35 years agp, on January 28, 1986.

That was the day of that horrible tragedy, the explosion of Space Shuttle Challenger.

Among the crew members was teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe, who had won a nationwide competition to become the first teacher in space.

Watching the liftoff in person that day was Christa McAuliffe’s mother, Grace George Corrigan.

A few years later, Corrigan wrote a book about her daughter, and that’s when I met her.

So here now, from 1993, Grace George Corrigan.

Christa’s father died in 1990,

Grce George Corrigan died in 2018 at athe age of 94.

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