1980s

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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Buzz Aldrin

Bruce Laingen

Bill Thompson

In early November 1979, a group of students and militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking everyone inside hostage, including the chargé d’affaires, a career diplomat named Bruce Laingen.

The militants were demanding the return of the exiled Shah of Iran, who was undergoing medical treatment in the U.S.

But diplomatic and even military efforts to free the hostages failed, and they ended up being held in Iran for 444 days. It was only on Inauguration Day 1981 that the hostages were ultimately freed.

Years later, Bruce Laingen wrote a book, based on a journal he’d kept while in captivity. And that’s when I met him.

So here now, from 1992, Bruce Langan.

Bruce Laingen died in 2019, at age 96.

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Jimmy Carter

Ann Richards

Bill Thompson
Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel

In the summer of 1988 leaders of the Democratic party invited Texas State Treasurer Ann Richards to deliver a prime-time address at the Democratic National Convention.

Richards delivered. all right, in a big way, targeting Republican presidential nominee George H.W. Bush, who had just spent eight years as Ronald Reagan’s vice president. Richards delivered a takedown line that has lived forever: “He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

I met Ann Richards in the fall of 1989 when she had just launched her campaign for governor of Texas.

So here now from 1989 Ann Richards.

Ann Richards won the election for governor in 1990, but served just one term.

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She died in 2006 at age 73.

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Bob Dole

Alex Trebek

Bill Thompson
Photo: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS

By now you’ve heard the sad news that Jeopardy host Alex Trebek passed away early Sunday.

So today, we’ll be revisiting my interview with him from some 30 years ago. He was promoting a book called, appropriately enough, The Jeopardy Book.

And get ready for some real Insider information about the show he hosted since 1984.

So here now, from 1990, Alex Trebek:

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.

Melissa Anderson

Bill Thompson

It was 46 years ago this week that NBC TV viewers first heard that theme music introducing a series called “Littel House on the Prairie.”

For the next eight years, it was a perennial viewer favorite.

One of the stars of the series was Melissa Anderson — known in those years as “Melissa Sue Anderson”; she’ll explain why, in this interview. Anderson played “Mary,” one member of the Ingalls family.

I met her in 2010, when she wrote a memoir about her years on “Little House.”

So here now, from 2010, Melissa Anderson:

Melissa Anderson will be 58 later this month. She became a naturalized citizen oif Canada in 2007.

And reruns of “Little House on the Prairie” can still be found on TV almost every day.

Sydney Biddle Barrows

Bill Thompson

As public scandals go, this one might seem pretty benign, by today’s low bar. But in 1984, it was a big story when it was revealed that the authoirities had broken up a high-priced Manhattan escort service that was being run by a woman named Sydney Biddle Barrows.

Now, when a New York Post reporter uncovered the fact that the 32-year-old Barrows is from the Biddle family of Philadelphia, and is a direct descendant of some of the original Mayflower settlers, he dubbed her the “Mayflower Madam” — and the name stuck.

Within two years of her company being put out of business, Barrows wrote a bestselling autobiography, called, of course, “The Mayflower Madam.”

That’s when I first met her.

So here now, from 1986, Mayflower Madam Sydney Biddle Barrows:

Sydney Biddle Barrows is 68 now. She’s a management consultant and writer.

Ally Sheedy

Bill Thompson
Photo: Bridget Laudien

In the 1980s movies like The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, WarGames, and Short Circuit made Ally Sheedy a star. She was a prominent member of the so-called Brat Pack.

I met her in 1991 when, at age 28, she had just published a collection of her poetry. Many of the poems in her book dated back to her teenage years. But as she remionded me, it’s not like she was new to writing, or publishing.

So here now, from 1991, Ally Sheedy.

Ally Sheedy is 58 now. She was most recently seen in 2016’s X Men: Apocalypse. But her 1991 book Yesterday I Saw the Sun was the last book she’s published.