Now I've Heard Everything

In 1981, at the age of 16, Andrea Jaeger was ranked number two in the world among professional women tennis players.  But at age 19, a shoulder injury ended her five-year pro career.  Within two years, however, Jaeger launched her second career as an advocate for children with life-threatening illnesses.  

On July 20th, 1969, Buzz Aldrin was 39 years old, as he and Neil Armstrong became the first two human beings ever to set foor on the surface of the moon. Fifty-one years sounds like a long time, but to those of us who remember watching it unfold live on TV, it's almost like it was yesterday. To untold millions of people all over the world, Buzz Aldrin, to this day, remains a larger-than-life hero....

An icon of the American civil rights movement has died.  Congressman John Lewis was 80 when he passed away this weekend. Here is a repost of an episode of Now I've Heard Everything that I first posted last February.

You could say that Richard Branson's success in business has always been about disruption.  He disrupted air travel, he risrupted the music business, he disrupted retail -- all through the Virgin Group, which he founded in the 1970s. I met him in fall 1998.  He had just written a memoir called "Losing My Virginity."

Hot air balloons, or lighter-than-air craft, have been around for centuries. But it wasn't until March 1999 that humans were able to circumnavigate the entire world in a single hot air balloon flight.  The two guys who did it were British balloonist Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist.  They co-piloted a massive balloon called Breitling Orbiter 3,  ...

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.

Glamour, glitz, sex, power, drugs, and money.  All were staples of novels by Jackie Collins. At the same time her sister Joan was making her name as an actress, Jackie Collins honed her craft as the author of novels in the tradition of Jacqueline Susann or Mickey Spillane. And she was really, really good at it. She wrote 32 novels, all of which became New York Times Best Sellers. Her books ha...

We lost a true American comedy genius last week.   Carl Reiner was 98 when he passed away.   I first met Carl Reiner  in 1993, and again in 1995, when he published a sequel to his iconic 1950s novel "Enter Laughing."

If Donald Trump thinks he's getting a rough time from the journalist who cover him at the White House, he's never met Sam Donaldson.  From 1977 to 1989 -- the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan years -- Donaldson was was Chief White House correspondent for ABC News.   During those twelve years, Donaldson proved to be a relentless, aggressive reporter, never letting the president get away wit...

As we head into the Independence Day weekend, it's a good time to look back on American history. For example, we all know that Christopher Columbus discovered America. No, wait, Leif Erikson did. Abe Lincoln once walk 3 miles to return a library book. George Washington had wooden teeth. Are these things true, or are they Legends and myths? 

She's a supermodel, a role model, and a popular actor.  Tyra Banks was already, at 24, an international celebrity when I met her in 1998.  She had written her first book, called "Tyra's Beauty Inside & Out."

Is it possible to get a major supporting role on a major television show, and have it cripple your acting career? It nearly happened to George Lindsey. You remember him as Goober from The Andy Griffith Show.  Taking that role, he says ,typecast him for years to come.

Vanna White has been turning the letters on TV's "Wheel of Fortune" since 1982.. But viewers of the show know that Vanna is much more than just a letter turner. Soon after joining the show, she rose to nearly the prominence of host, Pat Sajak. I met Vanna White in 1987.  She had written a memoir called "Vanna Speaks," and I interviewed her at the convention of the American Booksellers Associa...

Tomorrow, June 25th, would have been Anthony Bourdain's 64th birthday. That's why June 25th has been designated "Bourdain Day" by friends of the late chef, author, TV personality, and world traveler. Bourdain shot to fame some twenty years ago with his book "Kitchen Confidential," in which he pulled back the curtain to let us see what really goes on in a restaurant kitchen.  

Baby Boomers had The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books. Millennials had Harry Potter. And Generation Z grew up with Lemony Snicket. From 1999 to 2006, author Daniel Handler -- writing under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket -- wrote a series of books called "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Father's Day is this Sunday and all this week on Now I've Heard Everything we've been featuring interviews about fathers.  Today a conversation with a father and son who have been making us laugh for decades.  Actor-comedian Chris Elliott and his dad, Bob Elliott, collaborated on a 1989 book called "Daddy's Boy: A Son's Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father."   Don't be alar...

Father's Day is next Sunday and all this week on Now I've Heard Everything we're featuring interviews about fathers.  Few men are as widely praised as Sargent Shriver was. after his death in early 2011. Thousands of tributes hailed Shriver not only for his great public accomplishments -- including founding the Peace Corps, building President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty -- but also his per...

Next Sunday is Father's Day, so all of this week on Now I've Heard Everything, we are featuring interviews about fathers.  The late Richard Pryor was a hugely talented comedian and brilliant entertainer — but, by his own admission, a failure as a father.  In 2006 his daughter Rain Pryor wrote a memoir, a sympathetic portrait of the man, failings and all.

Few poets ever rise to the kind of prominence enjoyed by Maya Angelou.  But of course, she was much more than a poet -- essayist, memoirist, and civil rights activist.  And not a bad singer, as you'll hear in a few minutes. She worked with both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.  In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the first inauguration of President Bill C...

This is an episode of Now I've Heard Everything that made me think very carefully about.  Given the tensions the entire nation -- the world -- is enduring right now, I did not want to further inflame things. But ultimately, I think this interview, from 1992, with former Sgt. Stacey Koon, may provide some relevance and context. Let's go back to March 1991.  An LA cop makes a late-night tr...

Hairspray. Cry-Baby. Serial Mom. Pink Flamingos. Filmmaker John Waters has a long, illustrious, and unique body of work.  He started making movies in the early 1960s, but only rose to prominence in the '70s, and by the '80s was a cultural icon. I first met him in the fall of 1986.  He had just published a by collection of his writings, a slender little book called "Crackpot."

Reba McEntire recorded her first song in 1976, when she was just 21. Her first number one record didn't come for another decade, but she's been on a roll ever since, and today is a country music icon. In 1994, Reba wrote an autobiography, and that;s when I met her. And yes, it was another one of those times that I was pretty starstruck. But she immediately put me at ease.

In 1979 major league baseball umpires went on strike.  MLB hired substitutes -- scabs, as m,any call them -- and veteran minor league umpire Dave Pallone was offered a big-league job. He remained in the National League for ten years. But as he told in his 1990 book "Behind the Mask," his fellow umpires disliked him.  And he developed a reputation for being quick-tempered. In April 1988,...

When I was a kid, all my friends and I were into The Twilight Zone, the Rod Serling TV series. But in the later 2000s, another "twilight" captured the world's imagination:  the "Twilight" series of novels by Stephenie Meyer.   Four, in all, chronicling the stories of teenager Bella, vampire Edward. and werewolf Jacob.

This was actually one of the most popular interviews I posted last year on Now I've Heard Everything -- and since tomorrow, May 30th, would have been his 112th birthday, I wanted to re-share my 1988 interview with the unmatched master of voice acting, Mel Blanc. Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck. Elmer Fudd, Sylvester and Twety, Porky Pig, Barney Rubble.  Heck, he was even the voice of Jack Benny's car.