From the Collection: June 2019
June is Pride Month! In our interview, director Paris Barclay shared advice he received from a friend about being out in his professional life:
“If you're open about who you are…the people who don't want to work with you, they won't call you. People who do want to work with you, and think that's an advantage for that particular show, they will call you. And people who don't care will call you. So that will protect you from working with the assholes who do care and it also encourages the people who think it's an asset or don't care to go for you. And that has proven to be the case.”
Marla Gibbs turns 88 on June 14. She just made a return to the small screen with an appearance on ABC’s live All in the Family and The Jeffersons special! In our interview with her, she talked described her character, Florence:
“Florence was a no-nonsense woman who just didn’t let anybody take advantage of her, and would tell you like she saw it, whether you asked her or not.”
June 16 is Father’s Day, and we’ve got lots of “father” shows discussed in our collection, including Father Knows Best, Make Room for Daddy, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Bachelor Father, Life with Father, and My Two Dads.
O.J. Simpson’s infamous car chase in the white Bronco happened 25 years ago, on June 17, 1994. Writer/host Dominick Dunne, who sat in the courtroom for the entire trial, discusses the court case and why Simpson’s calm reaction when he finally stopped and was put in handcuffs made him suspect his guilt:
Some big birthdays this month include Bill Moyers (85), director Timothy Van Patten (60), editor Julian Gomez (55), Roscoe Orman (75), and Pat Boone (85).
Actress Bonnie Bartlett will turn 90 on June 20. We had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Bartlett and her husband, actor William Daniels, last year, where they talked about playing a married couple on St. Elsewhere:
20 years ago, in June of 1999, we conducted a slate of amazing interviews: executive Thomas W. Sarnoff, Ted Turner, correspondent Robert Trout, Andy Rooney, producer Steve Carlin, Hume Cronyn, Julia Child, Horton Foote, unit manager Stewart MacGregory, and Ruth Warrick.
Finally, in honor of the summer solstice, which is June 21 and marks the longest day of the year, watch the longest interview in our collection, which is with Dan Rather and clocks in at nearly eight hours! Rather had this advice for aspiring journalists:
“Journalism is a life’s work, it’s a great life’s work, but you must burn with a hot, hard flame to do it. It is not a predictable career, and it can break your heart, partly because it’s not predictable and it’s hard to get a toehold into it. … So you have to one, really burn with passion to do it. Two, you have to learn to write. Three, you have to learn to write. Four, you have to learn to write. If you have those two things, and you do those two things, then it can be a great profession – or most times, I prefer to call it a craft, because it’s a lifetime of learning.”
- Jenna Hymes