Product Description

From the 1950s through 1997, Louis Studs Terkel, bestselling author of Hard Times, Working, The Great War, Coming of Age, and eight other books, hosted a daily one-hour show on WFMT Radio in Chicago. This nationally syndicated, Peabody Award-winning program was an ideal showcase for his curmudgeonly wit, his maverick opinions, and his genius as an interviewer. The 48 interviews in this collection, span Terkel s five decades on radio and encompass a wide range of entertainers, scientists, writers and thinkers, including Dorothy Parker, Pete Seeger, Bob Woodward, Simone de Beauvoir, and many more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #429120 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-07
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .1 pounds
• Binding: Audio CD

From Publishers Weekly
Today, in the age of Charlie Rose and other TV interviewers, impromptu conversations with authors, actors and musicians are a common part of the cultural landscape. But back in the 1950s, when Chicago radio journalist Terkel was interviewing the likes of Pete Seeger, Dorothy Parker and James Baldwin, the practice was radically original. Excerpts from 48 interviews, first broadcast on Terkel's daily show on WFMT, are presented here, with one cassette devoted to each decade from the '50s to the '90s. Thanks to engineering wizardry, the fidelity of this archival material is so fine that there is a shock of immediacy in hearing these voices speak across time. That's also due to Terkel's freshness of attitude throughout, which translates beautifully into the contemporary moment. His style of questioning is disarmingly quiet: his whispery voice and self-effacing charm elicits unusually personal and considered responses. As a writer, Terkel is known for his use of oral history (The Good War, etc.); here he presents what he calls the "taped history" itself. Among the other luminaries included are Gore Vidal, Bertrand Russell, Eudora Welty, Woody Allen, Ralph Ellison and R. Buckminster Fuller. This is a beautifully packaged and sensitively edited program, a graceful and important audio-specific title. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Terkel's skilled interviews with celebrities were distilled from his radio broadcasts spanning 1940-98. His friendly, tolerably gruff voice, knowledge of each person's interests, and quiet modesty allow the guest to expound on favorite subjects. Terkel enthusiastically joins comedians Mel Brooks and Zero Mostel in droll charades; he invites some authors like Eudora Welty to read snippets from their books; composers like Aaron Copeland, singers like Pete Seeger, and musicians like Leonard Bernstein are accompanied by short selections of their work. Clarity of the talk, whether recorded on studio equipment or a portable tape recorder, is pleasantly consistent. Recommended for popular libraries.AGordon Blackwell, Eastchester, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
In Chicago during the McCarthy era a lawyer by training, an actor by vocation, Studs Terkel, was hosting a local TV show, "Studs' Place," when he was kicked off the air for refusing to sign a loyalty oath. No one would touch him except small, mom-and-pop WFMT, an FM classical station. He remained there for fifty years, as the station grew into an important cultural force, and he raked in a couple of Pulitzers for oral-history books, such as WORKING and DIVISION STREET, USA. For most of that time, he had--and, now almost completely deaf, still has--an uncanny way of getting people to talk candidly and interestingly. Producer Tom Voegli has here collected excerpts from Terkel's daily interview show, featuring such cultural icons as Leonard Bernstein, Dorothy Parker, Bertrand Russell, R. Buckminster Fuller, Mahalia Jackson--48 luminaries in all. Each is far too short but, nonetheless, gives a revealing aural snapshot of its subject. Jackson, for instance, the singer and activist, struggles to keep magnanimity in her heart in the face of racial violence. This is a must-have artifact of America in the last half of this waning century. Y.R.Winner of AUDIOFILE'S Earphones Award. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine