KPFA - Radio Wolinsky

Gore Vidal, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, recorded on October 5, 2000 in San Francisco, California.

Over a period of sixteen years from 1990 to 2006, Richard Wolinsky conducted four interviews with Gore Vidal, two of which involved co-host Richard A. Lupoff. This is the third chronologically of those interviews, conducted on October 5, 2000 while Gore Vidal was on tour for his novel The Golden Age, the final in his series of seven novels exploring American history and titled “Narratives of Empire.” The other novels in the series are Burr, 1876, Lincoln, Empire, Hollywood and Washington D.C.

This conversation mostly concerns the period of The Golden Age, which encompasses the World War II and post-war era, focusing on the war itself, Roosevelt and Truman, Stalin, and the institution of the Cold War and the National Security State. The interview also tackles the Bush v Gore election season, and was conducted a month before Election Day.

Digitized, remastered and re-edited in August, 2017 by Richard Wolinsky.

Excerpts from the interview are heard on KPFA’s Arts-Waves program in two parts, and the syndicated Bookwaves program.

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Barbara Cook, the legendary Broadway star, died on August 8, 2017. This interview was recorded in her apartment on the upper West Side of Manhattan on June 21st, 2016  on publication of her memoir, Then & Now. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

Barbara Cook came to New York from Atlanta in the early 1950s and was the young ingenue in the musicals Flahooley and Plain & Fancy. Her first major role was as Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. She made her greatest mark as the original Marian the Librarian opposite Robert Preston in the hit show, The Music Man, and followed it up as Amalia in the original production of She Loves Me, currently in a hit revival on Broadway. Along the way, she performed in several New York revivals, including The King and I, Show Boat and Carousel.

After a rough few years in which she battled weight issues and alcoholism, she emerged in the mid-1970s as one of America’s greatest interpreters of the American musical canon, with performances in cabaret venues, at the Met, and at Carnegie Hall. She also was featured on the Sondheim Follies in Concert albumin 1985, which has become a must-own for collectors of musical theatre recordings.

In 2010, she returned to Broadway in Sondheim by Sondheim, and received the Kennedy Center honors in 2011. She continued to perform into the fall of 2016, at the age of 88.

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Edward Abbey, who died at the age of 62 back in 1989 was a novelist, short story writer and non-fiction essayist who is now known as the father of the radical environmentalist movement and one of the great voices of America’s unfettered west. Through his novels and his essays and journals, He argued in defense of the wilderness and personal freedom against government and corporate forces that would inhibit both.

There are nine novels, a book of poetry, fourteen collections of essays and journals, three omnibus works, and two books of letters. One book became a classic film, Lonely are the Brave, another a less successful TV film.

After having published three novels to little effect, his publisher suggested an essay collection. Thus came, in 1965, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, and modern radical environmentalism was born.

Ten years later came his best known work, The Monkey Wrench Gang, a comic novel that focuses on sabotage in the name of environmentalism. It has obviously never become a film. In 1985, the novel was reissued as a hardback featuring illustrations by R. Crumb. He died four years later at the age of sixty two of complications from surgery.

This program is taken from an interview conducted on his book tour for the Monkey Wrench Gang reissue in July 1985, conducted by Richard Wolinsky and Lawrence Davidson. Edward Abbey insisted the interview occur over lunch at an outdoor café in the B&B where he was staying. Eventually the ambient noise became too great and the interview moved indoors. The poor sound quality is due not only to the original issues but to the state of the budget cassette.

Written, produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

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Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) was a leading light in the field of crime and noir fiction. Author of such novels as Get Shorty, Stick, Rum Punch and other thrillers which became films, he also was the vision behind the now classic television show, Justified. 

In this documentary using material from interviews conducted in 1988 and 1989, host Richard Wolinsky lets Elmore speak, in his own words, about his career and his writing process. Produced by Richard Wolinsky.

A shorter version previously aired on January 2, 2014.

Interviews originally conducted by Richard A. Lupoff, Richard Wolinsky and Lawrence Davidson.

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Film critic Richard Schickel (1933-2017) in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in 2003.

Richard Schickel, who died on February 18, 2017 at the age of 84, spent forty-five years as film critic for Time Magazine. During his lifetime he wrote 36 books, most of them about film, and produced and directed thirty-four documentaries, all about film.

This interview was recorded while he was publicizing his book, ““Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip: Movies, Memory and World War II.” In the book he discusses his early love of movies, and more importantly, the movies as propaganda element during World War II. The interview occurred during the height of the invasion of Iraq, and of course that element came into play.

Fourteen years after this interview, a musical version of “Monsoon Wedding” directed by Mira Nair played to large crowds at Berkeley Rep. Of the two films to look out for, both Veronica Guerin and Mystic River were listed in his top ten of that year While Veronica Guerin never made a mark, Mystic River was nominated for six Oscars including best picture, and won two,, best actor for Sean Penn and best supporting actor for Tim Robbins. He continued to write. His final book, published in 2015, was Keepers: The Greatest Films, and Personal Favorites of a Moviegoing Lifetime. He retired from Time Magazine in 2010. His final book, Keepers: The Greatest Films, and personal favorites of a movie-going career, was published in 2015.

Excerpts from this interview aired on KPFA’s Arts-Waves program.

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