Lessons of Leadership (HD)

A. Scott Berg found his calling early in life. At 15, he already knew he wanted to attend Princeton University. At Princeton he determined to tell the story of 20th century America by writing "five or six biographies" of American cultural figures. At 19 he began work on his senior thesis, a biography of Maxwell Perkins, the legendary editor who "discovered" and developed F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, James Jones and dozens of other important writers. After graduating cum laude in 1971, Berg spent seven years expanding the thesis, which became his first book, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. The first effort won the National Book Award and earned the young biographer a Guggenheim Fellowship, which helped support him while he completed his next book Goldwyn: A Biography, a life of the pioneer motion picture producer, published in 1989.Berg was looking for the subject of his next work when a publisher suggested the life of the controversial aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh had himself written a Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, and his widow, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was also a distinguished author. Previous biographies had offended Lindbergh with their inaccuracies, and the family had never cooperated fully with a biographer before. Berg spent seven days visiting with Mrs. Lindbergh to persuade her that he would tell her husband's story fairly. He scored the ultimate coup for a Lindbergh biographer: Mrs. Lindbergh gave Berg access to 2,000 boxes of private papers, including 60 years of her own diaries. Berg spent two years in the family's archives, poring over the material. In Paris he rested on the bed in the American ambassador's residence where Lindbergh slept after his transatlantic flight. It took Berg nine years to complete his biography of the flier, but the resulting book, Lindbergh, immediately became a best-seller and won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Berg's next project is a biography on the 28th American President, Woodrow Wilson.

A. Scott Berg found his calling early in life. At 15, he already knew he wanted to attend Princeton University. At Princeton he determined to tell the story of 20th century America by writing "five or six biographies" of American cultural figures. At 19 he began work on his senior thesis, a biography of Maxwell Perkins, the legendary editor who "discovered" and developed F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, James Jones and dozens of other important writers. After graduating cum laude in 1971, Berg spent seven years expanding the thesis, which became his first book, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. The first effort won the National Book Award and earned the young biographer a Guggenheim Fellowship, which helped support him while he completed his next book Goldwyn: A Biography, a life of the pioneer motion picture producer, published in 1989. Berg was looking for the subject of his next work when a publisher suggested the life of the controversial aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh had himself written a Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, and his widow, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was also a distinguished author. Previous biographies had offended Lindbergh with their inaccuracies, and the family had never cooperated fully with a biographer before. Berg spent seven days visiting with Mrs. Lindbergh to persuade her that he would tell her husband's story fairly. He scored the ultimate coup for a Lindbergh biographer: Mrs. Lindbergh gave Berg access to 2,000 boxes of private papers, including 60 years of her own diaries. Berg spent two years in the family's archives, poring over the material. In Paris he rested on the bed in the American ambassador's residence where Lindbergh slept after his transatlantic flight. It took Berg nine years to complete his biography of the flier, but the resulting book, Lindbergh, immediately became a best-seller and won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Berg's next project is a biography on the 28th American President, Woodrow Wilson.

At the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Hawaii, three distinguished public servants address the problems and opportunities facing the modern metropolis. Richard M. Daley is now serving his sixth term as mayor of Chicago. He has earned a national reputation for his innovative, community-based programs to address education, public safety and neighborhood development; he was one of the first mayors of a major American city to take direct control over his city's school system. Antonio R. Villaraigosa was elected Mayor of Los Angeles in a historic landslide in 2005. As leader of America's second largest city, he has taken on entrenched interest groups to promote new approaches to education and transportation. The first Latino to lead Los Angeles in over 130 years, he has quickly emerged as a dynamic national spokesman for urban America. For over 30 years, Willie L. Brown, Jr. represented San Francisco in the California State Assembly. For 15 of those years, he dominated the state's government as Speaker of the Assembly. From 1995 to 2003, he served two terms as Mayor of San Francisco. Presiding over a period of intense growth driven, he is one of the most popular mayors in the city's history. The discussion was moderated by the host of MSNBC's Hardball Chris Matthews.

Make a list of the landmarks of the American musical theater over the last half a century -- West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, The Phantom of the Opera -- and you'll find Harold Prince behind every one of them. He has won 21 Tony Awards as producer and director, a record no one can touch. Prince began his producing career at age 26, enjoying back-to-back hits with The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. The first show also marked the beginning of his collaboration with director and choreographer Jerome Robbins. The pair made history in 1957 with West Side Story, a retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story set among rival New York street gangs, with a classic score by composer Leonard Bernstein and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. The collaboration of Prince and Robbins reached its peak with Fiddler on the Roof, the timeless story of a Jewish family in pre-revolutionary Russia, coping with the conflicting pull of tradition and modernity. Prince's attention turned to directing, and in 1967 he scored a hit with Cabaret, a dark-hued tale of Berlin night life on the eve of the Nazi takeover. In the 1970s, he enjoyed a memorable collaboration with Stephen Sondheim, creating some of the most sophisticated works in the history of the musical stage: Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, and their biggest hit, Sweeney Todd. Prince enjoyed even greater success with two lavish musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Evita and The Phantom of the Opera. Audiences around the world were thrilled by Phantom's breathtaking stagecraft and went back to see it again and again. Over the years, Harold Prince has diversified, directing dramas, films and opera, but the musical theater remains his greatest love. Now in the sixth decade of his career, he is still going strong.