Now I've Heard Everything

It's been almost 50 years since the tragically untimely death of Janis Joplin, whose rock, soul and blues set the standard for a whole generation of musicians who followed. 

About 30 years ago, I met Janis's younger sister Laura Joplin, who had just published a biography of Janis, based largely on a cache of letters her sister wrote, back in the day.

As she told me in this interview, it became a project she needed to do.

It's not a government job that gets a lot of attention or media coverage.

But the office of U.S. Chief of Protocol is a uniquely sensitive position. If done right, no one even notices. But if done wrong, it can spark an international crisis.

Former journalist Selwa Roosevelt -- always known as "Lucky" -- was Chief of Protocol under :resident Ronald Reagan, from 1982 to 1989.  That's longer than anyone else has ever served in that position.

I met Lucky Roosevelt the year after she left the government. 

Happy birthday to George Takei, who today is 83.

Many of us remember him best s Helmsman Sulu on the original "Star Trek" TV series, or perhaps as an author or activist or wildly popular and widely quoted and rweeted internet commentator.

George Takei was just four years old when the Japanese empire attacked Pearl Harbor and plunged America into World War Two.  

The U.S. government ordered Japanese-Americans into internment camps, and the Takei family of California was among those taken into custody.

On a cold January morning in 2009, a US Airways flight left New York's LaGuardia Airport.

At the controls that morning was veteran Captain Chesley Sullenberger, whom everyone called "Sully."

Moments after takeoff, the plane ran into a flock of geese, disabling its engines.

Unable to reach any nearby airport, Sully and co-pilot Jeff Sykes safely guided the plane into the Hudson River, where it stayed afloat long enough to get every single persopn off the plane safe and alive.

ChuckNorris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

But a book is how I first met Chuck Norris 32 years ago, in early 1988. He had just written an autobiography and was on tour to promote it. 

And it was one of the many times in my interviewing career that I wished I could have had a couple of hours, instead of just 15 minutes, with a subject.

Sir James Dyson will tell you, it's not eas being an innovator.

Dyson is the guy who, a few years ago, came up with a whole new kind of vacuum cleaner, which he dubbed the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum.

It was a revolution in vacuum technology that upended that well-established undustry.

But as he told me, in our 2004 interview, it isn't as easy as just building the better mousetrap. 

On this Easter weekend, I wanted to share with you one of several comversations I had with one of the most popular of the TV evangelists of his day: Rev. Robert Schullt, creator of The Hour of Power, the leader of a congregation that worshiped in the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.

In 1992, we met for an interview about a new book about his life.  It was called "Goliath," written by his son-in-law James Penner.

Back in the '70s, Robert Blake was a huge TV star.  His career actually began when he was a kid -- did you know he was a star in many of those old black and white "Little Rascals" movies?

So it's kind of sad that many people today only know Robert Blake -- if they remember him at all -- for his 2005 murder trial, in which he was eventually acquitted in the shoorting death of his second wife Bonnie Lee Bakley.

I mety him many years before all that, in 1986. He was part of a movement called the "Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament," a grassroots, cross-country effort to raise awareness of nuclear proflieration.

Everyone knows the story of young Dorothy Gale of Kansas, and her epic journey to meet the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.  

And we know that along the way she "liquidates" the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Back in 1995, Gregory Maguire built on L. Frank Baum's work to create "Wicked," the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West.  "Wicked" became a moden day cultural phenomenon.

If not for the coronavirus, this would have been Final Four weekend. 

So, for you basketball-starved fans, let me share with you an interrview I did some 20 years ago with the coach who took his team to the Final Four eleven times during his 36 seasons with the University of North Carolina.

Dean Smith was one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history.

Here is my 1999 interview.