Now I've Heard Everything

Fifty-two years ago this week the world watched in fascination, as Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first human beings to set foot on the surface of the moon.

As they were planting their footprints on the moon, orbiting above it was the third member of the history-making crew, Michael Collins. 

After all, someone had to stay in the car with the motor running while Armstrong and Aldrin did their thing. 

More than 20 years later, I met and interviewed Mike Collins. Twice, in fact. The interview you're going to here was the second one we did, about a book he wrote called Missino to Mars

Ginger Rogers is one of those Hollywood figures who transcended mere stardom, and became a cultural icon.

In the 1930s she and her dance partner Fred Astaire dominated American film.

Her talent was apparent early on. At age 14, she wanted Charleston dance contest.  

And before long she was in vaudeville, then Broadway, and finally the movies.

And then RKO Pictures paired her with Fred Astaire, and the rest, as they say, is history.

And it was famously said of her that she could do eveything Fred Astaire could do, but backwards and in high heels. You’ll hear more about that in this interview...

It takes a certain kind of man to be a successful u.s. Marine drill instructor. It seems to come naturally to some men. 

And one of them turned it into a successful acting career. 

R. Lee Ermey was nominated for a Golden Globe for his work in the 1987 film "Full Metal Jacket."

He went on to play tough, rugged authority figures in a number of oher movies -- even “Toy Story.”

In 2002 the History Channel came calling, and made Ermey the star of the show “Mail Call, which quickly became the network's most popular show.”

Young journalist David Brinkley first came to Washington, D.C. in 1943, just as World War II was transforming the nation's capital. 

The sleepy Southern town that had been home to a small federal government suddenly burgeoned into a major city filled with office buildings, bureaucracy, lobbyists, and lots of money. 

After the wa, in 1956, NBC paired Brinkley with Chet Huntley to co-anchor their nightly news.

After leaving NBC in the 1970s, Brinkley joined ABC, where he was the founding host of the Sunday morning show “This Week.”  He retired in 1997.

It was in the late 1980s that Brinkley wrote his first book, on account of the War years called Washington Goes to War. It became a major bestseller. And that's when I met him. 

His first big break in the movies came with a film called The Heartbreak Kid.

But that was just the beginning for Charles Grodin.

Then came Midnight Run. Seems Like Old Times. The Lonely Guy. And, finally, a new generation discovered him in the Beethoven movies. 

It looks like the classic success story. But in his 1989 book called It Would Be So Nice if You Weren't Here,  Grodin wanted to reveal how about 1% success overshadowed the 99% rejection actors suffer.

From a very early age, Caroline Kennedy was taught to appreciate the beauty and power of poetry.

No surprise, really. Her parents were both very well red. Her father was a famous author, her mother was an author handbook editor.

Of they were better known, perhaps, as President John F Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. 

One of their enduring legacies to their children was a love of literature. So, no surprise, in 2011, Caroline Kennedy published a poetry anthology.

In the 1960s and into the early 70s, one of the most dominant pitchers in the National League was St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Bob Gibson.

During a 17-year career, Gibson racked up 251 wins, over 3000 strikeouts, won two Cy Young awards and one year was Most Valluable Player.

He was a star of the 1967 World Series in which the Cardinals beat the Boston Red Spx.

Now, like any picture with that kind of record, Gibson was an intimidating presence on the mound.   

If he had wanted to, Dave Berry probably could have been a successful stand-up comedian.

Instead, he wrote a humor column. And wrote books. Lots and lots of books.

Over about a 20-year period, I think I interviewed Dave almost 20 times. 

Two of those interviews stand out, including the one you're about to hear. It was for his book Dave Barry Turns 40. I thought it was an appropriate interview to run, because tomorrow, July 3rd, is David's birthday.

In the '90s and early 2000s, one of the most popular TV personalities in the world was Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.

He happily and enthusiastically introduced his viewers to some ofthe world's most exotic, and dangerous, wildlife.

Ultimately it was a fatal encounter with a stingray that prematurely eded his life in 2006. Steve was just 44.

The following year his widow Terri published a book called Steve And Me. And that's when I met her.

55 years ago African Americans were making historic gains in civil rights. But much work was still to be done. 

That year, 1966, Bobby Seale and his longtime friend Huey Newton created a new organization they called the Black Panther Party. 

In 1968 Seal made a name for himself during anti-Vietnam War protests outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 

It was not his first run-in with the law and it would not be his last.