If by chance you read the last column I posted, you know how I got on an airplane and into a middle seat. Rather than tell you it was a miserable flight, let me describe it to you and you make the decision. The guy seated on my left was a youth pastor. He was [...]

When one thinks of composers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the names Mozart and Beethoven are likely to come to mind. A little more thought brings Franz Joseph Haydn into the picture. Haydn was not a child prodigy, but he was a true musical genius. Recognition came later, and it is said [...]

This story begins on one day in the year 1970, when my uncle, John Brown, found some captivating information about his great, great, great, great grandfather. Through countless hours of research and much exploring around the state of North Carolina, John finally was able to put most of the story together. This story contains the [...]

In 1940, the most famous address in America was 79 Wistful Vista–the fictional home of Fibber McGee and Molly, who, for 24 years, would amuse radio listeners with their nonsensical banter and exploits. Most broadcast experts credit the program with being the true prototype for today’s sitcoms. Fibber played the blowhard, sometimes hare-brained husband to [...]

Igor Stravinsky is said to be the greatest composer of the early twentieth century. He also is thought to have had the greatest influence on musical development during this time. Why is it then that his music has never gained the level of acceptance and popularity as that of the great composers of the nineteenth [...]

It is mid-summer 1966 and I am seated at my desk as Director of News and Public Affairs for the ABC-TV flagship station, WABC-TV in New York City. My intercom rings and my secretary informs me that a Mr. Lowell Thomas is on the line. Could this be the legendary newscaster, so closely identified all [...]

It is a bright, fall day in New York City in 1948. I stroll down Broadway for a meeting with former heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Dempsey, at his tourist attraction restaurant named, what else – “Jack Dempsey’s.” No slouch at P.R, the ol’ “Manassa Mauler” is seated at a window-side table working on some invoices, [...]

I am engaging in America’s favorite past-time, sitting in front of the TV set, flicking the remote, scrolling through channel after channel of seemingly endless newscasts and pseudo newscasts; dozens of them, ranging from a half-hour in length to 24/7 coverage – straight news, commentary, magazine shows, specials, documentaries, interview shows, satire and spoofs. Sometimes [...]