Bob Edwards Weekend Highlights – November 21-22, 2009
HOUR ONE
Hal Holbrook is best-known for his iconic portrayal of Mark Twain. His first solo act as Twain was in 1954. More than fifty years later, Holbrook is still at it and nobody can bring Mark Twain alive like he can. Now Holbrook stars in That Evening Sun, a Southern Gothic film about a man refusing to face the waning years of his life and his worth. Scott Teems, the director of the film, joins Holbrook to talk about their independent film.
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with executive director Dan Gediman about the essay from Barry Bingham, Sr., He was the long-time owner, editor and publisher of The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times. His family’s leadership of the newspapers as well as radio and TV properties in Kentucky led to numerous journalism awards including multiple Pulitzer Prizes. Then, Bob is joined by Molly Bingham, one of Barry’s grandchildren. She recalls some favorite memories of her grandfather and describes how his example of journalistic courage prompted her to become a photojournalist and documentarian.
HOUR TWO
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and one of the most recent and most detailed books about JFK just came out. It’s titled Jack Kennedy: The Illustrated Life of a President. The book features intimate photos, personal memorabilia and history-making documents. It also includes a CD of some of JFK’s most famous speeches. Presidential scholar and author Chuck Wills joins Bob to discuss his research for the book.
In her new book, The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood has created a dystopian world that can be read as a commentary on religion, politics, science and the environment. Atwood has authored 15 books of poetry but she’s best-known for her novels including The Handmaid’s Tale, The Blind Assassin, and Oryx and Crake.
In the early 1990’s, Maryland artist Billy Pappas set out to draw the impossible. For the next eight years, Pappas worked to capture what is normally unseen in portraiture, each pore, each individual strand of hair. His obsession was matched only by his obsessive pursuit to show his opus to the acclaimed modern artist David Hockney. Julie Checkoway is the director of a film about Pappas. She talks with Bob about Waiting for Hockney which debuts on the Sundance Channel on Monday.