Mike Wallace and Art Buchwald: Blues Brothers

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Academy of Achievement

Film, Politics, Arts, Self-help, Sports, Society & Culture, Success, Literature, Humanitarian, Military, Social Justice, Technology, Podcast, Achievement, Music, Science

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2022

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One was an aggressive, no-holds-barred television interviewer. One was a newspaper columnist, who employed gentle satire to swipe at the rich and the powerful. Mike Wallace and Art Buchwald were leading media figures for fifty-plus years: Wallace as the co-host of "60 Minutes", Buchwald as the Washington Post humorist whose column was syndicated to over 500 newspapers. They went after the truth in very different ways, but they were the best of friends. They jokingly called themselves "The Blues Brothers" because they helped each other get through serious bouts of depression. Mike Wallace and Art Buchwald talk here about their childhoods (both were first-generation Americans) and share stories of the tragedies in their lives. They also describe how they got into the news business. No doubt you'll be amused to hear Wallace in the early days of radio, reading an ad for Mars Candy Bars! (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2022

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Alice.
0:04.0	On the northern end of Martha's Vineyard, about a block from the ocean,
0:08.0	there's a tiny historic burial ground, Westchop Cemetery. You'll find 18th and 19th century
0:16.3	seafares buried there as you'd expect, but you will also find the gravestones
0:21.3	of three renowned American chroniclers who left their mark on the 20th
0:26.6	and 21st centuries, Mike Wallace, Art Bookwald, and William Styren, one a newsman, one a humorist, and one a novelist.
0:37.0	They were best friends who shared many of life's joys, but also got each other through deep depressions.
0:47.0	In fact, they referred to themselves as the Blues Brothers.
0:51.0	All of them eventually spoke or wrote publicly about their struggles with the disease,
0:56.7	and they helped to destigmatize it. They decided on one rainy walk to the cemetery that they should be buried there to stay together.
1:06.1	Now they lie shouting distance from one another and their voices still reverberate through American
1:12.4	life. The Academy of Achievement has Voices still reverberate through American Life.
1:13.2	The Academy of Achievement has interviews with both Mike Wallace and Art Bookwald in its archive.
1:19.6	Their life stories and their careers were very different, but were confident they would have loved sharing
1:25.4	this episode.
1:27.1	This is what it takes a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.
1:34.0	I'm Alice Winkler.
1:37.0	I had a maid, this child is gifted and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
1:42.0	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity,
1:46.0	and you don't take it, you may never have another chance.
1:48.7	It all was so clear.
1:50.2	It was just like the picture started to form itself.
	...

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