On this Poets' Day (that's Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday), I want to share one of my guiltiest Americana pleasures: the Mike Wallace Interview archive at Texas University. Pointed this way by Boing Boing, it's a webcast video collection of mid-50's interviews by the legendary news anchor Mike Wallace - who until recently plied a wrinkly trade in the current 60 Minutes show on CBS, but here looks like a stunning candidate for the lead role in Mad Men.
What is truly bizarre about this show is the combination of the fabulously precise questioning of Wallace, the weird all-culture spectrum of guests - from Aldous Huxley and Kirk Douglas, from Diana Dors to Erich Fromm - and, most head-wrenchingly, the cigarette-sponsor endorsements that Wallace has to painstakingly perform at the head of each show. It's a bit like watching David Dimbleby getting gussied up and shilling for MacDonald's every week at the beginning of Question Time (yes, I know you'd pay good money for that).
No embed function, I'm afraid, but go there and enjoy yourself hugely. For me, in any case, it demonstrates that there's always been a profound seriousness in the Republic, that the Obama era - see this amazing photo slide from New York Times on their team: all colours, all sexes - might well unleash again. Have a good weekend.
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