LISTEN (Running time: 14:17. 13.0 MB)

CHRISTOPHER PURDY INTERVIEWS WILL ALLSION

Will Allison’s new novel “What You Have Left” has been lauded by the New York Times and is a Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers choice and a Border’s Original Voices choice for 2007. His short stories have been published in Cincinnati Review, Interview and Glimmer Train. Born in South Carolina, Will Allison holds the MFA degree from the Ohio State University’s Creative Writing program, where his teachers included Lee K. Abbott and Michelle Herman. He is at work on a new novel for the Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. See www.willallison.com

Praise for “What You Have Left”:
“The moving account tells of a South Carolina family struggling to survive despite a mother’s death, a father’s abandonment and a grandfather’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease—and a host of risky behaviors by others left behind.”
–Columbus Dispatch, 6/26/07

“Tender, smart and efficiently told…Raw boned, heartfelt prose.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 3/1/07

“A remarkable, understated novel…Allison has a precocious knack for detail…and for plain, old fashioned storytelling.”
–Entertainment Weekly (an EW pick) 6/8/07

Baritone Nathan Gunn’s new CD, ‘Just Before Sunrise,’ is a collection
of standards by Jimmy Van Heusen, Tom Waits, and Billy Joel, combined with new songs by Ben Moore,Gene Scheer, and Sting. It’s a winner, neither full classical nor pop, nor crossover, but a new expansion of American song.

Nathan Gunn has been a leading artist with the Metropolitan Opera since 1995; he sang Papageno in Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ in the Met’s first HD cinema presentations beamed into movie theaters worldwide. He returns to the Met in New York and in the movie theatres next season for Mercutio in Gounod’s ‘Romeo et Juliette.’

‘Just Before Sunrise’ is published by SONY Classical and hits the
stores on August 7th. We spoke on the phone from his hotel in New York on August 2, 2007.

–Christopher Purdy
‘Thanks’ as always to Eric French

LISTEN  (Running time: 4:59. 4.5 MB)

BOYCE LANCASTER TALKS WITH EARL WILD

“There was this horrible blizzard….” So begins Earl Wild’s tale about the night he performed at President Kennedy’s Inaugural Concert. When he finally arrived, his reward was a chance to talk to the President and his wife backstage for twenty minutes before the show. “I found Mrs. Kennedy to be most charming…”

This interview is part of Return to Camelot, a retrospective of the Kennedy years in the White House.

LISTEN  (Running time: 1:52. 1.7 MB)

BOYCE LANCASTER TALKS WITH CLARA O’DETTE

Former opera singer and loyal, longtime volunteer at WOSU FM, Clara O’Dette shares with us her personal stories about her performance at the White House. O’Dette, like Earl Wild, performed for the President under adverse weather conditions.

When she and her husband lived in Washington, D.C., Clara was an eight-year member of the chorus of the Washington Opera Society and performed for several luminaries. In addition to the Kennedys, Clara sang under Igor Stravinsky’s direction in “Chant du Rossignol,” and on another occasion met Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti backstage when the two friends attended rehearsals of Barber’s Vanessa.

This interview is part of Return to Camelot, a retrospective of the Kennedy years in the White House.

We invite veterans, family members, and anyone with a WWII interest to bring World War II photos, letters, souvenirs, and mementos to share your family stories. This event will be held on Saturday, June 23, from 10am to 4pm, at WOSU@COSI, 333 W. Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio.

All will be videotaped and posted to WOSU’s ohiowarstories.org, and some will be included in a local WOSU TV program airing in September.

To reserve time for your story, call us at 614-292-9678, or email us at wosu@osu.edu.

The Columbus World War II Roadshow coincides with Ken Burns’ The War, a 14-hour television series airing in September, 2007, on WOSU TV.

Bidding has been extended through July 2^nd and closes at 3PM.

 
Bid now on hundreds of items left over from the Travel, Leisure and Home Auction and Chefs in the City, plus newly acquired items not featured on television.  Bidding is open to the public, invite your friends and family to visit http://www.wosu.org/auction and click on the “Bid Now…” link to start bidding.

            Some items up for bid include:

      Cameron Mitchell Gift Certificates

      Amish-built Oak Entertainment Center

      Shadowbox Cabaret Parties

      Coffee Makers

      An Executive Business Chair

      Rosetta Stone Software

      The Worthington Inn Restaurant Gift Certificates

      A weekend at Daytona Beach

      Jeni’s Ice Cream Signature Gift Set

      Tecumseh! Tickets

      ShoeHats

      Overnight Canoe Trip for 2

      Renaissance Festival Tickets

      Winery Tour and Tasting Packages

      Bluefish, Seafood on the Cap Gift Certificates

      PBS Videos, including Animusic, Celtic Women, and Dr. Denese

Registering to bid is free and available now.  Bid high to buy.

Kaye Ballard

LISTEN (Running time: 36:56. 33.7 MB)

CHRISTOPHER PURDY WITH KAYE BALLARD

Eric French, the indispensable engineer who helps me with these interviews, said to me the other day: “Dude. What’s up with all the death and politico stuff?” And I realized that we’ve been heavy on grief counselors and amnesty advocates and death penalty opponents and the wonderful but serious conversationst hat go with those subjects.

Then a new book caught my eye in the library, “How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years” by Kaye Ballard. Born in Cleveland eighty-one years ago, Kaye Ballard (Caterina Ballotta) has done TV series (The Mothers in Law, The Doris Day Show), Broadway (The Golden Apple; Carnival; Molly; Nunsense) Vegas, clubs, pictures, you name it. She talks about her life in show business going back to her days with Spike Jones and His Band in the 1940s, and mentions her big break at Columbus’s Club Gloria. We’ll hear about her famous friends with whom she worked: Bette Davis, Desi Arnaz, Fred Ebb, Doris Day, Marc Blitzstein, Lenny Bruce, Jimmy Durante, and Lucille Ball among them, and she reminds us of great entertainers forgotten today: people such as Billy DeWolfe and Virginia Graham .

If you love showbiz you’ll love this conversation. If you don’t love showbiz, get over yourself, listen anyway and find How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years.

With thanks as always to Eric French!

Norman Lebrecht

LISTEN (Running time: 15:17. 34.9 MB)

CHRISTOPHER PURDY with NORMAN LEBRECHT

Norman Lebrecht is a widely read commentator on music, culture and politics.
He hosts Lebrecht Live for BBC3 and writes a column appearing each Wednesday in the London Evening Standard. Lebrecht’s latest book, The Life and Death of Classical Music, is a top seller in Britain and is published in the U.S. this week. The concluding chapter, “20 Recordings That Should Never Have Been Made,” is Lebrecht at his most provocative. We spoke by phone from London on April 19, 2007.

With thanks to studio engineer Eric French.

See also www.normanlebrecht.com

Robert Meeropol

LISTEN  (Running time: 24:08. 55.2 MB)

CHRISTOPHER PURDY TALKS WITH ROBERT MEEROPOL

Robert Meeropol is the younger son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed by the federal government on July 19, 1953 on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. Mr. Meerpol is the author of two books, We Are Your Sons, with his brother Michael, and the recent An Execution in the Family.
In 1990 Robert Meerpol founded the Rosenberg Fund for Children. Based in Massachusetts, the fund has an international reach. Its mandate is to provide financial assistance to the children of people jailed or incapacitated for their political beliefs.

To date, the RFC has awarded over 3.5 million in grants.
See www.rfc.org for more information.

Robert Meeropol spoke with me from his office on April 25, 2007, about the legacy of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, about the case itself, his memories of visiting his parents on death row, and the Rosenberg Fund for Children.

With thanks to Kevin Petrilla.

Mike Farrell

LISTEN (Running time: 13:56. 25.4 MB)

CHRISTOPHER PURDY talks with MIKE FARRELL

I’m an American citizen first
Actor Mike Farrell enjoys wide popularity for his role as B.J. Hunnicut
in the long running TV hit “MASH,” as Dr. Jim Hansen in NBC’s “Providence,” and most recently in “Desperate Housewives.” Farrell’s new book, “Call Me Mike,” covers his years before the cameras and his life of community activism behind the cameras. He’s been an outspoken supporter of human dignity and human rights, with strong views on capital punishment. We spoke on the phone on April 30, 2007.

See also www.mikefarrell.org