Terry Gross

The documentary film, "Let Me In, I Hear Laughter: a Salute to the Friars" provides an inside look at the club where show business entertainers meet and then roast each other. The 1999 film has just been released on video. Such comic luminaries as George Burns, Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, as well as entertainers Will Rogers, George M. Cohan, and Irving Berlin were members of the Friars club. We listen back to an interview with two current members of the Friars-- Freddie Roman, the Dean of the New York Friars' Club, and comic Jeffrey Ross.

Novelist Jay McInerney (“MAC-in-UR-knee”). He broke onto the literary scene with his bestselling novel “Bright Lights, Big City,” about the excesses of the a Manhattan yuppie in the 1980s. His new book is a collection of essays about the pleasure of wine. It’s called “Bacchus & Me: Adventures in The Wine Cellar” (The Lyons Press).

Historian Alexander Keyssar. In his new book “The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States” (Basic Books), he examines the checkered history of our country’s right to vote, and how this right was not for a time extended to certain groups of people, from propertyless white men, to women, immigrants, and African-Americans. Even now, he argues, that the wealthy and well-educated are for more likely to go to the polls than the poor and under educated. Keyssar is Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University.

Kim Alexander is President of the California Voter Foundation, organized to pioneer new technologies to improve democracy. The group produces the California Online Voter Guide. Recently Alexander was part of the Task Force for Internet Voting put together by California’s Secretary of State.

Voice and acting coach Patsy Rodenburg. (“ROH-den-burg”) She’s worked with some of the world’s leading English-speaking actors, including Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Maggie Smith and Nicole Kidman. Her new book is “The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer.” (St. Martin’s Press) Rodenburg is the Director of Voice at London’s National Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. “The Actor Speaks” is a complete vocal workshop for performers of every skill level.

Magician and trickster Teller of Penn and Teller. They've been performing for over twenty years, both on Broadway and around the world. The duo has also written several books: "How to Play in Traffic," "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends" and "How to Play With Your Food." (Originally aired 10/22/97)

Susan Loesser daughter of Frank Loesser, who wrote the score for “Guys and Dolls.” He also composed the classic songs "Heart and Soul" and "Baby It's Cold Outside.” Loesser's 1993 memoir of her father is "A Most Happy Fella." (Originally Aired 6/18/93)

When Frank Loesser wrote his shows, he made demo recordings to demonstrate to the cast what the songs should sound like. Our second guest, music archivist Joseph Weiss, discovered those demos years later. He was the copyright manager of Paul McCartney’s publishing company, which acquired Loesser’s publishing company in 1979. Along with the acquisition came hundreds of unindexed tapes. In 1992 Weiss produced a CD of the demos. (Originally aired 12/4/92)