Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz examines some recordings in which the worlds of classical and popular music combine. The most recent example is "Anything Goes: Stephane Grappelli and Yo-Yo Ma play (mostly) Cole Porter." Schwartz looks at other recordings that bring together Jascha Heifetz and Bing Crosby; Paul McCartney and George Mason of the New Philharmonia Orchestra; and Frank Sinatra and the Hollywood String Quartet.
Writer Hettie Jones. Her new memoir, "How I became Hettie Jones" (published by E.P. Dutton) is an account of living at the center of New York bohemianism during the 50's and 60's. It's also the story of Jones' interracial marriage to black poet LeRoi Jones. LeRoi Jones later became involved in the black militant movement, and changed his name to Amiri Baraka. The two divorced.
Family therapist Salvador Minuchin. (mi-NOO-chin). In the early 50's, he helped launch the field of family therapy, shifting the focus of psychotherapy from the individual to the entire family. He's also known for aggressive, short-term intervention for dealing with delinquent children and anorectic girls. His books include "Families of the Slums," a look at the impact of poverty on a family; "Family Kaleidoscope," based on observations of families in London, England; and "Family Therapy Techniques," which he co-authored.
Author Ron Chernow (CHUR-now). His new book is, "The House of Morgan: an American Banking Dynasty and The Rise of Modern Finance." Chernow examines one of the financing world's once most powerful institutions: the J.P. Morgan financing empire. And he traces the history of modern finance from the genteel, clubby world of banking to Wall Street of the 1980's when ruthlessness, and machismo became the rule.
Book critic John Leonard reviews the new book by British writer Fay Weldon, "The Cloning of Joanna May." Weldon has also written, "The Life and Love of a She-Devil."
Journalist Daniel Akst. His new book is "Wonder Boy Barry Minkow: The Kid Who Swindled Wall Street." While a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and later the Wall Street Journal, AKST showed Minkow in his true light...not a clean-cut teenage success story...but rather the mastermind of a multi-million dollar fraud operation. (published by Scribner & Sons.)
Rock historian Ed Ward profiles the Red Bird record label and its soul subsidiary Blue Cat. They were the creations of the 60s songwriting and producing team, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The labels' hits include "Going to the Chapel," and "Boy From New York City."
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new album and a reissue of an old album by tenor saxophonist Sony Rollins. The new recording is "Falling in Love with Jazz" on the Milestone Label; the reissue is "The Freedom Suite," on Fantasy Records' Original Jazz Classics. It was first recorded in the late 50's and featured bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Max Roach.
Film maker John McNaughton, director of the controversial movie, "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer." The film is loosely based on real-life murderer Henry Lee Lucas. McNaughton shot the film in 1986, but it's only now gaining wide release. The delay is in large part do to the fact that the Motion Picture Association insisted on giving the film a "X" rating, a rating that stemmed less from the graphic violence that the absolute unrepentant nature of the killer. Despite that, the film's already made many critic's ten best lists.
Batman creator Bob Kane. In his new autobiography, "Batman & Me," Kane tells how he came up with the idea for the caped crusader, and what influence he had on the T-V series and last year's movie. Kane drew Batman from its inception in 1939 to the late 60s.
Commentator Maureen Corrigan checks out "Sucker." It's a rock band made of four guys who grew up and got real jobs a long time ago, but still keep their rock and roll dreams alive. "Sucker" consists of: David McCormick (now an editor for the New Yorker) on drums, Wardell Sanders (now a law student) on guitar and bass, Ed Kaiser (who now works in the labor movement in Washington, D.C.) on guitar and bass, and Tim Frueh (now a writer in New York) on guitar, bass, and vocals.
Novelist Tim O'Brien. He was writing about Vietnam long before it became fashionable to do so. His Vietnam memoir, "If I die in a Combat Zone," was published in 1973. O'Brien's 1979 novel "Going After Cacciato" was praised for its depiction of the Vietnam War. It also was the surprise winner of the 1979 National Book Awards -- beating out books by John Irving and John Cheever.
Sportswriters Alexander Wolff and Armen Keteyian. The pair have covered college basketball for years, and now they've collaborated on a new expose of college recruiting practices. It's called "Raw Recruits." (Pocket Books). Terry also talks with David Berst, the head of enforcement for the NCAA.
Language commentator Geoffrey Nunberg has some thoughts on the different accents you'll find in California. Not all of them are as distinctive as those of a "Valley Girl." (originally broadcast 3/9/88).
Author and Journalist T.J. English. His new book is "The Westies: Inside the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob." From the 1960's to the 1980's the mob led by James Coonan terrorized Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Testimony from a former hitman of the gang, Mickey Featherstone, eventually broke up the gang. English's book has been called, "a grotesque chronicle" of the gang and "reminiscent of Poe and Dostoyevsky in subject and character," by New York Newsday. English's book is published by Putnam.
Cuban-born poet Heberto Padilla (air-BARE-toe puh-DEE-uh). He was a friend of Castro and an early supporter of the revolution in Cuba. But later he became disillusioned and was imprisoned by Castro as a counter-revolutionary in 1971. He left Cuba in 1980 and has been living and teaching in the U.S. He has a new memoir, "Self Portrait of the Other," published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
