Part 2

When my parents moved in 1988, they threw away my entire TV Shopper archive. Fortunately, Bruce Logan had saved copies of most of the stories, and at my request, he photocopied them and sent them to in 1990. About 10 stories were missing from his collection, and therefore cannot be included here. Among the lost interviews I remember are Soupy Sales, Dave Marash, Gael Greene, Janis Ian, Joe Franklin and Barnard Hughes.

After 9/11, I began thinking a lot about New York, and started rereading some of my old stories. My eye caught this statement by Paul Goldberger, then the architecture critic for the New York Times: "This is probably the safest environment in the world to build a skyscraper." I realized that the New York of today is quite differently from that of the late 1970s, and thought that a collection of my interviews might be of interest to a new generation of readers.

In the summer of 2005 I finished retyping, correcting, and fact-checking the 100 stories. Three of my interviews -- Isaac Asimov, Alan Lomax and Tom Wolfe -- were originally published in two different versions, one for the TV Shopper and a longer one for the Westsider, a weekly community newspaper. I have included both versions here. Also, my interview with Leonard Maltin was not a cover story, but a half-page "Westside profile." It appears here because of Maltin's huge future success as a writer, editor and TV personality.

In the course of my research, I uncovered a lot of information about what happened to my interviewees after 1980. Many have died, some have grown in fame, and some have virtually disappeared from public records. In a future edition of this book, I hope to include that information in a postscript at the end of each story. In the meantime, I invite readers to send me any information they have about these personalities by emailing me at sunreport@aol.com.

Max Millard San Francisco, California November 2005

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

WESTSIDER CLEVELAND AMORY Author, radio humorist, and president of the Fund for Animals

EASTSIDER MAXENE ANDREWS An Andrews Sister finds stardom as a solo

WESTSIDER LUCIE ARNAZ To star in Neil Simon's new musical

EASTSIDER ADRIEN ARPEL America's best-selling beauty author

WESTSIDER ISAAC ASIMOV Author of 188 books

WESTSIDER GEORGE BALANCHINE Artistic director of the New York City Ballet

WESTSIDER CLIVE BARNES Drama and dance critic

WESTSIDER FRANZ BECKENBAUER North America's most valuable soccer player

WESTSIDER HIMAN BROWN Creator of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater

FERRIS BUTLER Creator, writer and producer of Waste Meat News

EASTSIDER SAMMY CAHN Oscar-winning lyricist

WESTSIDER HUGH CAREY Governor of New York state

WESTSIDER CRAIG CLAIBORNE Food editor of the New York Times

WESTSIDER MARC CONNELLY Actor, director, producer, novelist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist

EASTSIDER TONY CRAIG Star of The Edge of Night

EASTSIDER RODNEY DANGERFIELD The comedian and the man

WESTSIDER JAN DE RUTH Partner of nudes and Time covers

WESTSIDER MIGNON DUNN The Met's super mezzo

EASTSIDER DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR. A man for all seasons

WESTSIDER LEE FALK Creator of The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician

WESTSIDER BARRY FARBER Radio talkmaster and linguist