by G. Jack Urso
From the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel.
During my time
at WAMC 90.3 FM Northeast Public Radio, one of my assignments was to serve as
the arts editor. This meant sorting through piles of announcements of events
for art, music, dance, opera, theater, etc. I got to interview some of the
Baby- Boomer-era celebrities passing through the area, like actors James
Whitmore and Kim Hunter (both from Planet
of the Apes), Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck,
Tales of the City), Juliet Mills (Nanny and the Professor), and musician
Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul, and Mary), among many
others.
I also produced short pieces featuring the local angle in the arts, and here I am interviewing Michael Ryan, producer of the film, Eagle Scout: The Story of Henry Nicols, an award-winning documentary produced by HBO in 1993, before it makes its debut at a local theater. I also had a chance to interview Henry himself as he talks about the struggles young AIDS victims faced in the 1980s and 1990s.
Nicols hailed
from Cooperstown, NY. I found him to be articulate, intelligent, and easy to talk
to. As I had been a Boy Scout as well (achieving the Star Scout rank), we had
something in common. After the film, Nicols continued his work as an activist,
slowing down only as his medical condition took its toll. Unfortunately, he
died in an automobile accident in 2000. Henry had a natural sense of leadership
and decency that is missed.
Technical Notes: In the era before
computer audio editing software, this report was produced using the old-fashioned
way using Crayons, razor blades, and editing tape. After recording the
interviews on reel-to-reel tape, I would play back the tape and mark off with a
white Crayon on the tape the beginning and end of sound bites to use for the
report. Then, after recording my own narration, I would splice one piece of
tape to another over a splicing block — a small metal block with slots to lay
and cut the tape over it. I had about ten splices for this piece. Once the
report was completed, I would record it over onto a cart, an 8-Track tape-like
device, for later playback on air. The source tape, now riddled with splices,
could not be reused and so got tossed.
The above segment
from March 3, 1995, aired during the afternoon and evening drive time news shows.
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