1950s Mike Wallace interviews now online
TV fans are probably already aware that veteran journalist Mike Wallace had a television career long before 60 Minutes. Twilight Zone fans have probably seen the famous one-on-one interview with Rod Serling he did before the classic sci-fi show premiered (available on one of the Twilight Zone DVDs) on his Mike Wallace Interview show. Now several other interviews from that series have been archived online for everyone to see.
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin have put several of the interviews from the late 1950s on their web site. There’s a treasure trove of cool stuff here, including interviews with celebrities (including Steve Allen, Gloria Swanson, and Anthony Perkins), political figures (Adlai Stevenson, Henry Kissinger, and Eleanor Roosevelt), artists and architects (Frank Lloyd Wright, Salvatore Dali), and various other personalities (Bennett Cerf, Nobel Prize winners). If you don’t want to watch the videos, you can read the transcripts instead.
This is a fascinating look at the early career of Mike Wallace and 1950s television in general. The show is very Charlie Rose-like, with it’s one on one format and bare, black set.