Description
Book SynopsisA well-known and much-loved figure after six decades in television, Ron Hull sets out in
Backstage to tell his story—from playing a bellhop in a junior class play in South Dakota (and meeting his “real” mother backstage) to initiating the American Experience series for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Trade Review"The author does an amazing job at bringing you into his life, though all of the interesting twists and turns that have made this man into the truly unique individual that you can see that he is. . . . This was a great book that I would highly recommend to one and all."—Christopher Lewis,
Dad of Divas "Possessing a remarkable memory, and with attention to detail, Hull takes us on an intimate pilgrimage. . . . Ron's personal journey echoes a line from Nebraska's Willa Cather: 'The end is nothing; the road is all.""—Leta Powell Drake,
Lincoln 55 Plus "Hull's book takes us on a nostalgic ride through the founding days of public television."—Paul Hammel,
Omaha World Herald"For Hull, the performing arts and mass media have always been tools of self-discovery, and his memoir reminds us of television's latent educational and connective power."—Chris Rasmussen,
Nebraska History"Ron Hull's
Backstage: Stories from My Life in Public Television sums up the incredible journey of a man who has loved, with heart and soul, the mission and impact of a philosophy and medium known as public television."—Daniel L. Schiedel,
Great Plains QuarterlyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
1. Where the West Begins in the Middle of . . .
2. The Mystery in Grandmother's Trunk
3. The Stranger in the Night
4. The Hulls and the Kayes
5. On Becoming a Storyteller
6. Front and Center
7. With Thanks to the gi Bill
8. Our Town
9. We Had a Dream
10. Shapers of the Dream
11. My Two Friends John Neihardt and Mari Sandoz
12. Bringing Television to Vietnam
13. Actors, Politicians, and Airplanes
14. Like Dragons Take to Maidens
15. Brief and Memorable Far East Encounters
16. Programming the Vietnamese Way
17. Goodbye, Saigon
18. The House that Jack Built
19. Back to Vietnam
20. David and Goliath
21. The Big Time
22. Sandy, Jean, and Phil
23. The Gang of Seven
24. The Missed Opportunity
25. Exciting Times, Stimulating People
26. Feeling the "Old Washington Squeeze"
27. The Peace Tree
