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FW: STUDS TERKEL ON A SOAPBOX



For immediate release...

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From: BAOH Listserv <bayoh@mindspring.com>
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2001 19:03:45 -0800


  "STUDS TERKEL ON A SOAPBOX"
NETWORK CHICAGO PROFILES CHICAGO ICON STUDS TERKEL ON CHICAGO STORIES:
"STUDS TERKEL ON A SOAP BOX", A WTTW CHANNEL 11 BROADCAST PRODUCTION

AIRDATE: Monday, January 8 at 7:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

Contact: Al Stein, Hammerhard Media Works: 312/733-2181
 Tom Weinberg, FITV 312/346-9321 FITV@aol.com

Gather on Chicago¹s historic free speech corner for an evening of soapbox
oratory from Studs Terkel, former mayor of Bughouse Square. Producers Tom
Weinberg and Al Stein opened the microphone to Studs to address today¹s
burning issues.

Louis "Studs" Terkel is known throughout the world as Chicago¹s "voice of
conscience." A multi-facted and unique Chicago character (Studs to many is
Chicago), Terkel is an award-winning broadcaster, interviewer, and author,
and at age 88 he is still and always a fiesty, outspoken individualist.
This special Chicago Stories broadcast, "Studs Terkel on a Soapbox," airing
Monday, January 8 at 7:30 p.m. on Channel 11 takes audiences on a journey
across time and inside the mind of one of Chicago¹s most memorable and
controversial figures.

Born in Chicago in 1912, Terkel grew up in his mother¹s boarding house at
Wells and Grand. After graduating from law school in 1934, his career path
took a great many unexpected turns: civil service employee, stage, radio and
movie actor, playwright, jazz columnist, disc jockey, lecturer, film
narrator and sportscaster. During his outstanding broadcasting career which
spanned over 40 years, Terkel has interviewed thousands of famous and
ordinary people.

"Studs Terkel on a Soapbox" draws from 41 archival source tapes, all shot in
Chicago from 1974 to 1999, with more than 30 hours of material. For Chicago
audiences these tapes can open the door to extended discussions about entire
periods of Chicago history. This intimate documentary begins with Terkel on
his soap box at Bug House Square (where he plans to have his ashes
scattered!), interspersed with archival footage at WFMT radio, and with some
of his favorite Chicago characters, including Mike Royko and Nelson Algren.
One segment features Terkel in 1951 on his national television show, "Studs
Place" ­ a program that helped define the Chicago "school" of broadcasting.
Incredibly, at age 57 (an age when many people start to think about
retiring), Terkel began writing a remarkable series of books ­ based on
interviews with working men and women who lived through the Great Depression
and World War II, through their struggles with racism and old age. His
books have been international best-sellers and have earned him the Pulitzer
Prize, among many other honors. Many have described him as our nation¹s
leading oral historian.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the world from Terkel¹s
singular, often acerbic and always candid perspective. The program was
written and produced by noted independent video documentary artist Tom
Weinberg and film archivist Alan H. Stein, producer of "Rocking the Boat:
Studs Terkel¹s 20th Century." Weinberg has been working and talking with
Terkel for the past quarter century. Stein has known Terkel since 1982, and
has organized numerous conferences and symposia with Terkel and the Oral
History Association. Some black and white archival segments with Weinberg
and Terkel date to 1974.

This Chicago Stories production is hosted by John Callaway. Series Producer
is Jay Shefsky. Executive Producer is Geoffrey Baer.


More about the Producers:
TOM WEINBERG, Producer FITV
The Fund for Innovative TV is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization that has
been producing alternatives to traditional broadcast television by creating,
producing, distributing, organizing, and supporting inventive TV and video
programming since March, 1990. Working collaboratively with independent
video artists and producers and media organizations globally, FITV seeks to
create avenues of access to broadcast TV and new technologies for people
whose voices are not often heard in the electronic marketplace. FITV
encourages work that encompasses wider ranging points of view, is
ethnically, artistically and culturally diverse, and advocates social
change.
As an independent not-for-profit television and video production and support
organization, FITV has been in the forefront of bringing quality artistic
and journalistic work produced on small format video to broadcast
television. From 1989-1992, FITV produced "THE 90's",a series of one-hour
programs by independent producers that was broadcast on PBS stations
throughout the country.
FlTV's efforts currently represent an extension of the work independent
videomakers have been developing for almost twenty years, making available
to a larger audience a wide range of points of views and expression.


Alan H. Stein, was born and raised in Chicago. He is a librarian and
archivist working for the State of California, and is currently based in
Sacramento. Stein's late uncle was famed Chicago lawyer Julius Echeles, who
knew both Studs Terkel and Nelson Algren on the WPA Chicago Writers'
Project.

Stein was an Albert P. Weisman Scholar in Broadcast Communications at
Columbia College, Chicago.in 1993 and an Arthur Weinberg Fellow at the
Newberry Library in 1998. He was awarded a New York Times Company
Foundation grant in 1992. Stein is an active member of the Chicago
Newspaper Guild and the Illinois Labor History Society.
Stein is the editor of the Northwest Oral History Association Newsletter,
and has contributed to TriQuarterly journal. Stein has been a researcher
and still photographer on many historical documentaries and dramas,
including the acclaimed 1980 Cannes Award-wining feature-film, NORTHERN
LIGHTS.

More about Studs Terkel: Studs Terkel is a nationally acclaimed author,
columnist, lecturer and radio interviewer. Mr. Terkel was heard for over 40
years on WFMT Chicago's fine arts radio program, "The Studs Terkel Show,"
now archived at the Chicago Historical Society. The Peabody-Award program
featured interview, oral histories, and documentaries. His best selling
publications include: The Good War; Division Street: America; Hard Times;
The Spectator; Talking To Myself; and American Dreams: Lost and Found. Mr.
Terkel is the recipient of the Illinois Governor's Award for the Arts, the
Clarence Darrow Commemorative Award, the Society of American Archivists Oral
History Roundtable Award, and has been cited by the Friends of Literature
for his "unique contribution to the cultural life of Chicago."


==================================================================
Nancy MacKay
Bay Area Oral Historians Listserv Manager
Listserv: bayoh@mindspring.com
Personal email: dancing@mindspring.com

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