Description: Interview with Li'l Abner cartoonist and political satirist Al Capp in his Cambridge home. He talks about evading his father's creditors, and scheming to take semesters at various arts schools around the city. He says he likes the Boston view of the world, and talks about the influence Boston has had on his work. He talks about turning conservative. He criticizes American presidents, calling Gerald Ford ‘clumsy’ and Jimmy Carter ‘weak.’ He talks about working on Li'l Abner with a team of men.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 11/04/1977
Description: John Anderson press conference before Massachusetts primary. He thanks his supporters and the audience cheers him. Edward Kennedy press conference at the Parker House. He talks about the need to improve the U.S. economy.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 03/05/1980
Description: End of an interview with writer Anthony Burgess, followed by discussion while cutaways are being shot, and then Lydon recording reasks of his questions. Interview covers his book "The End of the World News: An Entertainment". He talks of television, and its effect on society. He talks about American writers and language. He discusses parenting, his son's suicide attempt, and the current generation. He talks about musicians. Editor's note: Content given off the record was edited out of this footage.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 04/12/1983
Description: Christopher Lydon interviews in-studio guests Howie Carr (columnist, The Boston Herald) and Byron Rushing (State Representative) about the murder of Carol Stuart in Mission Hill. Carr talks about criticism received by the Boston Herald for running a brutal photograph of the murder. Rushing and Carr talk about how to solve the problem of violence on the streets. Rushing accuses city officials of making policy "based on frustration." He adds that the government must focus on the root of the problem. Rushing and Carr talk about class and race issues surrounding media response to the murder. Rushing says that education and community development will help to stop violence on the streets.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 10/25/1989
Description: Portrait of Boston's Charles Street neighborhood through Jeff Dunn's B+W photographs intercut with comments from subjects of the photos.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 09/20/1987
Description: Interview with Boston artist Conger Metcalf. Meltcalf teaches a master drawing class at the Boston Athenaeum. Discussion of his individual works, his life, his career, his influences, and his techniques. Tour of his apartment: living room, studio.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 09/03/1990
Description: Christopher Lydon reports on a controversy over the distribution of contraception in schools. Lydon notes that the Adolescent Issues Task Force of the Boston School Department has recommended that birth control be distributed to students as part of a comprehensive adolescent health program in the city's middle schools and high schools. Lydon's report includes footage of an NAACP press conference with Jack E. Robinson (President, Boston chapter of the NAACP), Joseph Casper (member, Boston School Committee), and Grace Romero (NAACP board member). Robinson and Casper condemn the proposal as racist. Robinson says that the initiative targets African American students. Lydon's report includes footage from interviews with Hubie Jones (member, Adolescent Issues Task Force), Dr. Howard Spivak (member Adolescent Issues Task Force) and Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith (Chairwoman, Adolescent Issues Task Force). Jones, Spivak and Prothrow-Stith defend the proposal. Spivak and Prothrow-Stith discuss statistics relating to teen pregnancy. Lydon's report also features interviews with students about teen pregnancy and footage of students in schools.
1:00:11: Visual: Footage of an African American woman saying that she knows "what is going on" with teenagers from listening to them talk. Christopher Lydon reports that teenagers are starting to have sex at an early age. V: Footage of Dr. Howard Spivak (member, Adolescent Issues Task Force) saying that he is alarmed at the numbers of teenagers who are having sex. Spivack says that 25% of teenage girls are sexually active before the age of 15. Footage of Dr. Deborah Prothow-Stith (Chairwoman, Adolescent Issues Task Force) saying that one million girls under the age of nineteen become pregnant each year; that 600,000 of those girls give birth. Prothow-Stith says that teenage pregnancy has become an epidemic. Footage of Spivak quoting a statistic which predicts that 40% of fourteen-year olds will become pregnant before their twentieth birthday. Shot of teenage girls descending a staircase at a school. Lydon reports that the Boston School Department's Adolescent Issues Task Force is recommending the distribution of birth control as part of a comprehensive adolescent health program at Boston's middle schools and high schools. V: Shot of a collection of diaphragms in a health clinic. Shot of a clinic worker and a teenage girl at a school health clinic. Lydon reports that the proposal has been heavily criticized. V: Shot of the street outside of the Boston NAACP office. Footage of Jack E. Robinson (President, Boston chapter of the NAACP) at a press conference. Robinson says that the NAACP is opposed to the distribution of birth control in school health clinics. Joseph Casper (member, Boston School Committee) and Grace Romero (former member, Boston School Committee and NAACP board member) stand beside Robinson at the press conference. Lydon points out that Casper and Romero are unlikely allies for Robinson. V: Footage of Robinson saying that the plan introduces sexual devices into the schools under the guise of a health initiative. Robinson says that African American schools and school districts are the targets of these plans; that the plans are a form of "social engineering." Lydon notes that Robinson believes the proposal to be "insidiously racist." V: Footage of Hubie Jones (member, Adolescent Issues Task Force) saying that the proposal has nothing to do with race. Footage of Casper saying that the proposal targets inner city students; that there are no proposals to distribute birth control among white suburban students. Casper says that "something is afoot." Footage of Jones saying that it is genocidal to allow large numbers of African American teenage girls to become pregnant. Lydon reports that Jones sees the proposal as a "regrettable necessity," needed to combat the incidence of pregnancy in young girls. V: Shots of teenage students in a study hall. Footage of Prothow-Stith saying that the Task Force is concerned about the increase of pregnancies among girls aged ten to fourteen. Footage of a young African American male student saying that a lot of teenage girls are pregnant; of a young Hispanic male student saying that he knows a girl in ninth-grade with a child. Footage of another African American male student saying that he knows a thirteen-year old girl who became pregnant; that the girl has dropped out of school. Footage of a white female student saying that she knows eighth grade girls who are pregnant; that it is wrong for young girls to be pregnant. Shots of students outside of a school. Lydon says that everyone seems to agree that young girls should not be pregnant.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 09/08/1986
Description: Interview with the Crown Prince of Jordan at the Ritz-Carlton. He talks about his optimism for negotiations in the Middle East. He talks about relations between individual Middle Eastern countries, specifically Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. He adds his advice to the US administration in working with the Middle Eastern countries. They have an informal discussion while getting a wide shot. Lydon reasks questions for cutaways.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 05/18/1982
Description: Christopher Lydon reports on the release of the film Cry Freedom, based on the life of Steve Biko (martyred black South African leader). Lydon notes that the film is told from the perspective of Donald Woods (white newspaper editor). Lydon interviews Woods about apartheid and his relationship with Biko. Woods says that the black opposition in South Africa was forced to become violent in response to the brutal tactics of the white regime. Woods talks about his early opposition to Biko and the black movement; he says that he changed his opinion when he realized that Biko's positive message of black self-reliance was not anti-white. Lydon notes that Biko was killed in prison while Woods was exiled from South Africa. Lydon's report is accompanied by footage from the film and from the trailer of the film Cry Freedom. Editor's note: Additional footage from the film and the trailer of the film Cry Freedom, were edited out of the end of the tape.
1:00:00: Visual: Footage from the trailer for the 1987 film, Cry Freedom starring Kevin Kline and Denzel Washington. Christopher Lydon reports that the film Cry Freedom is a the story of Steve Biko (martyred black South African leader) told through the eyes of a white newspaper editor. V: Footage from the film, Cry Freedom. Lydon notes that the film Cry Freedom takes up where the 1982 film Gandhi left off. Lydon notes that Mahatma Gandhi (Indian leader) was born in South Africa. V: Footage of Donald Woods (South African journalist) being interviewed. Woods says that he has always considered Gandhi more of a South African than an Indian. Woods says that Gandhi was involved in the first attempts at non-violent protest in South Africa. Woods says that non-violent protest does not work very well in South Africa because the government forces are not afraid to use their guns. Woods says that the African National Congress (ANC) was forced to take up arms after fifty years of non-violent struggle. Woods says that the South African government does not respond to non-violent protests; that the South African government has forced the opposition to become violent. Woods says that black South Africans are not allowed to vote; that black South Africans are not allowed to campaign against anything. Woods notes that the South African government refuses to allow free speech or passive protests. Lydon remarks that the irony of the film Cry Freedom is that a white editor tells the story of a black victim. Lydon notes the same irony exists in his interviews with Woods. Lydon reports that Woods never wanted to equate the price he paid with the price paid by Biko. Lydon reports that Woods was exiled and banned from South Africa; that Biko was killed in prison. V: Footage from the film, Cry Freedom. Shot of Woods being interviewed. Footage of Woods being interviewed by Lydon. Lydon asks if Woods was converted by Biko. Woods says that Biko did not set out to convert him; that Biko set out to neutralize the activities and writings of Woods. Woods says that he had been writing editorials condemning black consciousness. Woods says that he mistakenly considered black consciousness to be racism in reverse at the time. Woods says that he began to realize that Biko's message was a positive message of black self-reliance. Woods says that black racism is not and never has been a factor in black politics in South Africa. Woods notes that the ANC was formed in 1912; that no credible black leader or organization in South Africa has ever been anti-white. V: Footage from the film, Cry Freedom.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 11/06/1987
Description: Christopher Lydon interviews Vice President Dan Quayle. Quayle talks about his visit to Mission Hill Elementary School and the Carol Stuart murder case. He says that respect among people will bring racial harmony. Quayle talks about his upcoming visit to Latin America and US foreign policy in Panama. He also talks about the Republican Party's position on abortion. Following the edited story is additional footage of the interview, mostly the second camera view of the same content in the edited story.
1:00:04: Footage of Dan Quayle (US Vice President) being interviewed by Christopher Lydon. Quayle describes his visit to Mission Hill Elementary School. Quayle says that the kids were involved; that the parents were committed to education; that the teachers were respected by the students. Lydon asks who came up with the idea for a visit to Mission Hill Elementary School. Quayle says that his staff asked Bernard Cardinal Law (Archbishop of Boston) for suggestions about which school to visit; that Law recommended Mission Hill Elementary School. Lydon asks Quayle about the Stuart murder case. Quayle says that he talked about the Stuart murder case in a private meeting with parents, administrators, and teachers at the school. Quayle says that people must respect one another. Quayle says that respect will bring racial harmony. Lydon asks about Quayle's upcoming visit to Latin America. Lydon mentions the US invasion of Panama. Quayle says that some Latin American leaders have expressed concerns about the US invasion of Panama. Quayle says that he will meet with Carlos Andres Perez (President of Venezuela); that he will ask Perez and other leaders to help build a democracy in Panama. Quayle says that the public statements of some Latin American leaders do not represent their private sentiments. Quayle says that there is strong support for the US invasion in Panama and across Latin America. Lydon asks if the US should assume some responsibility for the rise of Manuel Noriega (leader of Panama). Quayle says that the US should assume no responsibility for Noriega. Quayle says that Noriega declared war on the US; that Noriega's forces killed and wounded an innocent US marine soldier; that Noriega's forces sexually harassed US women. Quayle says that the US should not assume responsibility for the stolen election in Panama. Lydon asks Quayle about the Republican Party's position on abortion. Quayle says that the party platform advocates the protection of the unborn. Quayle says that many party members disagree with the platform; that the Republican Party is inclusive. Quayle says that people are welcome to disagree with the platform. Quayle says that abortion is a divisive issue. Quayle accuses the Democratic Party of becoming a one-issue party. Quayle says that pro-life supporters are not welcome in the Democratic Party. Quayle says that he does not want pro-choice Republicans to abandon the party.
Collection: Ten O'Clock News
Date Created: 01/22/1990