Backstage

Stories from My Life in Public Television

Ron Hull

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780803240667
• eBook ISBN: 9780803244535
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Born in 1930 in "Diddlin' Dora's" establishment on the banks of Rapid Creek and carried by the Madam herself to a social worker at the Alex Johnson Hotel in Rapid City, Ron Hull was destined from the outset to live an interesting life. And interesting it hasindeed been, at the very least. A well-known and much-loved figure after six decades in television, 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.

Before he even owned a television set, Hull produced a military TV show at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. But it wasn't until he got a job in public broadcasting in Lincoln, Nebraska, that he truly found his medium. Hull has a lifetime of fascinating anecdotes to tell: working as a producer and director, encountering celebrities like John Wayne and William Shatner, befriending famous Nebraskans like writers Mari Sandoz and John Neihardt and actress Sandy Dennis, moving to Saigon in 1966 to bring television to embattled Vietnam, and working in Washington as director of the program fund for the CPB. Through it all, though, Hull's story is a tribute to his adopted Nebraska, a celebration of the people—stars and unsung heroes—he's known, and a moving memoir of the dramas of life, large and small.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 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 Taketo 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