When I was in high school, Bill Leverton was a local television personality in the Phoenix area, working (at the time) for the CBS affiliate, doing feature stories. He was sort of a local Charles Kuralt, wandering the back roads of Arizona and finding interesting stories to tell.
I got to know him when I was in high school, and he and I were involved in the making of a short film that I wrote and acted in.
Fast forward seven years. I left college after my sophomore year, wandered around, did stand-up comedy for a while in L.A., etc., and eventually made my way back to school, where I worked at a dinner theater in the summers, entertaining tourists with kitschy musical productions and skits. It was fifty bucks a night plus tips, and I have no apologies.
Bill stopped by one day and we got reacquainted, and he decided to do a piece on me and what I was up to.
When I was in Arizona last week, we burned a DVD from my mom’s VHS copy of the interview (I misplaced mine years ago). I’m going to refrain from any self-serving comments here; it is what it is. Enjoy or not.
Note: Toward the beginning of the piece, there’s a shot of me singing with a woman seated on a bench; that’s Julie, and this was the summer we got married and then headed off to Seattle.
Portrait of the blogger as a (very) young man:
7 responses so far ↓
Mich // Sep 21, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Too bad you don’t have the whole musical on tape…. I’m intrigued.
Chuck // Sep 21, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I do, actually, have the whole production on DVD. The intrigue would dissipate pretty quickly, trust me.
lizardek // Sep 21, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Har! That was cool. You were so HAIRY as a young man.
janet // Sep 21, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Oh man. I just go home a litte upset. This totally made my day. Thank you Chuck—handsome dude, too!
Pat // Sep 21, 2007 at 5:19 pm
“WHERE IS EVERYBODY!!!?????……NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”
The End
Michael Main // Sep 21, 2007 at 9:59 pm
You know what’s so striking about this to me…(insert Chuck’s physique joke here) is how little TV news has changed.
Different clothes/hairstyles etc…and this could be TV News 2007.
Well coiffed guy…cute woman…banter…introducing stories…
I mean (no slight intended - okay slightly intended) but this is for all intents and purposes “vintage” TV news….
I wonder not what the future holds for the medium of local TV news…but if the medium has a future at all.
If someone were to have dropped dead after watching that broadcast (also not unfeasible) and been resurrected today…they wouldn’t understand the internet, movies, they’d even be ill at ease with radio…but TV news…they’d feel right at home.
Glad the girl on the bench rolled with you…and played a larger role.
M
Tom Tuerff // Sep 25, 2007 at 10:23 am
Wow — you AND David N.! What a memory flogger!
TT
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