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NJESTAD, ARUBA -- Author, actor and
legendary broadcaster Studs Terkel is 88 years
old, hard of hearing and sort of retired, or at least
slowed down.
But no one can stop the wizened legend, a
Chicago dynamo whose feverish mind is as sharp
as ever, as the folks on board the MS Maasdam
just found out when Terkel was feted by the
Floating Film Festival.
Bolstered by a couple of martinis and flashing an
impish grin, Terkel had held court each night since
the Maasdam left port in Ft. Lauderdale last
week.
The highlight was an evening in which Chicago
Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert took the stage
to interview Terkel live. It was lively, all right.
Commenting on his nickname Studs, Louis Terkel
said, I wish it was what you think it was. Then
he went on to free-associate, recounting an
anecdote about a Tennessee librarian who was
shocked when a man came in searching for some
pornographic book which turned out to be
Terkel's book, Working. But the guy asked for
Working Studs by the author Terkel.
Terkel can still spin a story with the panache of an
Irish poet. He remembers details from interviews
he conducted with everyone from mime Marcel
Marceau (I couldn't get a word in edgewise!) to
silent film star Lillian Gish (She was a good
woman, well read) to Marlon Brando (who
manipulated the interview by asking Terkel what
motivated him in his work), and Arnold
Schwarzenegger (Terkel thinks he is a selfish
superstar who seeks success to feel superior).
Terkel can also rail against injustices, whether it's
bad big business tactics or racist dogma or
people who forget their own history. He can still
get worked up.
He has enough venom left to denounce the
McCarthy-era Americans who blacklisted him
from TV -- Terkel had his own show, Stud's
Place, in TV's early days -- because of his
pro-labour leftist attitudes.
People think I was a hero, Terkel said of
defying TV executives who wanted him to recant
his leftist politics to save his show. No, I was
sacred s---less. It was my ego that did it. Terkel
just couldn't stand being bullied by idiots.
As a result, he spent 45 years on the Chicago
radio station WFMT. He kept writing books,
most recently The Spectator, a collection of his
celebrity interviews published last year. He kept
acting, doing cameos -- in Daniel Petrie's The
Dollmaker, he played a cabbie, although he has
never learned to drive and needed a stand-in to
do the final drive-away shot -- and John Sayles'
Eight Men Out.
He keeps finding ways to make life both amusing
and meaningful. I talk a great deal, even to
myself, Terkel said. When I talk to myself I find
I have a very appreciative audience. He had one
here at the Floating Film Festival, too. Terkel got
a standing ovation.
Word Count: 481
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