Posts with the podcast tag

Barris Beat

The first time

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Actor Cathy Wallace granted a first professional interview. 1968.

We sat backstage at the Playhouse Theatre in Toronto. A few years earlier, we’d attended the same high school, but by the time we met professionally 57 years ago, actor Cathy Wallace had trained at the Banff School of Fine Arts and appeared off-Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie and in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. And she was my first-ever professional interviewee. I pressed the record button on my reel-to-reel tape recorder and asked an obvious question.

“How do you feel about playing Lucy in an off-Broadway show?”

“It just goes to show that producers can’t resist a pretty face,” she quipped. Any tension I felt evaporated, and we were off on a fun chat. (more…)

Barris Beat

What Bethlenfalvy’s 100 don’t see

Written by Ted Barris on . 3 Comments
Peter Bethlenfalvy speaks to his 100 about building not being accountable. YouTube photo.

He preferred to present the government’s first-quarter fiscal results, focus on Ontario’s deficit projection for 2023-24. But reporters preferred a response from Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy to the Greenbelt controversy in his riding.

“The 100 people I talked to say ‘build,’” he answered. “That’s what I hear and that’s why we’re going to continue on our build.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Backyard stories for the universe

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Reading room as a broadcast studio.
Reading room as a broadcast studio.

We sat down on a couple of plain chairs at a wooden table. We both splayed reference papers and notes across the table in front of us. The setting could easily have been his or my summer kitchen. Then, after some casual conversation, he hit the start button on a pocket-sized audio recorder in the middle of the table.

“It’s a warm sunny day,” he started. “I’m seated in a reading room in Port Perry Library overlooking Lake Scugog…”

I couldn’t resist. “… And under normal circumstances, we should be down at the lake enjoying the water,” I interrupted.

“But we’re not,” he continued. “This is the inaugural podcast of ‘Durham Past and Present.’” (more…)