An 8-part series on Walter Cronkite is on Discovery right now. Its kinda an autobiography with plenty of old clips and footage. He relates a lot of stories, and it has the feel of sitting on the floor, listening to your grandfather tell tales. (I especially liked his story about seeing the TV demonstration at the 1928 World’s Fair. He said he learned two things from it: one, he likes it ham it up when on camera, and two, he was on TV long before any of his competitors.)
I highly recommend it. You ‘older folks’ were lucky, Cronkite was one hell of a guy.
Yep. I remember him when I was little, and watching the Apollo program. I wasn’t a news watcher until my teens, really; but Cronkite was always there. I saw some of his special reports, and I have a few VHS tapes somewhere on which he narrated the history of WWII. But for me, he’ll always be The Man Who Took Us To The Moon.
The thing I’m most nostalgic for is his matter-of-factness. When I was little that seemed to be more prevalent in the News. As an anchor, he gave it to us straight. (From what I remember. As I said, I didn’t watch a lot of news as a teen.) ‘On assignment’ he seemed to take great joy in the adventures he presented.
There will never be another Uncle Walter. Which is too bad.
Its really unfortunate he died just before the anniversary of the landing. Who will my generation get reporting when we go back or when we go to Mars? Katie Couric or Brian Williams?
