Before there was “60 Minutes” there was “The Mike Wallace Interview.” A black and white half-hour exchange of minds featuring the then 40-year-old inquisitor interviewing cultural icons of the time such as Henry Kissinger, Salvador Dali and Kirk Douglas.
But whether alive or dead, familiar to the contemporary viewer or unknown, a high percentage of Wallace’s interview subjects shed light on the world they inhabited and, even from that distance, they can shed light on our world, too.
These historical videos have been put online by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and were donated by Wallace himself in the early 1960s.
They capture the essential Mike Wallace everyone would later come to know. They’re a time capsule unearthed from a pivotal moment.
They’re also a very entertaining treasury.
Go to the home page for “The Mike Wallace Interviews,” and — with no muss or fuss, no sign-in required or ads to slog through — scroll down the litany of personalities.
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