Triad Today

Earlier this month we celebrated our 238th anniversary of independence from Great Britain. Nearly two months before that, we celebrated Memorial Day, where we honored men and women who had made the ultimate sacrifice. I’m as patriotic as the next guy, but over the years I have come to dread these and other holidays, and I can explain my disdain in one word: Fireworks.

Despite what we see in old movies, war is not glamorous. It is not glorious, and it is almost never necessary. And so there’s a morbid kind of irony about the fact that we honor those who died in war, by firing off a barrage of mortars and rockets designed to recreate the violent sounds of war.

In my neck of the woods, fireworks are shot off by neighbors in their back yards, and by so-called professionals who are hired by the city to punctuate community gatherings. During our most recent Independence Day fete, the combination of private and municipal rocket fire caused the windows of our house to vibrate so severely that they nearly shattered. Moreover, the constant barrage of scud-like missile activity also caused our rescue dogs to shake uncontrollably, and become so upset that they suffered with GI difficulties for two weeks. Meanwhile, the noise disrupted bed rest at area nursing homes and retirement complexes, and wildlife fled from their limited wooded habitats, and ran nervously into on-going traffic, where at least one deer met his doom. These are all too common scenarios across the country, and are of particular interest to Chapel Hill-based Noise Free America.

NFA acts as a clearinghouse for noise complaints, and as an advocate for a ban on fireworks altogether. In a recent email exchange with NFA Director Ted Rueter, I learned that noise wasn’t the only problem resulting from our latest Independence Day fireworks displays. Serious injuries and deaths also occurred. Those included three 4 year olds and an infant who died in a Philadelphia row house fire, which had started when a firecracker was thrown onto a couch on their front porch. The fire also spread to several other row houses. And then there was the man from Michigan who lit some fireworks which then flew back into his chest, killing him. Ted also mentioned another man who blew his arm off while using fireworks. Meanwhile, KIRO-TV in Seattle reported that in just a few short hours, one local hospital treated 35 people with fireworks-related injuries. Said Rueter, “This past 4th of July turned out to be a deadly and very disruptive holiday”.

Unfortunately, fireworks related tragedies are not a recent phenomena. The National Fire Protection Association reports that in 2011, nearly 18,000 fires were caused by fireworks. Those included 1,200 total structure fires, 400 vehicle fires, and 16,000 other fires. That year, fireworks caused over $32 million dollars in property damage, and at least eight people died. Not surprisingly, more fires are reported on the 4th of July than on any other day of the year, and fireworks account for two out of every five of those fires.

In 2012, hospital emergency departments treated nearly 9,000 people for fireworks related injuries, including 31% which were head injuries. Those most likely to be killed or injured by fireworks are young people age 15 to 24.

And, as if we didn’t have enough to worry about, now there’s a new kind of danger involving fireworks. Forbes and other news outlets report a rise in people flying their drones in the airspace just above fireworks displays. When rockets collide with drones, the latter can cause the former to detonate off target, and can force hazardous debris down onto unsuspecting spectators.

In addition to producing noise and causing fires and injuries, fireworks are also increasingly causing environmental damage. Studies by the EPA show that chemical residue from fireworks is polluting lakes, ponds, and even contaminating ground water. That, in turn, negatively impacts on the health of humans and wildlife alike.

Some states have enacted laws which restrict use and composition of fireworks. In California, for example, fireworks devices cannot leave the ground. In North Carolina, the amount of black powder charge in fireworks is limited to 200 grams. Meanwhile, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware have banned all consumer fireworks. But those bans don’t go far enough, because they do nothing to restrict commercial use of fireworks. Yes, I’ve heard the argument that “professionals” know how to handle fireworks, and most of them do. But that’s not the point.

According to Science Daily, the South Coast Air Quality Management agency solicited testimony which showed that chemicals from nightly fireworks displays at Disneyland, had polluted underground water to the extent that six local wells adjacent to the park had to be shut down, and residents forced to drink bottled water. Science Daily also reported that children with asthma had more frequent attacks because of smoke generated from Disney’s fireworks displays.

I doubt anyone is more competent with recreational explosives than the pyrotechnic wizards who set off fireworks at Disneyland, Disney World, and other parks across the nation. But that doesn’t rectify or prevent noise, air, and water pollution. That’s why commercial as well as consumer fireworks displays should be banned in every state, with the caveat that localities can issue special permits for venues that aren’t near a residential area, don’t border on a body of water, and where technicians use non hazardous materials.

The fact is there’s nothing particularly patriotic or even appropriate about shooting off fireworks in celebration of Independence Day, Veterans Day, or Memorial Day. Surely we don’t need to be bombarded with the sounds of war when pausing to recognize our freedoms or our veterans. A simple parade, display of American flags, a brass band, and some small sparklers are more than adequate to present a safer, quieter commemoration. I just can’t imagine that anyone who died in battle would feel good about the injury, death, and damage caused by fireworks on his behalf. That kind of senseless loss serves only to dishonor those we seek to honor.

Those of us who have lost a loved one are not prone to mourn mundane things like the cancellation of our favorite TV show, or the playoff loss of our favorite team. Still, any abrupt change to the underpinnings of our little corner of the universe can serve to exacerbate our sensitivity over real life losses. For example, the death of my Mom came on the heels of the razing of my elementary school which used to stand just up the street from our old house. Taken separately, the building demolition would have seemed unimportant, but taken in tandem with my mother’s passing, it took on a different significance. The fact is we become easily attached to and sentimental over inanimate objects because they represent direct or collateral symbols of order and stability in our lives. And that brings me to comic books, and to the characters who appear in them.

For many of us, comic books were the first thing we read on our own for pleasure. They are something WE selected, something we purchased with our own money. Thus, those comics became part of the fabric of our childhood. The guys in my old neighborhood played sports together, fought together, played army together, and every Thursday, we rode our bikes down to Andrews Pharmacy and bought comic books together. Each of us had our favorites. One guy was all about Superman, another loved the Avengers. I collected The Flash for pure escapism, Dennis the Menace because he was my alter ego, and Archie, because I wanted to know what high school kids were like, and to see if Betty and Veronica would ever have a wardrobe malfunction.

Archie and his pals took me to Christmas parties, proms, ball games, and even to the 1964 World’s Fair. Archie comics were my pop culture preparatory school, and even as I got older, I loved the fact that Archie never aged. His creators, Vic Bloom and Bob Montana, knew that the key to a successful comic book character was to make him endearing and enduring, by having him reside in a kind of Neverland where he couldn’t grow old or die. Apparently the current publisher and co-CEO of Archie comics, Jon Goldwater, didn’t get the memo on that template, because for the past several years, he has turned Riverdale into a socio political laboratory of the worst kind.

Not only did Goldwater allow Archie and company to mature, he even let some of them get married. That includes a storyline where Archie tied the knot, and another where his gay pal Kevin entered into an interracial, homosexual union. Hey, I’m all for marriage of any kind, but not in high school, and that’s where all these folks should have been, not out in the real world being politically correct. OK, so Mr. Goldwater damaged the franchise by letting everyone get older, but last week he went too far, and allowed Archie to be killed off.

It seems that Kevin, a newly elected Senator, was crusading against gun violence when an assassin took a shot at him. Archie stepped into the path of the bullet, and the next thing we see is Betty and Veronica kneeling over Archie’s blood-soaked body in an eerie recreation of the RFK assassination. Goldwater tried to rationalize his idiotic decision in a public statement:

“The way in which Archie dies is everything you would expect of Archie. He dies heroically. He dies selflessly. He dies in the manner that epitomizes not only the best of Riverdale, but the best of all of us.”

Pardon me while I heave at that hypocrisy. Goldwater doesn’t care about heroism, he only cares about the immediate bottom line, because sales of his revamped Archie comics have been on the decline. According to the Weekly Standard’s Jonathan Last, the previous issue of “Life With Archie” only sold 2,064 copies. Said Last, “The stunt (Archie’s death) is perfectly in line with a company that’s experiencing massive internal turmoil.”

Perhaps some stunts are harmless, after all, everyone knew that Superman wasn’t really dead when DC Comics killed him off in 1992. But Archie is not a regenerating super hero. He is just flesh and blood (sort of),and now he’s been felled by an assassin’s bullet. And since Archie died fighting for a political issue like restrictions on handguns, cartoonist Rick McKee of the Augusta Chronicle has sarcastically proposed a number of other death scenarios for the Archie gang. McKee predicts that Jughead will die while trying to save a Polar Bear from drowning in a rising sea caused by global warming. He also says Betty will perish in a botched back alley abortion because her boss at Hobby Lobby wouldn’t spring for morning after pills.

If Goldwater had wanted to sell comics with sensationalistic political correctness, he could have simply kept the kids in high school, and let them lobby for or against various causes. There was no need to have Peter Pan grow up and get killed just to enrich pirate Goldwater’s booty.

I am reminded of a line from the film “Brubaker” in which a corrupt vendor tries to bribe the prison warden. When the warden refuses the bribe, the vendor says, “It’s tradition. Don’t f**k with tradition.”

Jon Goldwater f**ked with tradition, and now Archie is dead, and a part of every baby boomer fan has died too. Shame on Goldwater for sullying our childhood memories, and causing an unnecessary death in the family. Shame on him for f**king with tradition.

There have been some memorable comedy duos in the history of radio, among them, Burns and Allen, Abbott & Costello, and Bob & Ray. But even those broadcasting giants never attempted to augment their comedy bits with discussions about topical issues.

That’s what makes Brad Krantz and Britt Whitmire so unique. In one breath they can imply that Rush Limbaugh eats spotted owl sandwiches, and in the other, have a serious conversation about immigration. Now they have taken their satirically terrestrial act into cyber space, with a daily podcast, appropriately titled, “The Brad & Britt Show”.

Brad and Britt teamed up ten years ago with a morning show on Curtis Media’s WZTK, FM 101.1. Not only was their mixture of humor and discourse groundbreaking, so was their impact. That’s because WZTK’s signal stretched from Greensboro to Raleigh, which allowed the duo to develop a huge and diverse following in both the Triad and the Triangle markets. Theirs was simply the best radio show I had ever listened to. I laughed at them, and I learned from them.

But after eight successful years, B&B lost their venue when Don Curtis made the most boneheaded move in the history of local radio. He changed WZTK’s format from intelligent talk to salsa music. Meanwhile, just down the road in Charlotte, WBT was growing weary of their Tea Party programming, so they hired the boys to attract an audience that possessed actual grey matter between their ears. Once again Brad & Britt were a success, but, after two years, WBT decided not to renew their contract. Fortunately for their fans, B&B re-surfaced less than a month later with a podcast.

I got to know Brad and Britt from their appearances on my Triad Today TV show, and we’ve kept in touch ever since. Last week we had an extended telephone conversation about their career together and their new show, which after only four days, has placed in the top 200 among thousands of podcasts. Why am I not surprised.

JL: I know you guys have been together for ten years, but are you actually married to each other?
BW: No, I can do way better than Brad (laughter).
JL: Let’s go back to the WZTK debacle two years ago. Why would Curtis blow up a successful format?
BK: Radio stations and broadcast companies are not operated at the highest level of competency, so sometimes you can be a ratings success and artistic success, and if the ownership doesn’t know how to translate that into sales and financial success, then it really doesn’t matter.
JL: So Curtis didn’t know how to sell and market your unique show?
BW: They never tried.
BK: And still we owned the I-85 corridor with a very diverse audience across both markets. We were more liberal than the right wing sewer that passes for talk radio these days.
JL: Yet you left WZTK and went to work for WBT which wallowed in the right wing sewer.
BW: That’s because WBT pitched this to us as a grand opportunity. They wanted to turn a new page because their listeners were literally dying right before their eyes. They knew they had to try something different.
JL: And by all accounts, you guys delivered, yet they didn’t renew your contracts. Why?
BW: They lost their nerve about two days in, for whatever reason. They never really told us why.
JL: So now you’re podcasting. For those of us who are technology challenged, tell me what podcasting is.
BW: It’s radio without the bullshit (laughter).
BK: POD is an acronym for “programming on demand.”
BW: It’s where the suits don’t get to decide when you get to listen to a show. You can listen to a show whenever you want. Consumers now have unprecedented power to support programming they enjoy.
JL: Is your show live at some point during the day, or is it taped?
BW: It’s recorded, but you can listen anytime, just go to BradandBritt.com.
BK: We’re aiming to have each day’s show up by 3pm every afternoon.

(At this point, Brad and I lost our connection with Britt who returned to the phone after about two minutes.)

BK: What, did you get a better offer?
BW: Yeah, Jennifer Lopez just called me.
JL: How does your show actually become a podcast?
BW: We send the hour show to the Relm Network, then they post it on the website, and to iTunes. And then it propagates out to everybody. If you subscribe to iTunes, you’re automatically ready to rock and roll.
JL: Since your show is taped, you obviously won’t be able to take calls from listeners as you did on your radio show.
BK: Right, but they can communicate with us through our Facebook page.
JL: What about interviews with newsmakers?
BK: We can’t take incoming calls because we’re not live, but we can make outgoing calls and put them on the show. We’re not doing that the first couple of weeks, but we’ll start to integrate them into the show.
JL: And since you’re not on radio now, the FCC has nothing to say about your content, right?
BW: Right. The only trouble we could get in, is if we slander somebody or incite a riot.
JL: How are you doing with attracting sponsors?
BW: We’re already meeting with a number of sponsors.
BK: And we have a namesake for the studio. It’s called the TarheelDentist.com studio, courtesy of Dr. Mark Hyman.
BW: Mark told us, “Whatever you need, I want to support you guys”.
JL: Do you think you would ever go back to radio?
BW: My hope with the podcast, is that we will turn down radio offers because this is going too well. Right now, radio continues to help us out day by day, by getting worse and worse. The funny thing is, radio could be promoting itself and using this podcast technology as a huge weapon, but they don’t. It’s insane.
JL: So all we have to do to listen to you guys 24/7 is to turn on our computer, or iPhone, or connect in the car with blue tooth.
BK: It’s all us, all the time.
JL: One final thing. Are you afraid that some people will get confused and think you’re doing a show on “pot”? (laughter)
BK: Well actually in Colorado they are called “Potcasts”.

And as we all know, potcasts make you hungry. Anyone for spotted owl sandwiches?

Sixty-year-old Elaine Riddick told me in an exclusive interview that she had been raped twice in her life. The first rape occurred when she was 13 years old, at the hands of a man who threatened to kill her if she told. The second rape was performed by the State of North Carolina, which sterilized her because the pregnancy that resulted from her assault labeled Elaine a promiscuous, feebleminded drain on society.

When I asked Elaine which was the worse rape, she responded without hesitation, “the second one.”

Since my extended conversation with Elaine several years ago, she and hundreds of other sterilization victims have been raped again, this time by the truly feeble minded, insensitive General Assembly.

Here in North Carolina, state and local agencies performed systematic, sterilizations from 1929 to 1974, with most occurring post-World War II.

When proposals to compensate some 1,800 living victims of forced sterilization first surfaced, advocates kicked around numbers like $100 million dollars. That seemed reasonable. After all, in today’s dollars, the State and various localities spent upwards of $240 million dollars to process and sterilize (or castrate) nearly 8,000 impoverished young people. However, once the recession took its toll on our economy, the General Assembly backed off on reparations all together. By the time financial compensation was revisited, less than 200 victims had come forward. So state lawmakers from both parties agreed that a cap of $10 million dollars was adequate to compensate the entire group of surviving victims for the removal of their reproductive organs. That would equate to an award of roughly $50,000 for each certified victim of forced sterilization.

That paltry monetary offer was an insult to humanity, nevertheless, some sense of closure was finally in sight for victims. Or maybe not. As the deadline for certification approached, another 400 plus victims came forward, and if all of their claims are validated, that means the $10 million dollars would have to be divided among roughly 600 survivors rather than 200. Translation? Elaine and others like her would receive $15,000 instead of $50,000. Raped again.

Legislators knew this might happen when they allocated $10 million dollars to the reparations program, but they didn’t care. The humane action would have been for lawmakers to establish a per person cap (of say, $100,000) rather than a lump sum cap, which could continue to be diluted by an increasing number of new claimants.

The long road to reparations began when Governor Easley issued a hollow apology for the State’s role in forced sterilizations and a racist eugenics policy. Governor Perdue followed that by creating a special commission to identify surviving victims. But both political parties managed to forestall any substantive action, and it became clear that politicians in Raleigh were in no hurry to offer compensation. That’s when Ms. Riddick told me that she believed state lawmakers were “just waiting around for surviving victims to die.” True, some monies have finally been allocated, but the amount per victim is still to be determined, and checks (for whatever amount) won’t be issued for another year. By then, more victims of forced sterilization will have passed away, and our memory of their ordeal, like the cash allocations, will have been further diminished.

Some rapes just never end.

Every two years, something really exciting happens. No, I’m not referring to Congressional elections. I’m talking about an event that actually accomplishes something positive. Yes, it’s time once again for Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care’s biennial “Handbags for Hospice” auction.

This year’s auction, which takes place Friday July 18 at Old North State Winery in Mount Airy, will benefit “KidsPath”, a program that offers support and counseling to young people who have lost a loved one, or who are under hospice care themselves.

And, this year, these special kids have five beautiful celebrities in their corner. Handbags and purses are being donated by Mad Men stars Elisabeth Moss and Jessica Paré, Matlock star Nancy Stafford, Anna Wood from Deception and Reckless, and Lee Meriwether from Barnaby Jones and Batman.

I first met Nancy Stafford at the Western Film Fair where she and I spoke about the passing of her Matlock co-star Andy Griffith. Nancy has returned to North Carolina several times since then, including making personal appearances in Mt. Airy. It’s appropriate that she has donated a handbag to this year’s auction, which is being held in Andy’s hometown.

Speaking of hometowns, Anna Wood was born and reared in Surry County, and her Mom, Mary Beth works at the Woltz Hospice Home. Anna was a big hit in Deception, and can be seen this fall starring in the CBS crime drama, Reckless.

I met the lovely Lee Meriwether back in 2010, when I was moderating a “Salute to TV Crime Fighters” for the Television Academy. I brought Lee up on stage to help honor her friend, Mike Connors who starred in Mannix. The former Miss America had played Catwoman to Adam West’s Batman, she was also a scientist in The Time Tunnel, and she portrayed Buddy Ebsen’s daughter-in-law on Barnaby Jones. The year after our Hollywood event, Lee happened to be shooting a movie in Winston-Salem, so she, and my wife Pam and I spent a wonderful evening together. During the course of our dinner conversation, Lee told Pam she needed to buy some underwear, so the next day, the two women went shopping for unmentionables. I was not invited to come along. And what kind of purse has Lee donated to this year’s auction? A leather one, of course. Catwoman wouldn’t have it any other way.

Earlier this year while making preparations for the auction, I called my friend Matt Weiner, the creative genius behind Mad Men.

Mad Men is set in the 1960’s, so I asked Matt if one of his actresses might consider donating a purse. His reply was immediate. “How soon do you need them?” he said. A few days later, not one, but two purses arrived at my doorstep. One was from Elisabeth Moss, who plays Peggy on Mad Men, and the other came from Jessica Paré, who plays Jon Hamm’s wife Megan. Even better, the handbags were actually carried by Jessica and Elisabeth in several episodes of the EMMY award winning drama. The episode numbers are tagged on the purses, making them particularly valuable as collectibles.

“I can’t tell you how much it means to have these wonderful women donate handbags to our auction”, said Denise Watson, Executive Director of Mtn. Valley Hospice. “The monies raised will help us continue to operate our KidsPath program, which will mean so much to children and their families”.

This year for the first time, proxy bidding will be allowed during the auction. Anyone wishing to bid on the celebrity purses and many other exciting items, can call Sheila Jones, Director of Marketing and Development, at (336)789-2922. Those who attend the auction in person will be treated to live music from “Rhythm”.

I encourage everyone to bid this year, either in person, or by phone, and help hospice do what they do best, improve quality of life for terminally ill patients and their families.

For more information, visit Mountain Valley Hospice’s website.

Jon Provost has acted alongside Hollywood royalty, including Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, Clint Eastwood, and Robert Redford. But his favorite co-star is more famous than all of those others combined. For five seasons, Jon played TV’s Timmy Martin opposite an iconic collie named Lassie.

Jonathan Bion Provost was born on March 12, 1950 in Los Angeles, and waited all of two years to begin his film career. The fact is, Jon was one of Hollywood’s busiest child actors even before he could memorize lines.

JP: I really have no memory of my first two movies, “So Big” and “The Country Girl”. But after that, especially with “Back From Eternity” when I was about four and a half, from there forward the memories are very vivid. Basically I grew up on a sound stage, so it seemed real comfortable.

But even though young Jon was already a big screen veteran, he had to pass an unusual test to succeed Tommy Rettig as Lassie’s television master.

JP: Before my parents ever signed the contracts, I went and stayed with Lassie and her trainer Rudd Weatherwax on his ranch for three or four days, to see how we got along. Obviously I got ‘2 paws up’ from Lassie (laughs).

Of course, Jon’s co-star’s name wasn’t always Lassie. Originally it was “Baby”.

JP: All of Rudd’s dogs had names before they became Lassie, but once they started working, they were only called Lassie.

And while there was never any question about character names, the famous canine DID suffer from gender confusion, because the very feminine Lassie was always played by a male.

JL: Why didn’t Rudd ever use a female dog for Lassie?

JP: Because males are larger, more colorful, and more heroic looking. But the main reason is because when the female would come into heat, they would lose their coat and wouldn’t work.

JL: I’ve known some actresses like that.

JP: There you go (laughs). But Rudd said, and I always get in trouble for this, but he said the males were smarter, and easier to train than females. I still think it was more the cycle thing.

Throughout Jon’s tenure on “Lassie’, the show consistently captured over 40% of the television audience, and was so popular, that sponsor Campbell’s Soup saw its profits rise by 70%. It’s no wonder then, that in 1964 Campbell’s wanted Jon to renew for another three years. But Jon declined the company’s offer, so the producers said goodbye to the Martin family, and put Lassie in the care of a forest ranger. I asked Jon why he walked away from the money and the spotlight.

JP: I was just tired of being “Timmy”. Tommy Rettig went through the same thing playing “Jeff”. He was tired of doing that part, and I was tired of being “Timmy”. I was 14, and everybody was still looking at me like I was ten years old. I wanted to continue acting. I was also going through puberty, and looking at girls.

JL: But couldn’t Lassie have helped you get girls?

JP: He probably could have (laughs), but it was time to move on.

After his “Lassie” contract ended Jon did continue to act, including a role in 1989’s “The New Lassie”. He also launched a career in real estate, and was active in a number of organizations, including serving 25 years on the Board of Governors of Canine Companions.

JP: The mission of Canine Companions is to supply service dogs to people with disabilities (other than blindness) free of charge. We have five training centers including two in California, one in Ohio, one in New York, and one in Florida. Thus far we have placed close to 4,000 dogs, and it’s not cheap. The cost of supporting a working dog over a lifetime runs about $45,000, and, again, the service doesn’t cost the person a nickel.

No doubt Jon’s time on “Lassie” formed his love for animals, and a commitment to public service, the latter which can be traced back to how Lassie and her pal spent their summer vacations away from the show.

JP: Every year when we were on hiatus, Lassie and I would travel around the country, and Rudd insisted that if there was a children’s hospital in the area, that Lassie and I go visit the kids. This was before they had therapy dogs, and back then, dogs weren’t even allowed inside a hospital. But they would let “Timmy” and Lassie in, because the kids watched our show every Sunday night. Those visits had a really big impact on me. For me, being 9 and 10 years old, seeing kids with polio, or having been burned, or in traction from a car wreck, it had a strong impact. The main thing is what our visit did for them. It let them escape for awhile from the hell they were in.

Today “Lassie” is broadcast in over 50 countries, and Jon still uses his celebrity to support and advance a number of causes, including the fight to prevent and end animal abuse.

JL: Don’t you think punishment for animal abusers is still too lenient?

JP: Definitely. In fact, I think there should be a registry for people who have been convicted of abusing dogs, and who have operated puppy mills. The abuse is horrible, especially if it’s done by a young person. It’s been proven that if a child abuses an animal, they will end up abusing people, so yeah, the laws should be more stringent. 

In 2010, Jon published his autobiography, “Timmy’s in the Well”. The title refers to a cult catch phrase which is based on a myth. Truth is, Lassie never once rescued Timmy from a well.  Nevertheless, the book is chocked full of wonderful stories. It is also co-authored by Jon’s wife Laurie Jacobson, a Hollywood writer who owns “Living Legends Ltd”. Her company represents actors from classic films and TV series, and schedules them for personal appearances, such as Jon’s visit to next month’s Western Film Fair, July 9-12,  in Winston-Salem.

JP: I have a good time at these events because I get to meet people, and I also get to run into other celebrities who I may not have seen for years. I really enjoy it. If it weren’t for your fans, where would you be?

In 1970, USC film student John Longenecker produced “The Resurrection of Broncho Billy”. It was co-written by a pre-“Halloween” John Carpenter, and went on to win an Oscar for best short subject. The story is about a boy who grew up in a big city and dreamed of becoming a cowboy. Not surprisingly, Longenecker asked his old friend Johnny Crawford to star in the movie because Crawford had grown up in Los Angeles, and became one of the most popular TV cowboys of all time.

I asked Johnny if the film was autobiographical for him.

JC: Yeah. I was just like you and other kids at the time. I watched “B” westerns on Saturday mornings. I had all of the toy guns, and the Hopalong Cassidy stuff, and cap pistols. We all played cowboys and Indians, and my bicycle was my horse.

But not all horses had two wheels.

JC: There was this amusement park right off Beverly Blvd., and they had a pony ride, and my parents would try and avoid driving by that park because I wasn’t happy until I had gotten to sit on a pony. My favorite was named Goldie, and they strapped me into the saddle, and he trotted around with me.

When he wasn’t riding ponies, Johnny was singing around the house and seemed to love performing. By age five, he was acting in his first play, a production of “Mr. Belvedere”. His talent was evident, and a product of good genes.

JC: My father was a film editor at Columbia, and both he and my mother performed in local theatre. We would go see those plays and I thought it was just great that they were doing that.

As fate would have it, Crawford’s Sunday school teacher was also an agent, so she sent the young thespian on a series of auditions, including one for Walt Disney who was casting Mouseketeers for his new “Mickey Mouse Club” TV show. Crawford’s imitation of singer Johnnie Ray landed him a slot in the original ensemble which also featured Annette Funicello. But the euphoria of being on national television was short lived.

JC: There were so many of us that they decided to focus on a smaller group, going from twenty four Mouseketeers down to twelve, and I was let go after the first season. It was very disappointing. But having done “Mickey Mouse Club” gave me confidence.

The show also opened doors for Johnny, including a stand-out role in Lux Video Theatre’s “Little Boy Lost”, and that led to roles in other live TV dramas. Then came his shortest and most successful audition ever, for a show that would make him a household name. It was December of 1957, and Four Star founder Dick Powell and the Levy Gardner Laven company had cast Chuck Connors to star in an episode of Dick’s popular “Zane Gray Theatre”, which would also serve as the pilot for a new series titled “The Rifleman”. The story was about rancher Lucas McCain and his son Mark, trying to make a life for themselves in the old West. In 1990, Connors told TV Guide, “The producers and I interviewed 20 or 30 kids to play Mark. Then Johnny came in the room, and before we even talked to him, I said, ‘That’s him. That’s the Rifleman’s son! ‘ “

As the title of the series suggests, the elder McCain was proficient with a rifle, and in the course of five seasons, he gunned down hundreds of bad guys. Despite the violence though, the show remained popular with both male and female audiences. I asked Johnny why.

JC: The father/son relationship WAS the show really. It gave the show a dimension that other shows didn’t have, which was a family of two people trying to make it in the old West when it was pretty lawless. But it was always understood that killing was a last resort, and the violence wasn’t to be used frivolously.

As the show grew in popularity, so did Johnny. In those days it was typical for teen TV idols to launch a singing career. “Donna Reed” stars Shelley Fabares and Paul Peterson did it. So had Ricky Nelson.

JC: A friend of ours was at a cocktail party talking to Bob Keane who was president of DelFi records and had discovered Richie Valens. Bob said he was looking for a young actor who could sing, and our friend told him about me. We had a meeting and I signed a contract. My first song was “Daydreams”.

Soon Crawford found himself having to multi task. He was acting, recording (he had 5 hit records), singing on American Bandstand, and making personal appearances, including one for the grand opening of the nation’s first IHOP. I wondered if he ever felt stressed, and that his time and talents were being stretched too thin.

JC: Well I also had homework to do, but I loved to watch all of the TV Westerns. So when I was supposed to be learning my lines and doing my homework, I would position myself on the floor, in front of the TV, and have all those things spread out in front of me. I would manage to do my homework during commercials.

Johnny kept up his frantic pace for five years while filming “The Rifleman”, and it almost extended to another season.

JC: I remember they were talking about doing a 6th season in color and expanding it to an hour. That would have been good for me financially, but I’m glad we didn’t do it because there’s something magical about a two reeler. Less is more. It’s just sweeter than something that drags on. It’s more gripping.

Following “The Rifleman”, Crawford pulled a stint in the Army, and continued to act in films, like John Wayne’s “El Dorado”, in which he had his clothes on, and in “The Naked Ape”, in which he had his clothes off.

JC: I still get flack from that. There’s a little nudity in the film and it’s brief, but the whole thing is sweet and romantic. It didn’t bother me at all. It’s one shot, and it’s very tasteful.

But since Hugh Hefner produced the film, a photo of Crawford shows up in “Playboy”, giving Johnny the distinction of having been the first male to appear with full frontal nudity in the iconic magazine.

In 1992 Crawford got back to his musical roots and formed his own orchestra, which plays songs from the 1920’s and ’30’s. The band has performed at awards shows and is available for private functions.

Johnny is also still making personal appearances, including next month’s Western Film Fair, July 9-12 in Winston-Salem.

JC: I enjoy people and that’s why the Western Film Fair will be so much fun because I can sit in a chair all day and meet people who are so friendly, and warm and excited to meet me, and it’s thrilling.

For more information on the Western Film Fair, visit WesternFilmFair.com.

The first thing people ask me when I talk about the Western Film Fair is, “Which celebrities are coming?” The second question is, “What’s their connection to Westerns?” In that regard, Parker Stevenson has come full circle, having appeared on Gunsmoke at age 22, and now, having just completed filming episodes of Longmire at age 62.

Like most of us guys who grew up in the 1950s and early 1960s, Parker came by his love of Westerns honestly.

PS: I watched Roy Rogers, and The Rifleman, then I’d go running around the back yard playing cowboy and different characters. My Dad and I also loved Gunsmoke. Years later the first TV appearance I did was on Gunsmoke, and being on that sound stage was like playing make-believe in the back yard.

And though there’s delightful symmetry in pretending to be Matt Dillon at age 5, then ending up appearing on Matt Dillon’s TV show, Parker’s first acting job had nothing to do with cowboys.

PS: In kindergarten I played a pumpkin or some kind of vegetable (laughs). And I decided this is the place for me!

That love of acting was nurtured by Parker’s mother, actress Sarah Meade.

PS: In the Summers I’d go to the Poconos to see her in summer stock shows. And she’d take me to New York City to see plays that she had friends in, so I got to go back stage, which was kind of cool.

By age 14, Stevenson was auditioning for commercials, and later, while still at Princeton, landed a number of TV and film roles. Then came his big break – being cast as Frank Hardy in The Hardy Boys Mysteries.

PS: It was 1976, I had graduated from college and was about to start the graduate business program at NYU, when I was asked to come out to Los Angeles and audition for The Hardy Boys. Shaun (Cassidy) was already set and I was the last person to read. They sort of matched us up together and it was a good combination. We loved working together, we worked easily together. We had fun together. We were sort of different, so it was nice.

Nice, but crazy. The Hardy Boys quickly became a big hit with teenage girls, and the show’s stars were inundated with fan mail.

PS: A lot of the popularity was because of the books, but a lot of it was because of Shaun’s music, and it was a time when merchandising was really big. T-shirts, posters, all that stuff generated enormous fan mail.

Following The Hardy Boys run, Parker was in demand as a guest star on a number of TV series including The Love Boat and Murder She Wrote. In 1986 he landed the role of Union officer Billy Hazard in the mini series North & South: Book Two, in which he worked with his wife Kirstie Alley, who played his sister in the film. North & South also gave the young actor another chance to ride horses and shoot guns. But for Parker, appearing in a Civil War drama had special meaning.

PS: I had grown up staring at this portrait in my grandparents’ house in Philadelphia. It was of General George Gordon Meade, Union commander at Gettysburg, who, it turns out, was my great-great-grandfather. So being in North & South became kind of personal. It became a wonderful connection for me and my mother’s side of the family.

In the years that followed North & South, Parker continued to act in shows like Melrose Place and Matlock while he and Kirstie raised a family. The couple had an amicable divorce in 1997, after which Parker went on to star in and direct Baywatch.

JL: How did you get the role of Craig Pomeroy on Baywatch?

PS: They had seen me in a movie I did called Lifeguard and thought I seemed like a California beach guy, which I wasn’t.

JL: Maybe they just wanted a vegetable in swim trunks.

PS: Yeah they wanted a vegetable in a red bathing suit (laughs). But Baywatch was really fun … going to work early in the morning and you get to the coast and the sun comes up, and Oh my God it’s just beautiful. It was a great gig.

Parker continued acting after Baywatch,but increasingly his interests turned to still photography, and forming his own company, Shadow Works.

PS: Well I’ve taken pictures since I was a kid. I was always running around shooting my friends, shooting weddings in my neighborhood at 13 (laughs). About ten years ago people started asking me if I would do head shots of them, and I found I loved it.

Naturally I asked the multi-talented Parker which he enjoyed most, acting, directing, or photography.

PS: I realized this last couple of weeks how much I missed acting. I love it. I love the process. But I love directing too because it lets me put people in the right configuration, with the right camera position and lens and lighting, and make things look ideally the way they should be. That’s also why I love photography, plus there’s no one re-editing what I shoot (laughs).

Fans can meet Parker at next month’s Western Film Fair, July 9-12 in Winston- Salem. He might even regale you with stories from “Dodge City”…

PS: On Gunsmoke, if the horses went to the bathroom, someone would run out in a cart with a broom and a shovel, and it was gone just like that. I thought, “Man, this place is really clean.”

For more information on the Western Film Fair, visit WesternFilmFair.com.

After L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling was taped using racially charged language, NBA commissioner Adam Silver acted swiftly to ban the old billionaire from basketball.

Not unexpectedly, the incident sparked water cooler discussions, tweets and blogs about racism in society. Collaterally, the Sterling incident also renewed debate over other sports-related racism, in particular, whether the Washington Redskins football team should change its name.

Actually, the Redskins controversy has been brewing for years, and each time it cycles back into the news, team owner Dan Snyder repeats his claim that the name is not offensive, and that he has no intention of ditching it. But this time around, Snyder found himself having to defend his stance in the wake of Sterling’s racist rant, which cast a pall over team owners in every sport. Snyder also had to contend with Congress.

On May 22, forty-nine Senators voted to urge NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to get rid of the name Redskins, with Senator Harry Reid declaring the word racist. The vote was largely symbolic because Congress can’t force Goodell or Snyder into changing their shorts, much less a team name. Nevertheless, our gridlocked elected officials in D.C. wanted to look like they were doing something, so they weighed in against racism.

The truth is, unless fans stop watching Redskins games in person and on television, or unless the NFL bans the team from appearing on TV, then Snyder will ride out this latest storm and stick to his guns. The question is, should he?

In response to Senator Reid’s recent statement, Redskins team President Bruce Allen wrote, “Our use of ‘Redskins’ as the name of our football team for more than 80 years has always been respectful of and shown reverence toward the proud legacy and traditions of Native Americans.”

In the past, Snyder and his minions have argued that they have the support of American Indians, and that the word Redskins is not racist in and of itself. Fact is, they’re correct on both counts. In December of 2013, author and Slate.com columnist David Skinner wrote a balanced and compelling article about the use of the word Redskins. He noted that in 2005, Ives Goddard, Indian Language Scholar for the Smithsonian, reported that, “the actual origin of the word (Redskins) is entirely benign.” Goddard’s conclusion was based on extensive research including that “Redskins” as used by early Europeans was derived from “Native American phrases involving the color red in combination with terms for ‘skin’ and ‘man’.” Goddard went on to say, “These phrases were part of a racial vocabulary that Indians often used to designate themselves in opposition to others.” And, he cited numerous letters and documents written by tribal leaders who used the term “redskins” in a descriptive manner, not a derogatory one.

Nevertheless, Congress, the media, and other groups seem hell bent on extreme political correctness even if the offending word doesn’t offend the very group they seek to protect. Whether well meaning or not, these social arbiters have determined that the “R” word is as offensive as the “N” word. It’s not. True, both words came to us in similar fashion. Like redskins, The “N” word is derived from and adapted by cultures who initially sought only to describe skin color. The difference in the two words, however, has to do largely with how and why they evolved into modern day usage.

Redneck racists and fanatical religious bigots have, over time, turned the “N” word into a vile put down, while those same groups hardly ever refer to Native Americans as anything but “Indians”. Ironically the limited use of the “R” word in a racist context may be, in large part, attributed to the Washington Redskins themselves, a popular football team which has been around for nearly a century.

Over the last 80 years, racists have handed down their hateful use of the “N” word from generation to generation, while thinking of “Redskins” as a respectful term for a rough and tumble bunch of macho football players.

For now, Dan Snyder’s in-house research continues to show that the overwhelming majority of fans, including Native American groups, has no problem with the continued use of Redskins as the team name. Should that change significantly (and it may in years to come), then those same fans may find themselves rooting for a team named the Washington Warriors, and that wouldn’t be so bad.

Like his pioneering great-great-great-great-grandfather Daniel, Pat Boone is a trailblazer in his own right.

• He was the first singer to mainstream R&B into the pop charts.
• He has sold over 45 million records, and has recorded more songs than even Elvis or the Beatles.
• He once stayed on the pop singles chart for 220 consecutive weeks, something no other artist had done before or since.
• He hosted his own television show, and never endorsed a product unless he believed in it.
• He has appeared in over a dozen films. He runs his own record label. He has authored several books, the first of which was a number one best seller.
• He is also a song writer, and penned the lyrics for the title song of the film Exodus.
• Pat even has his own 24 hour internet radio station.

And, on June 1, Daniel Boone’s descendant turns 80 years old. I asked Pat how he stayed so healthy and youthful looking.

PB: I work out in the gym three to four afternoons a week. I swim three mornings a week, and I ride a bike to my office and back, which is about three miles. And I play tennis on Fridays, and golf whenever I can, so I really try to stay in aerobic good shape.

Pat is also keeping his instrument in shape. Just before we spoke, he had completed a voice lesson to help him tune up for his new album, titled, “Legacy”.

PB: My voice coach is Richard Fredericks, who sang at the Met. He’s affirming to me that I still have the same range, and he’s re-training me how to support the tone, because this new album is important to me.

That dedication to excellence has driven Pat his entire life. By age 12 he was competing regularly at Nashville’s Belle Meade Happiness Club talent show, and won repeatedly because he really wanted the top prize – a banana split. He was a straight “A” student, captain of his high school baseball team, and president of the student body. Then he became our nation’s original American Idol, winning Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour contest for three weeks in a row. He would have continued that streak except Mack wouldn’t let him return because, in the interim, Pat had appeared on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts TV show for money, thus voiding his amateur status. Not long afterward, the newly turned professional singer found himself atop the pop charts with one hit after another, and that led to a hosting gig on the Pat Boone Chevy Showcase.

Having succeeded in both music and television early on, Pat completed the hat trick by tackling feature films.

PB: In motion pictures I enjoyed taking on somebody else’s persona, who mostly looked and sounded like me, because I’m not John Gielgud. The characters I played bore a striking resemblance to me (laughs). I could experience things as someone else, and that was fun. But television was my favorite because it’s me being real, usually in front of a live audience. It’s improvisational and spontaneous.

Yet for all of the things Pat Boone is known for doing, he is also famous for two things which he didn’t do. He didn’t kiss Shirley Jones in the film “April Love”, and he turned down a chance to co-star with Marilyn Monroe. First, the kiss story.

One day while filming a scene atop a Ferris wheel, the director asked Boone and Jones to do an unscripted kiss.

PB: I never refused to kiss Shirley Jones, I simply asked the director, Henry Levin for a delay. I said, “Henry can we wait a little on this? This is just my second film, and I haven’t even talked with my wife Shirley about kissing scenes, and I just want to make sure it’s not going to be a problem with her.” And Henry thought it was funny, so he said, “OK, we’ll do it a little later in the film.” I went home and talked to Shirley and she said, “Look, I know if you’re going to do movies, there’s going to be kissing involved, but just make me one promise.” And I asked “What’s that,” and she said, “Promise you won’t enjoy it.”

Meanwhile Levin had spread the story around Hollywood, and suddenly the world press was reporting that Pat refused to kiss Shirley Jones.

PB: The mail came in from all over, some folks telling me to stick to my guns. But then there were letters from guys who said, “Hey, if you don’t want to kiss her, give me a ticket, and I’ll fly out and kiss her for you!”

When filming resumed there was never another opportunity for a passionate kiss, but last year at a retrospective of “April Love”, the two co-stars finally sealed the deal. There was, however, no such fairy tale ending to the Marilyn Monroe story.

PB: Marilyn and I were both under contract to 20th Century Fox, and we were both making hit movies, so the studio said, “Hey let’s team up Boone and Monroe.” It was a story about a slightly over-the-hill cabaret singer who goes back to a small town to re-group, and this young kid becomes infatuated with her, and they have an affair. It was like what’s happening today with students having sex with their teachers. The studio could smell the box office success.

But the smell went bad when young Pat told studio head Buddy Adler he couldn’t do the film.

PB: I said, “Mr. Adler, I’ve got millions of young fans and, like it or not, I have some influence over what they do. They tend to imitate me, even in the roles I play, so I can’t play a role in which it makes this affair between a kid and a woman OK.” And he said, “You know we can suspend you, and if we do, the other unions in music and TV will probably go along with it.” And I said, “I understand, and you have to do what you have to do, but I cannot play this role. Not that I wouldn’t love to do a movie with Marilyn, but not this story.”

The film was eventually released in 1963 without Monroe or Boone, and titled “The Stripper”, starring Joanne Woodward. Pat wasn’t blackballed right away, but later on, his moral and political beliefs would work against him in Hollywood.

PB: My being conservative has been a real detriment in my career. It has cost me film roles and guest spots on TV. I asked Pat if celebrities should refrain from being vocal about their personal views.

PB: Just because you’re a celebrity doesn’t mean you can’t be a citizen first. I have the same right as any other citizen to speak out. But because you’ve been given more influence, you better exercise more responsibility in what you say. You need to consider the consequences of things that you may espouse.

I don’t agree with some of Pat’s political views, but I respect the man for putting his career on the line time and again by sticking to his principals. It sort of puts you in mind of another courageous Boone.

I wondered if Pat thought his famous ancestor might have also been a good singer, as well as an accomplished frontiersman.

PB: I’ve never been asked that, but yeah, he must have been because he was out in the woods by himself for years (laughs). I mean he spent at least a quarter of his life alone,so I have a feeling he probably sang robustly.

And what does he think would have been old Daniel’s favorite Pat Boone song?

PB: Exodus. (he breaks into song) “This land is mine. God gave this land to me”.

Pat and I spent an hour on the phone, and then, not surprisingly, he had to leave for another activity – skydiving for all I know. The man is a perpetual motion machine, so I asked the obvious question.

JL: What’s the best thing about being eighty?

PB: That you’re still here (laughs).

Some of my friends can’t say that. In fact they can’t say anything. My wife Shirley and I have been married 60 years, and we made Moses our role model. He lived to be 120 years old.

If any man can blaze a trail to 120, it’s Pat Boone. Besides, Moses never went to the gym four days a week.

(For more on Pat’s life and career visit PatBoone.com.)

Earlier this month the St. Louis Rams selected University of Missouri defensive end Michael Sam in the 7th round of the NFL draft. He was the 249th overall pick, which means under normal circumstances, the media could care less. But these weren’t normal circumstances because Sam became the first openly gay player to be drafted by a National Football League team.

Some sports pundits and social commentators likened the selection of Sam to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball, but in my mind, the two momentous events aren’t even close.

In 1947, black men were still being lynched for looking at a white woman. Men of color couldn’t eat in certain restaurants, stay at most hotels, and were made to use separate restrooms from white men. And though many players in the famed Negro Leagues were superior athletes to their white counterparts, the chance of putting a black man in a white team uniform was as remote as putting a man on the moon.

Nevertheless, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey could see the future, and he knew he could win more pennants if his team was integrated. Rickey carefully screened Negro League talent before settling on Robinson to be the subject of his grand experiment. Rickey warned Jackie that he would face daily insults and racial hate speech, then came the now famous dialogue between the two men in which Robinson reportedly said, “Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back,” to which Rickey replied that he was looking for a Negro player “with guts enough NOT to fight back.”

Sure enough, Jackie endured racial slurs and death threats, and the St. Louis Cardinal ball team even threatened to strike if Robinson took the field against them. Now, nearly 70 years later, another team in St. Louis has chosen to break down, not resist, another kind of social barrier by selecting a gay man to play pro football.

To be sure, prejudice, discrimination, and hatred toward gays still exist today. Thankfully, though, our nation is moving (slowly but surely) toward acceptance of comprehensive gay rights, and the vilest homophobia is increasingly limited to religious zealots. That makes Michael Sam’s battles much easier to endure than those of Mr. Robinson, who faced widespread racism. Still, Sam is now under a microscope, and, like it or not, he must realize that, like Robinson before him, his behavior must be professional and exemplary at all times. Jackie knew that his success would lead to more black players entering major league baseball, and Michael must surely know that the same is true for his impact on the future of gay players in the NFL. The problem is, he’s not acting like it.

Upon hearing that he had been drafted, the first thing Michael did was give his partner a long, passionate kiss in front of a worldwide audience. Then, to celebrate, Sam smeared something that looked like wedding cake all over his boyfriend’s face and proceeded to kiss and suck it off, again, with the world watching. These were the actions of a man who had just said he wanted to be thought of as a football player and not a gay football player. Well, good luck with that now.

The cake smearing incident went viral and became an indelible image in the minds of other NFL players, coaches, and owners – you know, the guys who Sam wanted to convince that gay players were no different from straight players? A few days later the other shoe dropped. Apparently without the knowledge of Rams executives, Sam cut a deal with Oprah to be the subject of a reality show, which would follow him around 24/7. Speculation is that had the Rams known of Michael’s deal with Oprah, they would not have drafted him, because the last thing they wanted is constant media frenzy disrupting the team. It should be noted that, only hours after I wrote this column, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) rescinded their offer to produce a reality show about Mr. Sam. In a statement to the media, OWN President Eric Logan said that in postponing the reality show, his network was “allowing Michael the best opportunity to achieve his dream of making the team.” Translation? The Rams front office probably told Michael that his chances of making the team would be seriously compromised by the intrusion of cameras into his life and workplace. OWN made a mistake by offering the TV show to Michael, and Michael made a mistake by accepting their offer. The fact that the offer has been rescinded is moot.

Sam has demonstrated already that he is, at best, conflicted by his pledge to want equal treatment, and, at worst, is too immature to appreciate his place in history. Lord knows we need more tolerance not just in locker rooms, but also in living rooms and board rooms, but I fear that Michael Sam is the wrong man to advance that cause. If he is cut from the team now, we may never know if it’s because he lacks the requisite skills, or because the Rams are afraid he might keep sucking cake off of his partner’s face after every game, or continue to make deals with reality show producers who only want to exploit his sexual orientation. I hope he makes the team, but he hasn’t made it easy on himself.

Matt Bomer happens to be one of America’s most popular and talented actors. He has played everything from a Texas Chainsaw victim, to a male stripper (“Magic Mike”), to a lovable con man (“White Collar”). The drop-dead gorgeous, Texas born, athlete turned thespian, also happens to be gay, and is a recipient of the Steve Chase Humanitarian Award for his work in the fight against HIV/AIDS. I got to know Matt when I moderated a Television Academy salute to TV Crime Fighters back in 2010, and we’ve remained friends ever since. I spoke with him recently about director Ryan Murphy’s upcoming HBO film, “The Normal Heart” in which he stars.

MB: There was nothing I had done on White Collar that would have ever told Ryan I could play this role, but when I brought my research to the role, he understood that I was passionate about being a part of the piece.

HBO’s “The Normal Heart” is based on Larry Kramer’s 1985 play by the same name, which recounts the early years when AIDS first reared its ugly head in America, and was referred to as “gay cancer”. In large part it is the story of how gay men from all walks of life dealt with this new epidemic, and how some of them came together through the Gay Men’s Health Crisis organization to raise awareness, and seek government funding for finding a cure.

In the film, Bomer plays Felix Turner, a reporter with the New York Times who becomes involved with GMHC founder Ned Weeks, played by Mark Ruffalo. Matt’s research for the role included shadowing Jacob Bernstein, a real life reporter for the Times, but his commitment went much further than that. Since Felix contracts Aids midway through the film, Matt decided to lose 40 pounds to give his portrayal a sense of realism.

MB: I think it was something I brought to Ryan, and he responded to it as my take on the arc of the character. Something that I thought was important to the reality of the piece. When I brought this aspect to him, in addition to my research, that might have been part of the reason I got the job.

But Bomer’s commitment to the role meant having to take a break in filming in order to transform his body into that of an AIDS patient.

MB: We filmed the first part of the movie in June and July, and then we came back at the beginning of November.

JL: But weren’t you concerned about the risks to your health as a result of the fasting?

MB: What I gained from this role, and getting to work in the film, is so much more valuable than what it cost my body.

Bomer definitely knows about taking risks. While still the star of his own prime time drama series, he came out at the 2012 Chase awards ceremony. The year before, he had quietly married Simon Halls, and they now have three beautiful children. Of course, Matt was just a child himself when Kramer’s play takes place, so I wondered if he could identify with the characters in the film.

MB: Absolutely. I think anybody who’s ever come out can identify with that in some regard. Because YOU don’t change, but the perspective of the way the world sees you, and the way other people see you, can change.

Kramer’s teleplay and Murphy’s interpretation allows us to see those changes in public perception, as well as the divisiveness and denial among gay men, in the face of a deadly new epidemic.

MB: You have to understand that at the time, everyone else was having a sexual revolution. Gay men and women felt they were having their own sexual revolution, and so, right as they’re starting to feel a sense of freedom in the post-Harvey Milk years, all of a sudden, doctors are telling them they can’t have sex anymore. One of the things I found so interesting in Ryan’s take and Larry’s script is that not everybody in the film was on the same team. There were lots of different points of view in the gay community. There were guys who thought it wasn’t safe to be “out” at work, and guys who thought everyone should be “out”. So there were a lot of different points of view. I think that lends much more authenticity to the film, and it wouldn’t have if everyone was just marching together in a parade.

Speaking of divisive, the film has come under fire from some in the gay community because two of the leading roles are played by straight actors, Mark Ruffalo and Taylor Kitsch (“Friday Night Lights”). I asked Matt if he had a problem with that.

MB: I think it’s about whoever is the most passionate about telling the story, and whoever is going to help serve the story. Mark and Taylor’s dedication and commitment to their roles, and to “The Normal Heart” were unparalleled, so I had absolutely no problem with them playing those roles.

“The Normal Heart” takes place in the early 1980s when we were just starting to understand AIDS, and yet, after all these years, and after all of the research, education, and breakthrough treatments, there are still 6,000 cases of HIV diagnosed every year. I wondered if Matt thought “The Normal Heart” is still a cautionary tale, and what he wanted audiences to take away from the film.

MB: I think for one generation it’s going to be therapeutic. For another generation, my generation, it’s going to offer some clarity. And, hopefully, for the younger generation it will teach them to be responsible with their lives, and it will give them an appreciation for the circumstances these people went through. I also hope it opens up people’s sense of compassion, so that the next time something like this comes up, we will know how to treat each other in a more humane, respectful, compassionate way.

“The Normal Heart” premieres Sunday, May 25th at 9pm on HBO.