My Walter Cronkite Memory.

Posted By Cliff Tuttle | July 18, 2009

Posted by Cliff Tuttle (c) 2009

In the mid 1950’s, Walter Kronkite hosted a television show called “You Are There.” Everything is just as it was on (insert a date in history), “except . . . You . . . Are . . .There.”

As the story unfolds, Knonkite the narrator asked news interview type questions of the participants, who turned to the camera and answered them as though being interviewed. Then, they would resume the action with the other participants as though nothing had happened.

Instead of showing you the big event, say a battle, Kronkite would interview eyewitnesses (frequently as they were fleeing the scene) and I remember hearing that these were often based on actual accounts.

One episode had a profound effect on me. It depicted Heinrich Schliemann during his excavations of the archeological site that he believed, and later thought he proved, was the ruins of Troy. The idea that the Troy of the Iliad may have been a real place and that it might be possible to dig it up, hit me like a thunderbolt from Olympus. The show went off the air when I was 10 years old. But over fifty years later, a spark struck by Walter Kronkite burns on in me, like the flames of Homer’s Troy.

Thank you, Walter.

CLT

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CLIFF TUTTLE has been a Pennsylvania lawyer for over 45 years and (inter alia) is a real estate litigator and legal writer. The posts in this blog are intended to provide general information about legal topics of interest to lawyers and consumers with a Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania focus. However, this information does not constitute legal advice and there is no lawyer-client relationship created when you read this blog. You are encouraged to leave comments but be aware that posted comments can be read by others. If you wish to contact me in privacy, please use the Contact Form located immediately below this message. I will reply promptly and in strict confidence.

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