7:30 – 8 p.m.
Tonight we present a special for Women’s History Month From the Vault. We’ll spend some time with three women who helped shape the nature of women in the film business: Shelley Winters, Ruth Gordon, and Bette Davis. This week’s episode also serves to highlight the results our recent collaboration with the San Francisco Film Society and the Levin Archives. The Pacifica Radio Archives discovered a large collection of recordings dating back to 1969 from their festival tributes to notable film personalities in a flooded basement at KPFA in Berkeley , CA . The tapes were rescued and transferred to digital media by the PRA staff. These recordings are part of a larger collection of recordings from the San Francisco International Film Festival, which in April/May 2007, celebrates it’s 50th Anniversary.
So, this week on the show, we’ll feature the Women of Film, as they appeared on stage in front of welcoming audiences in San Francisco . First, we’ll hear Shelley Winters, who passed away recently in early 2006, talk about her marriages, her unconventional looks, and her love of the craft in a memorable appearance at the Festival in 1976. Then we’ll laugh with Ruth Gordon as she chats about her playwriting, the controversial romance depicted in Harold and Maude, and working with Thornton Wilder. Finally, Bette Davis takes us out as she brings down the house with her spitfire wisecracks and wistful reminiscences of old Hollywood . Throughout the program, we’ll be joined by Marion Rosenberg, O.B.E. from the Women in Film Foundation, and Millie Gregory, author of Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood (published by St. Martin’s Press, New York).
8 – 9 p.m.
An American Daughter by Wendy Wasserstein
Cast Mary McDonnell, David Birney, Kevin McCarthy, Anna Gunn, Jamie Hanes, Gregory Itzin, Claudette Nevins, Denise Nicholas
Pulitzer-Prize winner Wendy Wasserstein spins a comic and moving tale about the pitfalls that await political appointees. As a respected health crusader and devoted wife and mother, Dr. Lyssa Hughes seems perfect for the role of U.S. Surgeon General, until a chance remark at a fashionable brunch sets off a media feeding frenzy.