Once upon a time, back in the 60's, there was a national news program on the NBC network called The Huntley-Brinkley Report. It preceded what has now become known as NBC Nightly News. In the beginning it was only 15 minutes but later it was expanded to a half-hour.
(Just an aside: I have found that most of the "hard" news is covered in the first 15 minutes of the current program and the rest is devoted to mindless features and self-promoting drivel. But maybe that's just me.)
When the election season rolled around, the co-anchors of the Huntley-Brinkley Report (Chet Huntley in New York, David Brinkley in Washington) got a chance to go to which ever part of the country they wanted . . to report on some Congressional race. Brinkley was from Virginia but Huntley grew up in Montana. So he headed west. Curiously, his first stop was Bismarck, North Dakota, where I happened to be the news director of the local NBC station. So I got to meet him at the airport and, thanks to a local newspaper photographer who was also covering the Great Man's arrival in our small city, got my picture taken with him.
In case you couldn't figure it out, Chet Huntley is the bemused man on the right.
But wait! Before he posed for the photo, Huntley said "Just a minute. I've got to take a leak!"
He wandered off behind a hangar or some such building (it was a small airport) and came back shortly with the comment "It's great to get out West again where a man can pee where-ever he wants to!"
Some time later, I also met David Brinkley, but at WRC, the Washington, D.C. NBC station. I was in town for something or other and wangled a tour of the station from a guy who was Brinkley's producer at the time. I think his name was Robert Mulholland and he later became President of NBC News. But at the time he was just Brinkley's producer.
He met me in the lobby of the station and took me to his office where we chatted a bit, then he said something like "Well, let me show you around." We left his office and immediately entered the office next door, where sat the Great David Brinkley. I was introduced and then Brinkley began talking to Mulholland.
"How come we didn't have film (this was before videotape) of the big snowstorm in Chicago last night?"
"They took the film out to the airport but it was snowed in and then they couldn't get back to the station in time to ship it by satellite."
"Why didn't they ship it by satellite in the first place?"
"The Today show wanted extra footage."
Brinkley looked at Mulholland for a few seconds, then . . in the unique way of speaking he had . . said "F*** the Today Show!"
Then he looked at me and grinned.
Such were my adventures with the Big Boys in the 60's. They're both gone now. Good night, Chet. Good night, David.
