Today (Wednesday), my friend Stu Shostak chats with my friend Leonard Maltin on Stu's Show. I've known Leonard a long time, first as a subscriber to a fanzine he published in his youth called Film Fan Monthly. An amazing percentage of history that is known about motion pictures first made it into print in Film Fan Monthly. It was a key reason Leonard grew up to be one of the most respected experts on movies in the world today.
We had a number of mutual friends. They were telling me, "You oughta know Leonard Maltin." They were telling him, "You oughta know Mark Evanier." Finally one day when he was out in L.A. more or less auditioning to become the resident film authority on Entertainment Tonight, he called me up and asked, "Are you as sick as I am of people trying to match us up?" I was so we got together for lunch, the premise being that we'd either get along and become pals or hate each other and be done with all that matchmaking. It turned out you can't hate Leonard. He's too smart, too nice, too clever and too passionate — in a good way — about movies. I've had great times talking to him and Stu will today. They'll cover Leonard's early days and some of the amazing celebrity interviews he landed. He's really a great, fascinating guy so it should be a great, fascinating program.
Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go into serious overtime. Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a bargain at 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. It's the same deal Costco is running now on flu shots.