Bo Pike Oral History Interview

Bo Pike

NPS

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW WITH BO PIKE

AUGUST 24, 1989
INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI

INTERVIEWED BY ANDREW DUNAR
ORAL HISTORY #1989-7
This transcript corresponds to audiotapes DAV-AR #3603-3604

HARRY S TRUMAN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

BO PIKE
24 August 1989
HSTR Photograph

EDITORIAL NOTICE

This is a transcript of a tape-recorded interview conducted for Harry S Truman National Historic Site. After a draft of this transcript was made, the park provided a copy to the interviewee and requested that he or she return the transcript with any corrections or modifications that he or she wished to be included in the final transcript. The interviewer, or in some cases another qualified staff member, also reviewed the draft and compared it to the tape recordings. The corrections and other changes suggested by the interviewee and interviewer have been incorporated into this final transcript. The transcript follows as closely as possible the recorded interview, including the usual starts, stops, and other rough spots in typical conversation. The reader should remember that this is essentially a transcript of the spoken, rather than the written, word. Stylistic matters, such as punctuation and capitalization, follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition. The transcript includes bracketed notices at the end of one tape and the beginning of the next so that, if desired, the reader can find a section of tape more easily by using this transcript.
Bo Pike, Andrew Dunar, and Jim Williams reviewed the draft of this transcript. Their corrections were incorporated into this final transcript by Perky Beisel in summer 2000. Eastern National Park and Monument Association funded a grant to produce this interview, the transcription, and final editing of the transcript.

RESTRICTION

Researchers may read, quote from, cite, and photocopy this transcript without permission for purposes of research only. Publication is prohibited, however, without permission from the Superintendent, Harry S Truman National Historic Site.

ABSTRACT

On May 27, 1955, Margaret Truman hosted Edward R. Murrow’s Person to Person and interviewed two very special guests. Former President and Mrs. Harry Truman sat in the comfort of their Independence, Missouri, home where their daughter interviewed them live from New York City. At that time, Bo Pike was a technician for Kansas City’s CBS affiliate, Channel 9, and provided technical support for the broadcast at the Truman home.

Television cables were laid throughout the home, and a bread truck was parked in the driveway which functioned as the center of technical operations. A rehearsal was held in the afternoon, and the live broadcast occurred that evening in the midst of a typical Midwestern spring thunderstorm. Despite the obstacles of weather, and a very private Mrs. Truman, the interview and broadcast went off without a hitch. When all was said and done, and the equipment packed away, Bess provided drinks for the crew but left Harry to do the visiting. Pike glimpsed a part of the Truman’s life seen by very few.

Persons mentioned: Edward R. Murrow, Margaret Truman Daniel, Harry S Truman, Bess W. Truman, Mike Westwood, May Wallace, Vic Damon, Stuart Symington, Randall Jessee, Tom Evans, Gene Autry, Gene Harper, Larry Keck, John Barrier, Billy Parker, Charlie Smith, Bob Hennesy, Jack Shaw, and H. Calley

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW WITH BO PIKE

HSTR INTERVIEW #1989-7

ANDREW DUNAR: This afternoon we’re in the offices of the National Park Service at 223 North [Main] in Independence, Missouri, and this is August 24, 1989. We’re meeting with Mr. Bo Pike, and I’d like to start just by asking you if you could tell us a little bit about how you ended up working on this assignment on the Person to Person program.
BO PIKE: Okay, well, I worked for WHB-TV, Channel 9, in town. They went on the air in ’53 and in ’54 they sold out and became KMBC-TV9. And I don’t remember the date of this Person to Person show with Edward R. Murrow. It was either on CBS or ABC. KMBC, Channel 9, was originally CBS, and somewhere along in there they changed to ABC.
DUNAR: Yes, this was CBS.
PIKE: Was it CBS? And we carried the Edward R. Murrow Person to Person program. This particular night, Edward R. Murrow wasn’t on it. It was Truman’s daughter Margaret back east [who] did all the questioning and narrating, and Truman and Mrs. Truman were here in Independence. And it took us over a full day to set up all the equipment at their home. We had cables everywhere—old black and white day. We rehearsed in the afternoon and at night went on the air. It was, of course, live.
DUNAR: Before we get into the program itself, could you explain a little bit about what
2
was involved in setting up and about where you put the cables and so forth and how that would work?
PIKE: Yeah, they had one remote truck that was out in the yard, with many cables going into the home, and the telephone company on a pole outside set up a sort of a booth for their microwave. There were no cables then at that time to their central office, so they fed by microwave from this telephone booth on the pole to one of their buildings downtown. It took a lot of work and . . .
DUNAR: We watched a tape of it just this morning.
PIKE: You did?
DUNAR: And one thing that I think is clear is that, obviously, there had to be a lot of cables, but you didn’t see the cables, except for one incident during the whole show.
PIKE: Right, yes.
DUNAR: Where were all the cables laid so that they were out of the pictures of you? Because you pretty much walked through the whole house and I couldn’t see the cables.
PIKE: Yes, well, we laid down three-foot-wide long plastic runners to keep from damaging the floor or anything. But if you’ve seen the kitchen and some of those places, you know they couldn’t damage it much. [laughter] But the cables normally stay in back of the camera, and sometimes we had a person that would pull the cables back so that the cameraman can move around
3
without being bothered by pulling the cables himself.
DUNAR: Yes, right.
PIKE: They had a screened-in back porch, kind of L-shaped, and at rehearsal I was what they called the number one camera. I was the opening camera and I had a tight shot of Mr. Truman, just the head and shoulders, in his rocking chair on the back porch, I believe it was, and he had the opening statements. Everything went fine at rehearsal and we went on the air and he started rocking back and forth and up and down the picture like that, you know. It was a job to keep him in the picture.
DUNAR: I guess it was. Mike, do you have that picture? Let me just see if that’s . . . We’ve got a couple of pictures. Is that you, by any chance, do you know?
PIKE: I can’t tell.
DUNAR: Hard to tell.
PIKE: I believe it is, but I can’t really tell. I believe.
DUNAR: Here’s the one on the back porch.
PIKE: Yeah, this was his rocking chair. After we did that opening shot, not too long after that Bess took us around this outside screened-in porch, and they had floodlights, clip lights, all around the outside to give us enough light. It started raining and the rain got to some of those floodlights and popped them, you know. Kind of scary for a while.
DUNAR: What was Mrs. Truman’s reaction to all of this equipment and everything?
4
PIKE: Well, I didn’t notice any comment by them at all. You know, I’m sure they were expecting it, all these people in their home, and they tried to keep all of us out. I mean, the supervisors tried to keep all of us out of the home as much as possible in setting up, naturally, not to disturb them any more than possible. But it was quite a task, this old stuff. Camera cables were very large. They had a 52-conductors in a big cable and it rained, like I said, rained so much when the program was on. After it was over, why, we all had to wrap up all the cables. And they accused one guy of wrapping up a garden hose. [laughter]
But after it was all over, they invited us all on this back porch to have drinks, after we had all cleaned up everything. And we were wet, and Mr. Truman said, “If any of you would like a dry shirt,” he said, “I have a lot of them that have been gifts,” he says, “you’re welcome to them.” And nobody took one.
I am a musician, off and on, and I played at a country western show at Ivanhoe Temple for quite a few years, and the security man out there was Mike Westwood who was also Mr. Truman’s bodyguard, and I slightly knew Mike Westwood. And we were sitting out on the porch having our drink and he said, “Bobo, you should have brought your banjo along.” And I said something like, “Well, if Mr. Truman had played the piano, I’d have been glad to,” you know. And he [Truman] looked around to see where his wife was, she was in the kitchen, and he said, “A lot of my friends have told me
5
that this country would be a lot better off if I’d been a whorehouse piano player instead of president.” [laughter] True. But that’s about the size of it. He was very nice and we cleaned everything up good as we could. It was quite an experience. I was glad to have been a part of it.
DUNAR: Yes. If we could go back to the time of the rehearsal, did you have a connection with New York, with Margaret in New York? Did you practice that part, too?
PIKE: I’m sure that they did. The directors, of course, would take care of all that, and the phone company. Of course, the phone company, we checked lines out from the Truman home to the telephone company’s building downtown. And they would be in contact with whatever place we would feed the program, which, I’m sure, was back to New York. And those programs went various ways. The networks . . . sometimes if a link would go out between New York and Kansas City for some reason, they would send on down south maybe to Austin or Dallas and by various routes, but that was all microwave mostly at that time.
DUNAR: So was the purpose of the rehearsal to check out that link to New York or was it just to set things up in the house?
PIKE: Well, the rehearsal was actually to set up the shots and the routine. Checking out the lines and stuff, that was all up to the telephone company, which, you know, we pay for their services and the use of their cables.
6
DUNAR: Right, right.
PIKE: But all the rehearsal was just for our directors and the cameramen and audio people to know what was coming next and some kind of order about the whole thing.
DUNAR: Did you practice the scenes where they walked from one room to another?
PIKE: I think so, yes. One camera went around the screened-in back porch and they had one already set up inside. I think we had four cameras, and it was black and white and pretty ancient. I see the old tripods here were wooden. But those actually were on dollies, a little deal with the three wheels on it, to make it a little more portable.
DUNAR: And which camera . . . You had the one on the back porch then, during the show?
PIKE: Yes, yes.
DUNAR: So you had to follow them then, when they walked off the porch?
PIKE: Follow them around the porch and eventually into the house where another camera would pick them up . . . Bess, as she went around.
DUNAR: And there would be somebody then behind you that would trail the cables so that they wouldn’t . . .
PIKE: Yes, because those cables were pretty big and heavy. You know, now it would be no problem at all.
DUNAR: Yes, sure. Did Mrs. Truman make any remarks at all during rehearsal or
7
anything, that you remember?
PIKE: I don’t think so. Margaret, I suppose, talked to them, but I wasn’t involved in that. I couldn’t help you on that.
DUNAR: During the rehearsal, did the president say anything, during the rehearsal? Did he joke at all with you during rehearsal?
PIKE: No, not that I remember. He was very pleasant, though, and it seemed like he always was. No, I don’t remember anything except that one on the back porch that I was telling you about.
DUNAR: Yes. Were there some of the CBS executives on site in the Truman house, too? Or who was . . .
PIKE: Yes. I don’t remember if it was CBS or ABC, but, yes, they have directors that come in on that and producers, and they pretty much ramrod the whole thing. And, of course, they just hired us as . . . Channel 9 that was shooting it and had the equipment.
DUNAR: Did they know the questions? Were the questions set up beforehand or was this all . . . Or did the Trumans just . . .
PIKE: Not to my knowledge.
DUNAR: So, when you had the rehearsal, you didn’t go through any of the questions? It was just a matter of setting up the shots.
PIKE: No, just our shots and our route to go. But I’m sure they had probably pre-cued them on a lot of things and primed them on some of that, but I don’t
8
know.
DUNAR: Where did the cables leave the house then? It looked like they could have gone out the back. Did they go out the front or . . .two cables out the back and two out the front?
PIKE: No, the one on my camera went out that back door, which was the east, and down through the yard to our truck.
DUNAR: There must have been a lot of floodlights, too, that were set up, and, yet, you don’t see any of those on camera either. How did they handle lighting?
PIKE: Yes. Well, most of it was these clip lights, especially on the outside, little clip floods. Inside we had some big scoops, as I remember. I don’t think they used any spots because they were moving most of the time, you know. And they would have two or three stagehands that originally would set up the lights and would move them, if necessary.
DUNAR: Can you remember, what was the general reaction to this program?
PIKE: From the public, you mean?
DUNAR: Yes, from the public and people you knew in the area.
PIKE: [chuckling] I don’t know. It was different. I don’t remember talking to too many people about it or what their reaction was, I just don’t. It was quite an experience for we engineers to be involved in something like that.
DUNAR: Sure.
PIKE: Because mainly all we’d be involved in were bowling shows and baseball
9
games and things like that. So this was kind of different, and we all looked forward to it and enjoyed it, in spite of the rain. But I don’t really remember any comments one way or the other on that.
DUNAR: Were there people watching all of this equipment being set up outside on the streets? Or did the rain keep them away?
PIKE: Well, the rain came after we went on the air. They had security there, I’m sure. And as I recall, there wasn’t anybody else in the area, you know, in their lot or in their home. There must have been some security guards. I don’t remember if Mike Westwood was one of them or not. Probably, because he was Truman’s bodyguard after he left the White House.
DUNAR: Yes. In a way, this was kind of a pioneering telecast, I think, too. Did you have any sense of being part of a major event in television history as well?
PIKE: No, not really. I don’t know how long Edward Murrow had been on the air—a while I’m sure—and I don’t know why he wasn’t on that night, except that maybe he thought it would be real nice to have Margaret do all the questioning and interviewing, since she was back east.
DUNAR: Was there a reaction among the other television people in Kansas City to all of this? Do you remember?
PIKE: Yes, probably. They were probably a little jealous maybe, [laughter] the other stations.
DUNAR: Yes, yes. Were there other media there? News photographers or anything of
10
that sort?
PIKE: I don’t think during the program, not that I recall, no.
DUNAR: At any time, did you get any sort of a reaction from Mrs. Truman? Because she was usually very private and not at all willing to have people come in, and here this television crew descended on her.
PIKE: Yes, they just stormed the house, you know. But they were very nice and our supervisors, you know, kept us all out as much as they could so as not to bother them or get in their way and everything.
DUNAR: She didn’t say anything, really, one way or the other?
PIKE: No, not really.
DUNAR: When there was the get-together afterward, did she come out and chat with people at all or did she kind of keep her distance?
PIKE: She just came out and brought the drinks to us.
DUNAR: And then went back into the house?
PIKE: She went back in the kitchen, yes.
DUNAR: But Mr. Truman stayed out there then and chatted with people?
PIKE: Yes, he stayed out there and talked. Yes, that was fun. [chuckling]
DUNAR: Yes, I’ll bet that was. Did you hear anything else that he said off-camera?
PIKE: [chuckling] No, that’s the only thing I remember. And I never will forget it either. [laughter]
DUNAR: Yes. Were there any other associates of the Trumans there, or was it just all
11
the television people and Mr. and Mrs. Truman?
PIKE: I think it was just television people. Now, was it her sister that lived next door?
DUNAR: May Wallace?
PIKE: Yes, Wallace, yes.
DUNAR: Yes.
PIKE: I don’t remember seeing her. I think it was just the two of them, as I recall, that were involved in the program. I don’t remember any other people being there, outside of all the crew and people involved in that.
DUNAR: Yes. There was one recollection that said something about Mrs. Truman being upset with the cigarette butts that were left around.
PIKE: Oh, really?
DUNAR: Do you remember anything about that?
PIKE: I don’t remember that, but it could be. Yes, because everybody was supposed to be so concerned about not getting the place dirty or anything, you know.
DUNAR: Yes, I’m sure people were, yes.
PIKE: Yes, so I guess neither of them smoked probably. That would be kind of upsetting, right. I didn’t hear about that.
DUNAR: When did you take all of this wiring down? Immediately after the show?
PIKE: Yes, yes, we rolled up all the cables—and there were sure a lot of them—and all the wires and power cords and camera cables and audio cables and all that.
12
Our original TV truck wasn’t much. It was originally a bakery truck. [chuckling] And we just didn’t have too much organization about it. We had a weekly bowling show from the Country Club Plaza called “Bowling With Molen,” and we used it on that. We kind of halfway organized the inside of the truck where things would go. We had a console in there, a video console and an audio console, and fed all the cables, of course, into that from whatever remote we were on. Like at the old Municipal Stadium with the ball games, the Kansas City Blues originally, and not too many remotes outside of those. This was kind of different.
DUNAR: Yes, yes. You mentioned that you knew Mike Westwood. Could you just comment a little bit more about what kind of a person Mike Westwood was?
PIKE: He was very nice. I liked him a lot. He was involved—I don’t know how—in a group called the Kansas City Rodeo Kids, which had some stables out on 40 Highway, and the kids would put on exhibitions of various things, riding horses and tricks and things. Mike was involved in that somehow. I don’t know, but he was connected with the Rodeo Kids. And he was a security guard at our country and western shows. And after Mr. Truman came back home, why, he was his personal bodyguard.
DUNAR: Yes. Did he ever comment to you about his work as a bodyguard to President Truman?
PIKE: No. No, I didn’t see him that often. I did see him a time or two in
13
Independence here.
DUNAR: Yes. He didn’t have any Truman stories?
PIKE: No, darn it. [laughter] He probably could have told some good ones.
DUNAR: [chuckling] Yes, I’ll bet he could have. You were also at the ground breaking then to the Truman Library.
PIKE: Yes.
DUNAR: Can you tell what you remember about that?
PIKE: I did some work on the side for a fellow in town called Vic Damon who had recording studios and he took care of a lot of PA jobs. He had contracted for this public address job and I went out and ran that. And I also took my camera along and took some of those pictures I was telling you about. I don’t remember anything unusual that happened there. Senator Symington was there from Missouri, and Margaret and Mrs. Truman and Harry Truman, and I think a lot of notables, but I don’t remember any of their names, outside of Senator Symington.
DUNAR: Were you behind the camera for that, camera for that, television camera for that? Or was that even telecast?
PIKE: That wasn’t televised, no.
DUNAR: So you were just there out of interest?
PIKE: For the PA, yes. Just for the public address system.
DUNAR: Oh, okay, okay.
14
PIKE: The only cameras that I know were there were just still cameras, probably part of the paper, the Kansas City Star.
DUNAR: At the ground breaking, where did that take place now, in relationship to where the library is right now? Do you know where it might have been?
PIKE: I’m not sure, but I think it was just pretty much right where the library is. As I recall, they had some temporary bleachers set up there for that. And I’m sure it was just right about where the library is. It kind of went uphill a little bit. And, of course, nothing was done at that time, no landscaping or anything, and nothing was built.
DUNAR: Yes, it was still a park, right, at that point?
PIKE: Yes, right.
DUNAR: Were there a lot of people there? Was it a pretty big crowd?
PIKE: Quite a few. I wouldn’t have any idea how many, but there was a nice crowd, yes.
DUNAR: You were very close. From the pictures, we can tell you were very close to the . . .
PIKE: Yes, like from here to the wall probably.
DUNAR: Yes. Did you hear any of the conversation on the podium then at all?
PIKE: No, I sure didn’t.
DUNAR: What’s your most lasting impression of the Trumans, from the encounters that you had with them?
15
PIKE: Well, like most people, I think in Independence especially, were so proud of Truman and were in back of him so much and he could do no wrong. He played cards with some of his old cronies, I think, quite a bit—I don’t know what, poker or what. And he used to eat, I understand, at a place across the street from the courthouse, the Courthouse Exchange restaurant. And he would take his walks. He had a big old black Chrysler Imperial, I believe it was, and I had seen him drive down Truman Road. He had an office downtown somewhere for a while. And he’d take his morning strolls, which I never saw, but you always read about him.
DUNAR: Sure.
PIKE: How he would outwalk all the newsmen that were along with him. He was quite a guy and I think everybody was pretty proud of him and that had any connection with him.
DUNAR: Did you know other news people that were either involved in television or newspaper at all? And did they have any reaction to what it was like to work on stories covering Truman?
PIKE: No. Now, I have a friend who is a navy buddy that was the head of the American Legion here and things like that. He had some contacts with Mr. Truman. I don’t know if he would have anything that would add to your deal or not. He had some contact and walked with him once, I think. He went down to Springfield one time when they went down there for something and
16
Truman was down there. But, gee, I wish I could give you some more help on that.
DUNAR: What was the impact of this Person to Person program, do you think?
PIKE: I don’t know, I think it gave a lot of people a chance to have kind of an insight into Mr. and Mrs. Truman. I don’t recall anything they said about the house or the home, although Bess took everybody around and kind of showed them certain things that I never did get to see because I was on another camera. I suppose that . . . Do they have a kinescope of that program?
DUNAR: Yes.
PIKE: Because that was before video tape. Black and white kinescope. Yes, that would be interesting to watch that sometime.
DUNAR: Yes. Mike, do you have some questions?
SHAVER: Well, after the interview, if you’re interested in watching it, we’ve got it on video tape.We’ll show it to you.
DUNAR: Beg your pardon? I can’t . . .
SHAVER: At the end of this interview, what we might do is just go ahead and show it to you.We’ve got a video tape of the program.
PIKE: You do? Yes, great.
SHAVER: Did Randall Jessee work for your station at that time?
PIKE: Not for our station. He worked for WDAF-TV4.
SHAVER: Okay, and let’s see, another person, one of Harry’s buddies, Mr. Evans, Mr.
17
Tom Evans. Did he own that station or do you know?
PIKE: Tom Evans was the owner, I guess, of Channel 5, KCMO-TV5, which was different from Channel 9 that I worked for.
SHAVER: Why did they pick an ABC affiliate to cover this?
PIKE: Was that ABC?
SHAVER: Well, was your station at that time a CBS affiliate?
PIKE: Our station was CBS until when, I don’t know, maybe ’55 or whenever, and then we lost CBS and took on ABC. Now, when the transaction happened, I don’t know, and I don’t know if the Person to Person was on ABC or CBS. I don’t remember.
SHAVER: It was on CBS.
PIKE: It was CBS, okay. For some reason, we lost CBS affiliate, and I don’t know the true story. I understand it was because Gene Autry had a station out in Phoenix, I believe, and for some reason he wanted something and they did some trading around to get him. So we wound up with ABC, anyhow. And they were all kind of sad about it, but it worked out that ABC was one of the top ones for quite a while.
DUNAR: After the show finished, did they keep the line open to New York at all? I wonder if there was any exchange between Margaret and . . .
PIKE: Well, I don’t know. I’m sure there must have been. And, of course, they keep the line open until it’s okayed all the way through that everybody got it okay,
18
but I don’t know. See, I was on the engineering side and had nothing to do with anything like that.
DUNAR: Yes. After they finished the segment that you were responsible for on the back porch and they left to the other part of the room, could you come back in and watch what was going on in the rest? Or did you just stay back there?
PIKE: Well, no, we just stayed back there.
DUNAR: So you didn’t really see that part, except for the part that was on the back porch.
PIKE: Yes, and there wasn’t much room in there anyhow for any extra people.
DUNAR: Right. How many people were involved in the production altogether, do you know?
PIKE: Oh, I’d have to figure it out. We had four cameramen, probably two or three stagehands, we had a video control, a RF switcher, a audio man, a director, producer. I don’t know, I would guess probably twelve involved.
DUNAR: Yes. And did they have a trailer like they do today that they brought into the back drive or anything?
PIKE: No, that was our bread truck.
DUNAR: That was just the bread truck? It was the only thing you had?
PIKE: Yes, that was all. That was the whole thing. [laughter] Oh, we used to laugh about that.
DUNAR: Times have changed, huh? [chuckling]
19
PIKE: Yes.
DUNAR: Are there any other anecdotes that took place in connection with . . . little incidents you might remember that took place during this production?
PIKE: I’m sorry, I sure don’t. Outside of it rained so much and everybody got so wet. And the one engineer, they accused him of rolling up the garden hose instead of the cable. They were the same size. [chuckling]
DUNAR: Who accused him of that? One of the other production people?
PIKE: Yes, the other cameraman, you know.
DUNAR: Yes.
PIKE: But we always kind of wish we’d taken one of his shirts when he offered them to us.
DUNAR: Yes, yes.
PIKE: Yes, we all got soaking wet.
DUNAR: And then you packed up the equipment before you had that little party on the back porch?
PIKE: Oh, yes, yes.
DUNAR: And then after it was all packed up, then he invited you back in to the back porch?
PIKE: Right, yes.
DUNAR: Was it Mr. Truman that asked you back in?
PIKE: Did what?
20
DUNAR: Was it Mr. Truman that asked you all back in, to come to the back porch afterward?
PIKE: I’m sure it was, yes. So it was kind of nice. And Bess fixed all the drinks and we all had a couple drinks and tried to dry out a little bit.
DUNAR: Yes, yes. Was there anybody else there from the Trumans? Nobody else, other than the . . .
PIKE: No, just the crew on the back porch is all I remember. Yes, just the crew. And there were quite a few.
DUNAR: Carol, do you have anything you’d like to ask?
CAROL DAGE: I don’t think I have anything right now.
MICHAEL SHAVER: Do you remember the names of any of the other crew members, right off?
PIKE: Oh, yes. There was a Gene Harper and a Larry Keck. These are all engineers. Oh, boy, I believe John Barrier, Billy Parker, Charlie Smith. Directors, I don’t remember who was directors on that. I think a couple of the stagehands was H. Calley and Bob Hennesy and Jack Shaw, I believe, were stagehands. This has been, you know, thirty-five years or so.
SHAVER: By and large, most of the production crew was local?
PIKE: Yes, all local, outside of the fact that the network had some people in to pretty much set up the thing and the routine that they wanted and all that.
SHAVER: Did you have any problem with those?
21
PIKE: No, no problem that I know of, outside of Mr. Truman starting out in his rocking chair.
DUNAR: Well, one thing that seems to be the case about Mrs. Truman is that she seemed to be very warm and friendly just with people. But when the camera went on, she seemed to sort of freeze up. Did you notice that at all? Or what did she seem like to you?
PIKE: Well, to me—and I wasn’t around her that much—she seemed to me a little, a little cool, kind of, or standoffish, whatever you might call it. Of course, she wasn’t one for that stuff anyhow.
DUNAR: Sure, right.
PIKE: She was kind of more of a private person, I think.
DUNAR: Yes. Did she seem like she was barely tolerating this whole thing?
PIKE: A little bit, yes. I think so, yes.
DUNAR: Yes. Did he, did Mr. Truman seem to enjoy it the whole time? Or was he sort of . . .
PIKE: Yes, yes, I think so.
DUNAR: Did he joke with the production people, even while you were setting up and everything?
PIKE: Not that I know of, not that I know of. But he was . . .
DUNAR: Were Mr. and Mrs. Truman there to watch you setting up or did they stay away when you were setting up?
22
PIKE: No, it was all just the crew.
DUNAR: And they were out of the house or in some other part of the house?
PIKE: Well, I’m sure they were in some other part of the house, yes.
DUNAR: Yes, upstairs maybe?
PIKE: Well, it could be.
DUNAR: So you didn’t really see them then until the rehearsal?
PIKE: Until pretty much show time and rehearsal, yes.
DUNAR: Yes. Otherwise they stayed out of the way?
PIKE: Yes, which is natural.
DUNAR: Sure, sure.
PIKE: They had all these invaders in their home.
DUNAR: Yes.
PIKE: But like I said, they set down plastic runners where all the cameras would go, to keep from damaging anything, but . . . Have you seen the kitchen linoleum over there?
DUNAR: Yes.
PIKE: With the hole in it?
DUNAR: Was the hole there when you were there?
PIKE: I suppose so, I don’t remember. But I’ve been there since, of course.
DUNAR: You’ve gone through and seen it, yes. Did things, when you went through on the tour, look pretty much like they did, like you remembered them?
23
PIKE: Yes, yes. Have they opened up the upstairs any now? I don’t think that was open originally.
DUNAR: No, that’s not open yet. Yes, just the first floor.
PIKE: Yes. He had his hat hanging there, I think.
DUNAR: Yes.
PIKE: Oh, is that tomorrow that they have the open house or . . .
DUNAR: I’m not sure.
PIKE: I think tomorrow is the day everybody can go free or something.
DUNAR: Oh, it could be. I’m not sure about that.
PIKE: I think, yes.
SHAVER: August 25th.
DUNAR: Is that right?
SHAVER: Anniversary of the park service. We let folks in free.
DUNAR: Oh, is that right? Oh, all right, okay. Well, I don’t have any other questions, unless . . .
PIKE: Okay.
[End #3603; Begin #3604]
[Broadcast of Person to Person program follows, with interview participants occasionally commenting—approximately sixteen minutes] [TV Tape stopped at point the Trumans move from back porch to dining room.]
SHAVER: Before we go much further, I noticed there . . . at least had to be two cameras
24
on the back porch at least there at the beginning.Were there?
PIKE: Yes, they would cut from him to her a few times there.
SHAVER: And they were wide shots.
PIKE: Well, yeah, there was one wide and then they would have the tight of each one. So there was two cameras back there.
SHAVER: Was the direction, the camera direction coming locally or was it coming from New York?
PIKE: Oh, it was locally, it was all our, our directors.
SHAVER: Did you have headphones or were they just doing hand signals?
PIKE: Yeah, oh, yeah, no, it was all headphones, all intercom.
DUNAR: Was it your camera that swung around to get the kitchen shot? Do you remember that?
PIKE: I don’t know. I remember, I remember having the shot of him when he was rocking so much. And the other shots, I don’t remember if I had the wide one then and the tight of him or which.
DUNAR: Did you, did you suggest that to him that he not rock so much during rehearsal and he did it anyway or?
PIKE: Well, they didn’t do it at rehearsal.
DUNAR: Oh, they didn’t do it at rehearsal.
PIKE: No.
DUNAR: Just during the show.
25
PIKE: So you know, it was pretty tight, just head and chin almost and huh, he start going . . .
SHAVER: Was there a speaker on the back porch broadcasting her voice?
PIKE: I don’t know how, how they heard her. It must have been, it must have been a speaker there somewhere. She and Miss Truman had wireless mikes on, cordless mikes. Which was kind of new at least . . . I remember they had to uh, in rehearsal they had to change her batteries. I think she kept a case somewhere around her waist, under her dress. And they kept the batteries in that and a little amplifier for her and the mike. You don’t see any mike cords.
SHAVER: Yeah, you see, as she gets up, you see, she’s got some big pouch.
DUNAR: Yeah. It must be it.
PIKE: I am wondering. I know some of those flood lights got water on them and they were hot. I don’t know if we can see any of them break or not. Probably just notice the difference in the light.
DUNAR: Could you . . .
SHAVER: Gaps in the lighting you could see as they walked down so that’s probably where they blew.
DUNAR: Could you tell . . . when you were behind the camera, could you hear what Margaret was saying too or did they just have . . . ?
PIKE: Uh, we had our headphones on, but you could hear over the speaker.
26
DUNAR: Yeah, yeah, O.K.
SHAVER: Now, let’s go on. Now did they have to move one of the cameras out of the back porch into the . . . did they move any cameras from room to room?
PIKE: Yeah, I think there was one set up in their front room, in that area. And then one of the kitchens, one of the back porch cameras went on into the kitchen and through that way.
SHAVER: As we go through there will be one, one set up in the dining room and there’ll be one set up shooting into the living room. And I know they followed them into the living room with that particular camera. I didn’t really block this thing out before I looked at it. And there is one in the study. And I am trying to figure out how the one got into the study.
PIKE: Yeah, I don’t know. One was in the kitchen, not mine, the other one I think went through the kitchen, to go into that area.
SHAVER: As we go on, we’ll see what you can say about it, if you know anything, or would speculate but, if you know who was filming this things last too.
[Continuation of Person to Person program—approximately three minutes]
PIKE: Was that a half hour, or a full hour, I don’t remember? Full hour.
DUNAR: Half hour.
SHAVER: Dispense with commercials. [laughter] You said there was three cameramen there, though, was that right?
PIKE: I am sure that was all.
27
[Remainder of Person to Person—approximately fifteen minutes]
DUNAR: Do you have any critiques on how that was filmed? An old camera veteran?
PIKE [laughter] I was surprised Margaret came over real good, I thought, you know. Kind of effervescent and all. I really didn’t think she was that nice looking, really you know. Gosh I wish I could have been of more help to you, on camera positions and things.
DUNAR: Thirty five years, you said [unintelligible]
PIKE: I heard that he couldn’t play Missouri Waltz, you know, probably true, I don’t know.
SHAVER: Well, he told Edward R. Murrow that at least as far as the music is concerned, he didn’t give a damn about it. He even said that. He said if you ask my understanding I don’t give a damn about it, it’s not much in the way of music at all.
PIKE: My wife and I have been to Hawaii quite a few times and we have friends over there. And one night at a party, why, they were singing Hawaiian songs, you know, and there were about six of us from Missouri there, and they said ok, sing your Missouri song. And we know the first few words; we couldn’t, we couldn’t remember the words to that thing you know. “Way down the Missouri, where I hear the melody, when I was a picannaney on my mammy’s knee.” That’s about all we could remember. Embarrassing you know, here we were from Missouri, and couldn’t sing our state song.
28
SHAVER: They say it was written by a man from Iowa and was originally called the “Hush a bye my baby”.
PIKE: Yeah, well, that’s in there, I think, yeah. Yeah, that’s something. Well, I hope I have done you some good. I feel that I haven’t, but that’s all I can do.
DUNAR: Oh, no. This will give us some insight.We appreciate that.
PIKE: Well, I will try and call up a couple of buddies, that if they are still around, were on that job with me. And see if they remember anything about the camera position.
END OF INTERVIEW