News on WVPBS - Russ Barbour, Anna Sale, new leader
Russ Barbour has been making films for WVPBS for decades. Last night I watched his latest short documentary on “Outlook” about an amazing film event that I never knew about until I saw it - Paul Newman spent some time in Huntington preparing for his role in “Cool Hand Luke.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t mention that one of the major reasons why the 1971 film version of “Fools Parade” based on a Davis Grubb novel was made was because two of the stars of “Cool Hand Luke”, Strother Martin and George Kennedy, were teamed up in “Parade.” Everyone knows that all US airline pilots copy the WV accent of Chuck Yeager thanks to Tom Wolfe’s book, “The Right Stuff,” but not until last night did I know that Paul Newman, in probably his best-known role, modeled his accent after a WV one for “Luke.”
Anna Sale, perhaps the best new reporter for WVPBS during the last few years, has worked with producer by Chip Hitchcock to create the best film report about WV troops in Iraq called “Bridgeport to Beghdad: West Virginia’s 459th at Home and at War” that will be aired on “Outlook” on Oct. 25th at 9:30 PM.
She created the great bio doc on Don Blankenship, “The Kingmaker” a couple of years ago. Congrats to Anna and the crew at WVPBS’ Outlook for making a great comeback after a near-death experience.
The Charleston Gazette announced that a replacement was hired for Rita Ray, the director of WVPBS that was ordered by the Legislature to consolidate the three production studios into one, causing many of WV’s finest filmmakers including Jacob Young of “Dancing Outlaw” fame to leave. The new director is Dennis Atkins who has spent a lifetime working in television - not PBS, but commercial stations.
