THIS AMERICAN LIFE: DAWN (RADIO)
Summary
One in this weekly series that looks at a different,
specific aspect of life in the United States in each
episode. Episodes contain several segments, or "acts,"
each of which relates to the established theme. This
installment, "Dawn," opens with an explanation by host
Ira Glass of the theme of this episode, which he
concedes is nebulous. The two acts, he says, will
explore "the gap between how we see ourselves and how
others see us." In the first act, which itself is
divided into several segments, writer Jack Hitt tells
the story of a local legend famous in Hitt's hometown of
Charleston, South Carolina. When Hitt was a boy, he
explains, a semi-famous British writer named Gordon
Langley Hall moved into a gothic mansion in Hitt's
low-income neighborhood. The writer quickly became
the town's own "Boo Radley," capturing the imagination
of the locals with his eccentric behavior. After a
couple of years, Hall became even more of an oddity
after undergoing a full sex-change operation, changing
his name to Dawn Langley Simmons, marrying her
African-American butler, and suddenly parading a
newborn infant around the community. Eventually, Hall
moved away, but for years afterward Hitt would
reminisce with friends about the deluge of gossip that
Hall provided in the quaint Southern town. In the
second half of the "act," Hitt catches up with Hall some
thirty years after the time he has just recalled. In a
lengthy interview with the quirky Southern belle, Hitt
learns that he has been harboring many misconceptions
(based on gossip) about Hall. In the second "act," host
Ira Glass talks with sometime producer Margie Rockland
about an interview Rockland conducted with actress Tori
Spelling for TV Guide magazine. Glass and Rockland
discuss Spelling's apparently delusional attitude that
there was no nepotism involved in her being cast in the
hit program "Beverly Hills 90210," produced by her
father, Aaron Spelling.
(Network affiliation varies: local broadcast, November
1995-June 1996; on NPR, June 1996-June 1997; on PRI,
July 1997- .)
Details
- NETWORK: NPR National Public Radio
- DATE: October 18, 1996 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:59:10
- COLOR/B&W: N/A
- CATALOG ID: R:16104
- GENRE: Radio - Public affairs/Documentaries; Radio - Talk/Interviews
- SUBJECT HEADING: Actors and actresses; Gossip; Self-perception; Transsexuals
- SERIES RUN: WBEZ (Chicago, IL) - Radio series, 1995-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Ira Glass … Host
- Gordon Langley Hall
- Jack Hitt
- Margie Rockland
- Dawn Langley Simmons
- Aaron Spelling
- Tori Spelling