NORTH CAROLINA PEOPLE WITH WILLIAM FRIDAY {KAY KYSER} (TV)
Summary
One in this series in which host William Friday, the president of the University of North Carolina, interviews successful people who reside in or hail from North Carolina. In this program, William Friday talks with Kay Kyser, a band leader of the 1930s and 1940s, whose popular network radio program "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowlege," made him a national celebrity. In an interview, taped on the patio of Kyser's Chapel Hill home, Kyser and Friday discuss the following topics, among others: Kyser's early performances as a student in University of North Carolina college reviews of the 1920s; how Kyser came to form a band in college; his success as a cheerleader after losing the senior class presidency and his formation of the "Cheerios," an organized cheering section; his post-college period of struggle from 1926-1934, when he and his band traveled the country playing gigs; the genesis of "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge" at a Chicago restaurant in 1938 -- an amateur night in which performers are quizzed about the songs they perform; the success of Kyser's radio show; his years entertaining the troops in the Pacific during World War II -- a period he calls the most gratifying experience of his life; his marriage to singer/actress Georgia Carroll; the history of the house the couple share; his role in the development of North Carolina Public Television; his decision to retire from show business, move back to Chapel Hill, and devote his life to the Christian Science Church, for which he has lectured and served as head of media. (Note: Friday interviews Georgia Carroll Kyser in another edition of "North Carolina People." See T:39395.)
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the William R. Kenan, Jr., Charitable Trust in honor of William C. Friday.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS North Carolina Public Television
- DATE: March 30, 1981 7:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:28:55
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:40202
- GENRE: Talk/Interviews
- SUBJECT HEADING: Band musicians; Big bands; Christian Scientists; North Carolina; Radio and music; Television broadcasting
- SERIES RUN: UNC-TV - TV series, 1970-2012
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- William C. Friday … Host, Interviewer
- Kay Kyser … Guest
- Carroll, Georgia (See also: Kyser, Georgia Carroll)