Customer Reviews

Between You and Me: A Memoir

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Wallace's new book is a good quick read for those interested in really any aspect of 20th century history. Out of the many journalists in the latter half of the century, Wallace has certainly made a name for himself as one of the preeminent interviewers on network television. Yes, his interviewing techniques are harsh, but he really gets to the meat of the story. Wallace's version of history is, however, just one take on events, and this book clearly demonstrates his bias. Take for example the story of Jeffrey Wigand, the Brown & Williamson Tobacco executive who became famous for an interview with 60 Minutes where he alleged that big tobacco CEO's perjured themselves in saying that `nicotine was not addictive.' After CBS tried to pull the interview after the threat of a lawsuit, Wallace, in this book, says that he became outraged by CBS's decision to pull the interview. Wallace writes that he was no longer able to view his producer Don Hewitt "with the respect, much less the affection, that I once had felt so profoundly." Later on in this chapter about Wigand, Wallace criticizes the movie "The Insider" as portraying the CBS journalists as "venal or craven wretches who had no business calling ourselves journalists." The ironic part about this criticism is that the summary of events in Wallace's book about Wigand mirrors the exact events detailed in the movie. It would be interesting if Wallace and Gates would write a whole book about the fallout during the Wigand interview. I admit that I am biased, being a devotee of the movie and I am disappointed that the Wigand controversy is covered in less then 16 pages. Some of the other parts of the book including interviews with pop stars could have been skipped over, but was thrown in merely for marketing purposes. The DVD is really one of the highlights of the whole package. A word of warning however: PLEASE READ THE BOOK BEFORE THE DVD! I believe that this experience is so much better because the DVD really brings alive the stories in the book. I watched the DVD before reading the book unfortunately. One of the pleasures of reading a book is to find new suprises at every turn of the page. After watching the DVD before reading the book, I knew what was coming next, and thus some, not all, of the book was less then suspenseful for me. Overall, a good supplement to Wallace's 1984 biography, `Close Encounters.' Do not expect many new revelations, but do expect a quick read about some of the greatest personalities and events of the 20th century.

How often does a book come along which should delight both readers and non-readers? This one does, because those who aren't fond of reading can simply watch the DVD of Wallace's finest interviews (included with this book).

After that, I'm betting they'll want to read the book, if only to get the kind of details that the DVD only hints at. Wallace not only opens up about his personal life but shares plenty of anecdotes about celebrities and life on the 60 Mintues set.

He also is quite honest about his struggle with a particularly intense depression, one that nearly sidelined him. This section alone should serve as inspiraton to readers who think that successful people are somehow impervious to pain and difficulty. I was impressed by his willingness to speak honestly about this challenging part of his life.

As someone who can (by his own admission) be blunt and perhaps too outspoken at times, Wallace also reveals some of the tiffs and rough moments he has had with some of his subjects- and when and how he made up with most of them...but not all. He had his share of enemies as well as at least one major lawsuit (a lawsuit that may have been a factor in his depression).

Wallace has interviewed an amazing number of famous people, from Richard Nixon to Nancy Reagan, from crooks to celebrities, famous athletes as well as statesmen.

Mike Wallace, known to generations of TV viewers as a mainstay of the television newsmagazine "60 Minutes," has enjoyed a long and legendary career. Since his salad days as a news correspondent in the medium's early days, and through the various incarnations of his several shows, the often-acerbic Wallace developed a reputation as a hard-hitting inquisitor. He has interviewed presidents and potentates, musicians and murderers, rock stars and racists.

Wallace and co-author Gary Paul Gates, with whom he collaborated on his 1984 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, are reunited for BETWEEN YOU AND ME, a collection of some of these memorable interviews.

The personalities chosen for inclusion in BETWEEN YOU AND ME weigh in at varying levels of interest. In his chapter on "Race in America," Wallace recalls his meetings with Malcolm X and his successor, Louis Farrakhan, who was accused of complicity in the assassination of the leader of the Black Muslims. Farrakhan also shares an emotional scene in the book as he seeks to reconcile with Malcolm X's daughter, Betty Shabazz.

Wallace is at his best when he's up against establishment figures, such as confronting General William C. Westmoreland on his misrepresenting the number of enemy troops during the Vietnam War.

One of Wallace's best attributes is his sense of outrage, even when it comes to complaining about his employers. He almost retired in the face of CBS's refusal to air a segment on the tobacco industry and had numerous, though less volcanic, other disagreements over the years.

His coverage of Middle East topics fills a major portion of the book. Wallace interviewed several top names in the conflict, including Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat and Yasser Arafat, as well as the Shah of Iran and the Ayatollah Khomeini, giving readers a glimpse of the geopolitically plagued times.

Wallace's feature on Syrian Jews was one of his most controversial, suggesting that the group might not have been as repressed by the government as the world had been led to believe. His unbiased reportage earned him the enmity of Jewish organizations around the world.

On the other hand, Wallace also could be viewed as a bully, depending on the viewer's/reader's point of view. He brought Barbra Streisand to tears by dredging up unhappy memories from her childhood, and was known as one of the major proponents of "attack journalism," suddenly confronting his subject on the street or at their office.

Although the majority of his memoir considers his professional life, he gives a few personal glimpses, none as intense as his revelation of his clinical depression during the libel trial that resulted from the Westmoreland story. The situation was so bad, Wallace writes, that he contemplated suicide.

Whittling down the hundreds of people Wallace has grilled, chilled and thrilled on the air to the handful who appear in BETWEEN YOU AND ME is a daunting task. It would have been interesting to have him explain how he arrived at his choices.

Many of the interviews are featured on an accompanying DVD. This is a bad news/good news situation. The bad news is that the video segments follow the text almost too closely; the publisher easily could have fit more on the disc rather than excerpts. The good news is that these brief examples enhance the text, showing the subject's body language and vocal expressions.

I heard Imus interviewing Wallace on his show. I bought the book because of the obvious emotional attachment Wallace had with the book/DVD. I have to tell you, it is one of the most compelling views of modern history available. I highly recommend it.

An entertaining look back at some of the characters interviewed on television since the 1950s by veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace. Like most TV people who try to write memoirs, Wallace struggles a bit to translate his experiences into the print medium. Consequently, one is left wishing for more substance. Many of the interview transcripts fall curiously flat. But when one watches the same material on the accompanying DVD, voila! It comes alive. It's astonishing to see many of the historical figures Wallace encountered, especially during the 1950s when some were nearing the end: Frank Lloyd Wright and Thomas Hart Benton, in particular. Vladimir Horowitz is also a revelation. The book is well worth perusing.

Who else can boast such a remarkable career - 60 years of interviewing the most fascinating, influential and interesting people on the planet! Although the behind-the-scenes "revelations" aren't particularly revealing, the book offers an entertaining and interesting look back at the cultural, political and historical changes the world has experienced during the decades of Wallace's reign as the king of interviewers.

The contents are arranged in chapters grouped by the type of person Wallace interviewed: Presidents, First Couples, Race in America, The Middle East, Con Men, and other celebrities. Just about every president, and many other icons and celebrities of public life have sat across from Mike Wallace - some came across looking commendable, some a little worse for the encounter.

The book is supplemented by a CD with brief clips from some of the more fascinating interviews, including Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King. Watching Wallace age throughout his career interviewing the powerful and influential is another reminder of the impact he has had and the stories he has brought to us for so many decades. He, and some of his colleagues on 60 Minutes, in many ways has defined the progress of broadcast journalism for decades. The book is as much a history lesson as a tribute to Wallace's career - well worth reading.

This being Mike Wallace's second memoir (Close Encounters, 1984), it highlights the interviews he's conducted over the years. From politicians to presidents, musicians and movie stars, he's met so many interesting people. Always an open mind, Mr. Wallace is a natural when it comes to getting people to open up and spill the beans. He's been doing it since 1956! Interspersed with his recollections of past interviews are bits and pieces of his personal life - just enough to give you the gist of things. Included with this book is an 82-minute DVD of Mr. Wallace's most famous interviews.

If your faith in the media has reached poisonous levels, then this book may well be the antidote you need. Mike Wallace built a fifty year plus career in radio and television in using interview techniques to get to the truth behind personalities and events. His journalistic techniques were based on classic journalism---objective and unbiased reporting.

In this book, Wallace takes you behind the scenes to events and impressions that could not be reported due to limitations of time, politics, or production management restrictions. The book has an eclectic mix of chapters grouped according to subjects as then current hot news, geographical conflicts, personalities, and unique and unsavory characters.

In addition to learning how diligent Wallace was in pursuing the truth, one will come away with a heightened respect for the author's personal trials and tribulations, his humility, and his courage.

Mike Wallace has served a prominent and leading role as a front man for watch dog media trying to expose wrong doing of public figures, business types, or con-artists. He has become famous for his tough, moralistic prosecutoral interviewing style. He relishes making people uncomfortable for their moral transgressions. This memoir is rare and great example of the Supervisor Guardian temperament, a temperament style typically not open to introspection or writing about themselves. Wallace, naturally, is not very forthcoming about himself (compared to other temperaments), prefering to highlight a few famous subjects of his long and illustrous career, putting himself in the background as much as he can, despite it being a memoir. But luckily, being a Guardian, he is honest, straight-forward, and candid about his strengths and weaknesses that he notices. As he discusses his selected interviews, you get a glimpse at his natural personality: moral, honest, no nonsense or non-speculative reasoning, hard-work, responsibility, and dependability. He also admits (but doesn't go into detail) having bouts of clinical depression and by his admission has helped others. This very commendable, given that Guardians (melancholic temperament) are stoic (and almost always silent) in their suffering, hating to show weakness.

Regarding his interview subjects, it is illuminating that many people will risk the probing of Mike Wallace to get a wide forum for what they want to advertise or promote. Wallace's forte was interviewing scoundrels, given their hubris in thinking they can hoodwink anybody - usually found out they were wrong.

There is so much for one to learn in the lives of people who have influenced the world in their own special way whether they are famous or infamous. With one notable exception Mike Wallace has interviewed nearly all of them. With the additional assist of the DVD Wallace brings out the human side of these people by asking many of the questions we would like to ask if we had the chance. The book covers presidents, their wives, civil rights, leaders in the middle east, crooks, military people, and people in the fine arts and movie industry. Wallace has interviewed all but one of our country's presidents in the last 50 years with his probing questions. It's time for our present president to get away from the comfort of his screened audience and have a session with Mike Wallace.