Charles Kuralt's American Moments (American Moment Series) [ABRIDGED] [AUDIOBOOK] (Audio Cassette)

by Charles Kuralt (Reader)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
A compilation of actual vignettes from Kuralt's American Moments television program, this audio version holds up well, despite having originally relied on a visual presentation. The narration by Boyd Gaines and the carefully selected and organized segments insure a pleasant, cohesive experience for the listener. From the threat to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse to tales of the Pony Express, from the demise of the outlaw Jesse James to the shop of a mender of stuffed toys and broken heartsAyoung and oldAthe late Kuralt (Charles Kuralt's America, Audio Reviews, LJ 2/1/96) traveled the country to discover bits of Americana to immortalize on his show. Listeners will be thankful to him and to the producers of this audiobook for preserving the whole happy experience for us all to enjoy. Highly recommended.AMark Pumphrey, Polk Cty. P.L., Columbus, NC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
An illustrated anthology of American moments from the late newsman and wanderer Kuralt (A Life on the Road, 1990; On the Road with Charles Kuralt, 1985). Famous for his On the Road broadcasts on CBS, Kuralt transformed himself from a run-of-the-mill network reporter into a kind of latter-day (and, admittedly, much straighter) Jack Kerouac by crisscrossing the country time and again in search of nothing more than something to think about. Although his broadcasts started out as pretty standard human-interest stuff (the man who built a road to nowhere, etc.), he became more and more attentive, as the years passed, to the (often-endangered) shapes and rhythms of ordinary life: the general store, the small-town diner, the open-air market in Seattle, and the old-fashioned tailor in Chicago. This is a collection of his last broadcasts, all of them short, impressionistic, and evocative, all of them together forming a cumulative picture of American life in the 20th century. Just as hokey and sentimental as Kuralts broadcasts, they will appeal to his many fans but wont win many converts among the unbelievers. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio; Abridged edition (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671582704
• ISBN-13: 978-0671582708
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,314,262 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful American word pictures painted by Kuralt, December 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Charles Kuralt's American Moments (Hardcover)

Kuralt is an American treasure. His essays, word pictures ofAmerica, take on a special quality when heard on tape. All of his essays are his legacy--to remind us of the amazing nature of American society and of the need for a new crop of American writers to find the hidden jewels of Americana.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars America As It Was., December 13, 2004

By	Betty Burks "Betty L. Burks" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Charles Kuralt's American Moments (Paperback)

This book is filled with short accounts of diverse "American Moments" grouped in ten areas. This is a sampling. Each reader would do a completely different review as there is so much to choose from to make an interesting account.

The Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, built in 1914, was a beautiful railroad palace through which half the soldiers of this country passed Dec. 7, the day word came of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The interior, from the insert photograph, looks a lot like the magnificent station in Washington, D.C. Back then, the idea was to create grand buildings for everyday citizens. At the street entrance, there on the sidewalk, stood a tall ornate black clock like the one which graced Knoxville's Gay Street for several decades. Ours was recently moved by the owners of a jewelry store to the new location west of town, a lavish edifice, and yet the clock has yet to be put up. They claimed it because it had stood in front of the downtown store. There is now a campaign to replace it there among the brew pubs, martini bars, and loft apartments where the downtowners hang out. Somehow, it will lack the 'dignity' of the original.

There are two photos of Becky Davis of Tennessee making cotton candy at a Fair. Invented in the 1920s (Karault says by a dentist), it is sticky spun sugar in pretty colors. It takes experience to flip it just right to keep from being covered by the gooey stuff. He wonders what folks ate at fairs and carnivals before cotton candy came along. In the 1980s, funnel cakes made an appearance at the World's Fair in Knoxville. I have yet to eat my first one (not even a taste), though I was tempted at the 2004 Fair -- missed the chance as time was short and I had to run to catch a bus.

The country's smallest p.o. is shown free-standing about the size of a well house in Ochopee, Florida. It may be tiny but has its own historical marker on a stand right outside on the road; a regular size postal drop box is beside the building wher it is encouraged the customers use for mailing their post cards and envelopes. Inside, of course, Naomi Lewis will be glad to sell stamps. From the photo, I see they had room by her counter for the "most wanted" criminals pictures, a staple of post offices everywhere. Our smallest here is at Knoxville Center mall in a corner beside the offices where you can get your driver's license and car tags. It even has room for packages which I usually mail there, as one of the two 'old' postal clerks told me, "here, you can be first in line." Now, that's a plus.

Before that, U. S. A. had The Pony Express which began in St. Joseph, Missouri, to deliver mail overland all the way to California, 2,000 miles in ten days. At the Pony Express Museum, on the wall is an early want ad: "Wanted -- Young, Skinny, Wiry Fellows. Not Over Eighteen. Must Be Expert Rider. Willing to Risk Death Daily. Orphans Preferred." This enterprise lasted only a year and a half until the completion of the telegraph. There is a bronze statue of a young rider on a horse (in flight) there at St. Joseph where Gary Chilcote, director of the Patee House Museum, explained: "they rode through Kansas and Nebraska, dipped into Colorado, and across Wyoming, Nevada, Utan and dropped down into California.

This historian tells the story of Jesse James' demise. Jesse was the first outlaw in the American West, right after the Civil War. He and his gang robbed trains and banks. There is a photo of the small house where Bob Ford, one of the gang members, shot Jesse behind the right ear as he attempted to straighten a picture on a wall on April 3, 1882. Kuralt wrote, "Die a law-abiding citizen and you will be remembered for a time. Die a desperado and you will be remembered for all time." The last of Jesse James, killed by one of his own gang, was an American Moment to Remember.

It looked bigger than life in the movie version. A hatmaker he interviewed shows a bow being put on a cowboy hat for which the movies made popular. "All self-respecting cowboy hats have bows on them" (similar to those little things you see on the front of most bras). They have to or you're not a cowboy. That's as close as you can get to the meaning of this symbol in a word. A cowboy hat demands respect.

My favorite cowboy, Lash LaRue, included me in his program at the East Tennessee Fair when Al Curtis brought him here (a big thing back then). Lash dressed in black and always wore a black hat. Our local cowboy, Marshal Andy Smalls, advises his t.v. fans to 'wear a white hat, so we will know the good guys.' I've always yearned for a blue one, but bought it for my little cowboy (Justin at age 4 or 5) whom the girls all liked at the library costume party.

This fact-filled book, published after Charles Kuralt's death (7-4-97), was edited by Peter Freudlich, his friend and writer-producer for CBS News, where Charles worked for 37 years. He won many honors for his "on the road" journalism, and I enjoyed his features on 'CBS Sunday Morning.' In the Foreward, written by Charles Osgood, he calls Charles Kuralt, native son of North Carolina, an 'explorer' as he covered the back roads of this country to find real Americans and their unique stories.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful American word pictures painted by Kuralt, December 19, 1998

By A Customer

Kuralt is an American treasure. His essays, word pictures of America, take on a special quality when heard on tape. All of his essays are his legacy--to remind us of the amazing nature of American society and of the need for a new crop of American writers to find the hidden jewels of Americana.