(upbeat music) - Coming up next on this special newsmakers edition of Arizona Horizon, we'll speak with broadcasting pioneer Connie Chung about her career and her new memoir.

Also tonight, baseball Hall of Famer Randy Johnson shares his love of photography and we'll meet a longtime Disney animator who's using his art to bring his children's book to film.

Those stories and more next, on the special edition of Arizona Horizon.

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- Good evening and welcome to the special Newsmakers edition of Arizona Horizon.

I'm Ted Simons.

Tonight, we'll feature some high profile folks we visited throughout the year.

All of them had a big impact on arts and culture in our state and around the country.

We begin with Connie Chung, a pioneering TV news anchor and journalist.

She was the first woman to co-anchor the CBS evening news and only the second woman to anchor any network television broadcast.

She came to Arizona earlier this year to talk about her new book titled Connie a Memoir.

Congratulations on the book.

It's must be, it's always exciting, I would think for an author when you get the book, you put it in your hand.

It's like, that's a done deal.

- Yes it was indeed because it was torturous leading up to it.

I, forgive me, for not knowing, but have you written a book?

- I have not written a book.

I've tried to do some of that kind of stuff, but I just don't have it.

- Yeah, no, but I didn't have it either, and it, that's why it was so awful to write it because I didn't think, I mean, I've never thought that I could write, but the worst thing about it was that I provided my first draft to the editor, the publisher's editor, and she said, you're just giving me facts and it's a memoir.

You need to tell me what your feelings were.

And I, facts is what I've done all my life.

- Yes.

Yeah and I wanted to ask you for, you kind of answered the first question I wanted to ask, which is, what's it like to write a memoir?

But my second question is, what's it like doing research on yourself?

- Yeah, it's awful, but you know, I, it's not that I'm a rat pack, but I kept a lot of things, believe it or not, I am so obsessive compulsive that I kept every date book that I had, you know, scribbled in what I was gonna do that day since 1971.

- Wow.

- Isn't that insane.

- Yes.

- I had digitized tapes of stories that I had done.

I saved tape, had written from at, during my CBS, and I had photographs, a zillion photographs.

So, you know, because I can remember nothing.

I'm 78 and I left my memory on I-95.

I, this really helped to have old scripts of Watergate, of covering McGovern.

So bringing those scripts back, I could just read my television and radio scripts.

- When you saw your scripts, when you saw yourself, you heard yourself, was there any reappraisal going on?

Did you at times go, who's that person?

- Absolutely.

I mean, I am, I'm self-critical.

I love self-flagellation, and I looked at that and thought, oh my God, you know, why didn't you ask this follow up or that follow up?

And what were you thinking?

How, but at the same time, if I may, I was incredibly aggressive and I thought to myself, where did I get that from?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, or times did you not even recognize that person?

- Yes because now I'm a wimp.

(both laughing) - Well, you certainly weren't.

I mean, you were a trailblazer.

I mean, first woman to co-anchor CBS evening news, first Asian to anchor any news program in the US.

When I say that, what do you think about?

What are your thoughts?

- I'm a little bit fluxed frankly, because my husband has always said to me, you're the Jackie Robinson of news.

And I, ah, not me.

Nah.

But then if I may, when these, when it was discovered that there was this sisterhood of Connies in which baby girls who were Asian were actually named after me.

- Oh my goodness.

- I mean, it was, I couldn't believe it.

It actually, I see it as a living legacy and I really, I can't get my arms around it.

I'm still a little beside myself.

- Well, yeah, it's, congratulations on that too.

That's a legacy you probably never planned on.

But as far as your career, I mean, some of your shows succeeded very well.

Some of your shows not so well, they got canceled.

- Oh, yeah.

- Dealing with that kind of ups and downs and ins and outs and, you know, hooray and Let's go fight, get a beer.

How did you deal with all that?

- I, you know, what I have a supportive husband, and when I would come home and I would say, he would say, do I need to remove all the sharp objects from the kitchen?

And I'd say, yeah, I think so.

And he had this mantra in which he would say, don't take whoever said X, Y, or Z to you seriously.

Don't take the critic seriously.

Take your work seriously, and don't take yourself seriously.

And I thought all of that was quite good advice.

- Yes.

That Maury Povich is a pretty sharp guy.

- Well, you know, I know you're thinking to yourself, all he knows is how to determine the paternity of every child in America.

And his vocabulary, excuse me, his vocabulary is limited to you are the father and you are not.

- Yes, yes.

- But no, he's a voracious reader.

He's a good history buff and a political buff.

And when I was trying to figure out how do I navigate telling my story, I said, what was your favorite memoir?

And he said, Catherine Graham's personal history.

- Interesting.

- Which was actually a Pulitzer Prize winner.

But she told about the tumultuous and how she navigated a world of primarily male publishers.

And she was never woe is me.

She was always, she was just plugging away.

And I found that by the end, I was rooting for her.

And I decided that's the kind of tone that I wanna create for my book.

- Well, I could talk to you all afternoon here.

We're recording this before the show, but the last question is a young Connie Chung from Silver String Maryland.

I was, I'm a DC area kid myself.

Silver Spring, Maryland.

- Didn't know that?

Yes.

Yes.

Northern Virginia.

So we don't count Maryland, but it was Northern Virginia.

- No, no, but I was born in Washington.

- Yeah.

So was I, so was I.

And then we moved out.

- What hospital were you born in?

- Georgetown Hospital.

- Me too.

- You're kidding me.

- No.

Was it the old Georgetown Hospital?

- Well, Connie, look at me.

It's the old Georgetown Hospital.

Okay.

- Yeah.

But I color my hair.

I'm 78.

You don't have to tell me how old you are.

- No, but well, okay.

Yeah.

Yes, do you have to get going?

- No, no.

Maury is Maury will you say hello?

No, he says no.

- He says no.

Alright.

- Tell him- - Honey he was born at the old Georgetown Hospital just like I was.

Where were you born, honey?

- You know that I gotta tell you, Connie, that guy looks an awful lot like Maury Povich here.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure you realize that.

- Can you come over and say hello?

- Hi.

- Hi.

It's good to see you.

And congratulations on shooting your age.

I understand You're a golfer and you shot your age.

- If I shoot my age, I'm depressed.

- Wow.

Now that's a golfer.

- You know that bad.

- Well, Congratulations to you both.

I mean, look at you guy.

You're happy.

You're, you're successful.

You got this new book out.

- We're we're too old not to be happy.

- There you go.

And Connie, especially to you, congratulations on the book and thanks for taking time for us.

We really appreciate it.

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- Randy Johnson is best known as a baseball hall of famer who won a World Series Championship with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

But he is also a longtime photographer.

And some of his photos were recently on display at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.

We sat down with Randy Johnson to talk more about his photography.

Good to have you here.

- Thanks for having me.

- You betcha.

Thanks for show.

What got you started with photography?

- I can't really pinpoint the moment or the event, but you know, when I was younger, had one of those small little cameras with the little cube flash on it, and after you were done using the camera, you had to bring it down to Thrifties and you got it developed and, and then it just kind of evolved from there.

More family events.

And then high school, obviously there were some classes that were being given there, so I learned a little bit more there.

And then college.

- When did you realize though, that you were more than just a guy taking pictures?

You were pretty good at this.

- Well, I think it was probably in college.

You know, after I, I had learned a little bit more about film cameras and developing film, and I actually got an opportunity to photograph for the college newspaper, the Daily Trojan there.

And so I had timelines and things like that and assignments and enjoyed that.

And then obviously after I left USC in 85, then I pursued my baseball career.

- Indeed.

Is there a challenge with photography that attracts you?

- Well, I'm assuming there is, and I'm assuming I've run into 'em, you know, opportunities that maybe you've missed.

'Cause you were talking to someone or you blinked your eye or something.

But for the most part, the parallels that I see to pitching that I had and photography is being, having tunnel focus and being prepared and knowing what to expect and being prepared to capture that moment.

And the biggest thing is just like my pitching back in the day, I knew my opponents, I knew their strengths and weaknesses based on video that I watched and stats that I looked at.

And it's no different than when I go to Africa.

I know where I'm going, I know what to expect, and I'm hoping that things present themselves.

But you're dealing with animals as well.

- Right and I'm going, we're gonna take a look at some of these photos here in a second, but what makes a good photograph?

- I think opportunity that presents itself.

I think the one thing that I'll, that I can say emphatically that's true, is that I couldn't fool anybody at the ballpark telling them that I pitched a good game when I didn't.

But photography is all subjective.

Whether you like it or not is really up to you.

But everybody knew in my day job When I pitched well and when I didn't.

So the things that I take pictures of that I like, I just share 'em with somebody else and hopefully they like 'em.

If they don't, it's okay.

It's subjective.

But so far with this exhibit that I've been having, this is the second one here in Arizona now, the first one here.

But the, the first one that I had was in Cooperstown, New York home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

A lot of people, a lot of feedback.

They had never been to Africa.

And based on looking at the pictures, they wanted to maybe go to Africa and have the same experience.

So that was, that's what it's about.

- Right, right.

Let's look at some of these pictures.

The first one is from Ethiopia.

And I want you to tell us about this photograph, because this is, it's again, the composition black and white photograph.

It seems like you like black and white photography.

- I think for portrait photography, I think it's timeless.

And this was a tribe in Ethiopia called the Karo Tribe.

And this was taken several years ago.

I recently just was in Ethiopia again back in last August, and had the opportunity to see a different tribe.

And the opportunities that presented themselves were much greater than the first time I had been there.

Reason being is because I had a Ethiopian guide and he was also a photographer, and so he knows what to take pictures of.

And when he asked me what I wanted to take pictures of, I said, well, what you're taking pictures of.

And so he can communicate without a problem.

I didn't feel rushed.

I felt like I was rushed a little bit the first time I was there.

And my recent trip there, I just felt like I was, I could do whatever I wanted to do.

And the opportunities presented themselves one after another.

- Kinda like you had a scouting report the second time.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Yeah next is of a lion in black and white, except for one exception.

Look at those eyes.

What's that all about?

- Yeah, I just think I had seen, not necessarily with an animal, but I saw someone had turned something into black and white and then they color, it might have been a person or something like that.

I just thought, I love black and white.

I just think it makes the picture timeless and and obviously when you take something, you can kind of determine whether it looks good color or black and white.

But I just thought when, you know, this is gonna be at an exhibit and looking at the picture, you know, I'm just waiting for the head to turn and the eyes lock on me, you know, and I think that's really sometimes what I'm trying to capture is bring home something that someone else can see and enjoy as much as I do.

- Well there's another photograph.

This one is of an elephant and I love the composition.

Well actually no, this is the second.

This is, this is the funnier one.

This is the one with the bird on top of that elephant.

- Yeah, sure.

- What did you have to wait for that bird?

Or was that bird up there the whole time?

- The bird was for the going for the ride the whole whole time along.

But this was in Kenya and in Ambeselli National Park.

And the story there is some of the biggest elephants, some of the biggest, they call 'em super tuskers and they're almost prehistoric looking.

Some of the elephants tusk actually are so long they reached the ground.

This wasn't in particular, but that's the thing, when you're a photographer, you're trying to seek out those elephants.

Because they're so, they're hiding all the time.

But this opportunity presented itself.

It was a kind of a gray, rainy day and I was able to get outta my car because I wasn't in the national park.

And I was at my own discretion, obviously.

I was probably maybe around 15, 20 feet.

And I just thought it was kind of a cool picture.

It's almost like a portrait, if you will.

- It is.

- Where it's a profile picture.

And I turned it in black and white because I thought that it enhanced the clouds and all that.

And then the biggest thing that I really wanted to make sure was evident was the bird on top of its head.

- Well, you got the bird.

Last one I think we have this one of this.

Is that the same elephant?

- No, it was different.

- Yeah.

I love the composition.

- And you could tell by looking at the last picture, you could tell by looking at the tusk.

- Yes.

Yeah, you're right.

You're right.

- But this picture, you know, he was literally like 10 feet away from me.

And I knew based on my experiences with elephants and my guide, that he was letting me know that don't get any closer.

And that's why his ears were out.

And sometimes they'll start flapping their ears and that's just to let you know back up and go away.

And so it was, we were probably getting to that point and I wasn't gonna let him get to that point because I probably wouldn't be able to outrun him.

- No kidding.

We've only got like a minute and a half or so here left.

Do you ever think, maybe you do, do you shoot sports photography or is this more what you're interested in?

- Yeah, I think this is much more relaxing.

And I can, it's just a different genre of what I can share with people.

There's enough sports photographers, I'm sure there's a lot enough National Geographic photographers.

I'm not one, but I just, that's what kind of draws me into that.

You know, I started off shooting rock concerts back in college.

I still do that.

And I enjoy traveling and taking scenic pictures landscape pictures but Africa for whatever reason, it's not just about animals.

You know, going to Ethiopia, going up in the mountains, in Rwanda, in the silverback gorillas.

- Wow well, congratulations.

I mean, congratulations on the exhibit and all the photography and it's great to have you here.

And it's good to see the enthusiasm for the arts.

- Absolutely.

- That's fantastic.

- Good to have you here.

- Thank you.

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- Willie Ito is a longtime animator.

He's worked on Disney films and a number of well-known TV cartoon shows.

Ito is now working on his own animated film based on the story of his family's experiences as Japanese American internees during World War II.

We recently spoke to Ito when he visited the Valley to speak to an ASU film class.

Good to have you here, sir.

How are you?

- Thank you.

I'm very happy to be here.

- You're looking pretty good.

- Well, hanging in there.

- Yeah, you're hanging in there 70 years as an animator in Hollywood.

- Well, actually I retired after 50 years with Disney, Hannah Barbara, Warner Brothers, a number of studios.

However, I'm still at the drawing board.

- Yes, you are.

And I want to talk about that in a second here.

But I wanna know what got you started in animation and in art?

Were you one of those kids that was always, you were always really good at drawing things?

- Yes, yes.

I was one of those.

I guess I was about five years old when I first saw Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the big screen.

And when the Seven Dwarfs marched across the screen singing, hi ho hi ho, it's off to work, we go.

I said, that's it.

That's what I wanna be, not one of the seven Dwarves, but a cartoonist.

- Because you knew you're five years old, but you could, could you look up there and say, well, I can draw one of those little guys.

- I did.

- Yeah.

And then you went ahead and there's so much in your career, but I wanna talk about, you know, Disney and this kind of stuff.

But at eight, I believe it was eight years of age, internment camp.

- Yes.

- Talk to us about that.

- Correct.

Well, on that so-called infamous day, I, my family was all in a tizzy.

They were all gathered together.

I happened to be down in Santa Cruz on a Sunday picnic, and when we got home we were stopped at the San Francisco city limits with armed centuries checking all of our IDs.

And then when we finally got home, my mother was in a tizzy and the whole family was together because that was the days before cell phones.

So there was no way that she was able to notify my uncle as to, you know, what's going on and whatever.

And that was when it began.

And so eventually we were incarcerated and I went to a camp in the middle of the Utah desert called Topaz.

And that's when I started to really hone my art of animation because you know, being stuck in the middle of the desert and you could just play so long in the alkaline dust.

That when you came in covered completely white with dust.

And so I would spend a lot of time just drawing.

And one of the things I did was, while we were incarcerated, the winters were very harsh and we had potbelly stoves for our heat.

And so twice a week the big truck would come and dump coal and we would all be in on a line trying to gather up the best pieces of coal.

And of course we had no stores in camp.

So catalogs, Sears and Montgomery board catalogs were very important to us.

And so every three months they would issue us new catalogs.

However, my father would keep the expired ones as good fire starters for our potbelly stove.

I would take one of the catalogs and on the margin of each page I would do bouncing ball or figures, walking, jumping, whatever and made my own little flip book.

- Yeah.

The it's, yeah, exactly.

The flip book when you, that's it's- Now are these kinds of stories, this kind of memory, is this what's involved with Hello Maggie, that's your children's book and that's what you're turning into animation here.

Are these the kinds of stories you're telling?

- Yeah, basically my writing partner, Shin Yabu we both grew up in postwar San Francisco, he went to a different camp called Heart Mountain in Wyoming.

And he was a big pet lover.

So while he was incarcerated, he rescued a baby chick magpie by that fell out of the tree, out of the nest and he rescued it, brought it home, nursed it.

And it grew up to be a big grown magpie.

And because of the fact that she used to every morning say, hello Maggie, hello Maggie.

And eventually the Maggie would talk back and say, hello Maggie.

Hello Maggie.

- And there you go.

There's Hello Maggie.

There's a title of your book.

And the title of your film.

And this, I mean, this is after again, you were involved with a spaghetti kissing scene and Lady and the Tramp, Loony Tunes, the Jetsons, Scooby Doo, you're all over these things.

It is been a great career.

You're speaking to animators now, and before you go, I do wanna ask you what do you tell someone who wants to get into animation when everything is now so computer generated?

- I know if you, first of all, if you love to draw and you parents want you to be a lawyer or a doctor or a dentist, then pursue the art of animation because to me it was such a fulfilling, you know, work that I was involved in.

And so I would always give advice to young people that wanna draw and wanna make a career of it.

It's a good career.

Go for it.

- And last question, as far as Hello Maggie is concerned, the book, the film, what do you want people to take from it?

- Well, first of all, we wanted to tell the story of our incarceration in a child friendly manner.

So even though the background and the environment is an internment camp, you know, it was fun.

We had pets, we lived a good life within camp, doing the best we can under the circumstance.

And when we returned to our homes three years later, most of my friends that were fellow inmates, they're all doing great.

- Well, you certainly are doing, and it is an absolute pleasure having you on the program.

- Thank you.

I appreciate that.

- You bet.

And that is it for now.

I'm Ted Simons.

Thank you so much for joining us on this special edition of Arizona Horizon.

You have a great evening.

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