Transcripts

text | pdf |

---

KAREN BARTA: I'm Karen Barta. Coming up Saturday on Weekend Edition, we'll talk with the director of the Twin Cities marathon, and movie critic Rob Nelson will review a new Minnesota-made film. Weekend edition Saturday morning at 7:00 on Minnesota Public Radio, 91.1 FM in the Twin Cities.

GARY EICHTEN: You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio.

[BEEPING]

We have a sunny sky at 76 degrees at KNOW-FM 91.1. Minneapolis, Saint Paul. Should be sunny and warm through the afternoon. There's also a chance for a shower, a thunder shower, late this afternoon, high temperature in the low to mid 80s-- mid 80s. And there's a chance for more rain tonight.

KORVA COLEMAN: From National Public Radio news in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. Attorney General Janet Reno has decided to take the next step in the investigation of Vice President Al Gore's campaign fundraising activity. NPR's Chitra Ragavan reports.

CHITRA RAGAVAN: Reno has decided to expand her original 30-day inquiry into phone calls Vice President Al Gore made to Democratic contributors. She's responding to a request from republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, led by Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois, to appoint an independent counsel. The independent Counsel Act requires the attorney general to conduct a 60-day preliminary investigation when the department faces unresolved allegations that individuals covered by the act may have broken the law and if a request for an independent counsel is made by congress.

Later today, Reno will convey her decision in a letter to Congressman Hyde and to a three-judge federal appeals court panel. This panel would pick an independent counsel if Reno recommends one at the end of the 60 days. I'm Chitra Ragavan, NPR News, Washington.

KORVA COLEMAN: A published report says an air force safety board has determined what caused a stealth fighter crash at an air show last month outside Baltimore. The Baltimore Sun reports workers incorrectly installed a part in the plane's left wing. Meanwhile, the Sun also reports a review panel began work this week to find out whether the maintenance crew should be held liable. As a result of the findings, the paper says, the military is now checking the wing support structures in 53 other stealth fighters. Several planes have been cleared to fly.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees says it's trying to rescue more than 7,000 Tajik refugees stranded by fighting in northern Afghanistan. The UNHCR says the group is trapped by constantly-shifting front lines and is running short of food, medicine, and water. From Geneva, Owen Bennett Jones reports.

OWEN BENNET JONES: The Tajik refugees have had their camp in northern Afghanistan bombed and looted, and they're now completely isolated. They have managed to salvage a UNHCR radio and are using it to send out messages, saying that they want to go back home. UN officials have had to reply that there's no way they can reach the camp to provide transport.

They suggested that the Tajiks make a nighttime journey on foot across a desert for some 30 kilometers, at which point the UN could then pick them up. The UN secretary general has appealed to the Afghan warring parties to halt all military activities around the camp to allow the refugees to leave safely. But so far, there's no sign of a let up in the fighting, and the UNHCR says the situation is increasingly desperate. For NPR news, I'm Owen Bennett Jones in Geneva.

KORVA COLEMAN: The only survivor of the car crash that killed Princess Diana has gone home to England. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones left a Paris hospital today where he was treated for the last month. On Wall Street, the Dow is up 41 points at 8,069. This is NPR.

MAN 1: Support for National Public Radio comes from the Annie E Casey Foundation for reporting on disadvantaged youth and families and the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation.

KAREN BARTA: Good afternoon. I'm Karen Barta with news from Minnesota Public Radio. Minnesota Twins officials say there is a strong possibility North Carolina businessman Don Beaver will come to Minneapolis today to offer somewhere between 140 to $160 million for the team. If the deal is signed, Governor Carlson will go to Milwaukee on Monday to meet with baseball commissioner Bud Selig.

The Saint Paul Police Department promoted its first female officer to commander this morning. Lieutenant Nancy Diperna is now one of 10 department commanders, a rank below deputy chief and two steps below chief. Diperna joined the force in 1980 and was one of just 11 female officers at the time. She credits Saint Paul Police Chief William Finnie with helping her thrive in the department.

NANCY DIPERNA: I've been able to help lots of folks along the way in different assignments. I was a training director not terribly long ago, and we had the largest class of women that we've ever had-- I think 20 women. And it's kind of nice. You know, you think of them as your kids, and you flashback to 17 years ago when it was you taking that step and graduating and you want to do for them. You want to do well for them.

KAREN BARTA: Diperna, whose husband is also a police officer, says she's looking forward to helping share the future of the Saint Paul Police Department. The state forecast for the rest of the afternoon-- scattered showers spreading from west to east. Thunderstorms are possible in the east late today. Highs generally in the 70s in the north and 80s in the south with near record highs in the southeast.

For the Twin Cities, mostly sunny-- a 40% chance of showers and a high in the lower to middle 80s. Around the region, in Rochester, it's sunny in 79. It's cloudy and 52 in Duluth. In the Twin Cities, it's mostly sunny and 76. That's news from Minnesota Public Radio, I'm Karen Barta.

GARY EICHTEN: Six minutes past 12 o'clock, programming at Minnesota Public Radio is supported by the fourth international roundtable at Macalester College, a dialogue on environment and globalization continuing through October 4th. Information available. 6966332.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

And good afternoon. Welcome back to Midday on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary Eichten. Well, during this hour of Midday, we're going to meet two Minnesotans who have made their mark in the entertainment business-- two musical stars, actually. We'll be hearing from Broadway star Linda Eder later in the hour. First, a conversation with Minneapolis violinist and jazz man Clifford Brunzell.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Stockholm polka was a standard in Minneapolis dance halls just after the turn of the century. Clifford Brunzell grew up listening to the upbeat, lively music. His Swedish immigrant parents owned a successful dance hall where Brunzell spent many hours hanging out with talented musicians. He went on to become a talented musician himself, serving as a violinist with the Minneapolis Symphony.

But probably more people know him as the leader of the Golden Strings. The 11 member ensemble strolled among diners at the old Radisson Hotel in Minneapolis for 19 years, playing six days a week. Brunzell, who's now 75, talked with Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson about his Swedish roots and his musical heritage.

DAN OLSON: How did your parents come to live in Minneapolis?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Immigrants, both of them, mother and father, from Ola, [? Justina, ?] Halsingland, Sverige. How do you like that? Sverige means Sweden, of course. And immigrated, my mother first, to a small town in South Dakota-- La Bolt. Who knows of La Bolt? Well, we've got a lot of friends out in La Bolt out there, and we've played out there a couple of years ago.

At any rate, that's where she emigrated to, because there's friends from Sweden there. That's what the immigrants do. They go where there are friends.

DAN OLSON: Why did your mother and father come to America. What brought them here? Land of opportunity.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: I would say that and difficult times because they emigrated about 1910, something like that. So difficult times to make livings in Sweden, that sort of thing.

DAN OLSON: And what was your father and mother's living when they came over here? What did they do?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Well, she just stayed with friends for a few months and then became a domestic in Willmar, Minnesota. And mother and father then married in Willmar, Minnesota, and made their way to Minneapolis and started running the South Side Dance Hall on 12th Avenue and Third Street, I believe-- something like that.

DAN OLSON: Music was in their blood, in their bones.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Exactly, and Mother had had a few piano lessons in Sweden, Father a few piano lessons in Sweden. So anyway, he was well enough equipped to play professionally.

DAN OLSON: Performers. They ran the hall. This was a life? This was a living?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: It was a living, an excellent living, enough to buy a large house on Seabury Avenue, not far from the Franklin Avenue Bridge. And the Great Depression took it-- another old story we hear again. So, yes, ran it, and for 18 years with his partner, Hans Strum, another immigrant.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

DAN OLSON: Where does Oscar Danielson enter the picture? Are we ahead of ourselves here in talking about Oscar Danielson, or was he part of the operation?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Oscar Danielson was not a part of the south side auditorium, but certainly played there. But another immigrant. There were three brothers-- Oscar Danielson and Bert Danielson and Carl Danielson-- and they were all immigrants. And so they came here, and Oscar Danielson was the catalyst, the leader, and formed this band, including my father on piano and Ted Johnson on violin and guitar player Nels Delaney. So that's the six musicians that played out there. And whatever the budget was, they'd go out with four, three, four, six, sometimes the big band of eight, meaning two accordionists.

[MUSIC CONTINUES]

DAN OLSON: And what kind of music were they playing? Were these dance tunes, waltzes, polkas?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Exactly. You've answered it already. So in other words, sure you usually start out with a waltz, an old-time waltz, of course, and then possibly a schottische. Then possibly next a polka, but you don't always play two or three of these songs, of these dances, per set. And they didn't last long-- maybe each song was approximately three minutes long.

DAN OLSON: And this was better than television for its day. I gather people just flocked to your parents' hall.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: They did. This was not far from Snoose Boulevard, and Snoose Boulevard is Cedar Avenue, and not far from Seven Corners, the old, southern theater where it's still going. And I remember it vividly, seeing El Brendel in just ima--

DAN OLSON: El Brendel? Who's El Brendel?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Well, there's a Brendel, a very famous pianist, but this is El Brendel, the comic from Sweden. But at any rate, to answer your question, we're discussing popularity of dance bands. These were meeting places for the immigrants in that general area of Minneapolis, and they flocked to there, even on Sunday nights, to dance, to socialize, to get married, you know.

DAN OLSON: And you were growing up as a kid in a house filled with music with a built-in venue for expressing yourself through music. You had already picked up the violin by now?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: My brother didn't make much of the violin, so I did make much of the violin that was laying around the house. And so you just pick it up and make sounds and make melodies with the first finger on the E string. And so the parents say, hey, the kid is talented--

DAN OLSON: [LAUGHS]

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: --another Heifetz on our hands. So give him lessons. And that's how it all starts. And I took a hold and have been going ever since.

DAN OLSON: You took hold. And then at a point along the way, and I've forgotten what age it was, you decided to walk over and audition for a spot with what was then, I think, called the Minneapolis Symphony?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Well, there's a lot that goes on in between, of course, but you know, the World War--

DAN OLSON: Oh, the war came before the symphony?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Well, let's-- I think I auditioned and failed miserably when I was 17 years of age.

DAN OLSON: All right, 17 you auditioned? What happened at that audition?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Well, it's a rather ridiculous one. I played for Metropolis and played very well, I believe, was the-- I think it was Brook Concerto. I can't quite remember if it was the Brook Concerto. And then comes sight reading time. And I recall the music was put up by Mr. Metropolis was a lot of black notes, and I thought, well, black notes, that must be fast. So I played it fast.

I learned later that it was the funeral march. I think that's the second movement of the Eroica symphony. No, you play it slowly. Well, I was pretty naive-- more guts than talent at that time. But then I went into the service and auditioned later on and did get in.

DAN OLSON: We'll get back to the experience with the symphony, but by this time, war had taken hold. You went off. Was it the army or the air force?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: What's called the Army Air Corps.

DAN OLSON: Army Air Corps.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Army Air Corps.

DAN OLSON: And you went off, and did you have an intention of becoming a pilot? Was this a dream? Or did they just say--

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: No dream.

DAN OLSON: --Brunzell--

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: No dream.

DAN OLSON: --that way.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: The dream was to play the violin. And so when you matriculate-- that means get out to Fort Snelling-- and they give you all these dozens of pages to fill out, and I was facetiously-- I'm telling this facetiously, of course. What's your name? Clifford Violin Brunzell. Where do you live? 3528 Violin Avenue, south, in Violin, Minnesota.

And so I wanted to be in the special service, maybe in the Seventh Army Symphony. No, they sent me to the tank corps. Louisville, Kentucky. General Sherman Tanks with my delicate hands.

DAN OLSON: [LAUGHS] How did you find your way into becoming a bomber pilot?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Well, you go into Nashville, Tennessee, to take the test-- you know, mental and physical tests, coordination tests. I became a pilot and had a crew and were packed to go to what was staging area in Oakland, California. And the war ended, and I was out in about a month's time. So I missed action, so that was a blessing.

DAN OLSON: Here you were out of the war. The war was over. The country was rebuilding, reconstructing it still. You were a musician. You had to make a living. How would a guy, a young man, on the make with a violin make a living at that point in time? Did you head back to the symphony?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Failure was always in the back of my mind. No, but you keep on going anyway, and I auditioned in 1948 and then got in. But in between time, yes, I started going to more formal schooling and started collecting degrees at the MacPhail School of Music. And the only reason I didn't go to the University of Minnesota was that there were too many lines queuing up there.

I had been in many, many lines queuing up in the service. Please, no more lines. So at MacPhail, all you do is go see the registrar and sign up, and there you are in a class in a short time.

DAN OLSON: What did you-- you got into the symphony. You became a violinist there. And the symphony at that time was a big deal-- still is a very big deal. Here was-- this was the top of the heap. This was as good as it got.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Right, Minneapolis Symphony then, now called the Minnesota Orchestra. And that was a Antal Dorati at that time.

DAN OLSON: Touring, performing in front of audiences, this must have been the thrill of a lifetime for a young man.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: It really was. It's like I've always said, it's one of my five major educations, having been in a major symphony of the world. And believe me, the Minnesota Orchestra is a major symphony of the world. It's first rate.

DAN OLSON: It took you around the world.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Took me all throughout the United states, half of Canada, and through the Mideast. What a trip to the Mideast in 1957, I believe it was.

GARY EICHTEN: Minneapolis violinist and jazz player Clifford Brunzell talking with Dan Olson as part of our Voices of Minnesota interview series. Later in the hour, we'll hear from vocalist and Broadway star Linda Eder.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Clifford Brunzell left the symphony for a job with the Golden Strings ensemble in 1963. Let's return now to his conversation with Dan Olson.

DAN OLSON: Who had the idea for the Golden Strings? Where did that come from?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: I think from Kurt Carlson was urged by the late Virginia Safford or Stafford-- somebody has to help me on that name-- to go and hear the violins in Mexico City, the Villa Fontana. And. He did. And he came back, and he didn't know me from anyone. But he did know the late Al Sheehan. He contacted Al Sheehan, said, this would be a good idea, because I just bought a hotel, at least 5% of the Radisson. Now he has 300 of them.

DAN OLSON: The old downtown Radisson in downtown Minneapolis?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Yes, and that's where the new one is, in the same place. Any rate, that's-- he says, I'd like that. So that's how the idea generated.

DAN OLSON: And so he decided--

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: We did not copy them, incidentally, but he said, yes, I'd like that type of an act for the flame room.

DAN OLSON: So he decided to form his own personal hotel string ensemble. You worked, what, six, seven nights a week?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Six nights a week, three shows every night. They were 35 minutes each duration, and we performed over 15,000 shows from memory. How brilliant can we be?

DAN OLSON: [LAUGHS] And he had to pay you a living wage. This was a living.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Absolutely.

DAN OLSON: This was extraordinarily expensive for him to do.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: It paid better than the symphony did. That's why we attracted several symphony members.

DAN OLSON: Stepping away from the symphony to popular hotel ensemble, your colleagues must have said, Brunzell, what are you doing here? You're leaving serious music to go play for the diners.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: I think they congratulated me.

DAN OLSON: [LAUGHS]

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: At any rate, there was mutual respect for whatever we're doing. After all, we've played in a major symphony of the world. And here we were doing all this beautiful work, and I respected them. They respected me for what I was doing.

DAN OLSON: These were elaborate shows. Music was arranged for you by--

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Arranged by Red MacLeod, and he's still arranging music for strolling violins throughout the world, literally.

DAN OLSON: And so here you were-- you became a fixture. People would literally come to the flame room to hear the Golden Strings.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Yes, we played, I think, to about two million people in those 20 years, almost 20 years, and we're still going. As a matter of fact, that first contract was only for 13 weeks. I didn't even want the job. When you get out of what we call the jobbing swirl, the pool, the loop, and it takes quite a while to get back into it again. But 13 weeks has become about 35 years, whatever it is, from 1963 to now.

DAN OLSON: And it became a life, and, in fact, it really became a life. You would have to do this day after day, staying fresh for performance, because--

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: That's hard.

DAN OLSON: Yeah. You were in amongst people. You were performing sometimes up front, perhaps.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Yeah, there were three feet from people. I love it. I love it.

DAN OLSON: You're a performer. How to keep what we call keep edge.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: That's the thing, because I recall a remark by one of my colleagues, and we had worked hard to memorize a very difficult show. And we had to put on a new show, two new shows, every three weeks. And that had to change because we were getting snowed under.

At any rate, when we completed that last dress rehearsal on a Sunday morning and then put it on a Monday-- shoo, I'm glad that's over with. I said, no, this is the beginning. After all this hard work of Red doing the arrangements, I doing all the editing, make it come alive, do all the rehearsals, the memorization was monumental. And then I said, no, this is the beginning. We have to get across the footlights that's-- to make it look easy and to have edge.

You brought that up just a couple of minutes ago-- to have edge. That's the big, difficult thing.

DAN OLSON: I wonder what it's like playing for a bunch of diners. These are people who are paying a lot of money to have food. They've come to hear the ensemble, but they're going to be talking to their table mate. Did you sometimes want to take the bow and kind of just, wait a minute. Shut up. Listen to this. We're playing music here.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Yeah. Well, we did that, and of course, we wanted management to stop serving all during those 19, 20 years. And so no, no, we've got to have income. So it's up to us to perform while people are drinking and dining.

And yeah, it's a little bit disturbing, but you do it. After a while-- it's our job to do that.

DAN OLSON: Lots of visitors. I think General Jimmy Doolittle came by, you mentioned to me. Nat King Cole.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: All of them, yeah. And I've got a list someplace. I don't know-- 100, 150 notables, famous people. And, oh, there's a neat little story about both Nat King Cole and his entire family. And he was very ill at the time.

DAN OLSON: With his lung cancer, I think.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Yes. And so we bring around the eight violinists, and there were two pianists and a string bass up on the stage not 10 feet away. And I remember where he was seated, at table 52. How do you like that? How brilliant can I be?

At any rate, there we played Unforgettable, and, yeah, he was teary-eyed, and so was his wife. So he treated us very respectfully, and then may I tell a little bit about Jimmy Doolittle, too?

DAN OLSON: Go for it.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: So he comes in to the room on table 41. There I go again. Minutia. And--

DAN OLSON: [LAUGHS]

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: --so--

DAN OLSON: For those of us who are weak on our history, this-- he was-- General Doolittle was a war hero, had led the bombing raid on--

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Tokyo.

DAN OLSON: --Tokyo. Thank you.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: B-25. I don't know. Eight, 10, 12 from a carrier, B-25, and get off in 500 feet. No, you don't do that very easily with a B-25 fully loaded, gas and bomb. Then here he shows up with a party on table 41, and the maitre d' says, Cliff, General Jimmy Doolittle is on table 41. Play something for him.

Yes, we did. Right in the middle of the show, we played the Army Air Corps song, Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder, which I can play to this day. And right in the middle of it all, eight violinists are around his table, and I stop playing myself and salute him. And I say, sir, from one B-25 pilot to another, I salute you, sir.

And he stood up and saluted me and said the same thing. It was a little vignette there, which I treasure. It was just beautiful.

DAN OLSON: You know, I think the thing that a lot of people may not think of right away when they think of musicians is the mental and physical exertion associated with the art and the fact that it's a fair amount of good fortune that appears to go with having a long and fulfilling musical career. You have apparently managed to avoid injury, debilitating injury.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Well, I've had a lot of them. [LAUGHS] You just live with them and do certain stretching exercises and try not to overdo. There's a whole hour-long discussion. You opened up something there, Dan, really. It has to do with playing hurt, and so many musicians are doing that.

I have done it many, many times. Symphony musicians, because of the long, arduous hours playing, they are hurting themselves-- their arms, their fingers, their tendons, their nerves, you name it. And I've been there as well and have had to rehabilitate several times. As a matter of fact, in my formative years when I was in my 20s, overdoing it, you know, type A, if you please, practicing three to four hours a day before I got in the Symphony Orchestra, to get in the Symphony Orchestra, and then playing nightclubs-- 5:00 to 7:00, 9:00 to 1:00. That sort of thing.

Inhuman demands on muscles and that. Yeah, and I had to quit playing for two whole years. So, yeah, it's-- I know what they call playing hurt. I've been there.

DAN OLSON: You had to quit for what reason? Just the physical wear and tear?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Wear and tear of all my muscles in my shoulders and my deltoid muscles and went to four or five doctors. I hate to bore you with this, but it's significant to my colleagues. The body is screaming to tell you, do something different. And after four or five doctors, the fifth sent me to a weightlifter instructor. That's what cured me, and I never forgot it.

DAN OLSON: Weightlifting? Of all things?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: To get the blood up to the shoulder area to heal itself, the body to heal itself, and then to relearn how to play a little more relaxed.

DAN OLSON: You are a music educator. Still giving lessons?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: No, I haven't had time since 1971. I taught at MacPhail for seven years, and that's where my wife and I met. She was a fine teacher there, and she she's still teaching in the home and being very successful at that. And then teaching in Hopkins public schools for 15 years. You name it, I've done it.

DAN OLSON: Here you are, living and working in the world of serious music for many, many years, and also--

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Serious and commercial.

DAN OLSON: And commercial.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: And jazz.

DAN OLSON: And a jazz player, which some people kind of put their noses in the air and say, no, jazz is not serious music. But you love it. It's a love of yours.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Oh, it's, of course, we know it's an American art form. If not entirely born in America, certainly nurtured to a tremendous degree, with roots in Africa and Europe also.

DAN OLSON: How do you make the transition? You have to be the very rhythmic and devoted to the little black notes on the paper music--

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Yeah, the blacks, the notes, the whites, the paper, play the black, an old song.

DAN OLSON: There you go.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: And that's a discipline in itself-- playing printed, written down music. And then along comes jazz, which is a performer's art, extemporaneous. And we just concluded Saturday night, last Saturday night, as a matter of fact, over at the Dakota Bar and Grill, and the jazz quartet, my jazz quartet, played there-- bass, drums, accordion and violin. So, yeah, there is a transition.

DAN OLSON: For A classical musician, Is jazz kind of like a fountain that sort of waters, irrigates the rest of your creative spirit?

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: It certainly inspires me. And if you were to say what music would you like to hear and/or play the rest of your life, I'd say those two things-- serious-- so-called serious music, meaning symphonic-type music and jazz music, because they're both art forms of the highest order.

DAN OLSON: What would you say about a life of music? You exude an attitude of a man who is happy and satisfied with life, as though you're doing exactly what you want to do.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: Following your bliss. And, of course, that's an easy statement, and Campbell and company talk about this. There are hundreds of books written about this, and I just talked as a part of a, what do you call it, careers day up in Brooklyn Center Junior High School just, I don't know, a couple of months ago, something like that, to their ninth graders. And yes, I brought along my violin and played for them and talked about this very question you're bringing up.

And it's difficult, yes, to make a living. This has to be said. But also. I think it's worse if you're doing a lot of things you don't want to do, and you're still making a living. That's a big negative as well, and there are millions out there doing that very thing.

At any rate, I, by and large, have followed my bliss, and my wife and my family have gone with me on the ups and downs in it and in work, out of work, that sort of thing. But it's the thing for me to do.

DAN OLSON: Clifford Brunzell, thanks a lot for talking with us.

CLIFFORD BRUNZELL: You're very welcome. It's my pleasure indeed.

GARY EICHTEN: Clifford Brunzell, the leader of the Golden Strings, talking with Dan Olson. You're listening to Midday on Minnesota Public Radio. Today, two Voices of Minnesota, interviews with two Minnesotans who've made their mark making music.

[LINDA EDER, "SOMEONE LIKE YOU"]

(SINGING) I peer through windows

Watch life go by

Dream of tomorrow

I wonder why

The past is holding me

Keeping life at bay

I wander, lost in yesterday

Wanting to fly

But scared to try

GARY EICHTEN: Linda Eder's musical career started at Brainerd High School, where she played Mother Superior in The Sound of Music. She got her big break 10 years ago on the TV show, Star Search. These days she's the female lead in the Broadway production of Jekyll and Hyde. What's it like to rocket to national fame?

Eder talked with Main Street Radio's Rachel Reabe about the experience and about her collaboration with composer Frank Wildhorn. They talked last spring in New York City's Central Park during a softball game among the cast members.

RACHEL REABE: When did you know you had a voice?

LINDA EDER: When I was a kid, I just remember my voice, thinking of it as a toy, because I knew it could do things that my brother and sister's voice couldn't do. And it was louder. I mean, every time we would be kidding around and making noises and stuff, they'd always tell me to shut up, because I was drowning them out, you know. So I always knew it was there.

And I think when you have that, it does become like a toy to you. So it's fun to make sounds. It's fun to sing, you know.

RACHEL REABE: The first time you sang in public, I understand it was at the barn restaurant that your father owned in Garrison, the Blue Goose.

LINDA EDER: Yeah, there was-- we had a band there called the Family Tree that would come, and they were great. And they were so nice. They'd let me get up and sing one song-- I'm Not Lisa. And I would-- I learned the song and my debut at the Blue Goose, and my dad was so proud, you know, standing back, watching me along the back wall. And--

RACHEL REABE: Did you fall in love with performing then?

LINDA EDER: Yeah, I think if you have-- it's always been in there, you know, in me to do performing, whether it was acting, singing. And once you get the opportunity to get on stage, and you find out what that feels like, you can't do anything else but, you know, if it really is in there. And it's always been in there with me.

RACHEL REABE: Addicting?

LINDA EDER: Yeah, absolutely. [LAUGHS] Applause is very addicting.

RACHEL REABE: Star Search, you went a record 12 times, and apparently the lifelong admiration of Ed McMahon, who still talks you. What was that like?

LINDA EDER: A dream. because it went so perfectly. I mean, you know, they came to town. I called them up, got an audition, and I was actually showing a horse that day in the ring. I'm a horse buff, and I had to show my yearling half Arab, and I won the class. My audition was at 12:30.

Now, that morning, I'd gotten up early. You have to get up real early to do horse shows. I got up really early to fix my hair and put on makeup and so at least be half prepared.

But it was the hottest day of the summer, and I was-- by the time I finished the horse show, I threw the reins to a girl, and I jumped into my girlfriend's car and trying to fix my makeup which is melting off my face. My hair was all falling down, you know, from everything I'd-- I'd changed into a fancy, sequined dress in the fairgrounds bathroom, you know, and went running out the door. And people were like, what is she doing? They had idea.

My girlfriend drove like crazy over there, and I had no time. I ran right out of the car, right up onto the stage, practically. And it was good for me, because I had no time to let nerves sabotage me. And that is what happens to me a lot, because you know, I am shy about it, and I will just let myself get like this. I didn't have that chance.

So got up there and sang, and they told me that day that they really liked me and that I had a good shot at it. But I didn't know. And then I went home, and a week later they called and said, you're on the first show. And then, of course, it's just, oh, if I could just win one show, how great that would be. And that was overwhelming.

And then it's, oh, if I could only win three, that would mean I might be in the semifinal, and that happened. And I kind of went through the whole process and never lost. And yet still to this-- to the time I did the finals, I had totally convinced myself I wasn't going to win. And in fact, when Ed McMahon announced my name, I can look at the tape, and I can still see it. There's a split second where I don't hear anything.

I'm like-- it didn't register, because I had so convinced myself it wasn't going to happen. So it really was amazing. It was just-- I keep saying it, but it's really true. It's like that was meant to be, and nothing was going to stop it.

RACHEL REABE: And was it the money that you were excited about or was it the exposure? Was the $100,000-- was that not a big thing for you?

LINDA EDER: Well, not that I had any money-- I really didn't-- but I guess not. You know, that's never been in our family. It's never been a driving force. You know, we're strictly, blue collar kind of family and always had plenty and a very happy life. So some money's never really been, you know, a driving force.

No, it really was to win. I mean, when you've got an audience there and a camera there, and you've got judges sitting there judging you, that's all that really matters. You want to win. I'm a very competitive person, so, you know, I just wanted to win.

RACHEL REABE: So when you won Star Search, or was it even before the final win at Star Search, that things began to really fall into place for you? Things started coming your way, didn't they?

LINDA EDER: Well, yeah, you meet, you know, television exposure is wonderful. And I've met a lot of people from that. I have a lot of fans to this day from that show. It's amazing what one good national exposure will do for you.

But I met Frank. That's how I met Frank, because a friend of his worked on the show and told him about me in the middle of the thing, I sent him a tape, and we talked on the phone. And I guess I was what he was looking for, the right kind of voice. It was-- because he had always loved theater and was very much successful in pop but wanted to get into theater, and the kind of writing that he liked to do the best is what he felt was right for my voice. He'd always wanted to write for Streisand.

And so we hooked up and started working on songs. I sang everything he ever wrote, [LAUGHS] you know, when we first got together. And that's really what Star Search did for me. And then the goal was to get a record deal, and then we got one with RCA. And that's how the whole thing started.

RACHEL REABE: And did that happen quite quickly, Linda, or was it years of agony?

LINDA EDER: No, it happened within a year.

RACHEL REABE: When did Jekyll and Hyde first come up?

LINDA EDER: Well, when I met him in the end of 1987, he was just at that time, beginning to stage it. He had raised the money for it, and the stock market crashed, which is a good thing, because it wasn't anywhere near ready at that point but still heartbreaking, you know, because he was so anxious to get here, never knowing he was going to take him another, you know, 10 years to do it. But Jekyll and Hyde, we started-- that happened, so then it was a starting over process.

And then Leslie Bricusse came into our lives, so that was a new approach for Jekyll and Hyde. And then meeting me, he started thinking of the role of Lucy for me, so rewriting of it, and new songs were written. And then the whole process began, and we did the first album in '87 which is, still to this day, just sells great. And people, you know-- even half the songs aren't even in the show and never were, even in the first production we did which then came in 1990 at the Alley in Houston.

And that was a dream experience if there ever was one. And in fact, nothing to this day in theater will ever, ever live up to that, because it was our first experience. We could do no wrong. We owned the town for all the months that we were there, and we could have played in that town forever, I think. I mean, that's how big it was. It was just people were hawking tickets for $500 a piece outside the theater, you know. It was crazy.

RACHEL REABE: And so that was the beginning of the tour that you ultimately wanted to end up on Broadway?

LINDA EDER: Well, what happened is, the reason it's taken us 10 years is really it's all about producing. You know, these things take a lot of money to produce-- millions of dollars to produce. So we did a workshop here in New York in 1993 that wasn't right. It was the wrong cast, the wrong-- too much music was taken out. The whole direction of the show was changed away from the 1990 production, and it didn't work.

You're talking about years of frustration of not owning your show anymore and not being able to do anything. And then it was finally when that option ran out, that pace came along, and then we did the year-long tour and then-- but still weren't getting the right reviews. I mean, I was getting good reviews, and certain people would give us good reviews, and different aspects of the show would. But the show itself wasn't getting strong enough reviews, and that scares your producers because it's so risky here.

So they decided not to go with Greg and to get a new director, Robin Phillips, to bring us a little closer to what they thought New York critics want to see. And I think ultimately, maybe it could have gone either way. I think either production would have been fine and would have worked just as well, because there are people who are partial to the tour version, and there are people who like this version better. So it all depends on your own taste.

But that's how it got here, and I have benefited, I think, from all the process, because I had to learn on the job. I'd never had acting lessons, really, so I've just been learning as we go. And the show has been developing as we go.

So now we're here, and we still didn't get the reviews we wanted, but then now we've learned it really doesn't matter. It's not about the reviews. It's-- we, our goal has always been to bring audiences back to theater, a younger audience, make it commercial, make it something that can play around the country as well as on Broadway.

There are so many shows that do great with critics here. They close after a certain number of weeks, because there's not enough audience for them. They have no chance of running around the country. That's not what we want.

We want to show that people love and will come to and run like Les Mis and Phantom which also got bad reviews, but they are the ones that survive.

RACHEL REABE: How painful is it to read reviews? Had your 10 years on the road with Jekyll and Hyde prepared you for critics? Or had you gotten used to so many good reviews that when some unfavorable ones came out, it was painful?

LINDA EDER: No. Actually, because I'm the type of person that I am, where I have a lot of confidence while I'm on stage doing it but off stage I have none, reading reviews has actually been good for me. I mean, for me personally, I've-- in papers and professional critics are generally really good to me, so I didn't really have a lot to feel badly about. If they criticize my-- they never criticized my voice. If they would criticize my acting, sometimes I would agree with them. So I wouldn't-- I had a lot to learn.

What's been interesting for me, though, is internet, because I became a geek, you know, when I got my computer two years ago. And I go all over the place, all the theater sites and all that. And I read all this stuff, and then you start reading stuff about yourself.

And I have seen myself praised to the moon, which I shouldn't be, and just dragged through the mud. And then it's just by people, individual people, and you realize everyone's tastes are so different. And I start thinking, well, you know, mine are too, because I look at a guy and I-- or somebody performing, and I think it's terrible. And the person next to me absolutely loves it.

So in a way, it's been good for me. It's strengthened me, and it's made me realize it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. You just have to do what you do and hope you find that audience. And we have so far always found an audience, and it's just an audience that keeps growing.

GARY EICHTEN: Vocalist and Broadway star Linda Eder talking with Rachel Reabe as part of our Voices of Minnesota interview series. Let's return to the conversation.

RACHEL REABE: When you opened here on April 28, what's the magic of opening night?

LINDA EDER: [SIGHS] You know, for me it was-- it took opening night to make this real. It's been such a long fight for so many years, that all through rehearsal, even though we were here, I still kept expecting the rug to get pulled out from under us, because it had been pulled out from under us so many times. And that's happened before-- shows gone in rehearsal that never opened.

So I, for some reason, I couldn't believe it was going to be real until we got past opening night. So that was what was real about it and phenomenal. We had many weeks of previewing, so it's already like being-- doing it. You know, you're there, you're going to the theater every night. So by the time opening night came around, I was like, well, we've been here for a while now.

And I thought, oh, it's not going to be anything. I'll be able to handle it. I won't get too emotional. And I think, did the show. No problem in the show, because sometimes I get to A New Life, and I'm having an emotional day, I want to cry all the way through the song.

No problem. Get to the curtain call. I'm standing backstage, ready to come out, feeling good. OK, I can do this. No problem. I get out. I made the corner. I saw the audience, and I totally started crying. [LAUGHS] I just lost it.

I put my head like this, and I just couldn't look up for a few minutes. And I felt like a complete idiot, you know. So I was, you know-- it was pretty overwhelming.

RACHEL REABE: Your mom and dad were in the audience.

NANCY DIPERNA: I had never seen my dad in a tux in my life, so he rents a tux. I loved it. And everyone was here, you know, my brother and his girlfriend. And he has a son, and my sister with her daughter was here. And so it was pretty special to see them all dressed up. My mom looked beautiful.

Opening night party was fun. I think they had a good time, and I know they were, you know, proud and relieved that we finally made it.

RACHEL REABE: Has it gotten comfortable for you yet, or every night before you go on, are you still just nervous?

NANCY DIPERNA: No, I'm not nervous at all, really, unless I feel-- I get nervous when I think my voice isn't 100%, and then I have to work harder. I can't just go out there and have fun and just, you know, go with the music. And, you know, your voice-- my voice is really pretty strong, so I don't generally have too much of a problem with it considering the type of belting that I'm doing every day. I don't really have a problem with that.

I only get nervous if I know somebody particular is in the audience, and Frank, I always tell him, don't tell me. But he can't resist. He always wants to tell me. I was nervous during the critics week, you know, because you know they're there. And they're hard, and they're tough. So, yeah, that was nerve-racking.

RACHEL REABE: Let's talk about the fans. There's been much written even in the last couple of weeks about how Jekyll and Hyde almost came to New York as a cult musical. What is it about the musical that inspires these fans to travel and to see it time after time after time? What do you think it is?

LINDA EDER: The music, the passion, the performances, I think they get attached to us as performers. We know that from the fan letters that we get, and obviously the music has always been the driving force of this piece. I think also it's interesting. The story of Jekyll and Hyde is interesting, so--

But you know what's funny is that it's really not a cult thing. Rocky Horror is a cult thing. There's a certain type of people that would go to that all the time. This, our fans, are just a general cross-section of people from all over the world. We have people that flew in from Brazil the other night to see it, because they're fans of Jekyll and Hyde. And they're in the fan club and everything.

There's ordinary people-- everyone from gardeners to garbagemen to doctors to lawyers. You know, it's everybody. And it's the critics here that want to call it a cult following, and they've even been derogatory toward our Jekies, they call them, as if it's not a real thing. And that's not true. It's just people.

And it's not just New Yorkers. We're just bringing already middle America with us, and they don't know how to deal with that. We didn't need the New York critics to tell our audience what to like. They're telling the critics what they like.

RACHEL REABE: I stood by the stage door yesterday afternoon after the matinee. I was amazed and so surprised by their utter devotion. There was a young man I met there, 39 years old. He's seen the show 11 times. He says he's going to see it 50 times before it's over. Every chance he gets, every dollar he has, he's coming in to see Jekyll and Hyde. Does that kind of adoration and devotion, when does it get scary? Or does it?

LINDA EDER: I think that is a little scary. That would be considered a fanatic, I think. I just think they don't have enough in their lives, you know, so they use shows like ours and, you know, a performer in a show to fill something in their life that's missing, you know. And that you have to be a little careful of. And my fault is I'm too open with people, and I'm too willing to hug anyone who comes up to me.

And we have, in fact, security guards that stand outside our theater, you know, just to keep an eye on things, because we oftentimes will have a huge crowd out there. But I don't know. We're not the only show that has that. You know, Les Mis has that, Phantom has that. It's just natural, I think. There are people in this world who are looking for something, and you provide it.

RACHEL REABE: And when you come out of the stage door after the performance, is that an obligation-- to shake the fans' hands, to sign the autographs? Does it get burdensome after a while, or aren't you at that point yet?

LINDA EDER: Oh, I've never felt it was a burden. I know there are people and performers who don't want to sign autographs, and they feel it's an imposition. But I've never felt that way. Again, maybe it's just my Minnesota upbringing, where, you know, we're bred to be nice to people and say hello and smile. I do that automatically. I can't help it.

In fact, the other day I had to be somewhere at 5 o'clock after the matinee, and I knew I was going to be late. And I knew there was people out there waiting. I even said to them, I'm sorry, everybody. I have to be somewhere at 5:00, so I won't be able to sign them all.

But what did I do? I still stayed there and signed them all, because I felt too bad. I couldn't, sign this one and then not sign that person. So I was late, but I don't feel like it's an obligation-- not at all. I mean, thank god. I wouldn't be having a career if they didn't like me.

RACHEL REABE: So it's Minnesota nice comes to Broadway?

LINDA EDER: I think so. [LAUGHS] I am definitely a different bird from what you normally see here. I'm not a New Yorker. I don't approach this as a craft, because I didn't have the dancing and acting and singing lessons. So it's not a-- that's why I get so shy and nervous about it and critical about it, because it's-- it isn't-- I don't look at it as a separate thing from me, my singing or performing. It's a very personal part of me that you're seeing every night.

The emotions I'm feeling are mine, and I'm just showing you another side of myself. And because this part was written for me, Lucy is very much me. It's just me. They've tailored her to me.

RACHEL REABE: Are you being recognized on the street? Are people coming up to you, and are they beginning to invade the personal time of your life?

LINDA EDER: Um, yeah, especially in, you know, certain areas of the city where it's very heavy theater based and stuff. Yeah, it happens. And you know, it happened more and more now that I've been on Rosie. [LAUGHS]

But it's OK. I don't have really a problem with it. There's, you know, sometimes when-- the only time I have a problem with it is if I really look like hell. [LAUGHS]

RACHEL REABE: Have you counted the cost stardom? Do you think about, am I willing to give this up? You have said you are shy. You're a private person. It's fine when you're on stage, but do you want to have to live like that?

LINDA EDER: I can't-- I don't know. And I asked myself this many times, because it is within the realm of possibility that I might become that big of a star where it is really an imposition, because-- and obviously it is. We see it every day. We hear about stars talking about it all the time.

And I do ask myself that a lot, because I am not like a lot of entertainers. I like the performing part of it. I like the creative process, but I hate everything else.

I don't like the business part of it. I don't like the fact that I have to have an agent, a manager, and all that. Even though I love my manager that I have right now, and I don't like all that. I really would rather be out with my horses and gardening and doing other hobbies and doing things that aren't about me.

That's the only thing I don't like about showbiz is it's so personal, and you're the product. And I don't think that's healthy for a person in general. I think part of me would be satisfied to not go any farther, you know, to be able to do what I'm doing at this level and not go any farther.

Of course, the competitive part of me wants to go farther, but only for a reason-- because I'm competitive and because it would mean, I would get to do this, this, and this. But there is a part of me that doesn't want-- is afraid of that, too, you know, afraid of what that brings.

RACHEL REABE: So the future for you, you're going to play on Broadway hopefully for a year. But in the meantime, you want to get married. What night will you be working that in?

LINDA EDER: Well, maybe a Sunday night. Do the matinee, then do the Sunday show. Or maybe take the-- I personally might then take the Sunday matinee off. And we want to do it on a Sunday night, so the cast, you know, so the whole cast can come and then have the Monday off and most other Tuesday and then come back. [LAUGHS]

RACHEL REABE: And a Broadway sort of wedding, or are you coming home to Minnesota to be married?

LINDA EDER: Well, no, that's the reason we have to do it here. Otherwise I'd have to take time off to do it. It's going to be in New York City of all places. I'm not a New Yorker. I mean, I'm having fun here, and this is the best of all ways to be in New York City for me.

But I'm not a New Yorker at heart. I'm a country girl. So I wish I could come home to Minnesota.

RACHEL REABE: And then you have another project lined up. Actually, you're doing a tour for your album, aren't you?

LINDA EDER: Right. We're going to do that big band tour as soon as I finish with this one, and I'm excited about that. I love Atlantic. They're so behind me, and there's so many people at Atlantic that are behind me, which is great.

And the album is doing phenomenally well, and I'm really happy, because this album is the most me of anything I've done. And I've gotten nothing but positive feedback on it. And it's selling great, and it's everywhere.

It's finally getting the kind of marketing that I always dreamed I'd have. So I'm pretty excited about it, and the concert tour I did before this started really opened a lot of doors for me. It was a great experience, and I think it's going to lead right into the next tour.

RACHEL REABE: And after the concert tour, back to Broadway.

LINDA EDER: Svengali. That's the one I'm really dying to do. It's a great piece, and everyone keeps asking me, are you doing Pimpernel? Are you doing Pimpernel? But I never intended to do that show, because the role in that is very parallel to the role in this one. And I'm ready now, because this has taken so many years-- if it had gone earlier, I might have said, OK, I'll do Marguerite. But not now. I want more. [LAUGHS]

I want to be the last one that comes out of the curtain call now. [LAUGHS] It's been 10 years, and it'll be 11 years now and maybe almost 12 by the time I get to Svengali. So I think I've earned that.

RACHEL REABE: Tell me a little bit about that role and what you'll be able to do musically.

LINDA EDER: Well, the exciting thing about Svengali is that it might be the only time anyone's ever done a Broadway show where a woman sang the majority of the piece in a belting Broadway style and then also did full opera aria in it. And to me, the reason it's so wonderful is because it combines both of my loves. And there's a song in it that Frank wrote, an aria that I sing in French that is gorgeous. It's a beautiful melody that he wrote, and it would bring down the house every night in Sarasota, Florida when we did it down there.

And it felt so good to get to the end of the piece and be able to do that and step aside from everything else and just remember something I really loved and to this day would still have loved to have done, which would have been opera. So I'm really looking forward to it.

RACHEL REABE: I read somewhere that you said the kind of singing you do, that you needed to grow into it, that this isn't a 19-year-old or a 25-year-old kind of a voice or kind of music.

LINDA EDER: Right. Yeah. It's-- I think it was Streisand, even, who said that about herself, too. And I really believe I fall into that same mode. My sound was always-- because of my musical tastes and because of the physical aspects of my voice and the lyrics that I was singing, It's a little sophisticated. So, you know, a cliched song of Love to Love You Baby doesn't really work for me. I can't sing those kind of lyrics.

That's all about vocal gymnastics and very R&B stylistic to make it as a song work, regardless of what the lyrics are saying. I need a good, intelligent lyric. And yeah, I think I've definitely needed to grow into that-- my personality, my calmness, you know, being relaxed on stage. I have a ball up there now. I don't have any of the nerves I used to have, because I didn't know what I was doing.

Nerves come from not being prepared and not being, you know, confident that you're really, really know what you're doing. And I finally feel like I know what I'm doing. I finally feel like I'm singing exactly the kind of music that I should sing, that I can compete with anyone out there doing that kind of music. And that's where the confidence comes from.

RACHEL REABE: Linda, how about your ties to Minnesota? Is that still going to be a part of your life, or does this preclude that sort of thing?

LINDA EDER: Well, I hope so. I mean, I love Minnesota. You always want to go back to the place you had good experiences in, and I had a wonderful life growing up in Minnesota. I'm very, very close to the people there. And I get within five miles of my farm, and I just relax.

And I still have it. I don't want to get rid of it. I love it, and I will always come back for those reasons-- to see those people again. I love the fact that my art teacher and my gym teacher and all these people come to my concerts in Brainerd and to be on that stage, because it reminds me of where I started.

RACHEL REABE: What's left for you, Linda?

LINDA EDER: Oh, what I'd really like to do-- I'm hoping we can do a movie musical of one of our pieces, whether it's Jekyll and Hyde or Svengali, I think. I know we have a good friend, Lauren Shuler Donner, who is a movie producer. She produced Free Willy and Volcano is hers, the movie Dave-- lot, lots of movies. And Dick Donner is her husband, directed Lethal Weapons, and they've always been interested in doing something with us.

So that would be great, because that'd be the best of all worlds. You could sit back-- I could be in it and watch myself. [LAUGHS] And I think that would be a lot of fun. So I'd like to do that.

I don't know though. I just to be able to keep doing concerts, keep doing records, and get in a place where I have a lot of months off to raise horses and raise German shepherds and be out in the country. And that's really my goal, is to get my life so successful that I only have to do it for a certain length of time and, you know, not have to be in an apartment in New York City. I can be out on a big, old spread and have somebody drive me into the city every now and then when I need to do something.

RACHEL REABE: So this isn't your life.

LINDA EDER: Not at all. I have spring fever so bad right now. I walk around and wish I was-- I could volunteer as a gardener here in New York City, so I could mow the lawn. I love to mow the lawn. [LAUGHS]

I miss that. I just-- I want to be outside and want to be with the horses. And I have so many other hobbies. Because I'm an artist, I love to create things with my hands. And, you know, it's hard when you're not in a place where you can do that, you know.

I feel very lucky. I'm in a position that I think a lot of people would give their eye teeth to be in. I know a lot of girl singers in this town would love to push me out of the way, to have the relationship that I have with Frank, to have writers writing for me, you know, and to do my first experience on Broadway in a lead role. So many people have had to pay their dues and work so hard, and they never get it.

I've paid other dues, and I've worked in ways that are different from theirs, but at times, just as hard. But overall, I've been really lucky. I've had a lot of people do a lot of the work for me, because I don't enjoy it.

And I've met the right people along the way, and I know some of them think, you know, it's taken 10 years. Aren't you disappointed? But I'm not disappointed at all. I love where I am and what's happened and what I've been able to do and enjoy, getting here. I've been able to have a lot of time to be at my farm-- not as much now. You know, the more successful I get, the less time I have to do the things I love to do.

And I'm always been conscious of passing of time. Ever since I turned-- there's Chuck Wagner right there, played our first Jekyll and Hyde. Ever since I turned nine, my mom said to me that day, well, you know, you're never going to be eight again. And she's no idea that what she did for me was make me appreciate life.

Because it was such a true statement. Life goes by so fast. And it's really my goal is to be happy, and this business doesn't make you happy. It makes you happy for brief periods of time while you're performing, but otherwise it's not going to do it for you. You have to make your life something else.

And I'm lucky because I can do that. I'm not driven to the point of distraction like a lot of entertainers are. They're very neurotic, nervous people, because they're so desperate to get somewhere. I've never been that way, and I'm glad. Maybe I'd be farther down the road if I was but maybe not like where I got to, you know.

GARY EICHTEN: Linda Eder talking with Main Street Radio's Rachel Reabe. Our Voices of Minnesota interview series is produced by Dan Olson with help from Sasha Aslanian and intern Susan [? Riedel. ?] Sarah Meier is the producer of our Midday program with help this week from Marcy [? Tveit. ?] I'm Gary Eichten. Thanks for tuning in.

[LINDA EDER, "SOMEONE LIKE YOU"] I peer through windows

Watch life go by

Dream of tomorrow

And wonder why

The past is holding me

Keeping life at bay

[BEEPING]

WOMAN: MPR's Main Street Radio is celebrating its 10th anniversary. 10 years of bringing you outstanding coverage of issues facing rural Minnesota. Tune in for a special series of reports all next week on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

GARY EICHTEN: You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio.

[BEEPING]

We have a sunny sky. It's now up to 80 degrees at KNOW-FM, 91.1, Minneapolis, Saint Paul. 40% chance for some showers and thunder showers later this afternoon, but it's supposed to actually get warmer-- mid 80s yet for a high, 40% chance for showers early this evening, and then it should dry off.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DAVID BARON: From National Public Radio in New York, this is Talk of the Nation Science Friday. I'm David Baron, sitting in for Ira Flatow. 40 years ago tomorrow, Americans awoke to a startling announcement from the Soviet Union.

MAN 2 (ON RECORDING): The first artificial Earth satellite in the world has now been created. This first satellite was today successfully launched in the USSR.

DAVID BARON: And with that, the space race was on. The launch of Sputnik 1 was a technological and political victory for the USSR and an embarrassment for the US. It fueled Cold War fears but also accelerated the US space program and prompted a new national focus on science education. This hour, we'll look at the technology, history and legacy of Sputnik. First, we have this news.

KORVA COLEMAN: From National Public Radio news in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. Attorney General Janet Reno is moving closer to appointing a special counsel to check Vice President Gore's fundraising activities. Reno is expected to announce she has widened the Justice Department's probe of Gore's fundraising phone calls made during his re-election campaign.

Gore has admitted making calls from his White House office but says he does not believe he's violated any law. As the Promise Keepers, the nation's largest Christian men's movement, prepares for a six-hour rally on the mall tomorrow, other groups are making their own arrangements to speak out. The American Atheists plan to begin a demonstration just as the Promise Keepers prayer rally gets underway. Cindy Scheiner reports.

CINDY SCHEINER: The American Atheists don't predict huge numbers at their demonstration, but they do hope to make a big impact on people who are unfamiliar with the ideology of the Promise Keepers. According to National Atheist representative Ronald Barrier, the Christian men's group seeks to undermine the constitution, repress women, and send homosexuals back to the closet.

RONALD BARRIER: If you read and study their rhetoric, you will see that their primary reason for existing is to restore male supremacy.

CINDY SCHEINER: The atheists say they believe in the supremacy of reason over religious faith and support the complete separation of government from religion. Barrier says the atheists hope to gather additional support for their cause during their four-hour demonstration on Saturday. The American Atheists gained notoriety two years ago when their female founder mysteriously disappeared. For NPR news, I'm Cindy Scheiner-- Washington.

KORVA COLEMAN: A strong earthquake struck central Italy today just one week after two large tremors left 11 people dead and caused serious damage to homes and some of the country's greatest art treasures. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.

SYLVIA POGGIOLI: Today's earthquake measured 5.1 on the Richter scale, just five decimal points below last week's strongest tremor. It caused panic in Perugia, the city closest to the epicenter, where hundreds of people ran into the streets, fearing falling masonry. Italian state TV reported that four firemen were injured, one of them seriously, and that one woman had died of a heart attack.

More than 30,000 people in the region are living in tent cities, trailers, or cars. And the latest tremor has raised fears that they'll never be able to go back to their old homes. The most serious damage was reported once again in Assisi, where the roof and a side wall of the Basilica of Saint Francis suffered more cracks. It's not yet known if the fabled frescoes of the masters, Cimabue and Giotto, inside the Basilica suffered further damage. But eyewitnesses saw a cloud of dust billowing out of the church portal.

This is Sylvia Poggioli, NPR news-- Rome.

KORVA COLEMAN: On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 48 points at 8,075 in very heavy trading. The NASDAQ Composite Index is up more than 18 points at 1,720. This is NPR.

MAN 1: Support for NPR comes from Borders, Books and Music-- a place to satisfy existing curiosities and discover new ones. Location information at 800-644-7733.

KAREN BARTA: Good afternoon. I'm Karen Barta with news from Minnesota Public Radio. A co-chairman of the legislative task force studying the stadium issue thinks a deal to sell the Minnesota Twins will be announced late this afternoon. Representative Lauren Jennings also thinks the sales agreement would give the legislature a window of opportunity to act. North Carolina businessman Don Beaver is reportedly preparing to offer somewhere between $140 to $160 million for the team.

The Saint Paul Police Department has its first female commander. Lieutenant Nancy Diperna was promoted this morning to one of 10 department commanders, a rank below deputy chief and two steps below chief. Diperna has worked at various duties within the police department, including vice, narcotics, and heading the training unit.

A sleek, white, cruise ship is drawing crowds to the Duluth Waterfront today. The 420-passenger Columbus is the first cruise vessel to call on the Twin ports since 1975. Its German owners were persuaded to include Duluth on its Great Lakes itinerary after ship captain Ralph Xander visited Duluth last May. Xander says Duluth marks the furthest reach of the ship in its inaugural season.

RALPH XANDER: This is the furthest port in the Great Lakes we're having here, Duluth. We have now a cruise of 1,824 miles. We started in Chicago, and Lake Superior is the furthest distance you can have from the salt water. So this is actually our final destination.

KAREN BARTA: Xander predicts more Great Lakes cruises by the ship in coming seasons. Duluth port officials have worked for years to attract a passenger cruise. Almost all passenger cruise ships are foreign-flagged vessels.

The state forecast for the rest of today-- scattered showers spreading from the west to the east. Thunderstorms are possible in the east late today. Highs generally in the 70s in the north and 80s in the south with near record-highs in the southeast. And for the Twin Cities, mostly sunny and warm, with a 40% chance of showers or thunderstorms and a high in the lower to mid 80s.

In Saint Cloud, it's sunny and 76. It's cloudy and 54 in Duluth. It's sunny and 83 in Rochester. And in the Twin Cities, mostly sunny and 80.

That's news from Minnesota Public radio, I'm Karen Barta.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DAVID BARON: This is Talk of the Nation Science Friday. I'm David Baron, sitting in for Ira Flatow. From the perspective of 1997, it seems almost a trivial accomplishment. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched into Earth's orbit a metal sphere about the size of a beach ball.

The satellite couldn't take spy photographs. It couldn't transmit telephone calls. It couldn't beam TV pictures to your home. All Sputnik 1 could do was circle the earth, sending out a radio beacon to indicate that it was there.

[BEEPING AMONGST STATIC]

But Sputnik's implications were enormous. In the midst of the Cold War, the Soviets had beat us into space. Sputnik spurred on a space race, which led in the US to the creation of NASA, a new emphasis on science education, and eventually to Neil Armstrong taking his giant leap for mankind on the moon. How did the Soviets get into space first? What made Sputnik such a significant technological achievement? And what is Sputnik's legacy in American culture and American-Russian relations four decades later?

You're invited to join the conversation this hour. Give us a call. The number is 1-800-989-8255. That's 1-800-989-TALK. If you want more background on our discussion, go to our website at www.sciencefriday.com where you'll find links to our topic and can join an online chat.

Now, let me introduce my first guest. Sergei Khrushchev is a senior fellow of the Thomas Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. If his last name sounds familiar, that's because his father was Nikita Khrushchev, who headed the Soviet Communist Party at the time of the launch and was to become the country's premier the following year after Sputnik. Professor Khrushchev joins me from his office at Brown. Welcome to the program.

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV: Good afternoon. How are you?

DAVID BARON: I'm very well. Thanks for joining us. Now, I understand Sputnik's launch came as no surprise to you. You, in fact, had seen the satellite before it was launched.

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV: Yes. I saw not the satellite but the picture of the satellite at the Korolev Design Bureau a year before the launching, even more than a year, in February of 1956. At that time, I was a student, but my father took me with him when he visited the Design Bureau, and Korolev report him about his plans.

DAVID BARON: Was the development of Sputnik a secret to the Soviet people in general?

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV: Yes and no, because nobody published the plans that Sputnik will be launched on this date. And especially in the Korolev's plans, he planned to launch it in July. But the first launches of the booster, it was not really the space launcher but the Intercontinental ballistic missiles, was unsuccessful. So he did this later.

But in Russian magazine radio, it was published the full information about frequencies and about possibility. In such a way, if you will find something launched in the space, you can hear it on such frequencies and such band of the radio.

DAVID BARON: I see. So people could actually tune in and listen to it when it was launched.

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV: Yes.

DAVID BARON: Was there any significance to the launch date, October 4?

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV: Really not, because it was the first successful launch of the rocket was August 21. And then Korolev told that he tried to--

DAVID BARON: And Korolev, you're talking about the designer of--

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV: Yes, Korolev. It's familiar name for me but not for the Americans. It's the chief designer of this rocket and the famous person also who landed the first man to the moon.

DAVID BARON: Uh-huh.

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV: So he told my father that he will try to make another launch of the missile over the Soviet Union, tested like a missile. It was-- took place I'm not sure about exact date, about September 15. And then after that, it took about two weeks, from two to three weeks, to prepare another launch. But from the other side, the October 4 was the day before the meeting of the committee.