Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/94610
I N 1982, SAG-AFTRA CO-PRESIDENT KEN HOWARD AND LIFE ACHIEVEMENT HONOREE DICK VAN DYKE (RIGHT) STARRED TOGETHER IN THE TV MOVIE THE COUNTRY GIRL, AND HAVE BEEN FRIENDS EVER SINCE. THEY RECENTLY SAT DOWN TO DISCUSS VAN DYKE'S SEVEN-DECADE CAREER AS AN ACTOR, BROADCASTER AND RECORDING ARTIST — AND THAT COCKNEY ACCENT FROM MARY POPPINS THAT HAS ENDURED FOR 50 YEARS. Ken Howard: I've known you and worked with you … and have always been fond of your work and also of you. It occurred to me that you are so representative of all the various areas which SAG-AFTRA represents. You've done it all, from broadcasting to music to film to television to stage. Dick Van Dyke: Everything but opera and ballet, I believe. [laughs] KH: And even ballet, you've been close. You're a wonderful 1 dancer. I know that when you were 16, I think, you had your own radio show and were working back in Danville, Illinois. DVD: Well, you know it was during World War II and everybody was getting draſted and there were no announcers at our radio station. I saw an ad in the paper and I went down and auditioned and I got the job. So I worked aſter school and weekends. I did the news. I did record shows, interviews, everything. And on the weekends, I was there alone. I played the records, ran across the hall, got the news, ripped it off, read it and ran the whole station by myself. It was a great experience. I thought I eventually wanted to be a television announcer. KH: And that happened for you. You worked in Atlanta and New Orleans before going national. DVD: I was an anchor on the CBS morning show for a year [in 1955], and I had to get up at 4 to get into Manhattan at 6 every day. And then we had to do the show twice because there was no coast-to-coast. I was the worst at it. Doing the news, interviews, that kind of thing. KH: Well maybe in your mind but I can't imagine you ever being bad at anything. DVD: I was 29 and didn't have a clue. My newsman was Walter Cronkite. Walter sent me a picture of the two of us on the set and it said, "How did you ever make it without me?" What a doll he was. KH: We talked years ago and you told me the story of the [Broadway] audition for Bye Bye Birdie with Gower Champion. What is your recollection of it? DVD: At the time I was [hosting] a game show for ABC called Mother's Day. We had diaper-changing contests and I realized I wasn't good at it. hat wasn't my future, so every day when the show was over I would go out and audition for whatever there was — a play, a 4 2 42 SAG-AFTRA | Winter 2013 | SAGAFTRA.org 3 ACTOR to ACTOR