[麦克・华莱士――永留电视史的声音]迈克 华莱士
时间：2019-01-08 03:24:54 来源：柠檬阅读网 本文已影响 人 
翻译：许婉燕 Mike Wallace――His Voice Will Be Remembered He is among the most famous figures in the history of television. During his 38-year-old career on the long-running CBS注 program 60 Minutes, the tough guy has interviewed those who have shaped history and moved the world: leaders, liars, 1)scoundrels, thinkers, decades of American presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and a vast number of powerful international figures: Deng Xiaoping, Yasir Arafat, Vladimir Putin, Kofi Annan and Jiang Zemin, among many others.
Myron Leon Wallace, later renamed as Mike Wallace, born in Brookline, Massachusetts to immigrant parents, captain of the tennis team, first violinist of the high school 2)orchestra, found his true 3)calling when he walked into the campus radio station at the University of Michigan and was instantly overcome.
Wallace: I suddenly realized that was going to be my 4)meier. I didn’t know how I was going to make it, but I knew damn well I was going to be. All I wanted to be was a radio announcer. That was it.
There were years of radio jobs, and with the rise of television in the early 1950’s Wallace became a familiar personality hosting news, quiz and interview programs, game shows, becoming a 5)pitchman for cigarettes, creating a show with his second wife, and writing a column for the New York Post. In 1954, he did a brief 6)stint on Broadway as an actor but immediately returned to broadcasting.
It was Dumont network producer Ted Yates who would create the vehicle that shot Mike Wallace to 7)prominence in 1956 with Night Beat, a live, late-hour interview show in which two guest celebrities were placed under the harsh 8)klieglight of his 9)interrogations. For the first time in television, Wallace 10)let loose with 11)abrasive, 12)bruising 13)inquisitions of well known guests.
Wallace: Why don’t you study, think, research and, and do not the 14)pablum of ordinary interviews, “What did you write? What did you say? When did you do this?and so forth but rather go into the, into the 15)psyche, and into the 16)gut of the interviewee? And the interviewee likes to feel comfortable, and challenged sometimes by the research that has been done ahead of time by the interviewer. And New York likes to discover something new, and this was new. People wanted to come on and wrestle with me, and wanted to be surprised, and wanted to be challenged with difficult, sometimes abrasive, sometimes 17)skeptical questions.
In 1968, he started his most important journey: 60 Minutes. As time went by, he developed a reputation as an inquisitorial interviewer, 18)authoritative 19)documentary narrator, and powerful 20)investigative reporter.
Wallace: We were fortunate, because when 60 Minutes started in 1968, CBS was way ahead of the game in entertainment and everything else. They had money. They had 21)ratings. They had a good audience. They had a remarkable news division. [It] started out Tuesday nights at 10 o
’clock against the NBC Tuesday night movie. So everybody figured we would get killed. And we did, for about the first three, four, five years, until we found our character. And then there was the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Revolution. And people began to 22)tune in, and by that time we had our act together. There was nothing like us. Nothing had ever been seen on American television like our broadcast. And it developed a huge following. Ten years. The first five years we found out who we were, and the next five years we simply built an audience, and we were unbelievably first of all broadcasts on one or two occasions in the70s, the80s and the90s.
He is in his 88th year now.
The clock ticks for Mike Wallace.
Earlier this year, the announcement of retirement of this 20-Emmy-Awards winner ran headlines throughout the globe. While his journalistic 23)tactics have been questioned at times, his 24)longevity, celebrity, and ability to land big interviews made him one of the most important news figures in the history of television.
他是电视史上最著名的人物之一。 在他38年的职业生涯中，硬汉麦克・华莱士在美国哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）的长寿节目《60分钟》里采访过众多塑造历史和震撼世界的大人物。他们当中有领导人、骗子、恶棍、思想家、历代美国总统―约翰・F・肯尼迪、林登・约翰逊、理查德・尼克松、杰拉尔德・福特、吉米・卡特、罗纳德・里根、和乔治・H・W・布什―还有众多极具影响力的国际人物：邓小平、亚西尔・阿拉法特、弗拉基米尔・普京、科菲・安南以及江泽民等等。
迈伦・利昂・华莱士，后来改名为麦克・华莱士，出生于麻省的布鲁克林市，父母是移民。他曾担任网球队队长和高中管弦乐队的首席小提琴手，但当他踏进密歇根大学的校园广播站时，他才发现自己真正的职业追求，并且很快沉迷其中。
华莱士：我突然意识到那将成为我的职业。我不知道该怎么做，但我非常清楚自己会做到。我只想当播音员。这是我的理想。
华莱士做了几年播音员。20世纪50年代初期，随着电视的崛起，他成为一张家喻户晓的面孔，多次主持新闻、猜谜、访谈节目和游戏节目；他还成了香烟品牌的代言人，与第二任妻子同台演出，并为《纽约邮报》撰写专栏。1954年，他曾经到百老汇当了一段时间演员，但很快又回到广播界。
1956年，杜蒙电视网制片人泰德・耶茨创办的节目《晚间节奏》使麦克・华莱士自此青云直上。在这个现场直播的深夜访谈节目中，两位名人嘉宾要在刺眼的强弧光灯下接受他的“拷问”。华莱士是在电视上用略显伤人的探究风格主持名人畅谈节目的第一人。
华莱士：为什么不研究、思考、调查和进行―不寻常的访谈，不要总是问一些枯燥乏味的问题：“你写了些什么内容？你说了什么话？你是在什么时候做这些事情的？”―而是进入被访问者的精神与思维深处。被访问者喜欢舒适的感觉，有时也喜欢面对挑战，接受一些访问者提前进行调查后提出的问题。纽约也喜欢发掘新的东西，而这正是新的。人们想上节目来与我进行较量，想获得惊喜，想接受挑战，（他们不介意）被问及一些有难度、有时有点尖刻、有时候又令人质疑的问题。
1968年，他开始了职业生涯中最重要的旅程：《60分钟》。随着时光的流逝，他渐渐声名远播，成为一名善于发问的访谈家、权威的纪录片旁述以及颇具影响力的调查记者。
华莱士：我们很幸运，因为当1968年《60分钟》开播的时候，CBS无论在娱乐节目还是其它节目领域中都是数一数二的。他们资金充足，收视率很可观，拥有忠实的观众群，还有出色的新闻部门。这个节目在每周二晚上10点播出，与全国广播公司（NBC）的周二电影唱对台戏，因此所有人都认为我们会被干掉。一开始的三、四、五年，我们确实输得很惨，直到我们找到了自己的风格。然后，越战爆发了，民权运动也爆发了。人们开始收看我们的节目。到了那个时候，我们的节目也日趋完善了。当时没有任何同类节目。在美国电视上，人们从没见过像我们这样的节目。它赢得了一大批拥护者。我们用了十年时间。头五年我们在寻找自己的定位，后五年我们就开始建立观众群。并且我们―难以置信地―在70年代、80年代和90年代都曾多次位居所有节目排行榜的首位。
今年，他已经88岁高龄了。
麦克・华莱士的人生也进入了倒计时阶段。
今年初，曾20次获得艾美奖的他宣布退休，这个消息成了全世界的头条新闻。尽管他的采访技巧不时会受到质疑，但是他的长青、名声以及展开重大访谈的能力，使他无愧为电视史上最重要的新闻人物之一。
