Mike Wallace: A Life

It’s not widely known that 60 Minutes’ Mike Wallace started in Chicago radio-television of the 1940s as actor Myron Wallace, appearing in Ma Perkins and other soap operas. And earlier, as Rader reminds readers in this colorful biography, Wallace was The Green Hornet’s announcer. With Night Beat in the late 1950s, after having moved to New York, the ambitious Wallace became an “overnight celebrity” because of his aggressive, rapid-fire interviews: “Night after night, Mike eviscerated them like a matador.” Abrasive bulldog tactics became his signature style, and when 60 Minutes began in 1968, Wallace’s investigative reporting and “ambush interviews” eventually brought him both controversy but also acclaim as one of the best broadcast journalists. Wallace has written his own memoirs more than once (Close Encounters in 1984; Between You and Me, 2005), which spliced in memorable interviews. Rader fills in the gaps with comprehensive coverage that includes accusations of “juvenile” sexual antics, self-doubts, lawsuits, the 1962 accidental death of his son, failed marriages, bouts with depression, a suicide attempt, and his “Jekyll and Hyde personality—sometimes magnanimous and charming, other times almost sadistic.” Influenced by his screenwriting, Rader (Waterworld) employs a cinematic writing style for this vivid portrait of Wallace set against a backdrop of technological television innovations. Agent David Kuhn. (Apr. 24)