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Neal Spelce at Winedale: 2.22.22

  • 1 min read

I'm happy to be the guest speaker at the Winedale Historical Site's monthly meeting. It will be held remotely, and will be accessible virtually

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Join us on Tuesday, February 22 at noon for a special book talk with legendary newsman (and Briscoe Center advisory council member) @NealSpelce. He will discuss his recent memoir, “With the Bark Off,” and his time working with LBJ in the White House. Contact Tricia Blakistone at tricia.blakistone@austin.utexas.edu for a link to this talk. Neal’s book was published by the center and is distributed by @UniversityofTexasPress


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Winedale Historic Landmark

Winedale

A Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, State Antiquities Landmark, and on the National Register of Historic Places; Winedale is in northern Fayette County, and a division of the University of Texas at Austin's Briscoe Center for American History.



Learn More Here: https://briscoecenter.org/winedale/


Neal Spelce in Austin American Statesman

  • 2 min read

Updated: Feb 7, 2022

Excellent History Feature on Neal Spelce in the February 5, 2022 Austin American Statesman, interview with Michael Barnes.



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Neal's interview in Austin 360 On the Scene

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Excerpt from the interview:

In one way or another, Neal Spelce has been involved in TV news almost since the birth of TV news.


He started working for the family of future President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson at Austin's KTBC in 1956, just 16 years after Lowell Thomas hosted the first-ever, regularly scheduled news broadcast on television in 1940.


The Johnson-owned KTBC, founded in 1952, remained the only VHF TV channel in Austin until 1965. Its program director, late humorist Cactus Pryor, cherry-picked the best shows from the national networks — CBS, ABC, NBC and, before 1956, the now-gone Dumont Television Network.


Born in 1936, Spelce is perhaps best known as the newsman who broadcast live on the scene as Charles Whitman shot anyone who moved from his roost atop the University of Texas Tower on Aug. 1, 1966. His voice was heard across America as the first mass shooting on a college campus exploded all around him.Spelce also enjoyed a long career as a TV news anchor and a media consultant. Along the way, he met the famous and the infamous, sweetening each encounter with a bit of his Arkansas country charm.


Tower Books, UT Press and the Briscoe Center for American History recently joined forces to publish his lively memoir, "With the Bark Off," a phrase that LBJ used when he opened the LBJ Presidential Library in 1971 as he promised a "warts and all" access to history.


I interviewed Spelce as soon as I finished the last page of this intriguing set of yarns that is also filled with crucial Texas, Austin and American history.


Read the entire article here:






Book Talk Westwood Country Club 1.25.22

  • 1 min read

I will be answering questions about my memoir, With the Bark Off at

WESTWOOD COUNTRY CLUB BOOK CLUB'S

ONLINE MEMBER EVENT TUESDAY | JANUARY 25, 2022 | NOON

WESTWOOD COUNTRY CLUB

Via Zoom

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Event Organizer

Literary Agent, Kathleen Niendorff


About With the Bark Off

What if you got a call from Lyndon Johnson to be in Washington DC tomorrow to take a trip around the world? If you are twenty-five-year-old broadcast journalist Neal Spelce, you buckle up. A two-week diplomatic dream trip turned into a lifelong rollercoaster ride.

Spelce began his career as a part-time journalist in the LBJ family-owned Austin TV station in 1956, which vaulted him into a lifetime of memorable experiences with Johnson and many icons of the twentieth century. From his live reporting during the University of Texas Tower shooting tragedy to his lifelong association with LBJ, Spelce found himself behind the scenes in many of the twentieth century’s crucial moments.


The Austin-based journalist shares candid moments with LBJ and five other US presidents, including a rare interview with father and son presidents George Bush while the three were fishing and talking in a small bass boat on a Texas lake.

During his lengthy media career, Spelce saw Austin grow from a college town to a thriving city. Along the way he interacted with Texas legends such as Darrell Royal, Willie Nelson, Walter Cronkite, and more, all part of entertaining stories that he tells, as LBJ liked to say, “with the bark off.”


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