Meet the Author: Austin Country Club 3.2.22

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED! I am pleased to announce I will be speaking at

A WA BOOK CLUB MEET THE AUTHOR EVENT WEDNESDAY MARCH 2, 2022

AUSTIN COUNTRY CLUB

4408 Long Champ Drive, Austin, TX 78746

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.”

#nealspelce #withthebarkoff #austincountryclub #booktalk

Book Excerpt in UT's Life and Letters

With the Bark Off is available where books are sold.

An excerpt from With the Bark Off has been published in The University of Texas College of Liberal Arts magazine, Life and Letters. (It was the College of Arts and Sciences back in the good ole days!)

Here is an excerpt of the article:

The following is an excerpt of With the Bark Off: A Journalist’s Memories of LBJ and a Life in the News Media by Neal Spelce and Thomas Zigal. Both authors are graduates of the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin, which was still the College of Arts and Sciences when Spelce received his bachelor’s degrees in 1958. Spelce enrolled in the Plan II Honors Program in 1952 as a 16-year-old freshman. The program grounded him for his additional degrees – also received in 1958 – in Journalism and Radio and Television. The book was published in September 2021 by The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin.

A Page From Neal's 1958 University of Texas Yearbook & Today

Both sides Journalism

When Barry Goldwater was running against LBJ in 1964, the Republican presidential nominee booked a campaign stop in Austin, in the heart of LBJ country. Goldwater was a pilot, and he flew his own plane, a fairly large DC-3. We reporters headed out to the old Mueller airport in East Austin, and when Goldwater rolled to a stop on the landing strip, we were out there with our cameras. His supporters were there, too. He pushed open the pilot window and stuck his head out and waved to the crowd. “I’m glad to be here,” he said. “When I took off from Phoenix, they asked me if I’d ever been to Austin and if I knew where it was. I said, ‘No, I’ve never been to Austin, but I’m gonna fly east and when I get to a fairly good-sized city with only one TV tower, I’m going to land.’”

Read the entire article here: https://bit.ly/NS_LifeLetters

Many thanks to Tom Zigal, whose contribution to my memoir as well as this article was invaluable!

#ut #lifeandletters #nealspelce #withthebarkoff #universityoftexas

Bill Moyers. Take Time to Float.

I first met Bill Moyers in 1953, though he probably doesn’t remember it. I was a 17-year-old snare drummer and Bill was the emcee of a summer band concert-in-the-park in the deep East Texas town of Marshall. We were both on summer break as students from the University of Texas in Austin. Soon thereafter, our lives started to intertwine. We’ve been lifelong, long-distance friends since that time. We talk. We laugh.

Photo: Bill Moyers & Neal Spelce

My admiration and respect for Bill’s brilliance began early and has grown exponentially since then. Turns out, I was asked to fill Bill’s shoes (I fell way short, I might add) as a part-time reporter at KTBC-TV in Austin. We were both still UT students. And when Bill left the job, my UT journalism professor recommended me. I became aware right away that Bill had set an amazingly high bar of accomplishment.

And that high bar has been Bill’s standard to this day.

By the way, the public first became aware of Bill when, just minutes before Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Bill was whisked to Dallas to join LBJ on Air Force One before the plane took off for Washington, bearing the dead president’s body. Bill became LBJ’s White House press secretary.

Bill’s national media career is legendary. No need to recite his many successes here. Just Google him. It is truly impressive. His contributions during recent decades have been his acclaimed work on PBS.

What I want to point out now is some personal advice he gave to me two decades ago that still rings true today. Not many are aware that Bill was a seminary student back in the day. He was an ordained minister.

But they may be aware Bill’s body of professional work has included some important productions about philosophy, faith, and theology. In fact, one of his most memorable shows was where he spent the entire program analyzing the legendary hymn, Amazing Grace.

As I write in my just-released memoir With The Bark Off, A Journalist’s Memories of LBJ and a Life in the News Media: “He did something very special for me when I had five bypasses in open heart surgery. Bill had heart surgery himself and he sent me the sweetest personal note.”

This was more than 20 years ago. He was telling me to settle down, take it easy, relax.

And he gave me words to live by in his own, eloquent way: “Don’t forget to take time to float every day.”

https://billmoyers.com/

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