Aside from the '60 Minutes' work there are two segments of Mike Wallace's life I remember, one I wish I could get my hands on, and one I remember directly.
Somewhere in the ether of the airwaves I remember him interviewing Fiorello La Guardia, the three-term legendary mayor of New York City. Since La Guardia passed away in 1947, and I wasn't yet annoying people myself, my guess is I heard a replay of a radio interview Mike Wallace had done with Fiorello, my guess being after he left office in 1945. Of course, I could be wrong, but while Mr. Wallace perhaps couldn't have interviewed Julius Ceasar, he could easily have interviewed Fiorello La Guardia.
The second instance of a historical Mike Wallace was unearthed when I saw the documentary movie 'On the Bowery,' re-released in 2010 at one of those art house theaters. Reading about the movie I had read that Mike Wallace had interviewed the primary afflicted character in the movie, Ray Salyer, on his nightly show, 'Night Beat,' on April 24, 1957. The show was on Channel 5, from 11 PM to 12 AM. I somewhat remember hearing about the show in general, but certainly didn't stay up for it, even if the TV was back in the living room, freshly back from the TV repair shop where it spent the other half of its life.
After seeing the movie, I made a blog entry and revealed that a digital newspaper search of the very limited TV listings of the era did indeed include "Bowery denizen Ray Salyer" appearing on Mike's show 'Night Beat,' as well as "journalist Carl Rowan."
I wondered then, as I do now, if Mike remembered Mr. Salyer, who despite being offered a $40,000 Hollywood contract after the documentary didn't see any advantage to his new found celebrity status and disappeared back into the alleys, saying, "I just want the Bowery and to be left alone."
Of course, most of us remember something about Mike Wallace.
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