READ: Bill O'Reilly, ELI WALLACH ON ACTORS AND ACTING [February 5, 1974]
READ: Bill O'Reilly, THE DEVIL BEHIND THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES [April 30, 1974]
Bill O’Reilly is many things. He’s loud. He’s popular. He's unsexy. He can be a bit rude. And as some suspect, he might be too smart for what he’s saying.
But one thing we never thought we’d be calling Bill O’Reilly was "one of our own." Yes, yes, let it be known that the grand poo-bah of cable television "news," was once a humble (though probably not too humble) correspondent for the Boston Phoenix.
As it turns out, way back in his college days, the then Boston University grad student penned a few pieces for the Phoenix and for the influential Cambridge based weekly the Real Paper. While the annals of time had wiped these memories from the collective Phoenix mind, we were recently reminded of Mr. O’Reilly’s contributions to our beloved publication via this BU Today post from 2009.
The BU Today piece reprints some excerpts from O’Reilly’s 2009 book, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity. Within these chosen paragraphs, O’Reilly discusses covering the school integrations of the early '70s, asserts his opposition to Jefferson Airplane, blames Hunter S. Thompson’s suicide on drugs, and, as is his typical habit, makes himself sound like a pompous, self-important do-gooder. But, he also sneaks in this sentence: "In addition to the Free Press [BU’s student paper], I got stuff published in the Boston Phoenix and the Real Paper.”
And so it was off to the archives.
What we found was a bit surprising. It turns out that, yes, O’Reilly
definitely did get published in both the Phoenix and the Real Paper. However, his pieces were noticeably lacking in the right-wing fire and brimstone and the general vitriol he is now known for. In fact, his contributions were largely about movies (including this interview with the soon-to-be-honorary-Oscar-ified Eli Wallach).
But the one that really caught our eye was a piece in which O’Reilly watches the classic porno The Devil in Miss Jones
and immediately thereafter goes out for sandwiches with the film’s director, Gerard Damiano. As totally awesome as that is, it gets even better. While discussing Damiano’s involvement in the legendary skin flick, Deep Throat, O’Reilly writes this: "In an interview with Linda Lovelace last November, the performer told me that she was an afterthought for the lead in Deep Throat."
Whoa. Whoa. Hold it right there Mr. Family Values. So that’s not one, but two stories in which O’Reilly interviews personalities in the adult film
industry. I guess ol’ Bill isn’t lying when he says that he started out doing hard journalism (Zing!)
Latest Slideshows
