Brian Kelley
Library
Learning Resource Center Director
His personal
story about a ‘Ray Bradbury Moment’!
Near the end of the first Read Together Palm Beach County
program our director Brian Kelley was approached to set up an afternoon ‘live’
interview with 81 year old Ray Bradbury.
This event would be via a remote call from our Duncan Theatre at Palm
Beach State College, [formerly PBCC] to his home in Los Angeles. Radio
personality Renee Montagne from NPR Radio was hired to conduct the interview.
The stage was set with a large screen, a comfortable overstuffed chair, a
green end table and a microphone. There were over 400
attendees quietly yet anxiously waiting for this event to begin. [April
2002]
Mr. Kelley is telling me this story in his office at Palm
Beach State College not too long after the passing of Mr. Bradbury on July 5th,
2012. He tells me that he has told this story numerous times at library
events whenever the book Fahrenheit 451 or Ray
Bradbury is mentioned.
Mr. Kelley continues...
"The fun began 20 minutes before the interview started." Renee Montagne
made the initial contact to Los Angeles.
Mr. Bradbury is on the phone talking with Renee and he made the
commitment to begin the interview in 20 minutes. They did a sound check and
both Renee and Mr. Bradbury agreed to set their phones down until it was time
to begin the interview. The stage is
set. Behind Renee the big screen
has a larger than life picture of Mr. Bradbury and the spotlight is on the
chair.” Mr. Kelley is very pleased with the turn out as he looks out
towards the audience.
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Quote from website: Read Together Palm Beach County "In
2002, Renee Montagne of National Public Radio hosted a two hour public
discussion of Fahrenheit 451 at the Duncan Theatre. The event included a
telephone interview with author Ray Bradbury, in Los Angeles, who answered
questions from the audience in Lake Worth." Image Credit: http://pbcliteracy.org/general.php?category=Programs/Read-Together-Palm-Beach-County
Mr. Kelley continues...
“Around five till, we pick up the
phone and say, ‘Mr. Bradbury are you there’? We didn’t get any
answer. At this point the program is supposed
to begin. 10 minutes after the hour we are still not hearing a voice from
the other side! We thought something must have happened. He must have
forgotten that we called but we’re still on the line. Or he didn’t realize he had put the phone
down and thought we were calling back.
But at this point we don’t have another phone number or contact for
him. He didn’t have a cell phone. 2002 was ‘pre-everybody has a cell phone’ era.
He’s not the kind of person that would
have a cell phone even today."
"Because we are having difficulties contacting Mr. Bradbury, we make an announcement to the audience that we are having
some technical difficulties and we are currently trying to get Mr. Bradbury on
the line. All those involved in the set up for this event are in a cold
sweat. We are panicking and thought 'maybe
he took ill'. What should we do? Call the police in Los Angeles? Should we
call the library in Los Angeles and have someone go over to his house?"
"Someone thought of this idea...‘what if we got a cross reference
directory on his phone number to find out his street address and find the
nearby address and call those numbers?"
That’s
exactly what they did!
When your guest author has wandered away from the phone,
who you gonna call? A
librarian! Of Course!
The end of the story goes something like this...
“We called the City of West Palm
Beach Library. Their librarian looked up Mr. Bradbury’s phone number
in a cross-reference directory for Los Angeles, and found his
address. The librarian looked up his street and found a few neighbor's
phone numbers. We called a couple people,
and one of them walked over and knocked on his door, who in turn found Mr. Bradbury outside. The
neighbor told him to go inside and pick up the phone and that’s
what he did!”
Mr. Kelley said the interview
was a success and went surprisingly well after the difficult
delay. The program began around 15 after the hour instead of the top of
the hour. Mr. Kelley also said that this was the longest 15 minutes waiting and
wondering what they were going to do if they couldn't reach Mr. Bradbury with
400 people in the audience patiently waiting.
Mr. Kelley continues: “To this day,
I can’t ever hear the name
‘Ray Bradbury’ without thinking of that whole incident! Everything was perfect after that."
It
was definitely a ‘Ray Bradbury Moment’!
Librarians save the day!
This story was written from a recorded interview with Mr. Kelley
via our library Flip video device by Library Technician Colleen
Shaffer
Palm Beach State College
Lake Worth, Florida
Ray
Bradbury August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012
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