This week on From the Vault we join the centennial celebration of Stanley Kramer, legendary Hollywood film producer and director. Kramer’s 35 films, which were responsible for 16 Academy Awards through 85 Oscar nominations, include acclaimed classics such as Death of a Salesman (1952), The Wild One (1954), The Defiant Ones (1958), Ship of Fools (1965), and Bless the Beasts and Children (1971). In this episode, we’ll share with you a 1968 interview with Kramer in San Francisco for the opening of perhaps one of his best-known films, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), a comedic drama that tackles the emotions of interracial marriage, which was still illegal in 17 states when the movie premiered. Then, we’ll speak with Karen Sharpe Kramer (Stanly Kramer’s widow) and daughter Katharine ‘Kat’ Kramer about their lives in the family of the visionary filmmaker, and how they are continuing his legacy.
Special thanks to Karen Sharpe Kramer and Kat Kramer, co-producer of the film series Films That Change the World.
From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.
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