Best-known as the host of “The Dick Cavett Show,” Cavett is a three-time Emmy award winner with a television career spanning five decades. He is also author of Cavett (1974), Eye on Cavett (1983) Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary and Off-Screen Secrets (2010) and Brief Encounters: Conversations, Magic Moments and Assorted Hijinks (2014) and has two PBS specials: Dick Cavett’s Watergate (2014) and Dick Cavett’s Vietnam (2015). A Nebraska native from Gibbon, Cavett will appear on stage with long-time friend Ron Hull. “Dick Cavett is truly a Nebraska son,” Hull said. “He has never forgotten his roots and he’s contributed his auspicious talent to our culture and myriad Nebraska events throughout his life.”
Hull’s television career also spans decades, beginning in 1955 as a producer-director at Nebraska Educational Television where he currently serves as Senior Advisor. Hull also served stints with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington D.C. and the U.S. Foreign Service in Vietnam. He is also author of Backstage: Stories of My Life in Public Television (2012), an autobiography that includes highlights of his lifelong career.
Not only do Hull and Cavett share Nebraskan roots and careers in television, they have Nebraska’s Poet Laureate in Perpetuity in common – both interviewed writer John G. Neihardt for television. Neihardt, a graduate of Wayne Normal School (now Wayne State College) in 1896 at the age of 16, had returned to Nebraska in the 1970’s after a successful career as a writer. During this time, he lived in Lincoln as well as conducted interviews with both Cavett and Hull. Neihardt’s popularity exploded after his 1972 appearance on “The Dick Cavett Show” introduced a new generation to the poet’s life and works. Hull’s interviews in Bancroft also preserved Neihardt’s legacy. "For me, the name 'Neihardt' and the name 'Nebraska' are of just about equal weight," Cavett said.
Hull and Cavett will also appear for a book signing following the program with DVD's and books available for purchase at the event. Ticket admission for the event is $10 for the general public and free to Wayne State College students. Event proceeds will directly support the John G. Neihardt State Historic Site, a branch museum of the Nebraska State Historical Society in Bancroft, NE.
