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Program 05-12-11-A

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Pete Best should have been famous beyond his wildest dreams. He had Ringo's job just months before the Beatles' "Love Me Do" became a smash hit. But he got tossed out of the band and ended up working for decades as a civil servant. So does Pete Best regret how his life turned out? Not really. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll talk about regret and how life has a way of taking some crazy turns.

SEGMENT 1:

Cary Sudler's family once owned a plantation and slaves in Maryland. Sudler returns to his ancestral home to apologize to the black members of his family for the injustice of slavery. Steve Paulson talks with Sudler and we hear location sound and remarks from various of Sudler's relatives, black and white.

SEGMENT 2:

Steve Paulson talks with Pete Best who was the Beatles drummer before Ringo Starr. Pete Best worked as a civil servant in Liverpool and says he has no regrets. He has a family and a band and claims to have had a good life. Also, classical pianist Leon Fleisher was sidelined for many years by a medical condition that crippled his right hand. He tells Jim Fleming how he continued to make music, and how he made a breakthrough with botox. And we hear excerpts from his new recording which is called "Two Hands."

SEGMENT 3:

Karen Levine is the author of "Hana's Suitcase." Hana was a little girl killed in the Holocaust. How her suitcase came into the possession of a Japanese school teacher some 60 years later is the substance of the book "Hanna's Suitcase." This piece explains the impact it's still having on people's lives today.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 05-12-11-A.

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Books:

• Roag Best (with Pete Best & Rory Best), The Beatles: the true beginnings (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press).
  
• Karen Levine, Hana's Suitcase: a true story (Albert Whitman & Co).

Music:

• Ernest Bloch's "Jewish Life" and "Suite 1 for Solo Cello" from the CD
  Suites Pur Violoncelle on Harmonia Mundi Records.
• Sweet Honey in the Rock's "Echos" from Breaths on Flying Fish Records.
• Beatles. "Hello Little Girl," "Three Cool Cats," and "Love Me Do" from the Beatles Anthology Vol. 1. Capital Records.
• The Pete Best Band. "Diana" and "Sleepwalk" from Music Club Records.
• Leon Fleisher playing with the Cleveland Orchestra: Rachmaninoff's
  "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Opus 43" on Franck: Symphonic
  Variations. CBS Records.
• Leon Fleisher playing Scarlatti's "Sonata in E Major" on "Two Hands" on Vanguard Classics.
• Leon Fleisher playing Schubert's "Sonata in B Flat Major" on "Two Hands" on Vanguard Classics.
  

Distribution dates:

week of 07/09/2006 - hour 2 week of 12/11/2005 - hour 1	Listen!

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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