A new book is giving the world an in-depth look at the life and career of longtime Channel 2 anchorman, Bill Kurtis, and people may or may not be surprised by why Kurtis who is 85 years old decided to write the book "Whirlwind: My Life Reporting the News" now.
"What prompted it, was a fear that my tombstone would have 'Anchorman, The Movie' written on it because so many people now say 'oh yeah, you were the narrator in that movie,' and I like to say 'you know, I did a lot more -- like 60 years -- before that movie came along," explains Kurtis.
Those 60 years are covered in vivid detail in the book which begins fittingly with the story that would cement his career in broadcasting -- a massive, deadly tornado in Topeka, Kansas on June 8, 1966 that led to him to utter five words on air that saved countless lives.
"I said 'for God's sake take cover," recalls Kurtis who still gets emotional when talking about the tornado that killed 17 people and injured more that 500 others.
"I choke up every time I tell the story. You're a 26 year old kid, and you're standing in front of a tv camera. There's nobody coming to your help. The general manager says 'give the warning,' remembers Kurtis. "We all went through it together," he adds.
That broadcast helped land him a big city gig at WBBM TV in Chicago later that same year. "I was 26 years old, and I came right out of the hay fields, and law school and the tornado of Kansas. Blown in and my first job was covering Richard Speck," says Kurtis.
That high-profile story would be followed by a number of others including Tokyo Rose, The Chicago 7, Charles Manson, and the Vietnam War. It was in Vietnam that Kurtis visited an orphanage and witnessed a heartbreaking scene that haunts him to this day.
He describes it saying, "about 100 children in a concrete, I call it a bathtub." Adding that there was a desperation and sadness among them. "(I) realized the children had never been held. Their little arms were sticking straight up. They rushed me, trying to climb up, just the touch of skin and a human being and they would have this kind of cry and then when they realized I wasn't going to pick them up, they would scream."
As the memory floods back, so do the emotions. "The thought of that and what we do to children during war is pretty hard to get out of your head," Kurtis reflects.
But Kurtis adds that he understood the tremendous responsibility he had to tell the story and others stories coming out of Vietnam -- including the dangers of Agent Orange and its link to several cancers. Kurtis says that is the work he's most proud of in his storied career.
"We broke the agent orange story. We didn't know how big it was going to be. Turns out it's still going on. We had to prove the connection, and today the last I looked there were 690,000 veterans compensated for agent orange exposure," says Kurtis who proudly adds, "you help so many people and that's what we want. We want to have an impact."
Kurtis says writing the book allowed him to look back on all those moments of impact and much more. "I really loved it because you get to relive your life again," a grateful Kurtis reflects.
