In the years before the British Invasion, only one performer rivaled the chart dominance of Elvis Presley, and that was Pat Boone. In the first half, he joined George in the LA studio to discuss his long career and recent projects. Now 88 years old, in 1957, Boone was voted the #1 male recording artist (Elvis at the time was #2). He recalled how Elvis was his opening act in 1955, and in later years when Elvis was performing at the Hilton in Las Vegas, he asked Boone about attending church. Elvis lamented that he couldn't go because he didn't want to draw attention away from the pastor.
Boone talked about how when his career took off at just age 23, he and his wife Shirley bought a home in Beverly Hills. At this time, he was hosting the Pat Boone Chevy TV show, on the cover of TV Guide, and making records and movies. All the big music stars appeared on his show, including Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, and Ella Fitzgerald. He also reminisced about when he played against type in 1997, recording a "heavy metal" album. Boone shared details of his recent projects, including the book "If" about his journey and religious faith, and the movie The Mulligan, a parable of second chances.
----------------
Ghost hunter John Kachuba has investigated hundreds of haunted locations throughout the world. In the latter half, he shared his work researching the myths, magic, and meaning surrounding shapeshifters - people said to transform into an animal or some other form. The lore for such phenomena is found in ancient literature and dates even further back to a neolithic cave painting that seems to depict a shaman transforming into a deer with antlers. In Japanese culture, many ghosts are described as shapeshifters, but they tend to transform into inanimate objects rather than animals, he revealed.
Whether a person actually transforms into a physical animal or is using a kind of mind control to make people see them that way is open to conjecture, Kachuba commented. He believes it is likely the latter-- a kind of transformation in the mind's eye. He detailed a case where a man possibly used mind power to make a belligerent drunk think that he had a tiger's face and leave him alone. Kachuba also recounted a 1996 case in Uttar Pradesh, India, where 33 children were abducted and killed over several months, and witnesses swore they saw a "man-wolf" that was snatching the kids. Shapeshifters aren't necessarily evil in nature, he said, like the "ladies of fire" in Italy --fairies that can change their shape and are known for doing kind acts like plowing a farmer's field during the night.
News segment guests: Charles Coppes, John M. Curtis