It was April 1, 1968 at 1:25pm in the afternoon. Peggy Fleming arrived at our home for a filmed interview to be used in a motion picture I was producing. It was her return home to Colorado Springs after winning the gold medal. There were no national news media at our house, in fact it was her only interview that she gave to anyone in Colorado Springs.
Her available time was short as we quickly seated her in a chair in the living room. All the appropriate lighting was set the night before. We quickly rolled the camera and sound as my mother Janet sat off camera and asked a series of four questions.
We were shooting on film, ofcourse. Videotape was out of question. For camera buffs, it was an Auricon Pro 600 with Angenieux zoom lens. Sound was recorded on magnetic film. The filmstock was Ektachrome Commercial 7255. This was a very special time for me. It was my first film out of college and Peggy Fleming has become a celebrity.
At exactly 1:38pm we said a cordial goodbye to Peggy and she caught a plane to New York to sign a contract with an agent and appear on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
The final film was never printed to the quality of the original. Since that time all the footage has been remastered and transferred to digital video with remarkable results. Segments have been shown on the Lifetime Network. To this day, Peggy Fleming probably does not remember those 13 minutes that were so important to me. I am deeply indebted to her mother Doris for helping me with the details of scheduling the interview.
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