Herb Caen reflects on being a San Francisco columnist

KPIX-TV news footage from July 1966 featuring scenes from an interview with journalist Herb Caen (1916-1997), who shares his perspective on being a newspaper columnist in San Francisco. Caen lists the issues which he finds important such as civil rights, abortion, civic planning and the Vietnam War and reflects that: "I think a column has to have a backbone of some kind, otherwise it's just a collection of meaningless trivia. A column has to stand for something." Caen also explains how he avoids becoming cynical or "jaundiced" about city life and emphasizes a column needs to stay "contemporary." Note that Caen, a Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote his column for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper for 58 years and in the week that this Ch.5 interview was made (mid July), he had lunch with actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. Opening graphic designed by Carrie Hawks.

This 16mm b&w positive reversal film print was transferred in 4K (4096 x 2970) using a Lasergraphics ScanStation film scanner, in July 2023.