Thursday, April 22, 2010

Talk shop

Jon Swain (center) flanked by two hangers-on, myself (left) and Nick Ray (right)
It was sweltering hot, the pa system was inadequate and the organisers were completely unprepared for the huge turnout, and to be honest the panel session could've gone on into the wee hours, the interest was that high. The war correspondents from the late 60s and 70s were out in full force with Al Rockoff snapping merrily away as Jon Swain, Sylvana Foa, Dan Southerland and T Jeff Williams regaled us with their memories, paying particular emphasis to the gung-ho style of reporting in those days and the not to be forgotten contribution from their Cambodian fixers and fellow journalists. Tim Page stood up at the end to announce that the remains recovered recently did not belong to his friend Sean Flynn, George Hamilton, the suave, tanned actor from Hollywood was on hand to lend the event some kudos, but it was the incredibly large turnout that caught everyone by surprise and almost turned the night into a shambles. It was rescued but only just. Jon Swain and Elizabeth Becker graciously signed copies of their excellent books, River of Time and When The War Was Over, which have been in my possession for 15 and 20 years respectively. Nice people.
Three of the war correspondents at tonight's event, Jon Swain, Elizabeth Becker (center) and Sylvana Foa
My camera flash has managed to rob actor George Hamilton of his trademark golden tan - sorry George.
Veteran photographer Al Rockoff (right) snapping away at tonight's event
Jon Swain telling the packed audience of his memories of Phnom Penh
The animated Sylvana Foa and the more restrained T Jeff Williams at tonight's panel discussion
A wall of photos of the journalists who were killed or are MIA from the Cambodia conflict

Labels: ,

5 Comments:

Anonymous eric said...

Good pictures, A...
You took them?

April 23, 2010 12:13 AM  
Blogger Andy Brouwer said...

You taking the pis* again Eric?
I took them except the one with me in it :-)
the place was awash with cameramen and happy snappers.
Andy

April 23, 2010 8:44 AM  
Blogger Dave said...

Thanks for posting this mate, I wish I could have been there.
Now I am stuck in Bangkok where they are chucking grenades at each other.
Keep up the good work! Hi to Mr Ray.
Dave

April 23, 2010 10:35 AM  
Anonymous Vinh Dao said...

Thanks for the nice commentary from the night. We were very surprised to see the large turnout for the event. Thanks to all that showed up.
We have pics up for the event here:

http://www.opccambodia.org/events/oldhackspanel/oldhackspanel.html

and we are assembling a video (with full sound) of the discussion for podcast upload and will let you know when it will be available for download.

April 24, 2010 11:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is George Hamilton doing over there?

April 26, 2010 8:58 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home