Spiderlegs & History

"In 1923 . . . when I danced with the wife of the mayor of Fairbanks . . . she clapped me on the shoulder and exclaimed, 'Boy, you're some spieler!' " Still coming over loud & clear, radio's aging (72), clip-voiced Commentator H. V. Kaltenborn went after the reading public last week with his autobiographical Fifty Fabulous Years (Putnam; $3.50).

Milwaukee-born Hans ("Dean of Radio Commentators") von Kaltenborn went into radio in the breathless, carbon-mike '20s. In the course of his news gathering, he had an opportunity to rub elbows and knock heads with some of contemporary history's greatest heroes and biggest heels. With no foolish pretense to modesty, Fifty Fabulous Years recalls some of his most colorful experiences.

Shrieks & Secrets. Journeying to China in 1927, "Kalty" interviewed Chiang Kaishek, "an altogether charming human being" at a back province Buddhist monastery. The generalissimo, says Kaltenborn, "was clearly pleased that we had come so far to see him," and sent a breakfast of "California oranges and . . . San Francisco chocolate drops." Mussolini was pleased, too. "He even treated us as important guests by rising from his chair and advancing to the front of his desk while we covered the interminable distance . . . across the immense room." When Il Duce had trouble with English words, recalls Kaltenborn, "I would tentatively suggest one. Several times he accepted it, but more often he rejected it and chose one of his own."

Hitler, who "had no love for foreign newsmen," was not quite so cordial. Visiting Berchtesgaden in 1932, Kaltenborn's prodding on anti-Semitism ("I purposely irritated him with my first question") provoked the Fuehrer to shriek: " 'Who are you to talk about who should be allowed in Germany?' " Kaltenborn says that "got us off on the tone which dominated the entire interview."

In 1938, with war brewing, Newshound Kaltenborn was sniffing out inside dope for U.S. radio listeners. Says he happily: "The intensity with which America listened to the radio reports of the Munich crisis was without parallel." In London after Munich, U.S. Ambassador to Britain Joseph P. Kennedy told him a secret: ' 'You have come to me in one of the most important moments in world history! We are engaged in a fight for time.' "

Generals & Sinners. In August 1939, Pundit Kaltenborn confesses, he made a prize boner. Asked if he thought war would come soon, he said in clipped, confident tones: "The odds are still seven to five in favor of more appeasement." Two days later, "Hitler's blitzkrieg roared across the Polish frontier."

Globetrotting after the war, Kaltenborn had an interview with Mahatma Gandhi shortly before his death. "He apologized for receiving us in a reclining position, explaining that he was still weak from his recent fast ... I asked Gandhi if he would accept the American ballpoint pen I had in my vest pocket." When secretaries scrambled for the trinket, "turning to me [Gandhi] said with a wan smile, 'You see how I am surrounded by selfish sinners.' "

His assorted adventures and achievements, concludes Kaltenborn, have been fun to write about, "for who does not like talking about himself?" With little hope of living another fabulous half century, he may find some consolation in the knowledge that both "the United States and 'Spiderlegs Kalty' have come a long way in fifty years."

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