Q&A: Roger Ebert

In the 1960s, Chicago film criticism was dominated by little old ladies in funny hats, including the memorably monikered Mae Tinee at the Tribune. So when the Sun-Times hired an enthusiastic University of Illinois grad named Roger Ebert as its film critic in 1967, it was like a breath of fresh air. Here was a guy who loved movies and loved Hollywood but was equally keen on the adventurous work then emerging from all over the world. So stimulating were his voice and outlook that I, a local high school student and budding film nut, began writing to him about current films and the Chicago scene. He began running them in the paper, and so it was that a future film critic's words saw print for the first time.