Remembering era of rotary phones, change that came next

Remember the time before cable, satellite and wireless telecommunications, back when AT&T had a monopoly on phone service in the United States? 

Award-winning filmmaker Cliff Hackel, a long-time Rappahannock weekender, has been immersed in research about that era.

Hackel will be at the Little Washington Theatre on Saturday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m. to talk about his recent work as producer and editor of “When Wire Was King: The Transformation of Telecommunications.” The film is a PBS documentary describing the society-changing 1980s telecommunications revolution.

Hackel is a film producer, director and editor who has led international teams and performed nearly every job in big league television production. He has edited five shows that won Emmy awards, and in 2007 he won Peabody and Dupont awards for CNN’s “God’s Warriors,” hosted by Christiane Amanpour.

The free event is part of the RAAC Film-Talkback series, sponsored by both Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community and Rapp at Home, at the theater, 291 Gay Street in Little Washington.

After the showing of the hour-long version of the film, Hackel will discuss it on stage with director and executive producer Jennifer Manner, and producer and writer LeeAnn Dance.

The trio will talk about what happened when the federal government challenged AT&T, and why it is important for Americans to be aware of what drives, threatens and governs the technology on which we all depend.

Hackel was asked in an interview to comment on the film he calls “WWWK” and how he juggles his professional activities with his love for Rappahannock:  

Tell us about WWWK.

“When Wire Was King” is about the history of telecommunications but centering on the breakup of AT&T, which happened in 1984. We interviewed a lot of people who were there at the time, including lawyers in the court case and people who worked for AT&T, as well as some of the competition.

We also interviewed former Senator Tim Wirth, who is a longtime Rappahannock local. When he was in the House, as Chair of the Telecommunications Subcommittee, he played a big role in bringing competition to the video and telephone industries.

The film is a great yarn about what the world was like in the 80s and what caused telecommunications to grow and blossom. It goes from the rotary phone all the way to smartphones and lots of stops in between. 

Any particular challenges in making this film?

Let me speak about how hard it was to film. One challenge was that we did it during the pandemic, and it was hard to get people to agree to an interview, because they would have to be around a crew.

What eventually happened in the film and television industries is we would send kits out to people we wanted to interview. We would send them the camera and the lighting and the sound equipment. And through Zoom calls we would teach them where to put the camera, where to put the lights, where to press record, and how to send it back to us. Some interviews would take several days, and it was a different way of working.

Another challenge is that this is an archival film, and to find old footage from AT&T was difficult because they didn’t want to cooperate and didn’t see any upside to sharing footage with us. Fortunately, LeeAnn is a great researcher of archival material, and she found some good stuff from libraries, called “stock houses,” where you pay for the footage, sometimes very expensively. Sometimes it’s the only way to do a show.

What is one of your favorite lines from the documentary?

We used this during the opening and in the body of the film. It was a Dan Rather quote, and it was a play on the words in an old AT&T commercial, “Reach out and touch someone.” Of course, AT&T was so pernicious in their attitude about staying a monopoly.

Dan Rather’s quote on the news one night, talking about AT&T, was they wanted to “Reach out and crush someone.” That always got a big laugh when we screened the film.

How did you discover Rappahannock?

I originally started coming out 15 years ago because my former CNN colleague — and now WWWK co-producer — LeeAnn Dance had a house here. She invited me and my wife, Kerry Hannon, out for a weekend, and from there we got to know the area.

What for you is the magic of Rappahannock?

I’ve been spending a little time lately up on Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. Sometimes when you look at the vistas, you can see for 20 or 30 miles without seeing any structures. It’s all trees or mountains. To me, that’s just incredible. I split my time between Washington, D.C., and Rappahannock, which is the place to clear my head. Its physical beauty has a way of relaxing you, so you can free your mind.

Do you ever do film work here?

I’ve done some filming here in Rappahannock, but I haven’t completed the project. It’s still in the thought process, and I haven’t finished shooting yet, but it’s about what it’s like to live down a gravel road, of which, you know, there are many in Rappahannock County.

I always wondered who actually does live down gravel roads, and then I realized it’s people like me. Now we’ve done some shooting and some interviews. There’s a lot of beauty in the county that I hope to capture.

Also, I collaborated on one project for Foothills Forum. I was a producer and editor for a story, called “Cancer is Messy,” that won some awards.

Tell us about a few of your favorite film projects.

First, I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with great teams. One person doesn’t do it all. Television is very collaborative, and that’s something I enjoy doing a lot – collaborating with other talented people. One key to my success is that I’ve worked with people smarter than me, and it makes me strive to get better and to learn and to grow.

At CNN, I had a few projects that I felt very close to. One was “In the Footsteps of Bin Laden.” The concept of the show was we interviewed people who knew him personally. I got to travel to 10 different countries, including Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, to talk to people who knew Osama Bin Laden. This was while he was still alive, so it was a chilling and exciting project.

Another of my favorite projects was for public television, and it was a profile of Dave Brubeck, the jazz musician. I literally followed him around, on and off, for close to a year– in Germany, England, and all over the United States. Lots of interviews, lots of him performing. I got a real appreciation for jazz. The musicians would tell me how they improvise. They’d say, “Well, when we play a song, we never play it the same way twice.” Which I always thought was terrific and very true.

Music has been a theme in some of your other projects, right?

I’ve done a lot of music shows. One was a profile for CNN of a great French-Canadian producer, Daniel Lanois. He produced U2, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson. I got to meet and interview Willie and Emmylou. I’ve also edited and produced profiles of country music artists and different genres of music.

Parting thoughts?

I’m very excited to view WWWK in the Little Washington Theatre because Rappahannock is just a special place for me. And I think that there’ll be a genuine interest because a lot of the population here remembers when there was just one phone company, and AT&T was a monopoly, and it was the biggest company in the world.

I’ve won awards for my films, but when someone asks me what my favorite show is, I always say, it’s what I’m working on right now.

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