Sounds from Silence

Don't interrupt your subject, unless his house is burning or you are running out of time. Barbara Walters, who is not too shy to cut into a subject's ramblings if time is short, introduced Mercedes McCambridge on the Today show as a fine actress who once had been an alcoholic. "Not was an alcoholic," said McCambridge. "Is an alcoholic." She then delivered a moving monologue on her battle with the bottle, consuming the entire time slot. At the conclusion, Walters spoke for the first time since the introduction: "Thank you, Miss McCambridge."

Silence is golden as an interviewing technique. "The single most interesting thing that you can do in television, I find, is to ask a good question and then let the answer hang there for two or three or four seconds as though you're expecting more," says Mike Wallace. "You know what? They get a little embarrassed and give you more."

Silence by omission can elicit information perhaps impervious to the most pointed query. Kap Monohan, a drama critic for the Pittsburgh Press, once heard a rumor that Clara Bow - the "It" girl of films - was going to retire at the height of her popularity to marry and raise a family. When the head of Bow's studio came within Monohan's range, the writer boned up on his man and requested an interview.

'How are Patti and Connie?" Monohan asked as they shook hands. The man's face lit up at the mention of his granddaughters.