An interview with Jiří Planner and writer Pavel Kosatík. In the 1950s, Jiří Planner met Jiří Suchý, Waldemar Matuška, and other stars of the Semafor theater, where he became the operational director from its inception in 1959. He experienced its most glorious era, when Karel Gott, Eva Pilarová, Hana Hegerová, Jiří Šlitr, and many others performed there, and he reminisces about life in artistic Prague despite the communists. Desiring a life in a free world, he emigrated to the West. There, he became an editor for Radio Free Europe, first in its Munich office and then in New York, where he became famous for his music programs, inviting guests ranging from Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald to The Beatles. He is perhaps the only Czech who, besides a plethora of jazz musicians, knew figures like Andy Warhol and Jimi Hendrix, attended the Woodstock festival with Janis Joplin, and was also a long-time personal friend of Ferdinand Peroutka, Pavel Tigrid, Jiří Voskovec, and Miloš Forman. He can speak about all of this with wit and humor. The book is a report on how Czech life could also be lived in the difficult 20th century: with courage against all those who tried to control people, and with respect and love for the creators who…
