Sun Flashbacks: Bergen interview wound up as an obit

Saturday, July 1, 2000 | 2:35 a.m.

Tom Flagg, 1978-79 Local government and general assignment reporter, on how a proposed simple feature about an aging celebrity turned into a front-page story that ran in newspapers nationwide:

"I was given an assignment to interview (famed ventriloquist) Edgar Bergen at Caesars Palace. I arrived at about 10 a.m. and called his room. Someone answered the phone and told me he was not quite ready, and asked me to call back.

"I called his room again and was told he still was not ready. I called a third time and one of the hotel's spokesmen told me that Mr. Bergen apparently died in his sleep and that they discovered it when they went to wake him up for my interview with him.

"I interviewed celebrities at the hotel who were shocked over the news and went back to the paper to write the obituary, which they ran under a huge banner headline. Myram Borders, the United Press International Las Vegas bureau chief, put the story on the wire and it ran in newspapers all over the country.

"One of the things I enjoyed about working for the Sun was that I got to chat with Hank about several stories. It was something rare for a young reporter back then to get to talk to the man who was the publisher and owner of the newspaper -- and it is something that is even rarer now."

Today, Tom Flagg is director of news and public information for UNLV.