Behind the PBS SOCAL Story: My Extra 5 Minutes of Fame

By Allen R. Kuhn
Photographs courtesy of Matt Bass, Director of Photography PBS

Behind the PBS SOCAL Story: My 15 Minutes of Fame and some Additional Footage from the Original Interview

In November of 2024, I was working on a project for VeloceToday, I heard “Ride of the Valkyries” playing on our phone. Another spam call, I thought. I looked over, and the name Tom Young showed up; by gosh, a real phone call! He was calling to see if I would help PBS SOCAL put together a half-hour show for a program called “Lost L.A.” This would be the opening season episode called “The Fast and the Forgotten.”

I first met Young, a retired Ranger of the National Park Service, at a car swap meet under the grandstands at the Irwindale Drag Strip. He asked me if, by chance, I had any photographs from Paramount Ranch. I said, somewhat facetiously, that I might be able to find a few and I asked my wife, Carole, to get the two notebooks full of 8 X 10s from Paramount Ranch. He wanted to use my photographs to illustrate the racing history held there. It was hard to describe the smile on his face when he saw our photos and he could not believe his good fortune in finding exactly what he was looking for.

At the time, Tom was a real champion for The Ranch. He was constantly pushing the Park Service to repair the track and bring it back to the way it was in the late ‘50s. He also wanted to place placards around what was left of the race course, giving people an idea of what went on there in 1956 and ’57. Unfortunately, the powers that be decided to cut the Park Service budget in half. Gone was the dream.

But, after all, this is Hollywood, and eventually Tom, being the ultimate Subject Matter Expert, was asked to be consultant for a PBS SOCAL feature on racing at Paramount Ranch, Downstream was me, with all those photos he loved. So when he called I said of course I want to be a part of this endeavor!

He put me in touch with Angela Boisvert, Senior Director of Production on this project. Angela in turn, wanted me to be interviewed on site, back at the old Paramount Ranch. When she called to set things up, I told her the only problem I had was with transportation, as I was not keen on taking my, at that time, 33-year-old Chevy G-20 Van that far during the week. She said, “That’s no problem, I’ll have one of the crew pick you up. We had made a pickup time of 10 AM.” When the big day arrived, as I was looking out the window, a very new big black Cadillac Escalade pulled up across the street. I thought they must pay their help well. Then a gentleman, dressed in a full chauffeur uniform, got out and headed my way. This was my ride. He stayed at the Ranch the whole time and safely returned me home.

Now the waiting began, and began, and began ad infinitum. After the first phone call in November 2024, the program finally reached the airways on February 3, 2026. Let me check my abacus, AH, Yes, a mere 16 months.

As some of you may already know, my original 15 minutes of fame lasted about 1 minute and 53 seconds in the original video. However, it came to pass that there is an additional 3 3/4 minutes of the interview which laid on the cutting room floor, Hollywood style. And it’s all ME! So, we show the links here so you can enjoy Kuhn Unfettered. Click here:

Thank you for your diligence if you have come this far. Just think, if they resweep the cutting room floor, they may find the remaining 13 minutes of the original interview, and we can do this again.

Historically yours, Allen R. Kuhn

PS Here is the link to the original half-hour program.