As an interviewer, he knew how to keep things light, conversational. He got the information he needed, and wrote articles based on what answers the subject provided, but he did it in a way that never felt like he was prodding, or intending to catch someone out.
He held a number of positions in journalism but one of the most memorable was as a Hollywood correspondent for the NY Post, where he would write up interviews with on-the-rise celebrities or long-established actors and directors about their current project and what they’d learned. If you’ve ever read a with a couple pages of interview with a contemporary star of stage or screen, you’ve settled in with Bob’s bread and butter for decades.
Bob would share his interview tapes with his family, scrawled with all sorts of markings and ranging with dates from the 1960s to the 1980s. Ultimately, they came to the Internet Archive as a physical donation with the intention of being digitized and put up for all to enjoy.
A selection of Lardine cassettes from the special database physical donation
For a number of years, after being donated, classified, and assigned an inventory number, the tapes were stored waiting to join a digitization queue. In 2025, the box was opened to be digitized using a tape setup and converted to .WAV sound files.
Tape Digitizing Setup – TASCAM 122mkIII deck to MOTU M4 USB Interface to Audacity
The box of audio cassettes, excepting a few in need of repair, are now digitized into the Interview Tapes by Bob Lardine collection at the Archive. 57 separate recorded interviews with celebrities, and two compilations of tapes, discussed further below.