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Photograph courtesy of the Hardman family.

Yvonne Hardman, left, interviewed John Denver for her show, Backstage Tonight, in 1986. She and her family are currently using the video from the 40-minute talk for a tribute to the entertainer that will air March 26 on KCSM Channel 60.

News Briefs

Locally produced tribute to singer to air on KCSM

A Cupertino family produced a tribute to John Denver that will air on the local public broadcasting station KCSM, Channel 60, on March 26 at 10 p.m. It will be replayed March 28 at 10:30 p.m.

Yvonne Hardman, along with her husband, Paul, and son, John, created the tribute from a 40-minute interview Yvonne had with Denver in 1986 on her show Backstage Tonight.

Denver was one of many entertainers Hardman interviewed during the years her program ran. Others included B.B. King, Ella Fitzgerald and Willie Nelson.

Her son produced the beginning and ending of the Denver tribute. Most of the 30-minute show is a replay of the 1986 interview, John says.

Hardman's husband also had a hand in producing the show, writing and editing the script of a narration that Hardman reads. He also is keeping in touch with the thousands of Denver fans that are emailing the family, sending them words of encouragement and prayers of thanks.

The Hardmans have also developed a Web site using son John's company to advertise the Denver show and offer a way to contact the Hardmans to purchase the video.

That site is linked with some of the larger John Denver fan pages on the Internet, which are generating immense interest in the upcoming shows that will air on PBS stations all over the country.

John Hardman says that Denver was important to a lot of people, and that "he was characterized as an 'aw-shucks' kind of guy who, in the '80s, fell out of favor."

Besides that image, Denver was outspoken on political issues including weapons reduction and saving the environment.

Those idealistic and outspoken remarks tended to turn off a lot of people, the Hardmans say. Because of his tendencies to be outspoken, he was never eulogized properly by the media like other stars with similar credentials, they say. Denver wrote more than 250 songs and starred in more than 20 television specials and three motion pictures.

"We weren't prepared for it," Yvonne Hardman says. "We can't even keep up, it's so overwhelming. People are begging for the video."

Council denies new Maude Avenue building's waiver

Members of the Sunnyvale City Council said they were voting against traffic congestion when they unanimously denied a developer's request to wave a city policy that controls employee density on a proposed work site.

Councilmember Stan Kawczynski estimated that 8,000 additional cars would create gridlock at intersections near Maude Avenue and Highway 237 if the waiver for the three-story building at 1024 W. Maude Ave. were approved.

Mayor Jim Roberts said, "We have to ask ourselves, 'Where do we draw the line?' " He immediately answered before voting, saying, "We draw it right here."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 25, 1998.
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