Dick Cavett was always one of my favorite TV talk show hosts. My husband tells me he got his start as a magician. Is that true, and does he have any plans to return to television?
—Mary U., Steubenville, Ohio
Cavett, 69, the witty and intelligent host of various talk shows bearing his name from 1969 to 1996, did indeed perform as a magician as a young man, even winning a "Best New Performer" trophy in 1952 at an International Brotherhood of Magicians convention. On Thursday evenings through Nov. 2, you can see him back on the air on the TCM network, hosting "encore" telecasts of some of his classic TV interviews from the 1970s with Woody Allen, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock and Katharine Hepburn. A new four-disc DVD, The Dick Cavett Show: Hollywood Greats, repackages more of Cavett's revealing celebrity conversations.
