Suddenly, everyone's interested in Leta Powell Drake — when people in Lincoln, Nebraska have watched her interview celebrities for 40 years.

She's gone big because of this tweet, collecting some of her sublime moments:

Currently obsessed with Leta Powell Drake, the greatest interviewer of all time. pic.twitter.com/3oCYAd9vZD

— John Frankensteiner (@JFrankensteiner) November 12, 2020

Now, Vulture has a interview with her. Excerpts: 

Based on the interviews I’ve seen so far, most of the stars seemed more than happy to see you, even if your questions weren’t at all softballs. 

... I didn’t ask them any of the kinds of questions that everybody else did, and maybe that’s why they were so receptive and responsive, because at least it was very refreshing. 

So is it fair to say you didn’t care about being seen as rude or overly frank when talking to celebrities? I’m wondering if anybody ever had a negative reaction? 

Almost everybody was very receptive. They really were.... I really had fun with these people. I really did. Some got very tired, you know, toward the end of the day. But I think they perked up when I came up.... 

In some of the interviews in the supercut, a few of the male actors got a little flirty with you. 

Oh, a couple of guys, you know, would call me later and would want me to go to dinner. But I was “busy.”... If they made a suggestion or something, I just laughed it off. I was serious about it, but I pretended not to be....

You know about Johnny Carson, right? 

Yes, indeed. He’s from Nebraska.

All right. Okay. Here’s the thing about Johnny. Johnny graduated from the University of Nebraska ... Well, I would go to New York for the fashion shows, and I would do interviews with the people. And Johnny was on the schedule. He didn’t know me. Everybody who attends these things — this is fashion. All the women writers from around the United States, all the male writers — everybody was there, and they are dressed to the nines. I came in wearing one of my outfits. It’s a striped pantsuit. It was ludicrous. It was just bright red, bright white. Johnny looked at some of his people, and he says, “Who is that person back there way in the back?” And they just told him, “Oh, that’s Leta of Lincoln?” And he just shouted, “Where’s that Leta, that Leta of Lincoln?” I’ve been called Leta of Lincoln ever since....  He said, “What the heck kind of an outfit was that?” I said, “Johnny, when you were in Lincoln, you used to dress like that.” And he said, “Yeah, that’s why I left.”...

Do you keep up with a lot of TV and film now? 

I’m a reader... I might tune into CNN, but I can’t stand the commercials....  I hate to see what’s happened to television. It’s just crap!

More interviews at YouTube — here — Liberace, Carrie Fisher, Jerry Mathers, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Falk, Bill Bixby — the list goes on and on.