Langley’s Kevin Horan and his link to Roger Ebert

We were very surprised to discover the photo of Roger Ebert on the top of our home page was taken by a man who now lives in Langley.

Kevin Horan and his wife, author Nancy Horan—I’m reading her fabulous book Under the Wide and Starry Sky right now—used to live in the Chicago area. As a photographer for the Chicago Sun Times, Kevin knew Roger Ebert back in the day, and has the stories to prove it. He was also hired by People magazine to shoot Ebert and Gene Siskel in the early 1980s around the time their game-changing movie-reviewing TV show began to get hot. This photo is one of those commissions.

According to Kevin, quite a few of his photos are in the documentary about Roger Ebert—Life Itself–playing at The Clyde right now (August 5-7). As for the photo in question, he says, “That’s a fairly severe crop—the full frame shows Gene way in the back. They each sat in their preferred positions in the little screening room in Chicago.”

Isn’t it amazing the talent that has washed up on the shores of Whidbey over the years?