Rick Beyer

Rick Beyer is an award winning documentary filmmaker, best-selling author, and long-time history enthusiast. He is the co-author (with Elizabeth Sayles Sayles) of the recent book The Ghost Army of World War II How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks Sound Effects and Other Audacious Fakery. It was published by Princeton Architectural Press in April, 2014. The book details the story of a top-secret group of World War II GIs who staged a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe. Many were artists destined for illustrious post-war art careers, including fashion designer Bill Blass and painter Ellsworth Kelly. The book contains hundreds of paintings, sketches, photographs, maps, and anecdotes from more than 25 veterans of this extraordinary unit.Beyer has spent nearly a decade researching this story. His award-winning documentary film about the unit, The Ghost Army premiered on PBS in 2013. The San Francisco Chronicle called the film “mezmerizing,” while TV Guide referred to it as “entrancing.” Beyer has also produced documentary films for The History Channel, A&E, National Geographic, the Smithsonian and others. He is the author of The Greatest Stories Never Told series of history books published by Harper Collins, and described by the Chicago Tribune as “an old fashioned sweetshop full of tasty morsels.” Rick has shared his unique take on history in interviews on CBS, MSNBC, CNN, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, NPR, Fox News, and audiences around the country. He has also worked as a radio reporter, a TV news producer, an ad agency creative director, and a janitor (not in that order). And here's a few other things he's done.•Camp for ten days in the mosquito-infested Siberian Wilderness•Flee New Orleans the day before Katrina•Interview Jimmy Carter in the White House•Climb Mt. Washington 5 times•Get called stupid by David Brinkley•Be consoled by Mary Tyler Moore•Marry a beautiful woman during a lightning stormA graduate of Dartmouth College, Beyer lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife, Marilyn Rea Beyer (see above about the lightning storm!)