1 00:00:02,041 --> 00:00:04,541 [soft music] 2 00:00:14,208 --> 00:00:17,041 [man] How did you discover Tom Wolfe? 3 00:00:17,041 --> 00:00:21,666 Um, I was, uh, maybe 12 or 13 years old. 4 00:00:21,666 --> 00:00:23,166 That age. 5 00:00:23,166 --> 00:00:25,791 Um, living in New Orleans, Louisiana. 6 00:00:25,791 --> 00:00:27,958 Not a particularly literary place. 7 00:00:27,958 --> 00:00:29,958 Didn't really know anybody who wrote books. 8 00:00:29,958 --> 00:00:32,250 Didn't know anybody who knew anybody who wrote books. 9 00:00:32,250 --> 00:00:33,625 Barely knew people who read books. 10 00:00:33,625 --> 00:00:36,125 But my father was a big exception. 11 00:00:36,125 --> 00:00:40,291 And, uh, he had a shelf of books, 12 00:00:40,291 --> 00:00:42,250 and some of the books were by Tom Wolfe. 13 00:00:42,250 --> 00:00:44,125 And I just--I don't know why, 14 00:00:44,125 --> 00:00:45,166 I'll tell you why, 15 00:00:45,166 --> 00:00:46,750 I grabbed the books off the shelf 16 00:00:46,750 --> 00:00:48,375 'cause there might be something dirty in them. 17 00:00:48,375 --> 00:00:52,000 I pulled down Radical Chic, 18 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,000 and I--you know, I really-- 19 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:55,250 I was not a worldly kid. 20 00:00:55,250 --> 00:00:57,208 I didn't know who Leonard Bernstein was, 21 00:00:57,208 --> 00:00:59,750 I did not know what the Black Panthers were, 22 00:00:59,750 --> 00:01:02,958 I really didn't have much sense of anything. 23 00:01:02,958 --> 00:01:04,875 And nevertheless, I was rolling around on the floor 24 00:01:04,875 --> 00:01:06,208 laughing with this thing. 25 00:01:06,208 --> 00:01:08,958 And I do remember-- I had this--this sensation. 26 00:01:08,958 --> 00:01:10,541 Someone wrote this book. 27 00:01:10,541 --> 00:01:12,125 Up to that point, all the books I read, 28 00:01:12,125 --> 00:01:13,750 I paid no attention to who had written them 29 00:01:13,750 --> 00:01:15,708 or that they had been written by anybody. 30 00:01:15,708 --> 00:01:17,416 Uh, I didn't think-- the Hardy Boys series, 31 00:01:17,416 --> 00:01:18,958 I went through all 38 volumes. 32 00:01:18,958 --> 00:01:20,791 It didn't occur to me that there was an author, 33 00:01:20,791 --> 00:01:22,583 because the author really wasn't in your face 34 00:01:22,583 --> 00:01:24,625 as a--as a personality. 35 00:01:24,625 --> 00:01:26,458 And even though Tom 36 00:01:26,458 --> 00:01:28,833 wasn't really talking about himself very much, 37 00:01:28,833 --> 00:01:30,000 there was this, boom, 38 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:31,416 this personality comin' off the page. 39 00:01:31,416 --> 00:01:34,000 And I remember wondering, "Who--who wrote this?" 40 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,791 You know, and I--you know, "Who's Tom Wolfe?" 41 00:01:36,791 --> 00:01:39,291 [energetic rock music] 42 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,333 The book's cover indicates that the author is, in fact, 43 00:01:45,333 --> 00:01:48,125 a bigger event than the book. 44 00:01:48,125 --> 00:01:49,833 I don't find anything objectionable about that. 45 00:01:53,375 --> 00:01:55,458 Is anyone likely to be bitterly upset 46 00:01:55,458 --> 00:01:57,416 -at you over this... -[man] ...controversial... 47 00:01:57,416 --> 00:01:58,625 -[man] ...cynical... -[man] ...devastating... 48 00:01:58,625 --> 00:02:00,583 -[man] ...outlandish... -[woman] ...mean... 49 00:02:00,583 --> 00:02:01,666 I don't know about that. 50 00:02:11,500 --> 00:02:14,000 [man] His book has been called a masterpiece. 51 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:15,208 -Very revealing. -Witty. 52 00:02:15,208 --> 00:02:16,291 -Powerful. -Complex. 53 00:02:16,291 --> 00:02:17,291 -Shocking. -Brilliant. 54 00:02:17,291 --> 00:02:19,083 It was absolutely fascinating. 55 00:02:19,083 --> 00:02:21,083 [typewriter clicking] 56 00:02:24,916 --> 00:02:27,583 [Tom Wolfe] If you wanna be a writer, 57 00:02:27,583 --> 00:02:29,208 you've gotta stand in the middle of the track 58 00:02:29,208 --> 00:02:31,041 to see how fast the train goes. 59 00:02:37,333 --> 00:02:39,250 [man] It's just amazing the way life will open up 60 00:02:39,250 --> 00:02:42,333 if you're just forced to go into somebody else's world. 61 00:02:44,458 --> 00:02:45,708 [music stops] 62 00:02:49,500 --> 00:02:52,250 [TV Host] Tom Wolfe is probably the most skillful writer 63 00:02:52,250 --> 00:02:53,875 in America. 64 00:02:53,875 --> 00:02:56,166 I mean by that that he can do more things with words 65 00:02:56,166 --> 00:02:58,083 than anyone else. 66 00:02:58,083 --> 00:03:00,750 [soft music] 67 00:03:00,750 --> 00:03:04,416 [Tom Junod] Nobody is writing like Tom Wolfe today. 68 00:03:04,416 --> 00:03:06,791 And nobody really has written like Tom Wolfe. 69 00:03:06,791 --> 00:03:09,250 Every 43-year-old Cablevision linesman's out 70 00:03:09,250 --> 00:03:11,291 on the disco floor with his red eyes beaming 71 00:03:11,291 --> 00:03:13,375 through his walnut-shell eyelids, 72 00:03:13,375 --> 00:03:15,416 dancing with his third wife or his new cookie 73 00:03:15,416 --> 00:03:18,000 till the onset of dawn, a saline depletion. 74 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:19,166 And in this century, 75 00:03:19,166 --> 00:03:22,125 the robust, full-blooded American century, 76 00:03:22,125 --> 00:03:24,166 what do we have in the way of architecture? 77 00:03:24,166 --> 00:03:28,041 There's like this reality that everybody's missing 78 00:03:28,041 --> 00:03:31,416 that's a very persuasive version of reality 79 00:03:31,416 --> 00:03:33,083 that's his reality. 80 00:03:33,083 --> 00:03:34,458 Up against a love like this, 81 00:03:34,458 --> 00:03:36,125 that first night on the disco floor. 82 00:03:36,125 --> 00:03:38,333 She wore a pair of boxing trunks, 83 00:03:38,333 --> 00:03:40,458 while leather punks and sado-zulus, 84 00:03:40,458 --> 00:03:42,541 African queens, and painted lulus 85 00:03:42,541 --> 00:03:43,875 paid her court. 86 00:03:43,875 --> 00:03:47,125 I grow old the 1970s way. 87 00:03:47,125 --> 00:03:51,125 [Niall] His books captured the moment 88 00:03:51,125 --> 00:03:53,083 better than anything else. 89 00:03:53,083 --> 00:03:54,708 [soft music] 90 00:03:54,708 --> 00:04:00,666 Wolfe's writing fundamentally changed American literature. 91 00:04:00,666 --> 00:04:02,833 [Tom Wolfe] It's really only Eng lit intellectuals 92 00:04:02,833 --> 00:04:04,250 and Krishna groovies 93 00:04:04,250 --> 00:04:07,208 who try to despise the machine in America. 94 00:04:07,208 --> 00:04:09,041 The idea that we're trapped by machines 95 00:04:09,041 --> 00:04:11,375 is a piece of 19th century romanticism 96 00:04:11,375 --> 00:04:13,291 invented by marvelous old frauds 97 00:04:13,291 --> 00:04:15,375 like Thoreau and William Morris. 98 00:04:17,625 --> 00:04:19,958 He was a contradictory character. 99 00:04:19,958 --> 00:04:23,166 You would never know from being with Tom Wolfe in person, 100 00:04:23,166 --> 00:04:26,166 that same guy could write that way. 101 00:04:26,166 --> 00:04:27,625 Such a polite person. 102 00:04:27,625 --> 00:04:30,166 Such a well-mannered person. 103 00:04:30,166 --> 00:04:32,666 With a pen in his hand, he could be a terrorist. 104 00:04:32,666 --> 00:04:36,750 Tom Wolfe has written another book and mocked another icon. 105 00:04:36,750 --> 00:04:41,000 To go after Leonard Bernstein and modern art in one lifetime 106 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,708 is to stretch the bounds of the First Amendment 107 00:04:43,708 --> 00:04:45,666 beyond the point intended. 108 00:04:45,666 --> 00:04:50,750 Why was that writing allowed to be so out there? 109 00:04:52,625 --> 00:04:58,125 I wouldn't have the guts to write about people that way. 110 00:04:58,125 --> 00:05:01,000 [Tom Junod] You know, I look at him as a role model, 111 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:05,125 but as an imperfect role model. 112 00:05:05,125 --> 00:05:07,500 But I don't think that anybody else 113 00:05:07,500 --> 00:05:10,708 took the chances that Tom Wolfe took, 114 00:05:10,708 --> 00:05:13,708 not just stylistically but also morally. 115 00:05:13,708 --> 00:05:16,208 [William] Is it correct to conclude 116 00:05:16,208 --> 00:05:19,625 that you show a lack of compassion? 117 00:05:19,625 --> 00:05:21,125 I don't--I really don't care whether-- 118 00:05:21,125 --> 00:05:24,791 I mean, it's not so much having or not having compassion. 119 00:05:24,791 --> 00:05:26,916 I really see my role in anything of the sort, 120 00:05:26,916 --> 00:05:28,500 and, in fact, I always have, 121 00:05:28,500 --> 00:05:32,583 as--as to discover in some way. 122 00:05:34,791 --> 00:05:36,916 The truth is always revolutionary. 123 00:05:41,250 --> 00:05:43,750 [projector whirring] 124 00:05:43,750 --> 00:05:46,125 [bright piano music] 125 00:05:46,125 --> 00:05:47,791 [Alex] Wolfe had been a reporter, 126 00:05:47,791 --> 00:05:50,458 first in Springfield and then with the Washington Post. 127 00:05:50,458 --> 00:05:52,375 And came to New York to the Herald Tribune. 128 00:05:54,500 --> 00:05:56,041 [Michael] Up to that point, 129 00:05:56,041 --> 00:05:58,666 the newspaper does not encourage a distinctive voice 130 00:05:58,666 --> 00:06:01,291 to sound unlike anybody else. 131 00:06:01,291 --> 00:06:03,458 Here's today's front page story. 132 00:06:03,458 --> 00:06:05,791 The Northeast District of Barbershop Quartets 133 00:06:05,791 --> 00:06:07,583 is holding its annual convention 134 00:06:07,583 --> 00:06:09,083 in Providence this weekend. 135 00:06:09,083 --> 00:06:11,208 Welcome aboard once again, let's see what kind of weather, 136 00:06:11,208 --> 00:06:12,708 and we're really having the weather these days, 137 00:06:12,708 --> 00:06:13,875 I'll tell you. 138 00:06:13,875 --> 00:06:16,083 [Gail] There was no sense of style. 139 00:06:16,083 --> 00:06:18,875 Uh, everything had to be in the first paragraph. 140 00:06:18,875 --> 00:06:20,750 Who, what, when, where, why. 141 00:06:20,750 --> 00:06:24,083 And that was a constant in news stories. 142 00:06:24,083 --> 00:06:26,458 Wolfe wanted to break out of that. 143 00:06:26,458 --> 00:06:30,333 [Tom Wolfe] There was a neutral so-called objective voice 144 00:06:30,333 --> 00:06:34,916 that journalists were expected to assume at that time. 145 00:06:34,916 --> 00:06:37,458 And I had, frankly, found it absolutely boring. 146 00:06:37,458 --> 00:06:38,625 [explosion] 147 00:06:38,625 --> 00:06:40,625 [cash register chimes] 148 00:06:40,625 --> 00:06:44,291 I did have a kind of a involuntary epiphanal moment 149 00:06:44,291 --> 00:06:46,625 Late in '62, a newspaper strike began. 150 00:06:46,625 --> 00:06:49,083 I was by now working for the New York Herald Tribune. 151 00:06:49,083 --> 00:06:51,333 And I suddenly found myself out of a job. 152 00:06:53,458 --> 00:06:54,666 I needed to make some money, 153 00:06:54,666 --> 00:06:56,208 so I went over to Esquire Magazine 154 00:06:56,208 --> 00:06:59,791 and sold them on the idea of a story on customized cars, 155 00:06:59,791 --> 00:07:01,625 which at that time were being made 156 00:07:01,625 --> 00:07:06,041 in very fanciful forms by teenagers in Los Angeles. 157 00:07:06,041 --> 00:07:08,375 [engine revving] 158 00:07:08,375 --> 00:07:10,625 So they said, "Okay, go on out to California 159 00:07:10,625 --> 00:07:11,875 and do this story." 160 00:07:14,625 --> 00:07:16,750 I remember checking into the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel, 161 00:07:16,750 --> 00:07:18,291 and over the course of four weeks 162 00:07:18,291 --> 00:07:20,750 running up this enormous bill. 163 00:07:20,750 --> 00:07:23,333 And suddenly I found myself in this incredible world 164 00:07:23,333 --> 00:07:26,583 of automobile expression that I didn't know existed, 165 00:07:26,583 --> 00:07:29,083 and I really didn't feel capable to deal with. 166 00:07:29,083 --> 00:07:31,708 I--I couldn't get the concepts straight 167 00:07:31,708 --> 00:07:32,916 that I could use for it. 168 00:07:32,916 --> 00:07:34,416 It was just something completely new. 169 00:07:34,416 --> 00:07:35,416 [lights clicking] 170 00:07:35,416 --> 00:07:37,041 [tires screeching] 171 00:07:37,041 --> 00:07:39,083 I came back and I was gonna write this thing, 172 00:07:39,083 --> 00:07:41,208 and Esquire had this big double-page 173 00:07:41,208 --> 00:07:44,208 of color photography locked into the presses by this time, 174 00:07:44,208 --> 00:07:45,625 and I simply couldn't write it. 175 00:07:45,625 --> 00:07:48,250 And in those days, you had to print color in advance. 176 00:07:48,250 --> 00:07:51,041 So we literally printed those pages. 177 00:07:53,083 --> 00:07:54,666 [Tom Wolfe] I came back to New York 178 00:07:54,666 --> 00:07:56,458 and found myself utterly blocked. 179 00:07:56,458 --> 00:07:58,500 I could not write this story. 180 00:07:58,500 --> 00:07:59,916 And I said, "Byron, I'm sorry, 181 00:07:59,916 --> 00:08:01,875 I just have to drop the assignment." 182 00:08:01,875 --> 00:08:03,375 And he says, "You can't do that." 183 00:08:03,375 --> 00:08:05,500 We have to justify the color picture. 184 00:08:05,500 --> 00:08:08,708 We need something to go up against that page. 185 00:08:08,708 --> 00:08:10,333 [Tom Wolfe] He said it cost his father $10,000 186 00:08:10,333 --> 00:08:12,375 to pull this thing off the presses, 187 00:08:12,375 --> 00:08:14,416 we've gotta have a story, and if you can't write it, 188 00:08:14,416 --> 00:08:16,250 you give us your notes 189 00:08:16,250 --> 00:08:18,458 and we'll get some competent writer 190 00:08:18,458 --> 00:08:21,041 to put them together. 191 00:08:21,041 --> 00:08:22,875 So I sat down one night about 8:00, 192 00:08:22,875 --> 00:08:23,958 and I started typing up-- 193 00:08:23,958 --> 00:08:25,166 I started typing up these notes. 194 00:08:25,166 --> 00:08:26,416 The notes in the form of a memorandum... 195 00:08:26,416 --> 00:08:28,125 "Dear Byron, the first place I saw..." 196 00:08:28,125 --> 00:08:29,708 The first thing I saw... 197 00:08:29,708 --> 00:08:32,125 [overlapping speaking] 198 00:08:32,125 --> 00:08:33,208 Very flat, straight out... 199 00:08:33,208 --> 00:08:34,250 As fast as I could do it... 200 00:08:34,250 --> 00:08:35,250 Presentation of what I... 201 00:08:35,250 --> 00:08:36,250 Humiliating... 202 00:08:36,250 --> 00:08:37,666 And the first thing I knew, 203 00:08:37,666 --> 00:08:40,666 is I started just recounting in sequence, 204 00:08:40,666 --> 00:08:43,333 the thing began taking on a pattern in my mind. 205 00:08:43,333 --> 00:08:44,333 It began falling into place, 206 00:08:44,333 --> 00:08:45,625 and I began to see 207 00:08:45,625 --> 00:08:49,666 exactly what I had been studying out there. 208 00:08:49,666 --> 00:08:51,458 [Jon Hamm] We were in the buried netherworld 209 00:08:51,458 --> 00:08:53,083 of teenage California. 210 00:08:53,083 --> 00:08:54,583 It was a hell of a show. 211 00:08:54,583 --> 00:08:57,458 Sex, power, motion. 212 00:08:57,458 --> 00:08:59,500 The main thing you notice is the color. 213 00:08:59,500 --> 00:09:01,125 Tangerine-Flake. 214 00:09:01,125 --> 00:09:02,875 Loud varoom, varoom motors. 215 00:09:02,875 --> 00:09:05,750 Ossified semi-precious tangerine. 216 00:09:05,750 --> 00:09:07,541 [soft music] 217 00:09:07,541 --> 00:09:09,791 [Tom Wolfe] I ended up typing at top speed 218 00:09:09,791 --> 00:09:11,916 for about eight or nine hours. 219 00:09:11,916 --> 00:09:12,916 I wrote all night, 220 00:09:12,916 --> 00:09:14,208 and by 6:30 in the morning, 221 00:09:14,208 --> 00:09:16,291 I had a 49-page memorandum... 222 00:09:16,291 --> 00:09:17,416 50 typewritten pages... 223 00:09:17,416 --> 00:09:18,791 And I was about dead by that time. 224 00:09:18,791 --> 00:09:20,208 I took this over to Esquire. 225 00:09:20,208 --> 00:09:21,833 I just picked it all up and went to the Esquire office. 226 00:09:21,833 --> 00:09:23,500 Turned it in about 9:00 in the morning, 227 00:09:23,500 --> 00:09:25,375 went home to sleep. 228 00:09:25,375 --> 00:09:27,458 And I got a call about 4:00 that afternoon 229 00:09:27,458 --> 00:09:28,541 from Byron Dobell. 230 00:09:28,541 --> 00:09:31,125 [telephone ringing] 231 00:09:34,708 --> 00:09:36,833 -[receiver picks up] -It's a masterpiece. 232 00:09:36,833 --> 00:09:38,041 This is unbelievable. 233 00:09:38,041 --> 00:09:40,125 We'd never seen anything like this. 234 00:09:40,125 --> 00:09:41,750 And I struck out the "Dear Byron" 235 00:09:41,750 --> 00:09:44,250 and I struck out the parting words. 236 00:09:44,250 --> 00:09:45,250 And we ran it. 237 00:09:45,250 --> 00:09:46,666 [engine revving] 238 00:09:46,666 --> 00:09:47,958 [energetic music] 239 00:09:47,958 --> 00:09:49,500 [Jon Hamm] There Goes That Kandy-Kolored 240 00:09:49,500 --> 00:09:52,000 Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. 241 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,500 [engines revving] 242 00:09:58,333 --> 00:09:59,583 And that made him famous. 243 00:09:59,583 --> 00:10:00,875 [bright music] 244 00:10:00,875 --> 00:10:02,000 [Michael] 18 months. 245 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:04,166 It takes 18 months between the time 246 00:10:04,166 --> 00:10:06,750 Tom Wolfe is actually worried about having money 247 00:10:06,750 --> 00:10:10,083 to being a cult figure in New York City. 248 00:10:10,083 --> 00:10:11,750 All of a sudden, he's famous. 249 00:10:11,750 --> 00:10:14,541 And it was the result of a single magazine article. 250 00:10:14,541 --> 00:10:16,083 [mellow jazz music] 251 00:10:16,083 --> 00:10:17,625 There are letters in the archives 252 00:10:17,625 --> 00:10:19,916 from people writing in to the editors of Esquire 253 00:10:19,916 --> 00:10:21,375 saying, "Who is this fellow? 254 00:10:21,375 --> 00:10:23,833 Everybody's talking about him." 255 00:10:26,458 --> 00:10:28,708 I think if you started to get a little famous 256 00:10:28,708 --> 00:10:33,083 as a writer in the late '60s, early '70s in the United States, 257 00:10:33,083 --> 00:10:35,541 you had some obligation to be a character. 258 00:10:35,541 --> 00:10:38,000 You could be outrageous like Hunter Thompson. 259 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:39,000 [gunshot] 260 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:40,708 You could be pseudo Englishman 261 00:10:40,708 --> 00:10:43,125 -like William F. Buckley. -[William] I don't deny it. 262 00:10:43,125 --> 00:10:44,625 [Michael] You could stab your wife 263 00:10:44,625 --> 00:10:46,583 -like Norman Mailer. -[Norman] That's true. 264 00:10:46,583 --> 00:10:48,958 [Michael] And the white suit enabled people 265 00:10:48,958 --> 00:10:53,208 to think of him as this great, unusual character. 266 00:10:53,208 --> 00:10:56,791 What is the basic religious reason 267 00:10:56,791 --> 00:11:00,458 for your always wearing that light-colored white suit? 268 00:11:00,458 --> 00:11:02,333 [narrator] Tom Wolfe may be considered by some 269 00:11:02,333 --> 00:11:04,500 to be every inch a dandy. 270 00:11:04,500 --> 00:11:06,791 He stalks his East Side New York neighborhood 271 00:11:06,791 --> 00:11:09,583 like an immaculate white Persian cat. 272 00:11:09,583 --> 00:11:12,083 But he's neither Persian nor a New Yorker. 273 00:11:12,083 --> 00:11:14,125 He's a transplanted Virginian. 274 00:11:16,375 --> 00:11:18,291 What you wear in Richmond, Virginia, 275 00:11:18,291 --> 00:11:19,958 in the summer is a white suit. 276 00:11:19,958 --> 00:11:23,458 And he realized it made him interesting to people. 277 00:11:23,458 --> 00:11:26,375 About seven years ago when I first came to New York, 278 00:11:26,375 --> 00:11:28,541 I went into a tailor shop 279 00:11:28,541 --> 00:11:31,166 and I saw some white silk tweed material 280 00:11:31,166 --> 00:11:32,375 I thought was terrific, 281 00:11:32,375 --> 00:11:34,625 so I figured I had to have a suit made. 282 00:11:34,625 --> 00:11:37,875 So I had it made, and I was gonna wear it in the summer. 283 00:11:37,875 --> 00:11:40,125 When I put it on, white silk tweed, 284 00:11:40,125 --> 00:11:42,208 even if it's white, silk tweed is very hot, 285 00:11:42,208 --> 00:11:43,458 so I--and I couldn't stand it. 286 00:11:43,458 --> 00:11:46,000 So I started wearing it the next January. 287 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:48,375 Then I discovered an incredible thing, 288 00:11:48,375 --> 00:11:50,625 which was that clothes 289 00:11:50,625 --> 00:11:53,291 are an intensely powerful form of communication. 290 00:11:53,291 --> 00:11:54,708 [pencil scribbling] 291 00:11:54,708 --> 00:11:57,750 You can create a kind of other life in a uniform. 292 00:11:57,750 --> 00:12:00,250 [quirky music] 293 00:12:07,458 --> 00:12:09,125 [Alexandra] Growing up, I started to realize 294 00:12:09,125 --> 00:12:10,750 that he wasn't like the other dads, 295 00:12:10,750 --> 00:12:13,000 like he wore a big cape to school, 296 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,666 he wore a top hat, he had a pocket watch. 297 00:12:15,666 --> 00:12:21,083 Everything was sort of that Southern sort of polite charm, 298 00:12:21,083 --> 00:12:22,250 in a way. 299 00:12:22,250 --> 00:12:25,541 [mellow music] 300 00:12:25,541 --> 00:12:27,458 [Michael] He was raised in Richmond, Virginia, 301 00:12:27,458 --> 00:12:29,541 in the 1930s and '40s and '50s. 302 00:12:31,375 --> 00:12:33,250 He was probably the pride and joy of his parents 303 00:12:33,250 --> 00:12:34,833 right from the beginning. 304 00:12:34,833 --> 00:12:36,875 He would have been raised a stoic. 305 00:12:36,875 --> 00:12:38,083 He would have been raised 306 00:12:38,083 --> 00:12:40,291 someone who admired athletes and war heroes. 307 00:12:40,291 --> 00:12:41,333 [baseball cracks] 308 00:12:41,333 --> 00:12:43,000 [Tom Wolfe] When I was very young, 309 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:47,833 I decided that I wanted to be either a writer or an artist. 310 00:12:47,833 --> 00:12:51,958 My mother encouraged me a lot in art. 311 00:12:51,958 --> 00:12:54,041 And my father was a scientist, 312 00:12:54,041 --> 00:12:56,250 He was editing a magazine called The Southern Planter. 313 00:12:56,250 --> 00:12:59,000 And every week he would write an editorial or something 314 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:00,166 for the magazine. 315 00:13:00,166 --> 00:13:02,458 And I thought that was quite magical. 316 00:13:02,458 --> 00:13:05,833 He had a kind of quiet confidence. 317 00:13:07,208 --> 00:13:09,750 And I think it's because he was rooted 318 00:13:09,750 --> 00:13:13,041 in a way that very few writers are. 319 00:13:13,041 --> 00:13:15,625 [projector whirring] 320 00:13:15,625 --> 00:13:18,625 [Michael] His desire to protect the reputation of that world 321 00:13:18,625 --> 00:13:20,208 is a powerful thing. 322 00:13:20,208 --> 00:13:22,708 [energetic music] 323 00:13:25,708 --> 00:13:29,541 [engine revving] 324 00:13:29,541 --> 00:13:32,250 [Jon Hamm] The legend of Junior Johnson. 325 00:13:32,250 --> 00:13:35,375 In this legend, here is a country boy, Junior Johnson, 326 00:13:35,375 --> 00:13:38,375 who learns to drive by running whiskey for his father, 327 00:13:38,375 --> 00:13:41,625 up in Ingle Hollow, near North Wilkesboro, 328 00:13:41,625 --> 00:13:44,458 in northwestern North Carolina, 329 00:13:44,458 --> 00:13:47,416 and grows up to be a famous stock-car racing driver. 330 00:13:47,416 --> 00:13:49,000 [energetic music] 331 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:52,208 As the motor thunder begins to lift up through him like a sigh 332 00:13:52,208 --> 00:13:53,916 and his eyeballs glaze over 333 00:13:53,916 --> 00:13:56,125 and his hands reach up and there, 334 00:13:56,125 --> 00:13:57,250 riding the rim of the bowl, 335 00:13:57,250 --> 00:14:00,416 forever rousing the good old boys, 336 00:14:00,416 --> 00:14:01,708 hard-charging! 337 00:14:01,708 --> 00:14:04,541 Up with the automobile into their America, 338 00:14:04,541 --> 00:14:06,833 and to hell with arteriosclerotic old boys 339 00:14:06,833 --> 00:14:08,500 trying to hold onto the whole pot 340 00:14:08,500 --> 00:14:10,583 with arms of cotton seersucker. 341 00:14:11,625 --> 00:14:12,750 Junior! 342 00:14:13,375 --> 00:14:14,375 Junior! 343 00:14:14,375 --> 00:14:16,833 [dramatic music] 344 00:14:19,083 --> 00:14:21,666 One of the mysteries of Tom Wolfe, to me, 345 00:14:21,666 --> 00:14:23,541 is how he persuades all these people 346 00:14:23,541 --> 00:14:25,291 who aren't particularly interested 347 00:14:25,291 --> 00:14:27,083 in letting anyone into their lives, 348 00:14:27,083 --> 00:14:28,750 much less some journalist, 349 00:14:28,750 --> 00:14:31,166 into letting him into their lives. 350 00:14:31,166 --> 00:14:33,666 [Junior] I thought he was a crank, 351 00:14:33,666 --> 00:14:35,250 to tell you the honest truth. 352 00:14:35,250 --> 00:14:37,041 Wool suit on, 353 00:14:37,041 --> 00:14:40,541 and it was 101 temperature here. 354 00:14:40,541 --> 00:14:42,375 It was just funny. 355 00:14:42,375 --> 00:14:44,875 [engines revving] 356 00:14:46,875 --> 00:14:48,375 [Alex] Not only did he capture 357 00:14:48,375 --> 00:14:50,791 this little subculture of NASCAR 358 00:14:50,791 --> 00:14:54,208 that had not been exposed to a national audience, 359 00:14:54,208 --> 00:14:57,541 he was also describing this sort of great folklore hero. 360 00:14:59,625 --> 00:15:03,333 Junior Johnson was the son of a bootlegger. 361 00:15:03,333 --> 00:15:05,250 That's how he learned to drive. 362 00:15:05,250 --> 00:15:08,666 He was driving moonshine around and getting chased by cops. 363 00:15:08,666 --> 00:15:10,208 [Michael] What Wolfe does is he gets you feeling that 364 00:15:10,208 --> 00:15:12,833 when you're watching Junior Johnson in a NASCAR race, 365 00:15:12,833 --> 00:15:14,166 the cops are right behind you. 366 00:15:14,166 --> 00:15:16,791 [tires screeching, vehicles clattering] 367 00:15:16,791 --> 00:15:17,791 [camera bulb flashes] 368 00:15:17,791 --> 00:15:19,000 [pensive music] 369 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:20,541 Wolfe does this over and again. 370 00:15:20,541 --> 00:15:22,500 He takes something that's just a-- 371 00:15:22,500 --> 00:15:23,958 just a person, a character, 372 00:15:23,958 --> 00:15:25,041 and he makes that character 373 00:15:25,041 --> 00:15:26,791 stand for something much bigger. 374 00:15:26,791 --> 00:15:28,958 He traces the origins of this sport 375 00:15:28,958 --> 00:15:31,041 that is gripping America's imagination. 376 00:15:31,041 --> 00:15:33,708 He tracks it to this man. 377 00:15:33,708 --> 00:15:34,833 He's expressing between the lines 378 00:15:34,833 --> 00:15:37,166 his deepest admiration for a character 379 00:15:37,166 --> 00:15:40,208 that journalists don't normally admire. 380 00:15:44,708 --> 00:15:46,541 [Alex] Junior Johnson said that that story 381 00:15:46,541 --> 00:15:49,375 that Wolfe wrote about him helped change his life. 382 00:15:49,375 --> 00:15:51,541 [engines revving] 383 00:15:51,541 --> 00:15:54,875 [Tom Junod] You can't look at stock cars to this day 384 00:15:54,875 --> 00:15:57,666 without thinking of Junior Johnson 385 00:15:57,666 --> 00:16:01,041 and Tom Wolfe's take on that world. 386 00:16:01,041 --> 00:16:04,375 He's drawing the attention of Blue America to Red America. 387 00:16:04,375 --> 00:16:06,625 He's saying, "This is who we are." 388 00:16:06,625 --> 00:16:07,750 It isn't just this thing 389 00:16:07,750 --> 00:16:09,166 that's going on down in the South. 390 00:16:09,166 --> 00:16:10,833 This is part of my culture. 391 00:16:10,833 --> 00:16:12,208 It's American. 392 00:16:12,208 --> 00:16:14,708 And I'm gonna show you what's great about it. 393 00:16:14,708 --> 00:16:16,166 [solemn music] 394 00:16:20,166 --> 00:16:22,291 [Michael] He has that sort of wonderful combination 395 00:16:22,291 --> 00:16:25,375 of being a terrific, intrepid reporter 396 00:16:25,375 --> 00:16:28,083 and then just this outrageous stylist. 397 00:16:28,083 --> 00:16:30,583 [soft music] 398 00:16:31,750 --> 00:16:33,166 He had a voice 399 00:16:33,166 --> 00:16:35,250 and was able to express it. 400 00:16:37,500 --> 00:16:41,291 And I think he found his voice as a writer, 401 00:16:41,291 --> 00:16:44,458 telling his parents about himself in letters. 402 00:16:47,916 --> 00:16:49,000 [Tom Wolfe] I ended up doing, really, 403 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,458 what a lot of us do in letters, 404 00:16:51,458 --> 00:16:52,708 particularly when you're writing a letter 405 00:16:52,708 --> 00:16:55,666 to somebody you feel very comfortable with, 406 00:16:55,666 --> 00:16:57,250 someone you can unburden your soul to, 407 00:16:57,250 --> 00:16:59,416 and you don't censor out all of the random remarks 408 00:16:59,416 --> 00:17:00,500 that are running through your head. 409 00:17:00,500 --> 00:17:01,916 You don't censor out the slang, 410 00:17:01,916 --> 00:17:04,041 you don't censor out the exclamations. 411 00:17:04,041 --> 00:17:06,958 Like you don't censor out the abrupt changes of thought. 412 00:17:09,416 --> 00:17:11,583 [Gregory] He's enjoying himself as he writes, 413 00:17:11,583 --> 00:17:15,000 and I think he wants his reader to enjoy themselves too. 414 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,500 [mellow music] 415 00:17:19,041 --> 00:17:21,333 The reader's expecting some excitement 416 00:17:21,333 --> 00:17:23,458 from a page of Tom Wolfe, 417 00:17:23,458 --> 00:17:25,541 expecting some experimentation. 418 00:17:28,458 --> 00:17:29,958 [Terry] He created a style 419 00:17:29,958 --> 00:17:32,833 that was completely his own and unique. 420 00:17:32,833 --> 00:17:35,041 You read a story in Esquire, 421 00:17:35,041 --> 00:17:38,958 and it opens with the word hernia 57 times. 422 00:17:38,958 --> 00:17:41,791 Hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, 423 00:17:41,791 --> 00:17:44,750 hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia. 424 00:17:44,750 --> 00:17:47,416 [Ron] He tried to represent the sounds of what he was hearing. 425 00:17:47,416 --> 00:17:48,708 [sputtering] 426 00:17:48,708 --> 00:17:50,500 And all kinds of weird things that he's doing. 427 00:17:50,500 --> 00:17:52,125 And the ellipses and the double colons. 428 00:17:52,125 --> 00:17:53,583 I never figured out what that meant. 429 00:17:53,583 --> 00:17:58,000 He called his use of punctuation a process of violating 430 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:00,750 the Geneva Conventions of the mind. 431 00:18:00,750 --> 00:18:02,583 He wanted to approximate 432 00:18:02,583 --> 00:18:04,666 what it felt like to be thinking. 433 00:18:04,666 --> 00:18:07,166 [mellow music] 434 00:18:08,583 --> 00:18:11,875 Just the way Tom put words together, 435 00:18:11,875 --> 00:18:14,000 they seemed to glow. 436 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,916 It was as if it was another language. 437 00:18:19,083 --> 00:18:22,500 The titles of things that were always being picked up, 438 00:18:22,500 --> 00:18:23,750 like Radical Chic. 439 00:18:23,750 --> 00:18:24,791 Good Ole' Boy. 440 00:18:24,791 --> 00:18:25,791 The "Me" Decade. 441 00:18:25,791 --> 00:18:26,958 Masters of the Universe. 442 00:18:26,958 --> 00:18:28,541 The Right Stuff. 443 00:18:28,541 --> 00:18:30,750 I mean, he could come up with these terms 444 00:18:30,750 --> 00:18:32,958 which then just became common-- 445 00:18:32,958 --> 00:18:35,375 a common part of our language. 446 00:18:35,375 --> 00:18:38,625 [Michael] It showed nonfiction writers 447 00:18:38,625 --> 00:18:41,250 how much was possible in the form. 448 00:18:41,250 --> 00:18:43,750 [mellow music] 449 00:18:49,291 --> 00:18:51,208 -[gunfire] -[indistinct shouting] 450 00:18:51,208 --> 00:18:52,416 [explosions] 451 00:18:52,416 --> 00:18:53,875 [indistinct shouting] 452 00:18:53,875 --> 00:18:56,166 -[aircraft zooming] -[explosion] 453 00:18:59,291 --> 00:19:01,166 [Alex] You know, in the '60s, 454 00:19:01,166 --> 00:19:03,666 culture's being sort of shaken on its head. 455 00:19:05,333 --> 00:19:07,458 Journalists are rebelling against 456 00:19:07,458 --> 00:19:09,583 what everyone else was rebelling against. 457 00:19:09,583 --> 00:19:10,833 [camera whirring] 458 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:13,875 Wolfe, and that generation, 459 00:19:13,875 --> 00:19:15,375 they're trying to capture a world 460 00:19:15,375 --> 00:19:17,333 that seems to be going faster and faster. 461 00:19:26,125 --> 00:19:28,416 [Gay] You felt that nothing was in your way 462 00:19:28,416 --> 00:19:31,750 if you really wanted to do something big, courageous, 463 00:19:31,750 --> 00:19:34,208 risk-taking, you could do it. 464 00:19:34,208 --> 00:19:35,916 [Jon Hamm] Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon 465 00:19:35,916 --> 00:19:38,583 in one hand, a cigarette in another, 466 00:19:38,583 --> 00:19:40,416 stood in a dark corner of the bar 467 00:19:40,416 --> 00:19:43,416 between two attractive but fading blondes 468 00:19:43,416 --> 00:19:45,791 who sat waiting for him to say something. 469 00:19:45,791 --> 00:19:48,291 [typewriter clicking] 470 00:19:51,083 --> 00:19:52,708 [Michael] They were all trying to create 471 00:19:52,708 --> 00:19:54,541 an excitement on the page, 472 00:19:54,541 --> 00:19:58,250 and all the things that are changing in America, 473 00:19:58,250 --> 00:19:59,416 it's reflected in kind of the way 474 00:19:59,416 --> 00:20:02,291 the prose looks and sounds. 475 00:20:02,291 --> 00:20:04,625 [Emily] You had Hunter S. Thompson 476 00:20:04,625 --> 00:20:06,750 going to the Kentucky Derby. 477 00:20:06,750 --> 00:20:10,750 Joan Didion going to San Francisco in 1968. 478 00:20:10,750 --> 00:20:11,833 [Joan Didion] In this life, 479 00:20:11,833 --> 00:20:14,166 all narrative was sentimental. 480 00:20:14,166 --> 00:20:15,333 In this life, 481 00:20:15,333 --> 00:20:17,791 all connections were equally meaningful 482 00:20:17,791 --> 00:20:19,708 and equally senseless. 483 00:20:23,041 --> 00:20:24,333 [Alex] The events of the world 484 00:20:24,333 --> 00:20:26,833 were inspiring these young journalists. 485 00:20:26,833 --> 00:20:28,125 It's like, you know what, 486 00:20:28,125 --> 00:20:29,708 there's probably a different way to cover this. 487 00:20:29,708 --> 00:20:32,416 [music intensifies] 488 00:20:32,416 --> 00:20:34,916 [Michael] Wolfe creates this sort of pseudo movement. 489 00:20:34,916 --> 00:20:36,458 New Journalism. 490 00:20:36,458 --> 00:20:41,833 What is it and to what degree are you responsible for it? 491 00:20:41,833 --> 00:20:43,375 In my mind, the New Journalism 492 00:20:43,375 --> 00:20:47,875 is the use of every effective technique 493 00:20:47,875 --> 00:20:52,041 known to prose in nonfiction. 494 00:20:52,041 --> 00:20:53,958 I was gonna write a five or six page introduction 495 00:20:53,958 --> 00:20:56,250 to a textbook on the subject of the New Journalism, 496 00:20:56,250 --> 00:20:58,083 that's all it was gonna be. 497 00:20:58,083 --> 00:21:00,541 And I found out when I wrote that thing 498 00:21:00,541 --> 00:21:03,458 that plenty of my confreres in the field of nonfiction 499 00:21:03,458 --> 00:21:06,583 were really upset. 500 00:21:06,583 --> 00:21:07,916 I mean, Hunter Thompson writes him a note to say, 501 00:21:07,916 --> 00:21:09,375 "Don't include me. 502 00:21:09,375 --> 00:21:11,791 You've created this category for your own purposes, 503 00:21:11,791 --> 00:21:14,166 but I'm not one of them," kind of thing. 504 00:21:14,166 --> 00:21:15,416 [pencil scribbles] 505 00:21:16,875 --> 00:21:17,875 [snorts] 506 00:21:22,500 --> 00:21:24,250 [Alex] Sometimes it's interesting to go back 507 00:21:24,250 --> 00:21:26,833 and see which one of these writers are friends, 508 00:21:26,833 --> 00:21:27,916 who are enemies, 509 00:21:27,916 --> 00:21:29,833 who are competitive with each other. 510 00:21:29,833 --> 00:21:32,625 And one of the strangest pairings 511 00:21:32,625 --> 00:21:35,750 is Wolfe and Hunter Thompson. 512 00:21:35,750 --> 00:21:38,000 They seem on the surface to be so different, 513 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,708 and yet at the same time they were both dogged reporters, 514 00:21:40,708 --> 00:21:42,333 they had the Southern thing in common... 515 00:21:42,333 --> 00:21:43,583 They admired each other's writing. 516 00:21:43,583 --> 00:21:45,125 They both could see that the other one 517 00:21:45,125 --> 00:21:46,500 was really good at what he did. 518 00:21:46,500 --> 00:21:48,250 -[indistinct speaking] -[tires squeal] 519 00:21:48,250 --> 00:21:50,125 [Tom Wolfe] What is the speed limit here? 70. 520 00:21:50,125 --> 00:21:52,458 -No, oh my God, it's 75. -[tires squeal] 521 00:21:52,458 --> 00:21:58,125 Every time I saw him was unforgettable. 522 00:21:58,125 --> 00:22:01,333 There's a passage in-- in his archives 523 00:22:01,333 --> 00:22:04,416 where Wolfe is describing taking Hunter Thompson 524 00:22:04,416 --> 00:22:07,208 to some trendy Manhattan restaurant. 525 00:22:07,208 --> 00:22:08,250 Hunter Thompson gets there 526 00:22:08,250 --> 00:22:09,958 with like a paper sack and says, 527 00:22:09,958 --> 00:22:12,250 "I can clear this restaurant out in 20 seconds." 528 00:22:12,250 --> 00:22:15,791 And it turns out to be like a marine alarm horn 529 00:22:15,791 --> 00:22:19,625 that you send--that you push if your ship is going down. 530 00:22:19,625 --> 00:22:22,250 It can be heard 20 nautical miles away. 531 00:22:22,250 --> 00:22:23,875 And Hunter Thompson takes it out and hits it, 532 00:22:23,875 --> 00:22:25,291 and the whole restaurant clears out. 533 00:22:25,291 --> 00:22:27,708 [ship alarm blaring] 534 00:22:31,166 --> 00:22:35,791 [Tom Wolfe] To this day, louder than any sound I have heard. 535 00:22:35,791 --> 00:22:38,916 And then I realized that whenever I saw Hunter... 536 00:22:38,916 --> 00:22:40,250 [gunshot] 537 00:22:40,250 --> 00:22:42,250 ...it was going to be not so much a meeting 538 00:22:42,250 --> 00:22:44,333 or conversation as an event. 539 00:22:44,333 --> 00:22:46,791 [indistinct speaking] 540 00:22:46,791 --> 00:22:48,333 What are you doing, man? 541 00:22:48,333 --> 00:22:51,083 [Alex] When Wolfe set out to write about Ken Kesey, 542 00:22:51,083 --> 00:22:53,625 at some point he got in touch with Hunter Thompson 543 00:22:53,625 --> 00:22:55,958 because he had admired Hunter Thompson's book 544 00:22:55,958 --> 00:22:57,458 about the Hells Angels. 545 00:22:57,458 --> 00:22:58,750 Hunter Thompson didn't feel like 546 00:22:58,750 --> 00:23:00,291 he could really write about something 547 00:23:00,291 --> 00:23:02,208 until he reported the shit out of it, 548 00:23:02,208 --> 00:23:06,083 and that's exactly what he had in common with Tom Wolfe. 549 00:23:06,083 --> 00:23:08,500 [rock music] 550 00:23:19,166 --> 00:23:23,250 The commencement exercises for LSDU 551 00:23:23,250 --> 00:23:26,875 will be held at Winterland on Monday night. 552 00:23:26,875 --> 00:23:29,333 That's Halloween. 553 00:23:29,333 --> 00:23:31,833 And, of course, the man who is going to be passing out 554 00:23:31,833 --> 00:23:34,083 the diplomas is Ken Kesey. 555 00:23:34,083 --> 00:23:35,416 Ken, what, um, 556 00:23:35,416 --> 00:23:38,250 what's the theme of this commencement exercise? 557 00:23:38,250 --> 00:23:39,250 Trip or treat. 558 00:23:39,250 --> 00:23:41,750 [mellow music] 559 00:23:51,791 --> 00:23:54,125 [Tom Wolfe] When I wrote The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, 560 00:23:54,125 --> 00:23:55,500 one thing I worried about 561 00:23:55,500 --> 00:23:57,166 was what my role was gonna be. 562 00:23:57,166 --> 00:23:59,750 And if you're gonna continue to be a writer, 563 00:23:59,750 --> 00:24:00,875 you can't become totally involved 564 00:24:00,875 --> 00:24:02,250 'cause you rob yourself 565 00:24:02,250 --> 00:24:04,333 of all perspective at that point. 566 00:24:07,208 --> 00:24:09,750 [woman] That means in the case of the Merry Prankster Bus, 567 00:24:09,750 --> 00:24:11,916 you were not dropping acid all the time. 568 00:24:11,916 --> 00:24:14,333 [Tom Wolfe] No, I never did while I was with them. 569 00:24:14,333 --> 00:24:17,708 Later on I did take LSD to-- 570 00:24:17,708 --> 00:24:19,000 just to write the book, 571 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:20,708 just to see what would happen, 572 00:24:20,708 --> 00:24:23,125 which is really not the way to do it. 573 00:24:23,125 --> 00:24:25,625 [mellow music] 574 00:24:31,750 --> 00:24:33,041 But I found out through doing it 575 00:24:33,041 --> 00:24:35,666 that the LSD experience is not a light show. 576 00:24:36,708 --> 00:24:39,375 That's, by far, the least of it. 577 00:24:39,375 --> 00:24:43,625 But occasionally I'll even sit in front of the typewriter 578 00:24:43,625 --> 00:24:45,625 and close my eyes 579 00:24:45,625 --> 00:24:49,250 and go into what I thought of as a kind of controlled trance 580 00:24:49,250 --> 00:24:52,916 and try to actually feel in my nervous system 581 00:24:52,916 --> 00:24:54,416 what they have gone through, 582 00:24:54,416 --> 00:24:55,750 what I had seen them do, 583 00:24:55,750 --> 00:24:58,833 or what I had been told about, 584 00:24:58,833 --> 00:25:00,250 and then write it. 585 00:25:00,250 --> 00:25:02,125 And I've never been an actor, 586 00:25:02,125 --> 00:25:04,541 but I'm convinced this must be the process 587 00:25:04,541 --> 00:25:07,125 that a method actor or almost any actor goes through. 588 00:25:07,125 --> 00:25:08,625 [shimmering sound] 589 00:25:08,625 --> 00:25:11,083 [Jon Hamm] The world was simply and sheerly divided 590 00:25:11,083 --> 00:25:13,166 into "the aware," 591 00:25:13,166 --> 00:25:14,500 those who had the experience 592 00:25:14,500 --> 00:25:16,875 of being vessels of the divine, 593 00:25:16,875 --> 00:25:19,958 and a great mass of "the unaware," 594 00:25:19,958 --> 00:25:23,458 "the unmusical," "the unattuned." 595 00:25:23,458 --> 00:25:26,375 The aware were never snobbish toward the unaware, 596 00:25:26,375 --> 00:25:28,625 but, in fact, most of that great jellyfish blob 597 00:25:28,625 --> 00:25:31,541 of straight souls looked like hopeless cases. 598 00:25:31,541 --> 00:25:34,041 [energetic music] 599 00:25:39,750 --> 00:25:42,500 [Gail] Tom migrated into writing books 600 00:25:42,500 --> 00:25:44,458 from feature writing, 601 00:25:44,458 --> 00:25:47,958 and he found out that that's a whole other way 602 00:25:47,958 --> 00:25:50,750 to unmask a phenomenon. 603 00:25:50,750 --> 00:25:55,583 He found himself involved with Ken Kesey, 604 00:25:55,583 --> 00:25:58,375 Neal Cassady, and the Beats, 605 00:25:58,375 --> 00:26:01,125 the beginning of the hippie culture. 606 00:26:01,125 --> 00:26:03,083 [Gregory] In some ways he's very much progressive 607 00:26:03,083 --> 00:26:07,291 in that he's very focused on those overlooked in society. 608 00:26:07,291 --> 00:26:09,083 [Tom Wolfe] We're talking now about the rise 609 00:26:09,083 --> 00:26:11,583 of the California hip life, 610 00:26:11,583 --> 00:26:13,583 which is a life really based on what I call 611 00:26:13,583 --> 00:26:15,041 the politics of pleasure. 612 00:26:15,041 --> 00:26:17,833 As a result, you see some curious things happening. 613 00:26:17,833 --> 00:26:18,958 They do what they feel like, 614 00:26:18,958 --> 00:26:20,625 and a lot of people feel like taking-- 615 00:26:20,625 --> 00:26:22,583 taking these drugs. 616 00:26:22,583 --> 00:26:25,333 [Emily] He's creating a mythology of the country 617 00:26:25,333 --> 00:26:26,666 as he's writing, 618 00:26:26,666 --> 00:26:28,583 and one that really endures. 619 00:26:28,583 --> 00:26:30,000 [funk music] 620 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,166 It's this really all-encompassing vision 621 00:26:33,166 --> 00:26:36,375 of the 1960s that was so perfect, 622 00:26:36,375 --> 00:26:39,541 and LSD culture was still new 623 00:26:39,541 --> 00:26:41,958 and people didn't know what to make of it. 624 00:26:41,958 --> 00:26:47,125 And yet, he set the standard for how we think about it. 625 00:26:47,125 --> 00:26:50,541 [mellow music] 626 00:26:50,541 --> 00:26:52,750 [Ron] What struck me was the delight he takes 627 00:26:52,750 --> 00:26:54,458 in these characters. 628 00:26:54,458 --> 00:26:55,500 Not the approval, 629 00:26:55,500 --> 00:26:56,916 that's something very different, 630 00:26:56,916 --> 00:27:01,708 but the fact that he just enjoys how crazy they are 631 00:27:01,708 --> 00:27:04,875 without falling in and becoming one of them. 632 00:27:04,875 --> 00:27:06,416 People just wouldn't have done that. 633 00:27:06,416 --> 00:27:08,125 There would have been a sense 634 00:27:08,125 --> 00:27:09,625 that you had to be behind a wall 635 00:27:09,625 --> 00:27:12,208 and you had to describe these things through glass, 636 00:27:12,208 --> 00:27:14,291 whereas Tom was just out there with them, 637 00:27:14,291 --> 00:27:15,916 listening to them, experiencing them, 638 00:27:15,916 --> 00:27:19,791 and letting us see what he was feeling 639 00:27:19,791 --> 00:27:21,708 as he experienced it. 640 00:27:25,958 --> 00:27:29,500 He had a best-seller from his first book, 641 00:27:29,500 --> 00:27:31,208 so he was launched. 642 00:27:31,208 --> 00:27:33,708 [mellow music] 643 00:27:42,708 --> 00:27:44,708 [Peter] The book itself reads like you're on some-- 644 00:27:44,708 --> 00:27:47,458 some crazy LSD trip that ends very badly. 645 00:27:47,458 --> 00:27:50,625 To me, that's his-- his greatest book. 646 00:27:50,625 --> 00:27:54,750 He helped bring the new world into being. 647 00:27:55,875 --> 00:27:57,125 [cash register chimes] 648 00:27:58,458 --> 00:28:01,000 [soft music] 649 00:28:05,791 --> 00:28:09,000 [Niall] The key to understanding Tom Wolfe 650 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:14,250 is to imagine this Southern, studious young man 651 00:28:14,250 --> 00:28:16,416 leaving the South for Yale. 652 00:28:18,375 --> 00:28:20,041 [Michael] He'd never really gotten out 653 00:28:20,041 --> 00:28:22,458 of his little Southern bubble. 654 00:28:22,458 --> 00:28:24,791 And he gets to Yale and all of a sudden 655 00:28:24,791 --> 00:28:26,250 he realizes there are all these people 656 00:28:26,250 --> 00:28:31,208 who kind of look down on the world he came from. 657 00:28:31,208 --> 00:28:34,625 But he had such a deep love of where he was from 658 00:28:34,625 --> 00:28:37,666 that he started to develop a mild contempt 659 00:28:37,666 --> 00:28:39,416 for the people around him at Yale 660 00:28:39,416 --> 00:28:42,708 who had a mild contempt of the world he came from. 661 00:28:42,708 --> 00:28:47,083 He wrote a PhD thesis, in very Tom Wolfe-ian style, 662 00:28:47,083 --> 00:28:50,916 in which he, from a vaguely right-wing perspective, 663 00:28:50,916 --> 00:28:55,333 attacks a lot of famous left-wing writers. 664 00:28:55,333 --> 00:28:58,625 And the professors, who are much more left-leaning, 665 00:28:58,625 --> 00:29:00,166 are shocked. 666 00:29:00,166 --> 00:29:02,875 They basically say this thesis is not suitable. 667 00:29:02,875 --> 00:29:06,000 It's opinionated, the facts can't be checked. 668 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:07,916 You put yourself back in the mind frame 669 00:29:07,916 --> 00:29:11,208 of somebody who spent five years at Yale 670 00:29:11,208 --> 00:29:13,875 working on this paper. 671 00:29:13,875 --> 00:29:16,500 I think he hated every moment of it. 672 00:29:16,500 --> 00:29:18,458 [Alex] And he says I'm gonna tidy up this stuff 673 00:29:18,458 --> 00:29:19,750 for these stupid fucks 674 00:29:19,750 --> 00:29:22,708 and get my PhD and get out of here. 675 00:29:24,083 --> 00:29:28,791 That is a kind of searing experience. 676 00:29:28,791 --> 00:29:32,416 And I think it helps explain the vendetta 677 00:29:32,416 --> 00:29:37,208 that Wolfe pursued against the intellectual left. 678 00:29:39,666 --> 00:29:42,375 [soft music] 679 00:29:42,375 --> 00:29:45,750 [Michael] And so Tom flees Yale as fast he can, 680 00:29:45,750 --> 00:29:48,541 and he lands this job as a daily journalist 681 00:29:48,541 --> 00:29:52,708 for the Springfield, Massachusetts, newspaper. 682 00:29:52,708 --> 00:29:55,333 [Alex] Before the New Journalism era in New York, 683 00:29:55,333 --> 00:29:58,500 Wolfe's a straight reporter. 684 00:29:58,500 --> 00:30:00,833 He ended up getting into newspaper work 685 00:30:00,833 --> 00:30:03,041 the old-fashioned way, he started from the bottom. 686 00:30:03,041 --> 00:30:05,833 Covering fires and City Hall meetings, 687 00:30:05,833 --> 00:30:08,500 and doing all of the routine things 688 00:30:08,500 --> 00:30:11,708 that young reporters do as they work their way up. 689 00:30:13,625 --> 00:30:15,250 [Tom Wolfe] I never knew from day to day 690 00:30:15,250 --> 00:30:16,875 what kind of story I was gonna be put on. 691 00:30:16,875 --> 00:30:20,375 It made you realize that you can go up to total strangers 692 00:30:20,375 --> 00:30:22,166 and ask them questions that they-- 693 00:30:22,166 --> 00:30:24,833 you have no right to expect them to answer. 694 00:30:24,833 --> 00:30:26,750 [man] There's a wonderful picture, 1958, 695 00:30:26,750 --> 00:30:29,166 you and John F. Kennedy, a politician on the make, 696 00:30:29,166 --> 00:30:31,666 and a newspaper reporter from The Springfield Union 697 00:30:31,666 --> 00:30:33,083 on the make. 698 00:30:33,083 --> 00:30:34,958 [Tom Wolfe] Kennedy, when I interviewed him, 699 00:30:34,958 --> 00:30:36,708 was Senator Kennedy. 700 00:30:36,708 --> 00:30:38,416 He had been asked to come to Springfield 701 00:30:38,416 --> 00:30:40,666 to see if he could do something to keep the government 702 00:30:40,666 --> 00:30:42,083 from getting rid of the armory. 703 00:30:42,083 --> 00:30:44,625 The armory had become kind of redundant by now. 704 00:30:44,625 --> 00:30:47,083 So he met with a group of Springfield business men 705 00:30:47,083 --> 00:30:48,333 and the Springfield mayor. 706 00:30:48,333 --> 00:30:50,250 And he was saying to them, 707 00:30:50,250 --> 00:30:52,916 "Look, we've gotta be just like these Southern politicians, 708 00:30:52,916 --> 00:30:54,833 these Southern senators and congressmen. 709 00:30:54,833 --> 00:30:57,083 They just grab whatever they feel like, 710 00:30:57,083 --> 00:30:59,166 and they'll make a gym for a university 711 00:30:59,166 --> 00:31:00,750 and name it after themselves, 712 00:31:00,750 --> 00:31:02,333 but that's the way you have to play the game 713 00:31:02,333 --> 00:31:04,500 and that's what we have to do to save the armory." 714 00:31:04,500 --> 00:31:06,250 At which point one of his aides said, 715 00:31:06,250 --> 00:31:07,708 "Senator, uh, did you realize 716 00:31:07,708 --> 00:31:09,583 that there's a reporter in the room?" 717 00:31:09,583 --> 00:31:11,083 And that was me. 718 00:31:11,083 --> 00:31:12,416 And he turned to me and he said, 719 00:31:12,416 --> 00:31:14,125 "This is all off the record." 720 00:31:14,125 --> 00:31:15,916 "Well, there's 25 Springfield business leaders here 721 00:31:15,916 --> 00:31:17,291 and the mayor, 722 00:31:17,291 --> 00:31:19,041 I don't see how I can keep it off the record." 723 00:31:19,041 --> 00:31:20,708 And he says, "It's off the record." 724 00:31:20,708 --> 00:31:22,375 Afterwards he came up to me and took me outside. 725 00:31:22,375 --> 00:31:24,333 He said, "Look, I know your publisher, 726 00:31:24,333 --> 00:31:25,583 I know your editor very well, 727 00:31:25,583 --> 00:31:26,916 and I know they would never want 728 00:31:26,916 --> 00:31:29,333 anything like this to appear in their paper 729 00:31:29,333 --> 00:31:31,083 and jeopardize the future of the armory." 730 00:31:31,083 --> 00:31:33,458 So I said--I said, "My hands are tied, I'm sorry. 731 00:31:33,458 --> 00:31:36,625 It's--this is something that just happened 732 00:31:36,625 --> 00:31:38,250 in front of a lot 733 00:31:38,250 --> 00:31:40,041 of influential people in Springfield." 734 00:31:40,041 --> 00:31:41,875 So I went ahead and wrote the story. 735 00:31:41,875 --> 00:31:45,083 And about a week later, he complained to the editor 736 00:31:45,083 --> 00:31:47,750 that I had violated an off-the-record embargo 737 00:31:47,750 --> 00:31:50,333 and, in effect, kind of tried to get me fired. 738 00:31:50,333 --> 00:31:52,791 But, fortunately, my editor was a Republican, 739 00:31:52,791 --> 00:31:54,125 and he seemed to rather like me, 740 00:31:54,125 --> 00:31:55,333 and so it didn't cost me. 741 00:31:55,333 --> 00:31:57,125 But that's what we were talking about 742 00:31:57,125 --> 00:32:00,083 in that picture. 743 00:32:00,083 --> 00:32:02,000 [Alex] One thing that's important to remember 744 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,458 about Wolfe as he's trying to make a name for himself 745 00:32:04,458 --> 00:32:07,750 is that he must have felt very much the outsider. 746 00:32:07,750 --> 00:32:09,916 People on the outside looking in 747 00:32:09,916 --> 00:32:11,833 have some sort of chip on their shoulder 748 00:32:11,833 --> 00:32:14,041 that drives them. 749 00:32:14,041 --> 00:32:17,791 So, Wolfe was not afraid to piss people off. 750 00:32:17,791 --> 00:32:19,333 [Emily] I write for The New Yorker, 751 00:32:19,333 --> 00:32:22,708 but I read Tiny Mummies! with some satisfaction, 752 00:32:22,708 --> 00:32:24,833 which I'm a little embarrassed to admit. 753 00:32:24,833 --> 00:32:26,666 [soft classical music] 754 00:32:26,666 --> 00:32:30,708 He presents the magazine as this place 755 00:32:30,708 --> 00:32:33,833 where it's so driven by its own legacy 756 00:32:33,833 --> 00:32:36,541 and its nepotism and its elitism 757 00:32:36,541 --> 00:32:38,625 that, how do I put it, 758 00:32:38,625 --> 00:32:39,625 yeah, it's a mummy. 759 00:32:39,625 --> 00:32:41,458 [laughs] 760 00:32:41,458 --> 00:32:43,375 [Tom Junod] He was basically saying, you know, 761 00:32:43,375 --> 00:32:45,583 it was a not a-- a place of the living 762 00:32:45,583 --> 00:32:47,625 but rather a place of the dead. 763 00:32:47,625 --> 00:32:51,458 The after-effect of what he's written is anger. 764 00:32:51,458 --> 00:32:53,166 [Tom Junod] He was roundly attacked, 765 00:32:53,166 --> 00:32:54,750 and he was attacked by The New Yorker 766 00:32:54,750 --> 00:32:57,666 for the rest of his career. 767 00:32:57,666 --> 00:33:00,041 I mean, they got fuckin' J. D. Salinger 768 00:33:00,041 --> 00:33:01,583 to write a complaint piece. 769 00:33:01,583 --> 00:33:04,125 [somber music] 770 00:33:08,291 --> 00:33:10,458 [Christopher] You know, The New York establishment 771 00:33:10,458 --> 00:33:12,291 never forgave him, really, for that. 772 00:33:14,666 --> 00:33:16,750 [Tom Wolfe] I always think of Balzac's statement 773 00:33:16,750 --> 00:33:18,541 when people were trying to find out 774 00:33:18,541 --> 00:33:21,333 his political stance in his novels. 775 00:33:21,333 --> 00:33:23,291 He would always say, 776 00:33:23,291 --> 00:33:27,041 "I belong to the party of the opposition." 777 00:33:27,041 --> 00:33:28,958 And so I can put that in his mouth, 778 00:33:28,958 --> 00:33:30,333 it would sound pompous to say it today, 779 00:33:30,333 --> 00:33:33,250 but it's really the way I feel. 780 00:33:33,250 --> 00:33:35,125 He went after sacred cows. 781 00:33:37,291 --> 00:33:41,458 He thought these were things and people and theories 782 00:33:41,458 --> 00:33:46,250 that really needed to be taken down a peg or two. 783 00:33:46,250 --> 00:33:48,791 This book called The Painted Word 784 00:33:48,791 --> 00:33:51,500 is a mustache painted in broad daylight 785 00:33:51,500 --> 00:33:53,250 on the Mona Lisa. 786 00:33:53,250 --> 00:33:56,541 And some people are not going to forgive him ever. 787 00:33:56,541 --> 00:33:58,708 Now he's written another book about architecture 788 00:33:58,708 --> 00:34:01,625 that could be subtitled The Wrong Stuff. 789 00:34:01,625 --> 00:34:02,666 And a lot of people, 790 00:34:02,666 --> 00:34:04,166 especially architectural critics, 791 00:34:04,166 --> 00:34:06,833 hate it. 792 00:34:06,833 --> 00:34:09,125 [Alexandra] When he got bad reviews, I would say, 793 00:34:09,125 --> 00:34:11,791 you know, "Dad, did you read that review? Are you upset?" 794 00:34:11,791 --> 00:34:13,958 He was like, "No, of course I'm not upset." 795 00:34:13,958 --> 00:34:15,416 And I'd say, "Why? That was--" 796 00:34:15,416 --> 00:34:16,958 You know, "They were so nasty." 797 00:34:16,958 --> 00:34:19,250 He said, "Well, you're nobody until somebody hates you." 798 00:34:19,250 --> 00:34:20,625 You know, he sort of-- 799 00:34:20,625 --> 00:34:22,708 he just sort of brushed everything off like that. 800 00:34:22,708 --> 00:34:25,833 He really made a lot of enemies, 801 00:34:25,833 --> 00:34:28,291 but it didn't bother him. 802 00:34:28,291 --> 00:34:32,625 He wasn't looking for approval. 803 00:34:32,625 --> 00:34:35,041 [announcer] Here is Mr. Bernstein. 804 00:34:35,041 --> 00:34:37,541 [applause] 805 00:34:44,208 --> 00:34:46,833 [soft orchestral music] 806 00:34:46,833 --> 00:34:48,583 [Tom Wolfe] One day I was at Harper's Magazine 807 00:34:48,583 --> 00:34:50,583 waiting for my wife-to-be, 808 00:34:50,583 --> 00:34:53,416 who was the art director at Harper's, 809 00:34:53,416 --> 00:34:54,791 to take her to lunch. 810 00:34:54,791 --> 00:34:56,208 And to kill the time, 811 00:34:56,208 --> 00:34:57,916 I kept wandering around. 812 00:34:57,916 --> 00:35:00,791 I went into the office of David Halberstam. 813 00:35:00,791 --> 00:35:02,083 He wasn't there. 814 00:35:02,083 --> 00:35:03,958 So I was looking at everything on his desk. 815 00:35:03,958 --> 00:35:06,375 And, uh& -[laughter] 816 00:35:06,375 --> 00:35:10,791 And here was an invitation by Leonard and Felicia Bernstein 817 00:35:10,791 --> 00:35:14,541 to a party at 895 Park Avenue for the Black Panthers. 818 00:35:14,541 --> 00:35:16,041 So, I couldn't resist it. 819 00:35:16,041 --> 00:35:18,125 I had to get into that party somehow. 820 00:35:18,125 --> 00:35:20,041 So... -[laughter] 821 00:35:20,041 --> 00:35:22,833 There was a number to call if you accepted. 822 00:35:22,833 --> 00:35:24,750 So I called up and I said, 823 00:35:24,750 --> 00:35:27,166 "I'm Tom Wolfe and I accept." 824 00:35:27,166 --> 00:35:28,958 [majestic orchestral music] 825 00:35:28,958 --> 00:35:30,208 [Michael] By the time Tom Wolfe 826 00:35:30,208 --> 00:35:31,875 is in Leonard Bernstein's apartment, 827 00:35:31,875 --> 00:35:33,916 he is America's leading satirist, 828 00:35:33,916 --> 00:35:37,208 so he is the most dangerous writer in America. 829 00:35:37,208 --> 00:35:40,791 He's exactly who you don't invite to your dinner party. 830 00:35:40,791 --> 00:35:42,666 A few years ago, Wolfe attended a party, 831 00:35:42,666 --> 00:35:45,125 as you recall, at the apartment of Leonard Bernstein, 832 00:35:45,125 --> 00:35:46,875 where the result was a 20,000-word piece 833 00:35:46,875 --> 00:35:48,625 called Radical Chic. 834 00:35:48,625 --> 00:35:50,750 [William] Which is about the famous party 835 00:35:50,750 --> 00:35:53,125 that Leonard Bernstein gave to raise money 836 00:35:53,125 --> 00:35:55,625 for the Black Panthers who had been indicted 837 00:35:55,625 --> 00:36:00,000 for conspiring to bomb a few racist department stores 838 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:01,333 at Easter time. 839 00:36:01,333 --> 00:36:02,958 Ten or twelve members of the Black Panther Party 840 00:36:02,958 --> 00:36:05,750 in New York have already been arrested, 841 00:36:05,750 --> 00:36:08,583 and others are being arrested, all by surprise. 842 00:36:08,583 --> 00:36:10,708 The Black Panther Party is informing and calling on 843 00:36:10,708 --> 00:36:13,041 all the peoples of the communities across the country 844 00:36:13,041 --> 00:36:14,625 to scorn and denounce the action 845 00:36:14,625 --> 00:36:17,000 of this capitalistic government's attempts 846 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:18,750 to try to destroy the Black Panther Party, 847 00:36:18,750 --> 00:36:21,708 which has chapters and branches across the nation. 848 00:36:21,708 --> 00:36:23,875 [William] I should like to begin by asking Mr. Wolfe 849 00:36:23,875 --> 00:36:26,041 whether he thinks, on second thought, 850 00:36:26,041 --> 00:36:28,958 that he behaved insouciantly 851 00:36:28,958 --> 00:36:32,041 toward the plight of the Panthers. 852 00:36:32,041 --> 00:36:33,083 -Insouciantly? -Yes. 853 00:36:33,083 --> 00:36:34,125 [chuckles] 854 00:36:34,125 --> 00:36:36,166 [Jon Hamm] Mm, these are nice. 855 00:36:36,166 --> 00:36:39,750 Little Roquefort cheese morsels rolled in crushed nuts. 856 00:36:39,750 --> 00:36:41,875 Very tasty, very subtle. 857 00:36:41,875 --> 00:36:44,333 It's the way the dry sackiness of the nuts 858 00:36:44,333 --> 00:36:46,875 tiptoes up against the dour savor of the cheese 859 00:36:46,875 --> 00:36:49,458 that is so nice, so subtle. 860 00:36:49,458 --> 00:36:51,083 Wonder what the Black Panthers eat here 861 00:36:51,083 --> 00:36:52,750 on the hors d'oeuvres trail? 862 00:36:52,750 --> 00:36:54,916 Do the Panthers like little Roquefort cheese morsels 863 00:36:54,916 --> 00:36:56,958 wrapped in crushed nuts this way, 864 00:36:56,958 --> 00:36:59,041 and asparagus tips in mayonnaise dabs, 865 00:36:59,041 --> 00:37:02,000 and meatballs petites au Coq Hardi? 866 00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:03,750 For example, does that huge Black Panther 867 00:37:03,750 --> 00:37:05,250 there in the hallway, 868 00:37:05,250 --> 00:37:07,833 the one shaking hands with Felicia Bernstein herself, 869 00:37:07,833 --> 00:37:10,833 the one with the black leather coat and the dark glasses 870 00:37:10,833 --> 00:37:13,416 and the absolutely unbelievable Afro, 871 00:37:13,416 --> 00:37:15,125 Fuzzy Wuzzy-scale, in fact, 872 00:37:15,125 --> 00:37:16,958 is he, a Black Panther, 873 00:37:16,958 --> 00:37:19,000 going on to pick up a Roquefort cheese morsel 874 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:20,750 rolled in crushed nuts from off the tray, 875 00:37:20,750 --> 00:37:21,958 and just pop it down the gullet 876 00:37:21,958 --> 00:37:23,541 without so much as missing a beat 877 00:37:23,541 --> 00:37:26,416 of Felicia's perfect Mary Astor voice. 878 00:37:26,416 --> 00:37:28,333 [majestic classical music] 879 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,000 [Tom Wolfe] You cannot say that the Bernsteins 880 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:34,333 or the other people who have given parties like this 881 00:37:34,333 --> 00:37:36,041 are insincere. 882 00:37:36,041 --> 00:37:37,458 They do care about the great work, 883 00:37:37,458 --> 00:37:40,125 they do care about the Black Panthers, 884 00:37:40,125 --> 00:37:43,083 and they even care about the ocelots, uh, 885 00:37:43,083 --> 00:37:45,041 and the Somali leopards, 886 00:37:45,041 --> 00:37:47,916 although they tend to lump them all together. 887 00:37:47,916 --> 00:37:49,250 In January 1970, 888 00:37:49,250 --> 00:37:53,333 when the party at Leonard Bernstein happened, 889 00:37:53,333 --> 00:37:54,666 I was in prison. 890 00:37:54,666 --> 00:37:57,625 I was part of the Panther 21 case. 891 00:37:57,625 --> 00:38:00,041 Our bail was set at $100,000. 892 00:38:00,041 --> 00:38:01,750 We always maintained that that wasn't a bail, 893 00:38:01,750 --> 00:38:03,750 it was a ransom. 894 00:38:03,750 --> 00:38:05,708 And in February of 1970, 895 00:38:05,708 --> 00:38:08,500 I was released as a result of that fundraiser. 896 00:38:09,958 --> 00:38:11,291 And then I saw this article came out 897 00:38:11,291 --> 00:38:14,000 kind of labeling what was going on 898 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:17,041 as "radical chic," 899 00:38:17,041 --> 00:38:19,958 as kind of, like, this pretentious fad. 900 00:38:19,958 --> 00:38:23,208 The broad reaction in the Panther Party was that, 901 00:38:23,208 --> 00:38:25,375 you know, "This dude is trippin'." 902 00:38:25,375 --> 00:38:27,250 [protesters singing] 903 00:38:27,250 --> 00:38:31,125 It kinda put a derisive label 904 00:38:31,125 --> 00:38:33,208 on good work that was happening, 905 00:38:33,208 --> 00:38:35,291 and it wasn't good work just because 906 00:38:35,291 --> 00:38:36,958 people were contributing money. 907 00:38:36,958 --> 00:38:38,083 It was good work because 908 00:38:38,083 --> 00:38:40,458 consciousness was being raised 909 00:38:40,458 --> 00:38:44,541 around injustices that were happening in our society. 910 00:38:44,541 --> 00:38:48,000 And I think that that article 911 00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:52,250 was trivializing what we were doing, 912 00:38:52,250 --> 00:38:55,333 and the Bernstein family felt this betrayal. 913 00:38:57,500 --> 00:38:59,416 [Gay] He could write about people. 914 00:38:59,416 --> 00:39:02,958 That was so searing and so unsettling, I'm sure, 915 00:39:02,958 --> 00:39:05,250 for those who were written about. 916 00:39:05,250 --> 00:39:07,833 Old Tom Wolfe would pick them like you'd pick a balloon 917 00:39:07,833 --> 00:39:09,666 with his little sharp pointed pen. 918 00:39:09,666 --> 00:39:10,916 And the question is 919 00:39:10,916 --> 00:39:13,833 is whether he crossed the line in that story 920 00:39:13,833 --> 00:39:16,416 into, you know, into cruelty. 921 00:39:16,416 --> 00:39:18,000 [majestic classical music] 922 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,041 [Jon Hamm] As more than one person in this room knows, 923 00:39:20,041 --> 00:39:23,333 Lenny treasures the art of conversation. 924 00:39:23,333 --> 00:39:24,333 He treasures it, 925 00:39:24,333 --> 00:39:25,416 monopolizes it, 926 00:39:25,416 --> 00:39:26,541 conglomerates it 927 00:39:26,541 --> 00:39:27,625 like a Jay Gould, 928 00:39:27,625 --> 00:39:28,958 an Onassis. 929 00:39:28,958 --> 00:39:31,250 A cornfield of conversation. 930 00:39:31,250 --> 00:39:32,291 The Great Interrupter, 931 00:39:32,291 --> 00:39:33,500 the Village Explainer, 932 00:39:33,500 --> 00:39:35,958 the champion of Mental Jotto, 933 00:39:35,958 --> 00:39:36,958 the Free Analyst, 934 00:39:36,958 --> 00:39:39,500 Mr. Let's Find Out. 935 00:39:39,500 --> 00:39:42,791 No breathers allowed until every human brain 936 00:39:42,791 --> 00:39:45,000 is reduced finely to a clump of dried seaweed 937 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,375 inside a burnt-out husk 938 00:39:47,375 --> 00:39:49,333 and collapses, 939 00:39:49,333 --> 00:39:52,625 implodes in one last crunch 940 00:39:52,625 --> 00:39:54,125 of terminal boredom. 941 00:39:54,125 --> 00:39:57,083 [majestic classical music] 942 00:39:57,083 --> 00:39:59,250 He didn't give us a thought 943 00:39:59,250 --> 00:40:02,916 to how his words might be hurtful 944 00:40:02,916 --> 00:40:05,333 to the people he was making fun of. 945 00:40:05,333 --> 00:40:10,666 And I just feel like you have to remember, 946 00:40:10,666 --> 00:40:12,291 if you're a journalist, 947 00:40:12,291 --> 00:40:15,333 how your words can affect people. 948 00:40:15,333 --> 00:40:18,083 [Tom Junod] Tom Wolfe makes the Bernsteins look ridiculous 949 00:40:18,083 --> 00:40:19,791 in that particular piece, 950 00:40:19,791 --> 00:40:21,791 and I think that probably stuck with him forever. 951 00:40:22,916 --> 00:40:24,791 I'm a consumer of that story. 952 00:40:24,791 --> 00:40:26,333 I love that story. 953 00:40:26,333 --> 00:40:30,958 I can see where it would have been painful 954 00:40:30,958 --> 00:40:35,125 to be in a different position with that story. 955 00:40:35,125 --> 00:40:37,333 [Tom Wolfe] I think you can't afford to be 956 00:40:37,333 --> 00:40:39,375 constantly wringing your hands 957 00:40:39,375 --> 00:40:41,041 over the impact of what you're doing, 958 00:40:41,041 --> 00:40:42,791 whether you're talking about the impact 959 00:40:42,791 --> 00:40:44,583 on the individuals that you're writing about 960 00:40:44,583 --> 00:40:47,333 or the impact on the issues that are involved-- 961 00:40:47,333 --> 00:40:49,500 in this case, support for radical groups 962 00:40:49,500 --> 00:40:51,000 in the late 1960s. 963 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:52,791 I was heavily criticized after that 964 00:40:52,791 --> 00:40:56,375 for drying up fundraising for these radical groups 965 00:40:56,375 --> 00:40:59,125 among wealthy socialites in New York. 966 00:40:59,125 --> 00:41:00,458 Well, whether I did or I didn't, 967 00:41:00,458 --> 00:41:02,208 I don't think you can worry about that. 968 00:41:02,208 --> 00:41:03,500 I think if you start worrying about that, 969 00:41:03,500 --> 00:41:04,916 you're no longer writing; 970 00:41:04,916 --> 00:41:06,875 you're involved in public relations. 971 00:41:06,875 --> 00:41:08,208 [Gay] If you read Tom Wolfe, 972 00:41:08,208 --> 00:41:10,083 and you--in my case, not only read Tom Wolfe 973 00:41:10,083 --> 00:41:11,666 but know Tom Wolfe, 974 00:41:11,666 --> 00:41:12,875 they're different people, 975 00:41:12,875 --> 00:41:14,916 totally different people. 976 00:41:14,916 --> 00:41:16,625 [audience applauding] 977 00:41:16,625 --> 00:41:19,583 [man] As much as Tom Wolfe is a public figure, 978 00:41:19,583 --> 00:41:21,625 the private man is an enigma. 979 00:41:21,625 --> 00:41:22,916 Home is New York, 980 00:41:22,916 --> 00:41:25,750 where he is married with two kids. 981 00:41:25,750 --> 00:41:28,000 [Gail] A lot of readers wouldn't think of Tom Wolfe 982 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,791 necessarily as a soft-hearted man. 983 00:41:30,791 --> 00:41:34,291 He was also a man who could cut a man in pieces 984 00:41:34,291 --> 00:41:36,708 with a single sentence. 985 00:41:36,708 --> 00:41:38,291 But with those he cared about, 986 00:41:38,291 --> 00:41:41,916 he was one of the most thoughtful people I know. 987 00:41:41,916 --> 00:41:44,125 Tom was a very quiet, 988 00:41:44,125 --> 00:41:48,041 very courteous Southern gentleman 989 00:41:48,041 --> 00:41:49,916 in private. 990 00:41:49,916 --> 00:41:53,625 He was a real family man. 991 00:41:53,625 --> 00:41:56,250 [Tom Wolfe] I delivered some piece at Esquire. 992 00:41:56,250 --> 00:41:59,208 We're talking about it when the doors cracked open, 993 00:41:59,208 --> 00:42:00,916 and I look out the door 994 00:42:00,916 --> 00:42:04,333 and I said, "Who's that girl in a snakeskin dress?" 995 00:42:06,458 --> 00:42:08,375 And they said, "Oh, that's Sheila Berger 996 00:42:08,375 --> 00:42:10,125 who works in our Art Department." 997 00:42:10,125 --> 00:42:12,375 [mellow music] 998 00:42:12,375 --> 00:42:15,083 And, well, we've been married to this day. 999 00:42:15,083 --> 00:42:17,166 Isn't that a romantic story? 1000 00:42:17,166 --> 00:42:18,458 Thank you, thank you. 1001 00:42:18,458 --> 00:42:19,583 [chuckles] 1002 00:42:19,583 --> 00:42:20,708 He never looked at another woman 1003 00:42:20,708 --> 00:42:23,041 besides his wife. 1004 00:42:23,041 --> 00:42:24,750 She was basically a nice Jewish girl 1005 00:42:24,750 --> 00:42:26,250 from Long Island. 1006 00:42:26,250 --> 00:42:29,333 A very serious woman, a very bright woman. 1007 00:42:29,333 --> 00:42:32,291 She was sort of his in-house editor. 1008 00:42:32,291 --> 00:42:34,875 Sheila's the perfect wife. 1009 00:42:34,875 --> 00:42:37,375 [mellow music] 1010 00:42:41,250 --> 00:42:43,833 [Tom Wolfe] I have a son named Tommy, 1011 00:42:43,833 --> 00:42:48,291 and, uh, my daughter, Alexandra. 1012 00:42:48,291 --> 00:42:50,583 He was--his--he was always so close to his parents. 1013 00:42:50,583 --> 00:42:52,916 I mean, he really believed in family. 1014 00:42:54,791 --> 00:42:56,375 [Michael] My sense was 1015 00:42:56,375 --> 00:42:58,333 he never dragged his family into his professional life. 1016 00:42:58,333 --> 00:42:59,666 And I get a sense he didn't drag 1017 00:42:59,666 --> 00:43:02,416 his professional life into his family. 1018 00:43:02,416 --> 00:43:03,791 He was private. 1019 00:43:03,791 --> 00:43:05,583 You know, I think that white suit, 1020 00:43:05,583 --> 00:43:08,500 that white suit was this suit of armor. 1021 00:43:08,500 --> 00:43:11,791 He didn't really want the world to know him. 1022 00:43:11,791 --> 00:43:13,458 He wanted to know the world. 1023 00:43:13,458 --> 00:43:15,333 It was a one-way relationship. 1024 00:43:16,458 --> 00:43:18,958 [ethereal music] 1025 00:43:27,250 --> 00:43:30,458 [Tom Wolfe] I was sent by Rolling Stone magazine 1026 00:43:30,458 --> 00:43:31,708 down to Cape Canaveral 1027 00:43:31,708 --> 00:43:34,041 to do a story on the launch of Apollo 17, 1028 00:43:34,041 --> 00:43:35,750 it was the last mission to the Moon. 1029 00:43:35,750 --> 00:43:37,291 Just do a story on the scene there 1030 00:43:37,291 --> 00:43:39,791 and all the crazy things that were going on. 1031 00:43:39,791 --> 00:43:42,666 And suddenly, I just began asking myself, 1032 00:43:42,666 --> 00:43:45,125 "What is the makeup of these people who are 1033 00:43:45,125 --> 00:43:46,333 willing to sit on top of a rocket 1034 00:43:46,333 --> 00:43:47,875 and let somebody light the candle? 1035 00:43:47,875 --> 00:43:49,708 -[man] The fuse, yeah. -The fuse, yeah. 1036 00:43:49,708 --> 00:43:51,291 [Mission Control countdown] Thirty seconds and counting. 1037 00:43:51,291 --> 00:43:53,083 Astronauts report it feels good. 1038 00:43:53,083 --> 00:43:55,750 Two minutes, twenty-five seconds. 1039 00:43:57,958 --> 00:43:59,916 Twenty seconds and counting. 1040 00:44:01,708 --> 00:44:05,583 [unintelligible transmission] 1041 00:44:05,583 --> 00:44:08,666 All engines running. 1042 00:44:08,666 --> 00:44:10,208 [explosive roaring] 1043 00:44:10,208 --> 00:44:11,291 Liftoff! 1044 00:44:11,291 --> 00:44:12,708 We have a liftoff. 1045 00:44:12,708 --> 00:44:16,000 Thirty-two minutes past the hour. 1046 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:17,791 [Tom Wolfe] One of the most exciting parts 1047 00:44:17,791 --> 00:44:19,875 of the little voyage of discovery that I was on 1048 00:44:19,875 --> 00:44:21,916 was to find out the truth. 1049 00:44:21,916 --> 00:44:24,916 [ethereal music] 1050 00:44:24,916 --> 00:44:27,083 I was gonna spend two months writing it 1051 00:44:27,083 --> 00:44:30,458 and bring a book out in the fall of 1973. 1052 00:44:30,458 --> 00:44:31,791 I then began to find out 1053 00:44:31,791 --> 00:44:36,291 how little I knew about any of it. 1054 00:44:36,291 --> 00:44:38,791 [pensive music] 1055 00:44:48,500 --> 00:44:50,041 [Alex] For most of the '70s, 1056 00:44:50,041 --> 00:44:52,541 that's the book that he worked on. 1057 00:44:52,541 --> 00:44:54,166 And he really struggled 1058 00:44:54,166 --> 00:44:56,041 and labored with getting the story together. 1059 00:44:56,041 --> 00:44:58,041 As a matter of fact, he was at a loss. 1060 00:44:58,041 --> 00:45:00,666 Wolfe, when he wrote, was a bundle of anxiety. 1061 00:45:00,666 --> 00:45:02,708 He was capable of thinking, 1062 00:45:02,708 --> 00:45:04,625 "I'll never write another good word again," 1063 00:45:04,625 --> 00:45:07,208 and just suffering all by himself. 1064 00:45:07,208 --> 00:45:08,541 The process of writing, 1065 00:45:08,541 --> 00:45:10,083 which some people describe as a joy... 1066 00:45:10,083 --> 00:45:12,625 -Mm-hm. -...has never been a joy to me. 1067 00:45:12,625 --> 00:45:13,958 It's agony, 1068 00:45:13,958 --> 00:45:15,416 and it is like having arthritis. 1069 00:45:15,416 --> 00:45:16,541 It hurts a little every day, 1070 00:45:16,541 --> 00:45:18,250 and every day, when you wake up, 1071 00:45:18,250 --> 00:45:19,583 it's in the back of your mind 1072 00:45:19,583 --> 00:45:21,666 that you've gotta put your feet in the stocks... 1073 00:45:21,666 --> 00:45:23,250 -Mm-hm. -...and make yourself sit there 1074 00:45:23,250 --> 00:45:25,125 and turn out something. 1075 00:45:25,125 --> 00:45:28,958 [Gail] I mean, Tom was in distress. 1076 00:45:28,958 --> 00:45:31,875 How do you write a story for three years and then, 1077 00:45:31,875 --> 00:45:33,583 you haven't gotten the right stuff, 1078 00:45:33,583 --> 00:45:35,541 and go on for another four years, 1079 00:45:35,541 --> 00:45:37,625 and also feed your family, 1080 00:45:37,625 --> 00:45:40,125 and, you know, have a life? 1081 00:45:41,541 --> 00:45:43,208 The way he carried himself. 1082 00:45:43,208 --> 00:45:45,458 It goes back to his Southern roots. 1083 00:45:47,458 --> 00:45:50,791 [Tom Wolfe] I am protective of my Southern upbringing, 1084 00:45:50,791 --> 00:45:53,750 and this leads to a kind of irrational attachment 1085 00:45:53,750 --> 00:45:56,125 to certain figures. 1086 00:45:56,125 --> 00:45:58,416 Somehow, that person, in your mind, 1087 00:45:58,416 --> 00:46:01,250 is a champion of what you believe in. 1088 00:46:03,833 --> 00:46:04,958 [Michael] The Right Stuff was straight up, 1089 00:46:04,958 --> 00:46:06,333 "I love these people. 1090 00:46:06,333 --> 00:46:08,083 I know these people, these people are me. 1091 00:46:08,083 --> 00:46:11,041 They're small-town boys from the South." 1092 00:46:11,041 --> 00:46:12,583 That's the way he kind of thought of them 1093 00:46:12,583 --> 00:46:13,625 in the first place, I think. 1094 00:46:13,625 --> 00:46:17,000 And, uh, he drops all that. 1095 00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:20,666 [ominous music] 1096 00:46:20,666 --> 00:46:23,583 [Alex] Wolfe goes back and really starts to focus 1097 00:46:23,583 --> 00:46:25,958 on the idea of status 1098 00:46:25,958 --> 00:46:27,791 really being at the heart of 1099 00:46:27,791 --> 00:46:30,666 what The Right Stuff is about. 1100 00:46:30,666 --> 00:46:32,416 [Michael] What ends up being special about the story 1101 00:46:32,416 --> 00:46:35,000 is this disconnect between 1102 00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:38,750 what the public perceived the astronauts' job as 1103 00:46:38,750 --> 00:46:40,458 and what was actually going on there. 1104 00:46:42,208 --> 00:46:43,708 It's about the upheaval 1105 00:46:43,708 --> 00:46:46,000 in the status structure of fighter pilots 1106 00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:48,583 when all of a sudden they're in this capsule 1107 00:46:48,583 --> 00:46:49,958 that's controlled by technocrats 1108 00:46:49,958 --> 00:46:51,708 and they don't actually fly anything. 1109 00:46:53,208 --> 00:46:56,458 Uh, where you plannin' on puttin' a window? 1110 00:46:56,458 --> 00:46:58,250 Window? There's no window! 1111 00:46:58,250 --> 00:47:00,750 [dynamic rock music] 1112 00:47:03,416 --> 00:47:05,500 [breathing heavily] 1113 00:47:05,500 --> 00:47:07,208 [indistinct shout] 1114 00:47:07,208 --> 00:47:08,458 [soft roaring] 1115 00:47:08,458 --> 00:47:09,791 [Jon Hamm] The Right Stuff was not bravery 1116 00:47:09,791 --> 00:47:11,416 in the simple sense of being willing 1117 00:47:11,416 --> 00:47:13,458 to risk your life. 1118 00:47:13,458 --> 00:47:16,166 You were a lab animal sealed in a pod. 1119 00:47:17,916 --> 00:47:21,041 Is anyone, um, likely to be bitterly upset at you 1120 00:47:21,041 --> 00:47:22,500 over this book? 1121 00:47:22,500 --> 00:47:26,541 You've had a way of making a few enemies along the way. 1122 00:47:26,541 --> 00:47:28,000 [Tom Brokaw] You let the air out of these heroes. 1123 00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:29,500 You brought 'em back down to earth, so to speak, 1124 00:47:29,500 --> 00:47:30,708 the astronauts. 1125 00:47:30,708 --> 00:47:32,583 Was there any resentment about that? 1126 00:47:32,583 --> 00:47:33,791 [Tom Wolfe] I have two stereotypes: 1127 00:47:33,791 --> 00:47:35,125 They're either flying saints 1128 00:47:35,125 --> 00:47:37,041 or else they were robots. 1129 00:47:37,041 --> 00:47:40,416 And in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. 1130 00:47:40,416 --> 00:47:42,916 [Jon Hamm] The girls had been turning up at Pancho's 1131 00:47:42,916 --> 00:47:45,416 in amazing numbers. 1132 00:47:45,416 --> 00:47:48,500 They were moist labial piping little birds 1133 00:47:48,500 --> 00:47:49,958 who had somehow learned 1134 00:47:49,958 --> 00:47:52,041 that at this strange place in the Mojave Desert 1135 00:47:52,041 --> 00:47:55,625 lived the hottest young pilots in the world. 1136 00:47:55,625 --> 00:47:58,958 It completed the picture of pilot Heaven: 1137 00:47:58,958 --> 00:48:00,000 flying and drinking, 1138 00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:01,125 drinking and driving, 1139 00:48:01,125 --> 00:48:02,916 driving and balling. 1140 00:48:02,916 --> 00:48:05,458 The pilots began calling the old Fly-Inn Dude Ranch 1141 00:48:05,458 --> 00:48:08,958 Pancho's Happy Bottom Riding Club. 1142 00:48:08,958 --> 00:48:10,625 And there you have it. 1143 00:48:10,625 --> 00:48:12,083 It completely changed 1144 00:48:12,083 --> 00:48:15,000 the way people saw the astronauts. 1145 00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:16,041 You find, no; actually, 1146 00:48:16,041 --> 00:48:18,083 this other thing is going on 1147 00:48:18,083 --> 00:48:19,833 that is the story. 1148 00:48:19,833 --> 00:48:21,833 And the movie delivers that message 1149 00:48:21,833 --> 00:48:23,583 in a different way. 1150 00:48:23,583 --> 00:48:26,083 [majestic music] 1151 00:48:28,625 --> 00:48:30,666 The world premiere of the movie The Right Stuff 1152 00:48:30,666 --> 00:48:32,083 in Washington today 1153 00:48:32,083 --> 00:48:33,500 had just about everything except 1154 00:48:33,500 --> 00:48:35,666 Charles Lindbergh and Betsy Ross. 1155 00:48:35,666 --> 00:48:38,541 Famed test pilot Chuck Yeager and 11 other pilots 1156 00:48:38,541 --> 00:48:43,500 staged a fly-by of old, military, and antique planes. 1157 00:48:43,500 --> 00:48:45,458 What did Yeager think of the movie? 1158 00:48:45,458 --> 00:48:47,208 Story's real good and it pretty well tells 1159 00:48:47,208 --> 00:48:48,875 what happened, and the comradeship 1160 00:48:48,875 --> 00:48:50,875 of the guys, and so on. 1161 00:48:50,875 --> 00:48:53,375 [suspenseful music] 1162 00:48:55,625 --> 00:48:57,666 [applause, cheering] 1163 00:48:57,666 --> 00:48:59,833 [majestic music] 1164 00:48:59,833 --> 00:49:01,125 The winner is& 1165 00:49:02,791 --> 00:49:05,125 Bill Conti, for The Right Stuff. 1166 00:49:05,125 --> 00:49:07,166 Jay Boekelheide for The Right Stuff. 1167 00:49:07,166 --> 00:49:08,500 The Right Stuff. 1168 00:49:08,500 --> 00:49:09,750 Glenn Farr, Lisa Fruchtman, 1169 00:49:09,750 --> 00:49:11,583 Stephen A. Rotter, Douglas Stewart, Tom Roff 1170 00:49:11,583 --> 00:49:13,250 for The Right Stuff. 1171 00:49:13,250 --> 00:49:15,750 [majestic music] 1172 00:49:20,416 --> 00:49:21,541 [Tom Brokaw] Very briefly, 1173 00:49:21,541 --> 00:49:23,583 what's the next subject for Tom Wolfe? 1174 00:49:23,583 --> 00:49:24,875 I'm thinking of a kind of 1175 00:49:24,875 --> 00:49:26,541 a Vanity Fair book about New York. 1176 00:49:26,541 --> 00:49:29,041 [Phil Collins, "Sussudio"] 1177 00:49:45,875 --> 00:49:51,208 ♪ There's a girl that's been on my mind ♪ 1178 00:49:51,208 --> 00:49:53,500 ♪ All the time, Sussudio ♪ 1179 00:49:53,500 --> 00:49:55,625 [Tom Wolfe] These trading rooms are wild, 1180 00:49:55,625 --> 00:49:57,708 and you hear this ungodly roar. 1181 00:49:57,708 --> 00:49:59,833 And so, I follow the sound 1182 00:49:59,833 --> 00:50:01,666 and I reach this enormous room, 1183 00:50:01,666 --> 00:50:04,916 and here are 200 to 300 young men, 1184 00:50:04,916 --> 00:50:07,291 sweating profusely at 8:30 in the morning 1185 00:50:07,291 --> 00:50:09,750 with half-moons under their armpits, 1186 00:50:09,750 --> 00:50:11,958 gesturing like maniacs, 1187 00:50:11,958 --> 00:50:13,541 swearing in a language, 1188 00:50:13,541 --> 00:50:15,250 I think it was Army Creole. 1189 00:50:15,250 --> 00:50:17,833 This was the sound of young white men 1190 00:50:17,833 --> 00:50:19,791 baying for money on the bond market. 1191 00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:23,708 [indistinct chatter] 1192 00:50:23,708 --> 00:50:25,875 Before he published fiction, 1193 00:50:25,875 --> 00:50:30,083 he wrote essays critical of fiction. 1194 00:50:30,083 --> 00:50:31,375 In writing this novel, 1195 00:50:31,375 --> 00:50:33,083 I am a novelist but also a journalist. 1196 00:50:33,083 --> 00:50:34,291 That was one of the important points 1197 00:50:34,291 --> 00:50:35,875 I wanted to prove, which was that 1198 00:50:35,875 --> 00:50:37,916 the approach to the novel today 1199 00:50:37,916 --> 00:50:39,958 should be journalistic. 1200 00:50:40,916 --> 00:50:42,458 [dramatic music] 1201 00:50:42,458 --> 00:50:43,791 [Tom Wolfe] I had been spouting off 1202 00:50:43,791 --> 00:50:46,291 about how great we non-fiction writers were 1203 00:50:46,291 --> 00:50:48,083 and how mediocre the novelists were, 1204 00:50:48,083 --> 00:50:49,875 so I did a rather rash thing 1205 00:50:49,875 --> 00:50:52,250 and I decided to try a whole new genre. 1206 00:50:52,250 --> 00:50:53,916 [Ron] No one else made that transition 1207 00:50:53,916 --> 00:50:57,708 from journalism to fiction as dramatically as he did. 1208 00:50:57,708 --> 00:50:59,416 Wolfe is being accused of everything 1209 00:50:59,416 --> 00:51:01,000 from ignorance to arrogance. 1210 00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:02,125 He wants to make himself look 1211 00:51:02,125 --> 00:51:03,833 like the smartest guy in the room. 1212 00:51:03,833 --> 00:51:05,833 It looks as if Tom Wolfe said 1213 00:51:05,833 --> 00:51:10,583 to the other male American novelists, 1214 00:51:10,583 --> 00:51:12,458 "Mine is bigger than yours." 1215 00:51:14,333 --> 00:51:16,291 I thought, "Boy, they're gonna kill him. 1216 00:51:16,291 --> 00:51:17,750 They're gonna say his novel-- 1217 00:51:17,750 --> 00:51:19,833 I don't care if it's better than War and Peace-- 1218 00:51:19,833 --> 00:51:21,708 they're gonna say it's terrible." 1219 00:51:21,708 --> 00:51:24,000 I wanted to show that we are in a period 1220 00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:28,000 in which a great many people are driven by, really, 1221 00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:30,000 this carnival of prosperity. 1222 00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:31,333 Let's go, let's go! 1223 00:51:31,333 --> 00:51:33,208 Calm down, Rawlie. 1224 00:51:33,208 --> 00:51:34,875 Let's not get overexcited. 1225 00:51:34,875 --> 00:51:38,083 -Yes, Sherman, I'm sorry. -Calm, cool, collated. 1226 00:51:38,083 --> 00:51:39,250 Let's not lose our composure 1227 00:51:39,250 --> 00:51:41,375 over a few hundred million dollars. 1228 00:51:41,375 --> 00:51:43,958 Jesus Christ, Sherman, you must be made of ice. 1229 00:51:43,958 --> 00:51:45,958 [mellow music] 1230 00:51:47,750 --> 00:51:49,500 [Bruce Willis] "Suddenly, through the crowd, he saw her." 1231 00:51:49,500 --> 00:51:50,958 Excuse me. 1232 00:51:50,958 --> 00:51:52,625 [Bruce Willis] "He followed her through the room, 1233 00:51:52,625 --> 00:51:55,500 past the grinning faces full of boiling teeth, 1234 00:51:55,500 --> 00:51:57,125 past the conversational bouquets, 1235 00:51:57,125 --> 00:52:00,958 past the impeccably emaciated ladies of society, 1236 00:52:00,958 --> 00:52:03,875 the social x-ray women." 1237 00:52:03,875 --> 00:52:06,375 [dramatic music] 1238 00:52:07,375 --> 00:52:09,875 [suspenseful music] 1239 00:52:11,875 --> 00:52:13,833 [Michael] He seemed to be describing exactly 1240 00:52:13,833 --> 00:52:14,916 New York as it was, 1241 00:52:14,916 --> 00:52:16,583 and it wasn't any fiction at all. 1242 00:52:16,583 --> 00:52:17,875 When I was writing that book, 1243 00:52:17,875 --> 00:52:19,208 it was with a spirit of wonderment. 1244 00:52:19,208 --> 00:52:20,208 I was saying, "Look at these people! 1245 00:52:20,208 --> 00:52:21,291 Look at what they're doing! 1246 00:52:21,291 --> 00:52:22,708 Look at that one! Look at that one!" 1247 00:52:22,708 --> 00:52:25,125 And it was only after I'd finished and read it over 1248 00:52:25,125 --> 00:52:27,250 that I see that there is a cumulative effect 1249 00:52:27,250 --> 00:52:29,708 that leads to a novel without a hero. 1250 00:52:29,708 --> 00:52:32,375 [pensive music] 1251 00:52:32,375 --> 00:52:34,333 Large cities in the U.S., 1252 00:52:34,333 --> 00:52:36,458 and I daresay anywhere in the world, 1253 00:52:36,458 --> 00:52:37,750 you look around and you don't see 1254 00:52:37,750 --> 00:52:39,541 lots of heroes, 1255 00:52:39,541 --> 00:52:43,125 lots of giants of principle. 1256 00:52:43,125 --> 00:52:47,041 That is the nature of the metropolis. 1257 00:52:47,041 --> 00:52:50,250 Vanity operating on all sides. 1258 00:52:50,250 --> 00:52:52,208 And I've seen it in the '80s 1259 00:52:52,208 --> 00:52:54,500 go right from Wall Street to the South Bronx, 1260 00:52:54,500 --> 00:52:56,250 where I did a lot of my research. 1261 00:52:56,250 --> 00:52:59,291 [tense music] 1262 00:52:59,291 --> 00:53:00,708 [Ron] What he wants us to see is that 1263 00:53:00,708 --> 00:53:03,125 cities are big, complex things. 1264 00:53:03,125 --> 00:53:04,541 They're not just what you experience 1265 00:53:04,541 --> 00:53:05,708 on your level. 1266 00:53:05,708 --> 00:53:08,125 You get a sense of this great ladder 1267 00:53:08,125 --> 00:53:10,000 of American culture that we're all on, 1268 00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:12,208 moving up and down all the time. 1269 00:53:12,208 --> 00:53:16,333 [Terry] He'd already taken the fiction writer's tools 1270 00:53:16,333 --> 00:53:19,291 and, you know, twisted them out. 1271 00:53:19,291 --> 00:53:21,125 He was now taking journalism 1272 00:53:21,125 --> 00:53:23,250 and torqueing it back into fiction. 1273 00:53:25,208 --> 00:53:28,791 [Peter] It's an exaggerated version of New York City 1274 00:53:28,791 --> 00:53:32,666 but that somehow captures the essence more accurately 1275 00:53:32,666 --> 00:53:34,875 than a--than an accurate version would. 1276 00:53:34,875 --> 00:53:36,375 Not only did he go into writing novels, 1277 00:53:36,375 --> 00:53:38,041 he wrote a very controversial novel. 1278 00:53:38,041 --> 00:53:40,125 You have no idea how controversial it was 1279 00:53:40,125 --> 00:53:43,416 because of the way it portrayed African Americans. 1280 00:53:43,416 --> 00:53:48,500 [Niall] Unlike most writers from the United States, 1281 00:53:48,500 --> 00:53:53,708 Wolfe was unafraid to confront the great taboo of race. 1282 00:53:53,708 --> 00:53:55,750 [soft, grim music] 1283 00:53:57,833 --> 00:53:59,958 [Jon Hamm] "All at once, Sherman was aware of the figure 1284 00:53:59,958 --> 00:54:02,166 approaching him on the sidewalk. 1285 00:54:02,166 --> 00:54:03,583 In the wet, black shadows 1286 00:54:03,583 --> 00:54:05,916 of the townhouses and the trees, 1287 00:54:05,916 --> 00:54:08,708 even from 50 feet away in the darkness, 1288 00:54:08,708 --> 00:54:10,916 he could tell. 1289 00:54:10,916 --> 00:54:13,208 It was that deep worry that lives in the base of the skull 1290 00:54:13,208 --> 00:54:16,208 of every resident south of 96th Street: 1291 00:54:16,208 --> 00:54:17,750 the Black youth, 1292 00:54:17,750 --> 00:54:21,625 tall, rangy, wearing white sneakers." 1293 00:54:24,041 --> 00:54:25,583 [Jamal] I have problems with the portrayals, 1294 00:54:25,583 --> 00:54:27,833 especially of stuff that was going on 1295 00:54:27,833 --> 00:54:31,333 in the Black community and the interaction between, 1296 00:54:31,333 --> 00:54:34,375 you know, Black and white communities in that time. 1297 00:54:34,375 --> 00:54:36,125 Some narrative and character problems 1298 00:54:36,125 --> 00:54:37,458 for me in that writing. 1299 00:54:37,458 --> 00:54:39,583 [funky music] 1300 00:54:39,583 --> 00:54:41,291 [reporter] "Despite his devastating portrait 1301 00:54:41,291 --> 00:54:43,083 of the city and its people, 1302 00:54:43,083 --> 00:54:45,833 many New Yorkers say his novel has defined their city 1303 00:54:45,833 --> 00:54:48,000 as no other has." 1304 00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:49,166 When it came out, 1305 00:54:49,166 --> 00:54:51,333 it was kind of like front-page news. 1306 00:54:51,333 --> 00:54:53,000 It felt like everybody was reading it. 1307 00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:54,375 I can remember it myself. 1308 00:54:54,375 --> 00:54:55,500 Special segment tonight: 1309 00:54:55,500 --> 00:54:58,000 Tom Wolfe, the dandy with the sharp eye 1310 00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:00,291 and the unerring feel for the phrase. 1311 00:55:00,291 --> 00:55:02,166 America's pre-eminent writer of nonfiction 1312 00:55:02,166 --> 00:55:04,583 has just taken his first plunge into the world of the novel. 1313 00:55:04,583 --> 00:55:06,333 His first novel, right here, entitled... 1314 00:55:06,333 --> 00:55:08,166 "The Bonfire of the Vanities." 1315 00:55:08,166 --> 00:55:10,333 [Reporter] "The novel's highly favorable reviews 1316 00:55:10,333 --> 00:55:12,708 match its staggering sales figures. 1317 00:55:12,708 --> 00:55:14,541 His publisher says Wolfe will make 1318 00:55:14,541 --> 00:55:17,750 $3 million, maybe $4 million." 1319 00:55:17,750 --> 00:55:19,500 Now, you sold the rights of this thing off 1320 00:55:19,500 --> 00:55:22,208 for huge sums of money, I'm guessing, big dough. 1321 00:55:22,208 --> 00:55:24,166 Was this your biggest film sale to date? 1322 00:55:24,166 --> 00:55:25,583 -Yes. -Yeah, I would think so. 1323 00:55:25,583 --> 00:55:26,875 -By a long ways. -Good for you. 1324 00:55:26,875 --> 00:55:28,083 People are always saying, "Aren't you afraid 1325 00:55:28,083 --> 00:55:31,083 they're going to ruin your book?" 1326 00:55:31,083 --> 00:55:32,791 A worse thing can happen, 1327 00:55:32,791 --> 00:55:35,083 and that is if the movie is better. 1328 00:55:35,083 --> 00:55:36,750 Yeah, well, I don't know. 1329 00:55:36,750 --> 00:55:38,416 I have a feeling about this one. 1330 00:55:38,416 --> 00:55:39,625 I don't know, I think it would take 1331 00:55:39,625 --> 00:55:41,208 a great deal of effort on their part 1332 00:55:41,208 --> 00:55:43,250 to make it better than this book, you know? 1333 00:55:43,250 --> 00:55:44,333 I don't think that's gonna happen. 1334 00:55:44,333 --> 00:55:45,541 Thank you. 1335 00:55:47,083 --> 00:55:48,083 Just drive! Just drive! 1336 00:55:48,083 --> 00:55:49,708 Damn! Open the door! 1337 00:55:49,708 --> 00:55:50,875 -Hey! -Arggh! 1338 00:55:50,875 --> 00:55:52,833 Get away, get away, get away, get away! 1339 00:55:52,833 --> 00:55:55,333 [music ends abruptly] 1340 00:55:56,791 --> 00:55:58,500 What the hell happened 1341 00:55:58,500 --> 00:56:00,625 with Bonfire of the Vanities? 1342 00:56:00,625 --> 00:56:02,666 Well, it's almost the classic Hollywood story 1343 00:56:02,666 --> 00:56:04,666 in that I had a movie 1344 00:56:04,666 --> 00:56:07,208 that had a kind of a large budget. 1345 00:56:07,208 --> 00:56:08,916 So I thought, "Well, how am I gonna make this 1346 00:56:08,916 --> 00:56:12,541 big, kind of expansive Bonfire of the Vanities?" 1347 00:56:12,541 --> 00:56:13,958 Consequently, 1348 00:56:13,958 --> 00:56:16,666 I completely violated the text of the book. 1349 00:56:16,666 --> 00:56:18,250 [Tom Wolfe] It was so bad, that, uh... 1350 00:56:18,250 --> 00:56:20,458 [audience laughter] 1351 00:56:20,458 --> 00:56:23,958 ...I think it's lost about $97 million, $98 million. 1352 00:56:23,958 --> 00:56:26,083 [applause] 1353 00:56:26,083 --> 00:56:27,416 [TV correspondent] Tom Wolfe, 1354 00:56:27,416 --> 00:56:29,583 probably the best-known writer in the country, 1355 00:56:29,583 --> 00:56:33,708 is drawing standing room only audiences these days. 1356 00:56:33,708 --> 00:56:36,000 With his super-eclectic writing style 1357 00:56:36,000 --> 00:56:39,416 and that wardrobe of custom-tailored white suits, 1358 00:56:39,416 --> 00:56:41,791 who is this--this dandy? 1359 00:56:41,791 --> 00:56:44,291 [melodramatic music] 1360 00:56:48,375 --> 00:56:50,958 By that point in time, everybody knew who he was. 1361 00:56:50,958 --> 00:56:55,000 [Alex Trebek] Found in a 1970 Tom Wolfe book title, 1362 00:56:55,000 --> 00:56:56,333 "What is a radical?" 1363 00:56:56,333 --> 00:56:58,583 And that is the correct response. 1364 00:56:58,583 --> 00:56:59,833 It's Tom Wolfe! 1365 00:56:59,833 --> 00:57:01,750 He uses more exclamation points 1366 00:57:01,750 --> 00:57:04,041 than any other major American writer. 1367 00:57:04,041 --> 00:57:05,041 It's true! 1368 00:57:05,041 --> 00:57:07,416 [shutter-like snapping sound] 1369 00:57:14,083 --> 00:57:17,250 [Tom] Given the amazing success that he had, 1370 00:57:17,250 --> 00:57:20,625 I think that it impacted him negatively. 1371 00:57:20,625 --> 00:57:23,750 [woman] You've, uh, spent much of your career 1372 00:57:23,750 --> 00:57:27,250 looking at the personal lives of other people. 1373 00:57:27,250 --> 00:57:28,750 I was wondering if you've had a chance 1374 00:57:28,750 --> 00:57:30,166 to have any personal life, 1375 00:57:30,166 --> 00:57:33,333 or if it's--your life has been your work. 1376 00:57:33,333 --> 00:57:36,541 When I look at my personal life, 1377 00:57:36,541 --> 00:57:38,291 sometimes, I feel very, very sad. 1378 00:57:38,291 --> 00:57:40,708 Working, or making believe that I'm working, 1379 00:57:40,708 --> 00:57:42,958 or finding ways to avoid working, 1380 00:57:42,958 --> 00:57:45,833 and that's really about the only thing 1381 00:57:45,833 --> 00:57:47,750 that I tend to do. 1382 00:57:47,750 --> 00:57:50,250 [typewriter keys clacking] 1383 00:57:53,083 --> 00:57:56,708 Tom was such a unique individual. 1384 00:57:56,708 --> 00:58:00,166 I wondered how fame shaped him. 1385 00:58:00,166 --> 00:58:01,291 [Michael] Wolfe gets trapped 1386 00:58:01,291 --> 00:58:04,125 by this persona that he created. 1387 00:58:04,125 --> 00:58:06,500 The obligation to be a character 1388 00:58:06,500 --> 00:58:09,208 as well as just a writer 1389 00:58:09,208 --> 00:58:10,541 is a bad business. 1390 00:58:12,083 --> 00:58:13,916 He was such a performer. 1391 00:58:13,916 --> 00:58:15,291 He was not just Tom Wolfe. 1392 00:58:15,291 --> 00:58:16,750 He was playing Tom Wolfe. 1393 00:58:16,750 --> 00:58:17,750 [Gay] He said this: 1394 00:58:17,750 --> 00:58:19,458 "When I walk in a room, 1395 00:58:19,458 --> 00:58:21,625 I want to be noticed." 1396 00:58:21,625 --> 00:58:25,708 All of that was the facade of being Tom Wolfe. 1397 00:58:27,166 --> 00:58:29,416 He must have felt it as an obligation 1398 00:58:29,416 --> 00:58:31,333 to be a personality. 1399 00:58:31,333 --> 00:58:33,416 When he wasn't really a personality. 1400 00:58:33,416 --> 00:58:36,250 It created certain pressures in his existence 1401 00:58:36,250 --> 00:58:38,083 he never fully resolved. 1402 00:58:38,083 --> 00:58:39,458 Now let's welcome... 1403 00:58:39,458 --> 00:58:41,083 ...one of the most talked-about and one of the most brilliant... 1404 00:58:41,083 --> 00:58:42,500 -Fascinating... -Influential... 1405 00:58:42,500 --> 00:58:44,541 ...American writers of his generation. 1406 00:58:44,541 --> 00:58:45,791 Here now is Tom Wolfe. 1407 00:58:45,791 --> 00:58:48,791 [pastiche of male voices saying "Tom Wolfe"] 1408 00:58:48,791 --> 00:58:50,500 [male host] Tom Wolfe, ladies and gentlemen. 1409 00:58:50,500 --> 00:58:52,583 [audience cheering, applauding] 1410 00:58:54,500 --> 00:58:57,000 [eerie music stops abruptly] 1411 00:58:58,416 --> 00:59:01,000 [indistinct remarks] 1412 00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:04,208 [soft breathing, medical equipment beeping] 1413 00:59:04,208 --> 00:59:05,208 [dark music] 1414 00:59:05,208 --> 00:59:06,916 [faint sound of heartbeat] 1415 00:59:06,916 --> 00:59:09,875 [man] Well, I remember being stunned to hear 1416 00:59:09,875 --> 00:59:12,541 that he had had a heart attack. 1417 00:59:12,541 --> 00:59:15,750 [medical equipment beeping] 1418 00:59:15,750 --> 00:59:17,166 [woman] His father had a heart attack 1419 00:59:17,166 --> 00:59:19,000 and died at the same age. 1420 00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:22,208 [medical equipment beeping, muffled voice speaking] 1421 00:59:24,625 --> 00:59:31,000 [man] A quintuple bypass event is a reminder of mortality. 1422 00:59:32,916 --> 00:59:34,416 [Tom Wolfe] I had a, shall I say, 1423 00:59:34,416 --> 00:59:37,958 soul-jolting experience having a heart attack 1424 00:59:37,958 --> 00:59:42,416 and having a quintuple bypass 1425 00:59:42,416 --> 00:59:46,500 and all of the emotional trauma that can follow 1426 00:59:46,500 --> 00:59:48,333 that sort of operation. 1427 00:59:50,041 --> 00:59:53,750 He did, as many people who have open-heart surgery do, 1428 00:59:53,750 --> 00:59:56,875 he did go into a depression for a while. 1429 00:59:56,875 --> 00:59:59,916 You sank into a depression. 1430 00:59:59,916 --> 01:00:01,250 -[Tom Wolfe] I did. -A depression! 1431 01:00:01,250 --> 01:00:03,166 [somber music] 1432 01:00:04,666 --> 01:00:06,750 [Tom Wolfe] After the bypass operation, 1433 01:00:06,750 --> 01:00:08,875 you're thinking sort of, "My God, 1434 01:00:08,875 --> 01:00:11,125 I'm so mortal, it's not funny any longer." 1435 01:00:18,208 --> 01:00:19,333 I felt so bad. 1436 01:00:19,333 --> 01:00:20,791 I'd never had a depression before. 1437 01:00:20,791 --> 01:00:24,250 Uh, I called up a friend of mine, 1438 01:00:24,250 --> 01:00:27,291 Paul McHugh, who's the head of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. 1439 01:00:27,291 --> 01:00:30,791 Tom was very concerned about how the depression 1440 01:00:30,791 --> 01:00:33,583 and the coronary disease 1441 01:00:33,583 --> 01:00:35,666 might deprive him of the very things 1442 01:00:35,666 --> 01:00:38,458 that made him the writer he was. 1443 01:00:38,458 --> 01:00:40,458 [solemn music] 1444 01:00:42,500 --> 01:00:45,041 [Tom Wolfe] He would call me at least once a day, 1445 01:00:45,041 --> 01:00:46,875 and many times, five and six times a day, 1446 01:00:46,875 --> 01:00:49,000 according to how I seemed to be doing. 1447 01:00:51,083 --> 01:00:53,208 [Paul] I wanted to help him become 1448 01:00:53,208 --> 01:00:55,625 the kind of person he was. 1449 01:00:55,625 --> 01:00:58,583 He himself wondered whether he could make it back. 1450 01:00:58,583 --> 01:01:01,083 [solemn music] 1451 01:01:05,208 --> 01:01:08,958 [Tom Wolfe] Count how many days you think you have left. 1452 01:01:08,958 --> 01:01:13,375 It's grimly small that--that number. 1453 01:01:13,375 --> 01:01:17,500 It's quite humbling, um, 1454 01:01:17,500 --> 01:01:21,666 to know that despite all of your aspirations, 1455 01:01:21,666 --> 01:01:22,875 and all of your dreams, 1456 01:01:22,875 --> 01:01:25,000 and all of the talents you think you have, 1457 01:01:25,000 --> 01:01:27,708 uh, you're made of clay. 1458 01:01:27,708 --> 01:01:30,000 [upbeat, jazzy music] 1459 01:01:33,041 --> 01:01:35,000 [cameras' shutters snapping] 1460 01:01:38,958 --> 01:01:40,166 [indistinct chatter, laughter] 1461 01:01:40,166 --> 01:01:42,083 No matter what you're confronted with, 1462 01:01:42,083 --> 01:01:44,083 including death, 1463 01:01:44,083 --> 01:01:46,125 you are going to be affected. 1464 01:01:48,750 --> 01:01:52,458 I've experienced some rather nice changes. 1465 01:01:55,416 --> 01:01:58,916 [reporter] A Man in Full became the bestselling book in America 1466 01:01:58,916 --> 01:02:02,083 only two days after it went on sale. 1467 01:02:02,083 --> 01:02:04,125 Wolfe's new book places Atlanta 1468 01:02:04,125 --> 01:02:06,250 and the new Southern aristocracy 1469 01:02:06,250 --> 01:02:08,125 under his microscope. 1470 01:02:09,833 --> 01:02:11,625 It took 11 years to write this book. 1471 01:02:11,625 --> 01:02:15,541 -I'm afraid so. -And now, 742 pages later... 1472 01:02:15,541 --> 01:02:17,000 I figured I'd better make it long. 1473 01:02:17,000 --> 01:02:18,583 There were lines around the block 1474 01:02:18,583 --> 01:02:19,875 at bookstores in Atlanta. 1475 01:02:19,875 --> 01:02:21,208 There were stories in The New York Times 1476 01:02:21,208 --> 01:02:22,541 about the lines around the block 1477 01:02:22,541 --> 01:02:23,791 in the bookstores in Atlanta, 1478 01:02:23,791 --> 01:02:26,750 'cause no one had ever seen one before. 1479 01:02:26,750 --> 01:02:29,416 A Man in Full was the biggest novel 1480 01:02:29,416 --> 01:02:31,583 of my life at that time. 1481 01:02:31,583 --> 01:02:33,708 Remember, it's a finalist for the National Book Award 1482 01:02:33,708 --> 01:02:35,083 even before it's published. 1483 01:02:35,083 --> 01:02:37,333 It was on the bestseller list for weeks. 1484 01:02:37,333 --> 01:02:41,291 Tom was the most famous writer in the United States, 1485 01:02:41,291 --> 01:02:43,375 'cause he got all this publicity. 1486 01:02:43,375 --> 01:02:44,541 [Morley Safer] A new Wolfe book 1487 01:02:44,541 --> 01:02:48,250 is both a cultural and social event. 1488 01:02:48,250 --> 01:02:49,625 [Tom Wolfe] "It was Friday evening, 1489 01:02:49,625 --> 01:02:52,125 and the Master of Turpentine, Charlie Croker, 1490 01:02:52,125 --> 01:02:53,250 was presiding over dinner 1491 01:02:53,250 --> 01:02:55,125 at the burled Tupelo maple table 1492 01:02:55,125 --> 01:02:56,916 that Ronald Vine, the decorator, 1493 01:02:56,916 --> 01:02:58,416 had devised for the gun room. 1494 01:02:58,416 --> 01:03:01,208 He was only 44 but already running to fat. 1495 01:03:01,208 --> 01:03:02,833 His head popped up out of his blazer 1496 01:03:02,833 --> 01:03:04,875 and his polo shirt like a bubble. 1497 01:03:04,875 --> 01:03:07,125 His skin was pallid and pasty. 1498 01:03:07,125 --> 01:03:09,750 A few strands of hair the color of orange juice stains 1499 01:03:09,750 --> 01:03:13,041 skimmed back across his otherwise-bald pate." 1500 01:03:13,041 --> 01:03:16,083 We're heading towards a total eclipse of all values. 1501 01:03:16,083 --> 01:03:17,250 Now, don't get me wrong. 1502 01:03:17,250 --> 01:03:18,708 As a writer, 1503 01:03:18,708 --> 01:03:20,166 I'm perfectly delighted 1504 01:03:20,166 --> 01:03:22,625 for things to remain the way they are. 1505 01:03:22,625 --> 01:03:26,000 I mean, the human comedy has never been richer. 1506 01:03:26,000 --> 01:03:28,083 I thought A Man in Full was magnificent. 1507 01:03:28,083 --> 01:03:29,208 I mean, there are scenes in that 1508 01:03:29,208 --> 01:03:30,708 where they're just spectacular. 1509 01:03:30,708 --> 01:03:34,041 Very complex, very funny, very moving. 1510 01:03:34,041 --> 01:03:37,458 Huge characters, huge scenes. 1511 01:03:37,458 --> 01:03:41,333 [Tom Wolfe] There is no way to understand individuals 1512 01:03:41,333 --> 01:03:44,375 without understanding the society around them. 1513 01:03:44,375 --> 01:03:46,166 So it sold a gazillion copies, 1514 01:03:46,166 --> 01:03:49,083 but it got trashed by all kinds of famous writers. 1515 01:03:49,083 --> 01:03:51,000 Talk about creating a furor. 1516 01:03:51,000 --> 01:03:53,166 You--you've been in a bit of a catfight 1517 01:03:53,166 --> 01:03:56,458 with John Irving, Norman Mailer, and John Updike. 1518 01:03:56,458 --> 01:03:58,833 It has gotten nasty with you guys. 1519 01:03:58,833 --> 01:04:00,583 This, actually, from my point of view, 1520 01:04:00,583 --> 01:04:02,458 it's kind of been fun. 1521 01:04:02,458 --> 01:04:05,916 Wolfe's novel had a kind of whipped-up, 1522 01:04:05,916 --> 01:04:07,875 overblown quality. 1523 01:04:07,875 --> 01:04:10,291 I guess if I resent anything, 1524 01:04:10,291 --> 01:04:14,375 I kind of resented the time it took me to read 1525 01:04:14,375 --> 01:04:15,916 A Man in Full. 1526 01:04:15,916 --> 01:04:18,875 Tom Wolfe called John Irving, John Updike, and myself 1527 01:04:18,875 --> 01:04:20,458 "the Three Stooges." 1528 01:04:20,458 --> 01:04:22,500 [man] If we had a copy of any Tom Wolfe book here, 1529 01:04:22,500 --> 01:04:24,666 I could read you a sentence that would make me gag. 1530 01:04:24,666 --> 01:04:26,000 I don't know what it would do to you, 1531 01:04:26,000 --> 01:04:27,250 but it would make me gag. 1532 01:04:27,250 --> 01:04:29,375 If I were teaching fucking freshman English, 1533 01:04:29,375 --> 01:04:30,666 I couldn't read that sentence 1534 01:04:30,666 --> 01:04:32,416 and not just carve it all up. 1535 01:04:32,416 --> 01:04:34,208 They just didn't like the fact 1536 01:04:34,208 --> 01:04:35,666 that this book, A Man in Full, 1537 01:04:35,666 --> 01:04:39,208 had sold 1.4 million copies in hardcover. 1538 01:04:39,208 --> 01:04:41,208 You know, that couldn't be literature 1539 01:04:41,208 --> 01:04:44,625 if it--if it sold that much. 1540 01:04:44,625 --> 01:04:48,708 But I tell you, literary spats are fun. 1541 01:04:48,708 --> 01:04:51,791 It makes you realize you're alive in the morning. 1542 01:04:51,791 --> 01:04:54,333 [bright music] 1543 01:04:54,333 --> 01:04:56,750 [keys clacking] 1544 01:04:58,416 --> 01:05:02,583 He just kept going. 1545 01:05:05,583 --> 01:05:09,291 [Christopher] No one turns out masterpiece after masterpiece, 1546 01:05:09,291 --> 01:05:10,666 and I think that's probably 1547 01:05:10,666 --> 01:05:15,125 a sad realization for great writers. 1548 01:05:15,125 --> 01:05:19,625 But what's noble about it is that they go on, 1549 01:05:19,625 --> 01:05:22,208 they are writers to the end. 1550 01:05:24,500 --> 01:05:28,375 I think there was bound to be a problem 1551 01:05:28,375 --> 01:05:32,375 with big, long books after a certain point 1552 01:05:32,375 --> 01:05:35,666 in the age of weapons of mass distraction. 1553 01:05:35,666 --> 01:05:39,083 And the books became less impactful 1554 01:05:39,083 --> 01:05:42,250 with each novel. 1555 01:05:42,250 --> 01:05:44,625 Whatever's taking place is taking place, 1556 01:05:44,625 --> 01:05:46,583 and America's paying attention to it 1557 01:05:46,583 --> 01:05:48,041 how America pays attention to it. 1558 01:05:48,041 --> 01:05:50,291 And nobody was reading Tom Wolfe. 1559 01:05:52,333 --> 01:05:54,000 [Christopher] His last two novels, 1560 01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:57,791 one was on sexual harassment on a college campus. 1561 01:05:57,791 --> 01:06:00,750 I cannot believe I'm seeing the sophisticated Tom Wolfe. 1562 01:06:00,750 --> 01:06:04,541 It's like, "There are children living in sin!" 1563 01:06:04,541 --> 01:06:06,541 Well, I'm afraid-- I'm afraid I was. 1564 01:06:06,541 --> 01:06:09,125 [wistful music] 1565 01:06:09,125 --> 01:06:14,750 He thought he could make up for the 50 years 1566 01:06:14,750 --> 01:06:16,833 between him and the people he was writing about 1567 01:06:16,833 --> 01:06:19,250 with a lot of anthropology 1568 01:06:19,250 --> 01:06:22,125 and a lot of research and journalism. 1569 01:06:22,125 --> 01:06:25,541 But it felt really phony. 1570 01:06:25,541 --> 01:06:28,250 You know, he clearly was just so excited 1571 01:06:28,250 --> 01:06:32,708 to be able to use these words like "dormcest" and "sexiled." 1572 01:06:34,666 --> 01:06:36,416 With every new novel, 1573 01:06:36,416 --> 01:06:38,333 it became a little bit less successful, 1574 01:06:38,333 --> 01:06:40,833 a little bit less esteemed. 1575 01:06:40,833 --> 01:06:44,125 But, you know, he was still a writer who said things 1576 01:06:44,125 --> 01:06:45,541 that people had not yet said. 1577 01:06:47,583 --> 01:06:51,041 [Niall] Very few other people wrote about the academic world, 1578 01:06:51,041 --> 01:06:53,291 or indeed, more generally about American society, 1579 01:06:53,291 --> 01:06:56,333 with that kind of clarity of vision. 1580 01:06:56,333 --> 01:06:59,416 Charlotte Simmons and Back to Blood, 1581 01:06:59,416 --> 01:07:02,958 I don't think they're his best works. 1582 01:07:02,958 --> 01:07:05,916 But they say that a genius hits a target 1583 01:07:05,916 --> 01:07:08,208 no one else can see. 1584 01:07:08,208 --> 01:07:09,833 And I think Back to Blood, 1585 01:07:09,833 --> 01:07:12,541 which is on the subject of immigration, 1586 01:07:12,541 --> 01:07:16,083 it speaks to Tom's, you know, fundamental prescience. 1587 01:07:16,083 --> 01:07:18,375 He had his finger on the nation's pulse. 1588 01:07:21,750 --> 01:07:24,625 At 85, the white-suited Tom Wolfe is still 1589 01:07:24,625 --> 01:07:26,250 stalking big game, 1590 01:07:26,250 --> 01:07:27,666 but this book is a bit different, 1591 01:07:27,666 --> 01:07:29,666 a history lesson mixed with a return 1592 01:07:29,666 --> 01:07:31,458 to his roots in journalism. 1593 01:07:31,458 --> 01:07:32,583 In his latest book, 1594 01:07:32,583 --> 01:07:35,250 Wolfe argues speech, not evolution, 1595 01:07:35,250 --> 01:07:38,458 is responsible for humanity's highest achievements. 1596 01:07:38,458 --> 01:07:40,708 He skewers the man who introduced evolution 1597 01:07:40,708 --> 01:07:42,916 to the masses, Charles Darwin, 1598 01:07:42,916 --> 01:07:46,000 along with famed linguist Noam Chomsky. 1599 01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:47,666 If you look at everything he's written, 1600 01:07:47,666 --> 01:07:49,166 every book bothered somebody, 1601 01:07:49,166 --> 01:07:50,833 and that's what's good about it. 1602 01:07:50,833 --> 01:07:52,458 [soft music] 1603 01:07:52,458 --> 01:07:55,791 He wasn't afraid of the controversy. 1604 01:07:55,791 --> 01:07:57,750 He said, "If that's the way the facts are, 1605 01:07:57,750 --> 01:07:59,833 that's the way I'm gonna tell the story." 1606 01:07:59,833 --> 01:08:02,375 It is bold and, I think, some would say very dangerous 1607 01:08:02,375 --> 01:08:05,083 to say that Darwinism and evolution is a myth. 1608 01:08:05,083 --> 01:08:08,250 Well, I think a lot of people are gonna agree with me! 1609 01:08:08,250 --> 01:08:10,250 [pensive music] 1610 01:08:12,208 --> 01:08:15,875 [Michael] He sat in a very uncomfortable intersection 1611 01:08:15,875 --> 01:08:20,333 between red America, blue America, left and right. 1612 01:08:20,333 --> 01:08:23,625 He avoided being too closely identified 1613 01:08:23,625 --> 01:08:28,250 with any kind of political ideology. 1614 01:08:28,250 --> 01:08:29,791 [Tom Wolfe] I've never backed the Democratic Party 1615 01:08:29,791 --> 01:08:31,958 or the Republican Party. 1616 01:08:31,958 --> 01:08:34,000 Sure, I'm... 1617 01:08:34,000 --> 01:08:36,500 There are certain things I do care about politically. 1618 01:08:36,500 --> 01:08:41,708 I care tremendously about freedom of expression. 1619 01:08:41,708 --> 01:08:45,791 I will always be willing 1620 01:08:45,791 --> 01:08:47,041 to do what I can to preserve that, 1621 01:08:47,041 --> 01:08:49,375 which I think, fortunately, 1622 01:08:49,375 --> 01:08:51,125 there is still great freedom of expression 1623 01:08:51,125 --> 01:08:52,333 in the United States. 1624 01:08:52,333 --> 01:08:54,416 [pensive music] 1625 01:08:54,416 --> 01:08:56,041 [Christopher] I think it would be a lot harder 1626 01:08:56,041 --> 01:09:00,750 for Tom Wolfe to do what he did now. 1627 01:09:00,750 --> 01:09:02,708 It's almost impossible for someone to do 1628 01:09:02,708 --> 01:09:04,958 what Tom Wolfe did in our society today. 1629 01:09:04,958 --> 01:09:05,958 It's been impossible, I would say, 1630 01:09:05,958 --> 01:09:08,416 for probably close to 40 years. 1631 01:09:10,125 --> 01:09:11,416 [Michael] Any of the places 1632 01:09:11,416 --> 01:09:13,666 that Tom Wolfe published for in his heyday 1633 01:09:13,666 --> 01:09:16,083 would not be able to publish pieces by him today, 1634 01:09:16,083 --> 01:09:18,375 because he would just piss too many people off. 1635 01:09:20,750 --> 01:09:22,083 [Jeff] Is this the last book? 1636 01:09:22,083 --> 01:09:25,166 To be honest, I have only five more planned. 1637 01:09:25,166 --> 01:09:26,166 Uh& 1638 01:09:26,166 --> 01:09:27,166 [chuckling] 1639 01:09:27,166 --> 01:09:28,500 One is coming up, 1640 01:09:28,500 --> 01:09:30,833 it's on political correctness. 1641 01:09:30,833 --> 01:09:32,250 Which I think is the funniest subject 1642 01:09:32,250 --> 01:09:33,666 in a long time. 1643 01:09:36,250 --> 01:09:37,791 [Michael] The strange thing in is his life 1644 01:09:37,791 --> 01:09:41,000 is that while, every now and then, 1645 01:09:41,000 --> 01:09:43,666 someone would challenge him in a review 1646 01:09:43,666 --> 01:09:45,583 on political grounds, 1647 01:09:45,583 --> 01:09:47,833 most of the New York literary establishment 1648 01:09:47,833 --> 01:09:48,916 just loved him. 1649 01:09:48,916 --> 01:09:50,958 They loved him personally, 1650 01:09:50,958 --> 01:09:52,875 they loved what he wrote, 1651 01:09:52,875 --> 01:09:53,875 and they kind of thought 1652 01:09:53,875 --> 01:09:55,583 whatever his political views were 1653 01:09:55,583 --> 01:09:56,791 as beside the point, 1654 01:09:56,791 --> 01:09:59,208 and I kinda think they were. 1655 01:09:59,208 --> 01:10:01,833 I'm 86, 1656 01:10:01,833 --> 01:10:04,500 and you lose your friends. 1657 01:10:04,500 --> 01:10:05,500 They die, 1658 01:10:05,500 --> 01:10:08,125 or they're unable to come out. 1659 01:10:08,125 --> 01:10:11,375 They're confined because of their illness. 1660 01:10:11,375 --> 01:10:14,541 And I remember when Tom was not moving very well. 1661 01:10:14,541 --> 01:10:16,500 This elegant man would later on, 1662 01:10:16,500 --> 01:10:17,916 because of the curvature of his spine, 1663 01:10:17,916 --> 01:10:19,291 the illness that he had 1664 01:10:19,291 --> 01:10:21,416 in the last few years of his life, 1665 01:10:21,416 --> 01:10:23,708 it never seemed to make an impression on him 1666 01:10:23,708 --> 01:10:25,250 in a negative way. 1667 01:10:25,250 --> 01:10:27,916 [pensive music] 1668 01:10:27,916 --> 01:10:29,583 Junior Johnson! 1669 01:10:29,583 --> 01:10:30,708 As I live and breathe. 1670 01:10:30,708 --> 01:10:31,750 Tom Wolfe! 1671 01:10:31,750 --> 01:10:32,958 How you been gettin' along? 1672 01:10:32,958 --> 01:10:35,000 Well, not badly, not badly. 1673 01:10:35,000 --> 01:10:37,083 -I'm still vertical. -Right. 1674 01:10:37,083 --> 01:10:40,416 -That's half the battle. -That's true, that's true. 1675 01:10:40,416 --> 01:10:41,791 He was one tough motherfucker. 1676 01:10:41,791 --> 01:10:44,333 Whatever he had to do, he would do it. 1677 01:10:44,333 --> 01:10:46,625 Great sense of self. 1678 01:10:46,625 --> 01:10:48,750 He was Tom Wolfe. 1679 01:10:48,750 --> 01:10:50,916 [soft music] 1680 01:10:55,500 --> 01:10:57,208 Author and journalist Tom Wolfe 1681 01:10:57,208 --> 01:10:59,875 has died at a hospital here in New York. 1682 01:10:59,875 --> 01:11:02,000 [newscaster speaking German] 1683 01:11:04,291 --> 01:11:06,625 [newscaster speaking French] 1684 01:11:08,375 --> 01:11:10,375 [newscaster speaking Spanish] 1685 01:11:11,875 --> 01:11:14,166 [newscaster speaking Spanish] 1686 01:11:15,625 --> 01:11:18,166 [contemplative music] 1687 01:11:25,708 --> 01:11:28,250 [Ron] We just don't have figures like that anymore. 1688 01:11:28,250 --> 01:11:32,833 There are no journalists that huge anymore. 1689 01:11:32,833 --> 01:11:35,416 What he did was just fundamentally different 1690 01:11:35,416 --> 01:11:39,625 because of how grandiose he was. 1691 01:11:43,041 --> 01:11:44,583 [Alexandra] I think that he should be remembered 1692 01:11:44,583 --> 01:11:48,333 not only for his work and the books that he wrote 1693 01:11:48,333 --> 01:11:50,375 but for his courage. 1694 01:11:53,125 --> 01:11:57,666 I think Tom Wolfe's novels will last 1695 01:11:57,666 --> 01:12:01,625 and will be rediscovered at some point. 1696 01:12:01,625 --> 01:12:03,958 They'll go through a phase of neglect. 1697 01:12:03,958 --> 01:12:05,208 But because they're so good 1698 01:12:05,208 --> 01:12:07,041 and because they actually capture 1699 01:12:07,041 --> 01:12:09,500 American society so well, 1700 01:12:09,500 --> 01:12:11,166 future generations will come back to them 1701 01:12:11,166 --> 01:12:13,916 and find them much more illuminating. 1702 01:12:16,208 --> 01:12:17,875 Not only did he inspire me 1703 01:12:17,875 --> 01:12:20,208 before I even thought I wanted to be a writer, 1704 01:12:20,208 --> 01:12:23,833 um, once I became a writer, 1705 01:12:23,833 --> 01:12:26,875 uh...he was a touchstone for me. 1706 01:12:26,875 --> 01:12:30,333 [soft music] 1707 01:12:30,333 --> 01:12:32,291 [Tom Wolfe] I think your soul 1708 01:12:32,291 --> 01:12:34,958 is your relationships with other people. 1709 01:12:34,958 --> 01:12:36,791 And that's the part of you 1710 01:12:36,791 --> 01:12:39,625 that really doesn't-- doesn't die, 1711 01:12:39,625 --> 01:12:42,333 and you suddenly begin to treasure those things 1712 01:12:42,333 --> 01:12:44,000 in a way you never did before. 1713 01:12:44,000 --> 01:12:46,458 -Come--come have a seat. -Okay. 1714 01:12:48,250 --> 01:12:51,125 And this is, I think these-- 1715 01:12:51,125 --> 01:12:52,375 How you doin' over there? 1716 01:12:52,375 --> 01:12:53,958 [Morley Safer] Well, no; it's very interesting. 1717 01:12:53,958 --> 01:12:56,375 He was kinder to me than he had to be, 1718 01:12:56,375 --> 01:13:00,125 and kinda sweet-natured. 1719 01:13:00,125 --> 01:13:01,666 Easy to be with. 1720 01:13:03,083 --> 01:13:06,291 In all the years I represented him, 1721 01:13:06,291 --> 01:13:08,916 we never had an unkind word. 1722 01:13:08,916 --> 01:13:11,916 He was a real gentleman. 1723 01:13:11,916 --> 01:13:15,500 I watched him over, oh, almost 60 years. 1724 01:13:15,500 --> 01:13:17,208 And I watched him as a fan, 1725 01:13:17,208 --> 01:13:19,375 I watched him as a friend, 1726 01:13:19,375 --> 01:13:20,541 and I always watched him 1727 01:13:20,541 --> 01:13:22,375 with a sense of wonder and amazement 1728 01:13:22,375 --> 01:13:24,000 that he could be all these things. 1729 01:13:24,958 --> 01:13:26,583 Thank you very much. 1730 01:13:26,583 --> 01:13:28,416 [applause] 1731 01:13:28,416 --> 01:13:30,916 [soft music] 1732 01:13:41,416 --> 01:13:43,791 [mellow, jazzy music] 1733 01:15:06,291 --> 01:15:08,791 [old-timey piano music]