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Downloaded from
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[soft music]

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[man] How did you
discover Tom Wolfe?

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00:00:17,041 --> 00:00:21,666
Um, I was, uh,
maybe 12 or 13 years old.

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That age.

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Um, living in
New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Not a particularly
literary place.

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Didn't really know anybody
who wrote books.

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00:00:29,958 --> 00:00:32,250
Didn't know anybody who knew
anybody who wrote books.

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Barely knew people
who read books.

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But my father
was a big exception.

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And, uh, he had
a shelf of books,

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and some of the books
were by Tom Wolfe.

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And I just--I don't know why,

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I'll tell you why,

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I grabbed the books
off the shelf

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'cause there might be
something dirty in them.

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I pulled down Radical Chic,

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and I--you know, I really--

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I was not a worldly kid.

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I didn't know who
Leonard Bernstein was,

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I did not know what
the Black Panthers were,

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I really didn't have
much sense of anything.

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And nevertheless, I was
rolling around on the floor

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laughing with this thing.

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And I do remember--
I had this--this sensation.

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Someone wrote this book.

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Up to that point,
all the books I read,

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I paid no attention
to who had written them

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or that they had been
written by anybody.

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Uh, I didn't think--
the Hardy Boys series,

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I went through all 38 volumes.

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It didn't occur to me
that there was an author,

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because the author
really wasn't in your face

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as a--as a personality.

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And even though Tom

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wasn't really talking
about himself very much,

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there was this, boom,

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this personality
comin' off the page.

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And I remember wondering,
"Who--who wrote this?"

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You know, and I--you know,
"Who's Tom Wolfe?"

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[energetic rock music]

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The book's cover indicates
that the author is, in fact,

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a bigger event than the book.

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I don't find anything
objectionable about that.

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Is anyone likely
to be bitterly upset

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-at you over this...
-[man] ...controversial...

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-[man] ...cynical...
-[man] ...devastating...

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-[man] ...outlandish...
-[woman] ...mean...

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I don't know about that.

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[man] His book has been
called a masterpiece.

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-Very revealing.
-Witty.

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-Powerful.
-Complex.

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-Shocking.
-Brilliant.

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It was absolutely fascinating.

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[typewriter clicking]

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[Tom Wolfe] If you
wanna be a writer,

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you've gotta stand
in the middle of the track

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to see how fast the train goes.

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[man] It's just amazing
the way life will open up

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if you're just forced to go
into somebody else's world.

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[music stops]

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[TV Host] Tom Wolfe is probably
the most skillful writer

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in America.

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I mean by that that he can do
more things with words

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than anyone else.

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[soft music]

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[Tom Junod] Nobody is
writing like Tom Wolfe today.

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And nobody really has
written like Tom Wolfe.

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Every 43-year-old
Cablevision linesman's out

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on the disco floor
with his red eyes beaming

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through his
walnut-shell eyelids,

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dancing with his third wife
or his new cookie

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till the onset of dawn,
a saline depletion.

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And in this century,

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the robust, full-blooded
American century,

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what do we have in the way
of architecture?

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There's like this reality
that everybody's missing

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that's a very persuasive
version of reality

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that's his reality.

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Up against a love like this,

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that first night
on the disco floor.

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She wore a pair
of boxing trunks,

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00:03:38,333 --> 00:03:40,458
while leather punks
and sado-zulus,

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African queens,
and painted lulus

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paid her court.

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I grow old the 1970s way.

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[Niall] His books
captured the moment

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better than anything else.

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[soft music]

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Wolfe's writing fundamentally
changed American literature.

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[Tom Wolfe] It's really only
Eng lit intellectuals

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and Krishna groovies

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who try to despise
the machine in America.

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The idea that
we're trapped by machines

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is a piece
of 19th century romanticism

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invented by
marvelous old frauds

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like Thoreau
and William Morris.

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He was
a contradictory character.

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You would never know from
being with Tom Wolfe in person,

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that same guy
could write that way.

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Such a polite person.

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Such a well-mannered person.

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With a pen in his hand,
he could be a terrorist.

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00:04:32,666 --> 00:04:36,750
Tom Wolfe has written another
book and mocked another icon.

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To go after Leonard Bernstein
and modern art in one lifetime

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is to stretch the bounds
of the First Amendment

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beyond the point intended.

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Why was that writing allowed
to be so out there?

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I wouldn't have the guts
to write about people that way.

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[Tom Junod] You know, I look
at him as a role model,

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but as an imperfect role model.

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But I don't think
that anybody else

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00:05:07,500 --> 00:05:10,708
took the chances
that Tom Wolfe took,

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not just stylistically
but also morally.

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[William] Is it
correct to conclude

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that you show
a lack of compassion?

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I don't--I really
don't care whether--

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I mean, it's not so much having
or not having compassion.

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I really see my role
in anything of the sort,

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00:05:26,916 --> 00:05:28,500
and, in fact, I always have,

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00:05:28,500 --> 00:05:32,583
as--as to discover in some way.

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The truth is
always revolutionary.

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00:05:41,250 --> 00:05:43,750
[projector whirring]

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[bright piano music]

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[Alex] Wolfe had
been a reporter,

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first in Springfield and then
with the Washington Post.

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And came to New York
to the Herald Tribune.

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[Michael] Up to that point,

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the newspaper does not
encourage a distinctive voice

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00:05:58,666 --> 00:06:01,291
to sound unlike anybody else.

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00:06:01,291 --> 00:06:03,458
Here's today's front page story.

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00:06:03,458 --> 00:06:05,791
The Northeast District
of Barbershop Quartets

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00:06:05,791 --> 00:06:07,583
is holding
its annual convention

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00:06:07,583 --> 00:06:09,083
in Providence this weekend.

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00:06:09,083 --> 00:06:11,208
Welcome aboard once again,
let's see what kind of weather,

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00:06:11,208 --> 00:06:12,708
and we're really having
the weather these days,

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00:06:12,708 --> 00:06:13,875
I'll tell you.

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00:06:13,875 --> 00:06:16,083
[Gail] There was
no sense of style.

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00:06:16,083 --> 00:06:18,875
Uh, everything had to be
in the first paragraph.

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00:06:18,875 --> 00:06:20,750
Who, what, when, where, why.

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00:06:20,750 --> 00:06:24,083
And that was a constant
in news stories.

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00:06:24,083 --> 00:06:26,458
Wolfe wanted
to break out of that.

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00:06:26,458 --> 00:06:30,333
[Tom Wolfe] There was a neutral
so-called objective voice

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00:06:30,333 --> 00:06:34,916
that journalists were expected
to assume at that time.

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00:06:34,916 --> 00:06:37,458
And I had, frankly,
found it absolutely boring.

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[explosion]

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00:06:38,625 --> 00:06:40,625
[cash register chimes]

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00:06:40,625 --> 00:06:44,291
I did have a kind of
a involuntary epiphanal moment

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Late in '62,
a newspaper strike began.

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I was by now working for
the New York Herald Tribune.

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And I suddenly found myself
out of a job.

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I needed to make some money,

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00:06:54,666 --> 00:06:56,208
so I went over
to Esquire Magazine

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00:06:56,208 --> 00:06:59,791
and sold them on the idea
of a story on customized cars,

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which at that time
were being made

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00:07:01,625 --> 00:07:06,041
in very fanciful forms
by teenagers in Los Angeles.

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00:07:06,041 --> 00:07:08,375
[engine revving]

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00:07:08,375 --> 00:07:10,625
So they said, "Okay,
go on out to California

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00:07:10,625 --> 00:07:11,875
and do this story."

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I remember checking into
the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel,

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00:07:16,750 --> 00:07:18,291
and over the course
of four weeks

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00:07:18,291 --> 00:07:20,750
running up this enormous bill.

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00:07:20,750 --> 00:07:23,333
And suddenly I found myself
in this incredible world

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00:07:23,333 --> 00:07:26,583
of automobile expression
that I didn't know existed,

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and I really didn't feel
capable to deal with.

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I--I couldn't get
the concepts straight

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that I could use for it.

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It was just something
completely new.

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[lights clicking]

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00:07:35,416 --> 00:07:37,041
[tires screeching]

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00:07:37,041 --> 00:07:39,083
I came back and I was
gonna write this thing,

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and Esquire had
this big double-page

175
00:07:41,208 --> 00:07:44,208
of color photography locked
into the presses by this time,

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and I simply couldn't write it.

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And in those days, you had
to print color in advance.

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00:07:48,250 --> 00:07:51,041
So we literally
printed those pages.

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[Tom Wolfe] I came
back to New York

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00:07:54,666 --> 00:07:56,458
and found myself
utterly blocked.

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I could not write this story.

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00:07:58,500 --> 00:07:59,916
And I said, "Byron, I'm sorry,

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00:07:59,916 --> 00:08:01,875
I just have to drop
the assignment."

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00:08:01,875 --> 00:08:03,375
And he says,
"You can't do that."

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00:08:03,375 --> 00:08:05,500
We have to justify
the color picture.

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00:08:05,500 --> 00:08:08,708
We need something
to go up against that page.

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00:08:08,708 --> 00:08:10,333
[Tom Wolfe] He said
it cost his father $10,000

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00:08:10,333 --> 00:08:12,375
to pull this thing
off the presses,

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00:08:12,375 --> 00:08:14,416
we've gotta have a story,
and if you can't write it,

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00:08:14,416 --> 00:08:16,250
you give us your notes

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00:08:16,250 --> 00:08:18,458
and we'll get
some competent writer

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to put them together.

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So I sat down
one night about 8:00,

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00:08:22,875 --> 00:08:23,958
and I started typing up--

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00:08:23,958 --> 00:08:25,166
I started typing up
these notes.

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00:08:25,166 --> 00:08:26,416
The notes
in the form of a memorandum...

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00:08:26,416 --> 00:08:28,125
"Dear Byron,
the first place I saw..."

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00:08:28,125 --> 00:08:29,708
The first thing I saw...

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00:08:29,708 --> 00:08:32,125
[overlapping speaking]

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00:08:32,125 --> 00:08:33,208
Very flat, straight out...

201
00:08:33,208 --> 00:08:34,250
As fast as I could do it...

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00:08:34,250 --> 00:08:35,250
Presentation of what I...

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00:08:35,250 --> 00:08:36,250
Humiliating...

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00:08:36,250 --> 00:08:37,666
And the first thing I knew,

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00:08:37,666 --> 00:08:40,666
is I started just
recounting in sequence,

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00:08:40,666 --> 00:08:43,333
the thing began taking on
a pattern in my mind.

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00:08:43,333 --> 00:08:44,333
It began falling into place,

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00:08:44,333 --> 00:08:45,625
and I began to see

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00:08:45,625 --> 00:08:49,666
exactly what I had
been studying out there.

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[Jon Hamm] We were in
the buried netherworld

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of teenage California.

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00:08:53,083 --> 00:08:54,583
It was a hell of a show.

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Sex, power, motion.

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The main thing
you notice is the color.

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Tangerine-Flake.

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00:09:01,125 --> 00:09:02,875
Loud varoom, varoom motors.

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00:09:02,875 --> 00:09:05,750
Ossified
semi-precious tangerine.

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00:09:05,750 --> 00:09:07,541
[soft music]

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00:09:07,541 --> 00:09:09,791
[Tom Wolfe] I ended up
typing at top speed

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00:09:09,791 --> 00:09:11,916
for about eight or nine hours.

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00:09:11,916 --> 00:09:12,916
I wrote all night,

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00:09:12,916 --> 00:09:14,208
and by 6:30 in the morning,

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00:09:14,208 --> 00:09:16,291
I had a 49-page memorandum...

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00:09:16,291 --> 00:09:17,416
50 typewritten pages...

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00:09:17,416 --> 00:09:18,791
And I was about dead
by that time.

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00:09:18,791 --> 00:09:20,208
I took this over to Esquire.

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00:09:20,208 --> 00:09:21,833
I just picked it all up
and went to the Esquire office.

228
00:09:21,833 --> 00:09:23,500
Turned it in about 9:00
in the morning,

229
00:09:23,500 --> 00:09:25,375
went home to sleep.

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00:09:25,375 --> 00:09:27,458
And I got a call
about 4:00 that afternoon

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00:09:27,458 --> 00:09:28,541
from Byron Dobell.

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00:09:28,541 --> 00:09:31,125
[telephone ringing]

233
00:09:34,708 --> 00:09:36,833
-[receiver picks up]
-It's a masterpiece.

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00:09:36,833 --> 00:09:38,041
This is unbelievable.

235
00:09:38,041 --> 00:09:40,125
We'd never seen
anything like this.

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00:09:40,125 --> 00:09:41,750
And I struck out
the "Dear Byron"

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00:09:41,750 --> 00:09:44,250
and I struck out
the parting words.

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00:09:44,250 --> 00:09:45,250
And we ran it.

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00:09:45,250 --> 00:09:46,666
[engine revving]

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00:09:46,666 --> 00:09:47,958
[energetic music]

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00:09:47,958 --> 00:09:49,500
[Jon Hamm] There Goes
That Kandy-Kolored

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00:09:49,500 --> 00:09:52,000
Tangerine-Flake
Streamline Baby.

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00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,500
[engines revving]

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00:09:58,333 --> 00:09:59,583
And that made him famous.

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00:09:59,583 --> 00:10:00,875
[bright music]

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00:10:00,875 --> 00:10:02,000
[Michael] 18 months.

247
00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:04,166
It takes 18 months
between the time

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00:10:04,166 --> 00:10:06,750
Tom Wolfe is actually
worried about having money

249
00:10:06,750 --> 00:10:10,083
to being a cult figure
in New York City.

250
00:10:10,083 --> 00:10:11,750
All of a sudden,
he's famous.

251
00:10:11,750 --> 00:10:14,541
And it was the result
of a single magazine article.

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00:10:14,541 --> 00:10:16,083
[mellow jazz music]

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00:10:16,083 --> 00:10:17,625
There are letters
in the archives

254
00:10:17,625 --> 00:10:19,916
from people writing in
to the editors of Esquire

255
00:10:19,916 --> 00:10:21,375
saying, "Who is this fellow?

256
00:10:21,375 --> 00:10:23,833
Everybody's talking about him."

257
00:10:26,458 --> 00:10:28,708
I think if you started
to get a little famous

258
00:10:28,708 --> 00:10:33,083
as a writer in the late '60s,
early '70s in the United States,

259
00:10:33,083 --> 00:10:35,541
you had some obligation
to be a character.

260
00:10:35,541 --> 00:10:38,000
You could be outrageous
like Hunter Thompson.

261
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:39,000
[gunshot]

262
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:40,708
You could be pseudo Englishman

263
00:10:40,708 --> 00:10:43,125
-like William F. Buckley.
-[William] I don't deny it.

264
00:10:43,125 --> 00:10:44,625
[Michael]
You could stab your wife

265
00:10:44,625 --> 00:10:46,583
-like Norman Mailer.
-[Norman] That's true.

266
00:10:46,583 --> 00:10:48,958
[Michael] And the white suit
enabled people

267
00:10:48,958 --> 00:10:53,208
to think of him as this
great, unusual character.

268
00:10:53,208 --> 00:10:56,791
What is the basic
religious reason

269
00:10:56,791 --> 00:11:00,458
for your always wearing
that light-colored white suit?

270
00:11:00,458 --> 00:11:02,333
[narrator] Tom Wolfe
may be considered by some

271
00:11:02,333 --> 00:11:04,500
to be every inch a dandy.

272
00:11:04,500 --> 00:11:06,791
He stalks his East Side
New York neighborhood

273
00:11:06,791 --> 00:11:09,583
like an immaculate
white Persian cat.

274
00:11:09,583 --> 00:11:12,083
But he's neither Persian
nor a New Yorker.

275
00:11:12,083 --> 00:11:14,125
He's a transplanted Virginian.

276
00:11:16,375 --> 00:11:18,291
What you wear
in Richmond, Virginia,

277
00:11:18,291 --> 00:11:19,958
in the summer is a white suit.

278
00:11:19,958 --> 00:11:23,458
And he realized it made him
interesting to people.

279
00:11:23,458 --> 00:11:26,375
About seven years ago
when I first came to New York,

280
00:11:26,375 --> 00:11:28,541
I went into a tailor shop

281
00:11:28,541 --> 00:11:31,166
and I saw some
white silk tweed material

282
00:11:31,166 --> 00:11:32,375
I thought was terrific,

283
00:11:32,375 --> 00:11:34,625
so I figured I had
to have a suit made.

284
00:11:34,625 --> 00:11:37,875
So I had it made, and I was
gonna wear it in the summer.

285
00:11:37,875 --> 00:11:40,125
When I put it on,
white silk tweed,

286
00:11:40,125 --> 00:11:42,208
even if it's white,
silk tweed is very hot,

287
00:11:42,208 --> 00:11:43,458
so I--and I couldn't stand it.

288
00:11:43,458 --> 00:11:46,000
So I started wearing it
the next January.

289
00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:48,375
Then I discovered
an incredible thing,

290
00:11:48,375 --> 00:11:50,625
which was that clothes

291
00:11:50,625 --> 00:11:53,291
are an intensely powerful
form of communication.

292
00:11:53,291 --> 00:11:54,708
[pencil scribbling]

293
00:11:54,708 --> 00:11:57,750
You can create a kind of
other life in a uniform.

294
00:11:57,750 --> 00:12:00,250
[quirky music]

295
00:12:07,458 --> 00:12:09,125
[Alexandra] Growing up,
I started to realize

296
00:12:09,125 --> 00:12:10,750
that he wasn't like
the other dads,

297
00:12:10,750 --> 00:12:13,000
like he wore
a big cape to school,

298
00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,666
he wore a top hat,
he had a pocket watch.

299
00:12:15,666 --> 00:12:21,083
Everything was sort of that
Southern sort of polite charm,

300
00:12:21,083 --> 00:12:22,250
in a way.

301
00:12:22,250 --> 00:12:25,541
[mellow music]

302
00:12:25,541 --> 00:12:27,458
[Michael] He was raised
in Richmond, Virginia,

303
00:12:27,458 --> 00:12:29,541
in the 1930s and '40s and '50s.

304
00:12:31,375 --> 00:12:33,250
He was probably the pride
and joy of his parents

305
00:12:33,250 --> 00:12:34,833
right from the beginning.

306
00:12:34,833 --> 00:12:36,875
He would have been
raised a stoic.

307
00:12:36,875 --> 00:12:38,083
He would have been raised

308
00:12:38,083 --> 00:12:40,291
someone who admired
athletes and war heroes.

309
00:12:40,291 --> 00:12:41,333
[baseball cracks]

310
00:12:41,333 --> 00:12:43,000
[Tom Wolfe]
When I was very young,

311
00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:47,833
I decided that I wanted to be
either a writer or an artist.

312
00:12:47,833 --> 00:12:51,958
My mother encouraged me
a lot in art.

313
00:12:51,958 --> 00:12:54,041
And my father was a scientist,

314
00:12:54,041 --> 00:12:56,250
He was editing a magazine
called The Southern Planter.

315
00:12:56,250 --> 00:12:59,000
And every week he would write
an editorial or something

316
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:00,166
for the magazine.

317
00:13:00,166 --> 00:13:02,458
And I thought
that was quite magical.

318
00:13:02,458 --> 00:13:05,833
He had a kind
of quiet confidence.

319
00:13:07,208 --> 00:13:09,750
And I think it's
because he was rooted

320
00:13:09,750 --> 00:13:13,041
in a way that
very few writers are.

321
00:13:13,041 --> 00:13:15,625
[projector whirring]

322
00:13:15,625 --> 00:13:18,625
[Michael] His desire to protect
the reputation of that world

323
00:13:18,625 --> 00:13:20,208
is a powerful thing.

324
00:13:20,208 --> 00:13:22,708
[energetic music]

325
00:13:25,708 --> 00:13:29,541
[engine revving]

326
00:13:29,541 --> 00:13:32,250
[Jon Hamm] The legend
of Junior Johnson.

327
00:13:32,250 --> 00:13:35,375
In this legend, here is
a country boy, Junior Johnson,

328
00:13:35,375 --> 00:13:38,375
who learns to drive by
running whiskey for his father,

329
00:13:38,375 --> 00:13:41,625
up in Ingle Hollow,
near North Wilkesboro,

330
00:13:41,625 --> 00:13:44,458
in northwestern North Carolina,

331
00:13:44,458 --> 00:13:47,416
and grows up to be a famous
stock-car racing driver.

332
00:13:47,416 --> 00:13:49,000
[energetic music]

333
00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:52,208
As the motor thunder begins to
lift up through him like a sigh

334
00:13:52,208 --> 00:13:53,916
and his eyeballs glaze over

335
00:13:53,916 --> 00:13:56,125
and his hands
reach up and there,

336
00:13:56,125 --> 00:13:57,250
riding the rim of the bowl,

337
00:13:57,250 --> 00:14:00,416
forever rousing
the good old boys,

338
00:14:00,416 --> 00:14:01,708
hard-charging!

339
00:14:01,708 --> 00:14:04,541
Up with the automobile
into their America,

340
00:14:04,541 --> 00:14:06,833
and to hell with
arteriosclerotic old boys

341
00:14:06,833 --> 00:14:08,500
trying to hold
onto the whole pot

342
00:14:08,500 --> 00:14:10,583
with arms of cotton seersucker.

343
00:14:11,625 --> 00:14:12,750
Junior!

344
00:14:13,375 --> 00:14:14,375
Junior!

345
00:14:14,375 --> 00:14:16,833
[dramatic music]

346
00:14:19,083 --> 00:14:21,666
One of the mysteries
of Tom Wolfe, to me,

347
00:14:21,666 --> 00:14:23,541
is how he persuades
all these people

348
00:14:23,541 --> 00:14:25,291
who aren't
particularly interested

349
00:14:25,291 --> 00:14:27,083
in letting anyone
into their lives,

350
00:14:27,083 --> 00:14:28,750
much less some journalist,

351
00:14:28,750 --> 00:14:31,166
into letting him
into their lives.

352
00:14:31,166 --> 00:14:33,666
[Junior] I thought
he was a crank,

353
00:14:33,666 --> 00:14:35,250
to tell you the honest truth.

354
00:14:35,250 --> 00:14:37,041
Wool suit on,

355
00:14:37,041 --> 00:14:40,541
and it was
101 temperature here.

356
00:14:40,541 --> 00:14:42,375
It was just funny.

357
00:14:42,375 --> 00:14:44,875
[engines revving]

358
00:14:46,875 --> 00:14:48,375
[Alex] Not only did he capture

359
00:14:48,375 --> 00:14:50,791
this little subculture
of NASCAR

360
00:14:50,791 --> 00:14:54,208
that had not been exposed
to a national audience,

361
00:14:54,208 --> 00:14:57,541
he was also describing this
sort of great folklore hero.

362
00:14:59,625 --> 00:15:03,333
Junior Johnson was
the son of a bootlegger.

363
00:15:03,333 --> 00:15:05,250
That's how he learned to drive.

364
00:15:05,250 --> 00:15:08,666
He was driving moonshine around
and getting chased by cops.

365
00:15:08,666 --> 00:15:10,208
[Michael] What Wolfe does
is he gets you feeling that

366
00:15:10,208 --> 00:15:12,833
when you're watching Junior
Johnson in a NASCAR race,

367
00:15:12,833 --> 00:15:14,166
the cops are right behind you.

368
00:15:14,166 --> 00:15:16,791
[tires screeching,
vehicles clattering]

369
00:15:16,791 --> 00:15:17,791
[camera bulb flashes]

370
00:15:17,791 --> 00:15:19,000
[pensive music]

371
00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:20,541
Wolfe does this over and again.

372
00:15:20,541 --> 00:15:22,500
He takes something
that's just a--

373
00:15:22,500 --> 00:15:23,958
just a person, a character,

374
00:15:23,958 --> 00:15:25,041
and he makes that character

375
00:15:25,041 --> 00:15:26,791
stand for something
much bigger.

376
00:15:26,791 --> 00:15:28,958
He traces the origins
of this sport

377
00:15:28,958 --> 00:15:31,041
that is gripping
America's imagination.

378
00:15:31,041 --> 00:15:33,708
He tracks it to this man.

379
00:15:33,708 --> 00:15:34,833
He's expressing
between the lines

380
00:15:34,833 --> 00:15:37,166
his deepest admiration
for a character

381
00:15:37,166 --> 00:15:40,208
that journalists
don't normally admire.

382
00:15:44,708 --> 00:15:46,541
[Alex] Junior Johnson
said that that story

383
00:15:46,541 --> 00:15:49,375
that Wolfe wrote about him
helped change his life.

384
00:15:49,375 --> 00:15:51,541
[engines revving]

385
00:15:51,541 --> 00:15:54,875
[Tom Junod] You can't look
at stock cars to this day

386
00:15:54,875 --> 00:15:57,666
without thinking
of Junior Johnson

387
00:15:57,666 --> 00:16:01,041
and Tom Wolfe's take
on that world.

388
00:16:01,041 --> 00:16:04,375
He's drawing the attention
of Blue America to Red America.

389
00:16:04,375 --> 00:16:06,625
He's saying,
"This is who we are."

390
00:16:06,625 --> 00:16:07,750
It isn't just this thing

391
00:16:07,750 --> 00:16:09,166
that's going on
down in the South.

392
00:16:09,166 --> 00:16:10,833
This is part of my culture.

393
00:16:10,833 --> 00:16:12,208
It's American.

394
00:16:12,208 --> 00:16:14,708
And I'm gonna show you
what's great about it.

395
00:16:14,708 --> 00:16:16,166
[solemn music]

396
00:16:20,166 --> 00:16:22,291
[Michael] He has that sort
of wonderful combination

397
00:16:22,291 --> 00:16:25,375
of being a terrific,
intrepid reporter

398
00:16:25,375 --> 00:16:28,083
and then just this
outrageous stylist.

399
00:16:28,083 --> 00:16:30,583
[soft music]

400
00:16:31,750 --> 00:16:33,166
He had a voice

401
00:16:33,166 --> 00:16:35,250
and was able to express it.

402
00:16:37,500 --> 00:16:41,291
And I think he found
his voice as a writer,

403
00:16:41,291 --> 00:16:44,458
telling his parents
about himself in letters.

404
00:16:47,916 --> 00:16:49,000
[Tom Wolfe] I ended up
doing, really,

405
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,458
what a lot of us do
in letters,

406
00:16:51,458 --> 00:16:52,708
particularly when
you're writing a letter

407
00:16:52,708 --> 00:16:55,666
to somebody you feel
very comfortable with,

408
00:16:55,666 --> 00:16:57,250
someone you can
unburden your soul to,

409
00:16:57,250 --> 00:16:59,416
and you don't censor out
all of the random remarks

410
00:16:59,416 --> 00:17:00,500
that are running
through your head.

411
00:17:00,500 --> 00:17:01,916
You don't censor out the slang,

412
00:17:01,916 --> 00:17:04,041
you don't censor out
the exclamations.

413
00:17:04,041 --> 00:17:06,958
Like you don't censor out
the abrupt changes of thought.

414
00:17:09,416 --> 00:17:11,583
[Gregory] He's enjoying
himself as he writes,

415
00:17:11,583 --> 00:17:15,000
and I think he wants his reader
to enjoy themselves too.

416
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,500
[mellow music]

417
00:17:19,041 --> 00:17:21,333
The reader's
expecting some excitement

418
00:17:21,333 --> 00:17:23,458
from a page of Tom Wolfe,

419
00:17:23,458 --> 00:17:25,541
expecting some experimentation.

420
00:17:28,458 --> 00:17:29,958
[Terry] He created a style

421
00:17:29,958 --> 00:17:32,833
that was completely
his own and unique.

422
00:17:32,833 --> 00:17:35,041
You read a story in Esquire,

423
00:17:35,041 --> 00:17:38,958
and it opens with
the word hernia 57 times.

424
00:17:38,958 --> 00:17:41,791
Hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia,
hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia,

425
00:17:41,791 --> 00:17:44,750
hernia, hernia,
hernia, hernia, hernia.

426
00:17:44,750 --> 00:17:47,416
[Ron] He tried to represent the
sounds of what he was hearing.

427
00:17:47,416 --> 00:17:48,708
[sputtering]

428
00:17:48,708 --> 00:17:50,500
And all kinds of weird things
that he's doing.

429
00:17:50,500 --> 00:17:52,125
And the ellipses
and the double colons.

430
00:17:52,125 --> 00:17:53,583
I never figured out
what that meant.

431
00:17:53,583 --> 00:17:58,000
He called his use of punctuation
a process of violating

432
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:00,750
the Geneva Conventions
of the mind.

433
00:18:00,750 --> 00:18:02,583
He wanted to approximate

434
00:18:02,583 --> 00:18:04,666
what it felt like
to be thinking.

435
00:18:04,666 --> 00:18:07,166
[mellow music]

436
00:18:08,583 --> 00:18:11,875
Just the way
Tom put words together,

437
00:18:11,875 --> 00:18:14,000
they seemed to glow.

438
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,916
It was as if
it was another language.

439
00:18:19,083 --> 00:18:22,500
The titles of things that
were always being picked up,

440
00:18:22,500 --> 00:18:23,750
like Radical Chic.

441
00:18:23,750 --> 00:18:24,791
Good Ole' Boy.

442
00:18:24,791 --> 00:18:25,791
The "Me" Decade.

443
00:18:25,791 --> 00:18:26,958
Masters of the Universe.

444
00:18:26,958 --> 00:18:28,541
The Right Stuff.

445
00:18:28,541 --> 00:18:30,750
I mean, he could come up
with these terms

446
00:18:30,750 --> 00:18:32,958
which then just became common--

447
00:18:32,958 --> 00:18:35,375
a common part of our language.

448
00:18:35,375 --> 00:18:38,625
[Michael] It showed
nonfiction writers

449
00:18:38,625 --> 00:18:41,250
how much was possible
in the form.

450
00:18:41,250 --> 00:18:43,750
[mellow music]

451
00:18:49,291 --> 00:18:51,208
-[gunfire]
-[indistinct shouting]

452
00:18:51,208 --> 00:18:52,416
[explosions]

453
00:18:52,416 --> 00:18:53,875
[indistinct shouting]

454
00:18:53,875 --> 00:18:56,166
-[aircraft zooming]
-[explosion]

455
00:18:59,291 --> 00:19:01,166
[Alex] You know, in the '60s,

456
00:19:01,166 --> 00:19:03,666
culture's being sort of
shaken on its head.

457
00:19:05,333 --> 00:19:07,458
Journalists are
rebelling against

458
00:19:07,458 --> 00:19:09,583
what everyone else
was rebelling against.

459
00:19:09,583 --> 00:19:10,833
[camera whirring]

460
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:13,875
Wolfe, and that generation,

461
00:19:13,875 --> 00:19:15,375
they're trying
to capture a world

462
00:19:15,375 --> 00:19:17,333
that seems to be going
faster and faster.

463
00:19:26,125 --> 00:19:28,416
[Gay] You felt that
nothing was in your way

464
00:19:28,416 --> 00:19:31,750
if you really wanted to do
something big, courageous,

465
00:19:31,750 --> 00:19:34,208
risk-taking, you could do it.

466
00:19:34,208 --> 00:19:35,916
[Jon Hamm] Frank Sinatra,
holding a glass of bourbon

467
00:19:35,916 --> 00:19:38,583
in one hand,
a cigarette in another,

468
00:19:38,583 --> 00:19:40,416
stood in a dark corner
of the bar

469
00:19:40,416 --> 00:19:43,416
between two attractive
but fading blondes

470
00:19:43,416 --> 00:19:45,791
who sat waiting for him
to say something.

471
00:19:45,791 --> 00:19:48,291
[typewriter clicking]

472
00:19:51,083 --> 00:19:52,708
[Michael] They were
all trying to create

473
00:19:52,708 --> 00:19:54,541
an excitement on the page,

474
00:19:54,541 --> 00:19:58,250
and all the things
that are changing in America,

475
00:19:58,250 --> 00:19:59,416
it's reflected
in kind of the way

476
00:19:59,416 --> 00:20:02,291
the prose looks and sounds.

477
00:20:02,291 --> 00:20:04,625
[Emily] You had
Hunter S. Thompson

478
00:20:04,625 --> 00:20:06,750
going to the Kentucky Derby.

479
00:20:06,750 --> 00:20:10,750
Joan Didion going
to San Francisco in 1968.

480
00:20:10,750 --> 00:20:11,833
[Joan Didion] In this life,

481
00:20:11,833 --> 00:20:14,166
all narrative was sentimental.

482
00:20:14,166 --> 00:20:15,333
In this life,

483
00:20:15,333 --> 00:20:17,791
all connections
were equally meaningful

484
00:20:17,791 --> 00:20:19,708
and equally senseless.

485
00:20:23,041 --> 00:20:24,333
[Alex] The events of the world

486
00:20:24,333 --> 00:20:26,833
were inspiring
these young journalists.

487
00:20:26,833 --> 00:20:28,125
It's like, you know what,

488
00:20:28,125 --> 00:20:29,708
there's probably
a different way to cover this.

489
00:20:29,708 --> 00:20:32,416
[music intensifies]

490
00:20:32,416 --> 00:20:34,916
[Michael] Wolfe creates this
sort of pseudo movement.

491
00:20:34,916 --> 00:20:36,458
New Journalism.

492
00:20:36,458 --> 00:20:41,833
What is it and to what degree
are you responsible for it?

493
00:20:41,833 --> 00:20:43,375
In my mind, the New Journalism

494
00:20:43,375 --> 00:20:47,875
is the use
of every effective technique

495
00:20:47,875 --> 00:20:52,041
known to prose in nonfiction.

496
00:20:52,041 --> 00:20:53,958
I was gonna write
a five or six page introduction

497
00:20:53,958 --> 00:20:56,250
to a textbook on the subject
of the New Journalism,

498
00:20:56,250 --> 00:20:58,083
that's all it was gonna be.

499
00:20:58,083 --> 00:21:00,541
And I found out
when I wrote that thing

500
00:21:00,541 --> 00:21:03,458
that plenty of my confreres
in the field of nonfiction

501
00:21:03,458 --> 00:21:06,583
were really upset.

502
00:21:06,583 --> 00:21:07,916
I mean, Hunter Thompson
writes him a note to say,

503
00:21:07,916 --> 00:21:09,375
"Don't include me.

504
00:21:09,375 --> 00:21:11,791
You've created this category
for your own purposes,

505
00:21:11,791 --> 00:21:14,166
but I'm not one of them,"
kind of thing.

506
00:21:14,166 --> 00:21:15,416
[pencil scribbles]

507
00:21:16,875 --> 00:21:17,875
[snorts]

508
00:21:22,500 --> 00:21:24,250
[Alex] Sometimes it's
interesting to go back

509
00:21:24,250 --> 00:21:26,833
and see which one
of these writers are friends,

510
00:21:26,833 --> 00:21:27,916
who are enemies,

511
00:21:27,916 --> 00:21:29,833
who are competitive
with each other.

512
00:21:29,833 --> 00:21:32,625
And one of
the strangest pairings

513
00:21:32,625 --> 00:21:35,750
is Wolfe and Hunter Thompson.

514
00:21:35,750 --> 00:21:38,000
They seem on the surface
to be so different,

515
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,708
and yet at the same time they
were both dogged reporters,

516
00:21:40,708 --> 00:21:42,333
they had the Southern thing
in common...

517
00:21:42,333 --> 00:21:43,583
They admired
each other's writing.

518
00:21:43,583 --> 00:21:45,125
They both could see
that the other one

519
00:21:45,125 --> 00:21:46,500
was really good at what he did.

520
00:21:46,500 --> 00:21:48,250
-[indistinct speaking]
-[tires squeal]

521
00:21:48,250 --> 00:21:50,125
[Tom Wolfe] What is
the speed limit here? 70.

522
00:21:50,125 --> 00:21:52,458
-No, oh my God, it's 75.
-[tires squeal]

523
00:21:52,458 --> 00:21:58,125
Every time
I saw him was unforgettable.

524
00:21:58,125 --> 00:22:01,333
There's a passage in--
in his archives

525
00:22:01,333 --> 00:22:04,416
where Wolfe is describing
taking Hunter Thompson

526
00:22:04,416 --> 00:22:07,208
to some trendy
Manhattan restaurant.

527
00:22:07,208 --> 00:22:08,250
Hunter Thompson gets there

528
00:22:08,250 --> 00:22:09,958
with like a paper sack
and says,

529
00:22:09,958 --> 00:22:12,250
"I can clear this restaurant
out in 20 seconds."

530
00:22:12,250 --> 00:22:15,791
And it turns out to be
like a marine alarm horn

531
00:22:15,791 --> 00:22:19,625
that you send--that you push
if your ship is going down.

532
00:22:19,625 --> 00:22:22,250
It can be heard
20 nautical miles away.

533
00:22:22,250 --> 00:22:23,875
And Hunter Thompson
takes it out and hits it,

534
00:22:23,875 --> 00:22:25,291
and the whole restaurant
clears out.

535
00:22:25,291 --> 00:22:27,708
[ship alarm blaring]

536
00:22:31,166 --> 00:22:35,791
[Tom Wolfe] To this day, louder
than any sound I have heard.

537
00:22:35,791 --> 00:22:38,916
And then I realized
that whenever I saw Hunter...

538
00:22:38,916 --> 00:22:40,250
[gunshot]

539
00:22:40,250 --> 00:22:42,250
...it was going to be
not so much a meeting

540
00:22:42,250 --> 00:22:44,333
or conversation as an event.

541
00:22:44,333 --> 00:22:46,791
[indistinct speaking]

542
00:22:46,791 --> 00:22:48,333
What are you doing, man?

543
00:22:48,333 --> 00:22:51,083
[Alex] When Wolfe set out
to write about Ken Kesey,

544
00:22:51,083 --> 00:22:53,625
at some point he got in
touch with Hunter Thompson

545
00:22:53,625 --> 00:22:55,958
because he had admired
Hunter Thompson's book

546
00:22:55,958 --> 00:22:57,458
about the Hells Angels.

547
00:22:57,458 --> 00:22:58,750
Hunter Thompson didn't feel like

548
00:22:58,750 --> 00:23:00,291
he could really write
about something

549
00:23:00,291 --> 00:23:02,208
until he reported
the shit out of it,

550
00:23:02,208 --> 00:23:06,083
and that's exactly what he had
in common with Tom Wolfe.

551
00:23:06,083 --> 00:23:08,500
[rock music]

552
00:23:19,166 --> 00:23:23,250
The commencement
exercises for LSDU

553
00:23:23,250 --> 00:23:26,875
will be held at Winterland
on Monday night.

554
00:23:26,875 --> 00:23:29,333
That's Halloween.

555
00:23:29,333 --> 00:23:31,833
And, of course, the man who
is going to be passing out

556
00:23:31,833 --> 00:23:34,083
the diplomas is Ken Kesey.

557
00:23:34,083 --> 00:23:35,416
Ken, what, um,

558
00:23:35,416 --> 00:23:38,250
what's the theme of this
commencement exercise?

559
00:23:38,250 --> 00:23:39,250
Trip or treat.

560
00:23:39,250 --> 00:23:41,750
[mellow music]

561
00:23:51,791 --> 00:23:54,125
[Tom Wolfe] When I wrote The
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,

562
00:23:54,125 --> 00:23:55,500
one thing I worried about

563
00:23:55,500 --> 00:23:57,166
was what my role was gonna be.

564
00:23:57,166 --> 00:23:59,750
And if you're gonna
continue to be a writer,

565
00:23:59,750 --> 00:24:00,875
you can't become
totally involved

566
00:24:00,875 --> 00:24:02,250
'cause you rob yourself

567
00:24:02,250 --> 00:24:04,333
of all perspective
at that point.

568
00:24:07,208 --> 00:24:09,750
[woman] That means in the case
of the Merry Prankster Bus,

569
00:24:09,750 --> 00:24:11,916
you were not dropping acid
all the time.

570
00:24:11,916 --> 00:24:14,333
[Tom Wolfe] No, I never did
while I was with them.

571
00:24:14,333 --> 00:24:17,708
Later on I did take LSD to--

572
00:24:17,708 --> 00:24:19,000
just to write the book,

573
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:20,708
just to see what would happen,

574
00:24:20,708 --> 00:24:23,125
which is really not
the way to do it.

575
00:24:23,125 --> 00:24:25,625
[mellow music]

576
00:24:31,750 --> 00:24:33,041
But I found out
through doing it

577
00:24:33,041 --> 00:24:35,666
that the LSD experience
is not a light show.

578
00:24:36,708 --> 00:24:39,375
That's, by far, the least of it.

579
00:24:39,375 --> 00:24:43,625
But occasionally I'll even sit
in front of the typewriter

580
00:24:43,625 --> 00:24:45,625
and close my eyes

581
00:24:45,625 --> 00:24:49,250
and go into what I thought of
as a kind of controlled trance

582
00:24:49,250 --> 00:24:52,916
and try to actually feel
in my nervous system

583
00:24:52,916 --> 00:24:54,416
what they have gone through,

584
00:24:54,416 --> 00:24:55,750
what I had seen them do,

585
00:24:55,750 --> 00:24:58,833
or what I had been told about,

586
00:24:58,833 --> 00:25:00,250
and then write it.

587
00:25:00,250 --> 00:25:02,125
And I've never been an actor,

588
00:25:02,125 --> 00:25:04,541
but I'm convinced
this must be the process

589
00:25:04,541 --> 00:25:07,125
that a method actor or
almost any actor goes through.

590
00:25:07,125 --> 00:25:08,625
[shimmering sound]

591
00:25:08,625 --> 00:25:11,083
[Jon Hamm] The world was
simply and sheerly divided

592
00:25:11,083 --> 00:25:13,166
into "the aware,"

593
00:25:13,166 --> 00:25:14,500
those who had the experience

594
00:25:14,500 --> 00:25:16,875
of being vessels of the divine,

595
00:25:16,875 --> 00:25:19,958
and a great mass
of "the unaware,"

596
00:25:19,958 --> 00:25:23,458
"the unmusical,"
"the unattuned."

597
00:25:23,458 --> 00:25:26,375
The aware were never
snobbish toward the unaware,

598
00:25:26,375 --> 00:25:28,625
but, in fact, most of that
great jellyfish blob

599
00:25:28,625 --> 00:25:31,541
of straight souls
looked like hopeless cases.

600
00:25:31,541 --> 00:25:34,041
[energetic music]

601
00:25:39,750 --> 00:25:42,500
[Gail] Tom migrated
into writing books

602
00:25:42,500 --> 00:25:44,458
from feature writing,

603
00:25:44,458 --> 00:25:47,958
and he found out that
that's a whole other way

604
00:25:47,958 --> 00:25:50,750
to unmask a phenomenon.

605
00:25:50,750 --> 00:25:55,583
He found himself
involved with Ken Kesey,

606
00:25:55,583 --> 00:25:58,375
Neal Cassady, and the Beats,

607
00:25:58,375 --> 00:26:01,125
the beginning
of the hippie culture.

608
00:26:01,125 --> 00:26:03,083
[Gregory] In some ways
he's very much progressive

609
00:26:03,083 --> 00:26:07,291
in that he's very focused on
those overlooked in society.

610
00:26:07,291 --> 00:26:09,083
[Tom Wolfe] We're talking now
about the rise

611
00:26:09,083 --> 00:26:11,583
of the California hip life,

612
00:26:11,583 --> 00:26:13,583
which is a life
really based on what I call

613
00:26:13,583 --> 00:26:15,041
the politics of pleasure.

614
00:26:15,041 --> 00:26:17,833
As a result, you see some
curious things happening.

615
00:26:17,833 --> 00:26:18,958
They do what they feel like,

616
00:26:18,958 --> 00:26:20,625
and a lot of people
feel like taking--

617
00:26:20,625 --> 00:26:22,583
taking these drugs.

618
00:26:22,583 --> 00:26:25,333
[Emily] He's creating
a mythology of the country

619
00:26:25,333 --> 00:26:26,666
as he's writing,

620
00:26:26,666 --> 00:26:28,583
and one that really endures.

621
00:26:28,583 --> 00:26:30,000
[funk music]

622
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,166
It's this really
all-encompassing vision

623
00:26:33,166 --> 00:26:36,375
of the 1960s
that was so perfect,

624
00:26:36,375 --> 00:26:39,541
and LSD culture was still new

625
00:26:39,541 --> 00:26:41,958
and people didn't know
what to make of it.

626
00:26:41,958 --> 00:26:47,125
And yet, he set the standard
for how we think about it.

627
00:26:47,125 --> 00:26:50,541
[mellow music]

628
00:26:50,541 --> 00:26:52,750
[Ron] What struck me
was the delight he takes

629
00:26:52,750 --> 00:26:54,458
in these characters.

630
00:26:54,458 --> 00:26:55,500
Not the approval,

631
00:26:55,500 --> 00:26:56,916
that's something very different,

632
00:26:56,916 --> 00:27:01,708
but the fact that he just
enjoys how crazy they are

633
00:27:01,708 --> 00:27:04,875
without falling in
and becoming one of them.

634
00:27:04,875 --> 00:27:06,416
People just
wouldn't have done that.

635
00:27:06,416 --> 00:27:08,125
There would have been a sense

636
00:27:08,125 --> 00:27:09,625
that you had
to be behind a wall

637
00:27:09,625 --> 00:27:12,208
and you had to describe
these things through glass,

638
00:27:12,208 --> 00:27:14,291
whereas Tom was just
out there with them,

639
00:27:14,291 --> 00:27:15,916
listening to them,
experiencing them,

640
00:27:15,916 --> 00:27:19,791
and letting us see
what he was feeling

641
00:27:19,791 --> 00:27:21,708
as he experienced it.

642
00:27:25,958 --> 00:27:29,500
He had a best-seller
from his first book,

643
00:27:29,500 --> 00:27:31,208
so he was launched.

644
00:27:31,208 --> 00:27:33,708
[mellow music]

645
00:27:42,708 --> 00:27:44,708
[Peter] The book itself reads
like you're on some--

646
00:27:44,708 --> 00:27:47,458
some crazy LSD trip
that ends very badly.

647
00:27:47,458 --> 00:27:50,625
To me, that's his--
his greatest book.

648
00:27:50,625 --> 00:27:54,750
He helped bring
the new world into being.

649
00:27:55,875 --> 00:27:57,125
[cash register chimes]

650
00:27:58,458 --> 00:28:01,000
[soft music]

651
00:28:05,791 --> 00:28:09,000
[Niall] The key
to understanding Tom Wolfe

652
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:14,250
is to imagine this
Southern, studious young man

653
00:28:14,250 --> 00:28:16,416
leaving the South for Yale.

654
00:28:18,375 --> 00:28:20,041
[Michael] He'd never
really gotten out

655
00:28:20,041 --> 00:28:22,458
of his little Southern bubble.

656
00:28:22,458 --> 00:28:24,791
And he gets to Yale
and all of a sudden

657
00:28:24,791 --> 00:28:26,250
he realizes
there are all these people

658
00:28:26,250 --> 00:28:31,208
who kind of look down
on the world he came from.

659
00:28:31,208 --> 00:28:34,625
But he had such a deep love
of where he was from

660
00:28:34,625 --> 00:28:37,666
that he started
to develop a mild contempt

661
00:28:37,666 --> 00:28:39,416
for the people
around him at Yale

662
00:28:39,416 --> 00:28:42,708
who had a mild contempt
of the world he came from.

663
00:28:42,708 --> 00:28:47,083
He wrote a PhD thesis,
in very Tom Wolfe-ian style,

664
00:28:47,083 --> 00:28:50,916
in which he, from a vaguely
right-wing perspective,

665
00:28:50,916 --> 00:28:55,333
attacks a lot
of famous left-wing writers.

666
00:28:55,333 --> 00:28:58,625
And the professors, who are
much more left-leaning,

667
00:28:58,625 --> 00:29:00,166
are shocked.

668
00:29:00,166 --> 00:29:02,875
They basically say
this thesis is not suitable.

669
00:29:02,875 --> 00:29:06,000
It's opinionated,
the facts can't be checked.

670
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:07,916
You put yourself
back in the mind frame

671
00:29:07,916 --> 00:29:11,208
of somebody who spent
five years at Yale

672
00:29:11,208 --> 00:29:13,875
working on this paper.

673
00:29:13,875 --> 00:29:16,500
I think he hated
every moment of it.

674
00:29:16,500 --> 00:29:18,458
[Alex] And he says
I'm gonna tidy up this stuff

675
00:29:18,458 --> 00:29:19,750
for these stupid fucks

676
00:29:19,750 --> 00:29:22,708
and get my PhD
and get out of here.

677
00:29:24,083 --> 00:29:28,791
That is a kind
of searing experience.

678
00:29:28,791 --> 00:29:32,416
And I think it helps
explain the vendetta

679
00:29:32,416 --> 00:29:37,208
that Wolfe pursued against
the intellectual left.

680
00:29:39,666 --> 00:29:42,375
[soft music]

681
00:29:42,375 --> 00:29:45,750
[Michael] And so Tom
flees Yale as fast he can,

682
00:29:45,750 --> 00:29:48,541
and he lands this job
as a daily journalist

683
00:29:48,541 --> 00:29:52,708
for the Springfield,
Massachusetts, newspaper.

684
00:29:52,708 --> 00:29:55,333
[Alex] Before the New Journalism
era in New York,

685
00:29:55,333 --> 00:29:58,500
Wolfe's a straight reporter.

686
00:29:58,500 --> 00:30:00,833
He ended up getting
into newspaper work

687
00:30:00,833 --> 00:30:03,041
the old-fashioned way,
he started from the bottom.

688
00:30:03,041 --> 00:30:05,833
Covering fires
and City Hall meetings,

689
00:30:05,833 --> 00:30:08,500
and doing all
of the routine things

690
00:30:08,500 --> 00:30:11,708
that young reporters do
as they work their way up.

691
00:30:13,625 --> 00:30:15,250
[Tom Wolfe]
I never knew from day to day

692
00:30:15,250 --> 00:30:16,875
what kind of story
I was gonna be put on.

693
00:30:16,875 --> 00:30:20,375
It made you realize that you
can go up to total strangers

694
00:30:20,375 --> 00:30:22,166
and ask them questions
that they--

695
00:30:22,166 --> 00:30:24,833
you have no right
to expect them to answer.

696
00:30:24,833 --> 00:30:26,750
[man] There's a
wonderful picture, 1958,

697
00:30:26,750 --> 00:30:29,166
you and John F. Kennedy,
a politician on the make,

698
00:30:29,166 --> 00:30:31,666
and a newspaper reporter
from The Springfield Union

699
00:30:31,666 --> 00:30:33,083
on the make.

700
00:30:33,083 --> 00:30:34,958
[Tom Wolfe] Kennedy,
when I interviewed him,

701
00:30:34,958 --> 00:30:36,708
was Senator Kennedy.

702
00:30:36,708 --> 00:30:38,416
He had been asked
to come to Springfield

703
00:30:38,416 --> 00:30:40,666
to see if he could do something
to keep the government

704
00:30:40,666 --> 00:30:42,083
from getting rid of the armory.

705
00:30:42,083 --> 00:30:44,625
The armory had become
kind of redundant by now.

706
00:30:44,625 --> 00:30:47,083
So he met with a group
of Springfield business men

707
00:30:47,083 --> 00:30:48,333
and the Springfield mayor.

708
00:30:48,333 --> 00:30:50,250
And he was saying to them,

709
00:30:50,250 --> 00:30:52,916
"Look, we've gotta be just like
these Southern politicians,

710
00:30:52,916 --> 00:30:54,833
these Southern senators
and congressmen.

711
00:30:54,833 --> 00:30:57,083
They just grab
whatever they feel like,

712
00:30:57,083 --> 00:30:59,166
and they'll make a gym
for a university

713
00:30:59,166 --> 00:31:00,750
and name it after themselves,

714
00:31:00,750 --> 00:31:02,333
but that's the way
you have to play the game

715
00:31:02,333 --> 00:31:04,500
and that's what we have to do
to save the armory."

716
00:31:04,500 --> 00:31:06,250
At which point
one of his aides said,

717
00:31:06,250 --> 00:31:07,708
"Senator, uh, did you realize

718
00:31:07,708 --> 00:31:09,583
that there's a reporter
in the room?"

719
00:31:09,583 --> 00:31:11,083
And that was me.

720
00:31:11,083 --> 00:31:12,416
And he turned to me
and he said,

721
00:31:12,416 --> 00:31:14,125
"This is all off the record."

722
00:31:14,125 --> 00:31:15,916
"Well, there's 25 Springfield
business leaders here

723
00:31:15,916 --> 00:31:17,291
and the mayor,

724
00:31:17,291 --> 00:31:19,041
I don't see how I can
keep it off the record."

725
00:31:19,041 --> 00:31:20,708
And he says,
"It's off the record."

726
00:31:20,708 --> 00:31:22,375
Afterwards he came up
to me and took me outside.

727
00:31:22,375 --> 00:31:24,333
He said, "Look,
I know your publisher,

728
00:31:24,333 --> 00:31:25,583
I know your editor very well,

729
00:31:25,583 --> 00:31:26,916
and I know
they would never want

730
00:31:26,916 --> 00:31:29,333
anything like this
to appear in their paper

731
00:31:29,333 --> 00:31:31,083
and jeopardize
the future of the armory."

732
00:31:31,083 --> 00:31:33,458
So I said--I said,
"My hands are tied, I'm sorry.

733
00:31:33,458 --> 00:31:36,625
It's--this is something
that just happened

734
00:31:36,625 --> 00:31:38,250
in front of a lot

735
00:31:38,250 --> 00:31:40,041
of influential people
in Springfield."

736
00:31:40,041 --> 00:31:41,875
So I went ahead
and wrote the story.

737
00:31:41,875 --> 00:31:45,083
And about a week later,
he complained to the editor

738
00:31:45,083 --> 00:31:47,750
that I had violated
an off-the-record embargo

739
00:31:47,750 --> 00:31:50,333
and, in effect,
kind of tried to get me fired.

740
00:31:50,333 --> 00:31:52,791
But, fortunately,
my editor was a Republican,

741
00:31:52,791 --> 00:31:54,125
and he seemed
to rather like me,

742
00:31:54,125 --> 00:31:55,333
and so it didn't cost me.

743
00:31:55,333 --> 00:31:57,125
But that's what
we were talking about

744
00:31:57,125 --> 00:32:00,083
in that picture.

745
00:32:00,083 --> 00:32:02,000
[Alex] One thing
that's important to remember

746
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,458
about Wolfe as he's trying
to make a name for himself

747
00:32:04,458 --> 00:32:07,750
is that he must have felt
very much the outsider.

748
00:32:07,750 --> 00:32:09,916
People on
the outside looking in

749
00:32:09,916 --> 00:32:11,833
have some sort of
chip on their shoulder

750
00:32:11,833 --> 00:32:14,041
that drives them.

751
00:32:14,041 --> 00:32:17,791
So, Wolfe was not afraid
to piss people off.

752
00:32:17,791 --> 00:32:19,333
[Emily]
I write for The New Yorker,

753
00:32:19,333 --> 00:32:22,708
but I read Tiny Mummies!
with some satisfaction,

754
00:32:22,708 --> 00:32:24,833
which I'm a little
embarrassed to admit.

755
00:32:24,833 --> 00:32:26,666
[soft classical music]

756
00:32:26,666 --> 00:32:30,708
He presents
the magazine as this place

757
00:32:30,708 --> 00:32:33,833
where it's so driven
by its own legacy

758
00:32:33,833 --> 00:32:36,541
and its nepotism
and its elitism

759
00:32:36,541 --> 00:32:38,625
that, how do I put it,

760
00:32:38,625 --> 00:32:39,625
yeah, it's a mummy.

761
00:32:39,625 --> 00:32:41,458
[laughs]

762
00:32:41,458 --> 00:32:43,375
[Tom Junod] He was
basically saying, you know,

763
00:32:43,375 --> 00:32:45,583
it was a not a--
a place of the living

764
00:32:45,583 --> 00:32:47,625
but rather a place of the dead.

765
00:32:47,625 --> 00:32:51,458
The after-effect of what
he's written is anger.

766
00:32:51,458 --> 00:32:53,166
[Tom Junod] He was
roundly attacked,

767
00:32:53,166 --> 00:32:54,750
and he was attacked
by The New Yorker

768
00:32:54,750 --> 00:32:57,666
for the rest of his career.

769
00:32:57,666 --> 00:33:00,041
I mean, they got
fuckin' J. D. Salinger

770
00:33:00,041 --> 00:33:01,583
to write a complaint piece.

771
00:33:01,583 --> 00:33:04,125
[somber music]

772
00:33:08,291 --> 00:33:10,458
[Christopher] You know,
The New York establishment

773
00:33:10,458 --> 00:33:12,291
never forgave him,
really, for that.

774
00:33:14,666 --> 00:33:16,750
[Tom Wolfe] I always think
of Balzac's statement

775
00:33:16,750 --> 00:33:18,541
when people were
trying to find out

776
00:33:18,541 --> 00:33:21,333
his political stance
in his novels.

777
00:33:21,333 --> 00:33:23,291
He would always say,

778
00:33:23,291 --> 00:33:27,041
"I belong to the party
of the opposition."

779
00:33:27,041 --> 00:33:28,958
And so I can put that
in his mouth,

780
00:33:28,958 --> 00:33:30,333
it would sound pompous
to say it today,

781
00:33:30,333 --> 00:33:33,250
but it's really the way I feel.

782
00:33:33,250 --> 00:33:35,125
He went after sacred cows.

783
00:33:37,291 --> 00:33:41,458
He thought these were things
and people and theories

784
00:33:41,458 --> 00:33:46,250
that really needed to be
taken down a peg or two.

785
00:33:46,250 --> 00:33:48,791
This book called
The Painted Word

786
00:33:48,791 --> 00:33:51,500
is a mustache painted
in broad daylight

787
00:33:51,500 --> 00:33:53,250
on the Mona Lisa.

788
00:33:53,250 --> 00:33:56,541
And some people are not
going to forgive him ever.

789
00:33:56,541 --> 00:33:58,708
Now he's written another book
about architecture

790
00:33:58,708 --> 00:34:01,625
that could be subtitled
The Wrong Stuff.

791
00:34:01,625 --> 00:34:02,666
And a lot of people,

792
00:34:02,666 --> 00:34:04,166
especially
architectural critics,

793
00:34:04,166 --> 00:34:06,833
hate it.

794
00:34:06,833 --> 00:34:09,125
[Alexandra] When he got
bad reviews, I would say,

795
00:34:09,125 --> 00:34:11,791
you know, "Dad, did you read
that review? Are you upset?"

796
00:34:11,791 --> 00:34:13,958
He was like,
"No, of course I'm not upset."

797
00:34:13,958 --> 00:34:15,416
And I'd say, "Why? That was--"

798
00:34:15,416 --> 00:34:16,958
You know, "They were so nasty."

799
00:34:16,958 --> 00:34:19,250
He said, "Well, you're nobody
until somebody hates you."

800
00:34:19,250 --> 00:34:20,625
You know, he sort of--

801
00:34:20,625 --> 00:34:22,708
he just sort of brushed
everything off like that.

802
00:34:22,708 --> 00:34:25,833
He really made a lot of enemies,

803
00:34:25,833 --> 00:34:28,291
but it didn't bother him.

804
00:34:28,291 --> 00:34:32,625
He wasn't looking for approval.

805
00:34:32,625 --> 00:34:35,041
[announcer]
Here is Mr. Bernstein.

806
00:34:35,041 --> 00:34:37,541
[applause]

807
00:34:44,208 --> 00:34:46,833
[soft orchestral music]

808
00:34:46,833 --> 00:34:48,583
[Tom Wolfe] One day I was
at Harper's Magazine

809
00:34:48,583 --> 00:34:50,583
waiting for my wife-to-be,

810
00:34:50,583 --> 00:34:53,416
who was the art director
at Harper's,

811
00:34:53,416 --> 00:34:54,791
to take her to lunch.

812
00:34:54,791 --> 00:34:56,208
And to kill the time,

813
00:34:56,208 --> 00:34:57,916
I kept wandering around.

814
00:34:57,916 --> 00:35:00,791
I went into the office
of David Halberstam.

815
00:35:00,791 --> 00:35:02,083
He wasn't there.

816
00:35:02,083 --> 00:35:03,958
So I was looking at
everything on his desk.

817
00:35:03,958 --> 00:35:06,375
And, uh&
-[laughter]

818
00:35:06,375 --> 00:35:10,791
And here was an invitation by
Leonard and Felicia Bernstein

819
00:35:10,791 --> 00:35:14,541
to a party at 895 Park Avenue
for the Black Panthers.

820
00:35:14,541 --> 00:35:16,041
So, I couldn't resist it.

821
00:35:16,041 --> 00:35:18,125
I had to get
into that party somehow.

822
00:35:18,125 --> 00:35:20,041
So...
-[laughter]

823
00:35:20,041 --> 00:35:22,833
There was a number
to call if you accepted.

824
00:35:22,833 --> 00:35:24,750
So I called up and I said,

825
00:35:24,750 --> 00:35:27,166
"I'm Tom Wolfe and I accept."

826
00:35:27,166 --> 00:35:28,958
[majestic orchestral music]

827
00:35:28,958 --> 00:35:30,208
[Michael]
By the time Tom Wolfe

828
00:35:30,208 --> 00:35:31,875
is in Leonard Bernstein's
apartment,

829
00:35:31,875 --> 00:35:33,916
he is America's
leading satirist,

830
00:35:33,916 --> 00:35:37,208
so he is the most dangerous
writer in America.

831
00:35:37,208 --> 00:35:40,791
He's exactly who you don't
invite to your dinner party.

832
00:35:40,791 --> 00:35:42,666
A few years ago,
Wolfe attended a party,

833
00:35:42,666 --> 00:35:45,125
as you recall, at the apartment
of Leonard Bernstein,

834
00:35:45,125 --> 00:35:46,875
where the result
was a 20,000-word piece

835
00:35:46,875 --> 00:35:48,625
called Radical Chic.

836
00:35:48,625 --> 00:35:50,750
[William] Which is about
the famous party

837
00:35:50,750 --> 00:35:53,125
that Leonard Bernstein
gave to raise money

838
00:35:53,125 --> 00:35:55,625
for the Black Panthers
who had been indicted

839
00:35:55,625 --> 00:36:00,000
for conspiring to bomb
a few racist department stores

840
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:01,333
at Easter time.

841
00:36:01,333 --> 00:36:02,958
Ten or twelve members
of the Black Panther Party

842
00:36:02,958 --> 00:36:05,750
in New York have
already been arrested,

843
00:36:05,750 --> 00:36:08,583
and others are being arrested,
all by surprise.

844
00:36:08,583 --> 00:36:10,708
The Black Panther Party
is informing and calling on

845
00:36:10,708 --> 00:36:13,041
all the peoples of the
communities across the country

846
00:36:13,041 --> 00:36:14,625
to scorn and denounce the action

847
00:36:14,625 --> 00:36:17,000
of this capitalistic
government's attempts

848
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:18,750
to try to destroy
the Black Panther Party,

849
00:36:18,750 --> 00:36:21,708
which has chapters
and branches across the nation.

850
00:36:21,708 --> 00:36:23,875
[William] I should like
to begin by asking Mr. Wolfe

851
00:36:23,875 --> 00:36:26,041
whether he thinks,
on second thought,

852
00:36:26,041 --> 00:36:28,958
that he behaved insouciantly

853
00:36:28,958 --> 00:36:32,041
toward the plight
of the Panthers.

854
00:36:32,041 --> 00:36:33,083
-Insouciantly?
-Yes.

855
00:36:33,083 --> 00:36:34,125
[chuckles]

856
00:36:34,125 --> 00:36:36,166
[Jon Hamm]
Mm, these are nice.

857
00:36:36,166 --> 00:36:39,750
Little Roquefort cheese morsels
rolled in crushed nuts.

858
00:36:39,750 --> 00:36:41,875
Very tasty, very subtle.

859
00:36:41,875 --> 00:36:44,333
It's the way the dry sackiness
of the nuts

860
00:36:44,333 --> 00:36:46,875
tiptoes up against
the dour savor of the cheese

861
00:36:46,875 --> 00:36:49,458
that is so nice, so subtle.

862
00:36:49,458 --> 00:36:51,083
Wonder what
the Black Panthers eat here

863
00:36:51,083 --> 00:36:52,750
on the hors d'oeuvres trail?

864
00:36:52,750 --> 00:36:54,916
Do the Panthers like little
Roquefort cheese morsels

865
00:36:54,916 --> 00:36:56,958
wrapped in crushed nuts
this way,

866
00:36:56,958 --> 00:36:59,041
and asparagus tips
in mayonnaise dabs,

867
00:36:59,041 --> 00:37:02,000
and meatballs petites
au Coq Hardi?

868
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:03,750
For example,
does that huge Black Panther

869
00:37:03,750 --> 00:37:05,250
there in the hallway,

870
00:37:05,250 --> 00:37:07,833
the one shaking hands with
Felicia Bernstein herself,

871
00:37:07,833 --> 00:37:10,833
the one with the black leather
coat and the dark glasses

872
00:37:10,833 --> 00:37:13,416
and the absolutely
unbelievable Afro,

873
00:37:13,416 --> 00:37:15,125
Fuzzy Wuzzy-scale, in fact,

874
00:37:15,125 --> 00:37:16,958
is he, a Black Panther,

875
00:37:16,958 --> 00:37:19,000
going on to pick up
a Roquefort cheese morsel

876
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:20,750
rolled in crushed nuts
from off the tray,

877
00:37:20,750 --> 00:37:21,958
and just pop it down the gullet

878
00:37:21,958 --> 00:37:23,541
without so much
as missing a beat

879
00:37:23,541 --> 00:37:26,416
of Felicia's
perfect Mary Astor voice.

880
00:37:26,416 --> 00:37:28,333
[majestic classical music]

881
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,000
[Tom Wolfe] You cannot
say that the Bernsteins

882
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:34,333
or the other people who
have given parties like this

883
00:37:34,333 --> 00:37:36,041
are insincere.

884
00:37:36,041 --> 00:37:37,458
They do care
about the great work,

885
00:37:37,458 --> 00:37:40,125
they do care
about the Black Panthers,

886
00:37:40,125 --> 00:37:43,083
and they even care
about the ocelots, uh,

887
00:37:43,083 --> 00:37:45,041
and the Somali leopards,

888
00:37:45,041 --> 00:37:47,916
although they tend
to lump them all together.

889
00:37:47,916 --> 00:37:49,250
In January 1970,

890
00:37:49,250 --> 00:37:53,333
when the party at
Leonard Bernstein happened,

891
00:37:53,333 --> 00:37:54,666
I was in prison.

892
00:37:54,666 --> 00:37:57,625
I was part
of the Panther 21 case.

893
00:37:57,625 --> 00:38:00,041
Our bail was set at $100,000.

894
00:38:00,041 --> 00:38:01,750
We always maintained
that that wasn't a bail,

895
00:38:01,750 --> 00:38:03,750
it was a ransom.

896
00:38:03,750 --> 00:38:05,708
And in February of 1970,

897
00:38:05,708 --> 00:38:08,500
I was released as
a result of that fundraiser.

898
00:38:09,958 --> 00:38:11,291
And then I saw
this article came out

899
00:38:11,291 --> 00:38:14,000
kind of labeling
what was going on

900
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:17,041
as "radical chic,"

901
00:38:17,041 --> 00:38:19,958
as kind of, like,
this pretentious fad.

902
00:38:19,958 --> 00:38:23,208
The broad reaction
in the Panther Party was that,

903
00:38:23,208 --> 00:38:25,375
you know,
"This dude is trippin'."

904
00:38:25,375 --> 00:38:27,250
[protesters singing]

905
00:38:27,250 --> 00:38:31,125
It kinda put a derisive label

906
00:38:31,125 --> 00:38:33,208
on good work
that was happening,

907
00:38:33,208 --> 00:38:35,291
and it wasn't
good work just because

908
00:38:35,291 --> 00:38:36,958
people were contributing money.

909
00:38:36,958 --> 00:38:38,083
It was good work because

910
00:38:38,083 --> 00:38:40,458
consciousness was
being raised

911
00:38:40,458 --> 00:38:44,541
around injustices that were
happening in our society.

912
00:38:44,541 --> 00:38:48,000
And I think that that article

913
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:52,250
was trivializing
what we were doing,

914
00:38:52,250 --> 00:38:55,333
and the Bernstein family
felt this betrayal.

915
00:38:57,500 --> 00:38:59,416
[Gay]
He could write about people.

916
00:38:59,416 --> 00:39:02,958
That was so searing
and so unsettling, I'm sure,

917
00:39:02,958 --> 00:39:05,250
for those
who were written about.

918
00:39:05,250 --> 00:39:07,833
Old Tom Wolfe would pick them
like you'd pick a balloon

919
00:39:07,833 --> 00:39:09,666
with his little
sharp pointed pen.

920
00:39:09,666 --> 00:39:10,916
And the question is

921
00:39:10,916 --> 00:39:13,833
is whether he crossed
the line in that story

922
00:39:13,833 --> 00:39:16,416
into, you know, into cruelty.

923
00:39:16,416 --> 00:39:18,000
[majestic classical music]

924
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,041
[Jon Hamm] As more than one
person in this room knows,

925
00:39:20,041 --> 00:39:23,333
Lenny treasures
the art of conversation.

926
00:39:23,333 --> 00:39:24,333
He treasures it,

927
00:39:24,333 --> 00:39:25,416
monopolizes it,

928
00:39:25,416 --> 00:39:26,541
conglomerates it

929
00:39:26,541 --> 00:39:27,625
like a Jay Gould,

930
00:39:27,625 --> 00:39:28,958
an Onassis.

931
00:39:28,958 --> 00:39:31,250
A cornfield of conversation.

932
00:39:31,250 --> 00:39:32,291
The Great Interrupter,

933
00:39:32,291 --> 00:39:33,500
the Village Explainer,

934
00:39:33,500 --> 00:39:35,958
the champion of Mental Jotto,

935
00:39:35,958 --> 00:39:36,958
the Free Analyst,

936
00:39:36,958 --> 00:39:39,500
Mr. Let's Find Out.

937
00:39:39,500 --> 00:39:42,791
No breathers allowed
until every human brain

938
00:39:42,791 --> 00:39:45,000
is reduced finely
to a clump of dried seaweed

939
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,375
inside a burnt-out husk

940
00:39:47,375 --> 00:39:49,333
and collapses,

941
00:39:49,333 --> 00:39:52,625
implodes in one last crunch

942
00:39:52,625 --> 00:39:54,125
of terminal boredom.

943
00:39:54,125 --> 00:39:57,083
[majestic classical music]

944
00:39:57,083 --> 00:39:59,250
He didn't give us a thought

945
00:39:59,250 --> 00:40:02,916
to how his words
might be hurtful

946
00:40:02,916 --> 00:40:05,333
to the people
he was making fun of.

947
00:40:05,333 --> 00:40:10,666
And I just feel
like you have to remember,

948
00:40:10,666 --> 00:40:12,291
if you're a journalist,

949
00:40:12,291 --> 00:40:15,333
how your words
can affect people.

950
00:40:15,333 --> 00:40:18,083
[Tom Junod] Tom Wolfe makes
the Bernsteins look ridiculous

951
00:40:18,083 --> 00:40:19,791
in that particular piece,

952
00:40:19,791 --> 00:40:21,791
and I think that probably
stuck with him forever.

953
00:40:22,916 --> 00:40:24,791
I'm a consumer of that story.

954
00:40:24,791 --> 00:40:26,333
I love that story.

955
00:40:26,333 --> 00:40:30,958
I can see where
it would have been painful

956
00:40:30,958 --> 00:40:35,125
to be in a different
position with that story.

957
00:40:35,125 --> 00:40:37,333
[Tom Wolfe] I think
you can't afford to be

958
00:40:37,333 --> 00:40:39,375
constantly
wringing your hands

959
00:40:39,375 --> 00:40:41,041
over the impact
of what you're doing,

960
00:40:41,041 --> 00:40:42,791
whether you're
talking about the impact

961
00:40:42,791 --> 00:40:44,583
on the individuals
that you're writing about

962
00:40:44,583 --> 00:40:47,333
or the impact on the issues
that are involved--

963
00:40:47,333 --> 00:40:49,500
in this case,
support for radical groups

964
00:40:49,500 --> 00:40:51,000
in the late 1960s.

965
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:52,791
I was heavily
criticized after that

966
00:40:52,791 --> 00:40:56,375
for drying up fundraising
for these radical groups

967
00:40:56,375 --> 00:40:59,125
among wealthy
socialites in New York.

968
00:40:59,125 --> 00:41:00,458
Well, whether
I did or I didn't,

969
00:41:00,458 --> 00:41:02,208
I don't think
you can worry about that.

970
00:41:02,208 --> 00:41:03,500
I think if you start
worrying about that,

971
00:41:03,500 --> 00:41:04,916
you're no longer writing;

972
00:41:04,916 --> 00:41:06,875
you're involved
in public relations.

973
00:41:06,875 --> 00:41:08,208
[Gay] If you read Tom Wolfe,

974
00:41:08,208 --> 00:41:10,083
and you--in my case,
not only read Tom Wolfe

975
00:41:10,083 --> 00:41:11,666
but know Tom Wolfe,

976
00:41:11,666 --> 00:41:12,875
they're different people,

977
00:41:12,875 --> 00:41:14,916
totally different people.

978
00:41:14,916 --> 00:41:16,625
[audience applauding]

979
00:41:16,625 --> 00:41:19,583
[man] As much as
Tom Wolfe is a public figure,

980
00:41:19,583 --> 00:41:21,625
the private man is an enigma.

981
00:41:21,625 --> 00:41:22,916
Home is New York,

982
00:41:22,916 --> 00:41:25,750
where he is married
with two kids.

983
00:41:25,750 --> 00:41:28,000
[Gail] A lot of readers
wouldn't think of Tom Wolfe

984
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,791
necessarily as
a soft-hearted man.

985
00:41:30,791 --> 00:41:34,291
He was also a man
who could cut a man in pieces

986
00:41:34,291 --> 00:41:36,708
with a single sentence.

987
00:41:36,708 --> 00:41:38,291
But with those he cared about,

988
00:41:38,291 --> 00:41:41,916
he was one of the most
thoughtful people I know.

989
00:41:41,916 --> 00:41:44,125
Tom was a very quiet,

990
00:41:44,125 --> 00:41:48,041
very courteous
Southern gentleman

991
00:41:48,041 --> 00:41:49,916
in private.

992
00:41:49,916 --> 00:41:53,625
He was a real family man.

993
00:41:53,625 --> 00:41:56,250
[Tom Wolfe] I delivered
some piece at Esquire.

994
00:41:56,250 --> 00:41:59,208
We're talking about it
when the doors cracked open,

995
00:41:59,208 --> 00:42:00,916
and I look out the door

996
00:42:00,916 --> 00:42:04,333
and I said, "Who's that
girl in a snakeskin dress?"

997
00:42:06,458 --> 00:42:08,375
And they said,
"Oh, that's Sheila Berger

998
00:42:08,375 --> 00:42:10,125
who works in
our Art Department."

999
00:42:10,125 --> 00:42:12,375
[mellow music]

1000
00:42:12,375 --> 00:42:15,083
And, well, we've been
married to this day.

1001
00:42:15,083 --> 00:42:17,166
Isn't that a romantic story?

1002
00:42:17,166 --> 00:42:18,458
Thank you, thank you.

1003
00:42:18,458 --> 00:42:19,583
[chuckles]

1004
00:42:19,583 --> 00:42:20,708
He never looked
at another woman

1005
00:42:20,708 --> 00:42:23,041
besides his wife.

1006
00:42:23,041 --> 00:42:24,750
She was basically
a nice Jewish girl

1007
00:42:24,750 --> 00:42:26,250
from Long Island.

1008
00:42:26,250 --> 00:42:29,333
A very serious woman,
a very bright woman.

1009
00:42:29,333 --> 00:42:32,291
She was sort of
his in-house editor.

1010
00:42:32,291 --> 00:42:34,875
Sheila's the perfect wife.

1011
00:42:34,875 --> 00:42:37,375
[mellow music]

1012
00:42:41,250 --> 00:42:43,833
[Tom Wolfe] I have
a son named Tommy,

1013
00:42:43,833 --> 00:42:48,291
and, uh, my daughter,
Alexandra.

1014
00:42:48,291 --> 00:42:50,583
He was--his--he was always
so close to his parents.

1015
00:42:50,583 --> 00:42:52,916
I mean, he really
believed in family.

1016
00:42:54,791 --> 00:42:56,375
[Michael]
My sense was

1017
00:42:56,375 --> 00:42:58,333
he never dragged his family
into his professional life.

1018
00:42:58,333 --> 00:42:59,666
And I get a sense
he didn't drag

1019
00:42:59,666 --> 00:43:02,416
his professional life
into his family.

1020
00:43:02,416 --> 00:43:03,791
He was private.

1021
00:43:03,791 --> 00:43:05,583
You know, I think
that white suit,

1022
00:43:05,583 --> 00:43:08,500
that white suit
was this suit of armor.

1023
00:43:08,500 --> 00:43:11,791
He didn't really want
the world to know him.

1024
00:43:11,791 --> 00:43:13,458
He wanted to know the world.

1025
00:43:13,458 --> 00:43:15,333
It was a one-way relationship.

1026
00:43:16,458 --> 00:43:18,958
[ethereal music]

1027
00:43:27,250 --> 00:43:30,458
[Tom Wolfe] I was sent
by Rolling Stone magazine

1028
00:43:30,458 --> 00:43:31,708
down to Cape Canaveral

1029
00:43:31,708 --> 00:43:34,041
to do a story on
the launch of Apollo 17,

1030
00:43:34,041 --> 00:43:35,750
it was the last
mission to the Moon.

1031
00:43:35,750 --> 00:43:37,291
Just do a story
on the scene there

1032
00:43:37,291 --> 00:43:39,791
and all the crazy things
that were going on.

1033
00:43:39,791 --> 00:43:42,666
And suddenly,
I just began asking myself,

1034
00:43:42,666 --> 00:43:45,125
"What is the makeup
of these people who are

1035
00:43:45,125 --> 00:43:46,333
willing to sit
on top of a rocket

1036
00:43:46,333 --> 00:43:47,875
and let somebody
light the candle?

1037
00:43:47,875 --> 00:43:49,708
-[man] The fuse, yeah.
-The fuse, yeah.

1038
00:43:49,708 --> 00:43:51,291
[Mission Control countdown]
Thirty seconds and counting.

1039
00:43:51,291 --> 00:43:53,083
Astronauts report
it feels good.

1040
00:43:53,083 --> 00:43:55,750
Two minutes,
twenty-five seconds.

1041
00:43:57,958 --> 00:43:59,916
Twenty seconds and counting.

1042
00:44:01,708 --> 00:44:05,583
[unintelligible transmission]

1043
00:44:05,583 --> 00:44:08,666
All engines running.

1044
00:44:08,666 --> 00:44:10,208
[explosive roaring]

1045
00:44:10,208 --> 00:44:11,291
Liftoff!

1046
00:44:11,291 --> 00:44:12,708
We have a liftoff.

1047
00:44:12,708 --> 00:44:16,000
Thirty-two minutes
past the hour.

1048
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:17,791
[Tom Wolfe] One of
the most exciting parts

1049
00:44:17,791 --> 00:44:19,875
of the little voyage
of discovery that I was on

1050
00:44:19,875 --> 00:44:21,916
was to find out the truth.

1051
00:44:21,916 --> 00:44:24,916
[ethereal music]

1052
00:44:24,916 --> 00:44:27,083
I was gonna spend
two months writing it

1053
00:44:27,083 --> 00:44:30,458
and bring a book out
in the fall of 1973.

1054
00:44:30,458 --> 00:44:31,791
I then began to find out

1055
00:44:31,791 --> 00:44:36,291
how little I knew
about any of it.

1056
00:44:36,291 --> 00:44:38,791
[pensive music]

1057
00:44:48,500 --> 00:44:50,041
[Alex] For most of the '70s,

1058
00:44:50,041 --> 00:44:52,541
that's the book
that he worked on.

1059
00:44:52,541 --> 00:44:54,166
And he really struggled

1060
00:44:54,166 --> 00:44:56,041
and labored with
getting the story together.

1061
00:44:56,041 --> 00:44:58,041
As a matter of fact,
he was at a loss.

1062
00:44:58,041 --> 00:45:00,666
Wolfe, when he wrote,
was a bundle of anxiety.

1063
00:45:00,666 --> 00:45:02,708
He was capable of thinking,

1064
00:45:02,708 --> 00:45:04,625
"I'll never write
another good word again,"

1065
00:45:04,625 --> 00:45:07,208
and just suffering
all by himself.

1066
00:45:07,208 --> 00:45:08,541
The process of writing,

1067
00:45:08,541 --> 00:45:10,083
which some people
describe as a joy...

1068
00:45:10,083 --> 00:45:12,625
-Mm-hm.
-...has never been a joy to me.

1069
00:45:12,625 --> 00:45:13,958
It's agony,

1070
00:45:13,958 --> 00:45:15,416
and it is like having arthritis.

1071
00:45:15,416 --> 00:45:16,541
It hurts a little every day,

1072
00:45:16,541 --> 00:45:18,250
and every day,
when you wake up,

1073
00:45:18,250 --> 00:45:19,583
it's in the back of your mind

1074
00:45:19,583 --> 00:45:21,666
that you've gotta put
your feet in the stocks...

1075
00:45:21,666 --> 00:45:23,250
-Mm-hm.
-...and make yourself sit there

1076
00:45:23,250 --> 00:45:25,125
and turn out something.

1077
00:45:25,125 --> 00:45:28,958
[Gail] I mean,
Tom was in distress.

1078
00:45:28,958 --> 00:45:31,875
How do you write a story
for three years and then,

1079
00:45:31,875 --> 00:45:33,583
you haven't gotten
the right stuff,

1080
00:45:33,583 --> 00:45:35,541
and go on for
another four years,

1081
00:45:35,541 --> 00:45:37,625
and also feed your family,

1082
00:45:37,625 --> 00:45:40,125
and, you know, have a life?

1083
00:45:41,541 --> 00:45:43,208
The way he carried himself.

1084
00:45:43,208 --> 00:45:45,458
It goes back
to his Southern roots.

1085
00:45:47,458 --> 00:45:50,791
[Tom Wolfe] I am protective
of my Southern upbringing,

1086
00:45:50,791 --> 00:45:53,750
and this leads to a kind
of irrational attachment

1087
00:45:53,750 --> 00:45:56,125
to certain figures.

1088
00:45:56,125 --> 00:45:58,416
Somehow, that person,
in your mind,

1089
00:45:58,416 --> 00:46:01,250
is a champion
of what you believe in.

1090
00:46:03,833 --> 00:46:04,958
[Michael] The Right Stuff
was straight up,

1091
00:46:04,958 --> 00:46:06,333
"I love these people.

1092
00:46:06,333 --> 00:46:08,083
I know these people,
these people are me.

1093
00:46:08,083 --> 00:46:11,041
They're small-town boys
from the South."

1094
00:46:11,041 --> 00:46:12,583
That's the way
he kind of thought of them

1095
00:46:12,583 --> 00:46:13,625
in the first place, I think.

1096
00:46:13,625 --> 00:46:17,000
And, uh, he drops all that.

1097
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:20,666
[ominous music]

1098
00:46:20,666 --> 00:46:23,583
[Alex] Wolfe goes back
and really starts to focus

1099
00:46:23,583 --> 00:46:25,958
on the idea of status

1100
00:46:25,958 --> 00:46:27,791
really being at the heart of

1101
00:46:27,791 --> 00:46:30,666
what The Right Stuff is about.

1102
00:46:30,666 --> 00:46:32,416
[Michael] What ends up
being special about the story

1103
00:46:32,416 --> 00:46:35,000
is this disconnect between

1104
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:38,750
what the public perceived
the astronauts' job as

1105
00:46:38,750 --> 00:46:40,458
and what was
actually going on there.

1106
00:46:42,208 --> 00:46:43,708
It's about the upheaval

1107
00:46:43,708 --> 00:46:46,000
in the status structure
of fighter pilots

1108
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:48,583
when all of a sudden
they're in this capsule

1109
00:46:48,583 --> 00:46:49,958
that's controlled
by technocrats

1110
00:46:49,958 --> 00:46:51,708
and they don't
actually fly anything.

1111
00:46:53,208 --> 00:46:56,458
Uh, where you plannin'
on puttin' a window?

1112
00:46:56,458 --> 00:46:58,250
Window?
There's no window!

1113
00:46:58,250 --> 00:47:00,750
[dynamic rock music]

1114
00:47:03,416 --> 00:47:05,500
[breathing heavily]

1115
00:47:05,500 --> 00:47:07,208
[indistinct shout]

1116
00:47:07,208 --> 00:47:08,458
[soft roaring]

1117
00:47:08,458 --> 00:47:09,791
[Jon Hamm] The Right Stuff
was not bravery

1118
00:47:09,791 --> 00:47:11,416
in the simple sense
of being willing

1119
00:47:11,416 --> 00:47:13,458
to risk your life.

1120
00:47:13,458 --> 00:47:16,166
You were a lab animal
sealed in a pod.

1121
00:47:17,916 --> 00:47:21,041
Is anyone, um, likely
to be bitterly upset at you

1122
00:47:21,041 --> 00:47:22,500
over this book?

1123
00:47:22,500 --> 00:47:26,541
You've had a way of making
a few enemies along the way.

1124
00:47:26,541 --> 00:47:28,000
[Tom Brokaw] You let the
air out of these heroes.

1125
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:29,500
You brought 'em back
down to earth, so to speak,

1126
00:47:29,500 --> 00:47:30,708
the astronauts.

1127
00:47:30,708 --> 00:47:32,583
Was there any
resentment about that?

1128
00:47:32,583 --> 00:47:33,791
[Tom Wolfe] I have
two stereotypes:

1129
00:47:33,791 --> 00:47:35,125
They're either flying saints

1130
00:47:35,125 --> 00:47:37,041
or else they were robots.

1131
00:47:37,041 --> 00:47:40,416
And in fact, nothing could
be further from the truth.

1132
00:47:40,416 --> 00:47:42,916
[Jon Hamm] The girls had
been turning up at Pancho's

1133
00:47:42,916 --> 00:47:45,416
in amazing numbers.

1134
00:47:45,416 --> 00:47:48,500
They were moist labial
piping little birds

1135
00:47:48,500 --> 00:47:49,958
who had somehow learned

1136
00:47:49,958 --> 00:47:52,041
that at this strange place
in the Mojave Desert

1137
00:47:52,041 --> 00:47:55,625
lived the hottest
young pilots in the world.

1138
00:47:55,625 --> 00:47:58,958
It completed the picture
of pilot Heaven:

1139
00:47:58,958 --> 00:48:00,000
flying and drinking,

1140
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:01,125
drinking and driving,

1141
00:48:01,125 --> 00:48:02,916
driving and balling.

1142
00:48:02,916 --> 00:48:05,458
The pilots began calling
the old Fly-Inn Dude Ranch

1143
00:48:05,458 --> 00:48:08,958
Pancho's Happy Bottom
Riding Club.

1144
00:48:08,958 --> 00:48:10,625
And there you have it.

1145
00:48:10,625 --> 00:48:12,083
It completely changed

1146
00:48:12,083 --> 00:48:15,000
the way people
saw the astronauts.

1147
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:16,041
You find, no; actually,

1148
00:48:16,041 --> 00:48:18,083
this other
thing is going on

1149
00:48:18,083 --> 00:48:19,833
that is the story.

1150
00:48:19,833 --> 00:48:21,833
And the movie
delivers that message

1151
00:48:21,833 --> 00:48:23,583
in a different way.

1152
00:48:23,583 --> 00:48:26,083
[majestic music]

1153
00:48:28,625 --> 00:48:30,666
The world premiere of
the movie The Right Stuff

1154
00:48:30,666 --> 00:48:32,083
in Washington today

1155
00:48:32,083 --> 00:48:33,500
had just about everything except

1156
00:48:33,500 --> 00:48:35,666
Charles Lindbergh
and Betsy Ross.

1157
00:48:35,666 --> 00:48:38,541
Famed test pilot Chuck Yeager
and 11 other pilots

1158
00:48:38,541 --> 00:48:43,500
staged a fly-by of old,
military, and antique planes.

1159
00:48:43,500 --> 00:48:45,458
What did Yeager
think of the movie?

1160
00:48:45,458 --> 00:48:47,208
Story's real good
and it pretty well tells

1161
00:48:47,208 --> 00:48:48,875
what happened,
and the comradeship

1162
00:48:48,875 --> 00:48:50,875
of the guys, and so on.

1163
00:48:50,875 --> 00:48:53,375
[suspenseful music]

1164
00:48:55,625 --> 00:48:57,666
[applause, cheering]

1165
00:48:57,666 --> 00:48:59,833
[majestic music]

1166
00:48:59,833 --> 00:49:01,125
The winner is&

1167
00:49:02,791 --> 00:49:05,125
Bill Conti,
for The Right Stuff.

1168
00:49:05,125 --> 00:49:07,166
Jay Boekelheide
for The Right Stuff.

1169
00:49:07,166 --> 00:49:08,500
The Right Stuff.

1170
00:49:08,500 --> 00:49:09,750
Glenn Farr, Lisa Fruchtman,

1171
00:49:09,750 --> 00:49:11,583
Stephen A. Rotter,
Douglas Stewart, Tom Roff

1172
00:49:11,583 --> 00:49:13,250
for The Right Stuff.

1173
00:49:13,250 --> 00:49:15,750
[majestic music]

1174
00:49:20,416 --> 00:49:21,541
[Tom Brokaw] Very briefly,

1175
00:49:21,541 --> 00:49:23,583
what's the next
subject for Tom Wolfe?

1176
00:49:23,583 --> 00:49:24,875
I'm thinking of a kind of

1177
00:49:24,875 --> 00:49:26,541
a Vanity Fair book
about New York.

1178
00:49:26,541 --> 00:49:29,041
[Phil Collins, "Sussudio"]

1179
00:49:45,875 --> 00:49:51,208
♪ There's a girl
that's been on my mind ♪

1180
00:49:51,208 --> 00:49:53,500
♪ All the time, Sussudio ♪

1181
00:49:53,500 --> 00:49:55,625
[Tom Wolfe] These trading
rooms are wild,

1182
00:49:55,625 --> 00:49:57,708
and you hear this ungodly roar.

1183
00:49:57,708 --> 00:49:59,833
And so, I follow the sound

1184
00:49:59,833 --> 00:50:01,666
and I reach this enormous room,

1185
00:50:01,666 --> 00:50:04,916
and here are
200 to 300 young men,

1186
00:50:04,916 --> 00:50:07,291
sweating profusely
at 8:30 in the morning

1187
00:50:07,291 --> 00:50:09,750
with half-moons
under their armpits,

1188
00:50:09,750 --> 00:50:11,958
gesturing like maniacs,

1189
00:50:11,958 --> 00:50:13,541
swearing in a language,

1190
00:50:13,541 --> 00:50:15,250
I think it was Army Creole.

1191
00:50:15,250 --> 00:50:17,833
This was the sound
of young white men

1192
00:50:17,833 --> 00:50:19,791
baying for money
on the bond market.

1193
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:23,708
[indistinct chatter]

1194
00:50:23,708 --> 00:50:25,875
Before he published fiction,

1195
00:50:25,875 --> 00:50:30,083
he wrote essays
critical of fiction.

1196
00:50:30,083 --> 00:50:31,375
In writing this novel,

1197
00:50:31,375 --> 00:50:33,083
I am a novelist
but also a journalist.

1198
00:50:33,083 --> 00:50:34,291
That was one
of the important points

1199
00:50:34,291 --> 00:50:35,875
I wanted to prove,
which was that

1200
00:50:35,875 --> 00:50:37,916
the approach to the novel today

1201
00:50:37,916 --> 00:50:39,958
should be journalistic.

1202
00:50:40,916 --> 00:50:42,458
[dramatic music]

1203
00:50:42,458 --> 00:50:43,791
[Tom Wolfe]
I had been spouting off

1204
00:50:43,791 --> 00:50:46,291
about how great
we non-fiction writers were

1205
00:50:46,291 --> 00:50:48,083
and how mediocre
the novelists were,

1206
00:50:48,083 --> 00:50:49,875
so I did a rather rash thing

1207
00:50:49,875 --> 00:50:52,250
and I decided to try
a whole new genre.

1208
00:50:52,250 --> 00:50:53,916
[Ron] No one else
made that transition

1209
00:50:53,916 --> 00:50:57,708
from journalism to fiction
as dramatically as he did.

1210
00:50:57,708 --> 00:50:59,416
Wolfe is being
accused of everything

1211
00:50:59,416 --> 00:51:01,000
from ignorance to arrogance.

1212
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:02,125
He wants to make himself look

1213
00:51:02,125 --> 00:51:03,833
like the smartest guy
in the room.

1214
00:51:03,833 --> 00:51:05,833
It looks as if Tom Wolfe said

1215
00:51:05,833 --> 00:51:10,583
to the other male
American novelists,

1216
00:51:10,583 --> 00:51:12,458
"Mine is bigger than yours."

1217
00:51:14,333 --> 00:51:16,291
I thought, "Boy,
they're gonna kill him.

1218
00:51:16,291 --> 00:51:17,750
They're gonna say his novel--

1219
00:51:17,750 --> 00:51:19,833
I don't care if it's better
than War and Peace--

1220
00:51:19,833 --> 00:51:21,708
they're gonna say
it's terrible."

1221
00:51:21,708 --> 00:51:24,000
I wanted to show
that we are in a period

1222
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:28,000
in which a great many people
are driven by, really,

1223
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:30,000
this carnival of prosperity.

1224
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:31,333
Let's go, let's go!

1225
00:51:31,333 --> 00:51:33,208
Calm down, Rawlie.

1226
00:51:33,208 --> 00:51:34,875
Let's not get overexcited.

1227
00:51:34,875 --> 00:51:38,083
-Yes, Sherman, I'm sorry.
-Calm, cool, collated.

1228
00:51:38,083 --> 00:51:39,250
Let's not lose our composure

1229
00:51:39,250 --> 00:51:41,375
over a few hundred
million dollars.

1230
00:51:41,375 --> 00:51:43,958
Jesus Christ, Sherman,
you must be made of ice.

1231
00:51:43,958 --> 00:51:45,958
[mellow music]

1232
00:51:47,750 --> 00:51:49,500
[Bruce Willis] "Suddenly,
through the crowd, he saw her."

1233
00:51:49,500 --> 00:51:50,958
Excuse me.

1234
00:51:50,958 --> 00:51:52,625
[Bruce Willis] "He followed her
through the room,

1235
00:51:52,625 --> 00:51:55,500
past the grinning faces
full of boiling teeth,

1236
00:51:55,500 --> 00:51:57,125
past the conversational
bouquets,

1237
00:51:57,125 --> 00:52:00,958
past the impeccably emaciated
ladies of society,

1238
00:52:00,958 --> 00:52:03,875
the social x-ray women."

1239
00:52:03,875 --> 00:52:06,375
[dramatic music]

1240
00:52:07,375 --> 00:52:09,875
[suspenseful music]

1241
00:52:11,875 --> 00:52:13,833
[Michael] He seemed to be
describing exactly

1242
00:52:13,833 --> 00:52:14,916
New York as it was,

1243
00:52:14,916 --> 00:52:16,583
and it wasn't
any fiction at all.

1244
00:52:16,583 --> 00:52:17,875
When I was writing that book,

1245
00:52:17,875 --> 00:52:19,208
it was with
a spirit of wonderment.

1246
00:52:19,208 --> 00:52:20,208
I was saying,
"Look at these people!

1247
00:52:20,208 --> 00:52:21,291
Look at what they're doing!

1248
00:52:21,291 --> 00:52:22,708
Look at that one!
Look at that one!"

1249
00:52:22,708 --> 00:52:25,125
And it was only after
I'd finished and read it over

1250
00:52:25,125 --> 00:52:27,250
that I see that there is
a cumulative effect

1251
00:52:27,250 --> 00:52:29,708
that leads to
a novel without a hero.

1252
00:52:29,708 --> 00:52:32,375
[pensive music]

1253
00:52:32,375 --> 00:52:34,333
Large cities in the U.S.,

1254
00:52:34,333 --> 00:52:36,458
and I daresay
anywhere in the world,

1255
00:52:36,458 --> 00:52:37,750
you look around
and you don't see

1256
00:52:37,750 --> 00:52:39,541
lots of heroes,

1257
00:52:39,541 --> 00:52:43,125
lots of giants of principle.

1258
00:52:43,125 --> 00:52:47,041
That is the nature
of the metropolis.

1259
00:52:47,041 --> 00:52:50,250
Vanity operating
on all sides.

1260
00:52:50,250 --> 00:52:52,208
And I've seen it in the '80s

1261
00:52:52,208 --> 00:52:54,500
go right from Wall Street
to the South Bronx,

1262
00:52:54,500 --> 00:52:56,250
where I did
a lot of my research.

1263
00:52:56,250 --> 00:52:59,291
[tense music]

1264
00:52:59,291 --> 00:53:00,708
[Ron]
What he wants us to see is that

1265
00:53:00,708 --> 00:53:03,125
cities are big, complex things.

1266
00:53:03,125 --> 00:53:04,541
They're not just
what you experience

1267
00:53:04,541 --> 00:53:05,708
on your level.

1268
00:53:05,708 --> 00:53:08,125
You get a sense
of this great ladder

1269
00:53:08,125 --> 00:53:10,000
of American culture
that we're all on,

1270
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:12,208
moving up and down
all the time.

1271
00:53:12,208 --> 00:53:16,333
[Terry] He'd already taken
the fiction writer's tools

1272
00:53:16,333 --> 00:53:19,291
and, you know,
twisted them out.

1273
00:53:19,291 --> 00:53:21,125
He was now taking journalism

1274
00:53:21,125 --> 00:53:23,250
and torqueing it
back into fiction.

1275
00:53:25,208 --> 00:53:28,791
[Peter] It's an exaggerated
version of New York City

1276
00:53:28,791 --> 00:53:32,666
but that somehow captures
the essence more accurately

1277
00:53:32,666 --> 00:53:34,875
than a--than
an accurate version would.

1278
00:53:34,875 --> 00:53:36,375
Not only did he go
into writing novels,

1279
00:53:36,375 --> 00:53:38,041
he wrote
a very controversial novel.

1280
00:53:38,041 --> 00:53:40,125
You have no idea
how controversial it was

1281
00:53:40,125 --> 00:53:43,416
because of the way
it portrayed African Americans.

1282
00:53:43,416 --> 00:53:48,500
[Niall] Unlike most writers
from the United States,

1283
00:53:48,500 --> 00:53:53,708
Wolfe was unafraid to confront
the great taboo of race.

1284
00:53:53,708 --> 00:53:55,750
[soft, grim music]

1285
00:53:57,833 --> 00:53:59,958
[Jon Hamm] "All at once,
Sherman was aware of the figure

1286
00:53:59,958 --> 00:54:02,166
approaching him
on the sidewalk.

1287
00:54:02,166 --> 00:54:03,583
In the wet, black shadows

1288
00:54:03,583 --> 00:54:05,916
of the townhouses
and the trees,

1289
00:54:05,916 --> 00:54:08,708
even from 50 feet away
in the darkness,

1290
00:54:08,708 --> 00:54:10,916
he could tell.

1291
00:54:10,916 --> 00:54:13,208
It was that deep worry that
lives in the base of the skull

1292
00:54:13,208 --> 00:54:16,208
of every resident
south of 96th Street:

1293
00:54:16,208 --> 00:54:17,750
the Black youth,

1294
00:54:17,750 --> 00:54:21,625
tall, rangy,
wearing white sneakers."

1295
00:54:24,041 --> 00:54:25,583
[Jamal] I have problems
with the portrayals,

1296
00:54:25,583 --> 00:54:27,833
especially of stuff
that was going on

1297
00:54:27,833 --> 00:54:31,333
in the Black community
and the interaction between,

1298
00:54:31,333 --> 00:54:34,375
you know, Black and white
communities in that time.

1299
00:54:34,375 --> 00:54:36,125
Some narrative
and character problems

1300
00:54:36,125 --> 00:54:37,458
for me in that writing.

1301
00:54:37,458 --> 00:54:39,583
[funky music]

1302
00:54:39,583 --> 00:54:41,291
[reporter] "Despite his
devastating portrait

1303
00:54:41,291 --> 00:54:43,083
of the city and its people,

1304
00:54:43,083 --> 00:54:45,833
many New Yorkers say his novel
has defined their city

1305
00:54:45,833 --> 00:54:48,000
as no other has."

1306
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:49,166
When it came out,

1307
00:54:49,166 --> 00:54:51,333
it was kind of like
front-page news.

1308
00:54:51,333 --> 00:54:53,000
It felt like
everybody was reading it.

1309
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:54,375
I can remember it myself.

1310
00:54:54,375 --> 00:54:55,500
Special segment tonight:

1311
00:54:55,500 --> 00:54:58,000
Tom Wolfe,
the dandy with the sharp eye

1312
00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:00,291
and the unerring feel
for the phrase.

1313
00:55:00,291 --> 00:55:02,166
America's pre-eminent
writer of nonfiction

1314
00:55:02,166 --> 00:55:04,583
has just taken his first plunge
into the world of the novel.

1315
00:55:04,583 --> 00:55:06,333
His first novel,
right here, entitled...

1316
00:55:06,333 --> 00:55:08,166
"The Bonfire of the Vanities."

1317
00:55:08,166 --> 00:55:10,333
[Reporter] "The novel's
highly favorable reviews

1318
00:55:10,333 --> 00:55:12,708
match its staggering
sales figures.

1319
00:55:12,708 --> 00:55:14,541
His publisher says
Wolfe will make

1320
00:55:14,541 --> 00:55:17,750
$3 million,
maybe $4 million."

1321
00:55:17,750 --> 00:55:19,500
Now, you sold the rights
of this thing off

1322
00:55:19,500 --> 00:55:22,208
for huge sums of money,
I'm guessing, big dough.

1323
00:55:22,208 --> 00:55:24,166
Was this your biggest
film sale to date?

1324
00:55:24,166 --> 00:55:25,583
-Yes.
-Yeah, I would think so.

1325
00:55:25,583 --> 00:55:26,875
-By a long ways.
-Good for you.

1326
00:55:26,875 --> 00:55:28,083
People are always saying,
"Aren't you afraid

1327
00:55:28,083 --> 00:55:31,083
they're going to ruin
your book?"

1328
00:55:31,083 --> 00:55:32,791
A worse thing can happen,

1329
00:55:32,791 --> 00:55:35,083
and that is
if the movie is better.

1330
00:55:35,083 --> 00:55:36,750
Yeah, well, I don't know.

1331
00:55:36,750 --> 00:55:38,416
I have a feeling
about this one.

1332
00:55:38,416 --> 00:55:39,625
I don't know,
I think it would take

1333
00:55:39,625 --> 00:55:41,208
a great deal of effort
on their part

1334
00:55:41,208 --> 00:55:43,250
to make it better
than this book, you know?

1335
00:55:43,250 --> 00:55:44,333
I don't think
that's gonna happen.

1336
00:55:44,333 --> 00:55:45,541
Thank you.

1337
00:55:47,083 --> 00:55:48,083
Just drive! Just drive!

1338
00:55:48,083 --> 00:55:49,708
Damn! Open the door!

1339
00:55:49,708 --> 00:55:50,875
-Hey!
-Arggh!

1340
00:55:50,875 --> 00:55:52,833
Get away, get away,
get away, get away!

1341
00:55:52,833 --> 00:55:55,333
[music ends abruptly]

1342
00:55:56,791 --> 00:55:58,500
What the hell happened

1343
00:55:58,500 --> 00:56:00,625
with Bonfire of the Vanities?

1344
00:56:00,625 --> 00:56:02,666
Well, it's almost
the classic Hollywood story

1345
00:56:02,666 --> 00:56:04,666
in that I had a movie

1346
00:56:04,666 --> 00:56:07,208
that had a kind of
a large budget.

1347
00:56:07,208 --> 00:56:08,916
So I thought, "Well,
how am I gonna make this

1348
00:56:08,916 --> 00:56:12,541
big, kind of expansive
Bonfire of the Vanities?"

1349
00:56:12,541 --> 00:56:13,958
Consequently,

1350
00:56:13,958 --> 00:56:16,666
I completely violated
the text of the book.

1351
00:56:16,666 --> 00:56:18,250
[Tom Wolfe]
It was so bad, that, uh...

1352
00:56:18,250 --> 00:56:20,458
[audience laughter]

1353
00:56:20,458 --> 00:56:23,958
...I think it's lost about
$97 million, $98 million.

1354
00:56:23,958 --> 00:56:26,083
[applause]

1355
00:56:26,083 --> 00:56:27,416
[TV correspondent]
Tom Wolfe,

1356
00:56:27,416 --> 00:56:29,583
probably the best-known
writer in the country,

1357
00:56:29,583 --> 00:56:33,708
is drawing standing room
only audiences these days.

1358
00:56:33,708 --> 00:56:36,000
With his super-eclectic
writing style

1359
00:56:36,000 --> 00:56:39,416
and that wardrobe of
custom-tailored white suits,

1360
00:56:39,416 --> 00:56:41,791
who is this--this dandy?

1361
00:56:41,791 --> 00:56:44,291
[melodramatic music]

1362
00:56:48,375 --> 00:56:50,958
By that point in time,
everybody knew who he was.

1363
00:56:50,958 --> 00:56:55,000
[Alex Trebek] Found in
a 1970 Tom Wolfe book title,

1364
00:56:55,000 --> 00:56:56,333
"What is a radical?"

1365
00:56:56,333 --> 00:56:58,583
And that is
the correct response.

1366
00:56:58,583 --> 00:56:59,833
It's Tom Wolfe!

1367
00:56:59,833 --> 00:57:01,750
He uses more exclamation points

1368
00:57:01,750 --> 00:57:04,041
than any other
major American writer.

1369
00:57:04,041 --> 00:57:05,041
It's true!

1370
00:57:05,041 --> 00:57:07,416
[shutter-like snapping sound]

1371
00:57:14,083 --> 00:57:17,250
[Tom] Given the amazing
success that he had,

1372
00:57:17,250 --> 00:57:20,625
I think that it
impacted him negatively.

1373
00:57:20,625 --> 00:57:23,750
[woman] You've, uh,
spent much of your career

1374
00:57:23,750 --> 00:57:27,250
looking at the personal lives
of other people.

1375
00:57:27,250 --> 00:57:28,750
I was wondering
if you've had a chance

1376
00:57:28,750 --> 00:57:30,166
to have any personal life,

1377
00:57:30,166 --> 00:57:33,333
or if it's--your life
has been your work.

1378
00:57:33,333 --> 00:57:36,541
When I look at my personal life,

1379
00:57:36,541 --> 00:57:38,291
sometimes, I feel
very, very sad.

1380
00:57:38,291 --> 00:57:40,708
Working, or making believe
that I'm working,

1381
00:57:40,708 --> 00:57:42,958
or finding ways
to avoid working,

1382
00:57:42,958 --> 00:57:45,833
and that's really
about the only thing

1383
00:57:45,833 --> 00:57:47,750
that I tend to do.

1384
00:57:47,750 --> 00:57:50,250
[typewriter keys clacking]

1385
00:57:53,083 --> 00:57:56,708
Tom was such
a unique individual.

1386
00:57:56,708 --> 00:58:00,166
I wondered how fame shaped him.

1387
00:58:00,166 --> 00:58:01,291
[Michael]
Wolfe gets trapped

1388
00:58:01,291 --> 00:58:04,125
by this persona
that he created.

1389
00:58:04,125 --> 00:58:06,500
The obligation
to be a character

1390
00:58:06,500 --> 00:58:09,208
as well as just a writer

1391
00:58:09,208 --> 00:58:10,541
is a bad business.

1392
00:58:12,083 --> 00:58:13,916
He was such a performer.

1393
00:58:13,916 --> 00:58:15,291
He was not just Tom Wolfe.

1394
00:58:15,291 --> 00:58:16,750
He was playing Tom Wolfe.

1395
00:58:16,750 --> 00:58:17,750
[Gay]
He said this:

1396
00:58:17,750 --> 00:58:19,458
"When I walk in a room,

1397
00:58:19,458 --> 00:58:21,625
I want to be noticed."

1398
00:58:21,625 --> 00:58:25,708
All of that was
the facade of being Tom Wolfe.

1399
00:58:27,166 --> 00:58:29,416
He must have felt it
as an obligation

1400
00:58:29,416 --> 00:58:31,333
to be a personality.

1401
00:58:31,333 --> 00:58:33,416
When he wasn't
really a personality.

1402
00:58:33,416 --> 00:58:36,250
It created certain pressures
in his existence

1403
00:58:36,250 --> 00:58:38,083
he never fully resolved.

1404
00:58:38,083 --> 00:58:39,458
Now let's welcome...

1405
00:58:39,458 --> 00:58:41,083
...one of the most talked-about
and one of the most brilliant...

1406
00:58:41,083 --> 00:58:42,500
-Fascinating...
-Influential...

1407
00:58:42,500 --> 00:58:44,541
...American writers
of his generation.

1408
00:58:44,541 --> 00:58:45,791
Here now is Tom Wolfe.

1409
00:58:45,791 --> 00:58:48,791
[pastiche of male voices
saying "Tom Wolfe"]

1410
00:58:48,791 --> 00:58:50,500
[male host] Tom Wolfe,
ladies and gentlemen.

1411
00:58:50,500 --> 00:58:52,583
[audience cheering, applauding]

1412
00:58:54,500 --> 00:58:57,000
[eerie music stops abruptly]

1413
00:58:58,416 --> 00:59:01,000
[indistinct remarks]

1414
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:04,208
[soft breathing,
medical equipment beeping]

1415
00:59:04,208 --> 00:59:05,208
[dark music]

1416
00:59:05,208 --> 00:59:06,916
[faint sound of heartbeat]

1417
00:59:06,916 --> 00:59:09,875
[man] Well, I remember
being stunned to hear

1418
00:59:09,875 --> 00:59:12,541
that he had had a heart attack.

1419
00:59:12,541 --> 00:59:15,750
[medical equipment beeping]

1420
00:59:15,750 --> 00:59:17,166
[woman] His father
had a heart attack

1421
00:59:17,166 --> 00:59:19,000
and died at the same age.

1422
00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:22,208
[medical equipment beeping,
muffled voice speaking]

1423
00:59:24,625 --> 00:59:31,000
[man] A quintuple bypass event
is a reminder of mortality.

1424
00:59:32,916 --> 00:59:34,416
[Tom Wolfe]
I had a, shall I say,

1425
00:59:34,416 --> 00:59:37,958
soul-jolting experience
having a heart attack

1426
00:59:37,958 --> 00:59:42,416
and having a quintuple bypass

1427
00:59:42,416 --> 00:59:46,500
and all of the emotional
trauma that can follow

1428
00:59:46,500 --> 00:59:48,333
that sort of operation.

1429
00:59:50,041 --> 00:59:53,750
He did, as many people
who have open-heart surgery do,

1430
00:59:53,750 --> 00:59:56,875
he did go into
a depression for a while.

1431
00:59:56,875 --> 00:59:59,916
You sank into a depression.

1432
00:59:59,916 --> 01:00:01,250
-[Tom Wolfe] I did.
-A depression!

1433
01:00:01,250 --> 01:00:03,166
[somber music]

1434
01:00:04,666 --> 01:00:06,750
[Tom Wolfe]
After the bypass operation,

1435
01:00:06,750 --> 01:00:08,875
you're thinking sort of,
"My God,

1436
01:00:08,875 --> 01:00:11,125
I'm so mortal,
it's not funny any longer."

1437
01:00:18,208 --> 01:00:19,333
I felt so bad.

1438
01:00:19,333 --> 01:00:20,791
I'd never had
a depression before.

1439
01:00:20,791 --> 01:00:24,250
Uh, I called up
a friend of mine,

1440
01:00:24,250 --> 01:00:27,291
Paul McHugh, who's the head
of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins.

1441
01:00:27,291 --> 01:00:30,791
Tom was very concerned
about how the depression

1442
01:00:30,791 --> 01:00:33,583
and the coronary disease

1443
01:00:33,583 --> 01:00:35,666
might deprive him
of the very things

1444
01:00:35,666 --> 01:00:38,458
that made him
the writer he was.

1445
01:00:38,458 --> 01:00:40,458
[solemn music]

1446
01:00:42,500 --> 01:00:45,041
[Tom Wolfe] He would call me
at least once a day,

1447
01:00:45,041 --> 01:00:46,875
and many times,
five and six times a day,

1448
01:00:46,875 --> 01:00:49,000
according to how
I seemed to be doing.

1449
01:00:51,083 --> 01:00:53,208
[Paul] I wanted
to help him become

1450
01:00:53,208 --> 01:00:55,625
the kind of person he was.

1451
01:00:55,625 --> 01:00:58,583
He himself wondered
whether he could make it back.

1452
01:00:58,583 --> 01:01:01,083
[solemn music]

1453
01:01:05,208 --> 01:01:08,958
[Tom Wolfe] Count how many days
you think you have left.

1454
01:01:08,958 --> 01:01:13,375
It's grimly small
that--that number.

1455
01:01:13,375 --> 01:01:17,500
It's quite humbling, um,

1456
01:01:17,500 --> 01:01:21,666
to know that despite
all of your aspirations,

1457
01:01:21,666 --> 01:01:22,875
and all of your dreams,

1458
01:01:22,875 --> 01:01:25,000
and all of the talents
you think you have,

1459
01:01:25,000 --> 01:01:27,708
uh, you're made of clay.

1460
01:01:27,708 --> 01:01:30,000
[upbeat, jazzy music]

1461
01:01:33,041 --> 01:01:35,000
[cameras' shutters snapping]

1462
01:01:38,958 --> 01:01:40,166
[indistinct chatter, laughter]

1463
01:01:40,166 --> 01:01:42,083
No matter what
you're confronted with,

1464
01:01:42,083 --> 01:01:44,083
including death,

1465
01:01:44,083 --> 01:01:46,125
you are going to be affected.

1466
01:01:48,750 --> 01:01:52,458
I've experienced
some rather nice changes.

1467
01:01:55,416 --> 01:01:58,916
[reporter] A Man in Full became
the bestselling book in America

1468
01:01:58,916 --> 01:02:02,083
only two days
after it went on sale.

1469
01:02:02,083 --> 01:02:04,125
Wolfe's new book places Atlanta

1470
01:02:04,125 --> 01:02:06,250
and the new
Southern aristocracy

1471
01:02:06,250 --> 01:02:08,125
under his microscope.

1472
01:02:09,833 --> 01:02:11,625
It took 11 years
to write this book.

1473
01:02:11,625 --> 01:02:15,541
-I'm afraid so.
-And now, 742 pages later...

1474
01:02:15,541 --> 01:02:17,000
I figured
I'd better make it long.

1475
01:02:17,000 --> 01:02:18,583
There were lines
around the block

1476
01:02:18,583 --> 01:02:19,875
at bookstores in Atlanta.

1477
01:02:19,875 --> 01:02:21,208
There were stories
in The New York Times

1478
01:02:21,208 --> 01:02:22,541
about the lines
around the block

1479
01:02:22,541 --> 01:02:23,791
in the bookstores in Atlanta,

1480
01:02:23,791 --> 01:02:26,750
'cause no one had
ever seen one before.

1481
01:02:26,750 --> 01:02:29,416
A Man in Full was
the biggest novel

1482
01:02:29,416 --> 01:02:31,583
of my life at that time.

1483
01:02:31,583 --> 01:02:33,708
Remember, it's a finalist
for the National Book Award

1484
01:02:33,708 --> 01:02:35,083
even before it's published.

1485
01:02:35,083 --> 01:02:37,333
It was on the bestseller
list for weeks.

1486
01:02:37,333 --> 01:02:41,291
Tom was the most famous writer
in the United States,

1487
01:02:41,291 --> 01:02:43,375
'cause he got
all this publicity.

1488
01:02:43,375 --> 01:02:44,541
[Morley Safer]
A new Wolfe book

1489
01:02:44,541 --> 01:02:48,250
is both a cultural
and social event.

1490
01:02:48,250 --> 01:02:49,625
[Tom Wolfe]
"It was Friday evening,

1491
01:02:49,625 --> 01:02:52,125
and the Master of Turpentine,
Charlie Croker,

1492
01:02:52,125 --> 01:02:53,250
was presiding over dinner

1493
01:02:53,250 --> 01:02:55,125
at the burled
Tupelo maple table

1494
01:02:55,125 --> 01:02:56,916
that Ronald Vine,
the decorator,

1495
01:02:56,916 --> 01:02:58,416
had devised for the gun room.

1496
01:02:58,416 --> 01:03:01,208
He was only 44
but already running to fat.

1497
01:03:01,208 --> 01:03:02,833
His head popped up
out of his blazer

1498
01:03:02,833 --> 01:03:04,875
and his polo shirt
like a bubble.

1499
01:03:04,875 --> 01:03:07,125
His skin was pallid and pasty.

1500
01:03:07,125 --> 01:03:09,750
A few strands of hair
the color of orange juice stains

1501
01:03:09,750 --> 01:03:13,041
skimmed back across
his otherwise-bald pate."

1502
01:03:13,041 --> 01:03:16,083
We're heading towards
a total eclipse of all values.

1503
01:03:16,083 --> 01:03:17,250
Now, don't get me wrong.

1504
01:03:17,250 --> 01:03:18,708
As a writer,

1505
01:03:18,708 --> 01:03:20,166
I'm perfectly delighted

1506
01:03:20,166 --> 01:03:22,625
for things to remain
the way they are.

1507
01:03:22,625 --> 01:03:26,000
I mean, the human comedy
has never been richer.

1508
01:03:26,000 --> 01:03:28,083
I thought A Man in Full
was magnificent.

1509
01:03:28,083 --> 01:03:29,208
I mean, there are
scenes in that

1510
01:03:29,208 --> 01:03:30,708
where they're just spectacular.

1511
01:03:30,708 --> 01:03:34,041
Very complex,
very funny, very moving.

1512
01:03:34,041 --> 01:03:37,458
Huge characters, huge scenes.

1513
01:03:37,458 --> 01:03:41,333
[Tom Wolfe] There is no way
to understand individuals

1514
01:03:41,333 --> 01:03:44,375
without understanding
the society around them.

1515
01:03:44,375 --> 01:03:46,166
So it sold a gazillion copies,

1516
01:03:46,166 --> 01:03:49,083
but it got trashed
by all kinds of famous writers.

1517
01:03:49,083 --> 01:03:51,000
Talk about creating a furor.

1518
01:03:51,000 --> 01:03:53,166
You--you've been in
a bit of a catfight

1519
01:03:53,166 --> 01:03:56,458
with John Irving,
Norman Mailer, and John Updike.

1520
01:03:56,458 --> 01:03:58,833
It has gotten nasty
with you guys.

1521
01:03:58,833 --> 01:04:00,583
This, actually,
from my point of view,

1522
01:04:00,583 --> 01:04:02,458
it's kind of been fun.

1523
01:04:02,458 --> 01:04:05,916
Wolfe's novel had
a kind of whipped-up,

1524
01:04:05,916 --> 01:04:07,875
overblown quality.

1525
01:04:07,875 --> 01:04:10,291
I guess if I resent anything,

1526
01:04:10,291 --> 01:04:14,375
I kind of resented
the time it took me to read

1527
01:04:14,375 --> 01:04:15,916
A Man in Full.

1528
01:04:15,916 --> 01:04:18,875
Tom Wolfe called John Irving,
John Updike, and myself

1529
01:04:18,875 --> 01:04:20,458
"the Three Stooges."

1530
01:04:20,458 --> 01:04:22,500
[man] If we had a copy
of any Tom Wolfe book here,

1531
01:04:22,500 --> 01:04:24,666
I could read you a sentence
that would make me gag.

1532
01:04:24,666 --> 01:04:26,000
I don't know
what it would do to you,

1533
01:04:26,000 --> 01:04:27,250
but it would make me gag.

1534
01:04:27,250 --> 01:04:29,375
If I were teaching
fucking freshman English,

1535
01:04:29,375 --> 01:04:30,666
I couldn't read that sentence

1536
01:04:30,666 --> 01:04:32,416
and not just carve it all up.

1537
01:04:32,416 --> 01:04:34,208
They just didn't
like the fact

1538
01:04:34,208 --> 01:04:35,666
that this book, A Man in Full,

1539
01:04:35,666 --> 01:04:39,208
had sold 1.4 million
copies in hardcover.

1540
01:04:39,208 --> 01:04:41,208
You know,
that couldn't be literature

1541
01:04:41,208 --> 01:04:44,625
if it--if it sold that much.

1542
01:04:44,625 --> 01:04:48,708
But I tell you,
literary spats are fun.

1543
01:04:48,708 --> 01:04:51,791
It makes you realize
you're alive in the morning.

1544
01:04:51,791 --> 01:04:54,333
[bright music]

1545
01:04:54,333 --> 01:04:56,750
[keys clacking]

1546
01:04:58,416 --> 01:05:02,583
He just kept going.

1547
01:05:05,583 --> 01:05:09,291
[Christopher] No one turns out
masterpiece after masterpiece,

1548
01:05:09,291 --> 01:05:10,666
and I think that's probably

1549
01:05:10,666 --> 01:05:15,125
a sad realization
for great writers.

1550
01:05:15,125 --> 01:05:19,625
But what's noble about it
is that they go on,

1551
01:05:19,625 --> 01:05:22,208
they are writers to the end.

1552
01:05:24,500 --> 01:05:28,375
I think there was
bound to be a problem

1553
01:05:28,375 --> 01:05:32,375
with big, long books
after a certain point

1554
01:05:32,375 --> 01:05:35,666
in the age of
weapons of mass distraction.

1555
01:05:35,666 --> 01:05:39,083
And the books
became less impactful

1556
01:05:39,083 --> 01:05:42,250
with each novel.

1557
01:05:42,250 --> 01:05:44,625
Whatever's taking place
is taking place,

1558
01:05:44,625 --> 01:05:46,583
and America's
paying attention to it

1559
01:05:46,583 --> 01:05:48,041
how America pays
attention to it.

1560
01:05:48,041 --> 01:05:50,291
And nobody was
reading Tom Wolfe.

1561
01:05:52,333 --> 01:05:54,000
[Christopher]
His last two novels,

1562
01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:57,791
one was on sexual harassment
on a college campus.

1563
01:05:57,791 --> 01:06:00,750
I cannot believe I'm seeing
the sophisticated Tom Wolfe.

1564
01:06:00,750 --> 01:06:04,541
It's like, "There are
children living in sin!"

1565
01:06:04,541 --> 01:06:06,541
Well, I'm afraid--
I'm afraid I was.

1566
01:06:06,541 --> 01:06:09,125
[wistful music]

1567
01:06:09,125 --> 01:06:14,750
He thought he could
make up for the 50 years

1568
01:06:14,750 --> 01:06:16,833
between him and the people
he was writing about

1569
01:06:16,833 --> 01:06:19,250
with a lot of anthropology

1570
01:06:19,250 --> 01:06:22,125
and a lot of
research and journalism.

1571
01:06:22,125 --> 01:06:25,541
But it felt really phony.

1572
01:06:25,541 --> 01:06:28,250
You know, he clearly
was just so excited

1573
01:06:28,250 --> 01:06:32,708
to be able to use these words
like "dormcest" and "sexiled."

1574
01:06:34,666 --> 01:06:36,416
With every new novel,

1575
01:06:36,416 --> 01:06:38,333
it became a little bit
less successful,

1576
01:06:38,333 --> 01:06:40,833
a little bit less esteemed.

1577
01:06:40,833 --> 01:06:44,125
But, you know, he was
still a writer who said things

1578
01:06:44,125 --> 01:06:45,541
that people had not yet said.

1579
01:06:47,583 --> 01:06:51,041
[Niall] Very few other people
wrote about the academic world,

1580
01:06:51,041 --> 01:06:53,291
or indeed, more generally
about American society,

1581
01:06:53,291 --> 01:06:56,333
with that kind of
clarity of vision.

1582
01:06:56,333 --> 01:06:59,416
Charlotte Simmons
and Back to Blood,

1583
01:06:59,416 --> 01:07:02,958
I don't think
they're his best works.

1584
01:07:02,958 --> 01:07:05,916
But they say
that a genius hits a target

1585
01:07:05,916 --> 01:07:08,208
no one else can see.

1586
01:07:08,208 --> 01:07:09,833
And I think Back to Blood,

1587
01:07:09,833 --> 01:07:12,541
which is on
the subject of immigration,

1588
01:07:12,541 --> 01:07:16,083
it speaks to Tom's, you know,
fundamental prescience.

1589
01:07:16,083 --> 01:07:18,375
He had his finger
on the nation's pulse.

1590
01:07:21,750 --> 01:07:24,625
At 85, the white-suited
Tom Wolfe is still

1591
01:07:24,625 --> 01:07:26,250
stalking big game,

1592
01:07:26,250 --> 01:07:27,666
but this book
is a bit different,

1593
01:07:27,666 --> 01:07:29,666
a history lesson
mixed with a return

1594
01:07:29,666 --> 01:07:31,458
to his roots in journalism.

1595
01:07:31,458 --> 01:07:32,583
In his latest book,

1596
01:07:32,583 --> 01:07:35,250
Wolfe argues speech,
not evolution,

1597
01:07:35,250 --> 01:07:38,458
is responsible for humanity's
highest achievements.

1598
01:07:38,458 --> 01:07:40,708
He skewers the man
who introduced evolution

1599
01:07:40,708 --> 01:07:42,916
to the masses, Charles Darwin,

1600
01:07:42,916 --> 01:07:46,000
along with famed linguist
Noam Chomsky.

1601
01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:47,666
If you look at everything
he's written,

1602
01:07:47,666 --> 01:07:49,166
every book bothered somebody,

1603
01:07:49,166 --> 01:07:50,833
and that's what's good about it.

1604
01:07:50,833 --> 01:07:52,458
[soft music]

1605
01:07:52,458 --> 01:07:55,791
He wasn't afraid
of the controversy.

1606
01:07:55,791 --> 01:07:57,750
He said, "If that's
the way the facts are,

1607
01:07:57,750 --> 01:07:59,833
that's the way
I'm gonna tell the story."

1608
01:07:59,833 --> 01:08:02,375
It is bold and, I think,
some would say very dangerous

1609
01:08:02,375 --> 01:08:05,083
to say that Darwinism
and evolution is a myth.

1610
01:08:05,083 --> 01:08:08,250
Well, I think a lot of people
are gonna agree with me!

1611
01:08:08,250 --> 01:08:10,250
[pensive music]

1612
01:08:12,208 --> 01:08:15,875
[Michael] He sat in a very
uncomfortable intersection

1613
01:08:15,875 --> 01:08:20,333
between red America,
blue America, left and right.

1614
01:08:20,333 --> 01:08:23,625
He avoided being
too closely identified

1615
01:08:23,625 --> 01:08:28,250
with any kind of
political ideology.

1616
01:08:28,250 --> 01:08:29,791
[Tom Wolfe]  I've never
backed the Democratic Party

1617
01:08:29,791 --> 01:08:31,958
or the Republican Party.

1618
01:08:31,958 --> 01:08:34,000
Sure, I'm...

1619
01:08:34,000 --> 01:08:36,500
There are certain things
I do care about politically.

1620
01:08:36,500 --> 01:08:41,708
I care tremendously
about freedom of expression.

1621
01:08:41,708 --> 01:08:45,791
I will always be willing

1622
01:08:45,791 --> 01:08:47,041
to do what I can
to preserve that,

1623
01:08:47,041 --> 01:08:49,375
which I think, fortunately,

1624
01:08:49,375 --> 01:08:51,125
there is still great
freedom of expression

1625
01:08:51,125 --> 01:08:52,333
in the United States.

1626
01:08:52,333 --> 01:08:54,416
[pensive music]

1627
01:08:54,416 --> 01:08:56,041
[Christopher] I think
it would be a lot harder

1628
01:08:56,041 --> 01:09:00,750
for Tom Wolfe to do
what he did now.

1629
01:09:00,750 --> 01:09:02,708
It's almost impossible
for someone to do

1630
01:09:02,708 --> 01:09:04,958
what Tom Wolfe did
in our society today.

1631
01:09:04,958 --> 01:09:05,958
It's been impossible,
I would say,

1632
01:09:05,958 --> 01:09:08,416
for probably close to 40 years.

1633
01:09:10,125 --> 01:09:11,416
[Michael]
Any of the places

1634
01:09:11,416 --> 01:09:13,666
that Tom Wolfe published for
in his heyday

1635
01:09:13,666 --> 01:09:16,083
would not be able to publish
pieces by him today,

1636
01:09:16,083 --> 01:09:18,375
because he would just
piss too many people off.

1637
01:09:20,750 --> 01:09:22,083
[Jeff]
Is this the last book?

1638
01:09:22,083 --> 01:09:25,166
To be honest,
I have only five more planned.

1639
01:09:25,166 --> 01:09:26,166
Uh&

1640
01:09:26,166 --> 01:09:27,166
[chuckling]

1641
01:09:27,166 --> 01:09:28,500
One is coming up,

1642
01:09:28,500 --> 01:09:30,833
it's on political correctness.

1643
01:09:30,833 --> 01:09:32,250
Which I think is
the funniest subject

1644
01:09:32,250 --> 01:09:33,666
in a long time.

1645
01:09:36,250 --> 01:09:37,791
[Michael] The strange thing
in is his life

1646
01:09:37,791 --> 01:09:41,000
is that while,
every now and then,

1647
01:09:41,000 --> 01:09:43,666
someone would challenge him
in a review

1648
01:09:43,666 --> 01:09:45,583
on political grounds,

1649
01:09:45,583 --> 01:09:47,833
most of the New York
literary establishment

1650
01:09:47,833 --> 01:09:48,916
just loved him.

1651
01:09:48,916 --> 01:09:50,958
They loved him personally,

1652
01:09:50,958 --> 01:09:52,875
they loved what he wrote,

1653
01:09:52,875 --> 01:09:53,875
and they kind of thought

1654
01:09:53,875 --> 01:09:55,583
whatever his
political views were

1655
01:09:55,583 --> 01:09:56,791
as beside the point,

1656
01:09:56,791 --> 01:09:59,208
and I kinda think they were.

1657
01:09:59,208 --> 01:10:01,833
I'm 86,

1658
01:10:01,833 --> 01:10:04,500
and you lose your friends.

1659
01:10:04,500 --> 01:10:05,500
They die,

1660
01:10:05,500 --> 01:10:08,125
or they're unable to come out.

1661
01:10:08,125 --> 01:10:11,375
They're confined
because of their illness.

1662
01:10:11,375 --> 01:10:14,541
And I remember when Tom
was not moving very well.

1663
01:10:14,541 --> 01:10:16,500
This elegant man
would later on,

1664
01:10:16,500 --> 01:10:17,916
because of
the curvature of his spine,

1665
01:10:17,916 --> 01:10:19,291
the illness that he had

1666
01:10:19,291 --> 01:10:21,416
in the last few years
of his life,

1667
01:10:21,416 --> 01:10:23,708
it never seemed
to make an impression on him

1668
01:10:23,708 --> 01:10:25,250
in a negative way.

1669
01:10:25,250 --> 01:10:27,916
[pensive music]

1670
01:10:27,916 --> 01:10:29,583
Junior Johnson!

1671
01:10:29,583 --> 01:10:30,708
As I live and breathe.

1672
01:10:30,708 --> 01:10:31,750
Tom Wolfe!

1673
01:10:31,750 --> 01:10:32,958
How you been gettin' along?

1674
01:10:32,958 --> 01:10:35,000
Well, not badly, not badly.

1675
01:10:35,000 --> 01:10:37,083
-I'm still vertical.
-Right.

1676
01:10:37,083 --> 01:10:40,416
-That's half the battle.
-That's true, that's true.

1677
01:10:40,416 --> 01:10:41,791
He was one tough motherfucker.

1678
01:10:41,791 --> 01:10:44,333
Whatever he had to do,
he would do it.

1679
01:10:44,333 --> 01:10:46,625
Great sense of self.

1680
01:10:46,625 --> 01:10:48,750
He was Tom Wolfe.

1681
01:10:48,750 --> 01:10:50,916
[soft music]

1682
01:10:55,500 --> 01:10:57,208
Author and journalist Tom Wolfe

1683
01:10:57,208 --> 01:10:59,875
has died at a hospital
here in New York.

1684
01:10:59,875 --> 01:11:02,000
[newscaster speaking German]

1685
01:11:04,291 --> 01:11:06,625
[newscaster speaking French]

1686
01:11:08,375 --> 01:11:10,375
[newscaster speaking Spanish]

1687
01:11:11,875 --> 01:11:14,166
[newscaster speaking Spanish]

1688
01:11:15,625 --> 01:11:18,166
[contemplative music]

1689
01:11:25,708 --> 01:11:28,250
[Ron] We just don't have
figures like that anymore.

1690
01:11:28,250 --> 01:11:32,833
There are no journalists
that huge anymore.

1691
01:11:32,833 --> 01:11:35,416
What he did was just
fundamentally different

1692
01:11:35,416 --> 01:11:39,625
because of how grandiose he was.

1693
01:11:43,041 --> 01:11:44,583
[Alexandra] I think that
he should be remembered

1694
01:11:44,583 --> 01:11:48,333
not only for his work
and the books that he wrote

1695
01:11:48,333 --> 01:11:50,375
but for his courage.

1696
01:11:53,125 --> 01:11:57,666
I think Tom Wolfe's
novels will last

1697
01:11:57,666 --> 01:12:01,625
and will be rediscovered
at some point.

1698
01:12:01,625 --> 01:12:03,958
They'll go through
a phase of neglect.

1699
01:12:03,958 --> 01:12:05,208
But because they're so good

1700
01:12:05,208 --> 01:12:07,041
and because
they actually capture

1701
01:12:07,041 --> 01:12:09,500
American society so well,

1702
01:12:09,500 --> 01:12:11,166
future generations
will come back to them

1703
01:12:11,166 --> 01:12:13,916
and find them
much more illuminating.

1704
01:12:16,208 --> 01:12:17,875
Not only did he inspire me

1705
01:12:17,875 --> 01:12:20,208
before I even thought
I wanted to be a writer,

1706
01:12:20,208 --> 01:12:23,833
um, once I became a writer,

1707
01:12:23,833 --> 01:12:26,875
uh...he was a touchstone for me.

1708
01:12:26,875 --> 01:12:30,333
[soft music]

1709
01:12:30,333 --> 01:12:32,291
[Tom Wolfe] I think your soul

1710
01:12:32,291 --> 01:12:34,958
is your relationships
with other people.

1711
01:12:34,958 --> 01:12:36,791
And that's the part of you

1712
01:12:36,791 --> 01:12:39,625
that really doesn't--
doesn't die,

1713
01:12:39,625 --> 01:12:42,333
and you suddenly begin
to treasure those things

1714
01:12:42,333 --> 01:12:44,000
in a way you never did before.

1715
01:12:44,000 --> 01:12:46,458
-Come--come have a seat.
-Okay.

1716
01:12:48,250 --> 01:12:51,125
And this is, I think these--

1717
01:12:51,125 --> 01:12:52,375
How you doin' over there?

1718
01:12:52,375 --> 01:12:53,958
[Morley Safer] Well, no;
it's very interesting.

1719
01:12:53,958 --> 01:12:56,375
He was kinder to me
than he had to be,

1720
01:12:56,375 --> 01:13:00,125
and kinda sweet-natured.

1721
01:13:00,125 --> 01:13:01,666
Easy to be with.

1722
01:13:03,083 --> 01:13:06,291
In all the years
I represented him,

1723
01:13:06,291 --> 01:13:08,916
we never had an unkind word.

1724
01:13:08,916 --> 01:13:11,916
He was a real gentleman.

1725
01:13:11,916 --> 01:13:15,500
I watched him over,
oh, almost 60 years.

1726
01:13:15,500 --> 01:13:17,208
And I watched him as a fan,

1727
01:13:17,208 --> 01:13:19,375
I watched him as a friend,

1728
01:13:19,375 --> 01:13:20,541
and I always watched him

1729
01:13:20,541 --> 01:13:22,375
with a sense of wonder
and amazement

1730
01:13:22,375 --> 01:13:24,000
that he could be
all these things.

1731
01:13:24,958 --> 01:13:26,583
Thank you very much.

1732
01:13:26,583 --> 01:13:28,416
[applause]

1733
01:13:28,416 --> 01:13:30,916
[soft music]

1734
01:13:41,416 --> 01:13:43,791
[mellow, jazzy music]

1735
01:15:06,291 --> 01:15:08,791
[old-timey piano music]