All language subtitles for Evocateur-The Morton Downey Jr. Movie (2012)eng

(water dripping )

(woman singing )

Hello, folks.
What do you know?

- Hello, Lou.
- Hiya, baby.

Say, Bennie,
I got a new song.

You don't mind
if I use the piano, do ya?

Go ahead.

(man singing )
♪ Papa... ♪

♪ My inspiration is you... ♪

(woman singing )
I Mama... ♪

Morton Downey, Jr.:
Sit down, you fat bitch.

- Listen, you.
- Sit down!

( Cheering )

Morton Downey, Jr.,
I only hope you'd be

as famous
as your famous dad.

Just one other question--

how much further can it go?

Joey Reynolds:
It became a cartoon.

( Roaring )

( blade rings )

Glenn Beck:
America is at a crossroads.

We must advance or perish.

Glenn Beck, Hannity,
O'Reilly, they're all people

saying, you know,
what's in their heart.

I think Glenn Beck has become big

because he's the only one
telling the truth.

Morton Downey is the folk hero
of the United States.

He stands up
for what he believes in.

He captures the heartbeat
of America.

Downey, Jr.: My audience
finally selected a spokesman

that identifies with their needs

and with their dreams
and with their frustrations.

We're proud of this flag.

I love those people.

I'll do everything
to protect them.

Bob Pittman: I was the programmer
who started MTV.

If indeed we have 60 channels
of television available

to the American public
24 hours a day,

everything that there is
a significant interest in

ought to be represented.

What's curious to me
is a lot of critics say,

"Oh, we shouldn't offer that."
I mean that's like saying,

"We're only going to put
these 20 books in the library

because they're the only ones we can
all agree upon are good books."

MTV shook up
what TV could be.

We refused to live within

the boundaries of what
was thought of as TV.

Good evening.
It's time once again to play chicken.

My name is Joe Pyne.
We'll test your nerve in just a moment.

But I didn't want to be Mr. MTV
my whole life.

I was 30 years old, 31 years old,

and looking
for more fun things to do

that I had never done before.

Pyne:
With us now is Jerry Rubin.

He advocates
disobedience of law.

( Audience booing )

Pittman: So I set out to find
a new talk show.

We started talking about it,
you know,

"Remember
'The Joe Pyne Show' from the '60s?

No show like that
on TV anymore."

I dislike the fact that you went
to Cuba as Castro's guest.

You consort with the enemies
of this country.

This alone is reason enough
to consider you a menace.

- Taking a hard and fast opinion...
- Pyne: You are a disruptor...

- driving the opinion home.
- Rubin: Do you wanna hear my views?

No politeness.

I think this is a circus
and that you're a fool

and we are not
in any way discussing--

You're a liar and a danger
to the country.

Pittman:
Often, you know, you go back

and recycle an idea,
update an idea.

( Booing )

But it's dependent upon
finding the person.

(thunder rumbling )

Mort had been around radio,
talk radio.

Wally George:
Morton Downey, Jr.

Now, Morton--
I was on this guy's so-called

conservative radio show.

I resent
the charges you made

saying that I was a disgrace
to the conservative cause,

that I didn't know
what I was talking about.

You are the one, baby,
who are a conservative-come-lately.

You're the phony!

Pittman:
Mort just understood performance.

Now do you wanna hear
some facts?

I am the same kind
of phony, Wally--

I am the same kind of phony,
if you want to let me answer--

I'm the same kind of phony
that you are.

Pittman: How you turn everything
into something theatrical.

- Don't warn me, punk!
- ( crowd yells )

Pittman: We met Mort
in person and we go,

"He could be good."

Stay in your seat.
Stay in your seat.

Pittman:
He was good on the radio...

but just made for television.

( Audience cheering )

Well, good evening, everybody.

How are ya?
I'm Mort Downey, Jr.,

and as you're going to find out
in the weeks, months,

and years ahead, certain things
really burn my buns, all right?

One thing that's happening
is the morality of this country

is on a low ebb and it's getting lower.

It's not getting better.

It's getting worse.

We're going to examine
this topic tonight.

And this is where the risers
that you guys sat in were.

And he would start kissing
the first row of ladies.

Mort just sort of tapped right into
that 17-year-old

male, you know, something.

Where other 17-year-olds might be
doing other stuff at night,

I mean, we were driving to Secaucus

to go onto
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

( chuckles )

It was a provocative show
to deliberately provoke the guest

and provoke confrontation.

And he took it further than anyone
that was on television.

There's a war going on
in the streets of America--

a war on drugs and the slime
that sell them to our kids.

Former Congressman, Ron Paul,

how can you call
for something un-American--

the legalization of drugs?

Because I detest the use of drugs
and I think we would

have a lot less drugs used
if they were legal.

I think it's part
of the American system

to let people make choices
about their own personal habits.

He knew how to manipulate.

He could have been a serial killer.

Do you believe that
the government should stay

out of our personal
business altogether?

Well, it happens to be my--
all right, that's good, guys.

It also happens to be my
personal business

if I want to kill
my four-year-old kid, right?

- Paul: No, no, no, no.
- No?

Wait a minute, wait.
You're giving--

you're giving libertarian
a distorted explanation.

Rebecca Johnson:
If you're not tethered to the facts,

that's incredibly entertaining.

You can just say anything.

Yeah, yeah, you know, you're not
tethered to the facts, right.

But I will say this, Mort had
amazing charisma on the set.

He related totally
on an emotional level.

There was no intellectual level
for Mort.

I'll stick to the issues, pal.

If I had a slime like you

in the White House,
I'd puke on you.

( Cheering )

Who's for prohibition
of alcohol in this room?

Who's for prohibition of alcohol?

Three people!

He attacked a guest with a voracity

that was unbelievable
and people loved him for it.

I mean they--
they loved him for it.

We get high on the ideas
of freedom.

We get high because
freedom is worth--

( chanting )
Just say no! Just say no!

You say no!
You have the courage to do it.

I think I detect
his voice changing.

Maybe his cojones
are getting small.

And cut to a commercial.
And I said, "Oh, my God!"

That's the kinda class act--

And when you're changing
channels and you land on that,

you tend to stop, like you say,
at a car accident and go,

"Oh, my God, let me watch this
for a minute or two more."

Before that,
it was considered very uncool

to be that abusive to a guest.

Well, the other side of that
was Phil Donahue.

How in the world does a person
become a foot model?

And could you be one?

When we come back,
in just a moment.

Richard Bey: The host would do
an interview on the stage.

Do you wear high heels?
Hang on one second.

Let me get some
of the folks back here.

Bey:
Then run through the audience

and get their
fairly polite questions.

My question's for Herschel.

I'd like to know
what got you into ballet.

And here are
the fairly polite answers.

I need a hint.
How do you get your husband

to do anything
around the house?

You know...

Sally Jessy Raphael:
I know what Downey was doing.

He was ripping off

every single aspect
of Joe Pyne perfectly.

How do you get the last drops
of ketchup out of a bottle?

Pittman: We learned
that TV was out of step

with the American public.

And what happens?

All the ketchup is forced
to the neck of the bottle.

Pittman:
That America, after Watergate,

had given up
this false politeness.

In the '80s,
it was time for it to end.

Downey, Jr.: Quarantine for a person
with AIDS, even though we know

AIDS can only be caught
basically in sexual ways?

Do you know that it has
never been proven that AIDS

can be sexually transmitted?

It has never been proven
in a laboratory.

No, I don't know that because

I've spoken to a number
of people in the CDC.

I'm in the middle of this,
you ought to know that, Mort.

I'm in the middle of research,
have been for a number of years.

Downey, Jr.: Are you a research expert?
Are you a research expert?

Shut up and let me answer
the question.

You shut up.
Are you a research expert?

Are you a research expert?

- Why don't you shut up?
- Why don't you shut up?

All you're doing
is spewing garbage.

Chris Elliott: I was attracted
to that kind of awkward,

dangerous atmosphere.

When he first
came on the scene,

I was immediately

sort of mesmerized
by the show.

Downey, Jr.:
A "vecan"?

A vegan, I abstain--

Downey, Jr.: Let me hear
what she has to say here.

Go ahead,
you abstain from what?

Yes, I abstain
from all animal products,

including dairy and clothing.

Downey, Jr.:
And clothing?

- I eat raw hamburger.
- And what is your cholesterol?

I eat raw fish.

I smoke four packs
of cigarettes a day.

I drink-- I have
about four drinks a day.

I'm 55 years old.

And I look as good
as you do, vegan.

( Audience cheering )

He was in your face.

He was take-no-prisoners.

What the hell is a feminist?

I thought anyone who had breasts
was a feminist.

There are almost no feminists
who have ever burned a bra,

so let me get that straight--

There's almost no feminists
who ever had anything

that they needed
to wear a bra for.

Between us, there was
a certain amount of sexual tension.

Likewise on your jockstrap,
but in any case...

How does she know?

She has a tape measure
on her tongue?

I was used to being
on "The MacNeil/Lehrer Hour,"

"Nightline," where everything
was so dignified.

To take up this issue
is Alan Dershowitz,

a professor of law
at Harvard University.

Alexander Hamilton once said
that the civilization--

All of a sudden, then,
almost as, like--

like the yin and the yang,
you had Morton Downey, Jr.,

identifying with a lot of the issues

that average, everyday people had.

Don't listen to this guy.

- The prosecution--
- Listen to Professor Dershowitz.

Dershowitz:
--a prosecutor is not your lawyer.

You had Downey
yelling at these people

who you felt like
yelling at sometimes.

If I depended on a guy like you,

New Jersey's
preeminent lawyer,

I'd find my ass in the crapper
for the rest of my life.

Raphael: Which is what all
the reality shows today are based on.

Who said this guy's
New Jersey's preeminent lawyer?

There is that prurient

excitement of not nice people...

White intellectual
trash like you

who don't know about
the inner city.

...saying not nice things.

When was the last time
you looked in a mirror?

It probably cracked.

You weren't quite sure
whether it was all set up

or whether some of it was set up
or whether it was all real.

Creamy homemade taste.

Hello, everyone, I'm Maury--

Langan:
Almost the first fan letter

was from this Catholic
high school in New Jersey.

( Bell ringing )

Someone invited Mort
to go to assembly

where they were discussing
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

Should it be on TV, shouldn't it be?

( Thumps, creaks )

We arrived
at this Catholic high school.

They just swarmed
like he was the Beatles.

( Girls screaming )

Mort turned to me
and he goes, "Jesus Christ."

He goes, "What's happened?
What have I done?

I'm a 55-year-old, middle-aged guy

and I've got 14-year-old
Catholic girls in skirts

climbing
on the hood of my car."

And we all looked
at each other and went,

"Something's changed here."

And we'd only been on the air
for about a month.

Morton Downey, Sr.:
ls "Stormy Weather" all right?

♪ Don't know why ♪

♪ There's no sun up in the sky ♪

♪ Stormy weather ♪

♪ Since my gal and I
ain't together ♪

♪ It's raining all the time. ♪

Lloyd Schoonmaker:
Mort's father was Morton Downey, Sr.

Some people called him
the first recording star in America.

He had a beautiful voice.
♪ Oh, Danny boy, the pipes-- ♪

And my dad just loved him.

I want to sing for you here today
a new one I call "Jericho."

( music playing )

♪ Way, way back
in the Bible days ♪

♪ Though there was no craze
for jazz... ♪

Schoonmaker:
Mort's mother was a dancer,

one of the Bennett sisters.

A showbiz family,
but a sadly broken family.

His father was gone all the time.

The father refused to let the mother
have any contact with the son.

I had asked him
what his mother died of

and he just says, "Alcoholism."

He said his father
drove her to drink.

So, really,
Mort was denied his mother.

Langan:
He hated his father.

He wanted to say that he sold
more records than his father.

Listen to this one.

This is his first record,

his debut, picked out
an old standard to bring back.

- Will it be a hit...
-( note rings)

or a miss?

Kelli Downey Cornwall: My dad
was always trying to be a singer.

And, you know, he didn't have

my grandfather's voice.

♪ I walk along the street
of sorrow ♪

♪ Sorrow, sorrow ♪

♪ The boulevard
of broken dreams ♪

♪ Broken dreams ♪

♪ Where Gigolo and Gigolette ♪

♪ Can take a kiss without regret ♪

♪ So they forget
their broken dreams... ♪

What did you think
of Morton's first effort?

I loved it. I really did.
I thought it was just wonderful.

And I'm so glad that they
picked an old song for him.

He's got a very new type voice,

modern, well, no,
but he's very modern in his style.

Now, did this young man
impress you as a vocalist?

Impressed me very much.

I don't think he sounds anything
like his father.

He has a much bigger and a much
deeper voice than his father.

- Dean?
- Hmm?

Did I wake you?
I'm sorry.

No, no, I was just thinking
about this record.

They didn't give this boy
a chance, you know.

Host: Why?
What do you mean, Dean?

This kid sings better than he does
on the record, you know.

You know it because
they were rushing him.

And this is his first record.
They stuck him in that

echo chamber and they
overdid it, you know.

I think that the old man
should have been there.

All right,
Morton Downey, Jr.,

I only hope you'd be as famous
as your famous dad,

'cause he was an all-time great.

Thank you.
Morton Downey, Jr.

Somebody sent in an old "Time" magazine
from like 1932 or '33,

where the old man
was on the cover of "Time,"

which is pretty cool.

And someone mailed it
and thought he might enjoy it.

And I gave it to Mort

and I realized
he had some big issues there.

He had a domineering father.

I think he had
a real reaction to that.

( Growling )

Mort was obsessed
with saying,

"I'm more famous
than my father.

I'm more famous.
I'm more famous.

I make more money.

You know, more Americans
have seen me."

When I came back an hour later,
it looked like confetti.

Cornwell:
My dad was always trying to

live up to his father, I think.

Announcer:
If you think prime-time sitcoms

and soaps are a snooze
and the movies bore you to tears,

then watch the man who will
excite you and incite you,

Morton Downey, Jr.

Weeknights at 9:00 p.m.
on Channel Nine.

Often, the self-destructive people
are really entertaining.

"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show"
has been garnering

the highest of ratings
in the New York market.

Starting Monday,
the rest of the country

will be able to sample
his particular brand of television.

It happened so fast.

My God, he just--
he just arrived there.

Usually you build these things up
year after year after year.

Morton Downey, Jr.,
just got his show syndicated.

Well, l wish he had

the same voice that his father had.

Bey: He was on
all the magazine covers.

He was an icon already

within a matter of months.

Koch:
I have watched this show

and I personally
would never be on it.

He has what you can only describe
in his audience as a lynch mob.

This is not Oprah.
This is not Phil.

This is Morton Downey.
Okay, let's try it again.

Good evening, everybody!

Welcome to
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show"!

David Kagan: They would let you in
a few people at a time to make sure

they were getting a good
mix of people in each area.

First, you cared about just
getting into the studio.

And then you cared about
getting the good seat.

Let's have a good time.
Let's rock and roll, you ready?

The liberals!
That's who you're talking about.

You needed the aisle seat
to be able to get to the mic.

You could almost feel
your heart pounding,

ready to go in there and, like,
mix it up with everybody.

My dad was backstage
bouncing around,

just getting so worked up,
just so excited.

Well, we'd have this big

boom, boom, boom,
drum beat, right?

Johnson: The minute
he walked into the studio,

it was like his cells started vibrating.

( Cheering )

Bey:
Morton high-fives

the people that are closest.

Grabs a pretty gal
and gives her a big kiss.

That energizes him.

That, you know,
he's taking their energy.

Smoking cigarettes as if he
needed any more stimulation.

And then he'd explain what the topic
was gonna be that night.

In Shakespeare, you have
iambic pentameter.

It follows a beat.

But sometimes there is
something in there

called a "caesura,"
which is a pause.

Hey, Mom, do you know where
your teenager is tonight?

Is he just hanging
around, huh?

You know,
let me tell you something--

Bey:
He wrote these pauses in

because the audience
was going to be yelling,

"Kill the guy!
I'm as mad as you are!"

I'll tell you what I'd do to him.

- Should we hang this kid?
- ( cheering )

You betcha! Die!

Bey:
The atmosphere was alive

with the energy of the audience.

Downey, Jr.:
Join us and take that chair, sir.

-( Booing )
- No, no. No, no. No, no.

No, no. No, no.

I'd appreciate--
I'd appreciate not doing that.

Johnson:
This was back when, you know,

where else did you see Americans

being passionate
about capital punishment?

Every member in the audience
was happy to stand up

at the quote, unquote, "Loudmouth"
and say his or her piece.

I wanna know how
they would feel if somebody

they loved were murdered.

I feel that any murderer
deserves death immediately

and none of this baloney.

The law of the land is that
before we put somebody to death,

we're going to check everything
to make sure that it's right.

- There's another issue--
- Is that true?

What the hell's
the other issue?

Tell me the other issue,
you pablum-puking fink.

Reporter: In his quest to grab
America's divided attention,

Downey is turning unleashed rage
into unlimited ratings.

Why is a show like that
so successful?

Many people find his audience
quite frightening.

It's been called "The Beast."

People have compared it
to a crowd gathering

at a public hanging.

Mr. Downey, I appreciate
that you're trying

to make a name for yourself.

I'm not making a name,
you asshole.

Jonathan Alter: Talk shows have
always realized studio audiences

are important, but he's
the first one that has turned

them from an audience into a mob.

I am not going to bring myself,
nor the citizens--

Then get the hell off the stage.

Get the hell off the stage.
Get the hell out of here.

You're a disgrace.

You had the Roman Coliseum,
and you had the crowd saying,

"Get out of here, you're boring."

Downey, Jr.: if my producers think
that I have to apologize for that,

they can go straight to hell.

I don't apologize for anything.

Woman: Yes, this is
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show"

calling to confirm your six tickets

for tomorrow evening's
taping at 7:00.

Reporter: You waited about, what,
two months for tickets?

Yeah, about that.

Lagan: We'd look outside,
you'd see people tailgating.

I remember seeing people
snort coke

on the hood of a car
before they came in.

He's great. He's sexy.

He's not afraid
to open his mouth.

He's not afraid of anybody.

Tom Shales, I remember,

the famous TV critic
for the "Washington Post,"

I thought he put it best
in one of his reviews.

He said,
"'The Morton Downey, Jr. Show'

is a talk show
with a hockey audience."

Audience:
Mort, Mort, Mort, Mort.

Downey, Jr.:
Let me introduce home base

and of course,
our "Loudmouth."

Shut up!

I will not go
for any of that crap.

Zip it a second.
Shut up!

What are you laughing about?
Just take the pictures.

♪ Mighty mouth,
they say he's not kind... ♪

Halloween evening on
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

Should they go?

Lloyd Kaufman:
I saw the audience

and the audience
was pretty frightening.

I was physically hurt,

various neck and back injuries.

There was clearly
a physical assault on us.

I was then known
as the "Secaucus Slammer"...

six years before
"The Jerry Springer Show."

Jerry Springer's not like Mort.

He don't got no backbone
like Mort had.

Mort would go right up in
somebody's face and confront him.

You who traitored
on the United States.

You traitor!

Giegold: This studio
was the first in the business

to put people
through a metal detector.

Goldsmith: At the end of the night,
you'd say to the guys,

"How are you doing?"
"Well, we got like 16 knives."

- 16 knives?
- Brass knuckles.

Brass knuckles. Who brings
that stuff to a television show?

They were ready
for some controversy.

If you guys and that other--
the gremlin over there

like Japan so much,
you can take this flag

and shove it where it belongs.

It was also sort of perfect
for 17-year-olds

because it had no nuance at all.

Everything was black or white,
and 17-year-olds--

Forget those pablum-pukers!

Rothman: Everything
is either totally one thing

or totally the other.
There is no middle.

We are America.
We're number one!

You know what I think?
I think Donald Trump

should take his board game
and just go to hell.

Stu Stein: Kids today can make
a goofy YouTube video.

I got an American car
and it still runs just fine. Just fine.

Stick it up on YouTube,
get 10,000 hits, goes viral,

and now they're, you know,
the flavor of the day.

Let's face it,
we did it to ourselves, Mort.

Stein: Whereas in our case,
it was very simple.

Japan's gonna rule, Mort.

Just go on TV, pretend
you're somebody you're not,

and you got on TV
for five minutes.

- Zip it!
- Damn right, Mort!

And if Elvis was alive,
why don't you book him

on "The Morton Downey, Jr.
Show" once?

Cornwell:
I don't want to say it was a cult

'cause it wasn't a cult,

but where did these people
come from?

Go ahead, pal.

My name is Joseph McBratney
and I'd like to speak

to these two very ignorant men
right here.

Bey:
It's shot in Secaucus.

The Jersey characters
are in that audience.

Why?
Why make it worse?

They don't give a shit.

"Real Housewives of New Jersey"
and "Jersey Shore"...

I'm not better than anyone.
That's not what I'm saying.

Bey: ...use this very same
confidence, assertion...

Black, white,
or Puerto Rican.

Bey: ...that you find
in the Jersey character.

We ought to get out and vote,
change it,

and get these guys out of there
and do what we gotta do.

Bey:
But before this you never saw--

unless they were
on "Candid Camera"...

I just don't believe
that anyone like that

has the right to breathe
the same air that I do.

...real, real people
on television.

...against American policies,

get the hell out of America
if you don't like it.

Downey, Jr.:
This is the beginning...

We've decriminalized cocaine.

Downey, Jr.:
...of a great movement...

You're despicable.
You're a piece of shit.

Downey, Jr.: ...of the people
of this country...

I don't sell my body.

Downey, Jr.: ...taking this country
back to ourselves, all right?

You have no remorse
right now!

We've sent those people
to Washington.

They haven't done squat for us.

Mort, I must tell you,
you've made at least half a dozen

converts in our control room.

Rise up, America!
Rise up!

It's clearly entertaining as hell.

Beyond that, what is it?

I'm after establishing a platform
for the American

who has been unheard
by his government.

Good to see you.
How you doing?

- I watch you every night, buddy.
- Thank you, pal.

Allred:
He saw himself as...

- Hi. Nice to meet you.
- Hi, how are you?

Allred: ...representative
of the working man

and that he should be the évocateur
who understood their emotions

and who helped to express
their emotions.

Director: Your right ear.
That's good.

Someone like me could be
a frightening person.

Someone like you could be
a frightening person.

Most of us, of course,
are just average,

everyday human beings
like my audience is

and we hope that the politicians
become frightened of us.

Melody Miller: I knew
Morton Downey, Jr. as Sean.

He didn't use his father's name
when I knew him in the '60s.

( Silent )

On Cape Cod,
Morton Downey, Sr.,

had a house out on Squaw Island,

which was a hop, skip, and a jump
from the Kennedy compound.

Reporter: That is Morton Downey,
the Irish tenor,

talking to Mrs. Kennedy.

Morton Downey has been a friend
of the Kennedy family for years.

Schoonmaker: So Mort grew up
with some of the younger Kennedys.

Reporter: Now Morton Downey
is talking with the President.

Brother Robert, Attorney General,

next to Morton Downey there.

Miller:
When Robert Kennedy died,

there were so many different ways
people expressed their grief.

Sean expressed his by writing
his small little book of poetry.

Its title was "Quiet Thoughts
Make the Loudest Noise."

I thought that was a rather
interesting title.

Cornwell:
He was always writing poems.

His brain was always going
constantly.

You know, it was hard for him
to just chill.

"Row upon row
of grief-wracked followers,

sunken cheeks replacing
their years-ago happy faces,

sang proudly
for their departed friend,

their final hope;

and wondered why a man
must die to be a hero;

and whether we honor only those

our own selfish hearts destroy."

This is the reception room

and Sean is talking
to Joan Kennedy,

Ted Kennedy's wife.

I'm there in the background

talking with someone on the phone.

Sean, as usual,
was very well dressed.

Sartorial splendor
was one of his attributes.

We had the election
for Edward Kennedy

to become majority whip
in the Senate.

And this is the moment
we got word that he won.

( Cheering )

There's Sean in the background.

Right here is the senator
addressing all of us,

Sean standing in the doorway
smiling at him.

He supported the issues
that Senator Kennedy

was supportive of.

So he was liberal
on a number of things.

It was hard to understand,
really, how you could have been

so for Robert and Edward Kennedy

and then be so much
against their positions.

I was kind of in a quandary.

He was a surrogate
for an awful lot of people

in representing their views
and their attitudes.

Good evening, class.

All:
Good evening, Mr. Downey.

Buchanan:
A lot of working-class folks...

Hey, welcome to your
American history lesson, gang.

Buchanan: ...have a desire
for a conservative point of view.

Sure as hell ain't attended one
like this one tonight.

They want to hear it because
this is what they believe.

The liberal policies
of the Democratic Party

have failed for 40 years.

He did fulfill a desire
of an awful lot of people

'cause he got a huge audience.

We're not leaving,

so if you don't like
the Pledge of Allegiance

and you don't like
prayer, you leave.

We're proud of this flag.

Buchanan:
Hannity, O'Reilly, Glenn Beck...

You can kiss my flag!

They're not as crude
as Mort was.

But they are appealing
to that same audience.

You talk about the Tea Party today.

Some of those working-class folks
are exactly the people

to whom he appealed--

the angry voices
of people left behind.

Stanley Crouch:
You see on these shows,

"We're already mad."

That's why the system
is all bottled up.

"You might not be...

but by the end of this hour,
you'll be one of us."

Stephen Kruiser:
This is a protracted battle, okay?

The left views politics as war

and they are engaged 24/7,

their foot is on the gas pedal 24/7.

You're not going to convert
a left-wing rally, okay?

But you can convert people
individually.

Crouch: That's where
the Morton Downeys come in.

They have an anger
that's so magnetic...

From Goldman Sachs
to Merrill Lynch

who stole from us,
the taxpayers.

Crouch:
...it will just pull you to it.

This is "The Herman Cain Show"

live from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Audiences react to conflict.

More people will tune in
if you've got conflict.

And villains lend themselves
and vilifying people

lends itself to attracting
a large audience.

The liberals,
they are frustrated

because they can't find a head
to this movement

to cut off so they can kill it.

There's a fine line
between passion and anger.

We are going to repeal Obama-care.

Don't lose hope. Don't lose faith.
We're gonna do it.

Cain:
Repeal that sucka!

Every once in a while,
you smile to let 'em know

that you ain't mad at nobody.

You just passionate, that's all.

We want to reach more people.
We want to communicate with more people.

We want to change
hearts and minds out there.

Skip Murphy:
As long as you're up front about it,

that you're not trying
to tell your audience

you're one thing and then
you're actually something else.

Isn't this typical

of a left-wing
pablum-puking jerk?

Your critics would say
that your popularity is based

on the fact that you're appealing
to the worst elements

- of human nature--
- I totally disagree with that.

Gumbel: --to jealousy, to anger,
to pettiness.

Morton Downey is
in the business of implicitly

selling hatred and people are buying it.

Well, is there something
in the nature of television

that calls forth characters
like this periodically?

Only a few generations
have been granted the role

of defending freedom
in its maximum hour of danger.

Uh, yeah, ratings.

You are that generation.

That is your role.
This is that moment.

Bey:
There's always been a longing

among, you know, some portion
of the American public

for somebody
who speaks for them.

♪ O'er the land of the free... ♪

Bey:
If you speak for these people

and allow them to speak their mind...

♪ And the home of the brave. ♪

Bey:
...they love you for it.

Announcer: Morton Downey,
our national anthem.

Of course, his father,
a great Irish tenor.

Let me ask you, has your dad
ever sang the national anthem?

Uh, yeah, Pop sang
the national anthem

at the Democratic
National Convention,

God bless him,
and I'm sorry that he sang it

at the Democratic Convention.
Too bad it wasn't the Republican.

I mean, how did this happen?
Gosh, it's disappointing.

I think Senator Kennedy
was disappointed.

He was kind of put off.

( Theme music playing )

Sean would call up and say,
"Did you see the show?"

And I would say, you know,
"Ed and I disagreed

with everything
you said almost."

He would say
that he had just "evolved."

Cornwell: He worked
for many, many years

trying to find his niche,

figure out where he fit.

( Pinging )

I remember from the time
I was a little kid,

him always wanting to sing.

Schoonmaker:
We started a group called Turquoise.

It was just he and I.

And, uh, we did a song

called "Lonely Man."

♪ Hello, lonely man ♪

♪ Sitting all alone ♪

♪ In your thick-walled home... ♪

Schoonmaker:
We had our little single

and jumped in his van...

♪ See him light a star ♪

♪ And take a spaceship
to the moon... ♪

Schoonmaker: ...traveled all through
California going to radio stations.

And they're playing the thing.

We had a great time.
It was a hell of a trip.

I can't really say that he was
conservative or liberal.

( Coughing )

He would seem to go
in either direction.

Whatever seemed to work
at the time.

Mort wasn't gay or anything,
but on the road

Lloyd would actually sleep
in the same bed with Mort

just to keep him company.
But they're totally straight.

( Crickets chirping )

Schoonmaker:
He really attached himself to me.

I was something
he could hang onto,

almost like his blanket.

Cornwell:
He just was always looking

for acceptance and for love.

♪ I got a right to live... ♪

Reynolds:
He had a record

and he was touting it.

He came to Syracuse, New York--

I was a young disc jockey--

and he was a character and a half.

And I said, "Why don't you come do
the morning show?"

And he took the job
as the morning man.

Downey, Jr.: Tough type of Thursday
on the Mad Lad Swing-a-Thing,

Morton Downey with you till 8:00,
"Our Everlasting Love."

Reynolds:
We were doing Top 40 radio

and we were talking a lot
about people who were

acting out on television.

Do what you want.
You wanna walk away?

He and I had a little chat
about Joe Pyne.

Remember Joe Pyne?

We thought he was a jerk--

a successful jerk.

He got everybody's attention.

We've got to get involved.
We've got to get our hands dirty.

The only thing that we can do

to save these unborn children.

Reynolds: Downey decided
that if he could be the person

who was outrageous, controversial,

he would get the most attention.

( Cheering )

He was on the air and he started
taking phone calls

and arguing with people.

Downey, Jr.: The Democratic Party
is opposed to life.

After he saw the way people
were reacting and acting,

he catered to it to be bigger
and more popular.

Goldsmith: You have reversed
the position you took

only six months ago.
What caused you to come around?

I really want to see
how they respond, all right?

Goldsmith:
He would go over the show with me.

He'd go in the cafeteria
and eat his food.

Okay, segment one,
you got your segment one card?

- ( Coughing )
- Poor Jimmy.

Get a raincoat for Jim.

With a bottle-- every meal
was a bottle of ketchup.

Langan: And put the cigarette out
in the mashed potatoes.

Exactly, and then he'd say,
"Okay, tell me the story.

What's this show tonight?"

I understand they're talking
about taking the new housing--

the low-income housing--

and placing it in the middle-class
neighborhoods. Am I correct?

Goldsmith:
Mort had an audio graphic memory.

Everything in the northeast
is lily-white.

Two on stage, three on Mort.

When you're living in
lily-white Pound Ridge?

Goldsmith: When he went on the set,
he would repeat verbatim...

The obvious question here is

does the opposition to the NAACP
suit represent an attempt

to keep blacks
out of white neighborhoods?

Goldsmith: ...what we had told him
two hours before.

Downey, Jr.:
The obvious question here

is does the opposition
to the NAACP

represent an attempt to keep blacks
out of white neighborhoods?

No, uh, you see...

We would figure out, "Okay, this is
gonna be your position on this topic."

How come none of those
wealthy neighborhoods

get some of that housing?

Then he would go out there and argue
that position like nobody else.

There are 200,000 units,
all right?

Units available in New York City

that are run-down,
that are beat up.

- Maybe, maybe.
- No, not maybe.

It was a great act.

Oh, please tell me
because you look homeless.

If you're gonna make fun of me, Mort,
I don't have to be on your show.

You don't? Good. Good night.
Good night. Good night!

Goldsmith:
Mort was arguing with a guy

and then I'm between the two
of them and this guy was furious.

Get out of here!

Johnson:
It was almost like he was

spitting on you when he was
yelling at you sometimes.

Goldsmith: The guy's furious.
He believes this is gonna happen,

that he's gonna fight with Mort.

We walked out the studio,
the three of us.

We get outside.
Mort goes, "You did a great job."

Cornwell:
There were times where

I would hate to watch the show

because it was so... violent.

I didn't like seeing
that side of him, I guess,

because that's not the person
I was raised with.

He was never like that

unless he was on camera.

Langan:
He played "the angry populist."

Johnson:
We call it "populism" sometimes.

I really think it's more envy.

All cultures are basically pyramids

and there are
very few people on the top.

And all the people
on the bottom are kind of angry.

"Why am I not a star?
Why am I not--?"

"The reason I'm not a star
is because the system screwed me."

Exactly, it's the system.
It's not me.

Yeah, it's "the man" kept--
held me down.

- Right, exactly.
- And Mort tapped into that.

Once you've decided on the act

and once you've written down
the confines of the act,

if you stand out and say
"I'm a tree" long enough,

you get leaves.

You have been described
as a nice guy who pretends to be

a right-wing maniac.

Now, what do you find offensive
with that statement?

The word "pretend."

Buchanan: He did not look
like the child of a Hollywood star.

He came off, quite frankly,
as authentic.

This is what you do
in show business.

I mean,
you got people riled up.

It was an act, just the way
Sean Hannity is an act, you know.

But I was an act, too,

you know, to some degree.

You know, I mean...

it's television.

You are what people
perceive you are, all right?

If you believe I'm a phony,
that's entirely up to you.

I know I'm telling the truth.

I know that I tell
the truth about myself.

I bet you can't stand
in the same mirror

I've stood in, baby.
I bet you can't.

"Hello there, big shot,

makin' out you got
what you ain't got."

( buzzing )

"Puttin' on an act
that even fools yourself.

People detest you.

You are nothing but a mirror
of your own inflated ego.

(water bubbling )

We go through life
staring at the self-same glass.

What an ass."

Elliott:
"Gold watch, gold rings,

fuchsia, and fur things;

if your countenance shines so bright,

why the tinsel reflecting your light?

Look again, fool.

It falls to a narrowing shadow
at your sidewalk-clicking heels."

( applause )

"How sad the looking glass,

that, empty, stares back

and echoes,

'Hello, big shot."'

( audience chanting )
Chris, Chris, Chris!

(sighs )

I'm okay.

All right, we've got quite a topic
for you tonight, folks.

This one's hot.
Say hello to David Letterman.

-( Booing )
- All right, give him a chance.

Give him a chance.
Give him a chance.

Have you had a dermatologist
look at those things on your face?

Wait a second, buddy.

Send him back to Russia!

Back to the Russkies!

Schoonmaker:
So I was over at a friend's house.

The guy said, "By the way,

didn't you know that
Morton Downey, Jr.?"

And I said, "Yeah."

"Well, he's got a TV show."

So I watched it.
It was-- and I said,

"Holy shit."

So I called him

and he-- "Oh, got to come back
and work for me, Lloyd.

You can't believe
what's happening."

Cornwell:
Lloyd was always trying to make it.

My dad was always
trying to make it.

When my dad felt that he had,

he really wanted Lloyd
there with him.

(singing )

Schoonmaker:
I'd always have my guitar

and I'd pull it out
and we'd start singing folk songs.

He said,
"Why don't we do an album?

'Morton Downey Jr. Sings."'

I said, "Sure."

I walked in-- here's this bumpkin
from California

and all of a sudden
I'm next to Mort.

I got a weird feeling.

We have some of the kids from
the Association to Benefit Children.

Are they the homeless
of the next generation?

Any of you want to come home
and live with me

and my Doberman Pinscher?

My dad was married to my mother
for 13 or so years.

And that's my wife over there.
Where's my wife?

Kimmy, stand up.
Stand up, honey.

Stand up.

Cornwell: He was married to Kim
for 13 years also.

Downey, Jr.: And next to her
is my daughter, Kelli, all right?

That's my daughter Kelli.

That seemed to be the number

that it ended unfortunately.

Schoonmaker:
I moved in with Mort

and his wife Kim

in a house
in Englewood, New Jersey.

I would sit on the couch
with Mort's dog, Senator, with me...

working on songs
on the album.

Coming up with them slowly.

Schoonmaker:
There's the real Morton Downey.

You put this shit in the trunk?

Schoonmaker: Thought I was
gonna get a career in music.

This would be my catalyst.

Every night we would go
out to the limo

and then race into the city

and we'd go to Stringfellow's
or Elaine's.

♪ The summer's gone ♪

♪ And all the leaves are dying... ♪

Langan: While very much
married to Kim,

he enjoyed the fact
that for the first time in his life,

he could get laid pretty much at will
'cause he was on TV.

He was 50 and he was kind of
in a suspended,

you know, adolescence, so he was
going for the 20-year-old.

He would take me out to dinner

and a beautiful
young woman would be there.

It was a very awkward position
to be put in

'cause he wasn't divorced
from Kim yet.

I'd kept a diary
with a microphone

on my little cassette saying,

"You can't believe
what the fuck happened today."

"I don't think this girl
is really interested in you."

"Shut the fuck up, Lloyd,
I'm gonna do this anyway."

Langan: His then-wife Kim,
when we got in the limo...

Eh...?

...she did kick him in the shins

from the other side
of the back seat.

( Roars )

At which point
he went after her physically

and if I hadn't been there to grab his--
he was gonna punch her.

I threw him
over the hood of the car.

I said, "You wanna
take a punch at somebody,

take a punch at me."

There was some anger
towards women.

I don't know where that began,
but it was there.

Kellie Everts:
I had been invited

to do
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

On the show, it's just strippers
and belly dancers.

So here she is
with her top off.

Then it occurred to me
I was better than her.

I just took off my top.

"Oh, wow, they really like me."

Cut. Cut.
We'll be back in just a minute.

He said, "You did a good thing.
You did a good thing."

And all of a sudden he's all happy,

like we're working as a team
to create entertainment, yeah?

But now, in the next moment,
he's brutalizing me.

I'd love you to try
to beat me, honey.

I'd show you how to kick
the living shit out of a broad.

I'm sick and tired of guys like you

calling us bimbos and whores.

Sit down, you fat bitch.

- Listen, you.
- Sit down!

Everts:
He was like fucking me.

Sit down. Sit down.
Sit down!

He was saying, "I can fuck you
and I can knock you down."

Goldsmith:
Controversy for Mort was,

"You make your living
on your back,

you don't have the right
to exist in this country."

Langan:
Said the man who loved hookers.

Downey, Jr.: Let me hear Denise.
She's been trying to say something.

I just wanted to say
that I feel like this business

has the potential to show

how beautiful the human body is.

He'd meet girls and he'd say,
"You can be my producer."

Where's your microphone?

Johnson:
This girl quit her job.

She's got the big blonde hair
and the big tits

and she's like,
"I'm ready for work."

She came into the office in tears.

Mort had called her
into the bathroom

and asked her to hold his penis
while he peed.

I remember that, too.
Unfortunately, I do as well.

- Yeah, I do.
- Oh, my God. That was so dark.

And that was
the really sort of-- ugh.

Johnson:
He was a pathological liar.

- But that's who he really was.
- The abyss was opening up.

Good afternoon, I'm Ernie Anastos
and here's what's happening.

She says she was kidnapped

and raped by six white men.

Man: Whenever a black woman
complains about a white man

raping her, the black woman
must be penalized.

Crouch:
Tawana Brawley was a teenager

who claimed to have been
kidnapped by these white guys,

some of whom
were police officers,

and repeatedly raped
and sodomized.

Boggs: They raped her
in Wappingers, New York.

They wrote racial
epithets on her body.

They smeared
her body with feces.

And then they left her for dead.

Crouch:
Al Sharpton and two lawyers

took over the case.

I have been privileged
to be involved in this case.

I've been privileged
to be an advisor

and a spokesman
for Tawana Brawley.

Allred:
There was quite a bit of stir

about who had raped her,

whether it was true.

I'm not a liar
and I'm not crazy.

I simply just want justice

and then I want to be
left alone.

That was the perfect kind of story

for Morton Downey.

It is amazing to me that you
could do Morton Downey's show

and call something I do
a circus.

Boggs: Mort and Al Sharpton
became very close.

I agree. You always have
to have a fat clown.

Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.

We're coming back
to the Tawana Brawley case.

Stay with us.

They saw something
in each other they were using.

Tonight,
Reverend Al Sharpton.

Boggs: Mort saw it for
what it was-- a ratings grabber.

- A brutal racial rape.
- Johnson: It had sex, it had race.

- Langan: Had it all.
- Johnson: It had it all.

The story is developing
every single minute.

We needed material.
So let's do the Tawana case again.

"I have a new angle on it."

"I found the box that she was in."

"I met her sister."

Goldsmith:
Mort Downey certainly squeezed

every bit of blood and rancor

out of Tawana Brawley's story.

My name is Steven Pagones.

I am the individual
who was accused

of rape and kidnapping
of Tawana Brawley.

Not only did I not have anything

to do with Tawana Brawley,

but there was absolutely
no evidence

to support
these outrageous allegations.

Dershowitz:
Tawana Brawley's advocates

would have been laughed
out of any grand jury.

There are no repercussions

for making yourself
look like a total fool

on talk television.

( Tone beeping )

So it was a perfect vehicle.

I'm tired of them acting big.
You ain't nothing.

You a punk faggot.
Now come and do something.

You ain't nothing.
Why don't you shut up?

Yelling at your old ladies.
Yell at me, punk.

Johnson:
We made Al Sharpton.

- Langan: 100%.
- Goldsmith: Yes, we did. Yes.

So let me give you
a challenge.

Pagones: I remember hearing
Morton Downey represent

that I would be on his show
the next day

if Sharpton agreed to bring
Tawana Brawley the next day.

Why don't you have
Steven Pagones?

- Why don't you bring Tawana?
- I'll bring Tawana.

- Bring Tawana.
- Zip it and tell me what day.

I want them here tomorrow!

DiBenedetto: The whispers around
there were, "Reverend Al Sharpton's

going to be here
and he's bringing Tawana Brawley."

And we waited
and waited and waited.

To pass the time,
Mort was making an album

- called "Morton Downey, Jr. Sings..."
-( laughter)

and he said he had
his guitarist friend there

who was helping him with this album,
and if we wouldn't mind,

would we mind listening
to some of these songs.

We sat there listening to probably

one of the only
Morton Downey, Jr. concerts.

It's a shame the tape
wasn't running that day.

And a lot of the audience
had to leave after a couple hours

because they eventually
wound up standing us up.

Al, you told me the next day
Tawana Brawley would be here.

- That's not-- no, no.
- Don't touch my hand!

I went up to Sharpton, I said,
"What's wrong with you, Al?

How could you say this?"
He goes, "Don't worry about it.

It's good for me.
It's good for your ratings.

It's good for everybody.
Relax."

That's exactly
what he said to me.

I spoke to Pagones.
He was more than willing to be here.

In fact, nobody ever called me
or asked me about it.

It's kind of
a Joe McCarthy-esque thing

like when you watch McCarthy in films,

you actually
can see him get excited.

"There are 30 Communists
in the House of Representatives.

No, no, no!

There are 60 Communists
in the House of Representatives.

No, there are 90!"

It's sort of a wave that people
like to get caught in.

We understand Mr. Downey
can now be almost coming

at a theater near you, right?
You're taking it on the road.

We're opening at the Apollo Theater
in a few weeks.

( Cheering )

Goldsmith: We did the show
at the Apollo Theater.

The premise was
Tawana Brawley.

Crouch:
When he went that far,

was no release of the tension.

If you've ever been in a riot--
I have been in one.

I was in one
on the Downey show.

Downey, Jr.:
Cool it and sit down, please.

Go ahead, sir.

My name is Stanley Crouch.
I'm a writer.

Mr. Sharpton,
you have been criticized

by every black persuasion
of leadership in New York.

Once it starts, it's hard
for people to get out of it.

And they can't get out of it
until they're actually spent.

It was alleged that she was
smeared all over with feces.

- Lie.
- That's a lot of crap.

- This man says a lot of crap.
- Brother, you had your chance!

Brother, brother, no.

Hell, no! Hell, no!

Downey, Jr.: Get him out of here.
Get him out of here.

Get him out of here.
Please, get out of here.

God bless you and thank you
for being my friend.

Take it easy or I'm gonna
make you take it easy, all right?

I said to myself,
"This has gone too far now."

This is only
a fucking talk show.

What the fuck is wrong
with him?

Give me an open mic.

We're going to continue
with the show.

Boggs: Downey was saying
to the audience...

We're not going
to give the press a chance--

"...to say that
we're a bunch of idiots."

After he said that,
he ran offstage,

got me on the phone, and said,
"Boggs, God damn it,

we need some publicity for this.

I can't keep these people
riled up all night."

Crouch: From the outside
it looked like a fight.

From the inside,
it looked like a party.

Eventually it turned out
that she hadn't been kidnapped.

This is no hoax.

It is the only--
it is the ugly truth.

Pagones:
The grand jury concluded

she made up some horrific story.

She did some horrific things
to herself.

Robert Abrams:
There was no evidence

that a sexual assault
was committed.

It's very difficult to sit down
with your children,

especially when
three of them are girls,

and explain to them,
"There were people who were

accusing your daddy

of being a monster."

Hey.

Reynolds: He was the number one guy
on television

and we hadn't talked in a long time.

And he said, "Hey, pal,
you got to come up here."

We'll check this place out,
all right?

Is he going to do your show?

Eventually, if I go trash.

Reynolds:
He got very self-centered.

He orders whiskey sours.

I don't drink.

He then called some girls
to come to the room.

I don't womanize. I was a married guy
and I was faithful.

He went into
the rehearsal hall

and there were the chorus girls
rehearsing.

They're all giddy 'cause
Morton Downey, Jr. walked in

and I was, of course,
with him

and feeling
like a real hot shit.

Man: Look at the young couple
sitting here.

Reynolds:
He picked out Lori.

Cornwell:
She had beautiful blue eyes.

She was, you know,
a struggling dancer.

I was like,
"What are you doing?"

Man: Kelli, say something
intelligent if you can.

I don't know if she was
playing hard to get

or if she really in the beginning
wasn't interested.

Or if that was part of what
made her so appealing to him.

Reynolds: From then on,
it was "Lori, Lori, Lori, Lori."

He didn't care
about anything else.

The producers would say to me,
"What is she trying to do?"

And I said,
"I don't know that she realizes

that he is totally obsessed."

Langan: She was the cause
of a lot of heartache for Kim

because he started cheating
while very much married to Kim.

Downey, Jr.:
Who predicted I'd get divorced?

Oh, yeah.

My ex-wife is watching
the show tonight.

You gave me 10 great years
and I enjoyed 'em, so...

( audience applauds )

But watch what I do
with the next 10, baby!

Reynolds: His whole life
at that time was trying to please Lori.

(singing )

One time somebody said, "Well,
she's just trying to get his money."

♪ I'd get down here
on bended knee ♪

♪ Only you... ♪

Mort was purchasing
a multimillion-dollar condo.

"Lori's gonna have her
knickknacks here

and I'm gonna put this and we're
gonna do this and this and this."

Downey, Jr.:
Lori's dressing table.

The stuff that Lori wants
will go here.

Reynolds: Yet Lori, she didn't
care about the money.

Man: One beautiful, tall blonde
comes with the apartment.

Reynolds:
The bills were piling up.

Downey, Jr.:
One, two, three glass statues.

He owed $50,000
to this credit card company

and he said,
"Oh, fuck it,"

and he'd grab the bill
and just throw it in the trash.

Downey, Jr.: And we have
the clown mask there.

- "Inside Edition."
- How are you, sir?

He didn't like to talk about anything
somebody could call him on.

- Get the fuck away from me.
- He'd just go into a rage.

Hey! We're trying
to do a story.

You pull a sneak-up bit of shit
on someone else, cocksucker.

Pittman: He would always
after these episodes say,

"I know I let you down.
I shouldn't have done that."

Downey, Jr.: That's tough shit!
You want the kinda prick that I am?

I'll rip your fucking lungs out,
motherfucker.

- Try me.
- I'll touch whatever I want.

- Bystander: Get him, Mort.
- Bystander #2: You tell him, Mort.

Try me,
you cunt-lipped bastard!

Pittman: it was sad to find
a man that talented

who could not control himself.

I tried to appeal to the logic of,

"At the end of the day, Mort,
I have other things in my life.

I have other ways to make money.
I do make money in other ways.

This is your life."

He just needed the money.

Langan: We used to do
these weekend gigs where he--

where he made more money
doing that than he did the show.

Schoonmaker: We'd go to college after
college and we felt like rock stars.

When we had our small plane,

we would travel everywhere.

Mort said, "I did this at 21,"

before I knew him
when he was a younger man.

Now I couldn't believe
all these people

thought he was
the "Blue Collar King."

Missouri is called
the "Show-Me State," right?

What really
burns your butt, baby?

It's people putting
the American flag on the ground

and stepping all over it.

How about you, ma'am?

I am so irritated
that we let foreigners come in

and buy up our farmland
in western Kansas.

Schoonmaker:
He could get people screaming.

He could get 'em crying.

We need to support one another
and be American.

This is the greatest nation
on this side of heaven.

Schoonmaker: We went
out of the back of the theater

and, my God,
there's a whole mob.

Langan:
At the University of Pittsburgh,

there were 5,000 people
in the audience.

( Marching )

Crowd's roaring.
It's like a rally at Nuremberg.

You know, "Mort, Mort, Mort."

Crowd: Mort! Mort! Mort!
Mort! Mort! Mort!

Mort! Mort! Mort!

Langan:
And instead of doing the show,

Mort walks out there and--
pardon my French--

and he goes,
"Hey, guys, you wanna see

what a 60-year-old guy
is blanking these days?"

He brings out Lori.

And I can see people
talking to each other

and then the promoter's
in my face going,

"This isn't why they're here."

( switches clicking )

( thunder crackling )

Langan: On a plane back, I was seated
next to a grand poobah

of advertising
for Domino's Pizza.

And she goes, "Oh, you are so
totally our audience."

"Why don't you advertise?"

"Because I don't want the name
'Domino's' on the screen

the day that idiot you work for
blows himself up."

Pittman: Do you really want
to fight it out with the advertisers?

At a certain point,
how do you defend stuff?

Johnson: We stopped being able to
book legitimate guests, remember?

Goldsmith: We did, because
if you had an opposing view,

it was Mort and 180 people
in the audience against you.

- I am a servant of the Almighty.
- Please tell us.

I seek refuge in God

from the rejected Satan
in name of God.

Isn't that the song? "I wanted
the clowns to be constantly funny.

Have I stayed too long
at the fair?"

♪ Have I stayed too long ♪

♪ At the fair? ♪

It got less real as time went on.
It became a cartoon.

At the beginning, it was.

And later on,
it became "Avatar."

Goldsmith: I didn't think
the show was sleazy.

I didn't.

Guest: Some people
in this world are different.

I happen to be one
of those different people.

I'm just as worthy as any other person
even though I'm different.

Langan: May I remind you
of the homeless woman

who was a double amputee that
played the "Star Spangled Banner"

with her tongue from a gurney?

That was towards the end.
That was towards the end.

And we loved it.

♪ The music has stopped ♪

♪ And the children must go now ♪

♪ Have I stayed too long ♪

♪ At the fair? ♪

♪ Are we rolling downhill ♪

♪ Like a snowball
that's headed for hell? ♪

Buchanan: The idea is to be
an attractive figure on television...

♪ Have we deepened the crack ♪

♪ In our beautiful Liberty Bell? ♪

...so that you can change minds
and ultimately policy.

♪ ls a Ford still a car? ♪

Can you let the entertainment
value run away

into the fever swamps?

And I think you might've seen

some of that
with my old friend Mort.

Langan: I got into
a fierce argument with Mort,

and that was about the time I left,

when I said, "Mort,
if you could just keep it

in your pants
literally and figuratively,

you could be the center square
on the 'Hollywood Squares'

until the day they put you
in the ground

and you don't have
to blow up the show."

Mr. Mayor,

now, what I want to know

and what these people
want to know and what America--

We're not-- we have to come
into another segment.

What in the fuck am I doing here?

Are we on the air?

We've been taping.
We've been taping.

Schoonmaker: Mort didn't want
to hear it when he was wrong.

I guess it's a little like Elvis,
you know,

those people
that are around him.

"Hey, you shouldn't be
taking those drugs."

"Fuck you.
You're not working anymore."

Record this.
Record this. Record it.

( Tone beeps )

Bey:
As someone who went through

a similar kind of experience,

you don't think
it's ever going to end

when you're in the midst of it.

Audience:
♪ Hey, hey, hey, goodbye. ♪

"Will you move to replace

that man who's on top,

not caring who's hurt,
too cruel to stop?"

Audience:
♪ Hey, hey, hey, goodbye ♪

♪ Na, na, na, na ♪

♪ Na, na, na, na... ♪

Bey:
"God help you, blind man,

with eyes that see,

but cannot cry.

How foolish you are.

You, too, must die."

Schoonmaker:
Mort broke up with Kim

and moved into Trump Tower.

Sitting at Trump Tower one time,
he said, "I got to do something.

Got to do something big."

And I said, "Oh, shit."

(thunder crashing )

♪ Start spreading the news. ♪

- You get the city?
- Woman: Hey, Mark.

What are you
looking at, huh?

We're in the movies.

Yes, we are.

I'm going to show this to Mort.
He'll put you on television.

Schoonmaker: The live shows
where we would travel around

were cut down
to like three shows a month.

And the middle class
of this country

has been a victim
too fucking long.

Schoonmaker:
Mort and I flew to Denver...

and then San Francisco.

Fuck me? I wouldn't fuck you
with his dick.

We're taking our streets back
away from all these minorities,

away from all
these jungle bunnies.

That's what
the skinheads are doing

in the White Aryan Resistance.

We fight for white America.

Then you are white shit.
You are white shit.

White shit.

Schoonmaker:
At the San Francisco Airport,

I watched him
walk into the men's room.

I walked down here
and I hear the voice go,

"Lloyd, Lloyd, where are you?"

And I said,
"Mort, where are you?"

So I walked down
about three or four stalls,

opened the door.

"Oh, my God.

Security! Security!

Morton Downey, Jr.'s in there

and he's been attacked
by skinheads."

Pittman: I said,
"Oh, my gosh, that's terrible."

I said, "Well, don't talk to the press
until we figure out what the story is."

He says,
"Well, there's a problem."

He called me from a room
with all the press already in the room.

First, the one guy yelled,
"Kill the --."

And the other guy just started
cutting my hair off.

Sliwa:
So I'm watching on TV

and I said, "Gee, that sounds
so strange, doesn't sound right."

Immediately had the flashback
that it was like

a Tawana Brawley, round two.

( Bell clangs )

Goldsmith:
Mort called me.

"I just got jumped
by a bunch of skinheads.

I'm screwed.
What you gotta do is

you gotta get a private jet
to fly me back.

I can't fly commercial."

Schoonmaker: We landed
and he rushed to Trump Tower.

Radio reporter: Day by day,
we learn a little more

about the case
of Tawana Brawley.

Woman:
She crawled into the bag.

Reporter #2: Witnesses said they saw
her climbing into the plastic bag

in which she had been found.

Goldsmith:
We drive to Trump Tower

and there's Donald Trump
in the lobby and he liked Mort.

- Langan: It's not a surprise.
- Goldsmith: "What happened?

Oh, my God.
Take him up to my suite."

( music playing )

Schoonmaker:
The album was just out.

They just shipped 250,000 copies.

♪ Hey there, Mr. Dealer ♪

♪ You drug-pushing
son of a bitch... ♪

I knew if this went
across America, which it did,

it hit the wire services,
went across everywhere...

then people would say,
"He's just a phony sleaze."

You know,
"What is this crap?"

♪ The garbage of our land ♪

♪ The devil is a-waiting
just to welcome you ♪

♪ To your eternal promised land. ♪

He claims that he was attacked
by three neo-Nazi skinheads.

Police are not so sure.

There were no skinheads
to be found in the area.

His ratings are dying.
Everyone knows that.

Just relax your arm there.

Schoonmaker:
Mort went in to do lie detector tests.

And they walked out
and they said,

"Boy, he passed that
with flying colors."

I found him in the stall.
I came in the bathroom,

"Yeah, Mort, where are you?
We got to go.

We got 10 minutes to catch a plane.

What's going on?"
And I pushed the door.

He was leaning up against it.
I opened the door and I said,

"What the hell happened to you?"

I understand why a woman

doesn't report she's raped
anymore, all right?

I understand
what you go through.

We have a member
of the New York State community

made up a story like this.
Tawana Brawley, remember that?

And I can't help
but liken this story to hers.

Langan: The "New York Post"
just happened to call.

"You hear what happened
to Downey?" I said, "What?"

Told the whole skinhead routine.

And I said, "Ugh.
I'd be suspicious."

Schoonmaker:
Langan said, "This is all bullshit."

Downey, Jr.:
Jim Langan, I fired him.

He has said that he is going

to tell a story on me
if I let him go.

I never reported his cocaine use
or anything else.

Well, I...

Try explaining that to my kids
who watched it on TV.

Fiancée Lori Krebs,
are you standing by your man?

- I sure am, 100%.
- He's innocent, huh?

Schoonmaker:
Lori made the statement to me,

"if I ever find out
that this was a lie,

I'm going to leave him."

Pittman:
We all said, "This is too crazy.

It's out of control."

Yes, we could make money,

but I didn't want to spend
the rest of my life

as Mort Downey's babysitter.

And I don't think
it's healthy for him, either.

That was the shark jumping.

Yeah, that was
the end of his career.

He had a couple of more
reincarnations, but that was it.

He rose like a rocket
and he fell like a stick.

And then it went down
almost as fast as it went up.

His star power
plummeted enormously.

As he would say,
"the money was on the dresser."

I was done with the guy.

"Morton Downey, Jr. Show"
was the fastest rise

and fall
in the history of television.

Boggs:
Seven years after the incident,

I was in California
and I called Lloyd

and I said,
"Can I come and see you?"

So I drove up the West Coast
and I had a wonderful

lunch with him,
we had a few drinks.

But there was a method
in my madness and I said,

"What's the story?

What happened in the airport?"

Schoonmaker: Mort said,
"I got the plan, Lloyd. I got the plan."

I actually threw up.

I was so sick over
how he was going to destroy

not just his career,
but my career.

The next day,
we stopped at a 7-Eleven

to get some scissors--

I can remember
the orange handles--

and a black felt pen.

And I said, "Oh, shit."

Announcer:
Good evening, everybody.

Welcome to
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

Elliott:
"How sad the looking glass."

Raphael:
"Some words will cut like a knife."

Bey:
"God help you, blind man."

Brawley:
This is no hoax.

Miller: "We honor only those
our own selfish hearts destroy."

( shipping )

( marker squeaks )

( splashes, clatters )

( audience cheering )

( hisses )

He was wearing

these pants...

and this shirt.

And I think you can notice
that the swastika's not done--

as a matter of fact, it doesn't
even look like a swastika.

The rip is right here
where he said they grabbed him,

but I believe
it was a scissor cut.

Maybe I'll sell it on eBay
one of these days.

Believe me, if we wanted
a publicity stunt,

we would've done
a whole lot better than this.

I mean,
it was just unbelievable.

I have never seen him
that way before

and there was hair all over.

Schoonmaker:
Why I did it, I don't know.

I'm thinking of my career.

I hate myself for doing it
in hindsight.

But I did it.

After a while, he believed
that it really happened.

Next thing I knew I was reaching
for something blunt

that I felt against my face.

Schoonmaker:
That's why he didn't have any trouble

passing the lie detector test.

You know, it's really hard
to resurrect it sometimes.

Schoonmaker:
I don't think it had anything to do

with saving his show,
picking up sponsors.

If anything,
it would just do the opposite.

Lloyd said Mort did it

to make Lori feel sorry for him.

Schoonmaker: it was almost
like the injured person,

"Take care of me, my love.

I need you to come
into this world of mine."

If Lori sees this,
she's probably gonna be

really pissed at me.

But maybe in Lori's heart,

she knows I'm telling the truth.

I'm not lying now.

Let me ask a question
of our audience here.

How many of you
have ever seen this?

You know what this is?

Oh, yes.

Pittman: So if you say
what's the worst thing about it is?

I was associated with someone

that, by giving him a forum,
and giving him

a chance to be a celebrity,
hurt himself.

Dick Clark: Robert Pittman,
an executive with Mort's show,

and he sent Mort to hear
about an amusement park company

that designs rides
named after celebrities.

We are building attractions
around personalities.

That sounds to me
like that could be something

that could disappear real fast,

a celebrity today
and a zero tomorrow.

That's true, except
that I think you're here to stay.

I think you're entering
superstar status.

Pittman:
My regret is

Mort would have been
in a better place as a human being...

Man: This we envision
as being interactive.

...If he had never
had that opportunity.

You've been had, man.

This is "TV's Bloopers
& Practical Jokes"!

The first time I really got
reconnected with Sean at all,

it was announced
that he had lung cancer.

Pittman:
We talked, I felt terrible.

But in the back of my mind,
you always had to wonder,

was it true?

I don't know if a show like this
has ever been done

with someone having
surgery the next day

to save his life
and the doctor performing it

and all of it live
and people calling in.

I really salute you, Mort,
for agreeing to this.

I salute you
for letting us do this.

It's a hunger. I mean,
would you have a lung operation

and then go be on Larry King?

Would you do that?
Would you call that sane?

I know--
I know he's gonna beat it.

I know he's gonna beat it

and I'm really proud of him.

I've heard from so many people,
but the biggest surprise of all

was I got the most beautiful letter

from Edward Moore Kennedy,

Teddy Kennedy,

who-- he and I have been
politically fighting,

as you know, for 15 years.

Miller: Sean popped in the office,
which I hadn't expected.

All of a sudden he walked
in the door and there he was

and I just gave him a big hug.

And he was in coat and tie

and did a lot of thinking

about what mattered to him.

Now I've got lung cancer
and I could die.

What really bothers me
is I won't be around

to see my two-and-a-half-year-old
grow up

and say "No" to smoking.

Mr. Chairman, Senators,

American Lung Association.

Friends,
like 3,000 kids every day,

I began smoking
at the age of about 13.

And to think I was a role model
for cigarette-smoking youth,

even signing my name
on their cigarettes.

It was really hard for him

because that whole smoking thing

was, you know, another part
of that personality.

To that generation,
I beg your forgiveness.

May the next generation
have kinder and wiser

role models than I was.

Thank you, thank you.

Reynolds: He was a better person
than when I first met him.

More conscientious,

less full of crap.

He called me and said,
"They're gonna take out a lung."

And I said, "Holy shit,
take out a lung?"

Are you scared?

Yeah, I am.

But a lot of your people
write me nice letters

and I've got
a lot of nice friends.

And I keep working.
I work every single day.

You're going to watch
your girl grow up, Mort.

Thank you.

Morton Downey, Jr.

lt just killed me because
I really loved him, you know.

I really--
I really did.

You love him or you hate him.
Well, I kind of did both.

You were the king
of controversial television.

What do you think about what's
going on in television today?

Well, Bobbi,
it's all entertainment

and there's nothing wrong
with entertainment.

That's not reality.

Allred: In having advocates
for civil rights,

for women and minorities...

Reality is having a fight
on the Downey show

with Al Sharpton.

Reality is presenting
Gloria Allred

to the world
for the first time,

Professor Alan Dershowitz.

...perhaps he had done
something important

that went beyond
a television show.

I was sitting home one day

and the phone rang
and I was shocked.

It was Mort Downey calling me
in a low, weak voice.

To single out Israel for criticism
is anti-Semitism.

- To consider it comparatively--
- That is the cry, Alan.

Dershowitz:
He just wanted to remind me

of our earlier days

and ask me if there's anything
I needed from him

before he departed this world.

That is America!

Dershowitz: I told him
that I thought he had contributed

a lot to television...

I stood next to Malcolm X--

Dershowitz: ...for unrepresented
and disenfranchised people.

Don't tell me what you did.
Tell me what you're doing.

Dershowitz: He seemed
to appreciate hearing that.

Particularly, he said
he didn't hear that so often

from people like me.

I was there for a week
while he was in the hospital.

He was on life support.

And I couldn't really tell
if he knew I was there.

And then Lori called me
and said, "He's gone."

King: Lori Downey, the widow
of Morton Downey, Jr.

When is the funeral, Lori?

Lori:
Um, it's on Saturday.

- King: Open to the public?
- Yes.

Schoonmaker:
He was the Blue Collar King

and the people loved him.

So I was surprised
there weren't more people there.

Gloria Allred was there.

Maybe Jim Langan,
maybe Bill Boggs,

maybe some
of the producers at WOR,

but maybe they were
so angry at him.

Downey, Jr.: You know,
the question is always asked

why people responded actively

to certain people throughout history.

People responded to the Beatles
and no one knew why.

Was it their long hair?
To Elvis Presley.

Some people who have no other
word for it call it "charisma."

I would have kicked
your fucking nuts out.

Someone said I was the first
rock and roll star

to come along without music.

I'll make Al Sharpton
look like a piece of shit

the way I take care of you.

That's interesting.
Maybe that's true.

( Music playing )

Mort's legacy
is easy to describe.

Mort's legacy is passion plays
on television

even if it's an act.

It's a free market
and you gotta ask yourself,

the people obviously want
what they're getting

or they'd be getting
something else.

...the Father, and of the Son...

Schoonmaker:
They had a lot of balloons outside.

It was just a beautiful day.

I sang,
♪ I can see clearly now ♪

♪ The rain has-- ♪
and they let loose all the balloons.

That was--
that was the end of Mort.

♪ I can see all obstacles in my way ♪

♪ Gone are the dark clouds... ♪

Man:
Those programs

do appeal to certain audiences.

I'm not questioning the right
of those shows to run on the air.

From my standpoint,

integrity and quality still have
a place in the American home.

I'm going to stop you both
because we're down

to about 45 seconds and I want
to get a final comment.

Is this a passing fancy
or is this the front of the wave?

( Music playing )

♪ On Geraldo's talk show ♪

♪ He broke a chair with his nose ♪

♪ Al Capone looked on with a grin ♪

♪ And every lonely hausfrau ♪

♪ And sofa-bound cow ♪

♪ Watched Oprah
before she turned thin ♪

♪ Richard Bey dug drag queens ♪

♪ Sally saved troubled teens ♪

♪ But politics wasn't their thing ♪

♪ After Downey's debut ♪

♪ We asked, "Dona-who?" ♪

♪ A new mouth had become our king ♪

♪ Morton Downey ♪

♪ Not the singer ♪

♪ Talk-show icon ♪

♪ Predated Springer ♪

♪ Al and Tawana ♪

♪ Bush and Dukakis ♪

♪ At the Loudmouth ♪

♪ In downtown Secaucus ♪

♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh-hh ♪

♪ At the late night ♪

♪ Morton Downey, Jr. Show ♪

♪ I wanna go ♪

♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ To the late night ♪

♪ Morton Downey, Jr. Show. ♪