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- [Hal] We did it, did it again.
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00:00:25,938 --> 00:00:29,942
That was a good show,
good audience, yeah.
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They were really thinking.
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00:00:36,123 --> 00:00:37,123
You always hope
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00:00:38,951 --> 00:00:41,867
maybe you can make
peoplethink a little bit.
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00:00:51,660 --> 00:00:53,401
These crazy new bulbs,
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00:00:54,924 --> 00:00:56,143
they know what you're doing.
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You can't let in any
air in these places.
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This is my tour book.
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For about three years.
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I get about three years in here,
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00:01:16,511 --> 00:01:17,686
two or three.
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00:01:23,866 --> 00:01:25,476
Before I played this show,
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00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:32,831
I went back to when
I did the show here,
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the last two times.
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2009, 2006,
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and 2000 and, 2000.
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I figure everybody's
dead by then,
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so it doesn't matter so
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00:01:55,898 --> 00:01:57,204
tonight when I did the show,
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I had to avoid must of the stuff
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that I did in these three shows.
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Okay did, what did I do?
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00:02:08,476 --> 00:02:10,130
Whiskey Reform Tax,
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morals,
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very strange concept for
Congress to have morals.
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Sherburn and Boggs,
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00:02:26,146 --> 00:02:27,147
from Huck.
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00:02:28,539 --> 00:02:31,151
That was my first
Huckleberry number,
30
00:02:32,456 --> 00:02:34,632
58 years ago.
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00:02:34,676 --> 00:02:37,983
I tried the new
thing about drinks.
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I screwed it up.
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00:02:40,595 --> 00:02:43,554
Two drinks and one deliriumtreatment,
I screwed it up.
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00:02:44,860 --> 00:02:48,820
Election madness, that's
my new piece I put on
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00:02:48,864 --> 00:02:53,042
this past year,
and I keepadding little bombs to it.
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00:02:54,478 --> 00:02:58,439
Once I started in to
patriotismon that thing tonight,
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00:02:58,482 --> 00:03:01,442
the audience went quiet as
38
00:03:02,965 --> 00:03:04,184
frightened to death.
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00:03:05,794 --> 00:03:07,883
Once you start messing
around with ideas,
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00:03:07,926 --> 00:03:09,798
like patriotism,
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it scares the audience.
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They think, oh my.
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00:03:13,976 --> 00:03:15,195
He might say something
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I don't agree with,
and they get scared.
45
00:03:21,288 --> 00:03:24,247
But that's one way to
holdan audience's attention
46
00:03:24,291 --> 00:03:25,291
is to scare them.
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[light orchestral music]
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Ladies and gentlemen,
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I wish to present you
aman whose great learning,
50
00:04:12,991 --> 00:04:15,603
and veneration for truth,
51
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are only exceeded by his
high moral character,
52
00:04:20,695 --> 00:04:22,262
and majestic presence.
53
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I refer in these vague
general terms to myself.
54
00:04:28,137 --> 00:04:30,313
[audience laughing]
55
00:04:30,357 --> 00:04:32,489
I remember once
saying to our pastor
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that I hoped to be cremated,
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00:04:35,666 --> 00:04:37,059
and he just looked
at me and said,
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oh I wouldn't worry aboutthat,
if I had your chances.
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[audience laughing]
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00:04:42,369 --> 00:04:43,979
I'm not lying to you.
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00:04:44,022 --> 00:04:47,243
I don't tell lies,
I differfrom George Washington.
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00:04:48,679 --> 00:04:51,726
I have a higher and
granderstandard of principle.
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00:04:52,857 --> 00:04:54,859
George could not tell a lie,
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I can, but I won't.
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00:04:56,948 --> 00:04:59,864
[audience laughing]
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00:05:01,083 --> 00:05:04,129
I come in in 1835,
with Haley's Comet.
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00:05:07,132 --> 00:05:09,004
It's coming again pretty soon,
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00:05:09,047 --> 00:05:11,354
and I expect to go out with it.
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00:05:11,398 --> 00:05:14,183
It'll be the
greatestdisappointment of my life,
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00:05:14,226 --> 00:05:17,142
if I don't go out
with Haley's Comet.
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00:05:17,186 --> 00:05:19,057
The Almighty has said, no doubt,
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now here are these two
unaccountable freaks.
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They come in together,
they must go out together.
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I'm looking forward to that,
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well thank you and goodnight.
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[audience applauding]
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[exhaling]
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- [Interviewer] How long
have you been doing this
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00:06:14,330 --> 00:06:15,549
morning routine?
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- Oh, probably four
or five years now.
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00:06:21,642 --> 00:06:24,384
I was on the road all thetime,
heaving trunks around,
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and I'd throw my back out.
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00:06:27,169 --> 00:06:29,911
Once in New Mexico,
theyhad to get a chiropractor
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00:06:29,954 --> 00:06:32,479
in backstage and put
me on a grand piano,
85
00:06:33,741 --> 00:06:35,438
and grabbed me and,
86
00:06:35,482 --> 00:06:38,136
jerked me into place,
and I almost fainted.
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Oh, I love this.
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When I get down here I
don't want to get up.
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00:06:52,281 --> 00:06:54,588
I can't just bound out
of a chair anymore,
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00:06:54,631 --> 00:06:56,241
it's very discouraging to me.
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00:06:59,027 --> 00:07:01,595
Sometimes I put my hand
on the side of a chair
92
00:07:01,638 --> 00:07:03,597
and help myself up,
that's terrible.
93
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It's awful.
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I feel if you gave way to it,
95
00:07:15,173 --> 00:07:17,524
you wouldn't be able to
getout of the chair at all.
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00:07:36,325 --> 00:07:39,197
- I don't know how many
ofthese boxes Hal has used.
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00:07:40,198 --> 00:07:43,941
He built the first one himself,
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and it's self-contained.
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00:07:45,421 --> 00:07:48,555
Everything is in theseboxes
that makes Mark Twain.
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00:07:52,776 --> 00:07:55,866
Hal never uses a dressing room,
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00:07:57,085 --> 00:07:59,130
like a star dressing
room in a theater,
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with fancy counters
and everything,
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00:08:01,219 --> 00:08:03,613
because one, he knows
where everything is.
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00:08:04,919 --> 00:08:08,183
Two, he needs to use acetone
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00:08:08,226 --> 00:08:10,185
for some of the makeup,
106
00:08:11,447 --> 00:08:14,972
and that has a tendency
to screw up counters,
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00:08:15,016 --> 00:08:17,714
and melt them,
depending onwhat they made them out of.
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So, everything he uses,
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except the costume,
whichis the other half of this,
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00:08:27,637 --> 00:08:29,726
is in this box.
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00:08:31,336 --> 00:08:34,165
The wig,
which fortunatelywe don't use right now,
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00:08:35,558 --> 00:08:37,212
light bulb in his shoes.
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00:08:39,170 --> 00:08:41,521
And this is the onlylight
he uses to make up.
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Because he is very much
a creature of habit,
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everything is in
its right place.
116
00:08:50,051 --> 00:08:51,419
- [Interviewer] What
happens when it's wrong?
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- He screams.
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00:08:54,359 --> 00:08:57,319
I can't think of anybody else
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that I know,
120
00:09:01,453 --> 00:09:03,301
or know of,
that does theamount of performances
121
00:09:03,325 --> 00:09:04,325
he does a year,
122
00:09:05,849 --> 00:09:06,894
at that age.
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00:09:09,636 --> 00:09:10,767
I also think,
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00:09:12,421 --> 00:09:14,423
if Hal stopped
working, he would die.
125
00:09:16,033 --> 00:09:18,340
It's his life.
126
00:09:21,648 --> 00:09:25,260
- I met Ruby Johnston,
my first wife,
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00:09:26,566 --> 00:09:28,176
in Newfoundland.
128
00:09:28,219 --> 00:09:31,309
We got married in a
littlechurch around the corner,
129
00:09:31,353 --> 00:09:32,852
in New York, and then
we went to Denison.
130
00:09:32,876 --> 00:09:35,487
I had already put
a year in there,
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00:09:35,531 --> 00:09:37,794
so I had three years to go,
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00:09:37,838 --> 00:09:39,622
and Ruby had never
been to college.
133
00:09:39,666 --> 00:09:42,190
The beginning of my senior year,
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00:09:43,060 --> 00:09:44,322
our teacher, Ed Wright,
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00:09:44,366 --> 00:09:46,977
he was at a convention in Ohio,
136
00:09:47,021 --> 00:09:50,459
and a school assemblybooker from Dallas,
Texas,
137
00:09:50,502 --> 00:09:52,940
named Harry Bird Cline,
138
00:09:52,983 --> 00:09:56,639
said to Ed, our teacher,
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00:09:56,683 --> 00:09:58,598
Ed you got some kids down there
140
00:09:58,641 --> 00:10:02,210
at that school of
yours, can do drama?
141
00:10:04,212 --> 00:10:06,257
And Ed said, well,
142
00:10:06,301 --> 00:10:08,303
yes I do, I have a young couple
143
00:10:08,346 --> 00:10:11,219
who's gonna be the
next Lunt and Fontanne.
144
00:10:11,262 --> 00:10:12,437
He didn't know who that was.
145
00:10:12,481 --> 00:10:13,569
Said, uh huh.
146
00:10:13,613 --> 00:10:16,006
Well, what do they do?
147
00:10:16,050 --> 00:10:18,400
Well, they have
a show, you know.
148
00:10:18,443 --> 00:10:19,444
Well what's it like?
149
00:10:19,488 --> 00:10:21,403
I mean, it has to
be educational.
150
00:10:21,446 --> 00:10:23,144
He said, oh it's educational.
151
00:10:24,493 --> 00:10:27,452
They do Shakespeare,
theydo a scene from Hamlet.
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00:10:27,496 --> 00:10:30,412
They do something with
Elizabeth in Essex,
153
00:10:30,455 --> 00:10:33,067
and the Robert andElizabeth
Barrett Browning,
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00:10:33,110 --> 00:10:34,416
Mark Twain.
155
00:10:34,459 --> 00:10:37,462
He made up this showright
there on the street.
156
00:10:37,506 --> 00:10:38,768
How long is it?
157
00:10:38,812 --> 00:10:40,335
Well it can be as
long as you want it.
158
00:10:40,378 --> 00:10:41,292
Well we need 50 minutes.
159
00:10:41,336 --> 00:10:43,512
I can be 50 minutes.
160
00:10:43,555 --> 00:10:45,296
Well, do you think they
would be interested?
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00:10:45,340 --> 00:10:46,994
I think they might.
162
00:10:47,037 --> 00:10:49,997
Well I can pay 'em
210 dollars a week,
163
00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:53,304
and 15 dollars a
week for gas and oil.
164
00:10:53,348 --> 00:10:55,611
And I can give them
30 weeks on the road,
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00:10:55,655 --> 00:10:58,179
next year when they
get out of school.
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00:10:58,222 --> 00:11:01,399
So Ed came back, and
gave us this offer,
167
00:11:01,443 --> 00:11:02,966
and we took it.
168
00:11:03,010 --> 00:11:05,534
So he gave me this piece,
169
00:11:05,577 --> 00:11:07,362
An Encounter with
an Interviewer,
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00:11:07,405 --> 00:11:08,668
written by Mark Twain.
171
00:11:10,495 --> 00:11:11,932
I thought it was
the corniest thing
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00:11:11,975 --> 00:11:13,629
I had ever read in my life.
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00:11:13,673 --> 00:11:16,284
I thought Ed must be crazy.
174
00:11:16,327 --> 00:11:19,461
I mean I thought he had a
bettersense of values than this,
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00:11:19,504 --> 00:11:22,420
this is awful, how am
I gonna say to him.
176
00:11:22,464 --> 00:11:24,422
So finally, I got my courage up,
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00:11:24,466 --> 00:11:28,296
I said, Ed I'm sorry,
I think this is,
178
00:11:30,385 --> 00:11:31,908
it's kinda corny Ed.
179
00:11:31,952 --> 00:11:34,737
He said,
why don't you workit up and show it to me.
180
00:11:34,781 --> 00:11:36,130
So we did.
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00:11:36,173 --> 00:11:38,132
We did it for him,
in the classroom.
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00:11:39,437 --> 00:11:41,526
And he said, Hal I
understand why you
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00:11:41,570 --> 00:11:43,441
don't think this is funny.
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00:11:44,442 --> 00:11:46,531
You don't understand
what's going on.
185
00:11:47,707 --> 00:11:51,145
This is a man with a
terrific sense of humor,
186
00:11:52,537 --> 00:11:56,585
pulling the leg of somebodywith
no sense of humor at all.
187
00:11:57,455 --> 00:11:59,109
That's the joke.
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00:11:59,153 --> 00:12:02,417
I said, oh, okay.
189
00:12:02,460 --> 00:12:06,595
And so we traveled for 30 weeks.
190
00:12:06,638 --> 00:12:10,947
We did 307 shows in 30 weeks.
191
00:12:10,991 --> 00:12:13,515
No matter where we went,
192
00:12:13,558 --> 00:12:14,646
the Mark Twain number,
193
00:12:14,690 --> 00:12:17,780
of being interviewed
by this crazy lady,
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00:12:17,824 --> 00:12:18,955
even the kids,
195
00:12:20,261 --> 00:12:21,566
we ended the show with it,
196
00:12:21,610 --> 00:12:23,481
because we could get
off with our life.
197
00:12:23,525 --> 00:12:25,396
And everybody liked
the Mark Twain show.
198
00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:26,658
That, they could take.
199
00:12:26,702 --> 00:12:28,922
Hamlet? Not so much.
200
00:12:28,965 --> 00:12:30,880
Elizabeth in Essex,
I don't know,
201
00:12:30,924 --> 00:12:33,535
but Mark Twain, okay.
202
00:12:33,578 --> 00:12:35,580
Well I hope you won't
mind if I smoke.
203
00:12:36,538 --> 00:12:38,409
I can't see any harm in it.
204
00:12:40,020 --> 00:12:42,457
So long as there are
no children present.
205
00:12:44,894 --> 00:12:49,594
I never began smoking
myselfuntil I was nine years old.
206
00:12:49,638 --> 00:12:51,509
[audience laughing]
207
00:12:51,553 --> 00:12:53,120
And even then, I
was not constant.
208
00:12:55,513 --> 00:12:57,733
I was always ready to reform,
209
00:12:59,561 --> 00:13:01,693
if I could see any profit in it.
210
00:13:03,478 --> 00:13:07,047
About the only profit
I could ever see in it,
211
00:13:07,090 --> 00:13:10,485
was the heavenly pleasureof
giving up the reform
212
00:13:10,528 --> 00:13:12,792
and going back to smoking again.
213
00:13:12,835 --> 00:13:15,795
[audience laughing]
214
00:13:17,144 --> 00:13:19,973
I come into this world
asking for a light.
215
00:13:23,846 --> 00:13:27,502
And I expect to go out
ofit blowing smoke rings.
216
00:13:27,545 --> 00:13:31,506
- My father took me
to Memphis, Tennessee,
217
00:13:31,549 --> 00:13:33,377
to see Mark Twain Tonight.
218
00:13:33,421 --> 00:13:36,293
Out came this old man,
219
00:13:37,599 --> 00:13:39,253
in a white coat,
220
00:13:40,428 --> 00:13:44,606
with a cigar and big eyebrows,
221
00:13:45,912 --> 00:13:50,525
and I remember my ear havingto
get accustomed to his voice,
222
00:13:50,568 --> 00:13:52,527
because it was real craggly,
223
00:13:52,570 --> 00:13:57,662
and as a child who would
grow up to be an actor,
224
00:13:57,706 --> 00:14:00,187
the thing that I
rememberbeing most struck by,
225
00:14:00,230 --> 00:14:01,666
and this is not me projecting
226
00:14:01,710 --> 00:14:03,625
onto this child.
227
00:14:03,668 --> 00:14:06,671
I remember thinking,
228
00:14:06,715 --> 00:14:10,023
this man is acting,
229
00:14:10,066 --> 00:14:12,721
and he is holding this room.
230
00:14:13,940 --> 00:14:18,422
His presence and his
timing and his rhythm,
231
00:14:18,466 --> 00:14:20,990
is orchestrating the
way we are breathing,
232
00:14:22,122 --> 00:14:23,384
as an audience.
233
00:14:23,427 --> 00:14:26,300
And he would take
three sentences,
234
00:14:27,562 --> 00:14:29,912
and he would set up
the first sentence,
235
00:14:29,956 --> 00:14:31,914
and he'd get a laugh,
236
00:14:31,958 --> 00:14:34,917
and then he would say
the second sentence,
237
00:14:34,961 --> 00:14:37,528
and in the pause between
the second sentence
238
00:14:37,572 --> 00:14:38,965
and the third sentence,
239
00:14:39,008 --> 00:14:41,532
he would get a second laugh,
240
00:14:41,576 --> 00:14:46,320
and a third laugh,
and sometimesa fourth or fifth laugh,
241
00:14:46,363 --> 00:14:49,192
before he said the
third sentence,
242
00:14:49,236 --> 00:14:50,759
which was the end
of the thought,
243
00:14:50,802 --> 00:14:52,780
and by the end of the
thoughtand that third sentence,
244
00:14:52,804 --> 00:14:55,590
the audience would just bein hysterics,
and go wild.
245
00:14:56,896 --> 00:14:59,724
But that slow, steady,
246
00:15:01,639 --> 00:15:05,556
canny, rye rhythm that he had,
247
00:15:07,732 --> 00:15:10,605
was mesmerizing,
and intoxicating,
248
00:15:10,648 --> 00:15:13,086
and you could not
believewhat he was capable of,
249
00:15:13,129 --> 00:15:14,129
with that humor.
250
00:15:16,306 --> 00:15:18,265
- My wife is Dixie.
251
00:15:21,137 --> 00:15:22,137
Dixie.
252
00:15:39,460 --> 00:15:40,722
Now we gotta go to work.
253
00:15:42,158 --> 00:15:43,158
Aw shucks.
254
00:15:44,465 --> 00:15:49,165
Oh, this looks familiar,
Iremember pulling in here before.
255
00:15:49,209 --> 00:15:51,602
- [Man] Hal, this isDebbie,
the stage manager,
256
00:15:51,646 --> 00:15:52,995
- Nice to meet you.
257
00:15:53,039 --> 00:15:53,778
A pleasure.
258
00:15:53,822 --> 00:15:54,649
- Thank you.
259
00:15:54,692 --> 00:15:56,564
- Roger, sound.
260
00:15:56,607 --> 00:15:57,347
- I'm Roger, on sound.
261
00:15:57,391 --> 00:15:58,131
Good to see you.
262
00:15:58,174 --> 00:15:59,480
- Nate, electrician.
263
00:15:59,523 --> 00:16:00,916
- How are you?
264
00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:03,658
- Both of them did the
showwhen we were here in '07.
265
00:16:03,701 --> 00:16:04,659
- I remember you.
266
00:16:04,702 --> 00:16:05,965
[laughing]
267
00:16:06,008 --> 00:16:07,314
- He hasn't changed much.
268
00:16:09,751 --> 00:16:10,815
- It's surprising you know,
269
00:16:10,839 --> 00:16:12,058
it's surprising,
270
00:16:17,193 --> 00:16:20,240
surprisingly nice hall,
271
00:16:20,283 --> 00:16:23,895
it's very colorful and
interesting design.
272
00:16:23,939 --> 00:16:28,204
It's too bad in a way thatthe
balconies are so far back.
273
00:16:28,248 --> 00:16:30,032
You know little
balconies like that,
274
00:16:30,076 --> 00:16:32,600
but not too far.
275
00:16:33,862 --> 00:16:35,255
- The acoustics are great.
276
00:16:35,298 --> 00:16:36,536
- The acoustics are great here?
277
00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:37,909
- Yeah.
278
00:16:37,953 --> 00:16:39,259
- Wow, look at this.
279
00:16:40,086 --> 00:16:41,391
- A little different...
280
00:16:41,435 --> 00:16:42,697
- Really nice.
281
00:16:42,740 --> 00:16:43,785
- ...than last week.
282
00:16:43,828 --> 00:16:45,395
- Where were we last week?
283
00:16:45,439 --> 00:16:46,701
Boulder.
284
00:16:46,744 --> 00:16:51,445
Now I gotta unbind
all this stuff here.
285
00:16:54,013 --> 00:16:55,840
Let's see, this is for show,
286
00:16:55,884 --> 00:16:57,320
I'm intending to do.
287
00:16:58,930 --> 00:17:03,631
And, I may just look
thatover while I'm making up,
288
00:17:04,719 --> 00:17:06,112
I might try to do that.
289
00:17:07,287 --> 00:17:08,853
I haven't been doing
that in a while.
290
00:17:08,897 --> 00:17:11,160
Here's a new number
I'm putting in.
291
00:17:11,204 --> 00:17:13,597
It's not new, but I
mean I haven't done it
292
00:17:13,641 --> 00:17:14,772
for several years.
293
00:17:15,817 --> 00:17:16,861
I love it.
294
00:17:18,298 --> 00:17:20,691
These are my notes for
whenl was here the last time.
295
00:17:20,735 --> 00:17:22,824
It was a very good show,
296
00:17:24,130 --> 00:17:28,264
but a slightly strangeaudience,
not wholehearted.
297
00:17:28,308 --> 00:17:29,700
They hung back sometimes.
298
00:17:29,744 --> 00:17:32,747
They did not excite me,
299
00:17:32,790 --> 00:17:35,837
nor I think did I
them, question mark.
300
00:17:36,794 --> 00:17:38,492
It was a successful performance
301
00:17:38,535 --> 00:17:40,972
but the people
seemed backed off,
302
00:17:41,016 --> 00:17:42,191
who came backstage.
303
00:17:42,235 --> 00:17:43,323
Maybe money,
304
00:17:44,454 --> 00:17:47,066
the number about
money and Wall Street,
305
00:17:47,109 --> 00:17:48,893
was too tough for them.
306
00:17:48,937 --> 00:17:50,330
Because it was pretty rough,
307
00:17:50,373 --> 00:17:53,420
and it came in 2007,
308
00:17:53,463 --> 00:17:55,770
just in advance of
the big drop-off.
309
00:17:57,424 --> 00:17:59,556
This is acetone,
310
00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:01,515
and they say sniffing it
311
00:18:03,256 --> 00:18:04,518
gives you a high,
312
00:18:04,561 --> 00:18:07,042
but I've been sniffing
it now for 56 years,
313
00:18:07,086 --> 00:18:10,089
and so far, I don't
feel anything.
314
00:18:13,353 --> 00:18:14,876
I don't know whether it's true.
315
00:18:23,014 --> 00:18:26,801
We finally had a child,
which we never planned for.
316
00:18:26,844 --> 00:18:28,585
We knew we were
gonna have children,
317
00:18:28,629 --> 00:18:31,022
but it was like over
there somewhere.
318
00:18:31,066 --> 00:18:34,983
So we didn't plan this,
andsuddenly we had a child,
319
00:18:35,026 --> 00:18:36,854
and everything changed.
320
00:18:36,898 --> 00:18:38,769
Our whole life changed.
321
00:18:38,813 --> 00:18:42,033
We hadn't planned for it,
we weren't prepared for it,
322
00:18:42,077 --> 00:18:46,864
and it was too bad,
because it was hard.
323
00:18:46,908 --> 00:18:48,605
So we'd moved to New York.
324
00:18:48,649 --> 00:18:51,869
We had no money,
we had noparents taking care of us.
325
00:18:51,913 --> 00:18:53,175
We were on our own.
326
00:18:54,524 --> 00:18:56,483
And we had like 200
dollars in the bank
327
00:18:56,526 --> 00:18:58,528
when we moved to New York City.
328
00:18:59,747 --> 00:19:02,489
And I was desperate
to make a living,
329
00:19:02,532 --> 00:19:05,448
and I'm walking the
pavementslooking for work as an actor,
330
00:19:05,492 --> 00:19:07,058
getting turned down by agents
331
00:19:07,102 --> 00:19:09,322
day after day after
day after day,
332
00:19:09,365 --> 00:19:11,759
so I went to a
friend of mine who
333
00:19:13,456 --> 00:19:16,677
edited a magazine
called, Programs.
334
00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:20,202
He was the son of Mark
Twain's lecture manager,
335
00:19:20,246 --> 00:19:25,251
and he had known Twain asa young boy,
quite well.
336
00:19:26,556 --> 00:19:28,036
So I went to see him,
337
00:19:29,864 --> 00:19:34,869
to ask him if he thought
I could get bookings
338
00:19:36,131 --> 00:19:38,089
with somebody else doing
the show besides Ruby.
339
00:19:39,047 --> 00:19:42,224
And he said, why
don't you do a solo
340
00:19:45,009 --> 00:19:46,097
of Twain?
341
00:19:47,882 --> 00:19:49,100
I said, a solo?
342
00:19:49,144 --> 00:19:52,147
You mean go out alone
in front of an audience?
343
00:19:52,191 --> 00:19:53,191
Yeah.
344
00:19:54,236 --> 00:19:56,151
My God, I'd be scared
to death, I couldn't.
345
00:19:56,195 --> 00:19:59,415
He said, I think you
could get bookings.
346
00:20:01,678 --> 00:20:02,984
Okay.
347
00:20:03,027 --> 00:20:04,028
And that was it.
348
00:20:04,072 --> 00:20:05,378
That's all he said.
349
00:20:05,421 --> 00:20:06,640
So I walked out of there,
350
00:20:06,683 --> 00:20:09,599
and I walked around the
streets of New York,
351
00:20:09,643 --> 00:20:10,643
thinking to myself,
352
00:20:11,906 --> 00:20:14,082
how am I gonna do
this, holy mackerel.
353
00:20:15,083 --> 00:20:17,085
So there was the
Argosy Bookstore,
354
00:20:17,128 --> 00:20:19,261
was the second-handbookstore
on 59th Street,
355
00:20:19,305 --> 00:20:22,046
over near Bloomingdale's
on the east side.
356
00:20:22,090 --> 00:20:23,657
So I kept passing
it, passing it.
357
00:20:23,700 --> 00:20:26,616
But one day I thought,
oh I gotta go in.
358
00:20:26,660 --> 00:20:29,967
I went in,
and I said where'sthe Mark Twain section.
359
00:20:30,011 --> 00:20:33,449
It was a dusty cornerupstairs,
and all these books,
360
00:20:33,493 --> 00:20:35,321
old books, all used books.
361
00:20:36,235 --> 00:20:37,627
So I started buying them,
362
00:20:37,671 --> 00:20:39,150
and I started reading them,
363
00:20:42,850 --> 00:20:43,850
and it was a revelation.
364
00:20:47,158 --> 00:20:48,682
It was a revelation.
365
00:20:50,118 --> 00:20:54,165
If we wanted to know
whatthe human race is truly like,
366
00:20:55,123 --> 00:20:57,125
observe it at election time.
367
00:20:58,518 --> 00:21:01,564
That's when the
parade of half truths,
368
00:21:01,608 --> 00:21:03,305
goes marching by.
369
00:21:05,176 --> 00:21:08,049
It's a monument to
the gospel that truth
370
00:21:08,092 --> 00:21:09,616
is stranger than fiction.
371
00:21:11,182 --> 00:21:15,012
The candidates rearrange
thefacts to suit themselves,
372
00:21:15,056 --> 00:21:17,058
and keep the lies
and the half truths
373
00:21:17,101 --> 00:21:18,364
spinning in the air,
374
00:21:18,407 --> 00:21:21,280
while the great gullible
public cheers and shouts
375
00:21:21,323 --> 00:21:24,500
and stomps its approval
the way they always do,
376
00:21:24,544 --> 00:21:26,937
when a politician has
just said something
377
00:21:26,981 --> 00:21:28,722
they don't understand.
378
00:21:28,765 --> 00:21:31,159
[audience laughing]
379
00:21:31,202 --> 00:21:34,162
[audience applauding]
380
00:21:36,425 --> 00:21:39,559
We can discount 90% of
what the candidates say
381
00:21:39,602 --> 00:21:40,777
at election time,
382
00:21:40,821 --> 00:21:43,650
and assign it to
softening of the brain,
383
00:21:45,216 --> 00:21:47,001
because the contents
of their skull
384
00:21:47,044 --> 00:21:50,178
could change places with
the contents of a pie,
385
00:21:52,441 --> 00:21:55,226
and nobody would be
theworse off for it but the pie.
386
00:21:56,184 --> 00:21:57,925
[audience laughing]
387
00:21:57,968 --> 00:22:01,755
There is not one brain amongthem,
superior to the rest.
388
00:22:03,234 --> 00:22:07,326
And yet this sarcastic factdoes
not humble the arrogant,
389
00:22:08,979 --> 00:22:11,678
or diminish theknow-it-all pronouncements
390
00:22:12,809 --> 00:22:15,246
of a single
ignoramus among them.
391
00:22:16,857 --> 00:22:20,382
They are the signs of
an ancestral procession
392
00:22:20,426 --> 00:22:21,905
of ignoramuses,
393
00:22:23,254 --> 00:22:25,039
stretching back to
the missing link.
394
00:22:26,083 --> 00:22:29,086
[audience laughing]
395
00:22:34,091 --> 00:22:36,398
The one true fact
that rises above
396
00:22:36,442 --> 00:22:40,620
this circus of mendacity
and misrepresentation,
397
00:22:40,663 --> 00:22:45,146
is that truth has no
place in Washington.
398
00:22:47,017 --> 00:22:48,497
- You walk out and you think,
399
00:22:49,759 --> 00:22:51,370
that could have been
written yesterday.
400
00:22:51,413 --> 00:22:54,285
Those comments could
havebeen said three weeks ago.
401
00:22:54,329 --> 00:22:56,462
The political
content, the humor,
402
00:22:57,811 --> 00:22:59,073
it's remarkable,
403
00:22:59,116 --> 00:23:01,249
but Samuel Clemens' life
404
00:23:02,598 --> 00:23:06,646
touched every aspect of
thecentury in which he lived.
405
00:23:06,689 --> 00:23:09,213
Things are different now,
but they're the same.
406
00:23:10,476 --> 00:23:14,697
Technology, communication,
politics, finances,
407
00:23:16,264 --> 00:23:19,528
life changes but there'sa
continuity that goes on
408
00:23:19,572 --> 00:23:23,097
amidst all the change too,
and Clemens, Mark Twain,
409
00:23:23,140 --> 00:23:26,100
he's got those things
sonailed that they resonate
410
00:23:26,143 --> 00:23:27,928
no matter when you hear them.
411
00:23:27,971 --> 00:23:30,191
- Hal Holbrook is probably
412
00:23:30,234 --> 00:23:32,323
the greatest Twain
scholar in America,
413
00:23:33,542 --> 00:23:36,023
because he not only has
to talk about Twain,
414
00:23:36,066 --> 00:23:37,416
he has to express Twain,
415
00:23:38,852 --> 00:23:40,810
and he knows an
awful lot of Twain.
416
00:23:42,159 --> 00:23:44,945
And that's a lot differentfrom
memorizing a few jokes.
417
00:23:46,294 --> 00:23:48,644
Slap your thigh,
wearinga white suit or whatever.
418
00:23:48,688 --> 00:23:52,213
His knowledge allows him
todecide what Twain's gonna say,
419
00:23:53,606 --> 00:23:55,192
because Twain
saidsomething about everything.
420
00:23:55,216 --> 00:23:57,348
And you know,
you can gothrough Twain like the Bible,
421
00:23:58,219 --> 00:23:59,350
and find a quote.
422
00:24:00,264 --> 00:24:02,876
And Holbrook knows the quotes.
423
00:24:02,919 --> 00:24:05,487
- [Woman] Nate, this is Debbie.
424
00:24:05,531 --> 00:24:06,880
- [Nate] Go ahead.
425
00:24:06,923 --> 00:24:08,795
- We are entering
the house right now,
426
00:24:08,838 --> 00:24:11,928
if you could kill
the works on stage?
427
00:24:14,888 --> 00:24:16,324
- [Nate] Done.
428
00:24:16,367 --> 00:24:17,368
- Thank you.
429
00:24:18,979 --> 00:24:20,371
And kill the house, thank you.
430
00:24:24,898 --> 00:24:27,335
Bring up light cue
three, please Nick.
431
00:24:27,378 --> 00:24:29,206
- You know you could
move that lectern
432
00:24:29,250 --> 00:24:31,165
offstage another six inches.
433
00:24:37,345 --> 00:24:39,173
Okay, that's better.
434
00:24:43,830 --> 00:24:47,268
We could take the blue
washdown a little bit, okay?
435
00:24:49,096 --> 00:24:51,272
- Nate, could you bring
the blue wash down?
436
00:24:53,492 --> 00:24:55,537
Take it down 10% please.
437
00:24:55,581 --> 00:24:59,498
- Take a little bit
more off it, maybe 5%.
438
00:24:59,541 --> 00:25:00,890
- Take another 10 please.
439
00:25:02,979 --> 00:25:04,590
- That's good there,
440
00:25:04,633 --> 00:25:06,287
no, a little bit more up.
441
00:25:07,375 --> 00:25:08,332
Up a little bit more.
442
00:25:08,376 --> 00:25:09,656
- Bring it up
about five, please.
443
00:25:10,900 --> 00:25:14,513
- When Mark Twain
gave his lectures,
444
00:25:14,556 --> 00:25:17,951
which started about 1870,
445
00:25:19,605 --> 00:25:20,823
he called them lectures.
446
00:25:20,867 --> 00:25:23,391
It was lectures but
they were funny.
447
00:25:23,434 --> 00:25:25,349
He was funny.
448
00:25:25,393 --> 00:25:28,178
Other people were not
funny, Artemas Ward,
449
00:25:28,222 --> 00:25:29,353
people like that,
450
00:25:29,397 --> 00:25:32,008
but most was a sedate thing.
451
00:25:33,270 --> 00:25:37,187
So his forum, just his
natural way of talking,
452
00:25:37,231 --> 00:25:39,842
which was just to talk,
453
00:25:39,886 --> 00:25:42,932
and not to stand behind
thelectern like Dickens did,
454
00:25:44,325 --> 00:25:48,416
to move around,
that was considered
irreverent or different.
455
00:25:48,459 --> 00:25:52,420
To us today, that
would seem ridiculous.
456
00:25:52,463 --> 00:25:55,205
But in those days,
anything like that,
457
00:25:55,249 --> 00:25:57,207
well it just wasn't
the accepted thing,
458
00:25:57,251 --> 00:25:59,470
to leave the lectern
and go slouching around,
459
00:25:59,514 --> 00:26:02,430
and mumbling and
all this, you know.
460
00:26:02,473 --> 00:26:04,519
So that was his
style, just like,
461
00:26:06,129 --> 00:26:08,262
stream of consciousness.
462
00:26:08,305 --> 00:26:10,743
So in order to,
463
00:26:10,786 --> 00:26:13,223
and he dressed black, you know.
464
00:26:13,267 --> 00:26:15,182
But in order to
465
00:26:17,488 --> 00:26:19,969
visually give the picture,
466
00:26:20,013 --> 00:26:22,363
of some kind of eccentricity,
467
00:26:23,494 --> 00:26:24,974
to a modern audience,
468
00:26:26,889 --> 00:26:29,631
I knew that he was
famousfor wearing a white suit.
469
00:26:31,154 --> 00:26:33,461
When he lived on 5th Avenue,
he'd put his white suit
470
00:26:33,504 --> 00:26:36,377
on Sunday morning, and
walk by the parishioners
471
00:26:36,420 --> 00:26:39,336
getting out of church,
andshock the hell out of them.
472
00:26:39,380 --> 00:26:42,557
So I decided to
wear the white suit,
473
00:26:45,125 --> 00:26:49,259
and to smoke on the stage,
which is also unusual,
474
00:26:49,303 --> 00:26:51,261
which he would never
have done then,
475
00:26:51,305 --> 00:26:52,611
because the cigar was
476
00:26:54,134 --> 00:26:57,137
a trademark of Twain's
the same way it was
477
00:26:57,180 --> 00:26:58,399
to Winston Churchill.
478
00:27:00,401 --> 00:27:02,490
I believe there's
somecommandment against smoking
479
00:27:02,533 --> 00:27:05,406
in the pulpit,
but I'mworking to get it removed.
480
00:27:05,449 --> 00:27:06,625
Mind you I have no,
481
00:27:08,278 --> 00:27:09,366
let me think for a minute.
482
00:27:11,368 --> 00:27:13,327
I have no objection
to abstinence,
483
00:27:13,370 --> 00:27:15,372
I practice it
myself on occasion.
484
00:27:16,417 --> 00:27:19,072
I make it a rule never
to smoke when asleep,
485
00:27:19,115 --> 00:27:21,030
not that I care for
moderation myself,
486
00:27:21,074 --> 00:27:24,686
but I do it as an
example to others
487
00:27:24,730 --> 00:27:29,125
and to prove that I'm
not afraid of habit.
488
00:27:29,169 --> 00:27:31,562
I can give it up
whenever I want to.
489
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:34,304
I've done it a thousand times.
490
00:27:34,348 --> 00:27:36,872
- One moment in it that
I will never forget
491
00:27:36,916 --> 00:27:41,834
is that he feel asleep
during the performance,
492
00:27:41,877 --> 00:27:46,882
and I thought, oh my God,
hehas actually fallen asleep.
493
00:27:48,449 --> 00:27:51,017
And it went on and on and on.
494
00:27:51,060 --> 00:27:52,540
He was snoring,
495
00:27:52,583 --> 00:27:56,283
and just very peacefully,
sitting in a chair, fast asleep,
496
00:27:56,326 --> 00:27:59,068
and the audience beganto
titter and then laugh,
497
00:27:59,112 --> 00:28:00,896
and then get concerned.
498
00:28:00,940 --> 00:28:05,509
And then he woke up
and pretended that
it never happened,
499
00:28:06,859 --> 00:28:09,209
and then you realized
thatit was part of the show.
500
00:28:09,252 --> 00:28:11,472
But it was so brilliant,
501
00:28:11,515 --> 00:28:15,606
that he brought us
in, so completely,
502
00:28:15,650 --> 00:28:19,349
that he took a nap in
themiddle of a performance,
503
00:28:19,393 --> 00:28:20,611
and pulled it off.
504
00:28:20,655 --> 00:28:22,831
It was a stroke of genius.
505
00:28:22,875 --> 00:28:27,444
- I spent a year or
so constructing a show
506
00:28:27,488 --> 00:28:29,185
of one hour length,
507
00:28:29,229 --> 00:28:34,060
and I got booked into a collegein
Lock Haven, Pennsylvania,
508
00:28:34,103 --> 00:28:36,062
on the Susquehanna
River up there.
509
00:28:37,628 --> 00:28:41,545
And I went out on stagein
front of that audience,
510
00:28:41,589 --> 00:28:45,201
it was a morning
assembly at 11 o'clock.
511
00:28:45,245 --> 00:28:46,899
I was frightened out of my wits.
512
00:28:48,509 --> 00:28:51,164
I had my makeup, I love makeup,
513
00:28:51,207 --> 00:28:53,514
and I had all this makeup,
514
00:28:55,472 --> 00:28:56,778
got myself together,
515
00:28:56,822 --> 00:28:59,563
and walked out on that stage
516
00:28:59,607 --> 00:29:02,349
and I had a lectern so
Icould hold onto something
517
00:29:02,392 --> 00:29:04,394
in case I was gonna faint,
518
00:29:04,438 --> 00:29:07,136
and a rug, and I had
a table over here.
519
00:29:07,180 --> 00:29:09,399
If I ever dared walk
away from the lectern,
520
00:29:09,443 --> 00:29:13,142
because it was like
holding on to an anchor.
521
00:29:13,186 --> 00:29:16,580
And I started to speak.
522
00:29:18,191 --> 00:29:21,760
I was hoping there might
bea laugh in the first line.
523
00:29:22,935 --> 00:29:25,459
Not real funny, but
the first line is,
524
00:29:25,502 --> 00:29:28,549
I wish to begin
at the beginning,
525
00:29:28,592 --> 00:29:30,551
lest I forget it altogether.
526
00:29:30,594 --> 00:29:32,553
I thought there
might be a chuckle.
527
00:29:33,902 --> 00:29:36,470
They laughed on,
I wish tobegin this at the beginning.
528
00:29:37,950 --> 00:29:40,691
Then they laughed again
at the end of the line.
529
00:29:42,128 --> 00:29:43,390
I thought, my God.
530
00:29:43,433 --> 00:29:45,348
Then I kept going and
they kept laughing,
531
00:29:45,392 --> 00:29:46,717
and they laughed,
they laughed at stuff
532
00:29:46,741 --> 00:29:48,830
I didn't even know was funny.
533
00:29:50,353 --> 00:29:52,442
By the end of half anhour,
I was sailing along,
534
00:29:52,486 --> 00:29:55,445
I thought,
this is wonderfulhearing an audience
535
00:29:55,489 --> 00:29:58,187
laugh like this is so wonderful,
536
00:29:58,231 --> 00:30:00,842
and people laughed,
and ohwhat a wonderful feeling.
537
00:30:00,886 --> 00:30:04,106
And then I got into
a number called,
538
00:30:04,150 --> 00:30:06,717
Captain Stormfield's
Visit to Heaven,
539
00:30:07,980 --> 00:30:11,853
which I think is a reallywonderful,
satiric,
540
00:30:11,897 --> 00:30:13,507
charming piece.
541
00:30:13,550 --> 00:30:15,944
It's a satire on heaven.
542
00:30:15,988 --> 00:30:17,685
Well the number
started out all right,
543
00:30:17,728 --> 00:30:19,078
and then it started dying.
544
00:30:20,035 --> 00:30:22,298
The response started dying.
545
00:30:22,342 --> 00:30:23,604
It's a long number,
546
00:30:23,647 --> 00:30:26,085
it's the one that I
was most worried about.
547
00:30:26,912 --> 00:30:28,478
It was like 15 minutes long.
548
00:30:28,522 --> 00:30:30,176
I thought if I go
down with this,
549
00:30:30,219 --> 00:30:32,047
what am I gonna do?
550
00:30:32,091 --> 00:30:35,485
Then I asked the guy in
charge of the assembly,
551
00:30:35,529 --> 00:30:39,402
what happened with
CaptainStormfield's Visit to Heaven?
552
00:30:39,446 --> 00:30:43,754
Well, they may have
foundit a little sacrilegious.
553
00:30:46,888 --> 00:30:48,629
I thought, sacrilegious?
554
00:30:48,672 --> 00:30:50,805
It never occurred to me
555
00:30:50,849 --> 00:30:55,723
that anybody would takeexception to this,
sacrilegious?
556
00:30:55,766 --> 00:30:57,464
That's what it is,
but it's funny.
557
00:30:58,726 --> 00:31:01,685
But that was my first
big lesson with Twain,
558
00:31:01,729 --> 00:31:02,773
because
559
00:31:04,514 --> 00:31:06,647
there's an awful lot
of people out there
560
00:31:06,690 --> 00:31:09,302
who don't want to hear
anything sacrilegious,
561
00:31:10,564 --> 00:31:14,611
no matter how funny it
is, or how true it is.
562
00:31:15,874 --> 00:31:20,879
They don't want to
hear that truth spoken.
563
00:31:22,141 --> 00:31:23,945
And that was something
that I learned early on,
564
00:31:23,969 --> 00:31:25,971
and it was a great
challenge to me,
565
00:31:26,014 --> 00:31:30,105
because my whole
impulse was to speak it,
566
00:31:30,149 --> 00:31:31,193
which I did.
567
00:31:32,020 --> 00:31:33,761
Man has a Bible he is,
568
00:31:33,804 --> 00:31:36,590
he's invented himself a heaven,
569
00:31:36,633 --> 00:31:39,593
and entered into it
allthe nations of the Earth,
570
00:31:39,636 --> 00:31:41,682
all in one common jumble,
571
00:31:41,725 --> 00:31:44,859
and all of them on
an equality absolute.
572
00:31:46,992 --> 00:31:49,559
[chuckling]
573
00:31:49,603 --> 00:31:51,387
They have to be brothers.
574
00:31:52,606 --> 00:31:55,957
They have to mix together,
and pray together,
575
00:31:56,001 --> 00:31:58,003
and harp and hosanna together,
576
00:31:58,046 --> 00:32:00,266
whites, Negros, Jews, everybody.
577
00:32:01,658 --> 00:32:02,790
There are no distinctions.
578
00:32:06,750 --> 00:32:09,666
Yet, down here on Earth
allthe nations hate each other,
579
00:32:09,710 --> 00:32:10,972
and fight each other,
580
00:32:11,016 --> 00:32:13,061
and every one of them
persecutes the Jew,
581
00:32:14,541 --> 00:32:18,371
and yet every piousperson
adores that heaven,
582
00:32:18,414 --> 00:32:20,373
and wants to get into it.
583
00:32:20,416 --> 00:32:23,158
He really does now,
isn't that marvelous?
584
00:32:24,681 --> 00:32:27,946
And when he's in a holy rapture,
585
00:32:27,989 --> 00:32:32,080
he thinks that if he
could only get up there,
586
00:32:32,124 --> 00:32:35,736
he would take that whole
populace to his heart,
587
00:32:35,779 --> 00:32:38,957
and hug, and hug, and hug.
588
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,784
I wonder if God invented man
589
00:32:40,828 --> 00:32:44,005
because he wasdisappointed in the monkey.
590
00:32:44,049 --> 00:32:47,052
[audience laughing]
591
00:32:54,798 --> 00:32:57,410
Is the human race a joke?
592
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:01,849
Do you suppose, is it a joke?
593
00:33:05,418 --> 00:33:08,638
Was it patched together
in a dull time,
594
00:33:08,682 --> 00:33:10,814
when there was nothing
important to do?
595
00:33:11,946 --> 00:33:15,994
If we are the
noblest work of God,
596
00:33:17,821 --> 00:33:19,432
where is the ignoblest?
597
00:33:22,696 --> 00:33:24,654
In the last five or
six thousand years,
598
00:33:24,698 --> 00:33:28,223
five or six high civilizationshave risen,
flourished,
599
00:33:28,267 --> 00:33:29,964
commanded the
wonder of the world,
600
00:33:30,008 --> 00:33:32,053
and then faded away
and disappeared,
601
00:33:32,097 --> 00:33:34,447
and not one of them until ours
602
00:33:34,490 --> 00:33:37,841
ever invented a sweeping
and adequate way
603
00:33:37,885 --> 00:33:40,409
to kill masses of people.
604
00:33:44,718 --> 00:33:46,198
They all did their best,
605
00:33:47,938 --> 00:33:51,333
but only our civilizationhas
scored a triumph
606
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:53,160
to be proud of.
607
00:33:56,860 --> 00:33:59,037
And before long it
will be recognized
608
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:03,041
that the only competent
killers, are Christians.
609
00:34:04,781 --> 00:34:07,958
And then the pagan
world will go to school
610
00:34:08,002 --> 00:34:09,090
to the Christian,
611
00:34:09,134 --> 00:34:11,962
not to acquire its religion,
612
00:34:13,529 --> 00:34:14,791
but its guns.
613
00:34:19,796 --> 00:34:22,408
This is the toughest
thing of all,
614
00:34:23,974 --> 00:34:24,974
putting on this nose.
615
00:34:27,413 --> 00:34:29,110
If you get it wrong,
616
00:34:29,154 --> 00:34:31,634
and the glue gets ahead
of you, you're finished.
617
00:34:38,032 --> 00:34:39,903
I'll try once more
to do it with you,
618
00:34:39,947 --> 00:34:42,210
the hard way, I'm gonna
do it the hard way.
619
00:34:44,778 --> 00:34:47,955
I started working on
makeupwhen I was in college.
620
00:34:49,130 --> 00:34:52,394
I loved makeup, I loved
disguising myself.
621
00:34:53,569 --> 00:34:54,657
Disappearing.
622
00:34:56,268 --> 00:34:59,009
I was not comfortablewith
myself in those days,
623
00:35:00,402 --> 00:35:05,320
and that was one of the
things I had to learn,
624
00:35:05,364 --> 00:35:09,759
both in life and as an actor,
625
00:35:09,803 --> 00:35:11,109
I had to learn to
626
00:35:14,460 --> 00:35:16,201
stop disguising myself
627
00:35:17,245 --> 00:35:19,160
and just play myself,
628
00:35:19,204 --> 00:35:21,423
and it was always
very difficult for me.
629
00:35:22,511 --> 00:35:25,819
- His warmup is his makeup,
630
00:35:25,862 --> 00:35:28,038
putting on his makeup,
putting on his eyebrows,
631
00:35:28,082 --> 00:35:31,564
putting on his mustache
and his false nose,
632
00:35:31,607 --> 00:35:33,305
his proboscis.
633
00:35:33,348 --> 00:35:36,525
That's him getting
into character,
634
00:35:36,569 --> 00:35:38,875
and there's nothing
mystical about it,
635
00:35:38,919 --> 00:35:39,833
he can talk
636
00:35:39,876 --> 00:35:42,401
while he's doing it, he's not,
637
00:35:42,444 --> 00:35:44,925
it's not like you're
inchurch and you can't talk,
638
00:35:44,968 --> 00:35:48,015
but it's just the routine
639
00:35:49,190 --> 00:35:52,106
that enables to him
to be ready to go out
640
00:35:52,150 --> 00:35:55,196
and face an audience
as Mark Twain.
641
00:35:55,240 --> 00:35:56,763
- I do something now
642
00:35:57,938 --> 00:36:01,333
called stiffling with
these two colors,
643
00:36:01,376 --> 00:36:04,901
and Dick Smith, who
is a great makeup man,
644
00:36:08,253 --> 00:36:09,558
he credits me with
645
00:36:11,952 --> 00:36:14,041
inventing this,
646
00:36:15,085 --> 00:36:18,001
but he came down
years ago, in 1962,
647
00:36:23,006 --> 00:36:25,226
to watch me do the makeup,
648
00:36:25,270 --> 00:36:28,273
I put a makeup on for AbeLincoln,
young Abe Lincoln,
649
00:36:29,926 --> 00:36:31,189
and it was very difficult,
650
00:36:31,232 --> 00:36:33,060
because I don't have
the face for it.
651
00:36:34,279 --> 00:36:36,803
So I had to use
some pretty strong
652
00:36:39,022 --> 00:36:40,937
highlights and
shadows and stuff.
653
00:36:40,981 --> 00:36:44,898
And I was looking at a
portrait of Rembrandt,
654
00:36:45,942 --> 00:36:50,382
and I noticed that
if you look close,
655
00:36:50,425 --> 00:36:52,993
you see little tiny
yellow, red, and blue
656
00:36:53,036 --> 00:36:55,343
dots and things, marked,
657
00:36:56,997 --> 00:37:01,088
and you step back five feet,
and you don't see them,
658
00:37:01,131 --> 00:37:03,525
but the effect is
a textured skin.
659
00:37:08,095 --> 00:37:11,359
- I moved to Iowa
in August of '97,
660
00:37:11,403 --> 00:37:13,970
so I had two years
here to do my PhD.
661
00:37:14,014 --> 00:37:15,294
I was no sooner there that fall,
662
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:17,017
than somebody said,
663
00:37:17,060 --> 00:37:20,673
well did you hear Hal
Holbrook'scoming to Burlington, Iowa?
664
00:37:20,716 --> 00:37:22,762
I knew that to see Hal Holbrook,
665
00:37:22,805 --> 00:37:25,591
would be the closest
I'd ever come to really
666
00:37:25,634 --> 00:37:29,812
hearing Mark Twain,
and watchingMark Twain move and talk,
667
00:37:29,856 --> 00:37:32,380
and I had to go somehow,
668
00:37:32,424 --> 00:37:35,905
and then I found out
thattickets were 35 dollars.
669
00:37:37,124 --> 00:37:38,604
That was a problem for me,
670
00:37:38,647 --> 00:37:41,084
because I did not have
an extra five dollars,
671
00:37:41,128 --> 00:37:42,347
but it was fall,
672
00:37:42,390 --> 00:37:45,350
and I had just bought
my boots for the winter,
673
00:37:45,393 --> 00:37:47,830
down at Walmart,
they were 35 dollars,
674
00:37:47,874 --> 00:37:50,050
and that was gonna get
throughmy two winters at Iowa,
675
00:37:50,093 --> 00:37:51,834
then I was going
back home to Florida
676
00:37:51,878 --> 00:37:54,707
where I wouldn't need
boots anymore anyway.
677
00:37:54,750 --> 00:37:57,666
And I realized I had not
yet taken the tag off.
678
00:37:57,710 --> 00:37:59,581
I hadn't done
anything with them.
679
00:38:01,148 --> 00:38:02,647
So I did the most
obviousthing anybody would do,
680
00:38:02,671 --> 00:38:05,979
was I took the boots back,
got my 35 dollars back,
681
00:38:06,022 --> 00:38:08,677
and I bought my Hal
Holbrook ticket,
682
00:38:08,721 --> 00:38:11,245
and it was the best 35
dollars I ever spent.
683
00:38:11,289 --> 00:38:13,813
- I had put the show
aside, Mark Twain,
684
00:38:13,856 --> 00:38:16,119
I might never have
done it again,
685
00:38:16,163 --> 00:38:18,905
because I had finallygotten
a job in New York.
686
00:38:19,775 --> 00:38:21,777
I got a job on a soap opera,
687
00:38:21,821 --> 00:38:25,172
on CBS, called A Brighter Day,
688
00:38:25,215 --> 00:38:27,392
and I had a contract
for a whole year,
689
00:38:27,435 --> 00:38:30,264
with options for
the other years,
690
00:38:30,308 --> 00:38:32,788
and I was gonna make
maybe 200 bucks a week,
691
00:38:32,832 --> 00:38:36,749
and I was in clover,
I was finally safe,
692
00:38:36,792 --> 00:38:39,317
and the family was safe,
and the baby was safe,
693
00:38:40,405 --> 00:38:43,712
but something in my mind said,
694
00:38:43,756 --> 00:38:45,192
why don't you give it a try?
695
00:38:45,235 --> 00:38:46,411
So I tried it out,
696
00:38:46,454 --> 00:38:49,370
a place down in Grove
Street in the Village,
697
00:38:49,414 --> 00:38:51,938
and I ran there
for eight months,
698
00:38:51,981 --> 00:38:54,244
and I developed
the first two hours
699
00:38:54,288 --> 00:38:55,898
of my Mark Twain material,
700
00:38:55,942 --> 00:38:58,988
in the curve of a
baby grand piano.
701
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:01,991
One night I was
making up downstairs,
702
00:39:02,035 --> 00:39:06,344
and Kerry our door man
703
00:39:06,387 --> 00:39:09,521
came down and said, Ed
Sullivan's out there.
704
00:39:10,826 --> 00:39:14,264
What? Ed Sullivan, he's
got a friend with him.
705
00:39:14,308 --> 00:39:15,570
So I took the wig off,
706
00:39:15,614 --> 00:39:18,921
and I came up and
sat down with him.
707
00:39:18,965 --> 00:39:20,314
He said, sit down Hal.
708
00:39:20,358 --> 00:39:23,230
He said,
have you got anyother piece you can do?
709
00:39:23,273 --> 00:39:25,188
And I said, yeah, I know
that was a little raw,
710
00:39:25,232 --> 00:39:28,235
yeah I have this thingabout
how you get to be 70,
711
00:39:28,278 --> 00:39:30,019
you know, smoke a
lot, and all that.
712
00:39:31,325 --> 00:39:33,205
Well look, he said, can
you come to my apartment
713
00:39:33,240 --> 00:39:34,807
tomorrow and do it for me?
714
00:39:34,850 --> 00:39:37,331
I said, sure, Mister Sullivan.
715
00:39:37,375 --> 00:39:41,161
So I walk in,
and he asks mea few things about the show,
716
00:39:42,597 --> 00:39:45,034
then he said, what have
you got for me, Hal?
717
00:39:46,253 --> 00:39:48,255
I said, well I got this thing.
718
00:39:48,298 --> 00:39:50,126
He said, why don't
you just do it for me?
719
00:39:51,214 --> 00:39:52,868
So I did, he's sitting there.
720
00:39:52,912 --> 00:39:55,131
Well he's not a big
smiler you know.
721
00:39:56,350 --> 00:39:58,483
So there was no
smiles or nothin',
722
00:39:58,526 --> 00:40:00,920
and I did this piece.
723
00:40:00,963 --> 00:40:04,793
And he said,
can you cutthat to six minutes, Hal?
724
00:40:06,099 --> 00:40:08,754
I said to myself, six
minutes, cut it down?
725
00:40:08,797 --> 00:40:11,191
I don't know,
forget it, say yes.
726
00:40:11,234 --> 00:40:13,541
I said, yeah, I think I can.
727
00:40:13,585 --> 00:40:15,587
So he said, I think
we can use you.
728
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:18,807
Who's your agent?
729
00:40:20,809 --> 00:40:23,116
I said, I don't have an
agent, Mister Sullivan.
730
00:40:24,509 --> 00:40:26,946
He said, you don't
have an agent?
731
00:40:26,989 --> 00:40:28,077
I said no sir.
732
00:40:31,167 --> 00:40:32,778
How much do you want, Hal?
733
00:40:34,823 --> 00:40:39,088
Until that moment,
I hadnever thought of being paid.
734
00:40:39,132 --> 00:40:42,265
The thought of being paidhad
never entered my mind.
735
00:40:43,919 --> 00:40:45,355
Just to get on his show.
736
00:40:46,618 --> 00:40:48,576
Now I'm thinking, my
brain is in a whirl.
737
00:40:51,274 --> 00:40:53,407
Let's see, the Beatles,
738
00:40:53,451 --> 00:40:56,541
and what's the guy
fromMemphis that swivels his hips,
739
00:40:56,584 --> 00:40:58,847
they get a thousand
dollars I'm sure.
740
00:40:58,891 --> 00:41:01,415
No, that's too much Holbrook,
I'm saying in my brain.
741
00:41:03,635 --> 00:41:07,247
Maybe 200, no that's toolow,
don't make it too low.
742
00:41:07,290 --> 00:41:08,944
Meanwhile, Sullivan
is looking at me
743
00:41:08,988 --> 00:41:11,730
and my brain is
whirling, and I'm doing,
744
00:41:13,775 --> 00:41:14,775
well,
745
00:41:16,909 --> 00:41:17,909
well sir,
746
00:41:20,347 --> 00:41:23,263
would 500 dollars be all right?
747
00:41:24,917 --> 00:41:27,528
He said, you got a deal Hal.
748
00:41:30,270 --> 00:41:32,054
Then I thought, I
didn't ask enough.
749
00:41:34,056 --> 00:41:36,624
- There's a youngsterdowntown,
I saw him down there,
750
00:41:38,147 --> 00:41:40,062
and he did an
amazingimpression of Mark Twain,
751
00:41:40,106 --> 00:41:42,456
he's a Mark Twain
scholar actually.
752
00:41:42,500 --> 00:41:44,327
His name is Hal Holbrook,
753
00:41:44,371 --> 00:41:46,678
and here he is as Mark Twain.
754
00:41:46,721 --> 00:41:50,638
[bright orchestral music]
755
00:41:50,682 --> 00:41:53,859
[audience applauding]
756
00:41:58,254 --> 00:42:01,431
- Well thank you,
thank youvery much for that reception.
757
00:42:02,781 --> 00:42:05,392
And the introduction,
thatwas beautifully phrased,
758
00:42:05,435 --> 00:42:07,612
beautifully phrased,
759
00:42:07,655 --> 00:42:08,743
and well deserved.
760
00:42:11,572 --> 00:42:14,444
You know that's
one of the results
761
00:42:14,488 --> 00:42:16,446
of a long and notorious career,
762
00:42:17,926 --> 00:42:20,450
is that you do get a
great many compliments.
763
00:42:21,408 --> 00:42:23,018
And I want to say
now these compliments
764
00:42:23,062 --> 00:42:25,455
are really very
difficult to take.
765
00:42:26,413 --> 00:42:28,043
I don't care whether
you deserve them or not,
766
00:42:28,067 --> 00:42:30,373
it's just difficult
to take them.
767
00:42:31,374 --> 00:42:33,289
Compliments always
embarrass a man.
768
00:42:33,333 --> 00:42:35,640
They don't inspire
you with words,
769
00:42:35,683 --> 00:42:38,033
they don't think
of anything to say.
770
00:42:38,077 --> 00:42:40,775
I've been complimented
agreat many times in my life,
771
00:42:40,819 --> 00:42:42,298
and they always embarrass me.
772
00:42:42,342 --> 00:42:45,345
I always feel they've
not said enough.
773
00:42:45,388 --> 00:42:48,043
[audience laughing]
774
00:42:48,087 --> 00:42:49,610
But you know I'm always sorry
775
00:42:49,654 --> 00:42:52,395
to have my name mentionedas
one of the great authors,
776
00:42:53,658 --> 00:42:56,399
because they have such a
sad habit of dying off.
777
00:42:58,271 --> 00:43:00,490
Chaucer's dead, Spenser's dead.
778
00:43:01,753 --> 00:43:03,624
So is Milton and
so is Shakespeare,
779
00:43:04,843 --> 00:43:06,714
and I'm not feeling
very well myself.
780
00:43:07,672 --> 00:43:10,675
[audience laughing]
781
00:43:12,590 --> 00:43:15,331
- [Man] 1960 only
state department tour.
782
00:43:19,335 --> 00:43:21,294
- Yeah, see he put
these little tabs on it,
783
00:43:21,337 --> 00:43:24,514
so you can easily remove that.
784
00:43:24,558 --> 00:43:26,038
- [Man] That's pretty smart.
785
00:43:30,477 --> 00:43:32,522
- [Joyce] There we go.
786
00:43:33,785 --> 00:43:35,351
- [Man] So much stuff.
787
00:43:36,788 --> 00:43:39,791
Every little,
it's amazinghow just the detail,
788
00:43:39,834 --> 00:43:44,317
every little one sentence blurb,
789
00:43:46,014 --> 00:43:48,538
from anywhere in the world.
790
00:43:48,582 --> 00:43:51,367
The Everett Daily Herald, 1960.
791
00:43:51,411 --> 00:43:53,587
Hopewell, Virginia,
Cleveland, Ohio,
792
00:43:53,631 --> 00:43:55,676
Wilmington, Delaware,
Philadelphia.
793
00:43:57,939 --> 00:44:00,202
Washington, DC,
Vernon, New Jersey,
794
00:44:00,246 --> 00:44:02,291
Hartford, Connecticut,
Santa Barbara, California,
795
00:44:02,335 --> 00:44:04,598
Houston, Texas,
Jacksonville, Florida,
796
00:44:04,642 --> 00:44:05,817
Akron, Ohio.
797
00:44:07,470 --> 00:44:08,515
President Eisenhower.
798
00:44:12,737 --> 00:44:15,304
- [Joyce] Whoever youare,
my dearest relation,
799
00:44:15,348 --> 00:44:19,744
or an objective researcher,
addict, whatever,
800
00:44:19,787 --> 00:44:21,267
hello from the grave,
801
00:44:21,310 --> 00:44:24,357
I'll probably be dead
when this is seen again.
802
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:25,575
Hal!
803
00:44:25,619 --> 00:44:27,926
[laughing]
804
00:44:29,057 --> 00:44:30,406
- [Man] What is the back?
805
00:44:31,669 --> 00:44:34,106
It all gets so dusty with age.
806
00:44:34,149 --> 00:44:36,543
Nothing matters much at
all once it's been done,
807
00:44:36,586 --> 00:44:39,459
and the affect has
taken its little toll.
808
00:44:40,721 --> 00:44:43,506
You have to move on, go
sailing or something.
809
00:44:45,247 --> 00:44:46,247
- [Joyce] Wow.
810
00:44:51,210 --> 00:44:55,301
- I got for Christmas thatyear,
the Twain album,
811
00:44:55,344 --> 00:44:56,650
which I still have,
812
00:44:58,217 --> 00:44:59,609
a treasured possession,
813
00:44:59,653 --> 00:45:03,265
and I began because
I was so young,
814
00:45:03,309 --> 00:45:05,659
I could learn it very easily,
815
00:45:05,703 --> 00:45:10,011
so I learned about I
guess 45 minutes of it.
816
00:45:10,055 --> 00:45:13,754
So by the time I was 13,
havinglearned 45 minutes of it,
817
00:45:14,842 --> 00:45:16,801
I started needing a costume.
818
00:45:16,844 --> 00:45:19,325
So I got a white suit,
819
00:45:19,368 --> 00:45:22,371
and the loose lady in town,
820
00:45:22,415 --> 00:45:23,653
you know, she was kind of loose,
821
00:45:23,677 --> 00:45:25,505
she had a short white wig.
822
00:45:25,548 --> 00:45:28,638
It was the early,
late 60's, early 70's,
823
00:45:28,682 --> 00:45:29,901
and she gave me the wig,
824
00:45:29,944 --> 00:45:33,731
and I got a cotton ball
mustache and eyebrows,
825
00:45:33,774 --> 00:45:38,605
and a cigar,
and I starteddoing it at the Rotary Club,
826
00:45:38,648 --> 00:45:39,911
and the Kiwanis Club,
827
00:45:39,954 --> 00:45:41,782
and the TVA convention.
828
00:45:41,826 --> 00:45:44,306
That was actually the
firstmoney I made as an actor,
829
00:45:44,350 --> 00:45:47,005
was at the TVA convention,
I made 15 dollars,
830
00:45:47,048 --> 00:45:48,746
doing Mark Twain Tonight.
831
00:45:48,789 --> 00:45:51,531
And when I finally
met Mister Holbrook,
832
00:45:51,574 --> 00:45:56,014
I mentioned to him that
I had taken 45 minutes
833
00:45:56,057 --> 00:45:59,844
off his record and done
it at a TVA convention,
834
00:46:01,541 --> 00:46:04,805
which I think was a
rathersore subject with Hal,
835
00:46:04,849 --> 00:46:07,982
because a number of
people had done that,
836
00:46:08,026 --> 00:46:10,593
had taken his material.
837
00:46:10,637 --> 00:46:11,899
Obviously, it was Mark Twain's,
838
00:46:11,943 --> 00:46:15,598
but he had spent
years crafting it
839
00:46:15,642 --> 00:46:17,078
into a theatrical experience,
840
00:46:17,122 --> 00:46:19,820
so when I told
him that, he said,
841
00:46:19,864 --> 00:46:22,475
then young lady you
owe me some royalties,
842
00:46:22,518 --> 00:46:25,870
and I wasn't sure at the time
843
00:46:25,913 --> 00:46:27,610
whether he was serious or not,
844
00:46:27,654 --> 00:46:31,571
but in looking back I
reallydo think he was serious,
845
00:46:31,614 --> 00:46:33,312
because he's a man
of the theater,
846
00:46:33,355 --> 00:46:36,141
and he believes in justice.
847
00:46:36,184 --> 00:46:39,666
So I probably owe him
aboutseven dollars and 50 cents,
848
00:46:39,709 --> 00:46:43,713
which I will hopefully beable
to give to him some day.
849
00:46:43,757 --> 00:46:45,890
- We finally raised the money.
850
00:46:47,108 --> 00:46:49,458
We needed 9000 dollars
to put this show on,
851
00:46:49,502 --> 00:46:51,852
in a little
off-Broadway theater,
852
00:46:51,896 --> 00:46:54,072
and I was scared to death,
853
00:46:54,115 --> 00:46:58,641
because I had played all
these little tiny towns,
854
00:46:58,685 --> 00:47:01,731
Wahoo, Nebraska, you name it,
855
00:47:01,775 --> 00:47:03,864
all across this country,
856
00:47:03,908 --> 00:47:06,606
and nobody's ever
raved about my show.
857
00:47:06,649 --> 00:47:09,174
Two people had written
really nice reviews,
858
00:47:09,217 --> 00:47:11,002
one in Springfield,
Massachusetts,
859
00:47:11,045 --> 00:47:13,265
the other in Emporia, Kansas.
860
00:47:14,614 --> 00:47:19,662
And I went out in front
ofthat opening night audience,
861
00:47:21,012 --> 00:47:22,946
with all those critics outthere
from New York papers,
862
00:47:22,970 --> 00:47:24,885
and my knees started shaking,
863
00:47:24,929 --> 00:47:28,671
and I was scared out of my wits.
864
00:47:28,715 --> 00:47:30,064
And I was angry at myself,
865
00:47:30,108 --> 00:47:31,936
because I thought,
what'sthe matter with you?
866
00:47:31,979 --> 00:47:36,549
After all the places you'veplayed,
and the experiences,
867
00:47:36,592 --> 00:47:37,680
you've played everywhere
868
00:47:37,724 --> 00:47:40,509
from the curve of
the baby grand piano,
869
00:47:40,553 --> 00:47:42,163
to a high school gym.
870
00:47:42,207 --> 00:47:44,426
You've done everything,
871
00:47:44,470 --> 00:47:45,601
stop being nervous.
872
00:47:45,645 --> 00:47:47,081
I couldn't help it.
873
00:47:47,125 --> 00:47:51,259
I was helpless,
and I didn'tthink I was doing very well.
874
00:47:51,303 --> 00:47:53,218
I picked up the
matches, you know,
875
00:47:53,261 --> 00:47:55,785
and my hand shook so
badl dropped it on the floor.
876
00:47:55,829 --> 00:47:57,744
I thought, oh I've
killed the laugh.
877
00:47:59,267 --> 00:48:01,704
So after the show was over,
878
00:48:03,010 --> 00:48:04,751
we took my makeup off,
879
00:48:04,794 --> 00:48:06,231
it takes a long time,
880
00:48:06,274 --> 00:48:08,276
and we went to the apartment
881
00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:09,974
and one of the guys
who'd put money in it,
882
00:48:10,017 --> 00:48:14,587
and Harvey Sabenson, a
wonderful press agent,
883
00:48:14,630 --> 00:48:18,678
big-time press agent,
had takenour show on for some reason,
884
00:48:18,721 --> 00:48:20,723
he came in with the reviews,
885
00:48:21,811 --> 00:48:23,813
and he started
reading these reviews.
886
00:48:25,337 --> 00:48:27,556
First, the New York Times,
in the opening paragraph
887
00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:30,777
for the New York Times review,
we're all sitting there,
888
00:48:33,649 --> 00:48:36,826
was, a one-man showcalled,
Mark Twain Tonight,
889
00:48:36,870 --> 00:48:40,830
opened last night at
the 41st Street Theater.
890
00:48:40,874 --> 00:48:43,572
It should have been
posted up all over town,
891
00:48:43,616 --> 00:48:45,661
announcing its arrival.
892
00:48:47,185 --> 00:48:50,710
Rave review,
and then heread Walter Kerr's review
893
00:48:50,753 --> 00:48:52,364
on the New York Herald Tribune,
894
00:48:52,407 --> 00:48:55,758
which was the other
big, big drama critic,
895
00:48:55,802 --> 00:48:58,196
and he raved about the show.
896
00:48:58,239 --> 00:49:00,589
Everybody in the whole
country raved about it.
897
00:49:00,633 --> 00:49:01,939
Every paper in New York,
898
00:49:01,982 --> 00:49:06,944
every, Newsweek, Time,
Life Magazine, everybody,
899
00:49:08,728 --> 00:49:09,728
and I was,
900
00:49:11,992 --> 00:49:12,992
I was,
901
00:49:14,255 --> 00:49:16,779
I wasn't just surprised, I was,
902
00:49:18,781 --> 00:49:22,698
thunderstruck, and
also I was frightened,
903
00:49:23,873 --> 00:49:27,007
because I wanted this
thing to be good,
904
00:49:27,051 --> 00:49:29,140
but I didn't want it
to take over my life.
905
00:49:30,619 --> 00:49:32,404
I wanted to be an actor,
906
00:49:33,361 --> 00:49:35,668
not a one-man show, an actor.
907
00:49:36,756 --> 00:49:40,542
I wanted a career in
New York, on the stage,
908
00:49:40,586 --> 00:49:42,240
and this was obliterating me,
909
00:49:42,283 --> 00:49:44,372
because nobody knew who I was.
910
00:49:46,287 --> 00:49:48,072
Mark Twain was the star.
911
00:49:49,551 --> 00:49:51,031
They'd never heard of me.
912
00:49:51,075 --> 00:49:52,511
They didn't know
what I looked like,
913
00:49:52,554 --> 00:49:54,600
I had a three-hour makeup on.
914
00:49:55,427 --> 00:49:57,603
I looked like Mark Twain.
915
00:49:57,646 --> 00:50:00,867
Nobody knew who I was,
where I came from,
916
00:50:00,910 --> 00:50:05,089
nothing about me, what Icould do,
except Mark Twain.
917
00:50:05,132 --> 00:50:07,613
And I had to start
all over again.
918
00:50:08,744 --> 00:50:11,095
- Young actors can do
Hamlet all day long,
919
00:50:11,138 --> 00:50:12,792
not just because they're young,
920
00:50:12,835 --> 00:50:15,490
but because they haven't
had the opportunity
921
00:50:15,534 --> 00:50:16,970
to express themselves.
922
00:50:18,406 --> 00:50:21,627
Once they're fulfilled,
they move on,
923
00:50:21,670 --> 00:50:23,672
but when you've got
somethingto give other people,
924
00:50:23,716 --> 00:50:24,934
and that's what drives you,
925
00:50:24,978 --> 00:50:26,501
this is what's
particular to Hal.
926
00:50:26,545 --> 00:50:27,589
It's really,
927
00:50:29,113 --> 00:50:31,637
he's just fine alone.
928
00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:33,813
So for him to be alone on stage
929
00:50:33,856 --> 00:50:35,467
in front of a lot of people,
930
00:50:36,816 --> 00:50:38,426
I know he's fulfilled by it,
931
00:50:38,470 --> 00:50:40,298
and I know that
still does drive him,
932
00:50:40,341 --> 00:50:43,083
but I think he's a giver,
933
00:50:43,127 --> 00:50:46,608
and that's what becomes
so moving about him,
934
00:50:46,652 --> 00:50:50,221
whether it's on a stage
in Twain, or in movies,
935
00:50:50,264 --> 00:50:53,224
he's a special American actor.
936
00:50:53,267 --> 00:50:55,965
- He was so effortless.
937
00:50:57,271 --> 00:51:00,883
It was a kind of comfortthat
you can only sort of
938
00:51:00,927 --> 00:51:04,887
earn by being on the
boards for 58 years.
939
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:09,544
That level of confidence is one.
940
00:51:09,588 --> 00:51:12,504
But he also talked
about how he could just
941
00:51:12,547 --> 00:51:14,854
pick certain sections
to do on each night,
942
00:51:14,897 --> 00:51:17,291
like he knew the show so well,
943
00:51:17,335 --> 00:51:19,380
that he could just pick
whichever monologues
944
00:51:19,424 --> 00:51:22,557
he felt that he wanted to do.
945
00:51:22,601 --> 00:51:23,993
And that is just
946
00:51:25,256 --> 00:51:27,867
such a level of mastery.
947
00:51:28,911 --> 00:51:30,304
Really, it's hard
to even fathom,
948
00:51:30,348 --> 00:51:34,743
being that familiar
with that much material.
949
00:51:34,787 --> 00:51:38,007
- And to think about Hal,
walking out on stage,
950
00:51:41,968 --> 00:51:43,622
in these big auditoriums,
951
00:51:43,665 --> 00:51:45,537
and it's all on his shoulders.
952
00:51:50,890 --> 00:51:52,979
That takes some balls man,
953
00:51:53,022 --> 00:51:55,590
and to do it over 2000 times.
954
00:51:55,634 --> 00:51:57,418
- It's a very spiritual life,
955
00:51:57,462 --> 00:51:59,986
that's a real razor's edge
956
00:52:00,029 --> 00:52:03,381
to want to walk that,
to have to walk that,
957
00:52:03,424 --> 00:52:05,470
to have to prove that,
958
00:52:05,513 --> 00:52:06,993
over and over and over,
959
00:52:07,036 --> 00:52:09,169
knowing that maybe
960
00:52:10,301 --> 00:52:14,218
one in 800 is gonna go,
961
00:52:14,261 --> 00:52:17,438
wow I just saw
something spectacular.
962
00:52:17,482 --> 00:52:19,919
Because there's always
that hope for an actor,
963
00:52:19,962 --> 00:52:22,748
that there's gonna be
that one connection,
964
00:52:22,791 --> 00:52:24,532
and that's all you care about.
965
00:52:24,576 --> 00:52:26,882
It's all you care
about, just that.
966
00:52:26,926 --> 00:52:29,929
- I think that
actors are preachers.
967
00:52:31,365 --> 00:52:33,062
I think we're preachers.
968
00:52:35,978 --> 00:52:38,024
We're on a platform, a pulpit,
969
00:52:40,853 --> 00:52:44,509
and I think we have
aresponsibility to use it well,
970
00:52:44,552 --> 00:52:46,075
not to degrade it,
971
00:52:47,947 --> 00:52:49,166
to elevate it,
972
00:52:51,516 --> 00:52:54,171
to make it give an
audience something
973
00:52:54,214 --> 00:52:56,216
to take home with them,
974
00:52:56,260 --> 00:52:59,524
to keep with themselves
intheir heart and their mind.
975
00:52:59,567 --> 00:53:00,960
I think that's very important.
976
00:53:02,396 --> 00:53:05,269
I was taught by my teacher,
Ed Wright, at Denison,
977
00:53:05,312 --> 00:53:07,140
to respect this profession.
978
00:53:09,403 --> 00:53:11,492
I never wanted to
be a movie star,
979
00:53:11,536 --> 00:53:13,886
I never made a movie
till I was 40 years old.
980
00:53:15,104 --> 00:53:16,932
You talk to young kids
today at a college,
981
00:53:16,976 --> 00:53:19,239
what do you want to
do with your acting?
982
00:53:19,283 --> 00:53:20,936
I want to be in the movies.
983
00:53:22,024 --> 00:53:23,504
They want to be a star.
984
00:53:25,114 --> 00:53:26,681
They want to be a star.
985
00:53:28,379 --> 00:53:31,033
That's not what this
profession is about.
986
00:53:31,077 --> 00:53:33,558
This is a fine profession.
987
00:53:33,601 --> 00:53:36,474
It has a great
history at its back,
988
00:53:36,517 --> 00:53:39,128
stretching down the centuries,
989
00:53:39,172 --> 00:53:43,132
great, great actors from
Garrick to Edmund Kean,
990
00:53:44,395 --> 00:53:46,701
to Edwin Forrest
to Edwin Boothe.
991
00:53:49,008 --> 00:53:50,270
John Barrymore,
992
00:53:53,142 --> 00:53:54,883
all kinds of wonderful actors
993
00:53:54,927 --> 00:53:58,235
who have created
a great tradition,
994
00:53:58,278 --> 00:54:00,889
and most young kids
going into the theater,
995
00:54:00,933 --> 00:54:04,197
or showbiz today,
they don'tknow anything about it.
996
00:54:04,241 --> 00:54:05,764
They don't have a tradition.
997
00:54:07,287 --> 00:54:11,770
And I don't,
I don't feelcomfortable with that.
998
00:54:11,813 --> 00:54:15,034
I don't feel comfortablegoing
out just for myself.
999
00:54:15,077 --> 00:54:19,430
I feel I have to be doingsomething,
that means something,
1000
00:54:19,473 --> 00:54:20,953
that means something,
1001
00:54:24,130 --> 00:54:26,611
to people, otherwise
what am I doing
1002
00:54:26,654 --> 00:54:29,048
sitting up in front
of people talking,
1003
00:54:30,049 --> 00:54:31,659
performing, what am I?
1004
00:54:31,703 --> 00:54:32,703
A freak?
1005
00:54:33,748 --> 00:54:36,142
No, I want to send
a message out there.
1006
00:55:28,803 --> 00:55:31,153
[mumbling]
1007
00:55:34,461 --> 00:55:37,072
In those days theyconverted you with an ax.
1008
00:55:37,116 --> 00:55:40,728
I always write to the
encyclopedia of sin.
1009
00:55:46,125 --> 00:55:48,997
[soft piano music]
1010
00:56:26,295 --> 00:56:30,909
The cost of having a career,
1011
00:56:30,952 --> 00:56:33,041
certainly in this profession,
1012
00:56:33,085 --> 00:56:34,216
the costs are great.
1013
00:56:37,176 --> 00:56:40,005
Being an actor is
not the kind of role
1014
00:56:40,048 --> 00:56:44,139
that a father is
designed to play.
1015
00:56:44,183 --> 00:56:46,228
A father is supposed
to come home at night,
1016
00:56:46,272 --> 00:56:50,015
be with the children,
be with the wife,
1017
00:56:50,058 --> 00:56:51,190
be with the children,
1018
00:56:51,233 --> 00:56:53,148
not get divorced and
marry two other women.
1019
00:56:56,195 --> 00:56:59,241
But actors work at night,
1020
00:57:02,549 --> 00:57:04,116
when everybody's having dinner
1021
00:57:04,159 --> 00:57:06,423
they rush away from
thedinner table and go to work,
1022
00:57:06,466 --> 00:57:08,425
and they don't come
home till midnight.
1023
00:57:09,904 --> 00:57:11,950
They go on the road,
1024
00:57:11,993 --> 00:57:13,517
for weeks and months,
1025
00:57:13,560 --> 00:57:14,560
away from home.
1026
00:57:16,128 --> 00:57:19,436
They're subjected to
all kinds of influences
1027
00:57:19,479 --> 00:57:21,829
and temptations,
1028
00:57:23,091 --> 00:57:25,485
that they don't even
want to deal with,
1029
00:57:25,529 --> 00:57:26,530
but they're there,
1030
00:57:27,618 --> 00:57:29,271
they're right in front of you.
1031
00:57:32,449 --> 00:57:33,643
There's a great
deal of attention
1032
00:57:33,667 --> 00:57:35,582
put on marriages I think,
1033
00:57:35,626 --> 00:57:37,845
especially if you
haven't really grown up.
1034
00:57:39,064 --> 00:57:41,370
I certainly wasn't
grown up at all.
1035
00:57:41,414 --> 00:57:43,416
I got myself involved in,
1036
00:57:47,551 --> 00:57:49,291
searching for love,
1037
00:57:51,337 --> 00:57:54,079
searching for kindness,
1038
00:57:54,122 --> 00:57:58,170
searching for the thing that
1039
00:57:58,213 --> 00:58:00,651
was never given to you whenyou were young,
perhaps,
1040
00:58:00,694 --> 00:58:02,479
something like that.
1041
00:58:02,522 --> 00:58:05,307
You search for it
andsearch for it all your life.
1042
00:58:07,396 --> 00:58:08,504
There's an awful lot of actors
1043
00:58:08,528 --> 00:58:10,835
that screw up a marriage,
1044
00:58:12,227 --> 00:58:13,707
and screw up their children,
1045
00:58:15,143 --> 00:58:18,495
because they're so
dedicated, as I was,
1046
00:58:23,412 --> 00:58:27,329
to the job of acting,
topursuing it and pursuing it,
1047
00:58:28,330 --> 00:58:31,159
that it took precedence
over everything else.
1048
00:58:32,552 --> 00:58:36,295
I myself didn't make
time for my children,
1049
00:58:36,338 --> 00:58:37,818
the way I should have.
1050
00:58:37,862 --> 00:58:39,516
I didn't really listen to them.
1051
00:58:40,734 --> 00:58:43,345
I put them second
or third in line,
1052
00:58:44,259 --> 00:58:46,261
and they suffered from it.
1053
00:58:47,611 --> 00:58:49,264
- He focused on his work,
1054
00:58:49,308 --> 00:58:54,182
as a way to survive,
and hewas desperate to survive,
1055
00:58:54,226 --> 00:58:55,140
and that was it,
1056
00:58:55,183 --> 00:58:56,881
so I very much had the feeling,
1057
00:58:58,056 --> 00:59:00,406
that I wasn't actually
important to him,
1058
00:59:04,976 --> 00:59:06,194
there's a period for years,
1059
00:59:06,238 --> 00:59:09,894
I was actually doing
what my grandfather did,
1060
00:59:09,937 --> 00:59:11,852
which was, my father's father,
1061
00:59:11,896 --> 00:59:14,289
which was hitchhiking
around the country,
1062
00:59:14,333 --> 00:59:16,596
living like a hobo basically.
1063
00:59:18,032 --> 00:59:19,773
I was like a homeless
person really,
1064
00:59:21,645 --> 00:59:24,299
and I was just kind of
out there on my own,
1065
00:59:24,343 --> 00:59:28,608
and that would never
happen to my son,
1066
00:59:30,001 --> 00:59:32,786
where if it did it
would be in spite of me
1067
00:59:32,830 --> 00:59:34,353
trying to connect to him,
1068
00:59:34,396 --> 00:59:37,443
and making sure he's okay.
1069
00:59:37,486 --> 00:59:39,880
- Well, there were
long periods where,
1070
00:59:39,924 --> 00:59:41,926
where I didn't see him.
1071
00:59:41,969 --> 00:59:44,972
There was a kind of feeling like
1072
00:59:45,016 --> 00:59:47,409
we're going out on a date now.
1073
00:59:47,453 --> 00:59:51,892
He's coming over to
take me to dinner,
1074
00:59:51,936 --> 00:59:54,895
that added with the fact that,
1075
00:59:54,939 --> 00:59:59,247
my parents were also divorced,
1076
00:59:59,291 --> 01:00:02,947
that added even more
of a sense of distance,
1077
01:00:02,990 --> 01:00:06,341
and maybe a little
more formality
1078
01:00:06,385 --> 01:00:08,126
to our relationship.
1079
01:00:08,169 --> 01:00:09,431
- I probably
1080
01:00:10,824 --> 01:00:15,089
maybe even give too much
to my kids in some ways.
1081
01:00:15,133 --> 01:00:16,351
It's not a conscious thing,
1082
01:00:16,395 --> 01:00:19,267
that like I'm gonna try
to outperform my dad
1083
01:00:19,311 --> 01:00:22,619
as a father, but it's
more just me needing
1084
01:00:24,403 --> 01:00:28,015
to heal that
relationship in fantasy
1085
01:00:28,059 --> 01:00:32,629
by being the best
dadthat I could possibly be,
1086
01:00:32,672 --> 01:00:34,413
and I feel like that,
1087
01:00:34,456 --> 01:00:37,459
to me that's the
measure of a man,
1088
01:00:41,202 --> 01:00:42,202
more than anything.
1089
01:00:53,345 --> 01:00:55,477
[bird calling]
1090
01:00:55,521 --> 01:00:57,349
- My old friend Joe Twitchell,
1091
01:00:59,090 --> 01:01:00,395
a preacher of the gospel,
1092
01:01:00,439 --> 01:01:04,443
cautioned me to adopt a more
1093
01:01:05,444 --> 01:01:07,751
forgiving view of
the human race,
1094
01:01:13,278 --> 01:01:14,975
but he was born calm,
1095
01:01:16,542 --> 01:01:18,631
I was born excited.
1096
01:01:18,675 --> 01:01:21,939
[audience laughing]
1097
01:01:21,982 --> 01:01:25,290
People call me a
pessimist in my old age,
1098
01:01:30,991 --> 01:01:32,384
but I am an optimist
1099
01:01:32,427 --> 01:01:33,994
who did not arrive.
1100
01:01:37,998 --> 01:01:39,260
When I was a boy
1101
01:01:41,567 --> 01:01:44,004
in Hannibal, on the river,
1102
01:01:48,356 --> 01:01:50,576
we were all poor,
1103
01:01:53,492 --> 01:01:54,623
and didn't know it,
1104
01:01:59,411 --> 01:02:03,110
and we were all happy,
1105
01:02:04,938 --> 01:02:05,938
and did know it.
1106
01:02:12,598 --> 01:02:17,385
- There's a neurosis thatyou
see in American people,
1107
01:02:17,429 --> 01:02:18,429
more and more.
1108
01:02:19,648 --> 01:02:23,652
And with him, there is none,
it's generationally sound.
1109
01:02:25,132 --> 01:02:27,178
I guess what they call
the great generation,
1110
01:02:27,221 --> 01:02:28,570
and what it really as to do with
1111
01:02:28,614 --> 01:02:32,705
is somebody who's
generositylives in their solitude,
1112
01:02:34,185 --> 01:02:37,492
and in the solitude is
aprivacy that's fascinating.
1113
01:02:37,536 --> 01:02:40,408
- He studied his own character,
1114
01:02:40,452 --> 01:02:42,933
like he would a
character in a play,
1115
01:02:42,976 --> 01:02:46,545
and he's so interested
in figuring it out.
1116
01:02:46,588 --> 01:02:48,416
That's one of the
things that struck me,
1117
01:02:48,460 --> 01:02:52,769
how unflinching he was,
in his review of himself.
1118
01:02:56,642 --> 01:02:58,296
He pulled no punches.
1119
01:03:02,213 --> 01:03:04,432
- All the things
that happened to you
1120
01:03:04,476 --> 01:03:06,826
come together as you get older,
1121
01:03:06,870 --> 01:03:10,874
and they affect,
very deeply affect
1122
01:03:11,918 --> 01:03:15,182
what you do with your acting,
1123
01:03:15,226 --> 01:03:19,665
and it becomes like this
deep well of experience
1124
01:03:19,708 --> 01:03:22,755
that you just, you don't
have to reach very far,
1125
01:03:22,799 --> 01:03:25,845
it's right there, you
just have to touch it.
1126
01:03:25,889 --> 01:03:27,586
And as the years went by,
1127
01:03:27,629 --> 01:03:32,634
became a source of
tremendousexpression for me, Mark Twain.
1128
01:03:33,853 --> 01:03:36,377
It became a source
of being able to get
1129
01:03:37,639 --> 01:03:41,513
my frustrations about
life out, get them out,
1130
01:03:41,556 --> 01:03:43,254
and get them out
in a healthy way.
1131
01:03:45,038 --> 01:03:46,886
- [Interviewer] Does
Twainallow you to say things
1132
01:03:46,910 --> 01:03:50,435
that you wouldn'totherwise be able to say?
1133
01:03:51,697 --> 01:03:53,873
- That's been very true,
1134
01:03:53,917 --> 01:03:56,484
especially when I
went into the South.
1135
01:03:56,528 --> 01:03:58,791
In the late 50's and the 60's,
1136
01:03:58,835 --> 01:04:02,099
I saw some pretty tough things,
1137
01:04:02,142 --> 01:04:05,537
and I had, I got beat
up once, real bad.
1138
01:04:06,581 --> 01:04:08,932
And I had to take chances,
1139
01:04:08,975 --> 01:04:12,936
but I just had the
feelingthat in the silence,
1140
01:04:12,979 --> 01:04:15,286
because the response was silent.
1141
01:04:16,504 --> 01:04:19,812
The response to the
material was silence,
1142
01:04:21,031 --> 01:04:23,468
and I just realized
that in the silence
1143
01:04:23,511 --> 01:04:24,948
there was a desire,
1144
01:04:29,604 --> 01:04:32,042
a knowledge thatsomething had to be done,
1145
01:04:33,608 --> 01:04:37,525
and a desire to listen
tosomebody who would say it.
1146
01:04:38,352 --> 01:04:39,614
And Twain could say it.
1147
01:04:40,833 --> 01:04:44,706
Joe Keating,
my stage managerand I came to Chicago,
1148
01:04:44,750 --> 01:04:46,708
and we're reading in the paper,
1149
01:04:46,752 --> 01:04:49,886
on the front page is all thisabout Oxford,
Mississippi,
1150
01:04:49,929 --> 01:04:51,061
and Ole Miss,
1151
01:04:51,104 --> 01:04:53,454
the college there,
1152
01:04:54,891 --> 01:04:56,936
and this huge riot going on,
1153
01:04:56,980 --> 01:04:59,547
and President
Kennedy had sent in
1154
01:04:59,591 --> 01:05:03,116
I think 5000 troops
from the 101st Airborne,
1155
01:05:03,160 --> 01:05:10,167
because this man namedMerideth,
James Merideth, a young black man,
1156
01:05:10,210 --> 01:05:13,518
had decided to try to
integrate the classes,
1157
01:05:13,561 --> 01:05:18,001
so I got to Chicago and
Icalled my agent and said,
1158
01:05:18,044 --> 01:05:19,828
Klaus what's going on?
1159
01:05:19,872 --> 01:05:23,049
We're supposed to go to
Oxfordafter playing Northwestern.
1160
01:05:24,746 --> 01:05:26,400
How can we go there?
1161
01:05:26,444 --> 01:05:30,578
And he said, well Hal,
theyhaven't said you shouldn't come.
1162
01:05:30,622 --> 01:05:32,450
So we got on a plane to Memphis,
1163
01:05:32,493 --> 01:05:34,321
rented a car and
drove to Oxford,
1164
01:05:34,365 --> 01:05:35,583
checked into the motel,
1165
01:05:35,627 --> 01:05:38,064
and it was filled with
the New York Times,
1166
01:05:38,108 --> 01:05:41,024
the Washington Post,
the Associated Press,
1167
01:05:41,067 --> 01:05:44,157
all the leading byline writers
1168
01:05:44,201 --> 01:05:46,290
for the Civil Rights Movement.
1169
01:05:46,333 --> 01:05:50,772
So we were invited to
thehome of the man who was
1170
01:05:50,816 --> 01:05:53,123
head of the English department,
on the night before,
1171
01:05:53,166 --> 01:05:55,603
so we go to his house,
1172
01:05:55,647 --> 01:05:59,172
and we sit in his den,
andwe're having a scotch and soda,
1173
01:05:59,216 --> 01:06:01,218
and we're drinking and talking,
1174
01:06:01,261 --> 01:06:04,656
we're talking about Faulkner,
this is his home town,
1175
01:06:04,699 --> 01:06:06,136
the whole bit.
1176
01:06:06,179 --> 01:06:09,530
And nobody's mentioning
what's going on.
1177
01:06:09,574 --> 01:06:12,925
I mean there's trucks
going by in the Army,
1178
01:06:12,969 --> 01:06:14,709
and nobody's mentioning a word,
1179
01:06:14,753 --> 01:06:17,625
being very nice and
so finally I said,
1180
01:06:17,669 --> 01:06:20,628
well maybe a little
humor will work.
1181
01:06:20,672 --> 01:06:22,065
So I finally said,
1182
01:06:23,544 --> 01:06:25,807
well look we brought oursheets,
we brought our sheets,
1183
01:06:25,851 --> 01:06:28,419
and we cut holes in
them for our eyes.
1184
01:06:29,768 --> 01:06:31,770
Should we wear them
tomorrow night?
1185
01:06:34,903 --> 01:06:37,906
My stage manager was shocked,
1186
01:06:37,950 --> 01:06:40,822
but the English
teacher and his wife,
1187
01:06:40,866 --> 01:06:44,217
it didn't phase them,
theyjust were very serious,
1188
01:06:44,261 --> 01:06:45,610
and then he said,
1189
01:06:46,915 --> 01:06:49,701
well we don't think
there'sgoing to be any trouble.
1190
01:06:51,920 --> 01:06:52,920
I thought,
1191
01:06:54,923 --> 01:06:57,709
he doesn't think, wait a minute.
1192
01:06:59,102 --> 01:07:01,191
There will be federal
men in the audience,
1193
01:07:01,234 --> 01:07:03,280
oh my heart started beating,
1194
01:07:03,323 --> 01:07:05,282
and we'll have some backstage.
1195
01:07:05,325 --> 01:07:08,111
They didn't have a realtheater,
it was in the chapel,
1196
01:07:08,154 --> 01:07:09,721
and it was about eight o'clock,
1197
01:07:09,764 --> 01:07:10,852
it wasn't entirely dark,
1198
01:07:10,896 --> 01:07:12,680
and they have the
big windows you know,
1199
01:07:12,724 --> 01:07:14,769
so there was a little
light coming in.
1200
01:07:14,813 --> 01:07:16,597
Just before I went on,
1201
01:07:18,469 --> 01:07:19,469
one of those
1202
01:07:21,124 --> 01:07:23,865
good old boy stage
hands, you know,
1203
01:07:23,909 --> 01:07:25,476
comes up to me and says, Hal,
1204
01:07:28,566 --> 01:07:32,396
watch out for the guys
withsquirrel rifles in the trees.
1205
01:07:34,311 --> 01:07:36,095
Oh thank you very much,
1206
01:07:36,139 --> 01:07:38,054
and I went out on stage,
1207
01:07:38,097 --> 01:07:40,447
and I'm eyeing these
windows on the side,
1208
01:07:40,491 --> 01:07:43,059
I'm thinking oh my heart isgoing,
my legs are going.
1209
01:07:44,277 --> 01:07:46,714
So I didn't know what to do.
1210
01:07:46,758 --> 01:07:48,083
I had all this
wonderful stuff about
1211
01:07:48,107 --> 01:07:49,761
the silent lie of slavery,
1212
01:07:49,804 --> 01:07:53,765
how you can lie aboutanything,
including slavery,
1213
01:07:53,808 --> 01:07:55,636
by remaining silent.
1214
01:07:55,680 --> 01:07:58,596
So I thought I would
go out on stage,
1215
01:07:58,639 --> 01:07:59,771
I had a full house,
1216
01:08:01,512 --> 01:08:05,733
and I would do the show
andlisten and listen and listen
1217
01:08:05,777 --> 01:08:07,518
to that audience,
1218
01:08:07,561 --> 01:08:10,956
and decide by the time
itcame to the second act,
1219
01:08:10,999 --> 01:08:13,698
whether I would go
for the big stuff,
1220
01:08:13,741 --> 01:08:16,788
or do something else
that was softer.
1221
01:08:16,831 --> 01:08:18,790
So I already did the first act
1222
01:08:18,833 --> 01:08:20,661
and the audience was wonderful
1223
01:08:20,705 --> 01:08:23,795
but there was
something held back,
1224
01:08:23,838 --> 01:08:28,365
and my sense told me that
theywere waiting for something,
1225
01:08:28,408 --> 01:08:30,758
that they knew about my show.
1226
01:08:30,802 --> 01:08:32,847
That's why they
brought me there,
1227
01:08:32,891 --> 01:08:36,460
so in the second act I
decided to go for it.
1228
01:08:36,503 --> 01:08:40,768
I decided to trust the people
1229
01:08:41,987 --> 01:08:43,989
down there in the South.
1230
01:08:44,032 --> 01:08:45,773
I heard, what I thought I heard,
1231
01:08:45,817 --> 01:08:50,822
was that they were takingit
in and thinking it over,
1232
01:08:52,345 --> 01:08:54,826
and that there was a
lotmore going on down there,
1233
01:08:54,869 --> 01:08:59,787
in the mind of the people,
thanpeople up north understood.
1234
01:09:00,484 --> 01:09:02,181
I don't mean to suggest
1235
01:09:02,225 --> 01:09:06,054
that the custom of lying
has suffered any decay.
1236
01:09:06,881 --> 01:09:07,969
It couldn't,
1237
01:09:09,362 --> 01:09:10,929
for the lie is eternal.
1238
01:09:12,148 --> 01:09:15,281
It is man's best
and surest friend,
1239
01:09:15,325 --> 01:09:17,283
and it cannot perish
from the Earth
1240
01:09:17,327 --> 01:09:19,894
while Congress
remains in session.
1241
01:09:19,938 --> 01:09:22,941
[audience laughing]
1242
01:09:25,161 --> 01:09:27,728
No, when I talk about the decay
1243
01:09:30,253 --> 01:09:31,384
in the art
1244
01:09:33,038 --> 01:09:35,823
of lying, I'm talking
about the silent lie.
1245
01:09:37,347 --> 01:09:41,002
It requires no art,
you simply keep still,
1246
01:09:41,046 --> 01:09:42,917
and conceal the truth.
1247
01:09:46,007 --> 01:09:48,923
For example, it
would not be possible
1248
01:09:48,967 --> 01:09:52,057
for a humane and
intelligent person,
1249
01:09:53,276 --> 01:09:56,409
to invent a rational
excuse for slavery,
1250
01:09:57,976 --> 01:10:01,980
and yet in those early daysof
the Emancipation agitation,
1251
01:10:04,809 --> 01:10:09,814
in the North those agitatorsgot
small help from anyone.
1252
01:10:11,076 --> 01:10:15,254
Argue and plead and
pray as they might,
1253
01:10:16,473 --> 01:10:18,823
they could not break
the universal stillness
1254
01:10:18,866 --> 01:10:21,260
that ran from pulpit and press,
1255
01:10:21,304 --> 01:10:25,308
all the way down to
the bottom of society,
1256
01:10:25,351 --> 01:10:28,746
the clammy stillness,
1257
01:10:30,748 --> 01:10:34,012
created and maintained
bythe lie of silent assertion,
1258
01:10:34,055 --> 01:10:37,929
the silent assertion thatthere
wasn't anything going on,
1259
01:10:37,972 --> 01:10:40,018
in which humane and
intelligent people
1260
01:10:40,061 --> 01:10:42,063
ought to be interested.
1261
01:10:44,631 --> 01:10:47,286
Well, when all nations of people
1262
01:10:47,330 --> 01:10:51,943
can aspire to propagate gigantic
1263
01:10:51,986 --> 01:10:54,815
mute lies like that one,
1264
01:10:54,859 --> 01:10:57,775
in the interest of
tyrannies and shams,
1265
01:10:57,818 --> 01:10:59,080
why should we care anything
1266
01:10:59,124 --> 01:11:01,648
about the trifling ones
told by individuals,
1267
01:11:01,692 --> 01:11:03,084
why make them undesirable?
1268
01:11:04,651 --> 01:11:08,438
Why not be honest and
honorableand lie every chance we get?
1269
01:11:09,917 --> 01:11:12,920
Why should we help the
nationlie the whole day long?
1270
01:11:12,964 --> 01:11:17,664
And then object to tellingone little,
insignificant,
1271
01:11:17,708 --> 01:11:19,013
private lie?
1272
01:11:21,494 --> 01:11:23,148
In our own interest,
1273
01:11:26,151 --> 01:11:28,109
just for the refreshment
of it I mean,
1274
01:11:29,459 --> 01:11:32,418
and to take the rancid
taste out of our mouths.
1275
01:11:34,464 --> 01:11:38,946
No, there's no art
to this silent lying.
1276
01:11:38,990 --> 01:11:40,296
It is timid,
1277
01:11:43,299 --> 01:11:44,299
and shabby.
1278
01:11:46,127 --> 01:11:48,129
And then I take a big pause,
1279
01:11:48,173 --> 01:11:50,784
and walked back acrossthe
stage to the lectern,
1280
01:11:50,828 --> 01:11:53,526
let that pause sit there,
1281
01:11:53,570 --> 01:11:57,051
so the audience has
tosit with this hot potato.
1282
01:11:57,095 --> 01:11:58,246
They can't get up and walk out.
1283
01:11:58,270 --> 01:12:00,838
They're stuck they
have to think about it.
1284
01:12:02,100 --> 01:12:06,104
Long pause, the audience
broke into applause.
1285
01:12:08,411 --> 01:12:09,411
They applauded.
1286
01:12:10,935 --> 01:12:14,330
Only three times,
in all thetimes I've done this show,
1287
01:12:14,373 --> 01:12:15,635
that I did that number,
1288
01:12:15,679 --> 01:12:19,944
only three times has the
audience ever applauded,
1289
01:12:19,987 --> 01:12:21,119
at that moment.
1290
01:12:21,162 --> 01:12:22,722
I don't ask for
applause, don't want it.
1291
01:12:23,643 --> 01:12:25,950
First time was in
Hamburg, Germany,
1292
01:12:27,430 --> 01:12:28,822
1961,
1293
01:12:30,041 --> 01:12:35,046
second time was inOxford,
Mississippi, 1962,
1294
01:12:36,569 --> 01:12:38,615
and the third time was inPrague,
Czechoslovakia,
1295
01:12:38,658 --> 01:12:41,705
behind the iron curtain in 1986.
1296
01:12:41,748 --> 01:12:43,707
At the end of the show,
1297
01:12:43,750 --> 01:12:46,579
the newspaper guys said,
how do you explain this?
1298
01:12:48,538 --> 01:12:50,366
How do you explain this Hal?
1299
01:12:50,409 --> 01:12:53,064
I was sitting on the
aislelooking at the window
1300
01:12:53,107 --> 01:12:54,370
that was a little open,
1301
01:12:54,413 --> 01:12:56,372
and wondered if I could
get out the window,
1302
01:12:56,415 --> 01:12:58,504
when you started
that silent lie.
1303
01:12:58,548 --> 01:13:00,027
How do you explain
this response?
1304
01:13:00,071 --> 01:13:01,681
And I said, how
do you explain it?
1305
01:13:03,422 --> 01:13:06,556
You were there, how
do you explain it?
1306
01:13:08,122 --> 01:13:10,211
What you saw tonight
was something good.
1307
01:13:10,255 --> 01:13:12,518
A lot of bad stuff has
been going on down here,
1308
01:13:12,562 --> 01:13:15,826
and you've been reportingabout it,
and it should be,
1309
01:13:15,869 --> 01:13:18,219
but now you saw something good,
1310
01:13:18,263 --> 01:13:19,917
why don't you write about it?
1311
01:13:19,960 --> 01:13:21,788
Well, they didn't
write about it.
1312
01:13:23,137 --> 01:13:25,052
They did not write about it.
1313
01:13:25,096 --> 01:13:28,186
- Hal as Twain is
embodying Twain,
1314
01:13:28,229 --> 01:13:29,579
as a critic of his nation,
1315
01:13:29,622 --> 01:13:31,668
at a time when we
really need him.
1316
01:13:31,711 --> 01:13:33,713
So at a time when most Americans
1317
01:13:33,757 --> 01:13:37,195
still tend to view
Twain as, oh yes,
1318
01:13:37,238 --> 01:13:39,458
that entertaining humorist,
1319
01:13:39,502 --> 01:13:41,417
someone I'd call the tame Twain.
1320
01:13:42,940 --> 01:13:46,073
How is giving them a
Twainwho isn't tame at all,
1321
01:13:46,117 --> 01:13:48,075
who's wild, who's subversive,
1322
01:13:48,119 --> 01:13:50,948
who's feeling critical
of his country?
1323
01:13:50,991 --> 01:13:53,777
This is a Twain that
we really, really need,
1324
01:13:53,820 --> 01:13:55,692
and Hal has done more
than anyone else,
1325
01:13:55,735 --> 01:13:58,172
including all the
scholars put together,
1326
01:13:58,216 --> 01:13:59,783
all the biographers
put together,
1327
01:13:59,826 --> 01:14:02,699
in helping Americans understand
1328
01:14:02,742 --> 01:14:07,747
Twain the critic, Twain
the subversive skeptic,
1329
01:14:08,922 --> 01:14:10,117
Twain who loved
his country so much
1330
01:14:10,141 --> 01:14:11,795
he couldn't help
but criticize it
1331
01:14:11,838 --> 01:14:13,666
when it was going
down the wrong path.
1332
01:14:26,374 --> 01:14:29,160
[crowd murmuring]
1333
01:14:30,553 --> 01:14:33,817
- [Usher] You're gonna
be in aisle four,
1334
01:14:33,860 --> 01:14:35,383
all the way down to your left.
1335
01:14:49,702 --> 01:14:50,877
- [Man] 15 minutes Hal.
1336
01:14:54,794 --> 01:14:58,319
- He has changed a lot.
1337
01:14:59,233 --> 01:15:02,628
He's much more able to listen,
1338
01:15:02,672 --> 01:15:04,717
and be a little
bit of a nurturer.
1339
01:15:04,761 --> 01:15:07,459
You know, he told me
there'snothing you can say to me,
1340
01:15:08,939 --> 01:15:12,159
that would make me angry
at you, or reject you.
1341
01:15:13,421 --> 01:15:14,821
I want the truth,
tell me the truth,
1342
01:15:15,641 --> 01:15:17,425
which was like, are you kidding?
1343
01:15:18,731 --> 01:15:20,951
I never thought
that would happen.
1344
01:15:20,994 --> 01:15:23,040
- It's possible to love someone,
1345
01:15:23,083 --> 01:15:25,390
and not be very
good at showing it,
1346
01:15:25,433 --> 01:15:26,565
but that's hard,
1347
01:15:26,609 --> 01:15:29,655
it's hard for the person
who's being loved,
1348
01:15:29,699 --> 01:15:32,310
because you need
someone to show it,
1349
01:15:32,353 --> 01:15:37,358
to really experience it,
andto really believe it I guess.
1350
01:15:38,446 --> 01:15:41,275
So I think that's what my mother
1351
01:15:41,319 --> 01:15:43,321
was able to do for Hal,
1352
01:15:43,364 --> 01:15:45,584
is that she loved him
and she showed it.
1353
01:15:45,628 --> 01:15:48,282
- It was so easy to love Dixie,
1354
01:15:48,326 --> 01:15:50,502
and she was so loving,
you know, of me,
1355
01:15:50,546 --> 01:15:53,374
and she was so wonderful
with my father,
1356
01:15:53,418 --> 01:15:57,117
and he was just
soembraced by Dixie's family.
1357
01:15:57,161 --> 01:15:59,206
He never had a family like that.
1358
01:15:59,250 --> 01:16:01,644
- My mother
disappeared, just left,
1359
01:16:02,732 --> 01:16:06,387
left us in the
playpen all untended,
1360
01:16:08,999 --> 01:16:11,175
and my father followed her,
1361
01:16:11,218 --> 01:16:15,701
and we were never told
why our parents left,
1362
01:16:15,745 --> 01:16:17,616
why our mother left.
1363
01:16:17,660 --> 01:16:20,271
I never had any comfort
when I was a kid,
1364
01:16:20,314 --> 01:16:21,968
like somebody to hug me.
1365
01:16:26,146 --> 01:16:28,801
It never occurred to me
untiljust a little while ago,
1366
01:16:28,845 --> 01:16:31,674
I didn't have a family,
I wasn't trained
1367
01:16:31,717 --> 01:16:33,284
to be a part of a family.
1368
01:16:34,415 --> 01:16:35,460
And they trained me.
1369
01:16:36,853 --> 01:16:38,463
They have trained
me over the years.
1370
01:16:38,506 --> 01:16:41,597
They've trained me,
andDixie trained me in her way.
1371
01:16:41,640 --> 01:16:45,601
She always put the
important thing first,
1372
01:16:45,644 --> 01:16:48,386
the important human thing first.
1373
01:16:49,909 --> 01:16:53,434
She renewed my respect
1374
01:16:53,478 --> 01:16:55,219
for what I was doing.
1375
01:16:55,262 --> 01:16:58,526
She kept telling me
how important it was,
1376
01:16:58,570 --> 01:16:59,570
what I was doing,
1377
01:17:00,964 --> 01:17:02,443
how important the show was,
1378
01:17:02,487 --> 01:17:04,402
and what it could give people.
1379
01:17:05,751 --> 01:17:08,362
That was wonderful to
havesomebody stand by your side,
1380
01:17:08,406 --> 01:17:11,670
and remind you of
that, you know,
1381
01:17:11,714 --> 01:17:16,719
because it lifted it up toa
better level in your head.
1382
01:17:24,117 --> 01:17:27,468
I have to be very
carefulwhen I think of Dixie,
1383
01:17:27,512 --> 01:17:30,080
and I have to be verycareful
when I'm doing Twain,
1384
01:17:31,777 --> 01:17:34,693
to get lost in
thinking about her.
1385
01:17:34,737 --> 01:17:37,435
If there's a certain point,
and there is a point,
1386
01:17:37,478 --> 01:17:39,045
it's very dangerous for me.
1387
01:17:41,091 --> 01:17:43,310
It's been happening
in the past year,
1388
01:17:43,354 --> 01:17:45,356
when I, oddly enough,
1389
01:17:49,273 --> 01:17:51,188
it's when in Huckleberry Finn,
1390
01:17:54,713 --> 01:17:56,062
when I talk about,
1391
01:18:00,501 --> 01:18:02,678
Jim and me we found a raft.
1392
01:18:04,462 --> 01:18:06,551
We were off down in
that river together.
1393
01:18:09,946 --> 01:18:12,557
We run nights, and lay
it up and hid daytime.
1394
01:18:13,558 --> 01:18:15,342
We just let that raft float
1395
01:18:16,474 --> 01:18:18,215
wherever the current
water took it.
1396
01:18:18,258 --> 01:18:19,956
It's lovely to live on a raft.
1397
01:18:21,174 --> 01:18:23,481
We'd lay on our backs
and smoke our pipes,
1398
01:18:24,525 --> 01:18:26,876
looking up at the sky.
1399
01:18:26,919 --> 01:18:29,443
So I think of Dixie
then sometimes,
1400
01:18:29,487 --> 01:18:33,056
and I have to really work at it,
1401
01:18:33,099 --> 01:18:36,015
not to give away, because,
1402
01:18:37,495 --> 01:18:39,715
now you see that's
afunny thing about acting.
1403
01:18:40,890 --> 01:18:45,764
Here I am talking
about this black slave,
1404
01:18:45,808 --> 01:18:50,551
and this ignorant young
juvenile delinquent,
1405
01:18:52,945 --> 01:18:55,643
and floating down
theMississippi river on a raft.
1406
01:18:57,645 --> 01:19:00,518
If I start thinking aboutmy wife,
I'm in trouble.
1407
01:19:02,389 --> 01:19:03,389
I'm in trouble,
1408
01:19:04,435 --> 01:19:07,917
because there's a
connection there.
1409
01:19:09,179 --> 01:19:14,184
It's strange, that's
what's so amazing about
1410
01:19:15,663 --> 01:19:18,579
people and acting,
there'sa connection there.
1411
01:19:20,016 --> 01:19:21,408
There's a very
profound connection,
1412
01:19:21,452 --> 01:19:24,063
it all has to with
a person's emotions,
1413
01:19:25,238 --> 01:19:28,024
how you feel deeply
about something.
1414
01:19:31,331 --> 01:19:34,247
You know the first
performance I had
1415
01:19:34,291 --> 01:19:35,988
after Dixie passed away,
1416
01:19:38,295 --> 01:19:42,125
oddly enough I had beenbooked into Elmira,
New York,
1417
01:19:44,867 --> 01:19:48,653
in 2010, April 21st,
1418
01:19:49,872 --> 01:19:54,790
the 100th anniversary
of Mark Twain's death,
1419
01:19:55,616 --> 01:19:56,661
to the day,
1420
01:19:57,836 --> 01:19:59,446
they booked me back there.
1421
01:20:01,100 --> 01:20:02,623
Dixie died on the 10th.
1422
01:20:04,103 --> 01:20:07,324
I had to cancel a few
showsbecause of her illness.
1423
01:20:08,847 --> 01:20:10,501
I wanted to do that show
1424
01:20:11,632 --> 01:20:13,896
in Elmira, where
Mark Twain is buried,
1425
01:20:13,939 --> 01:20:15,593
and his wife is buried,
1426
01:20:16,594 --> 01:20:19,336
because he adored his
wife, he loved his wife,
1427
01:20:19,379 --> 01:20:20,511
adored his wife.
1428
01:20:21,686 --> 01:20:25,646
And so I did, I did the show.
1429
01:20:28,475 --> 01:20:30,042
And it was quite
a wonderful night,
1430
01:20:30,086 --> 01:20:33,132
and at the end of the
show I put something in,
1431
01:20:34,351 --> 01:20:36,962
a little selection that
I occasionally did,
1432
01:20:37,006 --> 01:20:39,878
but I hadn't done
it for a long time,
1433
01:20:39,922 --> 01:20:44,013
but I thought, you'd
better be careful.
1434
01:20:45,928 --> 01:20:48,844
Do you think you
canreally get away with this?
1435
01:20:48,887 --> 01:20:52,499
And I thought, I'm gonna do it.
1436
01:20:52,543 --> 01:20:54,501
And when he talks
about his wife,
1437
01:20:54,545 --> 01:20:56,721
and how he got married and all,
1438
01:20:56,764 --> 01:21:01,334
and how he had to ask permission
1439
01:21:01,378 --> 01:21:04,903
of his future father-in-law,
1440
01:21:04,947 --> 01:21:06,078
his wife's father,
1441
01:21:06,122 --> 01:21:07,514
Mister Langdon.
1442
01:21:07,558 --> 01:21:11,170
I referred Mister Langdonto
six prominent gentlemen
1443
01:21:11,214 --> 01:21:13,303
out here, and we waited.
1444
01:21:13,346 --> 01:21:15,871
The letters finallycame,
and I was sent for.
1445
01:21:17,394 --> 01:21:20,179
Each one of those men hadbeen frank,
to a fault.
1446
01:21:21,615 --> 01:21:24,749
They not only spoke
of me in disapproval,
1447
01:21:25,663 --> 01:21:27,578
they were enthusiastic about it.
1448
01:21:27,621 --> 01:21:30,624
[audience laughing]
1449
01:21:32,626 --> 01:21:35,151
One of them said I
deserved to be hanged.
1450
01:21:37,762 --> 01:21:40,156
When Mister Langdon
finishedreading those letters,
1451
01:21:40,199 --> 01:21:42,462
there was a good
deal of a pause,
1452
01:21:42,506 --> 01:21:45,944
it was filled mostly
withsadness and solemnity.
1453
01:21:45,988 --> 01:21:47,772
I didn't know what to say and,
1454
01:21:49,034 --> 01:21:52,472
Libby's father was
apparentlyin the same condition.
1455
01:21:53,865 --> 01:21:56,694
Finally he said to me,
whatkind of people are these?
1456
01:21:57,869 --> 01:21:59,784
Haven't you got a
friend in the world?
1457
01:22:01,699 --> 01:22:03,614
I said, apparently not.
1458
01:22:05,050 --> 01:22:06,660
Then I'll be your friend.
1459
01:22:07,661 --> 01:22:09,707
Take the girl, I know
you better than they do.
1460
01:22:11,100 --> 01:22:15,060
And so in this dramatic way,
1461
01:22:16,061 --> 01:22:17,933
we became engaged,
1462
01:22:19,195 --> 01:22:23,721
and for 34 years,
1463
01:22:25,201 --> 01:22:27,072
wherever she was,
1464
01:22:27,116 --> 01:22:31,947
there was Eden.
1465
01:22:36,038 --> 01:22:37,517
Wherever she was,
1466
01:22:38,692 --> 01:22:39,693
there was Eden.
1467
01:22:52,271 --> 01:22:53,751
Oh Lord, our Father,
1468
01:22:55,883 --> 01:22:58,495
our young patriots,
idols of our hearts,
1469
01:22:59,757 --> 01:23:01,063
go forth to battle,
1470
01:23:02,716 --> 01:23:03,891
be Thou near them.
1471
01:23:07,025 --> 01:23:09,767
With them in spirit,
we also go forth,
1472
01:23:10,986 --> 01:23:13,510
from the sweet peace of
our beloved firesides
1473
01:23:13,553 --> 01:23:15,033
to smite the foe.
1474
01:23:17,644 --> 01:23:18,515
O Lord our God,
1475
01:23:18,558 --> 01:23:20,038
help us to tear their soldiers
1476
01:23:20,082 --> 01:23:22,388
to bloody shreds
with our shells;
1477
01:23:24,869 --> 01:23:26,914
help us to cover
their smiling fields
1478
01:23:26,958 --> 01:23:30,962
with the pale forms
of their patriot dead;
1479
01:23:33,573 --> 01:23:36,054
help us to drown the
thunder of the guns
1480
01:23:36,098 --> 01:23:39,884
with the shrieks of theirwounded,
writhing in pain;
1481
01:23:43,540 --> 01:23:45,890
help us to lay waste
their humble homes
1482
01:23:45,933 --> 01:23:47,413
with a hurricane of fire;
1483
01:23:48,893 --> 01:23:50,982
to turn them out roofless
1484
01:23:52,723 --> 01:23:54,029
with their little children
1485
01:23:56,640 --> 01:23:59,382
to wander unfriended
in the wastes
1486
01:23:59,425 --> 01:24:03,777
of their desolated land
inrags and hunger and thirst,
1487
01:24:03,821 --> 01:24:07,346
sports of the sun
flames of summer,
1488
01:24:07,390 --> 01:24:09,957
and the icy winds of winter,
1489
01:24:10,001 --> 01:24:13,787
broken in spirit,
worn with travail,
1490
01:24:13,831 --> 01:24:18,792
imploring Thee for the
refuge of the grave,
1491
01:24:19,750 --> 01:24:20,968
and denied it.
1492
01:24:23,841 --> 01:24:25,843
For our sakes who
adore Thee, Lord,
1493
01:24:25,886 --> 01:24:28,150
blast their hopes,
blight their lives,
1494
01:24:29,325 --> 01:24:31,718
protract their
bitter pilgrimage,
1495
01:24:31,762 --> 01:24:33,677
make heavy their steps,
1496
01:24:35,983 --> 01:24:37,637
stain the white snow
1497
01:24:38,856 --> 01:24:40,858
with the blood of
their wounded feet.
1498
01:24:43,208 --> 01:24:45,906
We ask it, in the
spirit of love,
1499
01:24:45,950 --> 01:24:49,084
[audience laughing]
1500
01:24:49,127 --> 01:24:51,956
of Him Who is the
Source of Love,
1501
01:24:53,827 --> 01:24:56,526
the ever-faithful
refuge and friend
1502
01:24:57,353 --> 01:24:59,877
of all that are sore beset
1503
01:25:00,965 --> 01:25:02,271
and seek His aid
1504
01:25:03,141 --> 01:25:07,493
with humble and contrite hearts.
1505
01:25:11,845 --> 01:25:12,890
Amen.
1506
01:25:31,256 --> 01:25:32,953
- He is frailer now,
1507
01:25:32,997 --> 01:25:37,219
he doesn't have the sameyouthful vigor,
obviously.
1508
01:25:37,262 --> 01:25:39,960
He is older than Mark Twain was,
1509
01:25:40,004 --> 01:25:44,791
so now in a way, it's an
even greater challenge,
1510
01:25:44,835 --> 01:25:46,619
than when he was a young man,
1511
01:25:46,663 --> 01:25:50,797
and to take on an
even greater challenge
1512
01:25:50,841 --> 01:25:53,148
in your mid and late 80's.
1513
01:26:01,895 --> 01:26:03,897
- I see the pauses
that he takes,
1514
01:26:03,941 --> 01:26:07,814
I see he takes a
lot of time now.
1515
01:26:07,858 --> 01:26:10,556
I'm sure that it has a
lotto do with getting older,
1516
01:26:10,600 --> 01:26:14,647
but also I think it's
that he really cares
1517
01:26:14,691 --> 01:26:15,822
about this material,
1518
01:26:15,866 --> 01:26:17,172
and he really wants people
1519
01:26:20,349 --> 01:26:21,785
to get it.
1520
01:26:21,828 --> 01:26:23,743
- To sense that
kind of commitment,
1521
01:26:23,787 --> 01:26:27,834
that kind of,
I'm going togive you everything I've got,
1522
01:26:27,878 --> 01:26:31,186
and in a country
that is so adept
1523
01:26:31,229 --> 01:26:33,884
at neglecting its geniuses,
1524
01:26:33,927 --> 01:26:38,367
Hal Holbrook kept Mark
Twainwith us in such a present way,
1525
01:26:38,410 --> 01:26:40,934
and Mark Twain is not
one of those geniuses
1526
01:26:40,978 --> 01:26:42,240
that we've neglected,
1527
01:26:42,284 --> 01:26:44,590
and we can only wonder
if he might have been,
1528
01:26:44,634 --> 01:26:48,725
had it not been for Halsaying,
no no no, not this guy,
1529
01:26:48,768 --> 01:26:49,876
you're not forgetting this guy.
1530
01:26:49,900 --> 01:26:52,207
- It's so much a
part of America,
1531
01:26:52,250 --> 01:26:54,339
and he's so much
a part of America,
1532
01:26:54,383 --> 01:26:56,123
I'm talking about Hal,
1533
01:26:56,167 --> 01:26:57,821
not Mark Twain,
1534
01:26:57,864 --> 01:27:01,781
he's driven it,
he'sperformed all over the place.
1535
01:27:01,825 --> 01:27:03,305
America is all over that guy,
1536
01:27:03,348 --> 01:27:05,959
you put a camera on
him, and it's America.
1537
01:27:06,003 --> 01:27:09,267
- Now has he become
more like Twain,
1538
01:27:09,311 --> 01:27:11,748
by performing Twain
all these years?
1539
01:27:11,791 --> 01:27:14,968
Probably, but was he
first attracted to Twain
1540
01:27:15,012 --> 01:27:17,406
because those
affinities were there?
1541
01:27:17,449 --> 01:27:18,798
Probably too.
1542
01:27:18,842 --> 01:27:21,497
So I think that part
of what enables him
1543
01:27:21,540 --> 01:27:25,196
to portray Twain
so convincingly,
1544
01:27:25,240 --> 01:27:29,026
is that he's portraying himself.
1545
01:27:29,069 --> 01:27:30,810
- I mean he was rough, you know.
1546
01:27:30,854 --> 01:27:33,117
He said some pretty
rough things,
1547
01:27:33,160 --> 01:27:37,034
but they were true things,
they were true things.
1548
01:27:37,077 --> 01:27:38,905
He spoke to truth.
1549
01:27:38,949 --> 01:27:43,519
He nailed the way
we lie to ourselves,
1550
01:27:44,607 --> 01:27:47,914
about who we are, how we behave,
1551
01:27:47,958 --> 01:27:50,569
and that we're all good people.
1552
01:27:52,092 --> 01:27:55,966
Well, we could be better,
let's put it that way.
1553
01:27:56,009 --> 01:27:57,533
We could be a lot better.
1554
01:28:01,363 --> 01:28:04,453
And if we had a lot of
characterwe would try to be better.
1555
01:28:09,284 --> 01:28:12,678
[soft orchestral music]
1556
01:28:13,549 --> 01:28:16,769
[audience applauding]
1557
01:28:37,224 --> 01:28:40,837
[gentle orchestral music]
1558
01:30:15,453 --> 01:30:18,325
[soft piano music]
1559
01:30:18,349 --> 01:30:20,349
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