All language subtitles for O.J. Made in America E1 Part 1

As a kid growing up in the ghetto,

one of the things I wanted most was not money... it was fame.

LOVELOCK CORRECTIONAL CENTER

I wanted to be known. I want the people to say, "Hey, there goes O.J."

You're approaching five years now at Lovelock.

Tell us about your work assignments.

How have you occupied your time for the past five years?

When I first came here, I was a porter,

which comprised of cleaning things in the unit that I was in,

and basically after a relatively short period of time,

I started working as a gym worker.

I start each day disinfecting the workout equipment in the gym,

mopping floors with the other group of us that work in the gym.

I've coached teams... since I've been here.

And I like to say that we won the championship,

and we were old guys, a totally mixed group of players.

I didn't play, I just coached.

I do see that in 1994 you were arrested at the age of 46.

We're talking about this case?

No, the age at first arrest.

How old were you, first time you were arrested? For any reason.

I think about 46, yes.

O.J. MADE IN AMERICA PART 1

With an enrollment of approximately 16,000 students,

this is the largest and oldest university

of continuous existence in Southern California.

Its buildings and grounds cover 45 acres

and it has graduated many thousands of men and women

who are now leaders in the business and professional world.

I didn't know that much about him.

I heard about his reputation coming out of junior college.

CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO, 1966

He was big, fast, powerful, dynamic.

You're awed, because you haven't seen that.

WILLIE BROWN USC ASSISTANT COACH

I was teaching part-time at San Jose State and a friend of mine said...

DR. HARRY EDWARDS SOCIOLOGIST

..."Hey, man, you gotta go check out this little cat from San Francisco.

His name is Simpson. Orenthal James Simpson."

O.J. takes the football. Boom.

I think he runs about 90 yards with it for a touchdown.

He ran through 'em like foreign water through a tourist.

O.J. SIMPSON PICKED AS NOCAL BACK OF YEAR

San Jose State was trying to recruit him, and I asked him,

"O.J., what is it that you're lookin' for?"

Said, "I wanna be the best.

I wanna go to a school where I play against the best."

USC FOOTBALL SCHOLARSHIP TO SNATCH SIMPSON IN FEBRUARY

Superstar phenom is coming to USC

and all the buzz that goes around with it.

This is Marguerite Simpson.

She and O.J. have been married for five months now.

Right.

Are you happy after five months?

Yes, I'm very happy.

And do you like this campus and everything?

I love it. It's like a resort. It's beautiful.

Now, you tell us the truth, Marguerite. What kind of guy is O.J.?

O.J. is very serious. He loves football.

And he's just a serious person.

He has a great running sense.

As a team man, he's an outstanding person.

JOHN MCKAY USC HEAD COACH

As a citizen, he is a tremendous boy and...

I don't think we've had a boy around here who has ever been any better.

Get up!

It was pretty obvious early on that O.J. was a superior athlete, special...

FRED KHASIGIAN USC TEAMMATE

...and Coach McKay was warmer and closer with him.

He had never had a player of this caliber. And you didn't mess with it.

He protected him.

Johnny, would you describe that devastating

Southern Cal offensive attack for us?

Well, Duffy, I don't know how devastating it is,

but our attack is built around the tailback, O.J. Simpson,

running a football.

We think our attack will be able to let us move the ball on most people.

There was no drama.

John McKay was gonna give him the football,

and he was gonna give it to him 35, 40 times a game

and you were gonna tackle him.

And then when you missed, we were gonna score a touchdown.

So we fed him the football, fed him the football...

He had incredible stamina...

STEVE LEHMER USC TEAMMATE

...that he could take the ball every play and keep on going.

Every game he did something that was eye-opening.

"What? Did I see that?"

He was one of a kind.

O.J. SIMPSON: USC'S NEWEST GRID SENSATION

JOHN HALL OK, O.J. IS NO.1

This is O.J. Simpson, USC's junior halfback.

You have been getting an awful lot of publicity lately.

How does it affect you? Does it bother ya?

It doesn't bother me at all.

It's a matter of winning, I guess.

If you win, you get publicity,

and they have to give someone in our offense and on our team publicity,

and... I'm just in a position to get it,

running at the tailback and carrying the ball as much as I do.

O.J., you've got an awful big game on Saturday.

It's the big intercity rivalry. There's just all kind of pressure.

How does the pressure affect you?

Well... I don't know.

I don't think the pressure bothers...

It doesn't bother me and...

and I think most of the team right now, it's not bothering them yet.

I'm sure it will tomorrow.

We're shooting for all the marbles this week,

and... I think we'll be relaxed and ready to go.

UCLA-USC IN THE BIGGEST GAME...

LOS ANGELES MEMORIAL COLISEUM

USC football is not a matter of life and death.

It's much more important than that.

Live and in color, you are looking at this view,

hovering above the Memorial Coliseum which is jam packed today.

As we look at Gary Beban, a reminder that college football,

a pleasant and colorful way to spend an autumn afternoon.

UCLA's quarterback was Gary Beban.

It's gonna be his year for the Heisman Trophy.

So we have the upcomer running back

against the established superstar quarterback.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

We were ranked number 4, they were ranked number 1.

USC VS. UCLA: SHOWDOWN IN L.A.

The city of Los Angeles, the two top teams in the country,

and we're fighting for the national championship.

Today with 10 cameras covering this game,

over 200... newsmen here, 200 photographers.

There were people out here this morning at 6 o'clock

trying to get in to the ballgame.

And the ballgame is underway.

I had never been to a college game ever.

And we all wanted to go see O.J.

RON SHIPP O.J. FAN

Offensively now for the Trojans, watch for number 32, O.J. Simpson.

None of us had any tickets.

All of a sudden, we looked up and someone had cut a hole

in the Coliseum fence and about 50 people ran through it, including us.

Okay, Bud, we have approximately 9 minutes remaining in the first half.

I'd never seen the Coliseum full like that.

There was just the colors, I was in awe.

Tie ballgame, and they are in UCLA territory. Steve Sogge. Simpson.

There's his brilliance. Thirteen yards. Touchdown.

A tremendously gifted athlete, number 32, O.J. Simpson.

Everybody loved watching O.J. run.

As we look at it in slow motion...

There was something about his style.

...O.J. Simpson.

I said, "Man, if I could but run half as well as this guy,

I might be all right."

Beban hooking. Deep and long to Copeland.

UCLA has tied it up.

There is Nuttall.

Touchdown, UCLA.

And with 11 minutes and 40 seconds left in the game UCLA gets the lead.

NCAA FOOTBALL USC 14 UCLA 20 - 4TH QTR.

We were losing. And we were fighting.

O.J. Simpson is deep. Number 32.

And he's determined.

We were outplaying them,

and we were very angry that we were not winning that game.

Thirty. Moving away,

and sheer sake of effort brings him out to the 34-yard line.

Things weren't going our way until that run.

The Rose Bowl bid, Bud, is at stake.

Everything that they've fought for all year,

it's coming down to the wire now, Chris. These final minutes.

At the 36-yard line, a 4-yard gain,

it'll be third down at three for the Trojans.

It was a pass play.

They need three yards.

In the audible, and some guys missed the audible.

I couldn't hear it. I made a mistake. I stood up to pass block.

The linebacker read me and backed into his passing zone,

and that opened up a lane for O.J.

And he did his magic.

First down and more. There's Simpson.

Look at that cut! O.J. Simpson!

All she wrote.

64 yards.

64 thrilling, captivating, collegiate football yards,

and let's look at that one again. Wow.

Don't recall seeing anybody that can turn it on like this boy, Chris.

ABC COLOR SLO-MO

If you were a football fan,

in the late '60s and someone said to you,

"Do you remember the run?", it was just one run.

JEFFREY TOOBIN AUTHOR - THE RUN OF HIS LIFE

That set O.J. apart from everyone.

He's so much faster, it makes no difference.

That single play is still felt to be one of the greatest college plays.

GUESTS 20 HOME 21

He became an instant national star.

A civil rights leader in Los Angeles has said

if you are going to be a negro in a big city,

then Los Angeles is the best place to be.

LOS ANGELES MEMORIAL COLISEUM

HOLLYWOOD

The image of Los Angeles was milk and honey.

There's no prejudice in Los Angeles.

Everybody's free to do what they will.

You know, palm trees and sunshine.

It's just the ultimate place.

And anybody who was trying to go somewhere, at least in my area...

DANNY BAKEWELL LOUISIANA NATIVE

...you know, they were going to Los Angeles.

There is no group in America to whom California has meant more

than it has to the negroes.

In the two decades between 1940 and 1960,

while the population of all other groups in Los Angeles

went up by 100 percent, the negro population went up by 600 percent.

Where do the people come from?

People come from the states of Texas, Louisiana, Georgia...

The hope is that all the trouble I've known will be gone.

2, 4, 6, 8... we don't wanna integrate!

GOD DEMANDS SEGREGATION

2, 4, 6, 8... we don't wanna integrate!

I will no longer be held down by this notion

held against my skin and my hair.

WALTER MOSLEY WATTS NATIVE

More literally, I can get work because it's growing so fast here.

And I can buy a house,

and nobody's ever gonna come take it away from me because I'm Black.

This is something that you didn't have in the deep South.

The Simpsons are from Rodessa, Louisiana.

My parents and his parents, they grew up on a 200-acre farm.

DWIGHT TUCKER COUSIN

Although they had land, there was no opportunity for people of color,

so everybody "got out of Dodge", as they say.

O.J. and I were born in San Francisco in '47.

He had aspirations.

He knew that he wanted to better his circumstances,

and LA was the place to do that.

I moved out here looking for opportunities.

My grandmother gave me 67 dollars for a ticket,

and my mother gave me 65 dollars to spend,

and I got on a plane, one-way ticket.

If I had the money, I would've gone back home,

'cause it was very, very troubling once I got here.

Racism out here was as stark as it was in Jim Crow South.

You don't really have any more power out here than you had there.

Everybody was always conscious of the police.

DRAGNET SERGEANT - LOS ANGELES POLICE 714

-You a friend of Jack Grant's? -Why?

-Jack Grant a friend of yours? -I'm not gonna tell ya.

I grew up watching the Los Angeles Police Department.

DAVID GASCON LAPD

They just were so sharp and professional all the time,

if you watched things that depicted them.

I'm Lieutenant Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Hell, no, we won't go.

If you do not leave now, you will be arrested

for violation of section 602-J.

They were just always squared away.

The institutional culture was really clear.

We expected you to be the best, we expected you to be professional.

It's not like it was in the '30s and '40s.

POLICE OFFICER CONVICTED OF TAKING BRIBE

Police officers don't take bribes.

EX-POLICE CHIEF HORRALL INDICTED; REED, THREE OTHERS ALSO NAMED

There's none of that stuff, that had been cleaned up by Chief Parker.

Chief Parker turned a very corrupt police department

into what was viewed as a very honest police department,

but with that he brought a level of being untouchable.

BERNARD PARKS LAPD 1965-2002

Everything at the police academy was white,

in the sense of command staff, officers, all the trainers were white.

Bill Parker was reputed

to have actually recruited police officers from the Klan rallies.

II think he, at minimum, was racially insensitive,

at maximum, he was racist.

Police officers under Bill Parker would respond to a radio call,

they would go snatch the person who was causing trouble...

JIM NEWTON REPORTER - LOS ANGELES TIMES

...put 'em in the car, take 'em out and leave.

So their interaction with the community

was almost entirely based on apprehension,

and that's where the notion of an occupying army comes from.

Just getting tired of being pushed around by you white people, that's all.

You stoppin' us on the street, kickin' down the doors,

takin' down to the police station, you're kicking our teeth in.

Well, he took me in the car and he just started getting on me.

But was there a fight?

How can I fight with my hands stuck?

The complaint that you hear everywhere is that the negro

is not getting the same treatment from the police as the...

Well, I know, but I'm getting a little bit weary of that,

and I think perhaps the best thing to do

is just to pull the police out of the area.

I've offered to do that again and again,

but you see how quick they are to come back and say,

"We can't afford to have that."

POLICE BRUTALITY PERSISTS, NEGRO PASTOR INSISTS, BUT PARKER DENIES IT

The negroes are stepping up, they're waking up,

and they're gonna do something about what the white man did to them.

I'm not afraid of bloodshed. If I have to die for my rights, I will.

54 square miles in the middle of the nation's third-largest city.

No one expected the flashpoint of discontent to be

in the sprawling, bungalow'd 450 square miles of Los Angeles.

This is when a fuse was lighted.

It began with the arrest by white officers of two young negroes,

one on a charge of drunk driving, the other his brother.

Their mother came to the scene.

There was an argument, there was a scuffle.

By then, a crowd of several hundred negroes had gathered.

The story of police brutality quickly spread through the community.

AUGUST 11, 1965

The Watts riots. I was 10 years old, man.

CARL DOUGLAS LOS ANGELES NATIVE

It was summer, it was hot,

and white policemen had been treating us like shit forever.

And we were gonna respond.

The police in their idiocy responded with too much force

and not enough understanding, and it mushroomed.

I was nervous.

There were people screaming, people shooting,

people lying on the ground, not moving.

The police, four-deep in a car, all holding up shotguns.

The Watts riot was one of the first major events in the city of LA

that was caught on TV.

People who grew up looking at those kinds of activities in the South,

they thought that's where all of the racial divide was.

The only thing was missing in LA, there weren't dogs.

Hands up there. Get 'em up. Get your hands up. Let's go.

I got home and my father was sitting there, upset, and he says,

"You know, Walter, they're out there, riot."

And he says, "I wanna do that. I feel that. I feel that anger.

I know it's wrong, so I can't do it. But I want to."

I didn't think it was a big deal.

I didn't think these people were, quote, "persecuted".

I didn't think these people had any problem. Why were they rioting?

I was as naive as any other white person.

This area is being closed. Please go in your homes.

The question came down from white people after Watts.

They said, "Do most Black people feel like this?"

And the answer came back,

"About 99 percent of them feel like this. And one percent are really mad."

In creating this situation, where was the failure?

On the part of the city, the county, the schools?

This, sir, I think, is one of the difficulties in meeting this,

is that we're trying to find a failure other than the people themselves.

They came in and... and flooded a community

that wasn't prepared to meet them.

We didn't ask these people to come here.

So long as this stubborn attitude is maintained,

I can only see the situation worsening.

I can still smell the smolderings of that event.

There was nervousness...

MARK RIDLEY-THOMAS SOUTH CENTRAL NATIVE

...all over the place

that would ultimately translate into

traumatizing an entire community.

Better to make all the rioting stop.

I don't think it'll ever stop, really.

Ever?

And the institution that gave life

to O.J. Simpson's image and presence

nationally and beyond was located

right in the middle of that very same neighborhood.

USC was an isolated, beautiful school

right next to the LA Coliseum

and on the other side were the slums of LA.

Basically Watts.

Everyone was warned not to go down on that side of the Coliseum.

At the University of Southern California,

they have a living legend, and at homecoming,

that's all they wanna talk about.

The name of the legend is O.J. Simpson.

When you saw him on campus, it was like, "Wow! There's O.J.!"

And you might go up and wave or say, "Way to go, O.J."...

JOE SALTZMAN USC PROFESSOR

...and he'd give you a big smile,

and you felt like you were a million dollars.

You felt fantastic. "O.J. Simpson said "hi" to me!"

Yeah.

Hey, O.J., how are ya? How's it...

Working hard.

I hope you're gonna be smiling Saturday.

Yeah, in about four days or five. I plan to.

For most of the USC students, I wager,

O.J. Simpson was the first African-American

they really got to see and talk to.

Because most of them didn't know African-Americans at all,

or any person of color.

We are! SC!

We are! SC!

USC was a football school, it was a Hollywood school...

DR. HARRY EDWARDS ACTIVIST

...it was glamour and glitz,

it was not the University of California at Berkeley.

SAN JOSE STATE STUDENT STRIKE COMMITTEE

It was not San Jose State.

Fight, fight, fight, fight!

It was above and beyond reach of the movement.

O.J. went to USC in 1967,

so he's plucked out of the Black community...

JOE BELL CHILDHOOD FRIEND

...out of Black consciousness,

and he's submerged in an all-white university.

And I say this, and I don't say it facetiously,

but... he is seduced...

by white society.

USC controls TV, Hollywood, banking, finance,

law and medicine in Los Angeles.

ROSE BOWL

The alumni are very powerful, and their whole existence

revolves around the success of the football team.

And O.J. is leading them to glory.

BOWL RECIPE: ALL YOU NEED IS O.J. SIMPSON'S RUNS MAKE NEW YEAR'S DAY ROSY

It was that type of school with that type of power and control

that could be directed towards him.

The Black man has been brainwashed,

and it's time for him to learn something about himself.

The word "Black" is a part of the times.

We are succumbing to the demands of the Black man in the street

who says that the negro is dead and the Black man is alive.

It was a condition that I was born into;

the unfairness, the racism, the hatred...

JIM BROWN CLEVELAND BROWNS 1957-65

...the poverty that we had in this country.

You can't balance that with being a football hero.

In the '60s, societal issues were pushing their way into sports.

ROBERT LIPSYTE REPORTER - THE NEW YORK TIMES

CLAY REAFFIRMS STAND AGAINST BEING DRAFTED

It has been said that I have two alternatives,

either go to jail or go to the army.

There was this engagement of the athlete.

SUPPORT AND DEFEND THE 17 AFRO-AMERICANS ACCUSED! - RALLY

Some major athletes stood up.

NO VIETNAMESE EVER CALLED ME NIGGER

Nine top negro athletes meet with Cassius Clay

to discuss his anti-draft stand.

They include Bill Russell, Lou Alcindor,

and former pro-footballer Jimmy Brown.

Every man in that room was a soldier.

Every man in that room, for nothing other than his beliefs

and backing another brother, felt that he should be there

and the hell with the consequences.

Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Ali, for sure, were race men.

They stood up for principle

and damaged their commercial possibilities.

They pointed to the discrimination,

not only of all Blacks, but of Black athletes,

of people who were supposedly given entitlement in America.

At the time you were supposed to be satisfied. Or grateful.

Why would someone that's making money

and cheered by 80,000 people be complaining?

BROWNS TAKE BIG ONE WIN NFL CHAMPIONSHIP

For me, it was really a matter of fairness

and what is correct.

The United States has hypocritically put itself up

as the leader of the free world, while right here in this country,

there are 22 million Black people who are catching more hell

than anyone in any communist country ever dreamed of.

Black men and women athletes, professional and amateur,

have unanimously voted to fully endorse and participate

in a boycott of the World Olympic Games in 1968.

The movement on the West Coast recently

in which Lou Alcindor supposedly said he might not play in the Olympics.

What are your thoughts?

Well, this is his prerogative.

I'm not too well enlightened on the situation.

I don't know exactly what they're trying to do, you know.

The whole idea behind the Olympic Project for Human Rights

was to escalate the relationship between elite athletes

and the civil rights movement.

Let me say that I absolutely support this boycott.

I would also like to commend the outstanding athletes

who have the courage to make it clear that they will not participate

unless something is done about these terrible evils and injustices.

SPORT O.J. SIMPSON IN QUEST OF ALL THE PRIZES

O.J. was approached because he was

the biggest name in collegiate athletics at that time.

He was also a world record-holding track star.

That's O.J. Simpson...

So here we got two for one.

...and Lennox Miller...

When I asked him, I said we were trying to get Black athletes

to understand they have a role in the current civil rights movement,

his response was, "I'm not Black. I'm O.J."

What they think is right, I guess, they must follow their beliefs.

Well, right now I don't wanna be involved in it, because,

I'm not in track. You know, I'm running track, but when it...

when it comes to Olympic time, I'll be in football,

so I have no comment on the matter.

O.J. was saying, "I want to be judged not by the color of my skin,

I want to be judged by the content of my character

and most of all, the caliber of my competence.

I think I'm the greatest football player that this country's ever seen.

That's all I wanna be judged by.

Don't tell me I've gotta do this because I'm Black."

I think football is a great sport. It teaches a person an awful lot.

I would say there's less prejudice in sports than any other field anywhere,

because, it just... you're accepted as what you are,

you know, an athlete and what you can do,

and I think this is good for anyone.

1968

Simpson rushed for 1709 yards in 1968,

more than any other back in history.

His durability is almost as legendary as his speed and moves.

Simpson scored 22 touchdowns.

He carried a record 355 times

and proved himself nearly indestructible.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED WORLD SERIES IN COLOR

USC VS. MIAMI NO WAY TO STOP O.J.

He was in a different world than the rest of us.

There was an O.J. cult. It was building, building, building.

When you bring a student athlete in there on a visit, they wanna see O.J.

The community leaders, for speaking engagements, they wanted O.J.

They wanted a role model. They wanted the young Black kids to see.

When I was 16 years old, I made an all-star team down in Los Angeles

and they had a banquet, and while we were eating,

the guy who was running the whole show, he says,

"Okay, I wanna introduce the guest speaker tonight, O.J. Simpson."

And I was like, "Wow!" I said, "O.J.'s here. This is unbelievable."

O.J., when he walked up, he said,

"First of all, before I start, is Ron Shipp here?"

I put my hand up. I was like, "Is this for real?"

And he goes, "Are you the brother of Michael Shipp?"

And I say, "Yes."

And he goes, "Hey, everybody, I just wanna tell you about

Michael Shipp, his brother,

we played against each other, he's a great guy,

so on and so, Ron, if you're anything like your brother, you know... "

and, like, he made me an instant hero in that room.

I mean, I fell in love with the guy right then.

This is the most incredible human being.

Here is the star of our show, Bob Hope.

I don't have to tell you it's a pleasure to be here at OJU.

But it's wonderful to be here at USC.

You haven't had a riot, a demonstration or even a sit in.

Are you sure this is a college?

I have some very sad news for all of you.

Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis.

I tried to talk to O.J. before the show,

but I guess he has something on his mind.

He kept referring to me as Mr. Heisman.

RFK, RFK, RFK!

Pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs!

O.J., you've had quite a season.

Well, I have gained a few yards.

A few yards? You've gobbled up more real estate than Howard Hughes.

When you think of 1968, what do you think of?

GOD! NOT AGAIN!

1968, I think of...

winning all the games, getting O.J. famous,

everybody on campus thinking it's the greatest thing on earth.

That's all we thought about. There was nothing else going on.

Several European newspapers today condemned

the International Olympic Committee for sending home

two militant negro athletes from the United States.

The two, Tommie Smith and John Carlos,

who ran first and third in the 200-meter dash,

were banished after they raised clenched fists in Black gloves

during the playing of The Star Spangled Banner.

Uh, with your bad self!

Say it loud!

I'm Black, and I'm proud!

I didn't believe in the national anthem,

but I stood up anyway, because I didn't want no static,

but those days are gone.

Right on.

Brother Tommie Smith, Brother John Carlos and Brother Harry Edwards

join the ranks of Brother Muhammad Ali,

because we want Black people who are concerned with us first

and with sports second.

Yeah!

Say it loud!

I'm Black and proud!

At about 10 o'clock this morning, we were notified that...

a Heisman Trophy winner comes back to USC

and, as you all know, it's O.J. Simpson.

Thank you. Well, I don't know quite what to say.

I'm certainly proud, and I'm very happy,

and I'm taking it as a team award and all the other guys did as much

if not more than I do, for me to get the award,

and I'll be glad to see all the guys,

'cause I know they're just as happy as I am.

As you can see, the Heisman Trophy award ceremony is over,

and O.J. Simpson, number 32, the University of Southern California,

has been beset by autograph hounds.

Mrs. Simpson, I wonder if you'd be good enough to come over.

Your tears only registered your pride, and it's a very great pride...

DECEMBER 5, 1968

...and you should enjoy it, because this is a very great young man.

O.J., the congratulations of all of us to you

for a truly remarkable season

and more importantly, for your impeccable character.

Thank you, Mr. Cosell.

So that's the story.

The Heisman award proceedings, number 32, O.J. Simpson.

Perhaps the greatest running back in the history of college football.

When I met him, I was quite taken with him.

This is kind of a warm June night in 1969.

Howard Cosell took O.J. and me to Bachelors III,

which was Joe Namath's bar.

He was telling a story about being at a teammate's wedding with his wife

sitting at a table of mostly, as he said, negroes,

and you overheard a white woman at the next table saying,

"Look, there's O.J. sitting with all those niggers."

And I remember in my naiveté, saying to O.J.,

"Gee, wow, that must have been terrible for you."

"No, that was great. Don't you understand?

She knew that I wasn't Black.

She saw me as O.J."

And really, at that moment, I thought he was fucked.

Our first guest today is one of the greatest running backs I've ever seen.

I met him when he was still in college at Southern California,

and he's not only a hell of a football player, he's a hell of a guy.

The winner of the Heisman trophy, the finest college football player

in the country last year,

the Buffalo Bills' great rookie, O.J. Simpson.

Thank you, Joe.

Now, with all that money you got for signing with Buffalo,

I wanna know if you're gonna help me out in some business interests.

How's business?

Oh, it's pretty good.

I'm under contract with... I don't know if I can say it. I'm here.

Yeah.

Well, I'm under contract with Chevrolet and RC Cola,

and I'm working with... what network is it?

ABC.

And they're keeping me pretty busy.

BIG CARS COST BIG MONEY... THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS.

The pitch to Chevrolet was

that this would be the first national Black spokesman.

DAVID LOCKTON BUSINESS AGENT

You've got a Black market.

He's not gonna be a negative in any way to the white market,

but you're gonna get a lot of brownie points just for stepping up.

O.J.? It's a real satisfaction to me to be able to introduce

a great ballplayer like you

to an equally great group of Chevrolet salesmen.

My pleasure, Chris.

At the time, athlete endorsements were virtually non-existent.

And for them to sign him, a Black man, a football player,

was ground-breaking.

They tell me that the Chevrolet selling team

is the greatest in the country. I believe that.

That's what made perfect sense.

O.J. Simpson was the counterrevolutionary athlete.

White America is looking for somebody

who can erase the threat

of these seemingly angry, principled, Black athletes

who are going to create a revolution in sports.

O.J. made people feel good.

It was clear once you spent some time with O.J.

that the Carlos, you know, fist pump, and those kinds of...

situations were not gonna be, you know, present in dealing with him.

He just gave you that confidence that he understood what this was about.

I'd like to welcome a new member of the ABC sports commentary staff.

It is O.J. Simpson.

Well, Jim, I'll be doing basically sports work with the...

ABC radio networks and the TV networks. I hope...

O.J. SIMPSON

O.J. was very, very rough and needed a lot of coaching in the early years.

It's pretty interesting, and I'm really looking forward to it.

We obviously wanted him to be able to speak proper English

and eliminate slang, and he didn't ever take offense at that.

It was, "Thank you." You know? "Okay, I got it."

He realized that his Horatio Alger story

was based on him being a pleasing person to white people.

I really had the sense that he was enormously self-conscious

of who he was and who he needed to be to get over.

That there was this character, O.J., which he was creating.

What does O.J. stand for?

Oh, Joe.

Come on, tell it. Tell me.

Orenthal James Simpson.

Good.

Now, that's a nice name, Orenthal.

-Yeah. -It's a good name.

You never got in any arguments over that, did ya?

No, no, I had some pretty good friends, pretty big friends,

and they were the only guys who could tease me about it.

Well, in your movie career motion picture industry,

are they gonna call you Orenthal James or...

They're gonna call me O.J.

I was taken by O.J. as a character, as somebody to write about,

that somebody was so self-aware

and so obviously ambitious.

The question in my mind then and still now is

where did this imagination come from?

Where did he begin to write this novel about O.J. Simpson?

ASHBURY HAIGHT

Everybody looks at San Francisco now, "Oh, it's this cosmopolitan...

you know, everybody loves, everybody gooshy goosh."

JOE BELL CHILDHOOD FRIEND

It wasn't like that, man.

Potrero Hill was predominantly African-American.

Public housing, the old barracks from the navy.

When the navy left, the city turned 'em into low-income housing.

It was a rough area.

POTRERO HILL DEVELOPMENT LEASING OFFICE

The Simpsons lived at the top of a big hill.

Carmelita, his younger sister Shirley had a room,

and Melvin and O.J. had a room.

We crawled around on the floor together

before we ever learned how to walk.

Four months apart. I'm born in March, he's born in July.

DWIGHT TUCKER COUSIN

We'd spend a lot of time at each other's house.

We're a close-knit family.

The mother worked at night, so they were responsible for themselves...

CALVIN TENNYSON CHILDHOOD FRIEND

...and sometimes, he would open the refrigerator

and there just wouldn't be nothing in there,

and I'd say, "Well, come on, let's go to my house and eat dinner."

O.J.'s mother, my aunt Eunice, worked the graveyard shift

at San Francisco General Hospital.

She was a provider, she was steady,

but if you're in a single-parent situation, you know,

there's never enough money.

I mean, we were poor kids, you know.

We would steal cars, we would break into somebody's house,

take all the women's purses and stuff like... You know.

We would be called criminals.

From the time we were 10 years old, you know, we were hustlers.

You know, you'd go to the football game, scalp tickets,

-and everybody had their own technique. -Yeah.

I can recall crying in front of a cat, you know.

"Oh, I need it." "Please let me have that ticket." You know?

"I wanna see... I wanna see Hugh McElhenny play," you know?

Cats break down, give you the ticket,

I would go on the other side of the stadium and sell it.

Why didn't I think of that?

Did you ever see him in any fist fights?

AL COWLINGS CHILDHOOD FRIEND

O.J. didn't fight.

No?

No. O.J. was boisterous.

When you say he was boisterous, did you ever see him,

talk himself out of a... a fight situation?

I've seen O.J. fight... talk himself out of a lot of situations.

GALILEO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

There was this one incident at school.

Myself, Al Collins and O.J., we were all in the bathroom shooting crap.

We were cursing and talking loud, and I was shaking the dice,

and, all of a sudden, these big

wingtip shoes slide in the circle,

and I looked up, and it was Coach McBride.

We were all on the football team.

We're like, "Okay, Mr. McBride, we're busted. Let us go to class."

He's like, "No." He's gonna take us to the principal's office.

O.J. stays in back of the pack. I could hear him,

"Oh, come on, Mr. McBride. You know we're gonna be suspended."

MAIN OFFICE

So we get in the principal's office.

208 PRINCIPALS OFFICE

Coach McBride says, "I caught these guys in the bathroom shooting dice."

And then he turned and walked out.

So O.J. turns and walks away.

Dean Smith says, "Simpson, where you going?"

He says, "Oh, I was just helping Mr. McBride bring these guys down."

And Dean Smith let him go.

O.J. SIMPSON FOOTBALL 1965

Self-preservation.

It was just that kind of smooth talk

that O.J. would do in all kinds of situations.

Do you think he was shown a little preference

-because of his football ability? -Oh, yes.

You said you had seen Simpson

talk himself out of lots of situations.

Oh, yeah, talked himself... with me.

When we were younger, Al Cowlings used to stutter,

and he never was good with talking to girls.

Marguerite was the nice girl from the other side of town,

but Marguerite liked Allen, and they wound up going steady.

There was some party, and O.J. came and got me.

I thought we was going straight to the party,

but we pull up in front of Marguerite's house,

and he tells me to get in the back, and I'm, like, in shock, like...

I seen her with... you know, walking with... with Allen.

We go down to where the party is, and Allen spots us,

and he starts shaking his head and, "No! No way!"

He is furious, and Al is a big guy.

And he grabs the car, and he's rocking it,

rocking the car back and forth, just rocking it.

And Marguerite gets out of the car,

she says, "Allen, stop it."

And he stops.

And we were like, "No, he didn't."

How could O.J. keep getting out of these situations?

He stole his best friend's girl.

Later on, you see the three of them together.

Allen went to USC also.

They were as thick as thieves.

Everywhere he went, A.C. was with him.

Football really was what brought us together.

We were really braggadocious, you know.

We were like, "I'm gonna be a pro football player,"

and O.J. said something that really struck me.

He says, "Man, let me tell you guys something. One of these days,

your children are gonna be fighting over who wants to be O.J. Simpson."

He knew that he was going to be somebody.

He was self-assured. I'll just put it that way.

O.J. has always wanted to be a hero.

If it was looking at Burt Lancaster on The Man on the Flying Trapeze

or Burt Lancaster playing Jim Thorpe...

he always wanted to be a hero.

An American hero.

BUFFALO, NY

The Buffalo Bills select as their first choice in the first round,

halfback O.J. Simpson, the University of Southern California.

O.J. NO. 1 BUFFALO BILLS

It was the last place you'd wanna be.

It was just like being sent to Siberia.

EARL EDWARDS BILLS TEAMMATE

'HIGHEST PAID PLAYER SINCE LEAGUE MERGER'

There was some players that said, "Oh, Mr. Hotshot."

BOOKER EDGERSON BILLS TEAMMATE

He understood that people around him was envious

what he was getting and what he was doing.

O.J. SIMPSON: "I HAVE TO BE BETTER THAN GOOD"

Stand by and go whenever you're ready, O.J.

Well, there was never much doubt about missing him.

That was O.J. Simpson. O.J. is now a professional football player.

The Buffalo Bills is his home, and the question is

how many professional defensive tacklers is he going to get by?

So what kind of an attitude

must O.J. Simpson have to play professional football?

Well, he's gonna have to be strong-willed...

JOHN RAUCH BILLS HEAD COACH

...in many different ways,

because he will have a lot of people picking at him, he'll have a lot of...

We had a couch, John Rauch,

which I've considered the worst coach that we ever had.

Blocking, he will have to block,

because other people are ball carriers also.

He tried to make O.J. a receiver, more or less.

What we call tosses, quick, opening plays.

And O.J. could not catch a ball.

He couldn't catch a ball if they paid him to catch a ball, which they was.

They was paying him. They was paying him a lot.

How do you like Buffalo?

It's okay - it's got some good people there.

It'll be a lot better when we start winning.

O.J. hated Buffalo.

He hated the weather.

It's a blue collar town.

Hard working, blue collar,

factory-working people.

JOE DELAMIELLEURE BILLS TEAMMATE

O.J. was nothing of that.

And plus, we was on a losing team.

The first couple years of his pro career were very frustrating for him,

and they were disappointing relative to the huge expectations

that everybody set for him.

I mean, they were saying he was a bust.

If it had have stayed the same as it was when he first got drafted in here,

he would have been a nobody, I honestly believe that.

He'd have been a nobody.

Best thing happened to O.J. was John Rauch got fired,

and Lou Saban took over.

Lou Saban was a person who believed in the run game first,

the pass game second.

I tell you, if Lou Saban hadn't have came in,

we wouldn't be doing this story right now.

1973

'73 was the year we opened the new stadium.

So we had a 80,000 seat stadium,

and they brought in all these young offensive linemen.

Coach Saban built the team to run.

When I got there during exhibition season,

I saw him doing things that... I said, "Wow.

Homeboy's pretty bad."

Lou Saban started selling them on the idea that we can get 2,000.

You can get 2,000. We can do this.

You can get it done. What's more, you gotta get it done.

And in that first game...

we turned out the lights

and started it and never looked back.

First game I ever played in the NFL, O.J. got 250 yards.

O.J. Simpson could run sideways faster

than most men could run forward.

And he hit the line, and he'd go...

that quick, then up the sideline.

He was amazing.

I've been around a lot of good ballplayers,

but I've never been around anyone that was as breathtaking

or as captivating as he was.

He would, like, glide.

He never really picked his feet more than a couple inches off the ground,

so he was, like, slithering through a hole.

When he'd hit a hole sometimes he'd turn sideways

and kind of leap through it sideways.

KEN JOHNSON BILLS FAN

Then if he broke open into the open,

then you'd start seeing the knees go up in the stride.

That's when he was buttery.

He's the one who sucked me into being a rabid Bills fan.

Let's hear it for the Bills. Let's hear it. Come on! Let's go!

Let's go, Bills!

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

And once we got to the seventh game,

it was a Monday night game, O.J. went over a thousand.

Everybody said, "Hey, we have a shot at this."

Two thousand yards in 14 games.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED O.J. RUSHES FOR THE RECORD

That was like somebody breaking Babe Ruth's home run record.

That was unheard of.

IS O.J. SIMPSON BETTER THAN JIMMY BROWN?

What was going through my mind at the time is

he might have a chance of breaking Jim Brown's record.

I never thought that he would go 2,000 yards.

Why are you so much better than everybody else?

I think the offensive line is so much better than everybody.

Hey, you guys!

We're gonna turn it on

All of a sudden, we got a nickname: "The Electric Company."

And, wow, this is pretty cool.

The nickname came from the PR director of The Bills.

There used to be a cartoon called The Electric Company,

and his son watched it all the time.

He said, "Hey, Dad, why don't you call 'em 'The Electric Company'?"

They turn on the juice.

The Bills they got that Electric Company

Montler, Foley, Big Joe D

They turn on The Juice They turn on The Juice

They cut him loose

SIMPSON AIMS AT RECORD

They turn on The Juice

You know I love to see my Electric Company

Turn on The Juice

DOLPHINS WIN THIRD STRAIGHT EAST TITLE; SIMPSON RUSHES 120 YARDS

Turn him loose

O.J. just couldn't be stopped that year.

Throw that switch, boys Turn the power on

There were times when the quarterback

would only throw six passes in the entire game.

There goes The Juice There goes The Juice

The entire offense was O.J. Simpson.

There goes The Juice

FALCONS UPSET; O.J. GETS 137

Nobody actually thought he was gonna go for 2,000.

With only two games to go, he was still 400 and a few yards short.

Go, Juice!

Come on, Juice!

During the games,

I never took a minute off from the offense.

Do you want The Juice to put A move on you?

O.J. SIMPSON CLOSES IN ON RUSHING RECORD

I never made it to the bench.

Turn on The Juice

I didn't wanna miss any of it.

Turn on The Juice

It was the most exciting thing that I'd ever seen.

SIMPSON GAINS 219, NEEDS 61 TO BREAK JIM BROWN'S MARK

Turn on The Juice

When we got to New York, that last game,

he was going for Jim Brown's record.

With 60 yards needed, and everyone knew

that The Jets didn't want him to get the record.

I was actually there.

The Jets had no chance of making the playoffs.

The only interesting thing about that day

was whether O.J. was going to break 2,000.

It was a really snowy, cold day.

A little bit similar to today.

So a lot of people were worried

that he wouldn't have a lot of rushing yards

because of that, a lot of slipping in the snow.

He was nervous that day.

We had a little chat, and I told him, I said,

"Hey, homes, this is just another week for you."

I think he knew that "This is gonna make or break me."

He knew that in order for him to write his name in the book,

he had to be exceptional.

O.J. IS O.K.

He was living a very comfortable life,

but he wanted to live an exceptional life...

and this was his exceptional feat.

I remember just about every play in that game.

Every time Simpson got the ball,

everyone was rushing to their notepad to write it down.

And the announcers kept counting it down.

Well, gentlemen, we are coming upon it, and The Juice should

break the National Football League rushing record in this next series.

Simpson running left, Simpson breaking loose, and there it is!

All right! All right!

He needed four yards, he got five and this crowd,

his whole team is gathering around and congratulating him,

WITH THAT RUN O.J. SIMPSON BROKE JIMMY BROWN'S 10-YEAR RECORD

FOR RUSHING YARDS IN ONE SEASON... CONGRATULATIONS O.J.

hitting him on the head, there isn't a person sitting down.

He got the 1,863 pretty early in the game.

And they said, "Okay, now we're going for the 2,000."

And now it's for the 2,000, Floyd.

More than 100 yards, O.J., O.J. cuts inside,

O.J. gets wide, this is on!

Now a race he's at midfield

and he's inside Jets territory at the 43 yard line.

100 yards. How many games did he get to 100 yards? Eleven?

Once he got over 100 yards,

a different excitement started to hit the game.

Well, he might do this. He might actually hit 2,000.

You had Jets fans who were basically rooting for O.J.

because they wanted to be part of history, and I think, you know,

I was basically a little kid, but I think I felt that way.

Who cared if The Jets won?

Everybody loved O.J.

O.J., he's got five yards, and O.J. running left,

O.J. five more. Maybe more. I don't know.

They did it. They did it. Yeah!

And when he did it, he was on my shoulder.

I knew how important it was.

I contributed to that also.

The defense has to give the ball to the offense.

I felt it. It was mine, too.

Right after the game, there's "Gotta get O.J. to the interview,"

and he said, "I'm not coming in unless you bring in all the guys."

And we were in a tiny room. We could barely fit in that room.

He brought in all the offense. He refused to go in that room without us.

O.J. SIMPSON ALL TIME NFL SINGLE SEASON RUSHER

O.J., you brought 'em all with you.

Yeah. Hey, they did the job, all of you.

I want you to meet the boys. Here.

Mike Montler, our center.

Jim Braxton, Bob Penchion, Joe Ferguson.

Didn't throw many passes this year, but ball-handling is the thing.

Donnie Green, Bobby Chandler, Paul Seymour,

Dave Foley, a former Jet.

All right, all right!

This is a guy, through the long winter

wasn't supposed to play any football this year.

He had a heart problem, but you came back, and you see what we did.

JD Hill, "Crackback" Hill, my main man Reg McKenzie.

He was the most generous guy you'd ever meet.

When we broke the record, he bought us a gold wristband.

And on the back of it is, "We did it. The Juice. 3088."

He didn't say "2003", he said "3088",

because that's how much the team rushed.

I hope to stay in the league long enough for, you know,

'til all these guys get old so no young back

can get behind 'em and break my record.

O.J. NAMED MVP FOR 1973 IN GRID POLL

'73 was like a rebirth of his celebrity.

PRO FOOTBALL SPORTS ILLUSTRATED - O.J. SIMPSON

I was 22 years old, I thought,

"This is like being on a team with Babe Ruth."

Mentally, I think he was ahead of a lot of people.

From watching how he handled himself, how he operated,

my whole demeanor changed. I began to wanna be like O.J.

He was Baryshnikov.

When somebody is that great at something...

PETER HYAMS DIRECTOR

when we see those people, they are special.

They just can do stuff that other people can't do.

You expect it of yourself.

You hear the crowd, but you don't hear it.

I mean, you know they're cheering, but that's the way it should be.

When I'm in the open, I'm running, this is how it is supposed to be.

This is correct. This is the natural state of things.

I know whenever I've done it, my feelings have always been...

that's nothing. This is nothing yet.

Yeah, I'm gonna do it again.

Orenthal James Simpson had that shine.

The sun hit him, and there was this thing about him.

Because he really was that great.

He really was that great.

Football has been my vehicle to come out of the ghetto

to give everything I've got. I think I have a lot more to offer.

There's a lot of things I need as a person.

You know, I need that recognition.

I think that what is driving O.J. Simpson

is that need to be number one, that need to be liked.

That need to be said, "Hey, that's O.J. Simpson."

When I walk down the street, I want people to know me.

Let Hertz put you in the driver's seat

We had done a survey asking the customer base

what was the most important attribute of the rental car experience?

FRANK OLSON HERTZ CEO

And the most important attribute was speed of service.

So we went to the agency, and they showed a storyboard

of a businessman with a briefcase running through the airport.

Our marketing guy said, "Frank, it doesn't work.

That's not realistic to think a businessman's gonna do that.

We need somebody that connotes speed."

And I said, "Like what?" He says, "Like O.J. Simpson."

Juice comes off the blocks, immediately goes into the lead.

Steve Smith running in second place.

Right now it's Mark Gleason, but here comes Hancock.

He moves past Gleason.

O.J. looks back, sees Smith running at his shoulder,

steps on it a little bit, and The Juice puts him away.

THE SUPERSTARS

It was one of the clients who said,

"Did you see the ABC program The Superstars?"

MARK MORRIS AD EXECUTIVE

RESULTS HEAT 1 1. O.J. SIMPSON 10.48

"O.J. just lit up the screen.

His personality came out, and he just made everybody smile."

You gave him about a yard and then you took a look at him.

What's happening?

Well, I was out there cruising. I figure I'd coast it on in.

O.J. SIMPSON - WINNER-HEAT 1 STEVE SMITH 2ND PLACE

I saw Steve pull up on me, you know, and my ego got a little ruffled there.

I said, "I'd better get out in front again."

I called him, and his first comment was,

"Hertz is the number one rent-a-car company.

If I'm ever going to do anything in advertising in a big way,

it's always gonna be for the number one brand."

When you're in a rush, take it from O.J. Simpson.

There's only one superstar in rent-a-car: Hertz.

The first ad was filmed in Newark Airport.

He was very professional,

he was anxious to make sure that he did things correctly,

that his diction was appropriate.

Others claim to be fast, but nobody has more to do it faster.

More pros to execute the toughest performance standards.

More cars, more locations, first with every good idea to speed up service,

like the Number One Club.

Before you get there, your form's filled out, car's preassigned.

Go, O.J., go!

Rent a Ford fast from Hertz, the superstar in rent-a-car.

I thought it was perfect. I mean, it just made sense.

You're trying to portray speed of service,

and you've got the fastest guy in America running through the airport

and a little old lady yelling, "Go, O.J.!"

Go, O.J., go!

It was perfect.

HERE COMES THE BIGGEST, MOST FAR-REACHING ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

IN OVER 60 YEARS OF RENT-A-CAR HISTORY!

It tested so well,

that they decided to use him for the print work,

promotional work, and they did the right thing.

He made that company successful.

FRED LEVINSON COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR

He became the image for that company.

"GET MORE FOR YOUR MONEY WITH HERTZ!"

We started in September of '75.

By two years of the campaign running, O.J. Simpson

was the star presenter of the year for Advertising Age.

O.J. TOPS YEAR'S STAR PRESENTERS

There was never a story that was written about O.J.

that didn't mention Hertz.

Coming or going on a business trip, you've got no time to waste.

I can see him right now flying through the airport.

Whether it's picking up or dropping off...

I was proud. It made me want that.

Go, O.J., go!

It gave me hope.

There you are with super-speed

This is an important moment.

The young Black kid seeing a Black man running on television.

WALTER MOSLEY NOVELIST

That's all he sees. He says, "He looks like my uncle Reggie."

That's something I could do.

I wanna be like O.J. on television.

Hi. Ever need to rent a car fast? Watch.

You're in the limelight. We like seeing you. You look like us.

It's kind of like when I first saw Black people

brushing their teeth on TV.

I mean, we always knew we brushed our teeth,

but it was, like, a big thing. Like, "Come see!"

That's what happened with O.J. Simpson.

Those were heights that we had not reached before, so he was a pioneer.

HERTZ

You're a Black man in America, you're fighting our war.

If you make a success for yourself somewhere, you've opened a door.

Fortunately, because of the riots of the early '60s,

some doors were opened to me.

If I were to have looked at myself in any other way except a man,

my brother could walk into a room and know

he's the only Black guy in the room.

I walk in a room, and I don't care.

I don't count the Blacks or whites in the room,

and in '68, when I signed to work for some white companies, you know,

Chevrolet Motor Division, I walked in the room,

and I never thought that I was the first Black guy to do it.

I never even gave that any credence.

For us, O.J. was colorless.

None of the people that we associated with looked at him as a Black man.

A FAN LETTER TO ALL MY FRIENDS AT HERTZ FROM "THE JUICE"

O.J. portrayed success.

Success, I mean, from nowhere. And I think people want to be successful.

NEED A CAR FAST? COME TO HERTZ. THE SUPERSTAR IN RENT-A-CAR.

O.J. was the first to demonstrate that white folks

would buy stuff based on a Black endorsement

as long as it was not pressed as a Black endorsement.

And the way they did that was to remove Black people

totally from any scene that O.J. was in.

It was Fred Levinson who said,

"Guys, we're going to be showing a Black man

running through an airport in 1975."

I said, "When you see the commercial with a Black guy

running through an airport, a little different

than seeing a white guy running through an airport."

So he came up with the idea of putting in various characters

who would see O.J. and endorse him by saying, "Go, O.J., go!"

Go, O.J., go!

Go, O.J., go!

Go, Juice, go!

Rent a Ford from Hertz.

The superstar in rent-a-car.

Right.

They bought the notion

that you could erase the Black character, the culture.

This is what made O.J. marketable.

He's African, but he's a good-looking man.

You know, he almost has white features.

"ONLY $14.99* A DAY PLUS GAS FOR A PINTO. AND NO CHARGE FOR MILEAGE!"

He wasn't the typical Black look, African look.

What white America got out of it was

they could point to somebody that had "made it"...

and demonstrated unequivocally that we are more than willing

to not just accept you, but to embrace you.

What O.J. got out of it was money, fame, celebrity.

THE JUICE - OJ SIMPSON A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

I always say of it, he was the guy of the '70s.

I look back at those days,

there was Muhammad Ali, Hank Aaron and O.J. Simpson.

And O.J. was the most popular of all of them.

I didn't see them running through airports.

When you're a star running back, you have to maintain a certain image.

I'mma tell ya, I dug O.J...

I got a chance to see how he lived, how he handled stuff.

I'd never been that close to that type of success before.

They'd have 3-4,000 fans standing around the bus

just to get a look at him.

He would stay on the field and sign every autograph.

I've seen O.J. sign autographs for hours.

I said, "How in the world do you put up with this?"

He said, "Man, I wanted this."

O.J., tonight we're gonna change your image.

Flip, you won't be the first who tried.

When I first met O.J., he was a huge star.

ROBIN GREER FAMILY FRIEND

I'll shave one side with the leading double-edged blade.

SCHICK FLEXAMATIC

I was friends with his wife Marguerite's sister.

I can't tell. Both sides feel the same.

They lived up in the hills, in Bel-Air.

Marguerite felt like she was a single mother while O.J. was out being O.J.

JET - O.J. SIMPSON'S WIFE TELLS HOW SHE COPES WITH BEING JEALOUS

Tonight, O.J., we're gonna be sophisticated.

Sophisticated.

We gonna have a ball, Orenthal.

I can dig it. Cool.

Right on, O.J.

The scene is this.

Here is three poor Black kids,

never had a thousand dollars in our pockets.

Now he got a brand-new drop-top Cadillac,

we're driving down Rodeo Drive.

JOE BELL CHILDHOOD FRIEND

Women come up, throw their arms around O.J.

and just lay it on him.

Not just women, white women. Fine white women.

It was that kind of world, man.

Do you feel, like, any kind of pressure in some ways to...

You know, people expect that you're gonna be a hero

so you always have to...

Well, I found that... I thought that maybe my problem would be

that I would have to tear that down.

You know, I would have to... You know,

I found that I was becoming a trapped... you know,

getting trapped within the image other people have of me.

You know, my image was dictating what I did and who I was.

I even had a manager at one point, I was gonna do something and he said,

"You can't do that. O.J. would never do that."

I said, "Hey, wait. Wait a minute. I'm O.J. Simpson, you know?

And I'mma do it."

Yeah, 'cause I would think that someone

would like you to be a spokesman. You know, to get out there.

-All the time. -Yeah?

I've had a lot of pressure on me to go into politics.

I was pulled into it once or twice in the Black movement,

when I was in school.

I think they tried to use us, and in many cases, it hurt guys.

I felt that with Harry Edwards.

It hurt Tommie Smith, it hurt John Carlos.

Standing on his platform,

I thought they should've been standing on their own platform.

I say if I stand on the platform,

I'm gonna be speaking for O.J.

When did you first meet Mr. Simpson?

1970.

ROBERT KARDASHIAN USC '66

Okay, and under what circumstances?

I met him on a tennis court.

Would you be able to describe Mr. Simpson's...

TREESWEET'S JUICEUP YOUR ATHLETIC FUND

...basic personality as you knew it?

Very personable, very outgoing.

We did business together, and then we would socialize together.

We were at Bob Kardashian's mansion in Beverly Hills.

O.J. is playing tennis, and everybody's having a good time.

I'm with Black power, get it?

I don't wanna be around these people, all right?

'Cause they're all phony to me.

I said, "O.J., look around you, man.

These people don't care nothing about us.

Just a few years ago, these guys woulda drove down Fillmore

in their Rolls Royce and they wouldn't have even spit on us."

I said, "Now they're acting like we're their long-lost brothers."

I said, "Man, the only reason we're here is we are jocks,

and you're O.J..."

And he looked at me, he says, "Mm-hm, yeah."

He says, "I understand what you're saying,"

and he rubbed his tennis racket.

He says, "But I am O.J.,"

and ran off on the field laughing.

And I was, like, I mean, I was furious.

Because I say, "He's lost. He's lost his identity.

He doesn't know who he is any longer."

I think he'd been brainwashed.

Let me read you something that he said to me.

"That sort of thing hurts me

even though it's what I strive for, to be a man first.

Maybe it's money, a class thing.

The negro is always identified with poverty.

But then you think of Willy Mays as Black,

but not Bill Cosby.

So it's more than just money.

As Black men, we need something up there all the time for us,

but what I'm doing is not for principles or Black people.

No. I'm dealing first for O.J. Simpson,

his wife and his babies."

O.J.'s quest was to erase race

as a defining factor in his life,

and that was the basis upon which white society

not only accepted him, but embraced him.

Now, there are problems with that,

because what enabled O.J. to be O.J. and not be Black

was that so many negroes and Black people stood up,

made the sacrifice, paid the price.

They're the ones that set the table for O.J. and what he was saying was,

"Okay. We may not have arrived, but I have arrived,

and as far as I'm concerned,

everybody else can get here the same way that I did,

and when they get here, they can do what I do."

He was so privileged, he was so accepted,

he was so embraced that he was immune from the reality

that he could find in the mirror every morning that he was a Black man.

No matter how far he runs and how long he runs,

when you look in the mirror,

that Black man is gonna be right there with you. Every day.

We were just sitting around the house once and he says,

"Joe, do you think you could go back?"

And I was like, "Go back where?"

He said, "You know, go back to the projects, hanging out?"

I said, "Yeah, man." I said, "I could go back tomorrow."

Potrero Hill.

Hasn't changed a bit.

We didn't have Dr. King and these other bougie folks as role models.

Our role models was pimps and players.

Those are the only people that we looked up to,

because they had cool things.

They'd beat a ho down right there on the street in front of everybody

so that all the women would know it,

this is the kind of treatment you're gonna get

if you don't bring me my money.

Your perceptions are shaped by the men that are in your lives.

Mama was Mama. We knew she loved us, but the reality is

I didn't wanna be like Mama. Mama's a woman. I want to be a man.

He had to deal with his father from time to time.

Sometimes, I guess his father came by

to take care of the monthly payment or whatever.

CALVIN TENNYSON CHILDHOOD FRIEND

One day, we went over to his dad's house.

We knocked on the door.

He kept looking at me, and when his dad opened the door,

he was in a bathrobe, which is not a crime,

but then his dad kinda opened the door more,

and there was a guy in the back in a bathrobe too,

so it was obvious that his dad was gay.

We left and on the way back, we were quiet.

Because there was so much tension, we got to this certain point,

and we both bust out laughing.

Calvin came to me, and he was like,

"Man, did you know O.J.'s dad is a punk?"

I was like, "Man, shut up.

I don't wanna hear that."

Back in our day, that was the worst thing in the world.

That you could ever think about an African-American man

being a homosexual.

Did you ever talk to O.J. about this?

-No. -Never?

I felt like that issue was enough for him

to deal with himself.

PEOPLE O.J. SIMPSON

WHO NEEDS FOOTBALL? HE'S GOT TV, FILMS, GROUPIES AND NOW A NEW BABY GIRL

Think of O.J. as an American man,

a poor American man, tough American man,

who's recreating himself in ways that

people would accept and push.

O.J. Simpson may be playing the last game of his brilliant football career

tomorrow when the Buffalo Bills meet the Minnesota Vikings.

All year, O.J. has hinted he may hang up his cleats for a movie career.

He could not wait to get out of Buffalo.

He was away from the glamour.

He was away from all the Hollywood and all that stuff.

He got attention here, but it was a different kind of attention.

It was not Hollywood attention.

Lou Saban said today that he's detected a change in The Juice.

He hasn't diminished one whit as a competitor,

but he's an intelligent man,

and he's thinking about the whole of his future life.

There are certain opportunities outside of football

that I can't... I just can't overlook too many more years.

32 - O.J. SIMPSON

You know, I came into the league, I thought the world was mine.

I had a few bad years, and I realized then that

"Hey, you know, you're hot when you're hot,"

so there's opportunities that have come to me with ABC,

with the movies, that I would like to take advantage of

and, the only thing I wanna do right now is play...

Get the best possible year I can so if I do retire...

I will feel that I gave it my all and I,

you know, went out the best.

That's your own meretricious way of saying you want my job.

Well, you gotta explain meretricious to me, Howard.

I always felt that there was more underneath O.J. Simpson

than just the momentary superficiality of his pleasantness.

He had goals that he wanted to achieve,

and he internalized those things.

There was something driving him, and I always felt

that he was looking past a football career,

which was going to definitely come to an end.

We are T-minus 18 seconds from liftoff.

CAPRICORN ONE

We are T-minus 15 seconds.

Would you and your men please follow me?

Gary, what the hell is this?

This is an emergency. Please follow me now!

One of the most intriguing films now being put together in Hollywood

is Capricorn One.

James Brolin plays the first astronaut to set foot on Mars,

but the picture's scene-stealer will probably be O.J. Simpson.

It basically came from the studio that they wanted O.J. Simpson.

I thought there were worthy...

PETER HYAMS DIRECTOR - CAPRICORN ONE

...African-American actors

who had paid their dues as actors, who had shown their talent.

My first choice was either Robert Hooks or Bernie Casey,

so my reaction was less than enthusiastic.

THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974)

I had seen Towering Inferno.

What? Damn it, man, you should've sent a man up there.

How do you expect her to hear a phone call? She's deaf.

I thought he was not gonna frighten Daniel Day-Lewis.

O.J. was a celebrity of enormous stature,

and somebody who had not shown the chops to play the part.

How uptight do you get making a picture like Capricorn One

where you're working in the company of actors of real stature and...

you're just a football star trying to be an actor?

No, I don't think it's given me that... that feeling.

It's obviously given the feeling that,

"Hey, I've still got a lot to learn."

I think you never stop learning in anything,

and I realize I'm still just a babe, you know, in the woods.

My goal was to see if I could make this guy work

for what I wanted.

Came time to do his last scene.

Water.

Tiny says signs for water.

He's a guy who's parched and delusional.

Dry river bed. Signs.

And so rather than him acting somebody

who was desperately thirsty...

...more sign.

I put appliances on his face that made it difficult for him to move

and difficult to talk,

and it just made him sound

like he was in desperate trouble.

Elizabeth, there's no water.

There's no water.

I don't want to die.

And he was pretty good.

Elizabeth.

You know, at the... What could I say?

He was a charming, terrific guy.

He was a positive guy. He tried very hard,

and it was clear that he saw a future for himself in film.

HOLLYWOOD

UNLESS YOU'RE A MEMBER, YOU'RE NOWHERE AT DAISY, NEW HOLLYWOOD 'IN' SPOT

The Daisy was a private club in Beverly Hills,

and the only people that could get in it

were either rich, famous or beautiful.

All the celebrities used to go there.

And really beautiful girls.

And you could get in even if you were underage, no problem.

Jack Hanson started the disco, and he knew every Hollywood star.

DAVID LOCKTON BUSINESS AGENT

Jack was a former USC guy.

One day he said, "You chum around a bit with this Simpson guy.

Could you bring him by and introduce him to me?"

THOMAS C. MCCOLLUM III FRIEND

He was married to Marguerite at that time.

But as we're sitting there, this gorgeous little surfer blonde

is waiting tables at lunch hour.

O.J. goes, "Wow, who's that?"

Jack had Nicole come over and said hello.

And she didn't walk 10 feet away, and he looks right at Hanson and said,

"I'm gonna marry that girl."

She was 18 years old, she had just graduated from high school.

She was just like my little sister.

She goes, "I met this man, and his name is O.J. Simpson."

DAVID LEBON NICOLE'S FRIEND

They went out, and I waited up for them.

She got home, it was, like, 2 o'clock in the morning

and her jeans were ripped.

And I went, "What... What happened?"

And she goes, "Well, he was a little forceful."

And I go, "Nicole, why would you let him,

first date, be a little bit forceful?"

"Well, Dave, don't be upset. I think I really like this guy."

That was, you know, the start of it.

THE DAISY

About two days later, she went back to work. She said,

"O.J. came in. He wants to get an apartment for me and also a car."

And I went,

"Nicole, think about this. You know, he's married and has children."

TO NICOLE, I WANT YOUR BODY! - O.J. SIMPSON

And she goes, "But I think I really like this guy."

It was that fast.

Eighteen years old. I mean, it was too young.

She was quiet, nice, didn't say too much.

She wasn't like she was distant or anything. She was just a shy person.

AL COWLINGS FRIEND

And Nicole was a doer.

Whatever Nicole put her mind to, she could do.

She actually wanted to be a photographer...

TANYA BROWN NICOLE'S SISTER

...and she was always an artist.

Honestly, the connection's pretty obvious.

I mean, she's drop-dead gorgeous.

She was hot. My sister was really a beautiful girl.

We didn't know who he was. We were girls in the Brown house.

We didn't grow up with football. We went to the beach.

So when Nicole came home with him, we were like, "Who are you?"

They had a real love affair, these two.

When they were together, it was just... it was love.

And that's what makes this thing so sad.

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