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Speaker 1: In your book, you said that you didn't love him

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Speaker 1: when you married him.

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Speaker 2: No, I did not when I married him.

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Speaker 3: This is Patricia Neil, the movie star Roll Dahl met

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Speaker 3: at the end of our last episode, talking about the

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Speaker 3: beginning of their relationship later in life on The Arlene

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Speaker 3: Hearson Show.

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Speaker 2: It's just that I desperately wanted to have children, and

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Speaker 2: of course one had to be married in those days

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Speaker 2: to have children, and I decided that I would marry

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Speaker 2: Rualdall because I wanted he would make good children.

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Speaker 3: For Okay, we're going to take a break out, and

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Speaker 3: so begins the defining relationship of Doll's life, one that's

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Speaker 3: going to last thirty years and produce five children. Get Ready.

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Speaker 3: As noisy and epic as you think Doll's professional and

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Speaker 3: social lives have been so far, it is nothing compared

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Speaker 3: to the intensity of what you're about to hear in

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Speaker 3: his family life. For my hard podcast Imagine Entertainment in Parallax,

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Speaker 3: I'm Marrion Tracy, and this is the Secret World of

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Speaker 3: Roald Dall. Episode four. Let's pick up just before Dall

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Speaker 3: meets Patricia Neil. It's nineteen fifty two. Doll is now

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Speaker 3: thirty six years old. He's already lived so many lives,

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Speaker 3: the businessman, the fighter, pilot, the spy, the screenwriter. The

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Speaker 3: question is now what he decides to try making a

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Speaker 3: living at the craft he's had some sporadic success with.

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Speaker 3: It's the next mask he's going to put on. He's

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Speaker 3: going to become a great novelist or die trying. Keep

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Speaker 3: in mind, this is many years before Doll's success with

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Speaker 3: James Bond. Right now, he's desperate to write important fiction.

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Speaker 3: Like his hero Hemingway, Dall can feel the talent inside

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Speaker 3: of himself. He's bursting with creativity and ambition. Only when

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Speaker 3: he's writing does he feel the kind of transcendence that

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Speaker 3: exists nowhere else in his life. Doll has already had

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Speaker 3: a little success with short stories like the one that

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Speaker 3: got Walt Disney and Eleanor Roosevelt's attention. So he builds

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Speaker 3: himself a writing office in a small bachelor apartment and

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Speaker 3: spends all day every day working on his craft. Like

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Speaker 3: a lot of people determined to go into the creative arts,

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Speaker 3: he's throwing himself into it, body and soul, which of

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Speaker 3: course is not necessarily the right move. The life of

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Speaker 3: a writer is a life of rejection, even for those

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Speaker 3: who are most successful. It's basically an exercise in daily humiliations.

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Speaker 3: So if you make writing your whole identity, you're going

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Speaker 3: to be in big trouble. Speaking from personal experience before

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Speaker 3: I got married and started a family, anytime I would

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Speaker 3: fail with a TV pitch or a pilot not getting

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Speaker 3: picked up, he would be an earthquake. You gotta have

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Speaker 3: balance in your life right now, Doll has none. My

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Speaker 3: grandfather used to say, you marry the person you're dating

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Speaker 3: at the age you want to be married, which I

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Speaker 3: always found pretty cynical. I'm more of a romantic at heart,

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Speaker 3: and I think Doll is too. He's in his mid

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Speaker 3: thirties and he's majorly resisted settling down. The guy has

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Speaker 3: dated some of the most glamorous, most influential women on

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Speaker 3: the planet, so one of the reason he's still single

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Speaker 3: is that his bar is high, and Doll, like I said,

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Speaker 3: is a romantic. He doesn't want to marry someone unless

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Speaker 3: he feels that transcendent feeling. His mentor, Charles Marsh, has

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Speaker 3: been pleading with him to just settle on someone already.

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Speaker 3: He tells Doll that his lack of a wife and

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Speaker 3: his lack of success with writing are inextricably linked. Finding

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Speaker 3: a wife will focus him. It'll give him a reason

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Speaker 3: to work and to be successful, And if he needs to,

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Speaker 3: Marsh whispers, he can always have an affair or a

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Speaker 3: series of affairs down the line. Awfully cynical, but also

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Speaker 3: sadly common for the era. For evidence, see Marsh and

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Speaker 3: pretty much every other person we've talked about in this

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Speaker 3: series so far. Doll is reluctant. Not only does he

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Speaker 3: want the spark, but he worries a wife will take

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Speaker 3: time and focus away from his writing, which is where

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Speaker 3: his passion really lies at the moment. But soon he

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Speaker 3: has to admit to himself all the time and focus

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Speaker 3: he's putting into his writing isn't really yielding results. He's

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Speaker 3: submitting his stories to every magazine, every publisher, every agent

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Speaker 3: he can get an address for, but the rejections are

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Speaker 3: piling up. They're almost eye level with his six foot

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Speaker 3: six frame. The guy grows monumentally depressed, and he has

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Speaker 3: to admit he is pretty lonely. Maybe Marsh is right,

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Speaker 3: Maybe my grandfather is right. Maybe a wife won't be

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Speaker 3: a distraction, she'll be a motivator. So Dall finally determines

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Speaker 3: he's going to find one. The mask of the writer

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Speaker 3: will have to wait is time to see how husband

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Speaker 3: and father fit. As I mentioned, Doll first meets Neil

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Speaker 3: at a Manhattan dinner party thrown by playwright Lillian Hellman.

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Speaker 3: Doll is unusually nervous at the party. For one thing,

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Speaker 3: Hellman is a much more successful writer than he is.

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Speaker 3: She's someone who really wants to impress. He's so uneasy

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Speaker 3: that he ends up getting into a screaming match with

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Speaker 3: another guest, a guest who happens to be Bernstein, the

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Speaker 3: world famous composer. These two really go at it, and

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Speaker 3: just when Dalls most worked up, that's when he realizes

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Speaker 3: that Hellman has decided to play matchmaker. She's seated him

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Speaker 3: next to a twenty six year old who he recognizes

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Speaker 3: for magazine covers. It's not an exaggeration to say she's

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Speaker 3: one of the most beautiful women in the world. Neil

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Speaker 3: has already acted in major Broadway plays, winning a Tony

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Speaker 3: for one that Helman wrote, but Dall recognizes her from

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Speaker 3: the movies. Hollywood, of course, has snapped Neil up and

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Speaker 3: decided to make her a star. She's now one of

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Speaker 3: those incredibly rare actresses who gets critical praise and big

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Speaker 3: box office She's like the Amy Adams of her time,

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Speaker 3: reddish hair at all. As we've heard, Doll is no

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Speaker 3: stranger to dating movie stars, but this one's different. Neil

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Speaker 3: is a force. Watching some of her old films, it's

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Speaker 3: easy to see why she's so in demand. Whenever she's

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Speaker 3: on screen, she forces you to look at her. When

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Speaker 3: she moves, your eyes move with her, no matter which

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Speaker 3: other huge movie stars are in the frame, and it's

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Speaker 3: the same in real life. Doll is so nervous looking

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Speaker 3: at her in the chair next to his it's one

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Speaker 3: of the few times in his life he's actually tongue tied.

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Speaker 3: He decides he can't just hint on her like every

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Speaker 3: guy she meets. That won't make him stand out. He

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Speaker 3: does some quick calculations in his head and comes up

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Speaker 3: with an ingenious idea right there on the spot. Here's

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Speaker 3: what he'll do. He'll totally and completely ignore her. Throughout

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Speaker 3: the entire dinner, Doll focuses on Leonard Bernstein, pretending Neil

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Speaker 3: is an empty chair, even when she tries to involve

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Speaker 3: herself in their argument. But that doesn't mean He's not

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Speaker 3: entirely focused on Neil. He's observing her, watching how she

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Speaker 3: carries herself, taking mental notes and storing them away for

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Speaker 3: future use, like he does with everything that intrigues him.

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Speaker 3: By the time entrees are served, Doll's mind is made up.

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Speaker 3: He's found his wife. There's just one problem. The next morning,

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Speaker 3: he calls Lillian Hellman and gets Neil's phone number. He

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Speaker 3: hangs up, and like a nerve fifteen year old with

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Speaker 3: sweaty palms, he dials her. He clears his throat several times,

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Speaker 3: smooths out his air, takes a deep breath. It's so

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Speaker 3: unlike him to be anything but confident and calm approaching

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Speaker 3: a woman. He kind of likes this new feeling, though

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Speaker 3: his juices are flowing in a way they usually don't.

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Speaker 3: When Neil answers, he doesn't make small talk. He barely

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Speaker 3: tells her who's calling. He just jumps in and asks

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Speaker 3: her to dinner, remembering how incredibly rude he was to

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Speaker 3: her the night before. Neil can't compute this. She takes

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Speaker 3: a pause long enough to light a cigarette, rejects him

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Speaker 3: out right, and then hangs up. But of course rejection

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Speaker 3: doesn't really bother at all. Remember how many times he's

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Speaker 3: going to fail in Hollywood before James Bond comes around?

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Speaker 3: Same thing here. He decided this is what he wants.

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Speaker 3: This is the rare woman he can actually imagine committing to.

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Speaker 3: But all his suaveness and swagger elude him. Doll waits

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Speaker 3: two days and calls Neil again and asks her out again.

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Speaker 3: She says no again. She decided at the dinner party

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Speaker 3: that all was someone not to know. He can't believe it.

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Speaker 3: It honestly never occurred to him that she might reject him.

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Speaker 3: It's just not how life has gone for him so far.

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Speaker 3: He reminds me of the story my favorite director Mike

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Speaker 3: Nichols tells about casting The Graduate. He wanted his main character,

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Speaker 3: Benjamin Braddock to realistically be someone who strikes out with

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Speaker 3: women his own age, which leads him to have an

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Speaker 3: affair with his mother's friend, Missus Robinson. Nichols auditioned Robert

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Speaker 3: Redford for the role, giving him direction. He said to Redford,

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Speaker 3: you know how it feels when a girl turns you

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Speaker 3: down for a date. Redford responded, what do you mean.

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Speaker 3: That's when they turned instead to Dustin Hoffman, who created

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Speaker 3: one of the more iconic performances ever Lake Redford Dall

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Speaker 3: doesn't get rejected. He's been bouncing between actresses, heiresses and

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Speaker 3: congresswomen for a decade and now he can't even get

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Speaker 3: a date. What is happening? Two days later, he shamelessly

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Speaker 3: calls Neil again, and this third time, she rejects him

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Speaker 3: again and orders him to stop calling her. But on

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Speaker 3: Doll's fourth attempt, Neil surprises him by green to go

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Speaker 3: out one time. Has Doll just worn her down? Sort of?

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Speaker 3: But the truth is Neil has a much bigger reason

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Speaker 3: for finally saying yes. She's desperate to do anything she

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Speaker 3: can to get over the greatest heartbreak of her life.

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Speaker 3: As Doll and Neil start dating, this is the big

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Speaker 3: obstacle in their path. Neil is still very much in

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Speaker 3: love with someone else, and annoyingly for Doll, not just

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Speaker 3: anyone the most famous, most handsome, biggest movie star in

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Speaker 3: the world, Gary Cooper. Neil has recently co starred with

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Speaker 3: Cooper in two movies, almost back to back.

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Speaker 2: Why didn't you kind of set them up?

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Speaker 4: I didn't think it would make any difference to you

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Speaker 4: who came or did it?

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Speaker 1: Miss?

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Speaker 3: Frank Neil was twenty one, Cooper was forty six. It's

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Speaker 3: possible you're having trouble picturing Cooper right now. Very few

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Speaker 3: of his movies are still talked about today. Mostly it's

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Speaker 3: this heroic sheriff and heigh noon who refuses to run

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Speaker 3: away from trouble.

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Speaker 4: Won't be here tomorrow, seems to me, I've got to

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Speaker 4: stay anyway. I'm the same man.

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Speaker 3: Or whether out this but back in mid century America,

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Speaker 3: Gary Cooper was it. Cooper is nominated for the Best

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Speaker 3: Actor Oscar five times. That's the same number as Tom

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Speaker 3: Hanks and Al Pacino and Robert de Niro. Cooper wins twice.

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Speaker 3: He's also just about the most stylish man in Hollywood,

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Speaker 3: an observation immortalized by Irving Berlin when he revised his

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Speaker 3: song Putting on the Writs dressed up like a million

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Speaker 3: dollar Trooper trying hard to look like Garrett Cooper souper duper.

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Speaker 3: Billy Wilder, who usirected Cooper opposite Audrey Hepburn, says Cooper

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Speaker 3: was the most elegant man that ever lived. Neil was

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Speaker 3: completely over the top in love with him despite being

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Speaker 3: more than twice her age. And oh yeah, there was

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Speaker 3: one other problem. He was married. Here's Neil explaining to

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Speaker 3: Arlee and herson again, did.

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Speaker 2: Do this father? Well, of course it did. But I

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Speaker 2: was so stupid at that in those days of my life,

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Speaker 2: I didn't know that I should have had respect for

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Speaker 2: marriage and left him alone. You know, when one's young,

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Speaker 2: you want what you want when you want it, and

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Speaker 2: you can get into bad trouble that way.

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Speaker 3: A giant understatement. The relationship nearly kills Neil when it ends.

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Speaker 3: She actually asks a friend how to commit suicide. This

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Speaker 3: is when she meets Roll Daal. He can see how

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Speaker 3: tormented she is. She was obviously pretty shaken up all around.

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Speaker 3: He says she had come to New York primarily to

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Speaker 3: get away from an unfortunate romance. So what should d'all do?

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Speaker 3: What would you do? Walk away? Problem is he just

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Speaker 3: can't shake the feeling that this is his one chance

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Speaker 3: for happiness and stability. He puts on an all out

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Speaker 3: charm offensive, the same way he went over William Stevenson

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Speaker 3: and Charles marsh and c s Forrester and Franklin and

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Speaker 3: Eleanor Roosevelt. But it's just not working on Neil. If

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Speaker 3: you read Neil's memoir, where she's shockingly vulnerable and open.

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Speaker 3: It's actually a great read. She talks constantly about how

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Speaker 3: devastated she was over the Cooper breakup. The number of

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Speaker 3: times she mentions him is pretty astonishing, considering she was

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Speaker 3: with someone else, namely Doll, ten times longer than she

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Speaker 3: was with Cooper. Her relationship with Cooper has enough highs

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Speaker 3: and lows to be its own tragic love story podcast.

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Speaker 4: Well, what's a man gonna do when he falls in

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Speaker 4: love with a girl?

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Speaker 3: That's Cooper in my favorite of his movies, Ernst Slubitch's

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Speaker 3: Bluebeard's Eth Wife And if.

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Speaker 4: He finds he's made a mistake, carry on behind her back, lie,

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Speaker 4: make excuses, not me.

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Speaker 3: If only Cooper took his character's advice to heart, I

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Speaker 3: think that's im Marl In the movie. Cooper keeps falling

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Speaker 3: in and out of love, but he does the kind

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Speaker 3: of weirdly honest and maybe even noble thing. When he

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Speaker 3: meets someone new. He divorces his current wife and marries

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Speaker 3: her when the film begins. He's been married and divorced

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Speaker 3: seven times in real life, though Cooper stayed married during

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Speaker 3: his affairs, which is even messier. The passion between Neil

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Speaker 3: and Cooper was always running out of ten. We had

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Speaker 3: reached a depth of real appreciation that all people desire

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Speaker 3: but few realize. Neil writes in her memoir, He truly

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Speaker 3: loved my body, and I loved his, and he knew

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Speaker 3: it when he reached out to love me. It was

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Speaker 3: first with those penetrating eyes, which stripped away all barriers

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Speaker 3: between us, and then with those godlike hands, which seemed

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Speaker 3: to create me in his arms. I thought, I am

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Speaker 3: at last. I am Yeah. So if you missed it,

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Speaker 3: that's Neil adopting the biblical creation story as a metaphor

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Speaker 3: for sex with Cooper. I'm telling you, find yourself somebody

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Speaker 3: who looks at you the way Patricia Neil looks at

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Speaker 3: Gary Cooper. Since Cooper is married with a family, Neil

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Speaker 3: continues dating other guys, if for no other reason than

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Speaker 3: to have something to do on weekends. She starts dating

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Speaker 3: Kirk Douglas, a handsome star of Spartacus and Ace in

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Speaker 3: the Hole. Neil writes, we would sometimes come back to

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Speaker 3: my apartment for a drink, but there was never anything

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Speaker 3: between us but good night kisses. Until one night I

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Speaker 3: was feeling low. I had had a few drinks, and

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Speaker 3: let's face it, Kirk was very attractive. I found myself

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Speaker 3: responding to his extremely persuasive kisses. But when it came

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Speaker 3: right down to it, and it did, I simply couldn't.

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Speaker 3: After he left, the doorbell rang and an unexpected Gary

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Speaker 3: Cooper was standing on the threshold. A strange cloud darkened

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Speaker 3: his face. I looked into your window tonight, he told her,

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Speaker 3: and I saw what was happening. She continues. Nothing had

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Speaker 3: really happened at all, but I was impressed by this

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Speaker 3: outburst of jealousy, which was so unlike Gary. I could

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Speaker 3: feel myself starting to smile. Suddenly Gary slapped me. I

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Speaker 3: felt the sting of pain shoot through my nose. My

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Speaker 3: hand sprang to my face to soothe the blow. I

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Speaker 3: looked into my palm and saw blood, then back into

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Speaker 3: Gary's shocked eyes. Baby, I'm sorry. Let's just forget about it,

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Speaker 3: he said. There's a lot there, stalking, spying, assault, and

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Speaker 3: then toad insults Andre. Right on its heels comes another wound,

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Speaker 3: this one from another woman, a girl actually. One morning,

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Speaker 3: Neil's agent drives her to meet Cooper, who's waiting in

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Speaker 3: his truck for her. Gary did not jump out as

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Speaker 3: he normally did to open the door. Neil writes in

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Speaker 3: her memoir, I got in beside him. When I saw

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Speaker 3: his face, my blood turned to ice. Before I could

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Speaker 3: say anything, I heard someone approach, and as I looked

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Speaker 3: at the window, Rocky and Maria passed into my view.

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Speaker 3: Rocky is the nickname everyone calls Gary Cooper's wife, Maria

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Speaker 3: is their young daughter. Maria's face is stained with tears.

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Speaker 3: The child looks at me, Neil says, and spits on

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Speaker 3: the ground. Such a little girl, and she spits with

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Speaker 3: so much hate. Gary explains he had told his wife

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Speaker 3: about the affair. When Rocky asked him if he was

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Speaker 3: in love with Neil, he admitted to her he was.

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Speaker 3: Rocky then told their daughter, which I'm sorry, but that sucks.

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Speaker 3: I'm not defending Cooper, and I have a lot of

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Speaker 3: sympathy for Rocky, but telling your young daughter that her

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Speaker 3: dad is having an affair is such a lame choice.

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Speaker 3: Getting spit out by this little girl really screws with

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Speaker 3: Neil's head. But I guess not enough, because it doesn't

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Speaker 3: stop her from doing the exact same thing with her

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Speaker 3: own daughter twenty five years later, when she discovers the

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Speaker 3: Doll has been having his own affair. It's like people

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Speaker 3: run out of original ways to hurt each other after

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Speaker 3: that awful encounter, A lot of people would have ended

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Speaker 3: the affair. Not Neil and Cooper. They don't even try

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Speaker 3: that hard to conceal it anymore. After hearing Cooper star

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Speaker 3: in a radio play, for instance, Neil sends him a

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Speaker 3: wire to tell him how fabulous he was. The next

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Speaker 3: day she gets a wire back. It reads, in all caps,

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Speaker 3: I have had just a bad enough of you. You

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Speaker 3: had better stop now or you will be sorry, Signed

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Speaker 3: missus Gary Cooper. Can you imagine getting a letter like

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Speaker 3: that you will be sorry? It's like out of a

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Speaker 3: bad daytime TV show, And it takes a certain kind

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Speaker 3: of personnelity to get that letter and just throw it

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Speaker 3: in the trash and keep on trucking. But soon things

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Speaker 3: get much more complicated for Neil and Cooper.

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Speaker 2: And I decided then that I would never ever ever

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Speaker 2: get in that kind of situation again.

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Speaker 3: Here's Neil again with Arlene Hurson.

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Speaker 1: You mean involved with the married me and I didn't.

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Speaker 1: But you also became pregnant, Neil. People talk about abortion

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Speaker 1: in those days, it wasn't was forbidden. Nobody talked about it.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it was horrifying, you know it really was, but

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Speaker 2: you know you didn't mention it to a soul and

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Speaker 2: you had to do is how to end this thing?

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Speaker 1: So what happened?

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Speaker 3: In other interviews, Neil basically says Cooper forced her to

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Speaker 3: have the abortion. Decades later, she says, if she had

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Speaker 3: only one thing to do over in her life, she

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Speaker 3: would have had that baby. And you got a wonder

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Speaker 3: if she had, would she and Daal still have gotten together.

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Speaker 3: Would he have been ready to be a stepfather to

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Speaker 3: Gary Cooper's love child. I don't know. But soon after

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Speaker 3: the abortion, Neil and Cooper break it off for the

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Speaker 3: last time in Hollywood terms. Neil writes in her memoir,

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Speaker 3: he was not going to pick up my option. That's

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Speaker 3: literally how she phrases it. When I read that in

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Speaker 3: her book, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

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Speaker 3: Neil decides she needs to get the hell out of

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Speaker 3: la so she moves to New York and meets Dahl.

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Speaker 3: But for the first many years of their relationship they're

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Speaker 3: just not alone. Cooper's presence is there too. It really

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00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:34,760
Speaker 3: screws all up, which is a little surprising. Doll always

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Speaker 3: had a thing for dating women who've just broken up

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Speaker 3: with or are currently married to famous powerful men. Remember

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Speaker 3: the French actress Annabella, She was married to movie starts

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Speaker 3: Tyrone Power while dating Doll, or Claire Booth Luce, who

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Speaker 3: was married to one of the most influential men of

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Speaker 3: the century. Dahl also dated Phyllis Brooks, an actress in

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Speaker 3: a relationship with mister Swave himself Carrie Grant, but this

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Speaker 3: was different. For whatever reason, this was the first time

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Speaker 3: that Dall really felt an adequate in comparison to the

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Speaker 3: other man. Probably didn't help that Cooper was good buddies

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Speaker 3: with Doll's writing hero Hemingway. It messed with Doll's confidence

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Speaker 3: And I get it. When I was in my twenties,

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Speaker 3: a young movie star flirted with my girlfriend at lunch

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Speaker 3: in la and I couldn't sleep for a week. So

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Speaker 3: how the hell is Doll going to get over this

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Speaker 3: giant obstacle standing in the way of his being able

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Speaker 3: to finally get married, settle down, start a family. His

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00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:29,040
Speaker 3: reaction is to follow Neil around like a pathetic puppy dog.

358
00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:31,880
Speaker 3: Neil is rehearsing a play when she begins dating doll.

359
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Speaker 3: Doll hangs around the empty theater every day, then nips

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Speaker 3: back to her dressing room when the play opens. He

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Speaker 3: goes to almost every performance, clapping wildly, then taking her

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Speaker 3: out for supper afterwards or to a party with her friends.

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Speaker 3: The man who seduced his way across DC in New

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Speaker 3: York has become a clingy, needy boyfriend to understand why

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Speaker 3: Doll's acting this way, why he's so sure Neil is

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Speaker 3: the only woman for him and he has to fight

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Speaker 3: for her. I got to tell you a little more

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Speaker 3: about her. Honestly, she's amazing. When she was twenty, the

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Speaker 3: age when people are acting in bad college productions of

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Speaker 3: experimental theater, Neil was already on Broadway. She won all

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Speaker 3: the major awards as Best Broadway Actress of nineteen forty six,

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Speaker 3: which directly led to famous mustachioed movie mogul Jack Warner

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Speaker 3: signing her to a long term contract. The new Garbo,

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00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:22,480
Speaker 3: Warner repeated over and over to anyone that would listen.

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Speaker 3: Neil goes on to make over thirty films in her career,

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Speaker 3: but the two I deeply love are Hud and Breakfast

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00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:32,719
Speaker 3: to Tiphany's. In Hud, she plays a long suffering housekeeper

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Speaker 3: abused by young Paul Newman. She's incredible in it, so

379
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Speaker 3: strong while so vulnerable, and goes toe to toe with Newman,

380
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Speaker 3: which is not an easy task. She wins the oscar

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Speaker 3: for it. In Tiffany's Neil plays opposite another legend, Audrey Hepburn,

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Speaker 3: again not easy, especially when she's playing Audrey's competition for

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Speaker 3: the male lead. When Dahl first meets Neil, she hasn't

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Speaker 3: yet made either of these movies. Instead, Dahl recognizes her

385
00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:01,399
Speaker 3: from The Day the Earth Stood Still early sci fi film.

386
00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:04,199
Speaker 3: It's playing in the theater within walking distance of Lilian

387
00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:06,720
Speaker 3: Hellman's apartment the night they're seated next to each other.

388
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,400
Speaker 3: Neil's look is also really singular. She has this rich,

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Speaker 3: reddish hair, very unusual in Hollywood at the time. She's

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Speaker 3: a broad five foot eight, a full four to five

391
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Speaker 3: inches taller than the biggest stars like Elizabeth Taylor and

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Speaker 3: Maril Monroe. It gives her authority. She looks like someone

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Speaker 3: you wouldn't want to mess with, which remember, is exactly

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Speaker 3: Dolls type. But Neil doesn't seem unapproachable like Taylor or Monroe.

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Speaker 3: She feels sort of relatable, even in a film like Tiffany's,

396
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Speaker 3: where she's a wealthy, sharky New Yorker, and she always

397
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Speaker 3: stands out for how naturalistic she is. Her contemporaries lean

398
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Speaker 3: into melodrama with that very formal, often very phony, mid

399
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Speaker 3: Atlantic accent. You know the one I'm talking about. Think

400
00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:51,000
Speaker 3: Katherine Hepburn in the Philadelphia Story.

401
00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:55,840
Speaker 2: You'll seem quite contemptuous.

402
00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:58,480
Speaker 3: And may all of a sudden not Neil. She's a

403
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Speaker 3: method actor trained at the Actor Studio under Elia Kazan

404
00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:06,120
Speaker 3: along with Newman, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean. She's also

405
00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:08,679
Speaker 3: just obviously brilliant. You can tell from watching her on

406
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Speaker 3: screen how smart she is, same way you can tell

407
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Speaker 3: with Emma Thompson or Jodie Foster or Sirsha Ronan. Neil

408
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:17,679
Speaker 3: also has this really husky, smoky voice, which gives her

409
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Speaker 3: characters so much gravitas, and the way she's able to

410
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Speaker 3: shift her voice from tough to vulnerable within the same

411
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 3: exchange offers layers to all her characters, like in this

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Speaker 3: scene from hud As Mary.

413
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Speaker 2: Dad for six years, only thing he's ever good for

414
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Speaker 2: was to scratch my back where it couldn't rage you.

415
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Speaker 3: Still gone down it often not, so how is Doll

416
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Speaker 3: going to convince Neil to forget about her dreamy X

417
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Speaker 3: and marry him. He's kind of hoping sex will do

418
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:53,720
Speaker 3: the trick. One of Roldall's great assets, Neil writes in

419
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Speaker 3: her memoir, was his desire never to leave a female unfulfilled.

420
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Speaker 3: I learned that in the art of making love, Rolled

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Speaker 3: was a master, and believe me, at this point in

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Speaker 3: my life, I was not easy to reach. One day

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Speaker 3: during their courtship, on a perfect autumn afternoon, during a

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00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:13,040
Speaker 3: stroll through midtime Manhattan, Doll works up the courage, turns

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Speaker 3: to Neil and abruptly asks her to marry him. Her response,

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Speaker 3: oh no, seriously, that's what she said. She opens up

427
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,119
Speaker 3: about the moment more in her autobiography. It's simple. I

428
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Speaker 3: thought to myself, I really don't love Rold and I

429
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Speaker 3: don't want to get married. But then that was not

430
00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 3: entirely true. I did want marriage and a family. Rold

431
00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 3: would have beautiful children. What was I holding out for

432
00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:41,280
Speaker 3: a great love that would never come again? When was

433
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:45,919
Speaker 3: I going to face reality? Isn't that every married person's

434
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:48,439
Speaker 3: worst fear that their spouse might have been thinking that

435
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:53,320
Speaker 3: when they were proposed to, but the guy won't give up.

436
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:56,160
Speaker 3: He's as persistent about this as he is about everything

437
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:58,639
Speaker 3: in his life, and the next time he asks, she

438
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 3: acquiesces worn her down. The poor guy isn't yet the

439
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:05,920
Speaker 3: writer helplic home. He can't even afford a ring for Neil.

440
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:09,960
Speaker 3: As always, Charles marsh comes to the rescue, providing Doll

441
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:14,200
Speaker 3: with a diamond. Dall and Neil decide to get married

442
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:16,800
Speaker 3: at Trinity Church at the intersection of Broadway and Wall

443
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:20,320
Speaker 3: Street in Lower Manhattan, a towering Gothic revival built in

444
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:23,840
Speaker 3: the late sixteen hundreds. Famous New Yorkers like Alexander Hamilton

445
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,760
Speaker 3: are buried right out front. It's so hot on July second,

446
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:30,240
Speaker 3: nineteen fifty three, the day of the wedding, that Doll

447
00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:32,560
Speaker 3: rips the lining right out of his brand new suit

448
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:35,199
Speaker 3: when he wakes up that morning. Can't you just pictureing

449
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,560
Speaker 3: Neil laughing at that, just laying in bed, summer suns

450
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,680
Speaker 3: streaming through the slits in the window shades her wedding day,

451
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:45,000
Speaker 3: gazing up at this tall, handsome man she's about to

452
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:48,479
Speaker 3: marry as he towers over her, clumsily struggling with his

453
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:51,640
Speaker 3: new suit. I'll bet she was glowing. Maybe she's even

454
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,280
Speaker 3: forgotten to think about Gary Cooper, and Doll must have

455
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:57,639
Speaker 3: been optimistic about the future, too excited to finally have

456
00:24:57,720 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 3: reached this new stage of his life, a new kind

457
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:04,520
Speaker 3: of venture. Neither one had any idea of the utter

458
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 3: tragedy and heartbreak that would come from this marriage, or

459
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:11,919
Speaker 3: the incredible world beating successes that would result from it.

460
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 3: Neither Doll nor Neil invite their families to the wedding.

461
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 3: They want to keep it small. From personal experience, I

462
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:23,320
Speaker 3: think the wedding industrial complex is practically criminal, especially in

463
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 3: New York, and I don't blame anyone who chooses to

464
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 3: abstain from it. But why no loved ones. It's not

465
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 3: like this is each of their third or fourth marriages

466
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 3: or something. This is the first marriage for both. At

467
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:37,760
Speaker 3: least Charles marsh is invited. He did provide the ring,

468
00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 3: after all, he's Doll's best man. It's also a bad

469
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,560
Speaker 3: sign that neither bride nor groom remembered to arrange for

470
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:47,840
Speaker 3: any music, and then, in a really bad zign, here's

471
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:49,920
Speaker 3: what we know Neil was thinking during the ceremony when

472
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:52,720
Speaker 3: asked the big question, do you take this man? We

473
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 3: know because she writes about it. Later. She says she

474
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 3: thought to herself, I had been through. My great passionate

475
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 3: love life was more than that. That night, they go home,

476
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 3: bags of leftover food under their arms, smiles still plastered

477
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:10,400
Speaker 3: to their faces. Both a little drunk. They take off

478
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:13,480
Speaker 3: their fancy clothes, climb into bed. Doll switches off the

479
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:16,359
Speaker 3: light and softly says to his new wife, I love you.

480
00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:20,520
Speaker 3: Neil feels tears come to her eyes, they roll down

481
00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:23,320
Speaker 3: her cheeks in the dark silence. I could feel my

482
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:26,480
Speaker 3: heart breaking. She later writes, I so wanted to be

483
00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:30,160
Speaker 3: married but to another man, And Doll telling his bride

484
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 3: that he loves her just now, you know, on their

485
00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 3: wedding night he will be one of only three times

486
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 3: he ever says that's her. Over the next thirty years,

487
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,159
Speaker 3: the start of Doll O'Neil's marriage goes about as well

488
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 3: as your picturing actors congregate together, you know, Doll writes

489
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,479
Speaker 3: to a friend, They're not like writers. They're in our

490
00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 3: apartment all the time, pushing and swarming around. It's me

491
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:57,120
Speaker 3: against a lot of them. Soon after the wedding, maybe

492
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:00,040
Speaker 3: partly because of all the flighty actors, hanging around. He

493
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 3: starts to wonder if maybe he's just not cut out

494
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:05,120
Speaker 3: for marriage. He may have made a mistake. He even

495
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:08,240
Speaker 3: tells this to Neil in bed one night, then rolls

496
00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:11,240
Speaker 3: over and goes to sleep. He doesn't bring it up

497
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 3: again for years. I have to think one reason Doll

498
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:21,439
Speaker 3: resisted domestic life for so long and then has so

499
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,240
Speaker 3: much trouble with it when he finally commits, stems from

500
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:26,560
Speaker 3: his previous life as a spy. I mean, there's a

501
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 3: reason James Bond doesn't settle down right, leaving espionage and

502
00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:33,959
Speaker 3: war behind, re entering the normal world, It's nearly impossible

503
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:39,920
Speaker 3: to distract himself from his difficult domestic life. Dog goes

504
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:43,560
Speaker 3: back to his real love, his writing. Maybe now he

505
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 3: can finally focus. He churns out short story after short story,

506
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:50,880
Speaker 3: but still hasn't quite found his voice. I talk about

507
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:53,480
Speaker 3: this issue with my creative writing students at Yale all

508
00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,199
Speaker 3: the time. More than almost anything else, more than the

509
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 3: ability to write witty dialogue or construct a sound plot

510
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:01,920
Speaker 3: or an interesting scene, the way to get hired as

511
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:05,280
Speaker 3: a writer is to show you have a distinct, compelling voice.

512
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:10,679
Speaker 3: Think about any of your favorite writers. Quentin Tarantino, Joan Didion,

513
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:15,040
Speaker 3: Aaron Sorkin, or Tony Morrison. They all have incredibly distinct voices.

514
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:17,879
Speaker 3: You wouldn't confuse even a single page of any of

515
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 3: those writers works with someone else's. At this moment in

516
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:23,840
Speaker 3: his career, Dahl thinks his voice is that of a

517
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 3: sophisticated New Yorker, someone whose stories are at home in

518
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 3: the New Yorker magazine. This is the world he's living

519
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,400
Speaker 3: in with Patricia Neil, the one where playwright Clifford o'dett's

520
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 3: lives upstairs and they go to dinner parties with Lillian

521
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 3: Hellman and Leonard Bernstein. But this just isn't Dahl's natural voice.

522
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:46,040
Speaker 3: He hasn't found it yet. Charles Marsh does not agree.

523
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,000
Speaker 3: He thinks the problem with Dahl's career is the discord

524
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:51,960
Speaker 3: in his marriage. Dahl has told Marsh that Neil is

525
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,440
Speaker 3: hanging out with her theater friends way too much. She

526
00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 3: isn't serving his needs enough. Marsh seems to completely understand,

527
00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:00,720
Speaker 3: writing back with a line that feel ripped out of

528
00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 3: mad Men. You want a woman to think of you

529
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 3: eighty percent of the time and to work like hell

530
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 3: on the eighty percent without asking you for direction. He

531
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 3: invites Doll o'nil to Jamaica, where they can work on

532
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:16,520
Speaker 3: the marriage. Marsh brings along his newest youngest wife yet, Claudia,

533
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,440
Speaker 3: who you will be shocked to learn used to be

534
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:22,600
Speaker 3: his secretary. Yeah, just when you think Marsh can't be

535
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:25,120
Speaker 3: any more of a mid century cliche, the guy marries

536
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:31,120
Speaker 3: his secretary. In Jamaica, Marsh gives doll' neil a good

537
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 3: talking to about finding compromise in their relationship. Why he

538
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:37,760
Speaker 3: thinks they would respect his opinion on marriage is anybody's guests,

539
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 3: but Doll takes it to heart. One reason is the

540
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 3: last advice he's ever going to get from Marsh. On

541
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 3: this trip to Jamaica, Marsh is bitten by a mosquito

542
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 3: and contracts cerebral malaria, setting off a decline in health

543
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:59,320
Speaker 3: from which he'll never fully recover. For Dol, it's like

544
00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 3: losing the only father he's ever known. He's inconsolable, and

545
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 3: it's the first in a long line of tragedies that

546
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:15,520
Speaker 3: will unfold over the next few years. Another obstacle for

547
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 3: Doll o' neil is the fact that, unlike almost all

548
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:21,080
Speaker 3: marriages in this period, Neil is making way more money

549
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:24,840
Speaker 3: than her husband. It makes Doll feel totally inadequate, which

550
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 3: Neil does sympathize with. So she sets out to become

551
00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 3: more like the kind of wife Doll wants, which sadly

552
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:35,680
Speaker 3: is a doting, cooking, cleaning obedient one. Take a guess

553
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,200
Speaker 3: how well that's going to go. After a while, Doll

554
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 3: does at least partially accept the reality that Neil is

555
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,080
Speaker 3: not his mother. She's not going to anticipate his every need,

556
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:48,200
Speaker 3: and she's just objectively way more successful than he is.

557
00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 3: He lowers his expectations of her cooking and cleaning. Okay,

558
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:58,760
Speaker 3: good for him, I guess for her part, Neil hands

559
00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:01,840
Speaker 3: over all control for finding is to Doll, which sort

560
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 3: of works for a while. Giving him control of the

561
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,960
Speaker 3: money achieves an instantaneous lessening of tension in the marriage,

562
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 3: she says, And if that doesn't sound like the nineteen fifties,

563
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 3: I don't know what does. As the marriage goes on,

564
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 3: Neil continues her wild rise in Hollywood. She stars in

565
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:22,240
Speaker 3: some seminal films of the era, like Elia Kazan's A

566
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:22,960
Speaker 3: Face in the Crowd.

567
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:25,920
Speaker 2: I always should have been an equal partner. Well, no,

568
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be.

569
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:27,640
Speaker 4: An equal partner.

570
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:30,920
Speaker 3: I want to get something out deserve and she does

571
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 3: tons of success. But while Neil is on the way out,

572
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:37,600
Speaker 3: Doll's writing career stalls again. The New Yorker has not

573
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 3: accepted a story by Dohl for five years. Frustrated, he

574
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 3: spends two years writing a play. But this is the

575
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:47,760
Speaker 3: era of big musicals like Damn Yankees and My Fair Lady.

576
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:52,440
Speaker 3: Dall's dark character drama isn't what audiences want. In fact,

577
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 3: though he'd never admit it, the show may have only

578
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 3: gotten picked up because of who he was married to.

579
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:01,080
Speaker 3: But Dall's committed to it's how committed to it he is.

580
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 3: He misses the birth of their first child because he's

581
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 3: on tour with the play in Boston, and while he

582
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 3: does manage to get the play a Broadway run, it's

583
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 3: an instant flop. Neil, on the other hand, gets nominated

584
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 3: for Best Actress. She continues to be the name in

585
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 3: this family. And while I mentioned that Dolls skip their

586
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,240
Speaker 3: daughter's birth to be with his play on the road,

587
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 3: Neil basically does the exact opposite. She skips the Academy

588
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 3: Awards because she's pregnant and chooses not to travel. In fact,

589
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:31,480
Speaker 3: she sleeps through the show.

590
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 4: Hollywood's Big Knight. Gregory Peck names the best actress Church

591
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 4: and here Annabella accepts for Patricia Neil, who is in London.

592
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:45,200
Speaker 4: It's a triumph for miss Neil, who was awakened in

593
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 4: the night. They're hear the good news.

594
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:51,280
Speaker 3: Did you catch that accepting the oscar on Neil's behalf

595
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 3: is Doll's old girlfriend Annabella. Imagine how that conversation might

596
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 3: have gone. A very uncharitable reading would be that Doll

597
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 3: is so insecure about his wife winning the Oscar while

598
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 3: he's struggling in his own career, that he not only

599
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 3: encourages her to stay home, but when she thinks about

600
00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 3: who should accept the Oscar on her behalf if she wins,

601
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:13,440
Speaker 3: he insists on his ex girlfriend, who could use a

602
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:22,320
Speaker 3: moment in the spotlight man this marriage. Doll O'Neil's first child, Olivia,

603
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:25,440
Speaker 3: comes two years after their meeting at Lillian Hellman's party.

604
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:29,120
Speaker 3: Tessa comes next two years later, then Theo three years

605
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:32,600
Speaker 3: after that, and then four years later Ophelia and Lucy

606
00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:37,880
Speaker 3: five children. According to writer Matthew Denison, Neil initially struggles

607
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 3: as a mother. At one point, she hands one of

608
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:42,840
Speaker 3: the kids over to her sister in law for several weeks,

609
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:44,720
Speaker 3: which is the kind of thing you read in a

610
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 3: biography and are like, oh, there's an issue there. But

611
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:51,560
Speaker 3: step back for a second. She has five kids, five

612
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 3: and not that far apart in age. I don't know

613
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 3: anyone with more than three children five must feel like

614
00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:00,320
Speaker 3: five hundred. And she has a giant career. Let's give

615
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:04,080
Speaker 3: the lady a break. By all accounts, it does seem

616
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 3: that Doll is doing his share with the kids, or

617
00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 3: at least his share for a father in that era.

618
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:10,640
Speaker 3: With all the negative things Neil has to say about

619
00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 3: her husband and her memoir, and there's a lot, she

620
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:15,759
Speaker 3: really does have nice things to say about him as

621
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:21,440
Speaker 3: a father. After their rocky start, Doll and Neil slowly

622
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:24,759
Speaker 3: settled into family life. They develop a nice routine, both

623
00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 3: continuing to work hard, relying on nanny's and totally smitten

624
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:31,800
Speaker 3: with their kids. Neil, despite her body in a constant

625
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 3: state of creation and recovery, works a ton, making her

626
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 3: three greatest movies. In fact, life is good. They've settled

627
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:44,760
Speaker 3: into a rhythm, but the biggest tragedy of Doll's life

628
00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 3: is about to occur. Followed by another, followed by one more,

629
00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:53,000
Speaker 3: all involving the brain, and it's followed by an epic

630
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:56,759
Speaker 3: amount of career success. It's the stuff of TV melodrama,

631
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:01,960
Speaker 3: which is actually about to become. Dall has been tested

632
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,440
Speaker 3: many times over the years, but this next period of

633
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:07,280
Speaker 3: his life is going to be way more intense than anything.

634
00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:10,920
Speaker 3: It also maybe what turns him into the writer he

635
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:23,279
Speaker 3: was always meant to be. The Secret World of Roald

636
00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 3: Dahl is produced by Imagine Audio and Parallax Studios for

637
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:31,719
Speaker 3: iHeart Podcasts. Created and written by me Aaron Tracy, produced

638
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:37,280
Speaker 3: by Matt Schrader, post production by wind Hill Studios, with editing, scoring,

639
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:41,920
Speaker 3: and sound design by Mark Henry Phillips. Editing by Ryan Seton,

640
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:47,720
Speaker 3: Music by a PM. Executive producers Nathan Cloke, Karl Welker,

641
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 3: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and Aaron Tracy. Additional voice performances

642
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 3: and recreation by Mark Henry Phillips and Eleven Laps. If

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Speaker 3: you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate and review

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Speaker 3: The Secret World of Role Dall on Apple Podcasts or

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Speaker 3: wherever you get your podcasts. Copyright twenty twenty six, Imagine

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Speaker 3: Entertainment iHeartMedia and Parallax