WEBVTT - From Lennon to Lenin 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:07.440 Why media productions? What does it take to change the world? 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:12.240 A forceful personality, the right moment, and a good wig. 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:17.040 Vladimir Lenin was a brooding scholar and political theorist. He 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.480 had been living in exile for years. In nineteen seventeen, 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.880 he watched from overseas as the Russians are abdicated the 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.200 throne and a new government took power. The time was 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:32.240 right for revolution. Lenin made his move. He disguised himself 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:36.440 as a clergyman and snuck into Petrograd modern day St. Petersburg. 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.040 He wore a wig and a fake bandage and shaved 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:44.800 his trademark beard and mustache. Incognito, he made his way 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.239 to a secret meeting held by his fellow rebels, the Bolsheviks. 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.720 The Bolsheviks wavered on whether to stage a coup or 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:55.760 to wait and pursue power through political means. Lenin was 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.120 fed up. He threw off his wig and demanded an 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:03.880 armed overthrow of the Russian government. His passionate argument carried 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:08.240 the vote that night. It spurred the revolution. It changed history. 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.080 It's set into motion a series of events that led 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.280 to the death of another Lenin sixty three years later. 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.240 I'm Sean Braswell and This is The Threat, a podcast 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.560 from Ozzy Media. This season of The Threat, we dove 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.000 into the connected lives of John Lennon, J. D. Salinger, 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:35.600 Una O'Neill, Chaplin, Eugene O'Neill, and Louise Bryant. We discovered 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.880 how their stories overlap, influence, and inspire each other. They 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.280 led us back in time from one Lenin's death to 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.120 another Lenin's revolution. But there's much more connecting our cast 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.920 of characters. This is the final episode of this season 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.920 and we're going to shake things up. We'll explore some 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.440 of the other surprising strands to our story. Sometimes you 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:58.240 need to look at history from a different angle to 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.720 get a new perspective, so we structured this episode differently 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.760 from the rest of the season. Today, we'll focus on 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:10.639 three main themes, chance encounters, communism, and suffering. If you're 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.080 joining us for the first time, please go back to 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:16.680 episode one and start our interconnected story from the beginning. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.880 First off, Chance encounters John Lennon's killer Mark David Chapman 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.440 believed in destiny. He was convinced he was meant to 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.239 kill the rock star. For Chapman, the world was filled 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:38.840 with little serendipities, meaningful moments, encounters, and omens. He called 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.040 them synchronicities, and in the days leading up to John 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:46.360 Lennon's murder, Chapman saw them everywhere. A prostitute in a 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.200 green dress, a passage from the Catcher in the Rye 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:53.760 mentioning a Monday in December, and the synchronicities grew stronger 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.000 the morning of that fateful day as Chapman strolled towards 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:01.000 Lennon's home at the Dakota. Yes, I knew that morning. Oddly, 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:03.880 when I left the hotel, this is Chapman again in 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:08.959 his interview with CNN's Larry King, some type of premonition 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:11.200 that this was the last time I was going to 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.600 leave my hotel room. I hadn't seen him up to 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:15.480 that point. That's what makes it interesting. I wasn't even 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.560 sure he was in the building. Despite his premonition, though, 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.600 Chapman was starting to have major doubts about his mission. 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:25.080 He thought about going home. As he paced back and 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.720 forth on the sidewalk in front of the Dakota that morning, 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.880 he prayed, please give me the strength the phonies have 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.920 to know. Looking up at the Dakota, he had a 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.480 sudden flash of it as the backdrop of the famous 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:43.920 psychological thriller Rosemary's Baby. The film, directed by Roman Polanski, 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.680 starred Mia Pharaoh as a pregnant woman who gives birth 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:50.400 to a child of Satan. Chapman remembered how Polanski's own 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.400 pregnant wife had been murdered by Charles Manson not long 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.600 after he made the film. Manson blamed the killing on 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.800 commands he received inside songs like Helter Skelp her By, 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:10.080 You Guessed It, John Lennon and the Beatles. Then as 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.760 Chapman pondered the significance of the connection between Rosemary's Baby, 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.960 Charles Manson and John Lennon, he received another sign, the 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:22.600 biggest synchronicity yet. A short, pale woman strolled by him 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.480 on the sidewalk with a group of children. They crossed 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:27.440 the street in front of the Dakota and went into 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:36.320 Central Park. It was Rosemary herself, the actress Mia fair Mark. 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:40.120 David Chapman smiled at the sign. This has to be 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:44.320 the day, he assured himself. He remained on the sidewalk 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:50.200 and history took its course. Paramount Pictures presents Mia Farrow 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:57.680 in a William Castle production Rosemary's Baby suggested for mature audiences. 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.480 Una O'Neill Chaplin was the fulcrum of our tail, the 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.279 hinge at its center. But there's someone else who could 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:13.920 have been the subject of episode three and whose story 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:18.120 could have sent us in a very different direction, Ernest Hemingway. 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.680 In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield criticizes Hemingway's 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:27.440 classic war novel A Farewell to Arms. J. D. Salinger, 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.720 on the other hand, admired the world renowned writer. Hemingway 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:35.000 was a war correspondent for Collier's Magazine during World War Two, 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.280 and he played a key role in Salinger's wartime experience 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:42.479 and writing. Here's Ken Slowinski, the biographer who told us 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:46.720 about Salinger's life in episode two, talking about Salinger's PTSD 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:51.760 or battle fatigue. We know of Salinger's um stay in 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.920 the hospital. We know of his battle fatigue because of 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.039 a letter that he wrote of old people to Ernest, 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.760 telling what whom he had before into during the war. 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.400 Salinger confessed the Hemingway that he was quote in an 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.400 almost constant state of despondency. The talks I had with 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:12.120 you here, he said, we're the only hopeful minutes of 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:19.600 the whole business. The talks with Himingway that Salinger alludes 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.320 to form a remarkable subplot in the writer's harrowing war story. 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:28.560 It begins with the liberation of Paris in August, another 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:33.240 landmark event that Salinger experienced firsthand. The heart of European 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:38.120 civilization is beating strong again. Harris is free, and a 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:42.040 flood tide of jubilation has burst. For it was one 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.480 of the few positive memories he would carry with him 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:48.919 from the war. Jubilant crowds mob Salinger and his fellow soldiers. 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.800 Salinger's assignment was defined and arrest Nazi collaborators, but there 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.440 was one American in Paris that he wanted to find 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:00.719 as well. Salinger sought out Himingway at the Hotel Ritz. 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.280 Hemingway greeted the younger writer graciously, and the two talk 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.720 shop over drinks. Hemingway was even familiar with some of 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.000 Salinger's short stories. Just imagine how that would have made 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.160 a young Rider feel, especially one that had just survived 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:19.320 the blood bath at d Day. The two American icons 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:23.400 would meet again that winter. Remember the disastrous campaign at Hikin. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.840 Salinger and Himingway ended up only a mile apart. In 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.640 that cold, dark forest, Salingder made his way to Hemingway's 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:33.600 camp During a lull in the fighting one night, the 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.920 two drank champagne from canteen cups and Hemingway's tent. It 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.480 was a brief distraction from death and destruction that Salinger 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:47.239 would never forget. Salinger found his true therapy and writing. 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.800 And so you know, O'Neil Chaplin might have helped inspire 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.240 the subject matter for The Catcher in the Rye the 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.800 Upper crests phonies of New York City, but Ernest Hemingway 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.480 helped inspire and rebuild its war weary author, giving Salinger 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:06.600 chance to write the novel at all. And now the 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:11.040 next theme, Communism. Our story begins with John Lennon's death 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:14.120 on the doorstep of the Dakota, and it ends at 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:18.400 the doorstep of another Lenin, the Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.720 Louise Bryant and Jack Reid got to know Lenin quite 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.840 well during their time in Russia. They became friends, and 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.360 the writers visited him often. Lennon even wrote the introduction 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:32.720 to Read's book Ten Days That Shook the World just 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.360 before Reid died from Typhus, Bryant had an exclusive interview 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.560 with the Bolshevik leader. This interview was a major source 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:43.080 for scholars interested in Lennon's views of America. In it, 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.920 Lennon called for opening up commercial and political relations between 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.600 the two nations. America and its allies had refused to 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:54.640 recognize Soviet Russia and had instituted a blockade that was 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:59.400 choking off much needed goods from entering the country. The 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.559 previous year, Russia and the US had failed to come 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.679 to an agreement to lift the blockade. And guess who 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:10.080 was the American diplomat in charge of those negotiations, William Bullet, 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:14.480 Bryant's future husband. If the blockade had been lifted, then 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.720 Jack Reid might have lived. The blockade was the reason 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.440 that the Moscow hospital didn't have any medicine to give 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:29.679 to Read and the other Typhus victims. America's antagonistic relationship 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.480 with communist Russia continued for decades and impacted the lives 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:37.440 of several of our characters. Charlie Chaplin became a target 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:39.720 of the communist witch hunt led by U S Senator 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:44.400 Joseph McCarthy in the early nineteen fifties. Thank you. Let's 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.040 lads and gentlemen of the press. I'm not going to 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:52.280 waste your time, I should say, proceed with a berlad. 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.280 Could you ask a direct question? Are you a communist? 0:09:55.800 --> 0:10:00.720 I another communist? Chaplain was neither a communist nor a sympathizer, 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:03.960 but the allegations turned Chaplin from a legend to an 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:08.240 outcast in Hollywood. As a result, Charlie and Una uprooted 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:13.520 their family and moved to Europe. Twenty years later, John 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.000 Lennon and Yoko Ono were caught in a similar net, 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.360 but they chose to stay and fight. Lennon wasn't a 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.640 communist either, but his outspoken criticism of the Vietnam War 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.960 made him a target for the US government. The Nixon 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.160 administration spent years trying to deport the rock star, and 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:34.520 a lengthy court battle ensued after Because we we talked 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.439 about peace, you know, I mean because we we won't 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:40.360 we we won't peace. You know, We've said the same 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.520 thing for two years, different way, one way or another, 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:45.480 and we believe in it. Lennon was even called rock 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.360 and Rolls Charlie Chaplin. He eventually won and was able 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.000 to continue living at the Dakota U S authorities also 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:57.800 investigated the playwright Eugene O'Neil for potential Communist ties. They 0:10:57.800 --> 0:10:59.720 wondered why his play is touched on the plight of 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.160 the poor or the suffering and the unfortunate, But eventually 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:08.360 O'Neil was also cleared of all suspicions. Up next Suffering. 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.440 It infuses the characters in O'Neill's plays and also forms 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.480 another common thread running through the lives of our characters. 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.400 The characters in our story suffered setbacks, traumas, and neglect 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:32.760 in their lives. Troubled childhood script almost everyone. Yeah, so 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.080 the more you know about Um Lennin and where he 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.120 comes from, the more a lot of his songs make sense. 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:41.840 This is Tim Riley, who we met in episode one. 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:46.320 He's talking about Lennon's childhood and his parents separation. There 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:48.480 was this one scene when he was five where his 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.080 dad came home and actually wished him off to Blackpool, 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:53.840 which was a vacation resort up the coast a little bit. 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:56.920 But Lennon's dad hadn't told his mom and she came 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.440 looking for John and apparently there was a confrontation there 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.280 in in Blackpool where it said you have to choose 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.000 which parent you want to go with. Can you imagine 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.760 having to choose between your parents right there on the spot, 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:12.200 Lennon chose his father, then ran back to his mother 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.240 as she started to leave. Ultimately, he was raised by 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:19.960 his aunt Mimi. Why did't he used to call you? Mimi? 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.360 When was the last time he phoned you? Night before 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:28.280 he was murdered two hours and he was saying that 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.200 I'll be seeing you soon. Maybe I can't wait to 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.920 see you. And then of course at fabitok. The next 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:42.320 morning it came over the overseas news. We know Una 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:46.040 O'Neill Chaplin was influenced by her father's abandonment, but Eugene 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:49.160 O'Neill's own childhood was no walk in the park. His 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.040 mother once attempted suicide right in front of him. She 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.080 ran screaming out of their house to New London, Connecticut, 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.560 and jumped in the Thames River as Eugene and his 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:01.840 brothers watched in shock, And he and Jim and James 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.600 we're all standing there sort of a gape watching this. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.240 This is Robert Dowling who told us about O'Neill an 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:12.000 episode four. She had run out of morphine um, and 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:14.840 O'Neill didn't really know what he was looking at. He 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.120 had to be explained that his mother was a morphine addict. 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:23.000 At fourteen years old, O'Neill believed in the transformative power 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.600 of suffering. In his play Beyond the Horizon, he wrote 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:31.199 the line, only with contact with suffering, will you awaken 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:36.400 the suffering of combat awakened J. D. Salinger. War may 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.200 have destroyed Salinger the person, but it created Salinger the artist. 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:44.280 His iconic character Holding Caulfield comes off very differently in 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.280 the pre war short story A Slight Rebellion off Madison. 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.000 First of well, it's in the third person um. The 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:55.280 niration is called. The character is aloof and he's not 0:13:55.400 --> 0:14:00.160 very likable. This is Kenselinski again. By the time he 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:05.480 writes the same passages and incorporated into the Catch on 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:10.360 the Rye, it has taken on a different dimension. It's 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:15.800 taken on his sensitivity. The intimacy is so powerful that 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:19.760 people I feel that they are holding, that Holding is 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:24.960 speaking for them, and that is completely missing from the 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:29.080 pre war Holding Corville. Great art often comes in the 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.240 wake of great suffering. That's only if you're able to 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.840 take advantage of it. John Lennon, Eugene O'Neill, and J. D. 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:39.480 Salinger all had outlets for their talents and time to 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.920 cultivate them. Una didn't have that option as a woman 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.880 in the nineteen forties and fifties. She had to marry 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.320 a great man and surrender her own ambitions. She had 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.760 to find purpose in her devotion to Charlie Chaplin. Take 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.160 this one scene in a cafe again back in Paris. 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:59.680 After the Chaplain's left America, Una was in the middle 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.920 of life with her good friends Carol Marcus and Truman Capodi, 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:05.560 and all of a sudden, Una looked at her watch 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:07.720 and said, oh my god. She said, I gotta run, Charlie, 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.960 You'll be back at the hotel now. And Capodi said, 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:13.680 how can you live like this? He said, don't you 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:18.560 have any time for yourself? And Carol butted in and said, Truman, 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.880 don't you realize that every woman in the world wants 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:30.120 a man to need her like that. Louise Bryant wanted 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.400 to be needed by the men in her life as well, 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:36.040 but she also wanted to be respected. As an independent journalist. 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.920 She resented the attention showered on her husband Jack Reid's 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.520 writing When the two journalists returned from the Russian Revolution, 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.200 they were the talk of the town in Greenwich Village, 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:50.240 Read for his reporting and Bryant for her Russian attire. 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.760 Louise married Dearborn rights in her biography of Bryant had 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.600 won the approval and friendship of no less than Lenin 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.880 the Sun, god of the radical left, and yet these 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.840 people talked about her clothes. She was very much aware 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:09.160 that women were second class citizens. This is Mary Dearborn. 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.240 She was a realist. I mean, this is someone who 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:14.600 really worked hard to get out of a little town 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.960 in Nevada to be on a kind of world stage. 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.600 And however she could get there, that was fine with her. Eventually, 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.280 Louise Bryant stopped writing in order to be a wife 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.880 and mother. There was a sacrifice that would have been 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.840 unimaginable for most of the male artists in our threat. 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:40.760 There may be no better reason for all of the 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.120 suffering in this story than bad parenting, and many of 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.560 our characters were bad parents themselves. As you probably noticed, 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.840 a couple attempted to redeem themselves, though Eugene O'Neill tried 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.120 to reconnect with his daughter near the end of his life, 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:59.040 but there was someone standing in his way. O'Neil left 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:03.800 Agnes Bolton for the actress Carlotta Monterey. Carlotta fiercely guarded 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:07.120 the piece and quiet O'Neill needed to write, and so 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.560 UNA's letters to her father often didn't make it pass Carlotta. 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:15.360 But in nineteen fifty one, Eugene and Carlotta were briefly estranged. 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:22.000 Robert Dowling explains, during that break in their relationship, O'Neill 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.440 rewrote his will and Una was right back in there. 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.960 And he actually told a friend around that time that 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:34.080 he really respected Una for actually having made a life 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:37.280 for herself in the way that she did, and he 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.760 really appreciated that. When Carlotta and Eugene patched things up, 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.320 she made him cut Una out of his will again. 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:47.879 None of the parents in our story made more of 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.520 an attempt at redemption than the man we began with, 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:55.000 John Lennon. Lennon had abandoned his son from his first marriage, 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:57.760 but he was determined to do things differently when he 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:01.240 and Yoko had their son, Sean in nineteen seventy. I 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:03.160 think he has this idea that he's gotten a second 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.120 chance here, and he really needs to figure this one out. 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.439 Tim Riley again, so he stays home to be a 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.159 house husband. But he was one of the very first 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:16.200 celebrities to say I embraced this feminist notion fully, so 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:19.120 fully that I'm gonna take a break from my career 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.320 and actually devote my life to my kid. In a 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.679 New York Times profile published a month before he was killed, 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.520 Lennon said, when I look at the relative importance of 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.720 what life is about, I can't quite convince myself that 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:35.840 making a record or having a career is more important 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.280 or even as important as my child or any child. 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:42.280 But I don't buy that. You know, my career is 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.600 so important that I'll deal with the kids later, which 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.359 I already did with my first night as my first child, 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:53.159 and I kind of regret it. JD. Salinger had a 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:57.000 redemption tale of his own. Like Eugene O'Neil, Salinger was 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.600 a neglectful father, at least at the start. Not long 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:04.080 after his daughter Margaret was born, Salinger walled himself off 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:07.480 from his family. Literally. He built a bunker in the 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.440 woods where he could write undisturbed, sometimes for up to 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.960 sixteen hours a day. It got so bad that Salinger's 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:17.440 wife fled with the baby. She gave him an ultimatum, 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:21.880 and Salinger's parenting improved, which brings us the Central Park, 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.439 right across the street from the Dakota where our story began. 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:28.800 At the ends of the Catch on the Rye, Olden 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:32.840 Cofield watches his ten year old sister ride the Central 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:37.000 Park carousel Ken Slowinski again that is the climax of 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.199 the book. Holden watches her go around and around on 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:45.080 her carousel horse in the rain. I felt so damn 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.760 happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:51.000 going around and around. It was damn near bawling. I 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.879 felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth, 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.040 I don't know why. It was just that she looked 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.080 so damn nice, the way she kept going around and 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.240 around in her blue cotin all God, I wish you 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:06.560 could have been there. JD. Salinger had a similar experience 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.000 long after The Scene and Catcher was published. He took 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.800 his eight year old daughter, Margaret, to Manhattan and they 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.120 went you guessed it, to the carousel in Central Park. 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.920 The Salinger put his daughter on one of the horses 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.240 and watched in the same spot where he has holding Couldfield, 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:30.320 watching his sister, his daughter ride that carousel, taking the 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:35.760 part of his own character after so many years. It 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.959 it's one of the most moving images that I can 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:43.200 think of. It is almost too beautiful to imagine Salinger 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.919 at the carousel watching his own daughter go around. They 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.639 would have a rocky relationship in the years ahead, but 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:53.000 for one moment at least, there was a real synchronicity 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:59.240 between life and art. Mark David Chapman may have called 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.240 himself the Cher in the Rye after he killed John Lennon, 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.879 but he wasn't. Chapman was a phony, being a catcher 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:09.639 in the Rise about putting others first, something all of 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.280 our characters had to learn, some the hard way. In 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:15.880 the end, the power of their art could not insulate 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:18.800 them from the pain of living or the hand of death. 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.160 What mattered was how they treated others, their instant karma, 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:29.240 their connections. We're all connected. Each moment, our interactions and 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.439 choices shaped the course of our lives and impact the 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:36.520 lives of others. What we call history is the accumulation 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.960 of these actions and reactions, of chance, encounters and contingencies 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:45.280 of causes in their effects, every outcome is a thread 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:50.280 that gets woven into histories, ever expanding tapestry, a sprawling 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:54.280 masterpiece composed of our own lives entwined with the lives 0:21:54.400 --> 0:22:05.040 of all those who came before us. M The Thread 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:09.119 is produced by Meredith Hotman, Libby Coleman, and me Sean braswell. 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:13.159 Our editors are Carlos Watson and Samir Rao. Meredith Hotknot 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:16.520 engineered our show with mixing and sound design from James Rowlands. 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:21.800 Special thanks to Cindy Carpian, David Boyer, Tracy Moran, Sean Colligan, 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:25.280 Sun Jeeves Tandon, Cameo, George and k A. L. W. 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:28.960 Check us out at ausy dot com, That's o z 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:32.960 y dot com or on Twitter and Facebook. To learn 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:35.800 more about The Thread, visit ausy dot com, slash the 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:39.359 Thread all one word, and make sure to subscribe to 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:43.440 The Thread on Apple Podcasts. If you love surprising, engaging 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:46.639 stories from history like this one, look no further than 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:50.760 the flashback section of AZZI. Thanks for listening, and stay 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:54.040 tuned for more interconnected stories from history, with Season two 0:22:54.160 --> 0:23:00.240 of The Thread coming soon. Two