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Speaker 1: Pushkin.

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Speaker 2: I always flatter myself. I think I'm going to be

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Speaker 2: able to play it that fast, and I actually can.

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Speaker 2: So take it from your introduction again after the three

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Speaker 2: chords a little slower.

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Speaker 3: If you ever want to treat yourself to something wonderful,

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Speaker 3: type in the name Adler and the word harmonica on YouTube.

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Speaker 3: This is from an Australian program called four Corners from

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Speaker 3: nineteen sixty one. There are a hundred videos like this.

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Speaker 2: Do people take it seriously with this instrument? Well, nasty question.

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Speaker 1: I do.

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Speaker 4: Oh, I take myself so seriously.

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Speaker 2: I do take it.

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Speaker 1: You haven't.

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Speaker 5: Well.

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Speaker 2: If Vowan Williams writes for the mouth Ogan, he's not

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Speaker 2: doing this for a joke.

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Speaker 3: My name is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History,

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Speaker 3: my podcast about things Overlooked and Misunderstood. This is the

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Speaker 3: first of two episodes about memory, about the myths we

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Speaker 3: hold about it, and the games are Memories Playing. This

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Speaker 3: one is about an argument between two old friends over

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Speaker 3: what supposedly happened or did not happen during a raid

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Speaker 3: on a house supposedly full of Nazis in July nineteen

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Speaker 3: forty five, or maybe April of nineteen forty six.

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Speaker 1: I have no idea.

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Speaker 5: This is an interview with Larry Adlard by Dorothy Horowitz

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Speaker 5: on February the fifth, nineteen eighty six. And Harry Adler

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Speaker 5: is the virtuo so hand organ player? Is that correct title?

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Speaker 5: Did you say hand organ mouth Oregon?

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Speaker 2: Because the hand organs which you've grown from mongy.

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Speaker 3: By the time Larry Adler sat down to tell his

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Speaker 3: life story to a historian with the American Jewish Committee,

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Speaker 3: his reputation was well known.

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Speaker 2: Perfectly all right with me? No no, no, no, no no.

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Speaker 5: No mouth Oregon player or harmonica player.

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Speaker 2: I use the word mouth organ, but the people who

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Speaker 2: manufacture it could harmony.

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Speaker 5: And I might add a raccont tour par excellence. And

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Speaker 5: we hope you're going to indulge in a lot of

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Speaker 5: that because we're going to want to know all about you.

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Speaker 2: Of course, you know that raconteur is a very polite

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Speaker 2: word for liar.

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Speaker 3: Raconteur is a very polite word for liar. That could

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Speaker 3: easily be on Larry Adler's tombstone. Larry Adler was the

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Speaker 3: greatest harmonica player in the world. Your grandparents would know

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Speaker 3: exactly who he was. I have to admit I'd never

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Speaker 3: heard of him until I was rooting around one day

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Speaker 3: in the oral history archives at the New York Public Library.

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Speaker 3: I ran across his interview, listened to it for a

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Speaker 3: few moments, and was about to give up when Adler

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Speaker 3: began to tell the story of his affair with Ingrid Bergmann,

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Speaker 3: back when she was considered the most beautiful actress in

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Speaker 3: the world. They met while Adler was on tour at

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Speaker 3: the end of the Second World War entertaining the troops

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Speaker 3: in Europe. Late one night, He's in a bar in Augsburg, Germany,

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Speaker 3: playing the piano.

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Speaker 2: And she came into the room where I was playing,

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Speaker 2: like when I was playing, asked me what it was.

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Speaker 2: I said it was something I made up, and she said,

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Speaker 2: have you written it down? I said no, I can't

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Speaker 2: write music. And he said, you're very smugging't you. You're

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Speaker 2: not only ignorant, you're proud of your ignorance. How I'm

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Speaker 2: at Ingrid Bergmann.

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Speaker 3: Adler tells his interviewer that he'd just recently read a

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Speaker 3: biography of Bergmann in which Bergmann's husband claimed that he

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Speaker 3: Larry Adler had come to him and confessed their affair.

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Speaker 2: I know I wouldn't have done such a thing, because

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Speaker 2: I wouldn't have done that to England. I wouldn't have

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Speaker 2: named what would happening to her husband. However, it is

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Speaker 2: in the book, and I can't deny that he said

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Speaker 2: that to the author of the book. But as I say,

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Speaker 2: I can't see me doing it. It is against my

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Speaker 2: nature and my principles.

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Speaker 3: Just to be clear, Larry Adler was having an affair

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Speaker 3: with one of the most famous actresses in the world,

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Speaker 3: and the actress's husband says Adler confessed it to him.

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Speaker 3: You would think that would be a memorable event. But

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Speaker 3: Adler's response is maybe, I guess it could have happened

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Speaker 3: by the way in.

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Speaker 2: War in peace and I'm paraphrasing, of course, because you

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Speaker 2: can't remember tolstoy word for would. There's a sequence where

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Speaker 2: a young man who's been at a I think the

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Speaker 2: Battle of Borodino is in Moscow in a drawing room,

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Speaker 2: telling these very attractive young ladies about his war experiences.

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Speaker 2: But he was behind the lines. He didn't see action.

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Speaker 2: He only heard about action from other soldiers. But he

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Speaker 2: saw that he was losing his audience because he couldn't

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Speaker 2: give them any tales of battle action. So he began

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Speaker 2: to use the story that other soldiers had told him,

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Speaker 2: but making it personal, as if he had experienced that action.

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Speaker 2: And then Tolstoy has a line very much like this,

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Speaker 2: and he realized as he spoke that the truth was

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Speaker 2: slipping away from him, and soon he would no longer

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Speaker 2: know what the truth was now. I think that applies

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Speaker 2: very much to anybody telling any story about anything.

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Speaker 3: The officer in Tolstoy's War and Peace tells a story

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Speaker 3: that isn't true, and from then on forgets that it

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Speaker 3: isn't true. Larry Adler doesn't call the officer a liar

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Speaker 3: or say he shouldn't make things up. Adler says, that's

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Speaker 3: the way memories work. They're up for grabs. In fact,

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Speaker 3: throughout the Oral History, Adler keeps summoning memories and simultaneously

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Speaker 3: discounting them until he has completely convinced you that that's

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Speaker 3: the way we all ought to act. The interview culminates

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Speaker 3: in the story of the raid on the Munich boarding

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Speaker 3: house full of Nazis with his old friend, the dashingly

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Speaker 3: handsome spy named Hans Werner aka John Whites. But we're

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Speaker 3: getting ahead of ourselves. Larry Adler was born in Baltimore

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Speaker 3: in nineteen fourteen to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. His dad

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Speaker 3: was a plumber. At the age of two, he wandered

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Speaker 3: away from home and was later found at a local bar,

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Speaker 3: standing on top of a pool table and singing I've

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Speaker 3: got the profiteering blues to wild applause.

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Speaker 6: He was a prodigy.

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Speaker 3: At fourteen, he took his harmone on the train to

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Speaker 3: New York City and talked his way into performing on Broadway.

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Speaker 2: I passed the Paramount Theater and Rudey Valet's name was

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Speaker 2: on the marquee.

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Speaker 3: Rudy Valley was basically the jay Z of the nineteen twenties.

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Speaker 2: So I got off the streetcar, sneak past the stage

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Speaker 2: door man found Rudy Valley and started to play for him,

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Speaker 2: and he interrupted, I mean, look, I'm just a master

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Speaker 2: of ceremonies, your kid, I'm not an agent.

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Speaker 3: Valley put him on that very night. It was obvious

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Speaker 3: even then that Adler was something special. He had perfect pitch,

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Speaker 3: an astounding musical memory. He could make the harmonica sing

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Speaker 3: in a way that no one else has ever done.

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Speaker 3: If you watch any of those old videos of Adler,

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Speaker 3: on YouTube. He's mesmerizing, slender, long, thin fingers, huge forehead,

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Speaker 3: oversized eyes. There's a wonderful story about him in The

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Speaker 3: New Yorker in nineteen forty two, which describes him as

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Speaker 3: resembling a very young and slightly sinister kitten. Once, when

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Speaker 3: he's living in Beverly Hills, Adler gets a call from

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Speaker 3: Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin says, please come over and make a

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Speaker 3: fourth for tennis, because Bill Tilden can't make it. Bill

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Speaker 3: Tilden argued with the greatest tennis player of all time

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Speaker 3: after Roger Federer. Adler goes over. There's a woman there

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Speaker 3: with badly combed hair and black sneakers and a man

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Speaker 3: with a weird mustache. They hit for a while and

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Speaker 3: he realizes, Oh, the woman is Greta Garbo, and the

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Speaker 3: man with the weird mustache Salvado'dlly Tilden, Garbo, Dolly Chaplain.

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Speaker 3: This kind of thing happens to Adler all the time.

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Speaker 3: He wanted to subtitle his autobiography name drops keep falling

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Speaker 3: on My Head. He was friends with the legendary composer

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Speaker 3: Frank Lesser, but he hated Lesser's wife, whom he called

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Speaker 3: wait for it the evil of two lessers. I mean,

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Speaker 3: how much do you love this guy?

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Speaker 7: Prince Philip wrote me a wonderful letter when my father

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Speaker 7: died from Buckingham Palace and said, you know how close

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Speaker 7: they were.

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Speaker 3: That's Peter Adler, Larry's son. Prince Philip, of course is

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Speaker 3: the Queen's husband.

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Speaker 7: Well, they were both members of an infamous club called

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Speaker 7: the Thursday Club, and I think there were only thirteen members,

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Speaker 7: and they would meet every other Thursday at Wheeler's Restaurant

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Speaker 7: and all get very drunk and tell tales and whatever

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Speaker 7: they did. And we were living in Grosvenor's Square at

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Speaker 7: the time, and in the middle of the afternoon, my

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Speaker 7: father arrives without warning, totally drunk with Prince Philip. They'd

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Speaker 7: come straight from a Thursday Club lunch. And the fact

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Speaker 7: that my father had never given my mother any warning

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Speaker 7: he was arriving with the Duke of Edinburgh. I don't

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Speaker 7: think you forgave him.

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Speaker 3: But the greatest Larry Adler story comes earlier. Adler is

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Speaker 3: in Germany entertaining the American troops. He's touring with Jack Benny,

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Speaker 3: one of the most famous entertainers of the day, and

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Speaker 3: Ingrid Bergmann, who has just met at the Piano Bar

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Speaker 3: in Augsburg and is possibly already sleeping.

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Speaker 2: With And the story is Jack Benny Ingrid Bergman and

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Speaker 2: I were in Munich July nineteen forty five and we

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Speaker 2: met this young man, John Whites, who is the commander

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Speaker 2: of an OSS unit.

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Speaker 3: John Whites the second old friend in this story. From

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Speaker 3: the nineteen sixties to the nineteen eighties, John Whites was

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Speaker 3: a successful high end men's fashion designer. He made the

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Speaker 3: kind of clothes he would put it in an overnight

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Speaker 3: bag before jumping on the concord to make a lunch

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Speaker 3: date at the Savoy in London. In shirts. White's favored

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Speaker 3: what was known as the European cut, which, as a

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Speaker 3: fashion critic once wrote, disqualified anyone without a perfectly flat stomach.

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Speaker 3: Whites was six foot two, insanely handsome, raced sports cars

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Speaker 3: at Lahmann and Sebron, wrote best selling thrillers and scholarly biographies.

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Speaker 3: Educated in exclusive English boarding schools, aristocratic bearing, married to

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Speaker 3: a stunning actress, Susan Kohner. He was basically James Bond.

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Speaker 4: What was the world that your father was?

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Speaker 3: Father and mother inhabited in sort of sixties and seventies

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Speaker 3: New York.

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Speaker 6: I was a pretty, you know, kind of beautiful people set.

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Speaker 3: That's John White's son Chris. He and his brother Paul

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Speaker 3: are both filmmakers in Los Angeles.

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Speaker 6: There's actually there's a book called The Beautiful People in which.

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Speaker 8: My parents are featured, along with the rest of their bunch.

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Speaker 3: You've probably seen some of the Whites brothers films about

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Speaker 3: a boy, The Exquisite in Good Company, American Pie if

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Speaker 3: you're wondering their father was a big fan of American Pie.

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Speaker 6: But our dad really loved it.

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Speaker 9: Yeah, he defends you know.

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Speaker 2: So.

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Speaker 6: I remember him.

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Speaker 10: Saying that he was in a coffee shop and some

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Speaker 10: old guy said to him, well, sarcastic, I bet you

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Speaker 10: really proud of your kids for making this horrible film,

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Speaker 10: And he's I don't know where he came up with this,

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Speaker 10: but he said, haven't you ever masturbated in your life?

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Speaker 3: John Whites was German born in Berlin in nineteen twenty

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Speaker 3: three as Hans Werner Whitz. He was also Jewish and

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Speaker 3: of that class of wealthy assimilated German Jews, for whom

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Speaker 3: those two identities were not a contradiction. His father, Robert

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Speaker 3: had fought for Germany in the First World War and

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Speaker 3: won an Iron Cross.

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Speaker 6: Vacations in the north of Germany and kind of a

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Speaker 6: beautiful life.

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Speaker 3: Then Hitler took power. Whites's family fled in nineteen thirty eight,

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Speaker 3: then onto Shanghai where he waited for his American visa

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Speaker 3: and played rugby on the side, and finally to America.

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Speaker 3: In nineteen forty one, John Whites joins the US Army

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Speaker 3: and gets recruited by the legendary wartime spymaster while Bill

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Speaker 3: Donovan into the USS, the forerunner of today's CIA. Then

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Speaker 3: he sent too occupied Europe as an undercover spy. Because

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Speaker 3: of course he doesn't have to pretend to be German,

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Speaker 3: He's actually German. He's dropped into France, makes contact with

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Speaker 3: the resistance. He's part of the group that liberated one

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Speaker 3: of the most infamous concentration camps, Daco.

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Speaker 8: He told me about when he was in Dachause seeing

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Speaker 8: a gas chamber and there was a little window whereby

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Speaker 8: the operator could tell whether the people inside were dead

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Speaker 8: or not, and next to it was a.

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Speaker 6: Picture of his little child. He described it as being

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Speaker 6: the way that a taxi driver would have a picture

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Speaker 6: of his family and children like taped to the dashboard,

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Speaker 6: but that really stuck with them.

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Speaker 3: After the war, Daca was turned into a holding pen

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Speaker 3: for prisoners of war. Whites was sent into the camp

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Speaker 3: to spy on the captured German soldiers to impersonate a

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Speaker 3: German pow. Some German soldiers after the war ended would

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Speaker 3: burn off their SS tattoos with the end of a cigarette.

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Speaker 3: Whites got a tattoo and then burned himself as well

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Speaker 3: to make the impersonation real.

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Speaker 6: Now you'd say he had PTSD actually, but nobody talked

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Speaker 6: about it in that way. So he was, you know,

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Speaker 6: a drinker, not a sloppy one, but someone who sort

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Speaker 6: of regularly until he suddenly cut it off like cold

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Speaker 6: turkey at some point in our childhood. He didn't sleep well,

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Speaker 6: He woke up very early in the morning. He had

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Speaker 6: incredibly regular habits born of the Army, of kind of

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Speaker 6: keeping things in order. He was if he was crossed

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00:14:54,676 --> 00:14:59,036
Speaker 6: by a stranger, if someone was rude to him or impolite,

248
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Speaker 6: he would be very scary and dangerous. He definitely seemed

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Speaker 6: from the war someone who had no physical fear of

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Speaker 6: other people, and that was really scary as a child to.

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Speaker 3: Watch White told his sons that he didn't know whether

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Speaker 3: he could ever be a good father. The war had

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Speaker 3: changed him too much.

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Speaker 9: Chris and I used to talk about our childhood as

255
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Speaker 9: growing up in a behind the iron curtain. I think

256
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Speaker 9: you had to have sort of surreptitious modes of self expression,

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Speaker 9: and humor was a big aspect of that.

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Speaker 11: The fact that we ended up working together is partly

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Speaker 11: because we sort of developed this shared sense of humor,

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Speaker 11: and it was kind of like a samizdat method of

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Speaker 11: maintaining our autonomy with a very sort of domineering dad

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Speaker 11: who was always ready for things to lapse into complete Yeah.

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00:15:57,916 --> 00:16:02,956
Speaker 3: Yeah, a dad who was always ready for things to

264
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Speaker 3: lapse into catastrophe. Back to Munich, the war has just ended.

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Speaker 3: Whites is now running an undercover operation against a German

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Speaker 3: guerrilla group called Werewolf. It's made up of ex Nazi

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Speaker 3: soldiers who are causing trouble across liberated Europe. A Werewolf

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00:16:21,636 --> 00:16:24,436
Speaker 3: cell had holed up in a Munich rooming house not

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Speaker 3: far from the Deutsche Theater. John Whites has infiltrated the

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00:16:28,356 --> 00:16:31,916
Speaker 3: group under the name Hans Werner. Then work comes in

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Speaker 3: from the Allied Brass round up the Werewolf members, And

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00:16:35,876 --> 00:16:40,236
Speaker 3: just as the order is issued, Whites runs into Larry Adler,

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Speaker 3: Ingrid Bergmann, and Jack Penny.

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Speaker 2: And he said that they had found the house where

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Speaker 2: they knew there were eight German soldiers. Now the war

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00:16:51,116 --> 00:16:54,676
Speaker 2: was over. Therefore these soldiers had neither surrendered nor been captured.

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Speaker 2: John and his OSS unit were going to raid them,

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Speaker 2: and would Jack, Ingrid and I like to come along?

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00:17:01,036 --> 00:17:01,156
Speaker 6: Well?

280
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Speaker 2: Jack and Ingrid refused that were terrified of the idea.

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Speaker 2: I loved it.

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Speaker 3: Now let's just pause here while I point not the obvious.

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Speaker 3: A twenty something John White's the dashingly handsome undercover spy

284
00:17:15,436 --> 00:17:21,396
Speaker 3: runs into, respectively America's most famous actress, America's most famous comedian,

285
00:17:21,716 --> 00:17:25,356
Speaker 3: and the world's greatest harmonica player, presumably at a nightclub,

286
00:17:25,676 --> 00:17:27,876
Speaker 3: and he invites all three of them to join him

287
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Speaker 3: in raiding a house full of Nazi gorillas, and one

288
00:17:30,516 --> 00:17:33,676
Speaker 3: of them, the skinny harmonica player from Baltimore, says, yes,

289
00:17:35,116 --> 00:17:38,836
Speaker 3: the Whites Brothers disciples of Hollywood, do not find this

290
00:17:39,076 --> 00:17:40,316
Speaker 3: as odd as I did?

291
00:17:40,716 --> 00:17:42,556
Speaker 4: Does it strike you one of the many weird things

292
00:17:42,556 --> 00:17:45,076
Speaker 4: with that story is the notion that you are an

293
00:17:45,116 --> 00:17:48,476
Speaker 4: OSS officer in Munich you're going to do this bus

294
00:17:48,916 --> 00:17:52,316
Speaker 4: and you bring along a famous harmonica player.

295
00:17:54,196 --> 00:17:55,196
Speaker 11: What's strange about that.

296
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Speaker 9: I guess it's a testament of the power of celebrity.

297
00:18:00,596 --> 00:18:01,996
Speaker 11: It was kind of like a ride along, you.

298
00:18:01,956 --> 00:18:04,116
Speaker 8: Know, like Kevin Hart and ICEQ.

299
00:18:08,036 --> 00:18:11,836
Speaker 3: So Larry Adler for his mission, I'm guessing he's lying

300
00:18:11,836 --> 00:18:14,236
Speaker 3: in the arms of the world's most beautiful actress. He

301
00:18:14,316 --> 00:18:17,156
Speaker 3: gets up, puts on a helmet and goes off to

302
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Speaker 3: capture some Nazis.

303
00:18:19,276 --> 00:18:21,436
Speaker 2: So I met these oss men at four thirty in

304
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Speaker 2: the morning. We got into a jeep, went to this

305
00:18:23,996 --> 00:18:28,316
Speaker 2: house and according to John, the oss men burst into

306
00:18:28,396 --> 00:18:30,596
Speaker 2: the house. Two of the Germans fired back at them

307
00:18:30,636 --> 00:18:34,276
Speaker 2: and were killed. The other six were captured Kifrais.

308
00:18:34,836 --> 00:18:39,716
Speaker 3: According to John, John Whitez remembers a gunfight, but Adler

309
00:18:39,956 --> 00:18:41,636
Speaker 3: remembers something completely different.

310
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Speaker 2: My story is when we got into the house, there

311
00:18:44,316 --> 00:18:47,796
Speaker 2: were two old ladies. There was no firing, no one

312
00:18:47,876 --> 00:18:51,476
Speaker 2: was hurt in any way. And so there are these

313
00:18:51,516 --> 00:18:54,876
Speaker 2: two diametrically opposed stories my two people who were there.

314
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Speaker 3: In John Whitez's memory, a house full of Nazis a

315
00:19:01,316 --> 00:19:06,636
Speaker 3: nasty battle, death drama. In Larryadler's memory of the same night. Nothing,

316
00:19:07,156 --> 00:19:10,676
Speaker 3: no nazis, no gunfight, no one dies. They burst in

317
00:19:10,956 --> 00:19:13,316
Speaker 3: and all they find is a room full of harmless

318
00:19:13,316 --> 00:19:22,036
Speaker 3: old women, presumably knitting. But wait, there's another version, same characters,

319
00:19:22,436 --> 00:19:25,556
Speaker 3: same setup, only it's supposed to take place almost a

320
00:19:25,636 --> 00:19:28,116
Speaker 3: year later, in April of nineteen forty six.

321
00:19:28,916 --> 00:19:32,836
Speaker 2: I told this story to a group of publishers in

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Speaker 2: London when I made a speech, and one of the

323
00:19:34,516 --> 00:19:36,836
Speaker 2: publishers told me, after, what, mister Bradler, did you know

324
00:19:38,116 --> 00:19:40,876
Speaker 2: that the raid you're talking about is mentioned in another book?

325
00:19:42,316 --> 00:19:44,956
Speaker 2: And John Whites is mentioned, but not by name. He's

326
00:19:44,996 --> 00:19:47,356
Speaker 2: called Werner because that was his name as an agent

327
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Speaker 2: to infiltrate the German lions. John under the name of

328
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Speaker 2: Werner is leading the raid. You are with him, and

329
00:19:53,676 --> 00:19:57,476
Speaker 2: now there are eighteen Nazi soldiers. The house is surrounded

330
00:19:57,476 --> 00:20:01,836
Speaker 2: by armored carriers and floodlights. And I still remember two

331
00:20:01,996 --> 00:20:05,636
Speaker 2: old ladies. So the question is who is right?

332
00:20:08,236 --> 00:20:09,876
Speaker 1: Exactly who's right?

333
00:20:10,596 --> 00:20:13,516
Speaker 3: For the rest of their days, Adler and Whites will

334
00:20:13,596 --> 00:20:14,316
Speaker 3: argue about it.

335
00:20:14,956 --> 00:20:17,476
Speaker 9: I remember Larry bringing up the story to Needle Dad

336
00:20:20,716 --> 00:20:21,196
Speaker 9: and my dad.

337
00:20:22,076 --> 00:20:25,996
Speaker 6: The funny thing is my father could be very very

338
00:20:26,116 --> 00:20:28,636
Speaker 6: forbidding and peremptory with people who sort of crossed him.

339
00:20:28,836 --> 00:20:29,596
Speaker 8: For some reason.

340
00:20:29,676 --> 00:20:33,156
Speaker 6: He had a soft spot for Larry.

341
00:20:33,796 --> 00:20:37,516
Speaker 3: Everyone had a sou spot for Larry.

342
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Speaker 9: What I heard at lunch was you were rounding up

343
00:20:41,596 --> 00:20:48,236
Speaker 9: these Nazis, and all I saw was old women. Oh Larry,

344
00:20:50,196 --> 00:20:52,276
Speaker 9: you some shut up and have another champagne.

345
00:21:02,956 --> 00:21:06,316
Speaker 3: There's a very specific idea about memory embedded in the

346
00:21:06,316 --> 00:21:10,116
Speaker 3: story Larry Adler tells from War and Peace, the story

347
00:21:10,156 --> 00:21:12,476
Speaker 3: about the soldier entertaining a group of young ladies in

348
00:21:12,516 --> 00:21:17,236
Speaker 3: Moscow and the Battle of Borodino. The officer wants to

349
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Speaker 3: impress the people around him, so he moves himself to

350
00:21:20,316 --> 00:21:23,196
Speaker 3: the front lines, and once he makes that improvement on

351
00:21:23,276 --> 00:21:25,876
Speaker 3: the truth in the service of his own ego, what

352
00:21:26,036 --> 00:21:29,716
Speaker 3: actually happens slips away. He becomes the victim of his

353
00:21:29,796 --> 00:21:36,476
Speaker 3: own self deception. That's the theory Adler believed in he

354
00:21:36,516 --> 00:21:39,036
Speaker 3: tells another story about the time he was in Newfoundland

355
00:21:39,116 --> 00:21:42,236
Speaker 3: during the war entertaining troops. He needs to get back

356
00:21:42,276 --> 00:21:45,316
Speaker 3: to Gander Airport because he has a nightclub appearance scheduled

357
00:21:45,356 --> 00:21:48,036
Speaker 3: in New York. He finds an airman who is a

358
00:21:48,076 --> 00:21:50,476
Speaker 3: cargo plane which is going to be towing a glider,

359
00:21:50,996 --> 00:21:53,276
Speaker 3: and he says to Adler, you can ride in the glider.

360
00:21:53,876 --> 00:21:56,116
Speaker 2: I was in the glider, the captain was in the

361
00:21:56,116 --> 00:21:58,276
Speaker 2: front plane. And how exciting it was for me being

362
00:21:58,316 --> 00:22:00,636
Speaker 2: in the glidder being towed, And how the most exciting

363
00:22:00,676 --> 00:22:03,956
Speaker 2: part came when we were over Gander Airport and he

364
00:22:04,036 --> 00:22:06,756
Speaker 2: cut the glider loose by a release mechanism and we

365
00:22:06,876 --> 00:22:08,996
Speaker 2: floated down in this heavenly feeling I had of his

366
00:22:09,196 --> 00:22:10,756
Speaker 2: escape that I never wanted the land.

367
00:22:12,196 --> 00:22:14,196
Speaker 3: Adler tells that story for years.

368
00:22:15,316 --> 00:22:18,996
Speaker 2: Well, my daughter found a diary. It covered my trip

369
00:22:19,036 --> 00:22:22,516
Speaker 2: to Newfoundland. I wasn't in the glider. I was in

370
00:22:22,556 --> 00:22:26,316
Speaker 2: the front plane. Now you see how that took over.

371
00:22:26,356 --> 00:22:29,636
Speaker 2: It's a better story being in the glider. It makes

372
00:22:29,356 --> 00:22:31,116
Speaker 2: it if you say to somebody, I was in the

373
00:22:31,156 --> 00:22:33,716
Speaker 2: first front plane, but we were towing a glider, that's

374
00:22:33,716 --> 00:22:36,636
Speaker 2: no story. I was in the glider and that was

375
00:22:36,756 --> 00:22:39,596
Speaker 2: very exciting. That's more of a story. So that after

376
00:22:39,636 --> 00:22:42,756
Speaker 2: a while, the wish to be in the glider took

377
00:22:42,796 --> 00:22:45,476
Speaker 2: over and became fat and put me in the glider.

378
00:22:45,916 --> 00:22:47,556
Speaker 2: And the truth is that I've never been in a

379
00:22:47,596 --> 00:22:52,556
Speaker 2: glider in my life. That's what I mean by self deception.

380
00:22:54,236 --> 00:22:56,916
Speaker 3: Adler knew he had a big ego, and he simply

381
00:22:56,956 --> 00:22:59,956
Speaker 3: assumed that his ego was out in the world, rewriting

382
00:22:59,996 --> 00:23:04,236
Speaker 3: history on his behalf, which seems to make sense. Adler

383
00:23:04,316 --> 00:23:08,236
Speaker 3: is the compulsive storyteller, right the name dropper. In his

384
00:23:08,316 --> 00:23:11,556
Speaker 3: New Yorker profile, there's this line. The most casual request

385
00:23:11,596 --> 00:23:15,716
Speaker 3: for information from a newspaper reporter or interviewer will often

386
00:23:15,756 --> 00:23:20,196
Speaker 3: bring in reply a twelve or fifteen typewritten single space

387
00:23:20,356 --> 00:23:24,716
Speaker 3: narrative composed and typed by Larry in person and containing

388
00:23:24,836 --> 00:23:29,316
Speaker 3: dialogue and anecdotes. I think that whenever we run across

389
00:23:29,316 --> 00:23:32,396
Speaker 3: someone telling a false story, we assume that this is

390
00:23:32,396 --> 00:23:37,676
Speaker 3: what's happening, that the lie is driven by ego. In

391
00:23:37,716 --> 00:23:40,276
Speaker 3: the next episode, I'm going to talk about an instant

392
00:23:40,276 --> 00:23:43,716
Speaker 3: that you'll almost certainly remember. A modern version of Adler's

393
00:23:43,716 --> 00:23:48,076
Speaker 3: glider story. Somebody famous was caught saying, in effect that

394
00:23:48,156 --> 00:23:50,276
Speaker 3: they were in the glider when they were actually in

395
00:23:50,316 --> 00:23:54,796
Speaker 3: the plane pulling the glider, and the overwhelming assumption was

396
00:23:54,796 --> 00:23:58,356
Speaker 3: that the storyteller changed the details of what happened because

397
00:23:58,436 --> 00:24:03,916
Speaker 3: he wanted to look better, braver, bolder. But here's my question,

398
00:24:04,716 --> 00:24:07,756
Speaker 3: why do we always have to frame memory, disagreements and

399
00:24:07,996 --> 00:24:11,276
Speaker 3: errors in terms of character. Why do we always need

400
00:24:11,316 --> 00:24:14,476
Speaker 3: a culprit, because I'm not sure Adler can be explained

401
00:24:14,516 --> 00:24:17,356
Speaker 3: the way as an egotist. There were all kinds of

402
00:24:17,436 --> 00:24:18,716
Speaker 3: ways in which he was anything.

403
00:24:18,756 --> 00:24:25,836
Speaker 5: But at what point, I know, life became somewhat complicated here.

404
00:24:26,516 --> 00:24:28,756
Speaker 3: Adler was part of a group that went to Washington

405
00:24:29,076 --> 00:24:31,716
Speaker 3: in the middle of the McCarthy era to protest the

406
00:24:31,756 --> 00:24:35,916
Speaker 3: anti communist hysteria sweeping through Hollywood. Then he got accused

407
00:24:35,956 --> 00:24:40,156
Speaker 3: of being a communist. He went bankrupt fighting McCarthyism at

408
00:24:40,156 --> 00:24:43,836
Speaker 3: the height of his career, he was blacklisted, lost everything.

409
00:24:44,316 --> 00:24:50,676
Speaker 2: Then Roy Cohn, who was McCarthy's advisor, offered me a deal.

410
00:24:51,196 --> 00:24:55,596
Speaker 2: He had arranged that I would give testimony secretly before

411
00:24:55,636 --> 00:24:59,436
Speaker 2: the McCarthy Internal Security Committee, and he said, what we're

412
00:24:59,436 --> 00:25:01,236
Speaker 2: going to do is, I've prepared a list of names

413
00:25:01,276 --> 00:25:04,556
Speaker 2: for you. All of these people have been named by others.

414
00:25:04,876 --> 00:25:07,716
Speaker 2: They've already been named, We know their names. Who just

415
00:25:07,796 --> 00:25:10,716
Speaker 2: read their names off, and you're not hurting anybody.

416
00:25:11,396 --> 00:25:14,396
Speaker 3: In the middle of a national hysteria, one that would

417
00:25:14,436 --> 00:25:17,956
Speaker 3: end up ruining countless lives, Adler is offered a get

418
00:25:17,956 --> 00:25:20,596
Speaker 3: out of jail free card. He won't take it.

419
00:25:21,036 --> 00:25:22,796
Speaker 2: Nice of mister con What the hell's the sense of

420
00:25:22,876 --> 00:25:25,316
Speaker 2: me reading a list of names that you already know.

421
00:25:26,116 --> 00:25:28,036
Speaker 2: So he looked out of the window and he spread

422
00:25:28,036 --> 00:25:30,556
Speaker 2: his hands and he says, go fight City Hall. We're

423
00:25:30,596 --> 00:25:32,516
Speaker 2: all trying to get you back to work later and

424
00:25:32,556 --> 00:25:36,756
Speaker 2: you're not helping us. So that was that. I wouldn't

425
00:25:36,756 --> 00:25:38,756
Speaker 2: have given the name of an enemy. I just am

426
00:25:38,836 --> 00:25:42,116
Speaker 2: against the principle of the informer. I always have been.

427
00:25:42,276 --> 00:25:43,436
Speaker 2: I still am.

428
00:25:44,116 --> 00:25:46,996
Speaker 3: Adler ended up moving his whole family to London. He

429
00:25:47,076 --> 00:25:49,796
Speaker 3: gave up their house in Beverly Hills, the beach house

430
00:25:49,836 --> 00:25:53,716
Speaker 3: in Malibu. The tennis matches with the Stars started over.

431
00:25:54,756 --> 00:25:57,996
Speaker 3: Chris White says his father liked Adler not just because

432
00:25:58,036 --> 00:26:01,916
Speaker 3: of his musical genius or his hilarious stories, but because

433
00:26:01,956 --> 00:26:05,356
Speaker 3: he had and I'm quoting a major set of balls.

434
00:26:06,276 --> 00:26:07,596
Speaker 3: Here's Peter Adler again.

435
00:26:08,156 --> 00:26:11,236
Speaker 7: He would really chake huge risks on principle. He was

436
00:26:11,276 --> 00:26:15,756
Speaker 7: a very, very principled man, and I remember him doing it,

437
00:26:15,796 --> 00:26:18,796
Speaker 7: which terrified me. He did a public reading of the

438
00:26:18,996 --> 00:26:22,796
Speaker 7: Satanic Verses with various other artists at the time that

439
00:26:22,876 --> 00:26:26,796
Speaker 7: Salman Rushdie had de fatois put on him, you know,

440
00:26:26,916 --> 00:26:31,476
Speaker 7: simply to protest against this kind of nonsense. And he

441
00:26:31,716 --> 00:26:33,396
Speaker 7: would do a lot of things like that, and he

442
00:26:34,156 --> 00:26:36,516
Speaker 7: wasn't doing it for publicity. He's doing it because he

443
00:26:36,556 --> 00:26:37,556
Speaker 7: really cared about it.

444
00:26:41,036 --> 00:26:43,876
Speaker 3: So maybe when the young John Whites asks Larry Adler

445
00:26:44,196 --> 00:26:46,156
Speaker 3: if he wants to do a ride along on that

446
00:26:46,236 --> 00:26:50,236
Speaker 3: rate of Munich, it's not a lark. Maybe he's serious,

447
00:26:51,036 --> 00:26:55,956
Speaker 3: and maybe Adler volunteered because it was important. Remember he's

448
00:26:55,996 --> 00:26:59,356
Speaker 3: a Jew in Munich, the birthplace of the Nazi Party.

449
00:27:00,316 --> 00:27:03,276
Speaker 3: If it's all a lark, then the grandmother version is funny.

450
00:27:04,036 --> 00:27:06,516
Speaker 3: It's the kind of punchline you can imagine landing well

451
00:27:06,556 --> 00:27:10,756
Speaker 3: at a Hollywood dinner party. Larry Adler, the compulsive storyteller,

452
00:27:11,116 --> 00:27:15,236
Speaker 3: wins over another crowd. But if he's serious about the raid,

453
00:27:15,836 --> 00:27:20,156
Speaker 3: then the grandmothers aren't funny. They're not a punchline. They're

454
00:27:20,156 --> 00:27:21,996
Speaker 3: a sad and awkward ending.

455
00:27:22,556 --> 00:27:25,516
Speaker 2: My story is duller. One would not never even tell

456
00:27:25,636 --> 00:27:28,636
Speaker 2: such a story, And I would tell it only because

457
00:27:29,036 --> 00:27:30,156
Speaker 2: that is my memory of it.

458
00:27:32,916 --> 00:27:38,236
Speaker 3: He's right, But then consider his companion, John Whites, would

459
00:27:38,236 --> 00:27:40,956
Speaker 3: go on to write many books, among them Friends in

460
00:27:41,036 --> 00:27:44,676
Speaker 3: High Places, a thriller with a really complicated core.

461
00:27:45,876 --> 00:27:48,516
Speaker 9: The main character was somebody who was in the auto

462
00:27:48,556 --> 00:27:50,996
Speaker 9: industry and was joining the Nazi Party in order to

463
00:27:51,036 --> 00:27:52,156
Speaker 9: get ahead in his career.

464
00:27:52,436 --> 00:27:52,916
Speaker 12: I think he.

465
00:27:54,436 --> 00:27:57,716
Speaker 9: Felt about himself that he hadn't in Jewish. Maybe there,

466
00:27:57,756 --> 00:28:03,276
Speaker 9: but for the grace of God would go his moral center.

467
00:28:04,276 --> 00:28:08,076
Speaker 3: When John Whites turned to writing serious historical biographies, his

468
00:28:08,196 --> 00:28:11,236
Speaker 3: subjects were Germans, from the same class he had come from,

469
00:28:11,676 --> 00:28:18,156
Speaker 3: wealthy cosmopolitan intellectuals who ended up serving Hitler. You don't

470
00:28:18,156 --> 00:28:20,796
Speaker 3: have to be a psychoanalyst to make sense of these stories.

471
00:28:21,636 --> 00:28:25,036
Speaker 3: There are Whites's attempt to sort through the conflict between

472
00:28:25,036 --> 00:28:28,636
Speaker 3: his love of his native Germany and his devastation about

473
00:28:28,636 --> 00:28:29,956
Speaker 3: what his Germany had done.

474
00:28:32,716 --> 00:28:35,356
Speaker 12: It's long ago, now, I know, But well, I was

475
00:28:35,436 --> 00:28:38,356
Speaker 12: young and I could wear all sorts of clothes and

476
00:28:38,436 --> 00:28:39,276
Speaker 12: make them look real.

477
00:28:39,916 --> 00:28:43,276
Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety seven, Whites went on the Charlie Rose Show.

478
00:28:44,156 --> 00:28:48,236
Speaker 3: He and Rose talked happily about White's new biography until

479
00:28:48,356 --> 00:28:51,996
Speaker 3: Rose started to ask Whites about White's own experience during

480
00:28:52,036 --> 00:28:52,356
Speaker 3: the war.

481
00:28:52,756 --> 00:28:55,916
Speaker 12: Did you go into Germany? I was in Germany when

482
00:28:56,836 --> 00:28:58,676
Speaker 12: after I want to pull this out of you. John

483
00:28:59,716 --> 00:29:00,796
Speaker 12: the journalist.

484
00:29:00,556 --> 00:29:02,876
Speaker 3: Yes, Whites doesn't want to talk about it.

485
00:29:03,196 --> 00:29:09,836
Speaker 12: I started in France during the general time of the invasion.

486
00:29:09,916 --> 00:29:14,396
Speaker 12: Plans plans, yes, the parachute into No, no, oh never.

487
00:29:14,436 --> 00:29:14,996
Speaker 1: How did you get in it?

488
00:29:15,916 --> 00:29:18,156
Speaker 12: You have many ways of being delivered, but not by

489
00:29:18,196 --> 00:29:19,556
Speaker 12: parachute because they can see you coming.

490
00:29:19,836 --> 00:29:20,476
Speaker 1: So how'd you get in?

491
00:29:21,116 --> 00:29:22,116
Speaker 12: You can go in by both.

492
00:29:22,196 --> 00:29:24,396
Speaker 1: Did you get by a small plane? How did you

493
00:29:24,436 --> 00:29:24,796
Speaker 1: get in?

494
00:29:25,916 --> 00:29:27,916
Speaker 12: Well, by by my small airplane.

495
00:29:28,036 --> 00:29:29,716
Speaker 1: Small airplane, small landed.

496
00:29:30,476 --> 00:29:34,196
Speaker 12: There were many beaches, small plane landed on the fly,

497
00:29:35,236 --> 00:29:36,396
Speaker 12: you know the dead.

498
00:29:37,076 --> 00:29:39,316
Speaker 3: This goes on and on.

499
00:29:39,836 --> 00:29:46,796
Speaker 1: How many trips did you make in and out of France? Ten?

500
00:29:48,276 --> 00:29:52,996
Speaker 12: No, no, no, lesser more, oh much, less less.

501
00:29:52,036 --> 00:29:56,836
Speaker 1: Than one, less than four being the journalist all right.

502
00:29:56,956 --> 00:29:59,356
Speaker 3: Finally Rose just gets exasperated.

503
00:29:59,596 --> 00:30:03,796
Speaker 1: Tell me why you're so at this late stage? What

504
00:30:03,916 --> 00:30:06,916
Speaker 1: is the what is the code that keeps you from

505
00:30:06,996 --> 00:30:07,996
Speaker 1: being more forthcoming?

506
00:30:08,076 --> 00:30:08,276
Speaker 6: Well?

507
00:30:08,756 --> 00:30:13,956
Speaker 12: General Donovan issued a MEMORIZLEL. Donovan, Yes, our boss, head

508
00:30:13,996 --> 00:30:14,996
Speaker 12: of a lesson, which.

509
00:30:14,796 --> 00:30:15,836
Speaker 1: Said, for as.

510
00:30:15,716 --> 00:30:18,916
Speaker 12: Long as there are people alive. I spoke to one

511
00:30:19,796 --> 00:30:23,356
Speaker 12: a day before yesterday on the phone, an eighty nine

512
00:30:23,396 --> 00:30:28,476
Speaker 12: year old ex colonel of panzas of Armored Forces Knight

513
00:30:28,636 --> 00:30:32,116
Speaker 12: crosswearer who was a resistance officer. As long as there are

514
00:30:32,076 --> 00:30:37,676
Speaker 12: people alive, you'd be amazed that how many Germans, stupid

515
00:30:37,676 --> 00:30:43,676
Speaker 12: ones would still be angry at somebody who brought some

516
00:30:43,756 --> 00:30:44,676
Speaker 12: form of resistance.

517
00:30:46,396 --> 00:30:49,796
Speaker 3: This is nineteen ninety seven, the war has been over

518
00:30:50,116 --> 00:30:53,476
Speaker 3: for more than half a century, and Whites refuses to

519
00:30:53,516 --> 00:30:56,516
Speaker 3: give anything more than the barest details of his experience

520
00:30:56,916 --> 00:31:00,236
Speaker 3: because of a memo written by his former boss, who,

521
00:31:00,236 --> 00:31:04,676
Speaker 3: by the way, has been dead for decades. Whites and

522
00:31:04,716 --> 00:31:08,596
Speaker 3: Adler are principled men. It's just that their principles take

523
00:31:08,636 --> 00:31:15,036
Speaker 3: different on matters of emotional significance. One man shrouds his

524
00:31:15,116 --> 00:31:18,036
Speaker 3: memories in a blanket of chatter and whimsy. The other

525
00:31:18,236 --> 00:31:23,036
Speaker 3: falls silent and retreats. When we encounter conflicts and memory,

526
00:31:23,196 --> 00:31:25,756
Speaker 3: we want to label one party as a liar. We

527
00:31:25,836 --> 00:31:29,236
Speaker 3: want to make a judgment. This strategy is authentic. This

528
00:31:29,316 --> 00:31:33,436
Speaker 3: strategy is dubious. Adler is the egotistical one, Whites is

529
00:31:33,476 --> 00:31:37,436
Speaker 3: the evasive one. But why why can't we just accept

530
00:31:37,636 --> 00:31:39,876
Speaker 3: that all of us deal with the uncertainty of our

531
00:31:39,916 --> 00:31:46,236
Speaker 3: experiences in different ways. Memory does not reveal character. That's

532
00:31:46,276 --> 00:31:53,516
Speaker 3: our mistake. In the early nineteen nineties, John Whites talked

533
00:31:53,516 --> 00:31:56,596
Speaker 3: to a historian named Perry Biddiscombe, who was working on

534
00:31:56,636 --> 00:32:00,516
Speaker 3: a book about the werewolf movement. Biddiscomb found White's name

535
00:32:00,516 --> 00:32:03,476
Speaker 3: in the phone book and called him out of the blue.

536
00:32:03,516 --> 00:32:06,996
Speaker 3: This time, Whites told yet another version of the raid.

537
00:32:07,396 --> 00:32:11,556
Speaker 3: In this version, there was no shooting, no resistance, no

538
00:32:11,636 --> 00:32:15,436
Speaker 3: one died. The members of Werewolf were all punks, too

539
00:32:15,476 --> 00:32:18,876
Speaker 3: young to have fought in the war, full of false bravado.

540
00:32:19,036 --> 00:32:22,796
Speaker 3: Whites and his team of Allied soldiers surrounded the housing

541
00:32:22,876 --> 00:32:26,396
Speaker 3: complex where the Werewolf lived and arrested them. Then, and

542
00:32:26,476 --> 00:32:30,556
Speaker 3: I'm quoting now from Bidiscombe's notes, the scene was invaded

543
00:32:30,636 --> 00:32:35,076
Speaker 3: by forlorn mothers and grandmothers, each insisting that her lad

544
00:32:35,556 --> 00:32:38,276
Speaker 3: was really a good boy and could not possibly be

545
00:32:38,316 --> 00:32:44,916
Speaker 3: mixed up in this werewolf nastiness. Do you see what

546
00:32:45,036 --> 00:32:49,116
Speaker 3: Whites did? He took his version and combined it with

547
00:32:49,236 --> 00:32:53,716
Speaker 3: Larry Adler's version. There were arrests, and they were grandmothers.

548
00:32:54,076 --> 00:32:56,636
Speaker 3: I've no idea whether it was conscious or not, but

549
00:32:56,676 --> 00:32:59,836
Speaker 3: at the end of his life, Whites decided that friendship

550
00:32:59,996 --> 00:33:03,796
Speaker 3: was more important than memory. He decided not to be

551
00:33:03,876 --> 00:33:10,156
Speaker 3: a memory fundamentalist Larry Adler, for his heart, gave his

552
00:33:10,236 --> 00:33:13,076
Speaker 3: last concert in May of two thousand and one at

553
00:33:13,076 --> 00:33:22,476
Speaker 3: the Royal Albert Hall. It was Prince Philip's eightieth birthday

554
00:33:22,476 --> 00:33:25,836
Speaker 3: celebration and the Duke wanted his old friend to play

555
00:33:25,836 --> 00:33:33,596
Speaker 3: for him. Adler was near the end. His son Peter

556
00:33:33,716 --> 00:33:34,636
Speaker 3: knew he wasn't well.

557
00:33:35,596 --> 00:33:39,916
Speaker 7: Now he was in hospital, and he, much to my horror,

558
00:33:40,876 --> 00:33:43,876
Speaker 7: had himself checked out and he was wheeled onto the

559
00:33:43,916 --> 00:33:46,396
Speaker 7: stage at the Royal Albert Hole by a nurse in

560
00:33:46,396 --> 00:33:47,036
Speaker 7: a wheelchair.

561
00:33:48,596 --> 00:33:51,956
Speaker 3: If the past is hazy and uncertain, then all you

562
00:33:52,076 --> 00:33:56,156
Speaker 3: have is a present. That's what propelled Larry Adler to

563
00:33:56,236 --> 00:33:58,956
Speaker 3: seek his fortune on Broadway as a kid, to give

564
00:33:58,996 --> 00:34:02,316
Speaker 3: the harmonica. It's due to risk it all fighting McCarthy

565
00:34:02,556 --> 00:34:04,756
Speaker 3: to leave Ingrid Bergman in the early morning hours to

566
00:34:04,796 --> 00:34:07,796
Speaker 3: go round up some Nazis. Even at the very end

567
00:34:07,836 --> 00:34:10,756
Speaker 3: of his life. He wasn't going to stay in the hospital,

568
00:34:10,876 --> 00:34:20,156
Speaker 3: was he. He privileged experiences over memories, And.

569
00:34:20,156 --> 00:34:24,436
Speaker 7: He played the harmonica from the wheelchair and blew every

570
00:34:24,476 --> 00:34:27,436
Speaker 7: other ushist off the stage, and he was wheeled off

571
00:34:27,476 --> 00:34:30,516
Speaker 7: to a standing ovation and he was looking straight into Cameron.

572
00:34:30,596 --> 00:34:32,996
Speaker 7: I'm sure at me going, you do not tell me

573
00:34:33,076 --> 00:34:35,596
Speaker 7: what to do and died a few days later.

574
00:34:37,356 --> 00:34:42,676
Speaker 3: I checked he actually died two and a half months later. Somewhere.

575
00:34:43,276 --> 00:34:56,956
Speaker 3: Larry Adler is laughing. Revisionist History is a Panoply production.

576
00:34:57,836 --> 00:35:01,636
Speaker 3: The senior producer is Mia Lobel, with Jacob Smith and

577
00:35:01,716 --> 00:35:06,436
Speaker 3: Camille Baptista. Our editor is Julia Barton. Flann Williams is

578
00:35:06,436 --> 00:35:10,396
Speaker 3: our engineer. Fact checking by Beth Johnson. Original music by

579
00:35:10,476 --> 00:35:14,556
Speaker 3: Luis Kerra. Special thanks to Andy Bowers and Jacob Weisberg.

580
00:35:15,476 --> 00:35:24,436
Speaker 3: I'm Malcolm Gladwell.

581
00:35:24,596 --> 00:35:29,676
Speaker 2: I tell a story about getting to these to Israel.

582
00:35:29,836 --> 00:35:33,836
Speaker 2: Just after the Sixth Day War. Special service officer met

583
00:35:33,916 --> 00:35:36,516
Speaker 2: me at the airport. I even remember his name, Major Zaffreer,

584
00:35:37,396 --> 00:35:40,036
Speaker 2: and he told me that an Israeli soldier had written

585
00:35:40,036 --> 00:35:43,956
Speaker 2: the song char milshaff So I learned it was damn

586
00:35:44,036 --> 00:35:47,836
Speaker 2: good tune. I played at first at Larish in the

587
00:35:47,876 --> 00:35:51,316
Speaker 2: Sinai and there were about two hundred tangs, about two

588
00:35:51,356 --> 00:35:53,956
Speaker 2: thousand sols. General Rabin, who was then Chief of Staff,

589
00:35:53,996 --> 00:35:57,076
Speaker 2: he was there. I played and the audience went mad.

590
00:35:57,596 --> 00:35:59,596
Speaker 2: The opplause went on and on. I played it again.

591
00:36:00,076 --> 00:36:03,196
Speaker 2: It made me play it six times, and I then said,

592
00:36:03,236 --> 00:36:06,196
Speaker 2: my friends, I haven't got the vocabulary to describe the

593
00:36:06,236 --> 00:36:09,476
Speaker 2: emotional experience of this moment. I'll never forge get it.

594
00:36:09,716 --> 00:36:11,676
Speaker 2: But there are other artists who have come down to

595
00:36:11,756 --> 00:36:14,396
Speaker 2: the Sinai. They're waiting to entertain you. I don't hold

596
00:36:14,476 --> 00:36:17,156
Speaker 2: up the show. Please don't ask me to play Charmel

597
00:36:17,236 --> 00:36:20,836
Speaker 2: Shak again. And it Israeli soldier calls out, You'll play

598
00:36:20,876 --> 00:36:24,076
Speaker 2: it till you get it right now. Isn't that a

599
00:36:24,076 --> 00:36:26,756
Speaker 2: great story? But of course it's not true. It's an

600
00:36:26,756 --> 00:36:30,676
Speaker 2: opera story. This the tenor singing Pollianchi. Now all the

601
00:36:30,676 --> 00:36:33,916
Speaker 2: details that I told you, Major Solfrier, the Charmel shaf

602
00:36:34,276 --> 00:36:36,916
Speaker 2: playing it at l reach, that's all true. But believe me,

603
00:36:36,996 --> 00:36:40,756
Speaker 2: I only played it once. However, twisting that opera story

604
00:36:40,796 --> 00:36:43,636
Speaker 2: around makes it a much better story. I agree,