Speaker 1: They say. The Irish goodbye is when you slip out unnoticed,
Speaker 1: without bidding anyone farewell, an easy exit. The Jewish goodbye, however,
Speaker 1: is when you do, in fact say farewell, but you
Speaker 1: never leave. When we've decided it's time to leave a
Speaker 1: dinner or a party or any kind of get together.
Speaker 1: My husband Jordan prefers to just call it, give a
Speaker 1: wave and walk out the door. Me when it comes
Speaker 1: to the Jewish goodbye, I'm basically a rabbi. Have I
Speaker 1: approved over time? No, I think you'd like to be
Speaker 1: in a Jewish goodbye for hours? Some say I'm out
Speaker 1: of bar mitzvah. To this very day. In March of
Speaker 1: nine seventy sped Lana Alijeva finds herself in just such
Speaker 1: a dilemma. She said goodbye, and she's ready to leave,
Speaker 1: yet somehow compelled to remain at Talias in West Well.
Speaker 1: She did have plans in San Francisco the following week.
Speaker 1: She could also see the appeal of this community of
Speaker 1: artists throwing flashy parties in the desert. Not to mention,
Speaker 1: she was falling for West Peters, the tall, sad architect
Speaker 1: with an Abraham Lincoln face. Fearing of involvement with this
Speaker 1: charning men approaching me. I told firmly to my hostess
Speaker 1: that I was delighted to be her guest, but that
Speaker 1: now I must continue further my preplaned trip. Her hostess,
Speaker 1: Olga Vanna doesn't like the sound of this. Why are
Speaker 1: you in such a hurry? But I must leave us right,
Speaker 1: I have ticket days I must leave. Why do you
Speaker 1: have to me? Oh, because I have other and but
Speaker 1: Easter is coming, Olgavannah declares, it's our biggest party of
Speaker 1: the year. The desert is blooming just for you. And
Speaker 1: then Olgavana asks slyly, by the way, I do like Chris,
Speaker 1: Olgavana is gaze is powerful, almost hypnotics. Fed Lana admits
Speaker 1: she likes West very much, but she really must be
Speaker 1: going stay for another week. Old Gavanna implores that'll yet,
Speaker 1: if I stay for another week, I'll never get out
Speaker 1: of here. She might not be a member of my tribe,
Speaker 1: but spent Lana is a practitioner of the Jewish. Goodbye
Speaker 1: in the highest regard. She says goodbye to Old Gavana,
Speaker 1: but she doesn't leave after one week. Oh no, she stays,
Speaker 1: My name is Dan Catroser and this is s fent Lana,
Speaker 1: s fent Lana. You wake up in the morning, you
Speaker 1: live your day, and then you do it tomorrow and
Speaker 1: over and over again and over again, and act one goodbye.
Speaker 1: I must be staying so through Olga Vanna's irresistible powers
Speaker 1: that Lana pushes her plans and extends her visit another
Speaker 1: week through Easter. Now, as a Jewish kid growing up
Speaker 1: in the nineties without cable, I spent my Easters watching
Speaker 1: Franco Zepharelli's six and a half hour epic Jesus of Nazareth.
Speaker 1: His disciples must have come in the night, removed the
Speaker 1: stone and taken away the body. Now that I'm older
Speaker 1: and wiser, I know that that was just a movie.
Speaker 1: That Easter is the springtime holiday where a giant rabbit
Speaker 1: lays eggs and children eat them because they are chocolate.
Speaker 1: For the folks at tally Essen, Easter wasn't over the
Speaker 1: top blowout bash. Easter was like all the other celebrations
Speaker 1: at tali Essen, a monumental fair. That's Leslie Lockhart Bisharatte.
Speaker 1: Her parents were both Fellowship apprentices. She grew up at
Speaker 1: tali Essen and stayed there until she was nineteen. As
Speaker 1: you can tell, I'm getting very excited talking to you.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, is ever going to stupor no, are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? I'm like, oh my god, are you
Speaker 1: going to tell me everything? Leslie is in her seventies now,
Speaker 1: but she recounted the Easter celebration as if she were
Speaker 1: still a kid, just three ft tall, overcome by the
Speaker 1: magic of it all. You know, the festivities were just
Speaker 1: they had a childlike quality them because they had these
Speaker 1: long strings. The balloons coming out of the reflecting pools
Speaker 1: that would sore a woy up in the sky. They
Speaker 1: were held in place with boulders in the bottom of
Speaker 1: the pool. They festooned the whole Italians and West property,
Speaker 1: and then the zillions of flowers, So the whole place
Speaker 1: is decked out like a Christian fairytale wonderland. A hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty people are here to feast and to party,
Speaker 1: and the food preparations are elaborate, starting days in advance.
Speaker 1: On the menu a sweet Slavic cheese called posca, dotted
Speaker 1: with almonds and raisins. Oh and don't forget Olgavana's signature
Speaker 1: Easter bread Baba, the Baba cooling when it came out
Speaker 1: of the oven. That was like all hands on deck
Speaker 1: with pillows of thin pillow cases and towels, and you're
Speaker 1: rolling to Baba on the side cooling so it doesn't collapse,
Speaker 1: so it stays light. Each step of the food preparation
Speaker 1: was almost ceremonial. There was a two well, there were
Speaker 1: certain people at telling us and who did it every year.
Speaker 1: I found Olgavana's recipe for Baba in her autobiography. Here's
Speaker 1: my favorite step quote. Twenty boys beat Baba four at
Speaker 1: a time, and to hold the pan. Don't be too
Speaker 1: gay at first, you may regret it. End quote. I
Speaker 1: could write a follow up joke for this, but I
Speaker 1: don't have to. And then there were the Easter eggs. Oh,
Speaker 1: the Easter eggs. These architects who became little Michelangelo's, each
Speaker 1: with her own flare. Dude, I've seen these Easter eggs.
Speaker 1: They are intense, far beyond your average crayon and dip die.
Speaker 1: There are portraits of Olga Vanna and Frank Lloyd Wright
Speaker 1: wrapped around an egg, replications of paintings by Gustav Clint
Speaker 1: and Da Vinci, and writes signature geometric patterns. They're vibrant
Speaker 1: and detailed and kept the architects occupied together through much
Speaker 1: of the evening. And you know who is a freakishly
Speaker 1: good egg painter, West Sucking Peters. According to one newspaper article,
Speaker 1: West painted fourteen eggs that Sunday first beet Lana, each
Speaker 1: decorated with a medieval station of the cross hot. The
Speaker 1: whole event of Easter Sunday and the days of preparation
Speaker 1: and kinship leading up to it must have been dizzying
Speaker 1: fir spet Lana. You know when people work together or
Speaker 1: have an evening like that, there is such a strong
Speaker 1: connection you You feel this common spirit and love and
Speaker 1: reverence for the place. It was truly memorable. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to place myself in set Lana's shoes, trying to see
Speaker 1: this world through the eyes of a woman who grew
Speaker 1: up in the gray scale of the Soviet Union, And
Speaker 1: here she is in the most technical or world one
Speaker 1: could imagine. Is she not Dorothy emerging from her black
Speaker 1: and white Kansas house. Are the apprentices not Munchkin's parading
Speaker 1: her through their utopian as This is very difficult not
Speaker 1: to get charmed. It's very difficult not to get charmed.
Speaker 1: After the festivities are over, West takes her out for
Speaker 1: another dinner in Scottsdale. It had been just two weeks
Speaker 1: since ft Lana had arrived at the Phoenix International Airport
Speaker 1: and been picked up by Yavanna Lloyd Wright, who casually
Speaker 1: remarked that spent Lana could be her sister. Two weeks
Speaker 1: since Olga Vanna had embraced her by the front pool,
Speaker 1: repeating her name over and over again. Two weeks since
Speaker 1: she had first met West at a party throne in
Speaker 1: her honor, where Olga Vanna proudly said West and spent
Speaker 1: Lana are together again. She had stayed until Easter, just
Speaker 1: like Olga Vanna had asked. Now she was free to
Speaker 1: be on her merry way back to life as she
Speaker 1: left it before she stumbled into this colorful desert mirage.
Speaker 1: But something was still pulling her deeper, and it was
Speaker 1: this evening over a meal at a French restaurant. That's
Speaker 1: feed Lana says, she fully surrendered. The Jewish goodbye strikes again.
Speaker 1: Act two. I don't like people who are happy. Now,
Speaker 1: as you recall, West had already taken spent Lana on
Speaker 1: a few dates outside the walls of tally Esen in
Speaker 1: downtown Scottsdale. But on those dates, fet Lana describes West
Speaker 1: as being quiet and removed. She knew the man had
Speaker 1: stories to tell. He was frank Lloyd, writes protege after all,
Speaker 1: and had married into the family by wedding Olga Vanna's
Speaker 1: daughter the first set Lana, But West had revealed very
Speaker 1: little about his personal life thus far. This even ng
Speaker 1: is going to be different. This night, after the dizzying
Speaker 1: affair of Easter, after all that world class egg painting,
Speaker 1: This night, William Wesley Peters is going to tell speed
Speaker 1: Lana his story, and it's gonna draw her to him
Speaker 1: like a moth to a flame. We went to some
Speaker 1: French place and ate and drink and said there until
Speaker 1: the place was closed. And here he talked about himself.
Speaker 1: He was full of pain. I always feel compassionate to
Speaker 1: people who have some kind of yin or misfortune or whatever,
Speaker 1: and he says those kinds of said. I don't like
Speaker 1: people who are happy, go lucky, rich, successful me either.
Speaker 1: I only like sad, unlucky, poor people myself. Now, look,
Speaker 1: I wasn't there at the French restaurant when st Lana
Speaker 1: fell for West. In fact, when I went to Scottsdale,
Speaker 1: no such restaurant existed, but I found a record of one.
Speaker 1: Shey Louis, a French joint that clows down in the eighties.
Speaker 1: It's very possible that this was the room where it happened.
Speaker 1: So let's go there now to say Louis, And remember,
Speaker 1: I'm a playwright. I can't help a dramatize. According to
Speaker 1: an old listing in the Arizona Republic, reservations are recommended,
Speaker 1: but I bet West doesn't need one. He's west wearer
Speaker 1: of tan suits and Lapis Lazuli bolo ties. He'd be
Speaker 1: greeted at the door by the restaurant's owner, Louis himself,
Speaker 1: who sports his usual black tuxedo and has the debonair
Speaker 1: appearance of a retired James Bond. Louis would snap his
Speaker 1: fingers and a waiter would instantly escort Mr Peters and
Speaker 1: his unusual guest, a red haired woman with a wide
Speaker 1: smile to match her wide eyes, to a table in
Speaker 1: the back. Oh what a relief it probably is for
Speaker 1: both of them to take their seats and study the
Speaker 1: menu while some quiet French jazz drums the background. After
Speaker 1: a long day of celebrating and mingling with hundreds of
Speaker 1: people in the bright desert sun, finally it's just the
Speaker 1: two of them in a dimly lit lounge spent. Lana's
Speaker 1: focus is entirely on West, and while we obviously don't
Speaker 1: have an audio recording of that date, we do have
Speaker 1: West recounting his life story in an oral history interview
Speaker 1: from June Nanto. I heard about the Frenchy rights starting
Speaker 1: in a smooth dispensation where he had students are apprentices,
Speaker 1: as we were called. God, He's so born to listen
Speaker 1: to West's story of becoming Frank Lloyd Wright's first apprentice
Speaker 1: is romantic. The m I t engineering genius who dropped
Speaker 1: out of school, hitched a ride to tally Essen and
Speaker 1: walked up the path to meet the master. And then
Speaker 1: I saw him Mr. Right and he's certainly impressive, and
Speaker 1: right away I decided that I wasn't going to go
Speaker 1: back to and I said I was the first person
Speaker 1: through a roll and sign up actually paid. West was
Speaker 1: running towards the dream to study architecture at the foot
Speaker 1: of a five ft eight giant. It was an exciting mission.
Speaker 1: Everyone coming to gather to build something larger than life.
Speaker 1: I wonder what West hold spet Lana that night. He
Speaker 1: may have smiled as he finished his glass of wine
Speaker 1: moved over to a Martini while he recounted the early
Speaker 1: days of building tally Esen and the fellowship. We went
Speaker 1: up in the hills and cut down big trees and
Speaker 1: reports or sandstone for the hillside buildings, and limestone for
Speaker 1: callias and proper everybody thravan entusiast. It was while hauling
Speaker 1: firewood that West gets to know Olga Vans fifteen year
Speaker 1: old daughter that Anna Hinzenberg Right, the first set Lana,
Speaker 1: who franklod Wright had adopted as his own. It didn't
Speaker 1: take long for them to fall hopelessly in love. At first,
Speaker 1: it was a forbidden love. When the Rights found out,
Speaker 1: they were furious betrayed. But when they cooled down and
Speaker 1: spet Lana was old enough to marry, she and West
Speaker 1: tied the knot. He became more than just the first apprentice.
Speaker 1: He became family. You know. He was, of course the
Speaker 1: Sudden Law, which gave him special status, but he also
Speaker 1: was widely recognized by I think frankloud Right and everybody
Speaker 1: at tally es and as very smart and very technically competent.
Speaker 1: That's Harold Zelman again, co author of The Fellowship with
Speaker 1: Roger Friedland. West was the engineer behind some of Wright's
Speaker 1: greatest accomplishments, Falling Water, the crazy columns at Johnson Wax,
Speaker 1: the Goggenheim Museum. But it wasn't just engineering proficiency that
Speaker 1: endeared him to the other fellows. He was a punster,
Speaker 1: he was. He was a practical joker. West was also
Speaker 1: extremely generous, always buying gifts for the apprentices, staying up
Speaker 1: with them all night while they were drafting. They looked
Speaker 1: up to him. Here's Roger. He liked speed, he liked daring.
Speaker 1: It was he who insisted upon getting this World War
Speaker 1: two jeep that had a very narrow wheelbase and hence
Speaker 1: made it dangerous to go too fast on a curve.
Speaker 1: And that's what killed her. That's what killed sped Lana.
Speaker 1: I imagine it's late at She Louis now after midnight.
Speaker 1: The lights are at their lowest, the other diners all gone,
Speaker 1: the olives waiting in the tiniest of pools in the
Speaker 1: third or fifth martini, and West is finally telling the
Speaker 1: awful tragic store of the death of his young wife
Speaker 1: nearly twenty four years ago. Spent Lana Hinsenburg right Peters
Speaker 1: was a young mother with two small kids in the
Speaker 1: back seat, pregnant with her third. While West was busy
Speaker 1: working at tally Essen, speed Lana was driving in the jeep,
Speaker 1: the one West had chosen with the narrow wheelbase that
Speaker 1: made it dangerous to go fast on a curve. She
Speaker 1: got distracted the storm wheel. Turned out she was coming
Speaker 1: over a bridge she had the car flipped over into
Speaker 1: a stream stet. Lana was twenty nine, Daniel was just two.
Speaker 1: The only survivor of the crash was West and speed
Speaker 1: Lana's four year old son, brand Doc. He climbed out
Speaker 1: of the muddy stream and ran a mile to tally Essen.
Speaker 1: By the time West found out, it was far too
Speaker 1: late to do anything. I can't imagine what it was
Speaker 1: like to hang up the phone from a client and
Speaker 1: look down at your four year old son, covered in mud,
Speaker 1: alone giving you the news that the rest of your
Speaker 1: family is dead. West took the guilt on himself off
Speaker 1: for the death of feed Lannach. Seems quite clear. I
Speaker 1: think you've always carried that guilt with him. I imagine
Speaker 1: sped Lana's eyes glazing over in tears at West, this
Speaker 1: stoic man's man, who had said so little in the
Speaker 1: previous two weeks, and now here they are, just the
Speaker 1: two of them, and he's bearing his soul, handing it
Speaker 1: over to her like it was a spoonful of creme brulet.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they ordered this was special Speed. Lana knew
Speaker 1: in her heart that it was something special about her,
Speaker 1: about the two of them, about the alchemy of two
Speaker 1: grieving souls which can make a bond impenetrable. I felt that,
Speaker 1: Oh my God, finally, finally, I would love to stay
Speaker 1: with this man, in on him, end of my days.
Speaker 1: The only problem is spent Lana doesn't know if West
Speaker 1: loves her back. It's like a middle school crush in
Speaker 1: your forties, and just like any crush in preteen, she
Speaker 1: needs someone to mediate the budding romance. West. Do you
Speaker 1: like spent Lana? Check? Yes, maybe no, Enter one matchmaking
Speaker 1: mother in law. According to an unpublished chapter of Olga
Speaker 1: Vanna's autobiography, when spent Lana returns to tally Us in
Speaker 1: that evening, she is overcome. She runs to Olga Vanna's
Speaker 1: private chamber, puts her head in Olgavonna's lap and exclaims, mother,
Speaker 1: I'm afraid I'm falling in love with West. That's right.
Speaker 1: Spent Lana called a woman she just met two weeks
Speaker 1: ago mother and called her mother because everybody did, yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody did, Okay. In nine seventy, Hello, Dolly was playing
Speaker 1: at seventh and finally You're on Broadway. And if I
Speaker 1: had to say I would one have asked Olga Vanna,
Speaker 1: as Dolly Levi, musical theater's greatest matchmaker, give me Carol Channing.
Speaker 1: I have always been a woman who arranges things like lunching, parties,
Speaker 1: poke a games and loud. And what's amazing is spent
Speaker 1: Lana lets her play the part. Olga Vanna has been
Speaker 1: auditioning ever since that first night, when she declared emphatically
Speaker 1: over dinner that West and sped Lana were together again,
Speaker 1: repeating their names like a chant. Sped Lana had bristled,
Speaker 1: but now spent Lana is love struck and vulnerable, throwing
Speaker 1: herself at Olgavanna's feet, desperate for some motherly advice, and
Speaker 1: old Gavanna, who has matched so many other Tali esen
Speaker 1: couples throughout the years, is ready and rare to go.
Speaker 1: Olga Vanna pushes prods pozzoings West all throughout tali Essen
Speaker 1: at the mess hall, at his drafting table in the garden.
Speaker 1: She cups her hands together dramatically and says, West, you
Speaker 1: have a jewel offered to you right there for the taking.
Speaker 1: Imagine I will die in much more peace knowing that
Speaker 1: you are no longer alone. Mother in Law's m a right.
Speaker 1: You know, I used to really not like olives, but
Speaker 1: I wanted to be someone who likes olives, so I
Speaker 1: forced myself to start eating olives, and now I like olives.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is spent Lana is an olive. And
Speaker 1: after a few days of twisting, stirring, mixing, and meddling,
Speaker 1: Olga Vonna tells fed Lana, perhaps you should be a
Speaker 1: bit bolder. And it's this gas in the tank, this
Speaker 1: magic bullet in the gun, this pickle from the deli
Speaker 1: that pushes fed Lana over the edge to tell West
Speaker 1: she wants to be married the next time they go out.
Speaker 1: Sped Lana brings up the idea of marriage, and after
Speaker 1: a mere twenty days of courtship, West says those magic words.
Speaker 1: Every little girl dreams of hearing their prince charming deliver,
Speaker 1: he says, and I quote sure pressure with the tombs.
Speaker 1: Matrimony comes when I got my hand and Dan heday more.
Speaker 1: After the break Act three, here comes the bride. Tuesday,
Speaker 1: April seven, three weeks after Selana's arrival, the day of
Speaker 1: her wedding to West. Girl moves fast in the grand
Speaker 1: sunlit living room of tom Yes and West, with its
Speaker 1: sloped wood and glass ceiling, stone walls, and burnt orange cushions.
Speaker 1: People gather. Fancy people are there. Even fancier people were invited.
Speaker 1: I found the invites while going through the archives that
Speaker 1: Tally Essen. I'm just going through her everything for her wedding.
Speaker 1: This is just insane. I wish that you could come on,
Speaker 1: my love, Mrs Dwight Eisenhower, Mr Sterling Rockefeller, Miss Georgia O'Keefe.
Speaker 1: I lost a paper clip. I should not be an archivest.
Speaker 1: Most of the guests are members of the Fellowship, but
Speaker 1: we've also got a Quaker minister, a reporter for the
Speaker 1: Arizona Republic, and spent Lana's lone honored guest, her lawyer
Speaker 1: Olga Vana's records of the wedding are meticulous and comprehensive.
Speaker 1: There was the detailed day of itinerary, replete with which
Speaker 1: architect apprentices would be assigned to park cars or serve refreshments.
Speaker 1: Svet Lana and West wedding reception underlined and capitalized. Setting
Speaker 1: up since at terrace, the tables, chairs and flowers, living room,
Speaker 1: decorating you Vanna introducing the guest to Mrs Wright, set
Speaker 1: Lana and West. Oh my god, all the fellowships will
Speaker 1: be host that's oh my god, Ladies, powder room, Cornelia
Speaker 1: and Eloi's men's room, Tony and Stephens. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: Oh to be a fly on the duty. In those bathrooms.
Speaker 1: The place is decked out in florals, Shye Louis, caters,
Speaker 1: the or d'oeuvres, while a huge wedding cake, baked and
Speaker 1: decorated with sweet peas by the fellows sits in the
Speaker 1: kitchen with the rest of the wedding spread. They've prepared
Speaker 1: a pirogue, hamburger pie, yum and cabbage work, and at
Speaker 1: the center of it all is s ft Lana, beaming
Speaker 1: like a young ride in a white knee length dress.
Speaker 1: She just happened to pack in Princeton, and West, looking
Speaker 1: dapper in a black tuxedo and bow tie. Drawn nearly
Speaker 1: to tears of joy, Spent repeats her vows, faltering slightly,
Speaker 1: holding West's hands tightly. In the presence of these friends,
Speaker 1: I promised to be a faithful and loving wife. West
Speaker 1: kisses his bride, and then so do all seventy five
Speaker 1: of the guests. Wait a minute. Seventy five people kissed
Speaker 1: the bride after the wedding. That's a lot of people
Speaker 1: kissing in such a short time. Spent Lana had a
Speaker 1: new home, she had a new husband, new friends. She
Speaker 1: even had a mother and a sister. She hadn't had
Speaker 1: a mother in thirty eight years. How did she feel well?
Speaker 1: The Arizona Republic ends their wedding coverage with this line
Speaker 1: from sped Lana, and then she says, could you add
Speaker 1: somewhere how happy I feel? She has all Now, weddings
Speaker 1: usually take months to prepare, but this one takes place
Speaker 1: one week after. West says, sure, why the rush will speed?
Speaker 1: Lana really wants to be married on April seven. She
Speaker 1: believes the number seven holds some mystical powers in her life.
Speaker 1: The phone number for the taxi and Delhi that drove
Speaker 1: her to the US embassy seven five dash seven seven
Speaker 1: seven the dates she flew from India to Rome March seventh,
Speaker 1: sixty seven. Not to be captain obvious, but there is
Speaker 1: a seventh day of every month. Hell, just a few
Speaker 1: months down the road, speed Lana could be married on
Speaker 1: seven seven seventy. But like Tom Petty one sang, the
Speaker 1: waiting is the hardest part. So maybe it had something
Speaker 1: to do with a lucky number. But maybe speed. Lana
Speaker 1: also thought West would back out if she didn't move
Speaker 1: at lightning speed. Or maybe this was just her being
Speaker 1: characteristically impulsive. Remember, she hadn't originally planned to defect from Russia.
Speaker 1: It was just that the pieces were in place for
Speaker 1: a defection to happen when she first came here. She
Speaker 1: clearly hadn't planned on marrying West, but the pieces were
Speaker 1: in place, and she went for it hard. Oldavanna was
Speaker 1: quick to oblige, and from what I can tell, she
Speaker 1: used it as an opportunity for publicity to spread the
Speaker 1: good word of tally Essen's offerings to potential students, donors,
Speaker 1: and clients. Among all the international press spent Lana hadn't
Speaker 1: wanted reporters at her wedding, so Olga Vanna invited just
Speaker 1: one local newspaper. But Olga Vanna also planned a three
Speaker 1: hundred person blowout and major press conference later that week.
Speaker 1: You win some, you lose some. Three weeks ago, the
Speaker 1: two mended tali Essen West, the Frank Lloyd Wright Architectural Foundation,
Speaker 1: Neurophoenix Tuesday Night and almost absolute secrecy. They were mayor
Speaker 1: read Today the new Mrs Peters talked about the private ceremony.
Speaker 1: In the photos and videos from that week spent, Lana
Speaker 1: is glowing, not a weary mother of two grown adults,
Speaker 1: but a young, vibrant, beautiful woman with her whole life
Speaker 1: in front of her. There's a thirteen minute newsreel that
Speaker 1: I've watched over and over and over again. I had
Speaker 1: to share it with my husband, Jordan's. The first few
Speaker 1: minutes of the video are silent images of tally Essen West,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, sped Lana and West appear.
Speaker 1: He's a footaller than her. He looks like a SNL
Speaker 1: version of like a sexy Nixon. They wouldn't go with
Speaker 1: sexy a Saturday Nixon. The audio starts When they reach
Speaker 1: one of the sitting rooms, a tally essen, West in
Speaker 1: his gray wolf suit sped Lana in a sleeveless white dress.
Speaker 1: The to sit next to each other. And it's kind
Speaker 1: of weird. Well, less is man spreading, but spot Lana
Speaker 1: is I think as small as she could possibly be,
Speaker 1: closed off and West is looking probably at the chair
Speaker 1: which is for that looks like it's a furiture. Yeah, spit.
Speaker 1: Lana's eyes bulge wide as she sits listening to West talk.
Speaker 1: Reporters are asking him about the courtship, the romance, how
Speaker 1: quick it was, how he proposed. She sits there waiting
Speaker 1: for him to reveal something to divulge his true passionate feelings.
Speaker 1: Mrs Peters, can you tell me something about your courtship? Oh,
Speaker 1: it's very difficult question. Maybe, ah, well, maybe you would
Speaker 1: further ask my husband. West just sort of sits there, stammering,
Speaker 1: unsure of any answers, unsure of anything. Is he board annoyed?
Speaker 1: Is his brains somewhere else? Entirely? Wow, we are not
Speaker 1: here at us in the West. Are mutual feeling developed
Speaker 1: very fast? And this is the result of that. That's
Speaker 1: about the details. And then there's the most painful part
Speaker 1: of the entire interview. Is it possible, Mr Peters, that
Speaker 1: you would reenact for those of us who are not
Speaker 1: here the kissing of the bride as the end of
Speaker 1: the best conference. The interviewer has just asked the newlyweds
Speaker 1: to kiss for the camera, and West rejects it in
Speaker 1: the most formal and stoic way possible. Well, I don't
Speaker 1: think that's I don't really think that's necessarily certainly no
Speaker 1: reason to object to. So if I think that's a
Speaker 1: rather private and personal matter, yes, it's a very romantic
Speaker 1: thing with the American people. That's why I asked that.
Speaker 1: West stairs blankly, and then the camera hands over to
Speaker 1: spet Lana. She's looking down off to the side. West
Speaker 1: maybe super uncomfortable on camera, a sexy sad Nixon, but
Speaker 1: spent Lana seems to be a bit out of it too.
Speaker 1: Is it because after three weeks of peaceful anonymity, the
Speaker 1: last thing she wants is global media attention? Or is
Speaker 1: it because Oldavana had just revealed to her that West
Speaker 1: had a problem. On the eve she called me and
Speaker 1: she told me West his tremendous did she cannot fade.
Speaker 1: He's facing bankruptcy. West, in all his generosity, was a spendthrift.
Speaker 1: He compulsively bought expensive clothes and jewelry and gifts, not
Speaker 1: just for himself but for everyone. When I went to
Speaker 1: tally Esen, some of his former colleagues told me about
Speaker 1: how he'd leave whole coat racks of expensive, fashionable attire
Speaker 1: for the other apprentices to just take. West was underwater
Speaker 1: and spent Lana was the new lifeguard. Here she is
Speaker 1: with Harold and Roger recount unting her talk with Olga Vanna.
Speaker 1: I was kind of surprised because he looked wealthy. They
Speaker 1: all looked wealthy. The whole place looked prosperous, and he
Speaker 1: was chief architect. And how come he is in this well?
Speaker 1: I didn't ask questions, but she says he has this problem.
Speaker 1: Spent Lana had never had to worry about a financial
Speaker 1: burden before marrying someone in communist Soviet Russia. Just meant
Speaker 1: you split your potatoes. I think, I don't know, I'm
Speaker 1: not that smart. Spent Lana doesn't really know or care
Speaker 1: to understand the details of her wealth, but she knows
Speaker 1: she has money, and she's a woman in love. What
Speaker 1: better way to prove her love and devotion than with
Speaker 1: a grand gesture of money. I said, oh, yes, Mrs Right,
Speaker 1: of course, of course it's now our death. You know
Speaker 1: it's our death. Of course Will will pay it all
Speaker 1: bog design and she was pleased. Then we have my
Speaker 1: last hypothesis. Spent Lana's awkness in that wedding news reel
Speaker 1: stems from the fact that Olga Vanna was introducing her
Speaker 1: to guests and reporters, not as a national bestselling author,
Speaker 1: not as the new wife of tali Essen's chief architect,
Speaker 1: not even as Joseph Stalin's daughter. She proclaimed, loud and proud,
Speaker 1: this is my daughter, sped Lana. I knew there was
Speaker 1: something deeply wrong in the identification with another woman who
Speaker 1: died long ago, but it was too hate to think
Speaker 1: or doubt. Sped Lana had a new husband in West,
Speaker 1: a new mother in Oldavana, a new sister in Yavannah,
Speaker 1: a whole new tali Essen family. But three weeks in,
Speaker 1: how well could she really know any of these people?
Speaker 1: Who exactly is Wes Peters, Who exactly is Olga Vona
Speaker 1: Lloyd Wright? And why would Roger have this to say
Speaker 1: about them? Had powers. There's no question about its psychological powers,
Speaker 1: and she figured out how to control him and to
Speaker 1: break him on the next episode of steed Lana. Stet Lana.
Speaker 1: Stet Lana. Stet Lana is a production of iHeart Podcasts
Speaker 1: and the documentary group I'm Your Host Dan Controlser. The
Speaker 1: show was written and produced by me Adam Webber, Alison Joy,
Speaker 1: and Catherine Isaac. We also serve as executive producers at
Speaker 1: the documentary group. Our executive producer is Joe Bazilhouett's with
Speaker 1: production oversight by Stacy Cleeger An additional support from Tom
Speaker 1: Yellen and Gabrielle Tennenbau. Our I Heart Team is supervising
Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegram and executive producer Maya Howard. Editing assistance
Speaker 1: from producers Christina Loranger and Joey Patt. Original music by
Speaker 1: Ella on is A cop Production counsel by Slas Eckhouse,
Speaker 1: Dasty Haynes Locko, clearance counsel by Ballard spar Back checking
Speaker 1: assistance by Megan Trout, Research assistance from Caleb Martin Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to my husband Jordan's Siegel and Roger Friedland
Speaker 1: and Harold Selman, authors of the book the Fellowship, who
Speaker 1: kindly granted permission to include excerpts from their taped interview
Speaker 1: with speed Lana. Excerpts from spet Lana Alujeva's book The Faraway.
Speaker 1: Music are performed by Cassie Greer.