Speaker 1: I'm waiting outside the Stumptown Coffee Roasters at the Poorland
Speaker 1: International Airport, and I looked like a douche bag because
Speaker 1: I'm wearing sweatpants and my yellow knit hat, and I
Speaker 1: have headphones over them, and I have a recorder, and
Speaker 1: I look like a guy making a podcast in America
Speaker 1: in two thousand twenty one. Ever since I started this project,
Speaker 1: I have been wanting to go to a very special place,
Speaker 1: that den of dreams, that wilderness of wonder, that magical,
Speaker 1: massive majesty in this maze of mystery. Scottsdale, Arizona. This
Speaker 1: will be your armchair vacation and mine to the Valley
Speaker 1: of the Sun. Before I started this project, I thought Scottsdale,
Speaker 1: Arizona was the Southwest mecca for retirees, and I was right.
Speaker 1: But it's also the place where spent Lana Allelujeva's life
Speaker 1: would change forever. How exactly she wound up there and
Speaker 1: why she would end up staying has always mystified me,
Speaker 1: no matter how many times I read her books or
Speaker 1: poured over her letters. So now I'm traveling in her
Speaker 1: footsteps to find out exactly what happened. All right, you
Speaker 1: go first, time for everything. I'm deak Atrocer and this
Speaker 1: is spent Lana. Spent Lana. You wake up in the morning,
Speaker 1: you live your day, and then you do it tomorrow
Speaker 1: and over and over again and over again and act one.
Speaker 1: We are waiting for you here now, before we all
Speaker 1: go with set Lana to Arizona, I need to tell
Speaker 1: you one small detail. I want you to remember that
Speaker 1: spet Lana's grandmother's name was Olga. Everybody got that, Okay,
Speaker 1: put in your pocket. Forget about it. We'll come back
Speaker 1: to it later. When we last left set Lana, she
Speaker 1: was in Princeton, New Jersey, reeling from a broken relationship
Speaker 1: and a KGB smear campaign, but also celebrating the release
Speaker 1: of her second book, called Only One Year. The book
Speaker 1: is a small triumph, written, translated, and published on spet
Speaker 1: Lana's terms. It was very happy settled in Princeton. I
Speaker 1: just published two books. I had friends, I had I
Speaker 1: was planning next book. I was planning to go to
Speaker 1: Hawaii in summer. I had my own I was the
Speaker 1: first time in my life doing what I wanted. She
Speaker 1: still misses her children and doesn't know when or if
Speaker 1: she'll be able to see them. But Slana is trying
Speaker 1: her best to focus on the future. She gets a
Speaker 1: driver's license, she buys her dream home. Alone in the
Speaker 1: quiet of her beloved house, she spends her days chit
Speaker 1: chatting with locals and answering letters from people all over
Speaker 1: the country. Regular every day Americans can't stop telling her
Speaker 1: how much they admire her and connect with her, sharing
Speaker 1: deep thoughts about their own families and histories and feelings.
Speaker 1: Here she is that fall. Well, I got several marriage
Speaker 1: proposals and companied by photographs. Yes, yes, accompanied by photographs
Speaker 1: and the have you ended it? Replied to any of these, Oh, well,
Speaker 1: I did not reply because I felt I feel just
Speaker 1: funny about the idea. But then there's one letter that
Speaker 1: stands out among the rest. It's on trifolded stationary with
Speaker 1: oversized cursive handwriting from a woman on the other side
Speaker 1: of the country who has read her book and found
Speaker 1: it extraordinarily powerful. We found a copy of this letter
Speaker 1: at Columbia University's Avery Archives. The woman, by the way,
Speaker 1: is from Montenegro, so she sounds like a vampire. Dear
Speaker 1: sweet Land, I have been thinking of you ever since
Speaker 1: I read your beautiful book only one year. It is
Speaker 1: hard to believe that after so much sorrow you have
Speaker 1: emerged pure in spirit. But I suppose those fearful experiences
Speaker 1: one suffers strengthens the soul, no matter how high the price.
Speaker 1: The letter, one of a series of letters, phone calls
Speaker 1: and telegrams, contains a cordial invitation to a place fet
Speaker 1: Lana has never heard of called tally Essen West, and
Speaker 1: its signed who is love Old Gavanna Lloyd Right, old
Speaker 1: Gavanna Lloyd Wright, as in Frank Lloyd Wright, the great
Speaker 1: American architect. But who is this old Gavanna and what
Speaker 1: is tally Essen West? Set Lana has heard of? Neither?
Speaker 1: Olga Vanna, As that Lana comes to find is the
Speaker 1: third wife of Frank Lloyd Wright, married to him for
Speaker 1: more than thirty years until his death in nineteen fifty nine.
Speaker 1: Here's what Olga Vanna actually sounds like. Talking to a
Speaker 1: TV news interviewer in nineteen sixty six, I was born
Speaker 1: in city in Montenegro. I was trying to identify her
Speaker 1: slight accident, but she said she wants to lose, which
Speaker 1: I find very charming. My accent was pretty good, right,
Speaker 1: Olga Vanna Lloyd Wright is adamant that's that Lana Alla Lujeva,
Speaker 1: Joseph Stalin's daughter come to Arizona for a visit. And
Speaker 1: she's not the only one here's fet Lana. Every member
Speaker 1: of the fellowship brought me a letter member a fellowship?
Speaker 1: What is this? Lord of the Rings? Was Gandalf there
Speaker 1: and Sam Wise. I tried to read the Lord of
Speaker 1: the Rings trilogy for this podcast and found nothing. Turns
Speaker 1: out it's a completely different fellowship. You're welcome. I just
Speaker 1: saved y'all a thousand pages worth of orcs. But this
Speaker 1: fellowship was founded by Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife
Speaker 1: Olga Vanna. And there's even a book about it called
Speaker 1: The Fellowship, written by Harold Zelman and Roger Friedland. My
Speaker 1: producer Adam and I tracked them down. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like Adam and I were looking we're looking into our future.
Speaker 1: We're so excited. Just you mean Old, you know, just
Speaker 1: just two other Jews who are excited about Frank Lloyd right, Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the los in the anti semi fantastic. We'll hear from
Speaker 1: how Old and Roger a lot throughout this podcast, as
Speaker 1: well as an interview they recorded with spet Lana in
Speaker 1: two thousand while writing their book how did you feel
Speaker 1: about Mrs Right? Mrs Right bombarded me. She bombarded me
Speaker 1: with letters, finally telephone calls. When are you coming? You
Speaker 1: must come, you must come here. Olga Vanna was pitching
Speaker 1: spet Lana hard. She sent press pieces and literature about
Speaker 1: her community of like minded architects and artists who lived
Speaker 1: and worked together, supporting Frank Lloyd Wright's vision during his
Speaker 1: life and carrying it on after his death. Speed Lana
Speaker 1: didn't know much about architecture, and before I started this project,
Speaker 1: I didn't really know much about architecture either, Like I
Speaker 1: know walls, doors, windows, but how and why they fit together?
Speaker 1: Twas a mystery. And Frank Lloyd Right, well, he was
Speaker 1: the only architect I knew by name, which must mean
Speaker 1: that he was pretty good. Right. The Encyclopedia Britannica says
Speaker 1: it flat out, Frank Lloyd Wright was the most abundantly
Speaker 1: creative genius of American architecture. Stet Lana was receiving literature
Speaker 1: about the wonders of Frank Lloyd Wright's universe, and I
Speaker 1: assume she was slowly but surely learning bits and pieces
Speaker 1: about Right the same way I was that his most
Speaker 1: iconic founding principle was what he called organic architecture, believing
Speaker 1: buildings should emerge from the ecosystem, both in materials and design.
Speaker 1: Right didn't like the idea of a castle on top
Speaker 1: of a hill, but thought a house should be built
Speaker 1: around its base or on its brow. It's why he
Speaker 1: named his Wisconsin home the Fellowship's headquarters, tally Yessen, which
Speaker 1: in his ancestral Welsh means shining brow. As a bald
Speaker 1: person I feel seen. Stet Lana probably also found out
Speaker 1: that Right was dead. He had died a decade earlier,
Speaker 1: and many of his apprentices and their spouses still lived together,
Speaker 1: with Old Havanna and her daughter Yavannah, spending summers at
Speaker 1: tally Essen in spring Green, Wisconsin, and winters in Scottsdale, Arizona,
Speaker 1: at Wright's desert home tally Essen West. This is lomcca
Speaker 1: of American architecture. For more than forty years, tally Essen
Speaker 1: has molded young Americans people who have gone on to
Speaker 1: change the face of the earth. What Old Gavanna was
Speaker 1: sure to impress upon stet Lana is that tally Essen
Speaker 1: was not just an architecture laboratory. It was a fully
Speaker 1: self sustained community where you studied, worked, socialized, even cooked together.
Speaker 1: But part of their life with tali Essen, students sometimes
Speaker 1: switched from gathering stones to baking schols. So what kind
Speaker 1: of misfits are those gonna be? Jared's? So in case
Speaker 1: you couldn't hear that, Jerry's making scones, that's the thing
Speaker 1: that's fent. Lana and I are learning before we even
Speaker 1: set foot in the joint that creativity in all forms
Speaker 1: was required. Fellows were not only architects and accomplished sconemakers,
Speaker 1: but painters, sculptors, dancers, musicians, and, judging by the photos, hotties.
Speaker 1: I put aside their protractors and pick axes in the
Speaker 1: evenings and dress up for dinner. But scones, pick axes
Speaker 1: and protractors cost money, and with Frank Lloyd Wright dead
Speaker 1: and buried, it was up to Olga Vanna to keep
Speaker 1: the operation alive. She was constantly fundraising and publicizing. Kali
Speaker 1: Essen sustained itself on free labor, fellowship tuition, architectural commissions
Speaker 1: and donations from wealthy benefactors. Olga Vanna had become the
Speaker 1: protector of her husband's legacy and vision. Only a few
Speaker 1: new students are admitted each year. Candidates are accepted only
Speaker 1: after Mrs Wright decides stabled all Olga Vanna was the matriarch,
Speaker 1: the queen, the CEO. Hashtag girl boss. So this is
Speaker 1: the woman that keeps beckonings fed Lana to come to
Speaker 1: the desert, and the tally Essen letters keep coming. They
Speaker 1: sent her photographs of the compound. Every member of the
Speaker 1: fellowship writes to her. One person I talked to said
Speaker 1: they even sent her a silver necklace. But it wasn't
Speaker 1: the jewelry that pushed spent Lana over the edge. It
Speaker 1: was something deeper, something richer, something profound. Dear, here's fent
Speaker 1: Lana again. Cis Lana? Something goes about my name? Clana
Speaker 1: was some kind of a mysieur is thing, you know,
Speaker 1: comes at Lana from Russia. We are my family who
Speaker 1: are from Georgia. And Mrs Right lived in Georgia and
Speaker 1: her first Atlanta was born there in the fleece. So,
Speaker 1: as Mrs Wright said, there are karmic ways. Wait, what
Speaker 1: did she just say, her first spent Lana. Mrs Wright
Speaker 1: lived in Georgia and her first Atlanta was born there
Speaker 1: in the fleece tiflis Karma another speed Lana. That's right?
Speaker 1: Or shall I say that's right with a W Not
Speaker 1: all jokes working podcasts, But here's the team. Olga Vanna
Speaker 1: had a daughter who died in a car crash some
Speaker 1: twenty five years earlier, and her name was speed Lana.
Speaker 1: And now in seventy Olga Vanna seems to believe that
Speaker 1: speed Lana, our speed Lana, might in fact be, in
Speaker 1: some weird cosmic way, a reincarnation of her dead daughter.
Speaker 1: Spent Lana. Confused, great me too, And it's about to
Speaker 1: get even confused here because Olga Vanna's name is not
Speaker 1: really old Gavanna. That's a nickname. Her first name is
Speaker 1: actually Olga. And do you remember when I told you
Speaker 1: to put spet Lana's grandmother's name in your pocket, Well
Speaker 1: it's time to fish it out. What was feed Lana's
Speaker 1: Grandmother's name Olga? So spent Lana's Grandmother's name was Olga,
Speaker 1: and Olga Vanna's daughter's name was feed Lana. There are
Speaker 1: two spet Lana's, two Olga's. Oh and wants some more
Speaker 1: bullshit with names? Well, when the first speed Lana died
Speaker 1: in that car crash. Her two year old son died
Speaker 1: with her, and you know what, His name was Daniel,
Speaker 1: and that's my name. Coincidence, not if you're gay. So
Speaker 1: there are two Olga's to speed Lana's to Daniels. And
Speaker 1: what does all of this mean. It means that an
Speaker 1: Olga Vanna's mind. Because feed Lana had a dead grandma
Speaker 1: named Olga, and because Olga Vanna had a dead daughter
Speaker 1: named spent Lana, the two were faded to meet. It
Speaker 1: was destiny. And this, this story of multiple Olga's and
Speaker 1: multiple speed Lana's, this is what set my imagination a
Speaker 1: flame when I found out about the story seven years ago.
Speaker 1: I knew from the moment I heard about all these
Speaker 1: Russian names that I had to write a play about them.
Speaker 1: I needed to know what happened when these two worlds collided.
Speaker 1: By early March, speed Lana finally accepts the invitation. She
Speaker 1: had always wanted to travel to the West Coast, so
Speaker 1: she decides she'll go to taliesin West for one week,
Speaker 1: then make her way to California and Hawaii. I had
Speaker 1: my I could buy the ticket and go wherever I wanted,
Speaker 1: So I said, all right, I'll go and meet her
Speaker 1: because she's so persistent. So finally, on March fifteenth, seventy's fed,
Speaker 1: Lana gets on a plane and makes her way to
Speaker 1: the Phoenix International Airport. She flies over the stretches of
Speaker 1: farmland of the Midwest, the grains of the planes, the rivers,
Speaker 1: and the rockies, until she touches down in the desert.
Speaker 1: She had never been to the desert before. When she
Speaker 1: emerged from the airport, the sun must have smacked her
Speaker 1: in the face, but once her eyes settled, they would
Speaker 1: have found a perky brunette about her age standing by
Speaker 1: a bright red sports car ready to take her to
Speaker 1: her destiny. In November, I decided to go to taliesin
Speaker 1: West in Scottsdale, Arizona. Myself. Here I am stepping out
Speaker 1: of the airport and into the sun. Okay, if I
Speaker 1: get a red car, that's you know, that's a sign
Speaker 1: they're booking at at it's white. It is a white
Speaker 1: Honda Odyssey. So begins my tally Essen Odyssey. In my
Speaker 1: Honda Odyssey more after the break, act two, I hope
Speaker 1: you will be my sister. Oh there's my Honda Odyssey.
Speaker 1: All right? Long, Dan, Hi, are we going to tally
Speaker 1: esen are you are you long? No? Wait, I'm the
Speaker 1: wrong person. There's two white hondas. Stead Lana's journey begins
Speaker 1: a little more glamorously. She sees her first, Yavana Lloyd
Speaker 1: Wright Olgavana's daughter. She's wearing a brightly colored short dress.
Speaker 1: She has long, curly brown hair that looks like it
Speaker 1: has been tossed by the wind, a thin frame, and
Speaker 1: an excited grin. She has plenty of makeup on lashes,
Speaker 1: an eyeliner, and then Yavanna's perfectly done eyes land on
Speaker 1: spett spent Lana. She cries loudly, maybe too loudly, and
Speaker 1: runs over to spit Lana, enveloping her in a long,
Speaker 1: maybe too long hug. This makes ft Lana slightly uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: She grew up in Soviet Russia without a mother. Long
Speaker 1: amote of hugs in public weren't exactly commonplace, but speed
Speaker 1: Lana is polite. She hugs back, and moments later, Yvanna
Speaker 1: welcomes her into her bright red sports car and begins
Speaker 1: to drive. I are you long? I went there's another
Speaker 1: white van minivan I went into. Yeah. Yavanna is loud
Speaker 1: and bossy and takes to the highway like she owns
Speaker 1: the road, zooming well passed. Whatever the speed limit is.
Speaker 1: Well spent Lana takes in the epic sky, the lad
Speaker 1: and our mountains. In the backdrop the stretches of sand
Speaker 1: Polka dotted with Seguero cacti. Vanna mentions her deceased sisters
Speaker 1: fed Laana and says to our sped Laana, I hope
Speaker 1: you will be my sister. I have to be honest.
Speaker 1: That sounds creepy to me, but maybe sped Lana felt differently.
Speaker 1: Here's Rosemary Sullivan. I would say at that moment, this
Speaker 1: is a fun adventure. And having this young woman sit
Speaker 1: beside her and say, you know you could be my sister,
Speaker 1: I don't know that you would have taken it that
Speaker 1: seriously and truly. At this moment, spent Lana is more
Speaker 1: focused on the road. Today. Route one on one is
Speaker 1: a two lane highway from Phoenix to Scottsdale, but back
Speaker 1: in it was a one way road. If another car
Speaker 1: was coming your way, good luck. As Yavannah cranks up
Speaker 1: the speed, spent Lana compulsively presses her foot down to
Speaker 1: a phantom break. Vana notices her passengers terror and nonchal.
Speaker 1: Wantley says, oh, we always speed through these spaces, and
Speaker 1: then she laughs ha ha ha, and then svet Lana
Speaker 1: laughs ha ha ha ha ha ha. They finally take
Speaker 1: the exit off of one oh one to Scottsdale. They
Speaker 1: passed suburban homes and orange groves and make the turn
Speaker 1: onto Frankloyd Right Boulevard, the dividing line between residential Scottsdale
Speaker 1: and tally Es and West. The car turns up a slow, winding,
Speaker 1: graveled path. It's probably about a mile from the boulevard,
Speaker 1: and on either side you can see the vast expanses
Speaker 1: of desert sped Lana said she felt bewitched by all
Speaker 1: of this, and I have to admit I was two. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this is it. This is tally Es and West.
Speaker 1: We're going off. We got trees on either side. We're
Speaker 1: entering private property, the Franklin Right Foundation all right. Now,
Speaker 1: we got tangles of cactus, capti and shrubs, so it
Speaker 1: looks like a movie set. Speed Lana drinks in all
Speaker 1: of the colors and fragrances of the desert spring as
Speaker 1: Ivanna drives them up the winding way. Spent, Lana catches
Speaker 1: sight of some bright red bougainvillias, a flower she first
Speaker 1: came across in India. She hadn't seen the flowers since.
Speaker 1: Was it a sign from her beloved bridges reaching out
Speaker 1: from the other side. Maybe all this talk of a
Speaker 1: reunion of souls the two Olga's, the two speed Lana's,
Speaker 1: I hope you will be my sister. Maybe set Lana
Speaker 1: is in fact about to be reunited with her mother,
Speaker 1: who had taken her own life nearly forty years before.
Speaker 1: Ivannah parks the car and the two walk through an
Speaker 1: interlocking maze of short sandstone buildings lined with wooden beams
Speaker 1: painted in Frank Lloyd Wright's signature burnt orange, a color
Speaker 1: he called Cherokee red. Remember it's not racist. If it
Speaker 1: was before Obama, this was tally Us in West. After
Speaker 1: they weave through more bushes of bougambilias, they probably emerge
Speaker 1: at the open expanse at a triangular pool. All of
Speaker 1: Scottsdale beyond them, mountains behind them, and they're like a
Speaker 1: mirage in the middle of the desert. A semicircle of
Speaker 1: men in tuxedos and women in brightly colored ball gowns
Speaker 1: flank a statuesque woman with black hair and twin streaks
Speaker 1: of white, wearing a large turquoise hat. These men and
Speaker 1: women are the architect apprentices and their spouses, all living
Speaker 1: and working together here at Tallys and West. And the
Speaker 1: woman in the center with penetrating dark eyes, along swan
Speaker 1: like neck and strong jawline. She's one of those women
Speaker 1: who only gets more beautiful with age. She sparkles, she glows.
Speaker 1: She's Olga Vanna Lloyd right and spent Lana. She was
Speaker 1: blown away. I would say, you know, very kind of
Speaker 1: timmid and shy and dressed in my very conservative clothes
Speaker 1: from New Jersey. Yes, and they were all very bright,
Speaker 1: the jeweled women. And there was Mission right herself, black
Speaker 1: hair and two quiz could this woman a monta negrin
Speaker 1: with her grandmother's name? Could this woman be spet Lana's mother.
Speaker 1: As the men in tuxedos and women in ballgowns look on,
Speaker 1: Olgavana steps towards spet Lana. In that moment, spet Lana
Speaker 1: looks for her mother in Olgavona's eyes. But before set
Speaker 1: Lana can do or say anything, Olgavona has wrapped her
Speaker 1: long taught Dancer's arms around spet Lana in a tight embrace,
Speaker 1: clutching her Olgavonna rock spet Lana, saying her name over
Speaker 1: and over again, chanting it like a spell. Spent Lana,
Speaker 1: Speed Lana, Speed Lana, speed Lana. Here spet recalling that
Speaker 1: moment to Meryl seek rest. She's called the whole thing
Speaker 1: about my name was and the gate see everybody was
Speaker 1: supposed to see me is reincarnation of another Setlanta, reincarnation
Speaker 1: of another spet Lana. You know, throughout this story will
Speaker 1: track the many cycles that spet Lana finds herself trapped
Speaker 1: in with men with work with where she lives. And
Speaker 1: if episode one was forty years and episode two is
Speaker 1: just a couple, this episode is really about a series
Speaker 1: of moments, transitional moments, transcendent moments, and this moment with
Speaker 1: fet Lana buried in the arms of another spet Lana's mother, well,
Speaker 1: this one takes the cake. She's in the middle of
Speaker 1: the desert, surrounded by dozens of architects who have all
Speaker 1: been eagerly waiting for her like she's Jesus or that
Speaker 1: pizza you order when you're a little high. And then
Speaker 1: it comes when you're very high and a motherly figure
Speaker 1: is embracing her, saying her name over and over again.
Speaker 1: Svet Lava, sveth Lava. Could it be possible that after
Speaker 1: all of her running away, she somehow finally come home
Speaker 1: more after the break? Act three sad hot selsa Guy.
Speaker 1: I am standing in the courtyard of tally Us in West.
Speaker 1: We have this incredible sunset that I can hardly believe.
Speaker 1: I mean the color, the color of like the bright
Speaker 1: pink orange clouds against the light blue sky. Overlooking the
Speaker 1: Camelback Mountains, the little lights of Scottsdale. Often a distance
Speaker 1: spelt like running towards them is a field of shrubs
Speaker 1: and cacti. It is stunning, lee beautiful. That's me at
Speaker 1: the end of my first day at taliesin West. While
Speaker 1: on tour there, I learned that a big part of
Speaker 1: the ethos of the fellowship was if you need something,
Speaker 1: you just make it yourself. The architects considered their living
Speaker 1: quarters a laboratory. The stone buildings, with their skylights and
Speaker 1: exposed beams, are candied with sculptures and ornaments, and filled
Speaker 1: with mid century modern furniture and Japanese art. You can
Speaker 1: spend hours wandering around the campus and you'll find surprises everywhere.
Speaker 1: An iron dragon jutting out in one walkway, a giant
Speaker 1: pool and another I'd live there. When I walked through
Speaker 1: tally esin West, I kept bumping my head everywhere. The
Speaker 1: walkways and entrances of any Francloyd Right home or building
Speaker 1: are always in credibly low. There are two major theories
Speaker 1: why this is so. Theory number one, Frank Lloyd Wright
Speaker 1: believed in the idea of compression and release that when
Speaker 1: you start your way into a structure, it should be dark, short, narrow,
Speaker 1: and then when you get into the main room it
Speaker 1: should expand extravagantly. The other theory as to why the
Speaker 1: ceilings were particularly low at taliesin West was because Frank
Speaker 1: Lloyd Wright was fucking short. Speed Lana isn't exactly wowed
Speaker 1: by the architecture. She thinks the houses are shallow and
Speaker 1: low and look like graves. But tally Essen is so
Speaker 1: much more than its architecture. Speed Lana is told that
Speaker 1: that night there will be a banquet held for her
Speaker 1: and her honor. Performances and parties in the evening are
Speaker 1: a regular event, so speed Lana should gussie up. Look fabulous.
Speaker 1: It's what everyone does it tally Essen. They have plenty
Speaker 1: of ball gown Speed Lana can borrow if she needs to,
Speaker 1: but Speed Lana refuses. She shows up to the extravagant
Speaker 1: dining hall in her own bulk clothes. They all like,
Speaker 1: you know, Christmas tree. And then one peculiarly tall man
Speaker 1: emerges sticking out from the rest box is cold Man.
Speaker 1: I hope outreach cold color and Leavender s. This man's
Speaker 1: name is William Wesley Peters, but everybody calls him West.
Speaker 1: West was Frank Lloyd Wright's very first apprentice at the Fellowship,
Speaker 1: having joined when he was just nineteen. He's fifty seven
Speaker 1: years old now and is the lead architect of the firm.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows them, everyone loves him. He was a very
Speaker 1: charming man, and there's no doubt about it. But he
Speaker 1: didn't h He was sad, silent, paul charming man, that's
Speaker 1: what he was. That Lana is taken by this shy,
Speaker 1: sad man. When she helps herself to the Mexican catering,
Speaker 1: he utters his first words to her. And here he
Speaker 1: spoke first time because I was putting Salza bra and
Speaker 1: he said this suce is very hot. Yeah, careful, the
Speaker 1: salsa might be hot, but this meat cute is definitely mild.
Speaker 1: But quick question. Was he very very pleasant? He was
Speaker 1: really really pleasant. Oh cool, cool, cool, that's what I thought.
Speaker 1: His face was very sad. He didn't big lives, lives,
Speaker 1: very good face. He showed no interest to me. Mrs
Speaker 1: Right was pushing kids because he looked at us, and
Speaker 1: she said, I am so glad that West answered Lana,
Speaker 1: I'm bad. Anyway, it was silence. If you couldn't hear that.
Speaker 1: What Olgamona says is I'm so glad that Wes and
Speaker 1: spent Lana finally met. It's been a long time since
Speaker 1: West sat with a woman. His own wife had died
Speaker 1: some twenty five years earlier. And can you guess who
Speaker 1: his wife was. That's right, the man that our spet
Speaker 1: Lana is sitting next to at this wild Mexican banquet
Speaker 1: held in a concrete hexagon in the middle of the desert,
Speaker 1: was married to the first spet Lana, the dead one.
Speaker 1: Anybody who looked at that because Westlana, it hits meaning
Speaker 1: for them in as so, this is a momentous meeting.
Speaker 1: West is meeting another stepas meeting a substitute. Oh, that's
Speaker 1: what she meant. All of this happens on day one.
Speaker 1: She's had this fabulous party, driven there by a woman
Speaker 1: who said is that she could be your sister, hosted
Speaker 1: by another woman who says that she could be your mother,
Speaker 1: and sitting next to a man who had been married
Speaker 1: to a woman with her name, And she's surrounded by
Speaker 1: all of these people who have devoted their lives to art.
Speaker 1: How different this must have been from Soviet Russia, where
Speaker 1: writers were regularly censored and imprisoned. It must have been weird,
Speaker 1: but it also must have been exhilarating. The next day,
Speaker 1: Olga Vanna puts West in charge of schauffeurrings fet Lana around.
Speaker 1: He drives her in his Cadillac through downtown Scottsdale. Here's
Speaker 1: Cassie again, readings that Lana's words smoothly rolling along the
Speaker 1: straight highway through the flat rocky valley, I suddenly felt
Speaker 1: security and peace near this man, something I had not
Speaker 1: experienced for a long time. I watched him with a
Speaker 1: very keen eye and found nothing I could note. It
Speaker 1: was a long, wordless trip, about twenty minutes long, but
Speaker 1: it meant a lot to me. While the Cadillac rumbles
Speaker 1: through Scottsdale speed, Lana can read into West's silence. He's
Speaker 1: holding tragedy, the loss of his own speed Lana and
Speaker 1: their baby Daniel. That sadness, that sense of loss sped.
Speaker 1: Lana isn't afraid of it, She's drawn to it. Said,
Speaker 1: Lana found herself falling in love with Less, and apparently
Speaker 1: there was an erotic attraction. Uh, and he was so
Speaker 1: so sad, so poignant. When you are attracted by someone's sadness,
Speaker 1: it's because you think you can heal them. The week
Speaker 1: rumbles by like that cadillac, flashy and jaw dropping. Every
Speaker 1: week at Taliessen was filled with any number of cocktail
Speaker 1: parties and performances. Olgavano holding court, breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Speaker 1: with her spiritual talks. There are some recordings of those talks.
Speaker 1: I've listened to them. They're slow and deliberate and maybe
Speaker 1: all over the place, but still her meditative quality makes
Speaker 1: you think you're listening to genius. Live as richly as
Speaker 1: you can provide it. You've heard no one, including yourself
Speaker 1: or Tony Robbins, and don't let yourself go too far
Speaker 1: and too deep into criticism. Then you drop into the
Speaker 1: mind and pretty soon you are pulled out or maybe
Speaker 1: a prophecy. If you do not see it and strive
Speaker 1: to go in the direction of the interior line, you'll
Speaker 1: be constantly returning and returning back to the same earth.
Speaker 1: Spe Lana doesn't know quite what to make of it all.
Speaker 1: He's drawn to this place, but maybe wary of it too.
Speaker 1: She'd fought so hard for her freedom in Princeton, but
Speaker 1: suddenly she's being pulled into a beautiful world run by
Speaker 1: an enchanting woman and charmed by a sad, hot salsa guy.
Speaker 1: It must have all felt like a dream, but something
Speaker 1: was weighing on her mind. Is this all too good
Speaker 1: to be true? Something about it? Something about it. I
Speaker 1: have to be careful. I have to be care And
Speaker 1: she's right, because guys, two weeks later, she and Wes
Speaker 1: will be married, and she will no longer be sped
Speaker 1: Lana Alla Lujeva. She will become sped Lana Peters, the
Speaker 1: same name as Wes's dead wife. On the next episode
Speaker 1: of Sped Lana. Sped Lana. Sped Lana speed Lana is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Podcasts and the documentary Group I'm
Speaker 1: Your Host Dankatrocer. The show is written and produced by
Speaker 1: me Adam Weber, Alison Joy, and Catherine Isaac. We also
Speaker 1: serve as executive producers at the documentary Group. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers Joe but Silhouettes, with production oversight by Stacy Cleeker
Speaker 1: and additional support from Tom Yellen and Gabrielle Tennenbaum. Our
Speaker 1: I Heart Team is supervising producer Casey Pegram and executive
Speaker 1: producer Maya Howard. Editing assistants from producers Christina Loranger and
Speaker 1: Joey pat Original music by Ellen Isakov. Production counsel by
Speaker 1: Slaus eck House, Dasty Haynes Locko, Clearance counsel by Ballard
Speaker 1: Spar Back checking assistance by Megan Trout, Research assistance by
Speaker 1: Sophia Derso and Emily n. Special thanks to my husband
Speaker 1: Jordan's Siegel, Rosemary Sullivan, author of the book Stalin's Daughter,
Speaker 1: and Harold Selman and Roger Friedland, authors of the book
Speaker 1: The Fellowship, who kindly granted permission to include excerpts from
Speaker 1: their taped interview with stet Lanna. Excerpts from spet Lana
Speaker 1: Alujeva's book The Faraway Music are provided by Chris Evans
Speaker 1: and performed by Cassie Greer h