WEBVTT - Star Struck 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:21.996 Pushkin Hello, Hello, Revision's History listeners. I'm excited to announce 0:00:21.996 --> 0:00:24.916 that this season I'm offering a bunch of perks from 0:00:24.956 --> 0:00:29.676 my most loyal listeners, the ones who subscribe to Pushkin Plus. 0:00:30.396 --> 0:00:33.156 For those who just can't get enough. We're giving every 0:00:33.156 --> 0:00:37.876 episode to our subscribers one week early. Plus We've created 0:00:38.036 --> 0:00:43.236 many episodes released weekly, and I'm calling them tangents. And 0:00:43.316 --> 0:00:48.796 of course you'll never hear any ads. Subscribe to Pushkin 0:00:48.876 --> 0:00:52.676 Plus on the Revisionist History Show page in Apple Podcasts, 0:00:53.196 --> 0:00:59.116 or at pushkin dot FM. One summer night in nineteen 0:00:59.236 --> 0:01:02.916 forty nine, Margaret Mitchell and her husband John Marsh go 0:01:02.996 --> 0:01:08.836 out to dinner. It's August Atlanta, hot, humid. They walk 0:01:08.916 --> 0:01:12.316 to a restaurant on Peachtree Street in Midtown, not far 0:01:12.356 --> 0:01:13.116 from their apartment. 0:01:15.116 --> 0:01:17.356 They were going out for the evening and they were 0:01:17.396 --> 0:01:20.876 going to go to to see The Canterbury Tales, a 0:01:20.916 --> 0:01:25.396 movie at the Atlanta Art Theater, which was located at 0:01:25.396 --> 0:01:27.756 the corner of Peachtree and Thirteenth Street. 0:01:28.676 --> 0:01:31.196 So I'm standing in front of the side of the 0:01:31.196 --> 0:01:35.516 theater with Michael Rose, executive vice president of the Atlanta 0:01:35.596 --> 0:01:36.196 History Center. 0:01:36.916 --> 0:01:39.916 And so they had gone to the Woman's Club prior 0:01:39.956 --> 0:01:43.916 to going to the movie and just cutting across the 0:01:44.156 --> 0:01:47.956 So she was so yeah, So they simply came out 0:01:48.036 --> 0:01:50.516 of the Woman's Club and we're going to cross the street. 0:01:51.516 --> 0:01:55.796 Margaret Mitchell was at that point America's reigning literary celebrity, 0:01:56.676 --> 0:01:59.276 author of Gone with the Wind, one of the best 0:01:59.276 --> 0:02:04.316 selling American novels ever. In Atlanta, she was beloved a 0:02:04.356 --> 0:02:07.156 little pixie of a woman who stood for everything White 0:02:07.196 --> 0:02:12.556 Southerners of that generation want to stand for beauty, wit, nostalgia. 0:02:13.036 --> 0:02:18.116 People in Atlanta called her are Peggy Mitchell and her 0:02:18.196 --> 0:02:22.196 husband leave the Atlanta Women's Club cross Peachtree mid Block 0:02:22.516 --> 0:02:25.436 and as they do, an off duty taxi driver named 0:02:25.476 --> 0:02:29.316 Hugh Gravit comes barreling around the bend. His car is 0:02:29.356 --> 0:02:30.836 heading right for the couple. 0:02:35.556 --> 0:02:39.356 They were maybe about halfway across. That's when they see 0:02:39.356 --> 0:02:42.596 the car. He heads one direction, she heads the other door. 0:02:43.436 --> 0:02:46.116 But it's kind of like the driver I think saw 0:02:46.196 --> 0:02:49.796 him first. So Veer's in the other direction, which is 0:02:49.916 --> 0:02:51.596 right at her right. 0:02:52.796 --> 0:02:56.196 So Gravit is speeding. He's going at least fifty miles 0:02:56.196 --> 0:02:58.956 an hour down a curving two lane street in the 0:02:59.036 --> 0:03:01.876 middle of a crowded city. If the driver's going fifty 0:03:01.956 --> 0:03:05.476 miles an hour in a car from that era, of 0:03:05.516 --> 0:03:07.916 fifty miles an hour is like going seventy today, it's 0:03:07.956 --> 0:03:14.356 like it's nuts. Gravit hits Mitchell drags her several yards 0:03:14.356 --> 0:03:17.556 along the road. She's taken to Grady Hospital, where she 0:03:17.636 --> 0:03:21.596 lies in a coma. The nation is in shock. President 0:03:21.596 --> 0:03:24.756 Harry Truman calls down to Atlanta and asks to be 0:03:24.876 --> 0:03:28.916 updated on her status. Five days after the accident, she 0:03:29.076 --> 0:03:36.636 dies August sixteenth, nineteen forty nine. My name is Malcolm Gladwell. 0:03:36.796 --> 0:03:40.676 You're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about things overlooked 0:03:40.876 --> 0:03:46.956 and misunderstood. This season we're talking about experiments, magic wand experiments, 0:03:47.276 --> 0:03:52.276 natural experiments, formal experiments, And in this episode, I want 0:03:52.316 --> 0:04:00.356 to offer up a thought experiment. Margaret Mitchell died in 0:04:00.356 --> 0:04:03.116 a car accident, but I want you to consider an 0:04:03.276 --> 0:04:06.996 alternate version of events, a version where we would never 0:04:07.036 --> 0:04:20.516 have called what happened to her accident. Margaret Mitchell started 0:04:20.516 --> 0:04:23.516 out as a journalist, living in a first floor apartment 0:04:23.756 --> 0:04:27.316 in midtown Atlanta with her husband John marsh. 0:04:27.316 --> 0:04:30.716 It's where Margaret ended up writing most of Gone. 0:04:30.516 --> 0:04:34.676 With the wends, Jessica van Landide of the Historic Oakland Foundation, 0:04:35.036 --> 0:04:36.036 is showing us around. 0:04:36.316 --> 0:04:41.516 She's working and she's writing, and she reaggravates an ankle injury, 0:04:41.516 --> 0:04:43.956 and she's pretty much what we would consider bed written. 0:04:44.036 --> 0:04:44.156 Right. 0:04:44.236 --> 0:04:49.476 She's staying at home and recovering, and the story goes. 0:04:49.556 --> 0:04:51.996 She read through all of the books in the Atlanta library. 0:04:52.116 --> 0:04:56.196 She just kept reading through, and John said, as he's 0:04:56.236 --> 0:04:59.516 bringing these books home one day, he says, you've read 0:04:59.516 --> 0:05:01.636 all the books there are, why don't you write your own? 0:05:01.996 --> 0:05:04.876 And so he brings home a Remington typewriter. She sets 0:05:04.956 --> 0:05:08.956 up kind of a little writing desk and she starts 0:05:10.116 --> 0:05:10.596 the book. 0:05:11.356 --> 0:05:13.916 Then one day she attends a lunch for a visiting 0:05:14.036 --> 0:05:17.756 editor from New York, from the McMillan Publishing House. He's 0:05:17.756 --> 0:05:19.876 come to Atlanta on a scouting trip. 0:05:20.476 --> 0:05:22.676 Somebody invites her to kind of come along to the 0:05:22.796 --> 0:05:26.396 luncheon and they are all kind of offering their books, 0:05:26.436 --> 0:05:29.036 and it was a little bit of a snide remark 0:05:29.156 --> 0:05:33.636 made about her, you know, something along the lines of, oh, Margaret, 0:05:33.636 --> 0:05:35.116 I don't know why you're here. You don't have anything 0:05:35.116 --> 0:05:40.156 to give them. Anyway, she you know, that probably did 0:05:40.196 --> 0:05:42.076 for her what it might do for any of us 0:05:42.876 --> 0:05:46.276 is the scout leaves and she runs home, and she 0:05:46.276 --> 0:05:49.076 starts gathering up all of her manuscript. 0:05:49.596 --> 0:05:51.996 Mitchell takes her draft of Gone with the Wind over 0:05:52.036 --> 0:05:54.516 to the Scout's hotel so he can bring it back 0:05:54.556 --> 0:05:57.156 with him to New York. There are so many pages 0:05:57.436 --> 0:05:59.796 he has to buy another suitcase to carry them all. 0:06:00.276 --> 0:06:04.036 As a writer, one question has been obsessing me. Did 0:06:04.076 --> 0:06:08.956 she have copies when she if her house burns down, 0:06:08.996 --> 0:06:10.116 does she lose her book? 0:06:11.076 --> 0:06:13.996 Yes, yeah, she gives, she gives. 0:06:14.036 --> 0:06:17.036 Does she give her only copy to the guy from McMillan, Yes, 0:06:17.276 --> 0:06:20.236 Oh my god, this is caused me so much anxiety 0:06:21.076 --> 0:06:21.316 and the. 0:06:21.276 --> 0:06:23.836 Story gives gets on the train and loves it immediately. 0:06:24.876 --> 0:06:27.556 At that point, she kind of realized that what she 0:06:27.596 --> 0:06:30.916 had done and was like, oh no, I can I 0:06:30.956 --> 0:06:33.716 have it back? And he's, you know, too late. He wanted, 0:06:33.916 --> 0:06:35.396 he wanted the story. 0:06:36.036 --> 0:06:40.276 Mitchell's manuscript survives and becomes an instant bestseller. A sweeping 0:06:40.356 --> 0:06:44.716 Gothic historical bodice ripper about a Southern beauty, Scarlett O'Hara, 0:06:44.996 --> 0:06:47.916 her travails to the Civil War, her epic love affair 0:06:48.156 --> 0:06:51.836 with a dashing rep Butler. The book wins the Politzer Prize. 0:06:52.636 --> 0:06:55.156 By the way, if you want to know how Southerners 0:06:55.476 --> 0:06:58.356 really felt about black people, you should read Gone with 0:06:58.356 --> 0:07:01.836 the Wind. It's all there. The book gets snapped up 0:07:01.836 --> 0:07:05.596 by Hollywood, Clark Gable and Vivian Lee, two giant stars 0:07:05.636 --> 0:07:08.276 in the leading roles, and the result is, to this 0:07:08.396 --> 0:07:12.076 day the biggest grossing movie of all time, bigger than 0:07:12.116 --> 0:07:16.196 Star Wars, including what, for generations of moviegoers is the 0:07:16.236 --> 0:07:18.396 most memorable of Hollywood lines. 0:07:19.756 --> 0:07:24.716 You go whees, I go watch that do frankly might hear? 0:07:24.756 --> 0:07:25.996 I don't give a damn. 0:07:30.356 --> 0:07:33.556 The last words RTT Butler says to Scarlett O'Hara as 0:07:33.596 --> 0:07:37.916 he prepares to leave her and Atlanta forever. The film 0:07:37.996 --> 0:07:42.276 is a sensation, and when it opens in Atlanta pandemonium. 0:07:42.876 --> 0:07:47.396 Three hundred thousand people lined Peachtree Street to watch the 0:07:47.436 --> 0:07:51.716 motorcade come in from the Candler Airfield carrying the stars 0:07:51.836 --> 0:07:54.596 Clark Gable, Vivian Lee, Olivia de Havilin. 0:07:54.956 --> 0:07:58.716 Gary Palmertz, who wrote Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn, A 0:07:58.756 --> 0:08:01.396 Wonderful History of Atlanta counts. The Gone with the Win 0:08:01.556 --> 0:08:04.556 movie premiere in Atlanta in nineteen thirty nine as one 0:08:04.556 --> 0:08:06.916 of the signature moments in the city's history. 0:08:07.676 --> 0:08:11.876 You know, Mitchell came from an old Atlanta family. Her 0:08:11.876 --> 0:08:16.356 two grandfathers had fought for the Confederacy. This was all 0:08:16.436 --> 0:08:19.036 in her, the history of Atlanta, the history of the South. 0:08:20.236 --> 0:08:23.236 After the showing, all the stars took turns saying a 0:08:23.236 --> 0:08:26.836 few words into a live microphone to be broadcast far 0:08:26.876 --> 0:08:31.516 and wide, and then Atlanta's own Margaret Mitchell took the stage, 0:08:31.876 --> 0:08:34.236 standing up and speaking to America. 0:08:34.796 --> 0:08:36.476 Ah thee alike. 0:08:36.556 --> 0:08:39.076 It's felt a very great thing for Georgia. 0:08:38.676 --> 0:08:40.316 And the South to see our. 0:08:40.196 --> 0:08:43.596 Old confederates to come back to us. I felt that 0:08:43.676 --> 0:08:46.796 way on this week, and I would factly given the 0:08:46.836 --> 0:08:47.956 rev Yale. 0:08:47.676 --> 0:08:48.316 And nine. 0:08:50.436 --> 0:08:55.636 Ten years past. Her fame only grows until one August night, 0:08:55.996 --> 0:09:00.236 while crossing Peachtree Street with her husband, Margaret Mitchell is 0:09:00.276 --> 0:09:03.916 struck by a car driven by Hugh Gravitt, who is 0:09:04.036 --> 0:09:08.116 speeding and who it turns out, had spent the afternoon 0:09:08.396 --> 0:09:14.276 getting trunk. One of the iron laws of celebrity is 0:09:14.276 --> 0:09:17.436 that what happens to the famous matters more than what 0:09:17.516 --> 0:09:23.196 happens to the rest of us. Fame magnifies impact A 0:09:23.236 --> 0:09:25.996 classic example would be what happened back in nineteen eighty 0:09:25.996 --> 0:09:28.996 five when the Hollywood star Rock Hudson announced that he 0:09:28.996 --> 0:09:32.276 had AIDS. It was a turning point in the public's 0:09:32.316 --> 0:09:35.956 attitude about the disease. AIDS up to that point was 0:09:35.996 --> 0:09:40.236 something that people ignored, or made tasteless jokes about, or 0:09:40.276 --> 0:09:41.276 looked away in horror. 0:09:41.676 --> 0:09:44.156 Word of Rock Hudson's death, of course, spread very quickly 0:09:44.196 --> 0:09:47.516 today through the Hollywood community. Paul Dandridge of our System. 0:09:47.236 --> 0:09:51.356 Hudson's death changed all that Hollywood stars rallied to the cause. 0:09:51.756 --> 0:09:55.236 Congress passed a bill allocating hundreds of millions of dollars 0:09:55.276 --> 0:09:56.116 to AIDS research. 0:09:56.316 --> 0:09:58.636 The word, of course from mister Hudson's people, is that 0:09:58.676 --> 0:10:00.956 he does not want flowers. He would rather see the 0:10:00.996 --> 0:10:03.716 donation center, the American Federation for AIDS Research. That was 0:10:03.756 --> 0:10:05.236 the organization that he helped out. 0:10:05.636 --> 0:10:08.956 That wouldn't have happened if Hudson was a minor character actor. 0:10:09.236 --> 0:10:11.476 He was a professional, He was a gentleman, He was 0:10:11.516 --> 0:10:13.716 a kind man. The things being said by many people. 0:10:14.516 --> 0:10:17.396 Margaret Mitchell in her day was a hundred times more 0:10:17.436 --> 0:10:20.356 famous than Rock Hudson was in nineteen eighty five, she 0:10:20.476 --> 0:10:23.676 was America's darling and she's hit by a drunk driver 0:10:24.036 --> 0:10:28.676 while crossing the street. Now you would think, wouldn't you, 0:10:29.156 --> 0:10:31.636 that the death of the most famous writer in America 0:10:31.956 --> 0:10:34.436 at the hands of someone who'd been drinking beer all 0:10:34.476 --> 0:10:39.316 afternoon would change public attitudes towards drunk driving. But it doesn't, 0:10:40.316 --> 0:10:55.516 and that puzzle deserves its own what if experiment. In 0:10:55.636 --> 0:11:00.076 nineteen thirty seven, the legendary Hollywood mogul David O. Selznik 0:11:00.556 --> 0:11:06.956 released A Star Is Born. I'm almost certain Margaret Mitchell 0:11:06.996 --> 0:11:10.676 saw it. Everybody did. It was a big hit. David O. 0:11:10.796 --> 0:11:13.076 Selznik would go on to be the producer who brought 0:11:13.116 --> 0:11:15.396 Gom with the Win to the big screen. But there 0:11:15.476 --> 0:11:17.836 is no other connection between Margaret Mitchell and A Star 0:11:17.956 --> 0:11:22.476 is Born? Except what if there was? What if one 0:11:22.476 --> 0:11:26.916 of those stories bled into another? That's the thought experiment. 0:11:30.356 --> 0:11:31.876 You may have seen the version of A Star is 0:11:31.916 --> 0:11:35.956 Born made in twenty eighteen starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, 0:11:36.156 --> 0:11:40.436 which was a massive critical and commercial success. In it 0:11:40.796 --> 0:11:44.196 hard capean It's so hard. 0:11:44.396 --> 0:11:47.796 Core the mean land. 0:11:47.836 --> 0:11:48.236 See you. 0:11:50.156 --> 0:11:50.996 He's just read then? 0:11:50.996 --> 0:11:54.236 Now, Yeah, it's pretty good. 0:11:56.596 --> 0:11:58.876 That version of A Star is Born was actually the 0:11:58.876 --> 0:12:02.436 movie's fourth go round. A version was made in nineteen 0:12:02.476 --> 0:12:07.356 seventy six with Chris Christofferson and Barbara Streisand and before that, 0:12:07.756 --> 0:12:10.796 Judy Garland and James may starred in a nineteen fifty 0:12:10.836 --> 0:12:15.836 four remake. All the versions follow the same basic plot. 0:12:16.516 --> 0:12:19.556 A young actress from some distant corner of the country 0:12:19.756 --> 0:12:23.636 comes to Hollywood in search, of course, a fame and fortune. 0:12:24.076 --> 0:12:26.516 She happens to catch the eye of a big star 0:12:26.636 --> 0:12:29.436 named Norman may He gets her cast in one of 0:12:29.436 --> 0:12:33.276 his movies. She changes her name to Vicky Lester becomes 0:12:33.316 --> 0:12:38.356 a huge sensation. It's Cinderella, only with a twist. As 0:12:38.356 --> 0:12:44.196 the startup rises, Norman Mayine falls. Here's the nineteen thirty 0:12:44.236 --> 0:12:48.396 seven version with Frederick Marsh as Norman Mayine. Does Becky 0:12:48.476 --> 0:12:49.156 Lester live here? 0:12:49.236 --> 0:12:51.676 Yes, I got a package for him. I'll signed for it. 0:12:51.756 --> 0:12:52.276 So who are you? 0:12:53.876 --> 0:12:54.756 I'm her husband? 0:12:54.876 --> 0:12:57.436 Oh sure, I'm right here, mister. 0:12:57.316 --> 0:13:02.556 Lester, mister Lester, Oh my god. In Hollywood slang, the 0:13:02.676 --> 0:13:06.116 husband of a star actress is called a handbag. Norman 0:13:06.196 --> 0:13:12.596 Mayne becomes a handbag. When Norman Mane is at his lowest, 0:13:12.836 --> 0:13:15.836 Vicki offers to sacrifice her own career in order to 0:13:15.876 --> 0:13:19.916 save his. When Norman realizes that, he swims out into 0:13:19.916 --> 0:13:23.916 the Malibu surf and takes his own life. A Star 0:13:24.036 --> 0:13:26.956 Is Born, as I Said, was produced by David o' Salznick. 0:13:27.436 --> 0:13:31.836 Salznick was a whirlwind, a brilliant talker, a legendary litharia. 0:13:33.316 --> 0:13:36.236 He smoked forty five packs of cigarettes a day, takes 0:13:36.276 --> 0:13:39.676 amphetamines by the fistful gambols away his salary at the 0:13:39.676 --> 0:13:43.516 Clover Club in Hollywood, writes mannic endless memos to his 0:13:43.596 --> 0:13:47.036 underlings at three in the morning. Starting in the nineteen thirties, 0:13:47.476 --> 0:13:50.836 Salznick had one of the greatest runs in Hollywood history, 0:13:51.236 --> 0:13:55.156 won two Best Picture Oscars, does Alfred Hitchcock's first and 0:13:55.236 --> 0:14:00.156 second American movies, Rebecca and Spellbound, and of course Margaret 0:14:00.156 --> 0:14:04.236 Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. But back in nineteen thirty seven, 0:14:04.596 --> 0:14:07.276 he was preoccupied with A Star Is Born. 0:14:07.956 --> 0:14:11.996 My notion was to tell in terms of a rising star, 0:14:12.156 --> 0:14:16.356 in order to have the Cinderella element with their path 0:14:16.476 --> 0:14:20.516 crossing that of a falling star, to get the tragedy 0:14:20.596 --> 0:14:23.396 of the of the X Star. 0:14:24.556 --> 0:14:27.956 This is an interview with Salznick from the nineteen fifties. 0:14:28.036 --> 0:14:31.876 And we created this more or less as we went along. 0:14:31.996 --> 0:14:37.556 We started without anything more than than a vague idea 0:14:37.596 --> 0:14:40.316 of where we were going, and it was really a 0:14:40.356 --> 0:14:44.596 relatively easy script to write. I can say this that 0:14:46.876 --> 0:14:49.676 ninety five percent of the dialogue in that picture was 0:14:49.756 --> 0:14:52.956 actually straight out of life and was straight reportage, so 0:14:53.036 --> 0:14:53.476 to speak. 0:14:54.356 --> 0:14:56.916 A Star Is Born is a movie on one level 0:14:57.076 --> 0:15:01.396 about alcohol. Maybe that's too reductive, but the whole plot 0:15:01.556 --> 0:15:04.876 hinges on the fact that the star character, Norman Maine, 0:15:04.996 --> 0:15:08.636 cannot control his drinking Salesnick is rumored to have based 0:15:08.676 --> 0:15:12.236 Norman May on the comedian Frank Faye, who was notorious 0:15:12.236 --> 0:15:16.036 in Hollywood as a miserable drunk, but Selznick could have 0:15:16.196 --> 0:15:18.636 just as easily based the character on his own brother, 0:15:19.236 --> 0:15:22.436 Myron Selznick, one of the biggest agents in Hollywood and 0:15:22.516 --> 0:15:26.556 a huge alcoholic. Or maybe the bits about drinking, which 0:15:26.596 --> 0:15:29.076 are easily the best parts of the movie, are as 0:15:29.156 --> 0:15:31.436 good as they are because one of the screenwriters who 0:15:31.436 --> 0:15:34.756 worked on the script was Dorothy Parker, the famous wit 0:15:35.116 --> 0:15:38.076 and New Yorker writer who later drank herself to death. 0:15:38.796 --> 0:15:40.756 Or maybe they were the work of Parker's co writer 0:15:40.836 --> 0:15:44.356 and husband Alan Campbell, who would later die of a 0:15:44.396 --> 0:15:48.356 drug overdose. There were no shortage of addiction case studies 0:15:48.436 --> 0:15:52.876 in Hollywood in those years, so in a Star is born. 0:15:53.196 --> 0:15:56.676 Norman Maine marries Vicki, and as her career soars, his 0:15:56.796 --> 0:16:00.636 drinking gets worse. When Vicki wins an oscar, he crashes 0:16:00.676 --> 0:16:03.756 the stage. I mean, can you imagine an angry husband 0:16:03.796 --> 0:16:05.276 crashing the stage at the Oscars? 0:16:05.756 --> 0:16:05.956 Now? 0:16:05.996 --> 0:16:09.316 I want to make a speech, gentlemen of the Academy 0:16:09.116 --> 0:16:13.396 and fellow suckers. I got one of those ones for 0:16:13.436 --> 0:16:16.036 a best performance. They don't mean a thing. People get 0:16:16.076 --> 0:16:19.076 him every year. What I want is a special award, 0:16:19.556 --> 0:16:21.316 something nobody else can get. 0:16:21.916 --> 0:16:26.876 After that performance, Norman Mayne checks into a sanatorium, cleans 0:16:26.956 --> 0:16:30.316 himself up. Then he goes to the racetrack, orders a 0:16:30.356 --> 0:16:34.676 ginger ale, and runs into his old publicist Libby, who 0:16:34.716 --> 0:16:35.636 taunts him. 0:16:35.916 --> 0:16:37.676 I don't feel sorry for you. 0:16:37.116 --> 0:16:39.556 You've fixed yourself nice and comfortable. 0:16:39.676 --> 0:16:42.116 You can live off your wife. Now she'll buy your 0:16:42.236 --> 0:16:44.556 drinks and put up with you, even though nobody else will. 0:16:45.276 --> 0:16:48.596 Norman takes a swing at Libby, a glancing blow. Libby 0:16:48.796 --> 0:16:53.036 swings back Norman's on the floor, humiliated for you. I'm 0:16:53.116 --> 0:16:54.756 Norman may Well, that's not my pall. 0:16:54.916 --> 0:16:56.316 I don't bother to toasts him out. 0:16:56.636 --> 0:16:59.276 He's harmless, all add mister Levy, if you'll go let 0:16:59.356 --> 0:17:01.236 him go what you eat to We can't fight any 0:17:01.316 --> 0:17:02.196 better than he can act. 0:17:02.596 --> 0:17:07.236 Norman shaken, brushes himself off, picks up his hat, walks 0:17:07.236 --> 0:17:10.076 painfully over to the bar, and falls off the wagon. 0:17:10.476 --> 0:17:16.676 Give me a Scotch double. Leave the bottle here. 0:17:17.676 --> 0:17:21.516 I'm going to read what happens next. After Norman's epic 0:17:21.716 --> 0:17:25.876 drinking pinge, we see Norman's cars speeding along the Malabu Road. 0:17:26.356 --> 0:17:29.196 We see Norman at the wheel, very drunk and singing 0:17:29.556 --> 0:17:32.716 should be coming round the mountain in a loud voice. 0:17:32.996 --> 0:17:36.396 He comes around the curve much too fast, tires screech. 0:17:36.796 --> 0:17:39.276 He tries frantically to keep the big roadster on the 0:17:39.356 --> 0:17:42.356 right side of the road, but can't. It drifts far 0:17:42.476 --> 0:17:45.676 to the left. Another car appears on the curve, coming 0:17:45.676 --> 0:17:49.716 in the opposite direction. Norman smashes into it, bounces off, 0:17:50.036 --> 0:17:52.436 weaves down the road a little way and comes to 0:17:52.516 --> 0:17:56.036 a stop. The other car pitches off the bank and 0:17:56.196 --> 0:17:59.036 rolls to the edge of the water. And bursts into flames. 0:18:00.876 --> 0:18:03.116 We see Norman come weaving up the road from his 0:18:03.156 --> 0:18:05.636 wrecked car to the edge of the bank. A thick 0:18:05.916 --> 0:18:08.516 stream of blood is running down the side of his face. 0:18:09.196 --> 0:18:13.036 The fire illuminates his face brightly as he stands staring 0:18:13.076 --> 0:18:17.156 down at the wreck. A look of sick horror comes 0:18:17.196 --> 0:18:23.596 over him. Dorothy Parker and her husband wrote that scene, 0:18:24.076 --> 0:18:28.436 and in nineteen thirty seven it would have stunned American audiences. 0:18:28.756 --> 0:18:31.596 Automobiles were really on your generation old at that point. 0:18:32.116 --> 0:18:35.996 There wasn't yet a moral vocabulary around what happened when 0:18:36.036 --> 0:18:42.276 an impaired driver killed someone with their car. People in 0:18:42.356 --> 0:18:46.316 nineteen thirty seven didn't talk about drunk driving. Prohibition had 0:18:46.356 --> 0:18:49.956 just ended four years earlier, and attitudes towards drinking had 0:18:49.996 --> 0:18:53.676 swung hard in the opposite direction. Judges in the nineteen 0:18:53.756 --> 0:18:57.716 thirties rarely sent people to jail for drunk driving. Prosecutors 0:18:57.956 --> 0:19:01.356 rarely filed charges. The police officer who caught you drunk 0:19:01.436 --> 0:19:03.996 driving knew that the likelihood of anything happening was so 0:19:04.116 --> 0:19:06.756 low it was pointless for him to even arrest you. 0:19:07.596 --> 0:19:11.716 In nineteen thirty nine, American Medical Association put out guidelines 0:19:11.716 --> 0:19:14.756 on drunk driving and said that the threshold for criminal 0:19:14.796 --> 0:19:19.636 conviction should be point one five. Understand that right now 0:19:19.796 --> 0:19:23.996 most American states have a threshold of half. That point 0:19:24.036 --> 0:19:27.796 one five is wasted. I'm going to guess that ninety 0:19:27.836 --> 0:19:31.196 nine percent of you listening to this podcast have never 0:19:31.516 --> 0:19:34.276 blown point one five, not even on that night in 0:19:34.356 --> 0:19:37.276 freshman year when you did one too many tequila shots 0:19:37.556 --> 0:19:40.356 and ended up with a hangover that lasted into the 0:19:40.356 --> 0:19:40.876 next week. 0:19:43.236 --> 0:19:46.676 Yeah, it was. It was just passivity throughout the system. 0:19:46.916 --> 0:19:50.156 I called up Baron Lerner, who teaches at NYU Medical School. 0:19:50.596 --> 0:19:53.716 He wrote a fascinating history of drunk driving called One 0:19:53.756 --> 0:19:54.556 for the Road. 0:19:54.876 --> 0:19:58.876 So that the old line about the judges was, you 0:19:58.956 --> 0:20:02.436 know that the judges themselves drank and drove, so they 0:20:02.476 --> 0:20:04.596 didn't want to call attention to the issue. The police 0:20:04.636 --> 0:20:07.156 were frustrated to thee at least the ones who were 0:20:07.596 --> 0:20:09.916 devoted to public safety were from frustrated that there was 0:20:09.956 --> 0:20:10.676 no prosecution. 0:20:11.316 --> 0:20:14.196 Well, it's more than that word you use right now 0:20:14.276 --> 0:20:17.516 as passivity, And I was thinking about it seems more 0:20:17.556 --> 0:20:20.516 than that in a certain sense, because you talk a 0:20:20.556 --> 0:20:23.276 lot about how there was a feeling that of an 0:20:23.276 --> 0:20:26.276 accident that happens because the driver is under the influence 0:20:26.276 --> 0:20:31.916 of alcohol is somehow unintentional that you can't hold the 0:20:31.996 --> 0:20:34.876 driver responsible in a kind of moral sense for their 0:20:34.916 --> 0:20:38.116 actions while they were drunk, which is really weird to 0:20:38.156 --> 0:20:41.916 me because implicit in that is an acknowledgment that they 0:20:41.956 --> 0:20:46.316 are impaired. So it's not always saying, oh, you can 0:20:46.396 --> 0:20:50.036 drive just as well drunk as sober. No, they're not 0:20:50.036 --> 0:20:52.836 saying that. They're saying you absolutely are impaired. It's just 0:20:52.876 --> 0:20:55.756 that we're not going to hold you responsible for it. Yeah, 0:20:55.996 --> 0:20:56.716 it's weird. 0:20:57.116 --> 0:20:59.556 I thought it was weird, but it was so commonplace. 0:20:59.556 --> 0:21:03.076 And I'm glad you mentioned the word accident. Why if 0:21:03.076 --> 0:21:07.276 you go and drink too much and you willingly go 0:21:07.316 --> 0:21:08.956 in your car when you know you're not supposed to, 0:21:09.516 --> 0:21:12.476 and you crash into someone or something and there's damage 0:21:12.476 --> 0:21:15.196 and hopefully not death, that's still called an accident. It 0:21:15.236 --> 0:21:18.956 was called an accident in the nineteen thirties, and it's 0:21:18.956 --> 0:21:21.636 still too often called an accident, although people now try 0:21:21.636 --> 0:21:24.436 to get us to use a different word, the other phrase, 0:21:24.516 --> 0:21:28.996 wrong place, at the wrong time, all these notions that well, 0:21:29.156 --> 0:21:32.876 just you know, if that person hadn't been crossing the street. 0:21:32.916 --> 0:21:35.076 Sure the driver was drunk, but you know, if they 0:21:35.116 --> 0:21:37.436 hadn't been out so late at night and crossing the street, 0:21:37.516 --> 0:21:40.116 this wouldn't happen. Sort of bad luck for the drunk 0:21:40.196 --> 0:21:44.716 driver in a contorted sort of way. And some people 0:21:44.796 --> 0:21:47.036 used to make the analogy. Well, it wasn't like they 0:21:47.156 --> 0:21:50.836 put a gun in their pocket and went out and 0:21:50.876 --> 0:21:53.516 then shot someone. They didn't mean to do this. They 0:21:53.516 --> 0:21:55.436 were just having a couple of drinks at the bar 0:21:55.476 --> 0:21:58.636 and wanted to get home safe. Well they're actually that's 0:21:58.676 --> 0:22:07.796 actually wrong. It is like putting a gun in your pocket. 0:22:09.836 --> 0:22:11.716 If you want to get a sense of how strange 0:22:11.796 --> 0:22:14.636 attitudes were towards drunk driving in the late nineteen thirties, 0:22:14.956 --> 0:22:18.356 you should watch Topper. Topper was a big hit in 0:22:18.356 --> 0:22:21.436 the summer of nineteen thirty seven, a comedy starring a 0:22:21.436 --> 0:22:25.236 young Carrie Grant as a bon vivon named George. Grant 0:22:25.556 --> 0:22:29.196 and his wife Marian played by Constance Bennett, are a young, 0:22:29.276 --> 0:22:32.716 rich couple who spend all their time dancing and drinking. 0:22:33.276 --> 0:22:37.036 After another of partying, they take a drive much too fast. 0:22:48.716 --> 0:22:52.156 They crashed the car. George and Marian both die and 0:22:52.236 --> 0:22:56.236 become ghosts. Stranded on earth because they've done nothing to 0:22:56.276 --> 0:22:59.316 merit going to heaven. So as ghosts, they make a 0:22:59.356 --> 0:23:03.156 plan to redeem themselves. They will rescue their friend Topper 0:23:03.276 --> 0:23:07.596 from his boring life, how by teaching Topper how to drink, 0:23:08.036 --> 0:23:11.596 which they proceed to do, and then all three of them, George, 0:23:11.636 --> 0:23:15.956 Marian and Topper have another car crash, and Topper's take 0:23:15.956 --> 0:23:18.996 home lesson is that he needs to keep living it up. 0:23:19.676 --> 0:23:21.756 Well, I won't go back why I won't do it, 0:23:22.036 --> 0:23:24.076 won't do what? I won't go back to the routine. 0:23:25.556 --> 0:23:29.156 Topper perfectly captures the spirit of the times. The country 0:23:29.236 --> 0:23:31.956 is in the midst of the depression. A movie was 0:23:31.956 --> 0:23:35.516 supposed to be in Escape Carry Grant's character wants his 0:23:35.556 --> 0:23:38.476 friend Topper to drink away his troubles, which is what 0:23:38.596 --> 0:23:42.796 audiences wanted in nineteen thirty seven. Topper made sense in 0:23:42.796 --> 0:23:47.556 that context. But then at exactly the same time comes 0:23:47.716 --> 0:23:51.196 A Star is Born. Drunk drivers do not live happily 0:23:51.236 --> 0:23:54.316 ever after. In A Star is Born, drunk drivers face 0:23:54.436 --> 0:23:59.876 consequences for their actions. Actually, let me rephrase that A 0:23:59.956 --> 0:24:03.756 Star Is Born is almost a tragedy where drunk drivers 0:24:03.796 --> 0:24:07.316 face consequences for their actions. That scene I read to 0:24:07.356 --> 0:24:11.236 you earlier, or Norman Mayane drunkenly crashes into another car 0:24:11.516 --> 0:24:14.516 and looks on in horror as blood streams down his face. 0:24:15.116 --> 0:24:18.716 That scene, the moral center of the original movie, gets 0:24:18.756 --> 0:24:24.116 taken out at the last moment. Salsnick was notorious for 0:24:24.196 --> 0:24:27.676 demanding multiple rewrites of his films, and he was unhappy 0:24:27.796 --> 0:24:30.796 with the third act of Dorothy Parker's script, the one 0:24:30.836 --> 0:24:34.276 that had the car crash scene. Salsnick turns to two 0:24:34.316 --> 0:24:37.716