19791970S TELEVISION SHOWS
"TRUMAN CAPOTE TELLS ALL".
INTERVIEW WITH TRUMAN CAPOTE INTERVIEWED BY DAVID SUSSKIND 1979
INTERVIEW WITH TRUMAN CAPOTE INTERVIEWED BY DAVID SUSSKIND 1979
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| 01:00:15 0.02 |
DAVID SUSSKIND IN STUDIO DISCUSSES HIS GUEST FOR THE EPISODE, TRUMAN CAPOTE:
David Susskind Good evening I'm David Susskind. You may think you know all about Truman Capote he but you don't. Tonight, you're going to see a Capote that you have never seen before. I guarantee you an interesting experience will begin after this pause |
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INTERVIEW BEGINS:
David Susskind my guest tonight, Truman Capote he leads to lives. He's one of the foremost American authors. That's life one. He's also a celebrated man about town, who's extravagant and sometimes controversial. Lifestyle is the stuff of which novels are made. To put it loosely. That's true, isn't it? Truman Capote very loosely. In any event David Susskind why do you do things like that? Why do you do things that get you into columns and get you into the new section of the newspapers? That you're too good for that you've got to Truman Capote I don't do anything? I've since I ever first began to publish and was in New York, for various reasons. Newspapers just seem to be attracted to me David Susskind Oh, wait a minute. Truman, you went on another television show? And you went on in a condition? That was not you at your best? And it was shocking. And you shouldn't have done it. Why did you do it? Truman Capote Well, because I didn't know I was doing it. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't have done it if I'd had the faintest idea of what was happening. David Susskind It was a show that one o'clock in the afternoon. Truman Capote Yes, I know. But you see, is the implication was that I had something to drink. I hadn't had anything to drink at all. David Susskind What made you so woozy and hazy and think, Tom, Truman Capote because I had taken a pill called a Tunial and I'd ever take a while before I'd been at the dentist, I took this thing called tuninal didn't have any effect on me. The program started in as it was about three or four minutes into it beginning of this terrific effect on me, but I didn't know it. I had no idea that anything rather odd had happened about it. But that was completely an accident. I've explained all that. David Susskind But Truman, Oh, what about on a lecture tour down south, you fell off the platform Truman Capote I did not fall off any platform David Susskind Well you took a dive down from the lecturn? Truman Capote No, nothing of the kind ever happened David Susskind the New York Times is an error. Truman Capote They didn't ever say that the New York Times ever said anything of the kind Because it didn't happen. David Susskind Truman weren't you non compos mentis on that platform and didn't miss it. The Dean of Students Truman Capote No, do you want to know what happened? Do you know what I want to happen? Really? David Susskind Well, sure. Truman Capote I went, walked on to the platform of the University of Maryland. And the microphone was dead. And I started talking, I realized the microphone was dead. and I were back stage. I stood there for about two or three minutes. Then I walked backstage and I said, What's the matter with the microphone? And they said, oh, there's something wrong. They're fixing it. And I said, How long will it be to fix it? And they said, it's almost ready to be ready in a minute. And so I walked back on the stage, and I said something to the audience. And the microphone was still dead. And it was just a total of 10 minutes. And I finally I walk back of the stage and there was the reported there from a Washington newspaper, who I didn't know was there. In fact, several reporters were there. And I got into an argument with the stage manager about it. And I said, Well, I'm not going to stand up there on the stage like that, like a perfect fool, and I walked off and that's exactly what happened. I have lots of witnesses to prove it because they went down there with me David Susskind You didn't fall off. Truman Capote I never, David Susskind you weren't inebriated? The Dean of Students didn't say get that man off here. Truman Capote Not at all nothing of the kind of ever happened David Susskind Did you see the reportage on that incident? Truman Capote I saw it but I didn't say said anything like that David Susskind Oh, yeah. Truman Capote I saw what they said it was the erroneous but I'm telling you exactly what happened. David Susskind Well, you should sue. Truman Capote Why should I sue. if I sued everybody, for every lie that says about me in the newspapers, I will be doing nothing else. I have enough litigation problems as it is. David Susskind You are suing somebody. Truman Capote No. Gorby doll is suing me and I'm not suing anybody. But he Sue's everyone. He really has litigation on his mind. David Susskind Oh, he just sues Bill Buckley and you he doesn't Sue everybody. Truman Capote He lost the Bill Buckley suit. No, he's also suing. I believe that he's suing Robert Guccione. The editor of Penthouse magazine. David Susskind Oh yes on that Caligula movie that they write, which has never been put together and released, which makes you very sad because you feel badly when a fellow authors work. You are sad. Truman Capote I'm always sad about gore. Very sad. He has to breathe every day. David Susskind Truman you really like him down? Truman Capote It's almost be awfully deep David Susskind Truman, why do you go to studio 54? And so often? What is the noise? The DIN? Truman Capote No, I tell you quite seriously why I like to go to studio 54. It's kind of total amalgamation of all sorts of things. It's it's my I like nightclubs, period. I always have I've been going to them since I was 15 or 14 years old. You see, I'm from New Orleans, and which is a big nightclub. And I was brought up there in an Alabama but my family's house is right in the quarter. And so I don't know, I was born a lot of times and cafes and nightclubs and always have. And oh, I know when I was first in New York, working at the New Yorker magazine, I used to go almost every day. I was about 17 years old, and I used to go every day to have lunch at the store club with Luna O'Neill. And Carol. Carol smaller She was then But then she became Carol SoRoy, David Susskind You wanted it to be seen Truman Capote No, no, no. They were just friends of mine. We used to go there to have lunch today. I know, but I liked the thing. Yes, of course I would have gone to needing some are anything I like things like that, too. I like automatics, I was mad about automat. There's only I still go to the automatic on 42nd Street and what is it? 3rd avenue David Susskind I've never seen you in an automat Truman Capote That's because you've never been in one. But I like to go to like all kinds of places. But still you're getting off the point. I think that studio 54 is the most interesting nightclub that I have ever been in, in my life anywhere in the world and I have lived everywhere in the world. I've lived everywhere from Moscow to Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York, Venice, Rome. Never Is there a nightclub been as amusing as studio David Susskind But aren't people they're absurd in their dress in their attitude. And isn't there a lot of spaced out folks is stretched out there. Truman Capote Maybe be a little stretched out from fatigue of dancing. No, come on. Where's your sense of humor Get with it. 54 is a very, very amusing, very fun place. What's nice about it is I think it's one of the healthiest places I've ever seen. People do very little drinking there and very little drugging, too, for that matter. They're having a really good want to know where I speak David Susskind Truman there is sniffing of various stuff going on there. They are like, Truman Capote Well would you tell me any nightclub in the entire United States or Canada or Europe, where people aren't sniffing or smoking something that I didn't nobody's out there nodding with heroin. It's a bunch of people having a good time. They are really having a good time. All they're doing is dancing and laughing and having a good time. I don't understand this whole idea about studio 54. I think it's just pure envy. I just I really mean that. I think people are just envious have any kind of success whatsoever. Studio 54 is a success. So therefore it's got to be knocked all the time. David Susskind Truman I've seen you on one of those lovely banquettes with your performer, Star friends and your creative designing associates. And you're all somewhere else. I said hello Truman and you sort of giggled, Truman Capote you saw me personally David Susskind Of course I saw you with my own eyes. Yes, these eyes. I even said My God cannot be Truman, and I put my glasses on. Truman Capote That's interesting When was it? David Susskind Oh, I don't know. It was a night that one of these people was having a birthday and you were feeling no pain. And it was a gay wild jamboree. And you were singing you remember singing? Truman Capote I sing a lot. But I didn't get it. But I David Susskind would you recommend it to your sister? Truman Capote Sure, I'd recommend it to anybody. I think it's one of the most innocent, beguiling places and everything is everything the way it ought to be. Is is very democratic. It's all kinds of colors, all kinds of sizes, boys and boys together girls and girls together girls and boys together. Poor people, rich people, taxi drivers, anything you want. It's all mixed up together. That's what I like about it. I mean, the old style nightclub, like El Morocco stork club Well, no Morocco's going. But I mean, the point is it was for rich people. It wasn't for people out well, ostensibly they were allowed to have a good time, but it was for rich people David Susskind Truman your passion is a new hobby. Truman Capote What are you talking about? I've always liked all kinds of people are David Susskind You're always on people's yachts and their great mansions on Long Island and you're in the Greek islands cruising and you're at the thing in Spain with the Pamplona bull runs and Truman Capote so what that's just another thing to do, isn't it? I don't see what that's got to do is whether you like people or don't I like all kinds of people. I like rich people because they don't are always trying to borrow something from me David Susskind Are you trying to borrow something from them? Truman Capote Oh, no, I give a great deal more than they give. David Susskind What do you give in return for three weeks on a super yacht? Truman Capote A lot of interesting conversation. David Susskind Right How much How expensive is it room and board and visit to gambling casinos in the Aegean Sea? I mean you've been Truman Capote I like to travel if I'm going to travel I'd rather travel on a beautiful Yeah, who wouldn't? David Susskind Right well, let's where's the passion for the poor coming in those little folks coming into the studio with people Truman Capote pick them up on the street and take them to studio 54 so they can have a good time? David Susskind God you're a humanitarian i i never thought of you that way. Truman Capote Actually, I'm a great humanitarian. David Susskind Well, we'll be back for the very human Truman Capote after this pause. |
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INTERVIEW CONTINUES:
David Susskind You asked me if I knew anybody who didn't smoke grass. Truman Capote Anyway The real problem. David Susskind Yes, there were two priests and a bush doctor who just returned from Australia. I remember had not Truman Capote remembered it will probably growing it David Susskind Truman, Truman, you look better than I've seen you look in a long time. You used to be a rather heavy chunky would be a kind of word. You're down to fighting weight. What are you 135 Set 138 Truman Capote You hit it right on the nail 135 is exactly what I weigh David Susskind And that old the Bloat that probably came from booze and or other hobbies is gone. And you look bright eyed and bushy tailed. You look beautiful. Truman Capote When I go swimming a lot. I do a lot of exercising. David Susskind Why? Truman Capote Because I like it. I like to go swim. David Susskind It's a Latter Day. Truman Capote Now I've always I always like to go swim was well I like a lot of sports actually, curiously enough. I like to ski I like to swim from and then all the way to Miami to see the Superbowl purely as a fan I wanted to play but they wouldn't let me David Susskind you in the Super Pittsburgh Steelers. Throw you Why are you having a facelift? Truman Capote Oh, I don't know because I just decided that that well I think this is the I believe and all of the little services that you can have done to make you feel better. I'm a great believer in dentists. And I have all my teeth and they look very good. and I believe in I've always done exercises whether I David Susskind What's exercise got to do you have no face to lift? Truman Capote Oh yes I do. It's done. It's just a small tiny thing that I'm having done. It's not some major surgery. I just they are just a tiny little adjustment. David Susskind Where are you doing it? Truman Capote It's right right here. They're just going to take a cut right here under my chin is actually a new operation. They've only been able to do it for about the last eight months because they didn't know how to do it before. If they had known how to do it before I would have done it. But you see before they really did do face lifts I mean if you wanted to have if you want what I wanted done right here is a certain amount of loose skin under your chin. I mean you can have it at any age when you're 18 or something. The certain Man of loose skin right? Is the one thing that they could never do in a facelift. They could cut above the ears like this. David Susskind Have you had plastic surgery before Truman Capote just no way yes I did. I had my eyes done about I had my eyes done about four years ago David Susskind where you're getting baggy or something Truman Capote Well actually, I hit the upper lid both As my eyes was rather heavy and always had been, and I had this kind of a twitch in my eyes it was really literally I didn't do it for cosmetic reasons though I certainly wouldn't I have no hesitation about that whatsoever but it did improve my eyesight a great David Susskind Why are you on this beauty kick? Are you in love? Truman Capote I'm not on a beauty kick Oh god no. Far from me if I'm in love with anybody I'm in love with myself. David Susskind That's a long affair isn't it Truman Capote Oh god I love it. It's permanent anyway. No David Susskind Do you love anybody else? Truman Capote Yes, the great many people David Susskind Whom do you love? Truman Capote well, I'm not sending out any Valentine's this year. But I'm very fond of a great many people aren't you? David Susskind Well don't switch the burden on the people whom you love. Truman Capote I'm Veryfond of your wife she's great. I may send her aValentine David Susskind alright after Joyce Susskind are there any other people we might know Truman Capote that I'm very fond of? Oh David Susskind God got you think loves would leak to your mind? Truman Capote Yes. Well, it's just it I have a quite a number of people. I did that. Oh, question. Do you have a lot of friends? No, I know you didn't but I'm coming back from memory verse. The thing is that people usually say oh well I have there I know 40 People but I only have three or four people or friends that I really trust you know, I don't feel that way at all. I feel I have a bad 30 or 40 friends that I really trust that I can and I have good reason to think so now because the last year of my life was certainly pretty strenuous and I I knew who was really ready to help me if I needed it and was just David Susskind Truman if you're worried about naming people you love because you may miss somebody you can come back and so more love people but I mean, tell usJoyce Susskind I don't bring you for loving her. She's terriffic Truman Capote a nice very, very good friend of mine Gosh, I don't know I like so many people. David Susskind I said love. Truman Capote Well, when I like somebody it amounts to loving them as a matter of fact, I really don't quite see the difference. I mean, is it truly a beat? No, I'm not. You're talking about being in love. David Susskind I'm talking about Loving. Truman Capote Alrighty then. Let's see. Well, I love very much. Barbara Paley. Alas, she died last year. I love I love Andy Warhol. I love Halston. They're all really good friends of mine. I love Christopher Isherwood. I think Christopher is a wonderful person and I love it. I loved Isaac Dennison . The last three days here are two years. More than that. I love I love Norman Mailer. I know you don't like Dominic Normal David Susskind Oh, I like him pretty well. I didn't love him Truman Capote I have admiration for him. I are I mean, my great friend Jack Dunphy. And I love my editor at random has Joe Fox and I love my lawyer Allen shorts. I really do love it. I know totally dependent on him. He's a wonderful person. David Susskind But if you love people, why do you hurt them? I mean, you you heard Barbara Paley. You Truman Capote I didn't hurt her? she hurt me. David Susskind No, you wrote answered prayer excerpts in Esquire Truman Capote She didn't appear in it David Susskind No but her husband did. Truman Capote So other people said David Susskind Truman Capote don't sit there and tell me that you didn't mean that character to be William Paley. Truman Capote I can sit here and tell you anything I want to is the free country David Susskind But you wouldn't lie Truman Capote you're trying to turn it into a fascist state is still a free country. David Susskind Truman, you took good friends and some that you love. And you use them in the excerpts which instantly I thought were brilliant pieces of writing. Really brilliant. And they appeared in Esquire? Truman Capote Well, Mr. Paley was not forged and so far, but incidentally, just for your own information, nothing matters. Mr. Paley was not heard about that excerpt from my book at all, and had it been and we would never have had any concrete talk about it whatsoever. David Susskind Was it other people that were upsetting Truman Capote there was no body that it has appeared in that book, the only two people that I know of that were upset about. Were both had no reason to be above. One is a woman who believed very much that she was the character in the book. A one of the characters, and she wasn't I mean, she really truly wasn't. It was based on somebody and somebody who was a very good friend of hers. But people convinced her that she was the person and she got very she's the one person and I loved that woman. And I still do, I don't blame her if that's the way she feels about it. There's nothing I can do about it. But she is quite mistaken. And it wasn't true. Now it is true that Barbara Paley was upset about it. And because she is a person of very fine character and very definite ideas of right and wrong. She decided that I had done something very wrong that she was not going to forgive me for now. I respected her completely, that opinion of hers. It was like something that we agree on David Susskind Truman when you love people, and they have been friends and you have availed yourself of their generosity and their friendship over and over again in a million ways. Is it fair to then take the intimacies that you've shared? And fictionalized them to Truman Capote There's nothing fictionalized about it? David Susskind Well, you use details that probably were true, or you suspected were true. In a in a piece of fiction called answered prayers, which, which wounded them deeply to the point where they said Truman Capote is out of our lives Truman Capote There isn't any reason for anybody to have been wounded. There was nothing at all about that at all. But anyway, I'm going to answer your question quite differently, David, because I think the line on your own is very narrow and pointless, because David Susskind Has it hurts you Truman Capote No it has not in all my troubles, the things that I had happened to me in the last couple of years had nothing to do with my work. I'd like to make that clear right from the beginning. Because a lot of the things that I read about myself in the last couple of years, one would assume the implication of it was that these things were happening because I was upset about something in connection with my own writing in my work. What happened was an entirely personal problem. It was something to do with me, it was something inside of me, and my own relationship with other people. And it had nothing to do with my work, whatever. David Susskind Did you lose a lot of friends, Truman Capote no, I did not lose Any friends that I know of. It was two exceptions. I would say to people, I really did lose as friends because they were very upset about it. Okay, but now I'm going to go back to this question about friendships and using material etc. In your work. Okay. First of all, to begin with, a writer has only their own experience to work from, they have nothing else. That's all Proust did. But he wrote a remembrance of things past he wrote about his friends in Paris, his relationships with them, he could never have written the book if he had written about his friends and what he knew about etc. A writers material is totally derived, or at least a certain kind of writers certain social observer, of which I consider myself that kind of a journalistic novelistic type of writer, genre. That's all they have. They have nothing else. There's no other material they have. So everybody knew that I was writing this book, you knew that I was writing should I even let you read part two? Parts? Yes. You weren't shocked? David Susskind No but I'm not in the book. Truman Capote Okay, who knows? This is only your time may come David. David Susskind You professed to love Joyce Susskind. you came to our home night after night and read aloud from answered prayers. Truman Capote one night, one night night, David Susskind No three nights. One Two nights. I went to bed. Truman Capote Okay, have it your way. Anyway, the point is David Susskind If we showed up in that book, wouldn't we have good reason to be hurt? Truman Capote Don't worry, you're not going to show up in the book. I really shouldn't have let you off the hook that yes, that easily. But the point is that every writer has the right to choose and use their own material. That's my material. Everybody knew I was doing this book. Everybody knew it. Everybody knew what the kind of a book it was. And there was no mystery there. I was not pretending or camouflaging anything at all. If you take chances, she takes your chances. That's it. Anyway. And so the book ends in, in historical fact, the book ends in 1965. Everything that happens after 1965 There's nothing in my book that ever happened to anybody after 1965. So everybody's home free. David Susskind Answered Prayers was your idea? It's from an saying that the worst thing that could happen to you in life is to have your prayers answered. Truman Capote Now, it comes from Saint Teressa who says, more tears are shed over answered prayers and unanswered ones. And I thoroughly believe that to be a great truth. David Susskind Is it the story of Jackie and Lee Radziwill the sisters Truman Capote well, they actually aren't in the book, except they're mentioned occasionally and but do I think that their lives are a demonstration of answered prayer? David Susskind Oh, yes. Truman, you're hard on a witness stand? Yes. Are they Jackie Onassis? Truman Capote the way you phrased the question, it might have been lifted? No, David Susskind not by me. But their lives the prototype for your Truman Capote I answered that by simply saying that I think that anybody who has a definite goals and ambition, things that they want that they think that they want, let's say that they before you met Joyce, there was some other woman that you knew that you were madly in love with. And you thought that if I could only have that woman, if I could only be married to that person, then I would have everything that I want. And that would be my answer prayer. Okay. was pretty good. So you got what you wanted, then she turned out to be very nice, really, very, very nice. Everything is very agreeable, but it's just like those mechanical rabbits at the Greyhound races, those rabbits are set on the track at a certain angle, with machinery going at a certain pace, that no matter how hard that Greyhound races, he is never going to catch that rabbit. And nobody in life who has really is a serious has very serious Riven ambitions and goals is ever going to have their prayer after because the moment they get it entered, another prayer is substituted. David Susskind Are Jackie Onassis and Lee Raziwill. Her sister, are they the prototypes of the heroines of your book. Truman Capote No. positively not. But I'm certainly a person who has had our prayers answered. And then the end find out that I just hadn't caught the rabbit that I wanted to catch. Everybody has you have? David Susskind I'd like to know about your answered prayer. Because you had a hand in one of my answered prayers. We'll be back in a minute |
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INTERVIEW CONTINUES:
David Susskind what answered prayers what answered prayers came to pass for you? That you proved the prove to you to be disappointing and hurting. You wanted to be a famous writer. Truman Capote I wanted to be a famous writer and I became a famous writer, but it certainly didn't. Solve I started to say all my problems I'll amend that to say I don't think it's solved any of my problems. David Susskind So be vocational problem. You wanted to be a famous writer you want to Truman Capote but I think I could have been just about anything I want to be within certain areas. I really would have liked to have been a lawyer. Do you know why? David Susskind So you could sue people Truman Capote No, but this I have the one thing that that I've watched I've watched lawyers working in courts a lot very because of my other work repertoire. repertoire is writing a book like in cold blood going to court, but I have an extraordinary memory. And the three or four really, really good lawyers that I've talked to I met that was the key to the whole thing is absolutely extraordinary memory remembering every little detail and I have that kind of memory. And I like the whole kind of thing of I mean, I would like to been a courtroom lawyer working on difficult cases David Susskind Edward Bennett William. Truman Capote He's awfully good. David Susskind Louis Nizer Truman Capote No, I don't admire Mr. Nizer he said I well He has a certain charm, and he is a good lawyer. But David Susskind he's a great lawyer. What about Roy Cohen? Truman Capote He's a very clever man. David Susskind Well, what personal prayer was answered that proved devastating? Truman Capote Well, I I met somebody that I thought that I really wanted them very much in my life. And then when I got them in my life, it turned out to be a complete nightmare. I mean, that's just to use one example, I can think about this. But that's a very, that David Susskind fell in love with the wrong person I have. too Truman Capote Yeah, it happens to everybody. But it really it never happened to me before. I mean, never. To that extent. I made a few little minor mistakes here and there, but I hadn't Exactly. Got myself onto the Greyhound racetrack. I just mentioned that because I consider that that's probably the most common prayer among all humans, that I mean, that has happened to everybody that that particular kind of situation occurs. David Susskind Do you have any regret at a particular painful thing that you did to me? You came to me one day, we were neighbors in the same building. And you said, in your own inimitable way, I love this person whose life is just empty of accomplishment. And she's so gifted and talented, and I want you to do a great television drama, Truman Capote Played by Lee Radziwill. David Susskind Yes. Truman Capote And my idea was that you should make a remake of Laura, David Susskind No your idea. I wish that had been your idea. Your idea was the voice of the turtle. That I said to you, because I was very sober. That voice of the turtle was a triumphant vehicle for the late Margaret Sullivan that the lady in the play was never offstage from the moment the curtain went up to the ramp at the play, and that that was a very demanding thing. Maybe we better think of something else. And incidentally, can she act? Can she act? You said, She's wonderful. And you Truman Capote Yes I remember the entire thing? Sure. David Susskind And then I said, Truman, I had a dream last night, Laura. Laura isn't in the play for one half of the play. Everybody talks about her how beautiful she was. Truman Capote It was a good idea too David Susskind Yes Right. Then you said, I only knew the adaptation. And I said, Oh, that's wonderful of you . And then you said not only that, I've talked to the President of ABC, and we'll put it on ABC. Truman Capote And we did. David Susskind Yes, we did. Now. It wasn't one of the triumphant achievements of that particular year, or any year, as a matter of fact, the newspapers and the magazines had a field day, they took this nice girl and crucified her Truman Capote Yes well, it would have happened regardless. David Susskind But why did you engineer it? Truman Capote I had, listen. First of all, I thought that she was very good in it. I thought that the I thought the production was excellent. All the surrounding cast was good. I thought it was a first class production. It got tremendously high ratings. Very, very high. Now let's get into the pluses. It got tremendously high rated. Now. I think Lee was really quite good. Your entire you think she was adequate? While I think for that's very, that's praise to say that she was adequate concerns, the first time she'd ever done anything like that and was under was very nervous and under a lot of pressure. But we've got to admit that I hadn't foreseen it to the extent that it did. But I did foresee that no matter what she did, the press was going to come down on her like hell, and not entirely because of Lee Radziwill, but because a great deal of the press and particularly at that time, less so now than but at that time, they really wanted to say nasty things about Mrs. Kennedy about Jackie but they never could, because at that time, Jackie was still a little saint. Mr. Onassis had never appeared on the horizon. She was still the widow lady, you know, but there was a lot of resentment and envy. Envy is the one thing that's wrong with this country among many things that are wrong with it, but people never recognize that as Americans are the most envious people in the world, with the possible exception of the French. They cannot they they love and adore success and fame and glamour and but they love To tear it down and throw the person in the mud and say the nastiest things they can about them. In all of this adulation of Jackie at that time now we're pre Onassis pre everything where the widow Kennedy Hmm. Underneath all that there was a tremendous animosity of envy for this beautiful girl who everything. And here was this sister, Lee Raziwill having a nerve because she was the sister of Mrs. Kennedy, everybody, oh, she wouldn't have even gotten the job. If she wasn't mrs. Kennedy sister, which is perfectly true. Everybody was aware of that she wouldn't have gotten the job should know. But David Susskind wouldn't have produced it, ABC wouldn't have put it on the air. Naturally, it was going to have a whole thing come down and bang, you know, I didn't realize it be quite so severe as it was, but But even she knew that, that she was willing to take the risk because she wanted very much to have a life of her own. I think the whole thing. I don't look back on it with any regret, you seem to look back on it with regret David Susskind How would you like to come on the Johnny Carson Show for the rest of your life. And Laura, Truman Capote yes, that that's a private joke between you and Johnny. And you know why it hasn't anything to do with any long memory that you either producing? Or it's a long memory in Johnny's eyes but not as anybody else's? David Susskind Because I had a party. And we did a preview of that program for a group of people of which you were one and Ingrid Bergman and Johnny Carson, and they were some of them left the party. Truman Capote Yeah. Well. Do you see Johnny's.. I suppose Johnny was offended. Because David Susskind He was offended by the command of the rich and famous by the fact that you can, you could just say, Truman Capote I think it was a little bit more different than that. I think perhaps there was some element of that. But I think it has something to do with his sense of professionalism. I think he's really resented the idea of a young lady who was not a professional being starred in a expensive production like that. That's what I really think it was about. David Susskind Yes And I think justifiably so. Do you know that the young lady today it does not coddle the memory to her bosom? Um, I know that she's bitter about it and you see your your work? Truman Capote So I mean, I can't want to say about it other than what I just said in the end perhaps although I have never had this discussion with her I don't and I have talked about the program with her and other things that she's done and she certainly has never expressed to me any bitterness about it. And I mean that quite truthfully. I know that she had some feeling of hostility towards you. David Susskind Oh and you don't think thats ironic justice. But I was Dragoon by you to do this act against the American public. And today I am hated Truman Capote You're making too much of a federal case here David Susskind because it happened to me Truman Capote Well you survived. Joyce didn't divorce you your daughter Samantha didn't run away from home. I have all those millions and the number to count in Switzerland I really can't grieve over David honestly. David Susskind I have to be thankful for minor pleasures none of which Truman Capote as you get older David they all become minor. David Susskind All pleasures become minor with age. Truman Capote Well, they didn't know I had to give up drinking I had to give up smoking I had to even give up taking an occasional sleeping pill. And I don't know there are a few left but I'm getting I'm getting so picky that that's practically non existent. My Standards are getting very high David Susskind your monastic existence is depressing. We will come back to the saga of woe after this pause |
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INTERVIEW CONTINUES:
David Susskind Truman you've been a kind of friend and observer of the rich and famous for a long time. What makes them different aside from their money, they are different. Truman Capote The rich David Susskind Mrs. Guinness, Haley's, Kennedy's Truman Capote because they serve better vegetables than other people. They have such delicious little tiny scarcely born vegetables and all out of season any everything's great. little lambs. Hardy were born. Little tiny carrots little peas. fabulous things like that, you know, David Susskind makes you fall in love. Aside from little peas and carrots and a gorgeous cauliflower I mean What about them? Are they into interesting Truman Capote Hmm they're interested in each other. David Susskind Isn't that boring? Truman Capote Well, you see that the rich in that sense they are do cling together it's a real click. I was quite fascinated to read you know Ben Nelson Rockefeller memorial service people that I know for a fact it and like Nelson at all at all were there. David Susskind Were you there? Truman Capote No, I wasn't there. But I mean, I know many very, very rich people who say they going to get the big cruise and the Turkish coast they've a yacht with a crew of 26 they can have 14 guests. With a couple of exceptions have some sort of intellectual or somebody who knows a great deal about Turkish archeology, practically everybody on that yacht will be somebody who's very rich, because they cling together cleaning David Susskind Are they dumb? Are they boring? Truman Capote no it's just like life itself. Some of them are dumb, and some of them are extraordinarily gifted, intelligent. Some of the most well for instance, I'll give you an example of a man who's extremely intelligent and every wave cultivated, charming man is very few people his name his picture scarcely ever appears in the paper, anything, Paul Mellon. He certainly one of the two or three richest men in America, probably in the world, couldn't couldn't possibly be more intelligent. I'll tell you another man that people don't hear about. His name is Robert O Anderson, President, Atlantic Richfield oil company. He's a great philanthropist and manner tremendous charm and intelligence very well read, very cultivated. And ever since the great friend of mine, David Susskind Mr. Paley is cultivated man Truman Capote could not possibly be more. So he's the only man that I've ever met, who has such an extraordinarily highly developed sense of aesthetic, that one day, I was watching him sharpen some pencils. He was just sitting in a desk with a little pencil shot. And he kept sharpening these pencil and putting them down, and finally looked up at me. And he says, What are you looking at me like that for? And I said, because it's really an aesthetic experience to watch you sharpen those pencils, you have such a precise idea of how it should be and how it should look, and what color it should be and where it's going to be placed in that box. When Bill Paley walks into a room, his eyes scan it like with a magical thing, and he sees everything is good and everything that's bad. That's why he had to marry a woman like Barbara Paley, who was perfection. All of these things David Susskind Whom will he marry now. Truman Capote I don't think that he would marry anybody again. He has a very, very nice life. Hundreds of friends. They all adore him. And I'm sure he must be very lonely man without Barbara Patty because she was really, really unique. David Susskind You told us about some distinguished, sophisticated, intelligent, Rich, who were some dreary rich, Truman Capote Charles Rabson. I mean, beyond that, you can't go David Susskind I would agree with that, but he's very dead. Truman Capote Well. That's one lucky thing, isn't it? David Susskind I mean, he was, yeah, he was dreary, and borsch, but he's gone and he's in the bosom of the Lord and we should not say anything unkind about. somebody Truman Capote I don't see why the dead should be immune. I think they're fair game myself David Susskind only because they can't answer back. Truman Capote Who cares? They got lots of relatives, lawyers and things. an eerie way of rising from the grave. David Susskind Oh, he's not coming back. Truman Capote Thank God, please don't threaten that. David Susskind Who's alive? Who's rich and dreary? Truman Capote That's a tall order, Jerome. Zipkin. He can't get rarer than that. And he's alive. Yeah, I could tell you a horrib;eZipkin story but it isn't airble. David Susskind It isn't airable Truman Capote I mean, a recent one. David Susskind Well, don't tease us Truman Capote WWD calls him a social moth David Susskind WWD is Women's Wear Daily. you can't use those code words here. We're talking to the American public. How do you feel about Truman Capote this is a good game rich dreary people. Hmm....rich dreary people. And David Rockefellers very nice and very boring. Laurance Rockefeller is very charming that's a strange family. David Susskind How are the Kennedys. How's Jacqueline? Truman Capote Well you know, somebody asked me what I would give Jackie, for Christmas presents some colomnists asking. And I said, oh, a sex change operation. And they said what? A what? I said a sex change operation and they said why would you give her a sex change operation? I said, well, the American public absolutely seems to die to have a Kennedy and I'd rather than have Jackie than Teddy. Get it? Yeah. David Susskind That's not all that complicated. Truman Capote You think it's bad taste. And David Susskind well, I think it's questionable. How is she as a person as a social being to talk with? I mean, she does a wonderful story Philip Roth tells about being her escort, you know, his wife Truman Capote He's very funny. David Susskind He's very funny Truman Capote very witty man. David Susskind He, his wife died in an accident in Central Park. And he was something of a social lion in the sense that he was a bachelor. Philip Roth, Yeah. And he was much in his in extra man. He was the extra man and he was sought after. And I wonder if I can tell this. I'll think about that. What do you think of her as a social person at dinner? Her knowledge of the world her concern with human life from Women's Wear Daily? I only get a sense that she's a compulsive shopper that she's in Valentino, and she's Truman Capote she is a compulsive shopper. A lot of people are on a compulsive shopper. As a matter of fact it is my favorite form of exercise David Susskind To be with her is to bask in a particular radiance. Truman Capote Oh I don't know, there's something about Jackie. I've always liked her. You know, I knew her when? Well, I knew her before she was ever married. And David Susskind we take her today. Do you? Have you seen her lately? Truman Capote Yes, I saw her in the club a couple of months ago. She's David Susskind not one of those people who have taken a dim view of your written answered prayers Truman Capote Oh no David Susskind Okay. When you've seen her? Is she friendly? Do you share a bond moles. Do you talk about? What do you think of Iran or? Truman Capote No? Well, I have seen her since Iran. By the way, you know, the Shah and Farrah Deeba, a very good friend of mine. David Susskind No I didn't know that. Well, yes. I thought they'd escaped Truman Capote I went to stay with them in Iran about five years ago. I was well, I knew them originally from Switzerland. Because you know, I used to spend every winter in Switzerland and, and I is a very good friend of Farah Deeba, a charming, delightful. Now there is a very intelligent, sensitive person. And I like the Shah very much. I think all this is a terrific tragedy because of course, it is true all the corruption in Iran and the Iranian royal family went into the country the way it set up the complications of it. He really was trying very hard to make all sorts of social improvements in education. Gosh knows the Iranian women were emancipated to an extraordinary way David Susskind If you were to discovered that he had $2 billion in Swiss bank accounts and American stocks and real estate would you be agast Truman Capote I would assume that he did? David Susskind Would you think that that was Truman Capote Because he's not a dope? David Susskind Should a man loot his country? Truman Capote I think it was his own money David Susskind that he inherited from dad Truman Capote well I inherit you look his David Susskind Oh come on. He stole a country blind Truman Capote I don't believe that. I believe that I believe completely did his relatives did an awful lot. I don't think they did it without his knowledge. But I don't think that the Shah is basically at the solace man I really don't know a great deal about it read and I know that all my my most intelligent friends like Alex Kolbert does that column for The Village Voice and has been you know writing very strong in the against the Shah for years now and I know many my friends who could not possibly be more at anti shah and I I know a number who knows him as well as I did and who agree with me and I think that they will come to regret this because the the business of the Mulas and and the the leftists they're making a combination together will never work it's all going to end in some kind of credible Civil War David Susskind when when you were a guest to the shah to do those lovely little peas and tomatoes and potatoes Truman Capote yes he did and marvelous caviar chip golden only the Shah has it it's not brown or I mean it's not black and it's not gray it's golden. David Susskind What about little unborn lambs Truman Capote Oh this golden caviar is unborn caviar unborn sturgon. Come David Get with it. The war's over come out of the trenches. David Susskind Coming out of the trenches in the next segment. We'll be right back |
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