Nixon, Rogers & Butterfield on Kennedy Center and Entertainment industry

3:25:28I didn't think I was going to have the pleasure of seeing you this time.
3:25:34What are your plans now?
3:25:35Well, I'm on my way to Westbury, Long Island.
3:25:39It's closing Coco for two weeks.
3:25:40And then I go to California and do a, you know, do a show with Gene Locke and do things like that.
3:25:47And I'm going to take the holidays with us.
3:25:50I'm going to go to the beach.
3:25:54Mm-hmm.
3:25:54Mm-hmm.
3:25:57Well, tell me, I didn't get the sequel at all, and I should know more about it, but it was apparently very, very successful.
3:26:08It was successful because of Captain Hepburn.
3:26:11The story itself was not terribly great, and the music was not terribly memorable.
3:26:18I don't know that much musical music.
3:26:23No, there is some of this jackass stuff, you know.
3:26:27Absolutely.
3:26:27And I played the opening of the Kennedy Center down here.
3:26:35That's amazing.
3:26:36Well, it's a great argument.
3:26:38But I think architecturally, on the outside, it's terrible.
3:26:43Modern stuff.
3:26:44Inside, it's acoustically very good, but in my view, it doesn't have near the, well, take Los Angeles, it's much nicer.
3:26:55But nevertheless, acoustically great.
3:26:57But they actually picked numbers that were more for the acoustics, rather than for, this was the symphony, rather than for
3:27:08You know, the music and all that.
3:27:10Or they play it at that famous service, I must say.
3:27:14He doesn't send me.
3:27:16I'm not completely square on that sort of thing.
3:27:18I mean, I love it.
3:27:19But that would be jazz from time to time.
3:27:24But when I hear symphony, I want it to be symphony, great symphony, right?
3:27:27I mean, I don't see why you can't play Beethoven or, you know, or Tchaikovsky or Liszt and so forth and so on.
3:27:37But these days, the modern conductors feel they've got to go off on something.
3:27:43No, I don't.
3:27:45I have the privilege of being out for an afternoon out at this new place that they just built, this beautiful wooden place called the Flux.
3:27:58No, no, I went out to give a lecture while I was playing here.
3:28:05There was a lecture now and after here.
3:28:08And it's a marvelous place.
3:28:11I'd love to hear an orchestra play.
3:28:13But you know, the acoustics, they had put the curtain in front, and the lecturer stood in front of the curtain.
3:28:29And the curtain just ate his voice out.
3:28:32And why anyone wouldn't think ahead and know that curtains eat voices?
3:28:37They do.
3:28:37They just stand in front of the curtain and you may as well be talking to yourself.
3:28:41Are you, uh, are you, are you, are you, are you okay?
3:28:44Would you like to go see the center every second?
3:28:47How would you arrange for a White House car to tip the dowel and arrange for her to get an idol?
3:28:55I mean, I'm sure there's a nothings on the second.
3:28:58But you could just call and arrange for her to go down.
3:29:03Oh, that would be just super.
3:29:05I would love to hear it.
3:29:07I had David Brad, the youngster who's gonna be in and go back.
3:29:15He's Brad, isn't he?
3:29:16Let London love it for you.
3:29:18Carol Harper would be great for it.
3:29:22Or the other girl, what's her name?
3:29:26I had the arts deal.
3:29:39I met a very close friend of mine.
3:29:45I had a very good friend here in the kitchen chair.
3:29:49I was five times with him.
3:29:51I was a guest at Frank DeMondre's with Mr. and Mrs. Messer.
3:29:57Messer died.
3:29:58Yes, he did.
3:29:59I had missed her.
3:30:01I was in college.
3:30:02My cousin, you know, and Phyllis, my cousin.
3:30:07She's in the world.
3:30:10But she's...
3:30:12I made her my sister, more or less.
3:30:14You have no sister?
3:30:15No, no, I'm an only child, unfortunately.
3:30:20You know, you've had so many marvelous years.
3:30:24I have not.
3:30:24I've often said, if I were, you know, people, you, when you think of what you've done through the years, you've made so many people happy.
3:30:34And, of course, I know what a grueling thing it is.
3:30:39They say the acting.
3:30:41Yes.
3:30:42My God, it's a terrible discipline.
3:30:45But on the other hand, to be up there and get those people up, and you must be tired of seeing all the other seekers and all the rest and so forth, and the little kids starving.
3:30:57But how nice is it to be making people that way?
3:30:59You know, but it is rewarding in that sense, because you know that you're bringing, you're taking people out of themselves.
3:31:05And we all need it, each of us in our journey.
3:31:07We need to be, to detect that sense of self and divorce ourselves.
3:31:10How many years did you do it?
3:31:12We are getting to a point where movies and theater will clean up a little.
3:31:17Understand, I don't, have we passed through the period now of this total, I'm not referring to stuff that's annoying, we need a little of that.
3:31:30I was just straight dirty.
3:31:31And I was selling it for that.
3:31:33And coming to stuff that I was, for example, very interested to know how Nolan and that went over.
3:31:41We saw it.
3:31:42And they did it exactly the way they were bringing everybody a little bit.
3:31:47But that must have caused something, doesn't it?
3:31:49Or does it?
3:31:50And it does, because you see, the thing is, you were just saying earlier, they're no good writers, and they're not.
3:31:55At least they're not coming to sport now.
3:31:58They're absolutely sick.
3:32:00Because the moral values are gone.
3:32:02And more teeth to get in the line, the better off they are.
3:32:07That's right.
3:32:08You had a number of excellent writers for stand-up producers and all that.
3:32:13Yes.
3:32:14I was invited to speak in front of the press club.
3:32:16The press club invited me and said, you know, they don't usually ask women to come up, and I was scared of that.
3:32:22I did that because I got cross-fired.
3:32:24You know, they said that.
3:32:29But let me say that, you know, when we saw you in the, uh, you know, the dance, I was very, uh... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
3:32:55You had all those nights.
3:32:59The great period of South Pacific and My Fair Lady and Oklahoma and Brick the Dome, etc.
3:33:05That was great.
3:33:06But what the duck is the matter now?
3:33:10And movies.
3:33:10Let me tell you what we do.
3:33:12I don't see movies in the weekend.
3:33:14We go to California.
3:33:16We have weekends.
3:33:18Of course, they have a movie that goes along.
3:33:24The present-day movies are so bad, let's say the good John Wayne Western or something like that, that we are going back 10, 15, 20 years to get the movies.
3:33:34And I thought, I thought, just throw me the movies.
3:33:36I just thought, I want to hear them.
3:33:39And we, believe me, we have seen some of yours, but we won't do that.
3:33:43And our kids think about it the same way.
3:33:45They don't want to see the movies.
3:33:47They really are some of the bad guys.
3:33:49They must be making some good ones.
3:33:53but some of them are so uh well let me put it this way we all we all appreciate her she's
3:34:07What the modern movie makers have done on the sex thing, in my opinion, is just exactly what they do with women when they have them go around without any clothes, or with most of them in there in the bikini.
3:34:20The point is, what makes it more interesting
3:34:24is, of course, the mystery.
3:34:27And the more you tear away the mystery, the more you make it less sexless, in my opinion.
3:34:32Right.
3:34:33And all of this, going around the house, and running around in the mood, and the stage, or virtually in a movie, and all the scenes that are dead and the rest, you know, frankly, you feel a little perished about it.
3:34:45And second,
3:34:47It'd be great if it said, well, she isn't out of water for a second.
3:34:51It doesn't work that way.
3:34:53Do you agree or not?
3:34:54I agree.
3:34:54I agree.
3:34:55Because you see, I feel it.
3:34:56You see, it's demoralizing our young people.
3:34:59And when you take their sense of moral value to play, you have ruined their... You're taking something of their future.
3:35:05And also, it's a nice...
3:35:16No!
3:35:16No!
3:35:41Well, I got over to the press.
3:35:42We had the National Bowler's Champion, the Women's National Bowler's Champion.
3:36:12He bowled three, and he didn't get a strike.
3:36:13And the poor child in person was in front of all those people.
3:36:16And then I had a national bowling champion, and he bowled.
3:36:21He missed the first, and then got a strike in the second.
3:36:25Then I bowled.
3:36:25And I tried to bowl next to the recovery person.
3:36:29She ran right over in the alley.
3:36:30So I bowled over to the other alley so they could get a better shot.
3:36:33And believe it or not, in my second, I got a strike.
3:36:37I quit.
3:36:37And I missed.
3:36:38Oh, that's beautiful.
3:36:39Oh, that's beautiful.
3:36:42But this is a little compact that I had made for certain reasons at the beginning of there.
3:36:56Her wives and cheeses making some noise on the meadow.
3:37:00So they'll still be coming for the presidential signal to see the signal.
3:37:03And that's it, miss.
3:37:04No, it isn't.
3:37:05Pack up anyway.
3:37:07We don't use the compacts.
3:37:10Oh, listen.
3:37:11I've been thinking what you're thinking.
3:37:13That's what I was going to say.
3:37:14Blessing of you.
3:37:16Thank you.
3:37:16And, uh... And also, I think we should, uh, get ready to see the young fellas coming for the conference.
3:37:26The same thing.
3:37:36Aren't they sweet?
3:37:37I might keep them myself.
3:37:41Now don't let me overshoot.
3:37:46Don't let me overshoot my knife.
3:37:48Okay.
3:37:53I just want to say how proud I am of you, Mr. Franklin.
3:38:00How proud I am of you.
3:38:05I want to tell you how much I love you.
3:38:09I really do, and what you stand for.
3:38:11I say it simply and truly, and I just want you to know that you got me.
3:38:17You got me, that's not much.
3:38:22It means an awful lot.
3:38:23You know, for those of you who are celebrities, I know it's so hard because basically, you know, the way to really go over big in Las Vegas and Broadway and the rest is to give help to whoever is here, particularly if he's more on the conservative side.
3:38:43And I'm sure that it must be quite a temptation, you know, to join the strong.
3:38:47You know, most of the people in your business
3:38:50Except for, well, let's face it, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, and Red Skelton and Bob Hope, if you like that.
3:38:58Except for them, it's awful hard to find any.
3:39:02Isn't that true?
3:39:03It is, it is.
3:39:03So I appreciate it for that reason.
3:39:04I've been a fan of yours for a very long time, you know, since your name is Congressman.
3:39:11Let me say, I've been a fan of yours for a long time.
3:39:15Thank you very much, Mr. President.
3:39:18Have a great time, sir.
3:39:20Thank you, and my love.
3:39:22All right, and my love to Mr. President.
3:39:24Thank you.
3:39:25Bye-bye.
3:39:25Okay.
3:39:26You're a great man now, Mr. President.

Nixon, Rogers & Butterfield on Kennedy Center and Entertainment industry

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on September 17, 1971

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