WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.899 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. I, um, I have 00:00:03.899 --> 00:00:05.339 to be honest with you about something right off 00:00:05.339 --> 00:00:08.019 the bat. Oh boy. What is it? Well, when I first 00:00:08.019 --> 00:00:10.380 opened the file for today, I had a moment of, 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:13.960 uh, of skepticism, I guess you could call it. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.059 Because of the names on the list? Exactly! I 00:00:16.059 --> 00:00:17.640 saw these three names stacked on top of each 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:21.859 other. Peter Lawford, Shirley MacLaine, And Tony 00:00:21.859 --> 00:00:24.620 Bennett. Right. And my immediate reaction was 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:28.100 just, are we doing a nostalgia trip? Like, are 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:30.699 we just going to sit here and talk about martinis 00:00:30.699 --> 00:00:33.799 and tuxedos and old Hollywood gossip? Which is 00:00:33.799 --> 00:00:36.039 a very common first reaction, to be fair. It 00:00:36.039 --> 00:00:38.200 felt a bit light for what we usually do. Yeah, 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:40.359 you see that Rat Pack label and you immediately 00:00:40.359 --> 00:00:43.179 think surface level glamour. You think Las Vegas 00:00:43.179 --> 00:00:47.439 in the 60s and snap rim hats and, you know. Ring 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:48.979 -a -ding -ding. Ring -a -ding -ding. Exactly. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:51.939 But then I started actually digging into the 00:00:51.939 --> 00:00:54.399 primary sources you pulled. The military records 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:56.719 and the legal briefs. Yes, specifically those. 00:00:56.820 --> 00:01:00.140 And I realized I was completely wrong. This isn't 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:02.060 a story about entertainment at all. No, it really 00:01:02.060 --> 00:01:04.569 isn't. It's a story about the 20th century itself. 00:01:04.890 --> 00:01:08.469 It's like a masterclass in sociology and business 00:01:08.469 --> 00:01:11.769 strategy and frankly, just survival. It really 00:01:11.769 --> 00:01:14.650 is. What we're looking at today are three titans 00:01:14.650 --> 00:01:17.769 of the industry whose lives intersected in that 00:01:17.769 --> 00:01:21.590 incredibly glitzy Rat Pack era, but then diverged 00:01:21.590 --> 00:01:24.329 so wildly that it's almost hard to believe they 00:01:24.329 --> 00:01:26.640 were ever in the same room. Right. We're looking 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:29.120 at three very distinct case studies on how to 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:31.799 navigate a shifting world. We have Peter Lawford, 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:34.120 the English aristocrat, who basically became 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:36.579 the ultimate insider until the day the locks 00:01:36.579 --> 00:01:39.099 were changed. We have Shirley MacLaine, who I 00:01:39.099 --> 00:01:41.620 was honestly shocked to learn is basically a 00:01:41.620 --> 00:01:43.780 legal scholar and a business shark in addition 00:01:43.780 --> 00:01:46.439 to being a mystic. She's a powerhouse. And we 00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:49.319 have Tony Bennett, whose life story reads way 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:51.739 more like a gritty war novel than a jazz biography. 00:01:52.040 --> 00:01:53.959 And the mission for this deep dive for you listening 00:01:53.959 --> 00:01:56.950 today is to find... The pivot points. The pivot 00:01:56.950 --> 00:01:59.390 points. Right. We aren't just going to sit here 00:01:59.390 --> 00:02:02.109 listing their movies or their hit songs. We are 00:02:02.109 --> 00:02:05.010 looking for the very specific moments, a glass 00:02:05.010 --> 00:02:07.709 door shattering or a broken ankle or a phone 00:02:07.709 --> 00:02:10.949 call to a son that completely altered their fates. 00:02:11.050 --> 00:02:13.210 It's really about agency versus circumstance. 00:02:13.469 --> 00:02:15.770 So let's unpack this. I want to start with the 00:02:15.770 --> 00:02:17.710 figure who I think is probably the most tragic 00:02:17.710 --> 00:02:19.990 and in some ways the most complex because of 00:02:19.990 --> 00:02:22.469 his passivity. Peter Lawford. The golden boy. 00:02:22.569 --> 00:02:25.030 Golden boy. Looking at the photos in the stack 00:02:25.030 --> 00:02:27.969 we have, he is the absolute definition of debonair. 00:02:29.030 --> 00:02:33.189 But his start in life was chaotic. Chaotic is 00:02:33.189 --> 00:02:35.349 putting it very mildly. Really? Oh, yeah. To 00:02:35.349 --> 00:02:37.110 understand Peter Lawford, you have to understand 00:02:37.110 --> 00:02:40.030 that he was born into a very specific, very rigid 00:02:40.030 --> 00:02:43.009 slice of British society, but under incredibly 00:02:43.009 --> 00:02:45.389 scandalous circumstances. OK, set the scene for 00:02:45.389 --> 00:02:47.810 us. He was born in London in 1923. His father 00:02:47.810 --> 00:02:50.370 was Lieutenant General Sir Sidney Turing Barlow 00:02:50.370 --> 00:02:53.180 Lawford. OK, so a knight. A decorated military 00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:56.199 man. Exactly. Very high status. His mother was 00:02:56.199 --> 00:02:58.860 May Somerville Bunny. So far, so aristocratic. 00:02:59.139 --> 00:03:02.419 Sounds very proper. But here's the kicker. At 00:03:02.419 --> 00:03:05.419 the time of Peter's birth, his mother was married 00:03:05.419 --> 00:03:08.620 to one of Sir Sidney's officers. Oh, wow. A man 00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:12.240 named Captain Ernest Alen. Ouch. Saw a massive 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:15.439 scandal right out of the gate. Huge. In 1920s 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:19.210 Britain, this was absolute social suicide. May 00:03:19.210 --> 00:03:21.409 actually confessed to her husband that the child 00:03:21.409 --> 00:03:24.569 wasn't his, which led to a double divorce. A 00:03:24.569 --> 00:03:26.610 double divorce in the 1920s. That must have been 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:29.650 front page gossip. It was. Sir Sidney and May 00:03:29.650 --> 00:03:31.870 eventually married when Peter was one year old. 00:03:31.969 --> 00:03:34.750 But that initial instability really set the tone 00:03:34.750 --> 00:03:37.210 for his entire life. Because they were ostracized, 00:03:37.250 --> 00:03:39.110 right? Completely. Because of the scandal, they 00:03:39.110 --> 00:03:40.889 were largely shut out of their social circles. 00:03:41.009 --> 00:03:43.030 So they traveled constantly. Peter was never 00:03:43.030 --> 00:03:45.509 formally educated in a traditional school setting. 00:03:45.629 --> 00:03:48.159 And his mother sounds like a... a character in 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:50.560 her own right the notes mentioned she had very 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:53.300 specific ideas about his future she was basically 00:03:53.300 --> 00:03:56.659 the architect of his reality she explicitly stated 00:03:56.659 --> 00:03:59.879 that she decided peter was unfitted for any career 00:03:59.879 --> 00:04:02.680 except art unfitted for any career except art 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:06.080 yes she actually cut latin and mathematics out 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:08.979 of his curriculum entirely and substituted them 00:04:08.979 --> 00:04:11.620 with dramatics and tennis that is a fascinating 00:04:11.620 --> 00:04:14.310 parenting choice just hey You aren't smart enough 00:04:14.310 --> 00:04:16.490 for math, so go be famous. It's wild. Right. 00:04:16.589 --> 00:04:19.110 It put immense pressure on him to be a personality 00:04:19.110 --> 00:04:22.310 rather than an intellectual. But despite this 00:04:22.310 --> 00:04:25.529 intense focus on art, there was still this lingering 00:04:25.529 --> 00:04:28.389 expectation of military service. Because of his 00:04:28.389 --> 00:04:30.410 father. Exactly. Being the son of a lieutenant 00:04:30.410 --> 00:04:32.810 general, the military is just the default path 00:04:32.810 --> 00:04:34.970 for a young man of his class. It was expected. 00:04:35.269 --> 00:04:38.589 Right. But this is where we hit our first major 00:04:38.589 --> 00:04:41.790 pivot point, the sliding doors moment of Peter 00:04:41.790 --> 00:04:44.930 Lawford's life. He was 14 years old. This is 00:04:44.930 --> 00:04:47.050 the glass door incident. It's a moment of pure 00:04:47.050 --> 00:04:49.689 random trauma. What exactly happened? He was 00:04:49.689 --> 00:04:51.310 running through a room, seemingly just being 00:04:51.310 --> 00:04:53.829 a boisterous teenager, and his right arm went 00:04:53.829 --> 00:04:56.709 right through a glass pane. The injury was horrific. 00:04:56.990 --> 00:04:58.910 We aren't just talking about a few stitches here. 00:04:59.029 --> 00:05:01.129 No, not at all. It completely severed the nerves 00:05:01.129 --> 00:05:02.949 and tendons. And you have to remember, in the 00:05:02.949 --> 00:05:05.790 1930s, microsurgery simply didn't exist. So they 00:05:05.790 --> 00:05:09.230 couldn't fix it. No. He essentially lost the 00:05:09.230 --> 00:05:12.490 use of his forearm and hand. He suffered irreversible 00:05:12.490 --> 00:05:15.069 nerve damage. He eventually learned to conceal 00:05:15.069 --> 00:05:17.910 it later in life. He would keep his hand in his 00:05:17.910 --> 00:05:20.089 pocket or hold a cigarette to mask the immobility. 00:05:20.370 --> 00:05:23.129 But physically, the arm was ruined. And the consequences 00:05:23.129 --> 00:05:25.629 of that were immediate, right? Immediate and 00:05:25.629 --> 00:05:28.970 severe. A military career was now physically 00:05:28.970 --> 00:05:31.910 impossible. Which was the expectations. But the 00:05:31.910 --> 00:05:34.029 financial repercussions were somehow even worse. 00:05:34.709 --> 00:05:37.430 He had an aunt who had planned to leave him a 00:05:37.430 --> 00:05:40.029 considerable fortune, an inheritance that would 00:05:40.029 --> 00:05:42.470 have set him up for life. Let me guess. She wasn't 00:05:42.470 --> 00:05:45.680 happy. She was horrified. She was so disgusted 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:47.579 that he couldn't serve in the military and that 00:05:47.579 --> 00:05:49.480 he was turning to the lowly procession of acting 00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:51.740 that she literally wrote him out of her will. 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:54.000 Talk about adding insult to injury, literally. 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:56.699 Yeah. So he loses the inheritance, he loses the 00:05:56.699 --> 00:05:59.560 military path, and he is basically forced into 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:02.060 acting to survive. Exactly. And this brings us 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:04.120 to World War II, which is the part of the story 00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:06.300 that I find deeply, deeply ironic. Set that up 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:09.120 for us. Well, the war breaks out. Lawford is 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:11.459 in America at this point. His family's funds 00:06:11.459 --> 00:06:14.399 are frozen in Britain. He's broke. He's actually 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:16.560 working as a parking attendant and an usher just 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:19.040 to buy food. The son of a knight parking cars. 00:06:19.220 --> 00:06:21.560 Right. But Hollywood has a massive problem at 00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:23.759 this exact moment. All the men are gone. Correct. 00:06:23.879 --> 00:06:26.519 Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Tyrone Power, all 00:06:26.519 --> 00:06:29.040 the traditional leading men are deployed. MGM 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:31.740 is absolutely desperate. They need young, handsome 00:06:31.740 --> 00:06:34.939 men who look good in uniform to star in these 00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:38.220 morale boosting war movies. And here is Peter 00:06:38.220 --> 00:06:41.420 Lawford. Yes. Tall, handsome, authentic British 00:06:41.420 --> 00:06:44.449 accent. classified 4F because of his arm. He 00:06:44.449 --> 00:06:46.829 can't serve. So he gets hired to play the very 00:06:46.829 --> 00:06:49.449 thing he physically can't be in real life. Precisely. 00:06:49.509 --> 00:06:51.850 MGM signs him and they cast him almost exclusively 00:06:51.850 --> 00:06:54.949 as soldiers. He plays pilots, infantrymen, naval 00:06:54.949 --> 00:06:56.750 officers. He was in Mrs. Miniver, right? Yes, 00:06:56.750 --> 00:06:58.949 Mrs. Miniver, the White Cliffs of Dover, Eagle 00:06:58.949 --> 00:07:02.730 Squadron. He becomes this massive heartthrob 00:07:02.730 --> 00:07:05.750 playing military heroes while the actual real 00:07:05.750 --> 00:07:08.170 heroes are dying overseas. The source material 00:07:08.170 --> 00:07:10.850 mentions a modern screen magazine poll in 1946. 00:07:11.589 --> 00:07:13.790 Yes, he won it. He was literally voted the most 00:07:13.790 --> 00:07:16.269 popular actor in Hollywood. He was receiving 00:07:16.269 --> 00:07:19.230 thousands of fan letters a week. He was the golden 00:07:19.230 --> 00:07:21.850 boy of the MGM lot. But you have to imagine the 00:07:21.850 --> 00:07:24.839 psychological toll of that. It was heavy. He 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:27.480 suffered from severe imposter syndrome. He knew 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:30.019 he was playing a role. He knew his fame was based 00:07:30.019 --> 00:07:33.139 on this sort of lie of omission regarding his 00:07:33.139 --> 00:07:35.839 service. And looking at his filmography, he wasn't 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:37.740 exactly carrying these movies either, was he? 00:07:37.819 --> 00:07:39.920 Like he wasn't doing heavy dramatic lifting. 00:07:40.259 --> 00:07:43.180 That's a really key distinction. The critics 00:07:43.180 --> 00:07:45.779 were often pretty lukewarm on him. He was charming. 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:48.180 He was debonair. But he was usually just the 00:07:48.180 --> 00:07:50.939 best friend or the romantic interest. For a really 00:07:50.939 --> 00:07:54.000 strong female lead like Esther Williams or Judy 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.600 Garland. He was a personality. Exactly. He was 00:07:56.600 --> 00:07:58.480 a personality more than an actor. He was safe. 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:01.620 Which perfectly sets up his next major role in 00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:04.040 life, the brother -in -law. He marries Patricia 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:07.120 Kennedy in 1954. This moves him from Hollywood 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:10.839 royalty to actual American royalty. He marries 00:08:10.839 --> 00:08:13.160 into the Kennedy clan right as JFK is descending 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:15.399 on the national stage. And this is where Frank 00:08:15.399 --> 00:08:18.240 Sinatra enters the picture in a major way. Sinatra? 00:08:18.300 --> 00:08:21.720 Sinatra was obsessed with power. He saw Lawford 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:25.100 as a key to that power. He famously nicknamed 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:27.730 him Brother -in -Lawford. That nickname is just 00:08:27.730 --> 00:08:30.089 so brutal. It literally defines him entirely 00:08:30.089 --> 00:08:33.470 by his relationship to someone else. It's dismissive, 00:08:33.470 --> 00:08:37.250 but it was incredibly accurate. Lawford became 00:08:37.250 --> 00:08:40.649 the bridge. He was the conduit between the glamour 00:08:40.649 --> 00:08:43.110 of the Rat Pack and the political power of the 00:08:43.110 --> 00:08:45.129 White House. He organized the fundraisers. He 00:08:45.129 --> 00:08:47.370 organized the fundraisers. He brought the massive 00:08:47.370 --> 00:08:51.240 stars to the rallies. In 1960, he even became 00:08:51.240 --> 00:08:54.120 a U .S. citizen specifically so he could vote 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:56.399 for his brother -in -law. Wow. He was at the 00:08:56.399 --> 00:08:59.139 absolute apex of cultural relevance at that moment. 00:08:59.340 --> 00:09:01.899 He was starring in Ocean's Eleven. He was skiing 00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:03.840 with the president. He was the ultimate insider. 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:06.840 And then comes the fall. And it is steep. We 00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:09.120 have to talk about the snub. The snub, yes. This 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:11.100 story is legendary, but let's break down exactly 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:13.259 what happened according to the historical records. 00:09:13.340 --> 00:09:15.940 This is the exact moment Peter Lawford's life 00:09:15.940 --> 00:09:19.970 effectively crumbled. It's March 1962. Frank 00:09:19.970 --> 00:09:22.129 Sinatra is at the peak of his hubris. He feels 00:09:22.129 --> 00:09:25.110 untouchable. Untouchable. He expects President 00:09:25.110 --> 00:09:27.090 Kennedy to stay at his home in Palm Springs during 00:09:27.090 --> 00:09:29.490 a West Coast trip. And Sinatra had prepared for 00:09:29.490 --> 00:09:31.269 this, right? This wasn't just, you know, crashing 00:09:31.269 --> 00:09:34.570 on the couch. Oh, no. Sinatra had spent an absolute 00:09:34.570 --> 00:09:38.169 fortune. He constructed a concrete helipad specifically 00:09:38.169 --> 00:09:41.309 for the president's helicopter. He installed 00:09:41.309 --> 00:09:43.610 a full presidential communications center with 00:09:43.610 --> 00:09:46.669 direct secure lines to Washington. He built guest 00:09:46.669 --> 00:09:49.409 pottages for the Secret Service. He viewed this 00:09:49.409 --> 00:09:52.289 visit as his coronation as the cultural king 00:09:52.289 --> 00:09:55.250 of America. But he had a problem named Robert 00:09:55.250 --> 00:09:58.409 F. Kennedy. RFK, the attorney general. RFK was 00:09:58.409 --> 00:10:00.769 aggressively pursuing organized crime at the 00:10:00.769 --> 00:10:03.429 time. And he knew Sinatra was fraternizing with 00:10:03.429 --> 00:10:06.649 Sam Giancana and other major mob figures. Okay, 00:10:06.710 --> 00:10:09.879 he steps in. RFK looked at the logistics. and 00:10:09.879 --> 00:10:12.940 told the president, effectively, you cannot sleep 00:10:12.940 --> 00:10:15.059 at Frank Sinatra's house. It is a massive security 00:10:15.059 --> 00:10:17.600 risk, it is a moral liability, and it will absolutely 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:19.879 kill us in the press. So the president cancels. 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:21.720 At the very last minute. Yeah. And to really 00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:23.820 twist the knife, the administration decides the 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:25.700 president will stay at Bing Crosby's house instead. 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:29.779 Oh, that has to sting. Bing Crosby was Sinatra's 00:10:29.779 --> 00:10:32.340 massive rival. It was the ultimate humiliation. 00:10:32.970 --> 00:10:36.169 Bing Crosby was a Republican. He was the old 00:10:36.169 --> 00:10:38.450 guard and he was Sinatra's biggest professional 00:10:38.450 --> 00:10:40.870 rival. I can't even imagine Sinatra's reaction. 00:10:41.309 --> 00:10:43.929 He was incandescent with rage. He famously took 00:10:43.929 --> 00:10:46.090 a sledgehammer and personally smashed up the 00:10:46.090 --> 00:10:47.889 concrete of the helipad he had just built. A 00:10:47.889 --> 00:10:52.190 sledgehammer. Yes. But here is the thing. He 00:10:52.190 --> 00:10:54.549 couldn't unleash his rage on the president of 00:10:54.549 --> 00:10:57.669 the United States. That's treason. And he couldn't 00:10:57.669 --> 00:11:00.129 attack the attorney general. So he needed a scapegoat. 00:11:00.250 --> 00:11:02.799 He attacked the proxy. He blamed Peter Lawford. 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:05.179 He felt Lawford should have fixed it. That he 00:11:05.179 --> 00:11:06.899 should have used his family influence to smooth 00:11:06.899 --> 00:11:09.460 it over. What could Lawford even do? Nothing. 00:11:10.179 --> 00:11:12.159 Lawford tried to explain. He said, Frank, he's 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:13.580 the president. I can't tell him where to sleep. 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:15.840 Right. It didn't matter. Sinatra cut him off 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:17.740 instantly. When you say cut him off, what did 00:11:17.740 --> 00:11:20.340 that look like professionally? It was a Soviet 00:11:20.340 --> 00:11:23.200 -style erasure. Lawford was slated to star in 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:24.940 the next Rat Pack movie, Robin and the Seven 00:11:24.940 --> 00:11:27.879 Hoods. Sinatra fired him immediately and replaced 00:11:27.879 --> 00:11:31.700 him with, you guessed it, Bing Crosby. Wow. Just 00:11:31.700 --> 00:11:34.340 rubbing salt in the wound. Lawford was banned 00:11:34.340 --> 00:11:37.220 from the hangouts. He was completely excommunicated. 00:11:37.659 --> 00:11:40.500 Sinatra never spoke to him again except once, 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:44.200 very briefly, years later, when Sinatra's son 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:46.980 was kidnapped. And because Lawford's entire identity 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:48.759 was being the connector, once that connection 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:51.639 was severed, he really had nothing left. Precisely. 00:11:51.659 --> 00:11:54.919 He divorced Patricia Kennedy in 1966, so he lost 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:57.120 the White House connection, too. He just spiraled. 00:11:57.450 --> 00:11:59.710 The descriptions of his later years in the sources 00:11:59.710 --> 00:12:03.309 are really harrowing. They are. He became famous 00:12:03.309 --> 00:12:05.750 for being famous drifting through really bad 00:12:05.750 --> 00:12:08.889 TV movies, struggling with severe alcoholism 00:12:08.889 --> 00:12:11.070 and drug addiction. He was essentially a man 00:12:11.070 --> 00:12:12.870 without a country. The notes on his health are 00:12:12.870 --> 00:12:15.710 tragic. Kidney failure, liver failure. He died 00:12:15.710 --> 00:12:19.679 at just 61. On Christmas Eve, 1984. And even 00:12:19.679 --> 00:12:21.419 his death was co -opted by the media machine. 00:12:21.539 --> 00:12:23.779 This part is awful. There was a major dispute 00:12:23.779 --> 00:12:26.179 over his burial between his widow and the cemetery. 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:28.620 Eventually, his ashes were scattered in the Pacific 00:12:28.620 --> 00:12:31.779 Ocean. But his widow invited the National Enquirer 00:12:31.779 --> 00:12:34.240 to photograph the scattering. No, that is just 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:37.399 the ultimate indignity. It perfectly encapsulates 00:12:37.399 --> 00:12:40.200 his life, unfortunately. He started as the son 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:42.899 of a knight and ended as a photo op for a supermarket 00:12:42.899 --> 00:12:45.570 tabloid. He was a man who never built his own 00:12:45.570 --> 00:12:47.210 foundation. He built his house on the land of 00:12:47.210 --> 00:12:49.269 others. Yeah. And when the landlords evicted 00:12:49.269 --> 00:12:51.529 him, he just collapsed. It really highlights 00:12:51.529 --> 00:12:54.509 that idea of the system player. Yeah. He played 00:12:54.509 --> 00:12:57.429 the game, MGM, the Rat Pack, the Kennedys. But 00:12:57.429 --> 00:12:59.129 when the systems rejected him, he didn't have 00:12:59.129 --> 00:13:01.710 a core to stand on. Exactly. Now let's look at 00:13:01.710 --> 00:13:03.850 the counter argument. Shirley MacLaine. Yes. 00:13:03.929 --> 00:13:06.980 Because she was. In that rat pack orbit, she 00:13:06.980 --> 00:13:09.080 was basically the only woman they really let 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:12.299 into the inner circle. But her trajectory is 00:13:12.299 --> 00:13:14.600 completely different. Shirley MacLaine is the 00:13:14.600 --> 00:13:17.419 ultimate case study for agency. Yeah. If Lawford 00:13:17.419 --> 00:13:20.340 was defined by association, MacLaine was defined 00:13:20.340 --> 00:13:22.460 by pure self -determination. And interestingly, 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:25.419 like Lawford, her story also starts with a physical 00:13:25.419 --> 00:13:28.600 issue. The weak ankles. Yes. She was born Shirley 00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:31.730 MacLaine Beattie in Virginia. As a toddler, she 00:13:31.730 --> 00:13:33.950 had incredibly weak ankles. She would constantly 00:13:33.950 --> 00:13:36.409 fall down. So her mother put her in ballet school 00:13:36.409 --> 00:13:38.309 at age three. Not to make her a star though, 00:13:38.370 --> 00:13:41.269 right? No, not at all. It was strictly as therapy 00:13:41.269 --> 00:13:44.169 to strengthen the joint. And that created a monster 00:13:44.169 --> 00:13:46.750 in the best possible way. It instilled a military 00:13:46.750 --> 00:13:49.129 grade discipline in her. She became obsessed 00:13:49.129 --> 00:13:51.799 with dance. She never missed a class. She was 00:13:51.799 --> 00:13:54.019 often the tallest in the class, so she actually 00:13:54.019 --> 00:13:57.480 danced the male roles a lot. Oh, really? Yes, 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:00.200 which gave her a very different physical presence 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:03.960 on stage, more grounded, less delicate. There 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:06.399 is a famous story where she broke her ankle right 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:08.500 before a performance of Cinderella. She didn't 00:14:08.500 --> 00:14:11.259 dance on a broken ankle, did she? She did. She 00:14:11.259 --> 00:14:13.320 tightened the ribbons on her toe shoes to act 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:16.779 as a makeshift splint. danced the entire role, 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:19.120 took her curtain call, and then called for the 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:22.240 ambulance. That is insane. But that is the psychological 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:25.100 profile of Shirley MacLaine. The show goes on 00:14:25.100 --> 00:14:28.039 because I say it goes on. That sheer grit took 00:14:28.039 --> 00:14:29.580 her to Broadway. And this is where we get one 00:14:29.580 --> 00:14:31.480 of those classic Hollywood myths that actually 00:14:31.480 --> 00:14:34.019 turns out to be entirely true. The understudy 00:14:34.019 --> 00:14:36.440 story. It is the ultimate showbiz cliche, but 00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:38.679 it happened exactly like they say. It's 1954. 00:14:39.220 --> 00:14:41.879 She is in the chorus of the Pajama Game on Broadway, 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:44.320 and she's understudying the lead, Carol Haney. 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:47.559 And Carol Haney gets hurt. Carol Haney injures 00:14:47.559 --> 00:14:50.480 her ankle. There's a theme here. And McClane 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:52.679 goes on in her place. And who just happens to 00:14:52.679 --> 00:14:54.600 be in the audience that night? Hal B. Wallace, 00:14:54.899 --> 00:14:58.059 the legendary producer at Paramount. He was there 00:14:58.059 --> 00:15:00.779 to see the show, and he sees this dynamo on stage 00:15:00.779 --> 00:15:04.059 with pixie hair and long legs and this incredible 00:15:04.059 --> 00:15:06.960 comic timing. He signs her to a film contract 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:09.690 almost immediately. And just a few months later, 00:15:09.750 --> 00:15:12.289 she is starring in The Trouble with Harry for 00:15:12.289 --> 00:15:14.289 Alfred Hitchcock. For Hitchcock. Talk about a 00:15:14.289 --> 00:15:16.330 launch pad. Hitchcock for your very first movie. 00:15:16.450 --> 00:15:18.990 But then she also ends up in the Rat Pack orbit. 00:15:19.190 --> 00:15:22.070 She's in Some Came Running, and she has a cameo 00:15:22.070 --> 00:15:25.049 in Ocean's Eleven. She calls herself the mascot. 00:15:25.769 --> 00:15:28.269 How did she survive that boys club environment? 00:15:28.789 --> 00:15:31.600 By never playing the damsel. She wasn't a romantic 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:34.159 conquest for them. She always said Sinatra and 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:36.299 Dean Martin never hit on her. They protected 00:15:36.299 --> 00:15:38.559 her. So she was just one of the guys. In a very 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:40.740 male dominated environment, she absolutely held 00:15:40.740 --> 00:15:42.600 her own. She could drink with them. She could 00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:44.919 swear with them. And crucially, she was financially 00:15:44.919 --> 00:15:47.039 independent. She wasn't an accessory. She was 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:49.500 a peer. But she wasn't afraid to fight the powers 00:15:49.500 --> 00:15:51.919 that be either. I was reading about her lawsuits 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.240 in the sources, and I genuinely didn't realize 00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:56.960 she was such a legal pioneer in Hollywood. This 00:15:56.960 --> 00:16:00.740 is probably her most underrated legacy. In the 00:16:00.740 --> 00:16:03.720 old studio system, actors were essentially indentured 00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:06.419 servants. If you turned down a role, the studio 00:16:06.419 --> 00:16:08.919 would suspend you. And then they would just add 00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:10.799 the time of the suspension to the end of your 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:12.919 contract. So you could never leave. Exactly. 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:14.440 You could never leave. It's a hamster wheel. 00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:17.440 A legal hamster wheel. McLean actually sued Hal 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:20.120 Wallace, the man who discovered her, to break 00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:23.320 that cycle early in her career. Gutsy. But her 00:16:23.320 --> 00:16:25.759 biggest legal victory was against 20th Century 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:30.120 Fox. This is the case. Parker v. 20th Century 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:32.220 Fox Film Corp. Parker because she was married 00:16:32.220 --> 00:16:34.120 to Steve Parker at the time, right? Yes. And 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:36.679 this case is literally a staple of first -year 00:16:36.679 --> 00:16:39.460 contract law classes today. Break that down for 00:16:39.460 --> 00:16:41.639 us. What actually happened? She signed a contract 00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:44.639 to star in a musical called Bloomer Girl. The 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:48.659 fee was $750 ,000, which was huge money for the 00:16:48.659 --> 00:16:50.779 time. Massive. But the studio canceled the film. 00:16:51.759 --> 00:16:53.820 But they said, don't worry, we will pay you the 00:16:53.820 --> 00:16:57.039 exact same money, but you have to star in this 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:59.169 other movie we are making called... Big country, 00:16:59.250 --> 00:17:02.490 big man. A Western. A Western. And critically, 00:17:02.909 --> 00:17:05.309 Bloomer Girl was going to shoot in Los Angeles. 00:17:05.710 --> 00:17:08.230 The Western was shooting in the Australian Outback. 00:17:08.349 --> 00:17:11.369 Big difference. Shirley said no. A musical in 00:17:11.369 --> 00:17:14.009 L .A. is not the same job as a Western in the 00:17:14.009 --> 00:17:15.849 Australian Outback. You breached the contract. 00:17:16.130 --> 00:17:18.190 And the studio presumably said, you're being 00:17:18.190 --> 00:17:20.630 difficult. It's the same money. Take the job 00:17:20.630 --> 00:17:23.150 or you get nothing. Exactly. And most actors 00:17:23.150 --> 00:17:24.670 at that time would have caved. They would have 00:17:24.670 --> 00:17:26.609 taken the money and gone to Australia. But McLean 00:17:26.609 --> 00:17:29.440 sued. She sued. And the case went all the way 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.240 up to the California Supreme Court. Wow. The 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:34.859 court ruled in her favor, establishing the legal 00:17:34.859 --> 00:17:37.539 precedent that an employee does not have to accept 00:17:37.539 --> 00:17:41.039 inferior or different work to mitigate damages 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:43.339 in a contract dispute. So she forced the studio 00:17:43.339 --> 00:17:46.180 to pay her the $750 ,000 for doing absolutely 00:17:46.180 --> 00:17:49.539 nothing. Yes. That is a total boss move. It completely 00:17:49.539 --> 00:17:52.660 shifted the balance of power in Hollywood. She 00:17:52.660 --> 00:17:55.160 proved you could literally punch the studio in 00:17:55.160 --> 00:17:57.759 the mouth and survive. Which, speaking of punching, 00:17:57.980 --> 00:18:00.720 we have to mention Mike Connelly. We do. The 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:03.859 columnist from The Hollywood Reporter. Yes. He 00:18:03.859 --> 00:18:06.460 had been writing all these snarky, negative things 00:18:06.460 --> 00:18:09.119 about her contract disputes in the trade papers. 00:18:09.529 --> 00:18:11.970 And she didn't just write a strongly worded letter 00:18:11.970 --> 00:18:15.690 to the editor. No. She physically marched into 00:18:15.690 --> 00:18:18.950 his office, walked right up to his desk, and 00:18:18.950 --> 00:18:21.410 punched him right in the mouth. I can just picture 00:18:21.410 --> 00:18:23.670 it. That's incredible. It made the cover of the 00:18:23.670 --> 00:18:26.950 New York Post. The headline was, Shirley Delivers 00:18:26.950 --> 00:18:29.490 a Punchy Line. Of course it was. It just shows 00:18:29.490 --> 00:18:31.190 you she wasn't going to be bullied by the press 00:18:31.190 --> 00:18:34.160 or the studios. She commanded respect. But then 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:36.559 you have this whole other side of her, the metaphysics, 00:18:36.660 --> 00:18:38.940 the spirituality. To a lot of people, especially 00:18:38.940 --> 00:18:41.839 in the 80s, she became the lady who talks about 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:45.279 UFOs. Yes. This became a massive part of her 00:18:45.279 --> 00:18:48.059 public persona. She wrote these huge bestselling 00:18:48.059 --> 00:18:50.680 books like Out on a Limb. Right. She spoke openly 00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:53.339 about reincarnation, about trance channeling. 00:18:53.559 --> 00:18:56.119 She talked about her past life in Atlantis, where 00:18:56.119 --> 00:18:59.039 she claimed she was the brother of a 35 ,000 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:01.920 -year -old spirit. named Ramtha. Ramtha, right. 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:04.720 And the UFOs. She talked constantly about seeing 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:07.460 UFOs at a ranch in New Mexico. She was completely 00:19:07.460 --> 00:19:09.980 unapologetic about it. It's easy to chuckle at 00:19:09.980 --> 00:19:12.299 the Atlanta stuff now, but looking at it strictly 00:19:12.299 --> 00:19:15.140 through the lens of her career and her business, 00:19:15.460 --> 00:19:19.599 does this hurt her? Surprisingly, no. In fact, 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:21.400 paradoxically, it might have actually helped 00:19:21.400 --> 00:19:24.420 sustain her relevance. How so? While Wofford 00:19:24.420 --> 00:19:27.029 was fading away, McLean was evolving. She became 00:19:27.029 --> 00:19:29.309 a central figure in the entire New Age movement. 00:19:29.470 --> 00:19:31.650 It gave her a platform that had absolutely nothing 00:19:31.650 --> 00:19:33.809 to do with Hollywood casting directors. So she 00:19:33.809 --> 00:19:36.990 diversified. Exactly. She became a guru. She 00:19:36.990 --> 00:19:39.490 was doing seminars. She created a direct relationship 00:19:39.490 --> 00:19:41.750 with a new audience that bypassed the studio 00:19:41.750 --> 00:19:44.450 gatekeepers entirely. And artistically, she kept 00:19:44.450 --> 00:19:46.509 delivering. I mean, she wins the Oscar for Terms 00:19:46.509 --> 00:19:49.730 of Endearment in 1983. She does. And look at 00:19:49.730 --> 00:19:54.079 that role. Aurora Greenway. A difficult... Prickly, 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:57.119 deeply complex mother. She wasn't trying to be 00:19:57.119 --> 00:19:59.839 the cute pixie anymore. She allowed herself to 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:02.799 age on screen and to be unlikable. That takes 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:05.500 artistic bravery. It does, and she just kept 00:20:05.500 --> 00:20:09.099 working. Into her 80s and 90s, Downton Abbey. 00:20:09.380 --> 00:20:12.099 Only murders in the building. She adapted. She 00:20:12.099 --> 00:20:14.140 fought the system when she needed to. But she 00:20:14.140 --> 00:20:16.160 also created her own reality, both literally 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:18.079 and spiritually. That just kept her interesting. 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:21.079 So Lawford gets crushed by the system. McLean 00:20:21.079 --> 00:20:23.319 fights the system and builds her own world. Right. 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:25.920 Now let's look at Tony Bennett because his path 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:28.700 feels very different again. He's not an aristocrat 00:20:28.700 --> 00:20:31.900 and he's not really a Hollywood insider in the 00:20:31.900 --> 00:20:34.240 same way the other two were. Not at all. Tony 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:37.099 Bennett, born Anthony Benedetto, was a pure product 00:20:37.099 --> 00:20:39.059 of Queens, New York. Yeah. He grew up in deep 00:20:39.059 --> 00:20:41.130 poverty during the Depression. His father died 00:20:41.130 --> 00:20:43.089 when he was just 10 years old. So he was working 00:20:43.089 --> 00:20:45.369 early. He was singing as a singing waiter at 00:20:45.369 --> 00:20:48.670 age 13 just to help support his family. But the 00:20:48.670 --> 00:20:51.569 defining event for him has to be World War II. 00:20:52.329 --> 00:20:54.609 I was actually genuinely shocked reading the 00:20:54.609 --> 00:20:57.130 details of his service in the sources. Most people 00:20:57.130 --> 00:20:59.569 are. You hear Tony Bennett and you think I left 00:20:59.569 --> 00:21:02.190 my heart in San Francisco. You don't think infantry 00:21:02.190 --> 00:21:05.170 riflemen in Nazi Germany. It is a really jarring 00:21:05.170 --> 00:21:08.740 contrast. Anthony Benedetto was drafted in 1944. 00:21:09.559 --> 00:21:12.519 He was assigned to the 63rd Infantry Division, 00:21:12.779 --> 00:21:14.839 which was known as the Blood and Fire Division. 00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:17.740 That sounds intense. This wasn't the USO tour. 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:20.039 He wasn't back at base singing for the troops. 00:21:20.180 --> 00:21:23.299 He was a frontline infantryman during the coldest 00:21:23.299 --> 00:21:25.640 winter in recorded European history. The source 00:21:25.640 --> 00:21:28.180 material mentions him being in foxholes and facing 00:21:28.180 --> 00:21:32.410 88mm guns. Yes. He fought in the direct aftermath 00:21:32.410 --> 00:21:35.309 of the Battle of the Bulge. He was digging foxholes 00:21:35.309 --> 00:21:37.789 and frozen solid ground while being shelled by 00:21:37.789 --> 00:21:40.970 German 88mm artillery. He described it later 00:21:40.970 --> 00:21:44.130 as having a front row seat in hell. God. He saw 00:21:44.130 --> 00:21:46.730 his close friends killed right next to him. But 00:21:46.730 --> 00:21:48.789 the most haunting moment for him was the liberation 00:21:48.789 --> 00:21:51.930 of the concentration camp. Koffering? Yes, Koffering 00:21:51.930 --> 00:21:54.730 I, which was a sub -camp of Dachau. He was among 00:21:54.730 --> 00:21:56.809 the American soldiers who liberated it. What 00:21:56.809 --> 00:22:00.519 did he see? He saw the piles of bodies. He saw 00:22:00.519 --> 00:22:04.119 the starving, traumatized survivors. He wrote 00:22:04.119 --> 00:22:06.619 later that he saw things no human being should 00:22:06.619 --> 00:22:10.160 ever have to see. And that exact experience turned 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:14.440 him into a fervent, lifelong pacifist. He said, 00:22:14.460 --> 00:22:18.230 this is not life. Every war is insane. There 00:22:18.230 --> 00:22:20.430 was another incident within the Army itself that 00:22:20.430 --> 00:22:23.170 really shaped him, specifically regarding race. 00:22:23.329 --> 00:22:25.230 Yes. You have to remember, the U .S. Army was 00:22:25.230 --> 00:22:28.490 still completely racially segregated during WWII. 00:22:28.730 --> 00:22:31.829 Right. After the fighting stopped, Bennett was 00:22:31.829 --> 00:22:34.509 in the occupying force in Germany. He ran into 00:22:34.509 --> 00:22:36.309 a high school friend of his from New York who 00:22:36.309 --> 00:22:38.849 happened to be black. They were so happy to see 00:22:38.849 --> 00:22:40.369 each other, they went to have Thanksgiving dinner 00:22:40.369 --> 00:22:42.289 together in the mess hall. Just two guys from 00:22:42.289 --> 00:22:44.269 New York eating dinner? Just two friends. Yeah. 00:22:44.410 --> 00:22:47.130 But an officer saw them. And he was absolutely 00:22:47.130 --> 00:22:49.509 furious that a white corporal was binding with 00:22:49.509 --> 00:22:52.069 a black soldier. He actually walked over, spit 00:22:52.069 --> 00:22:54.369 on Bennett's rank insignia, ripped them off his 00:22:54.369 --> 00:22:56.650 uniform right there, and demoted him from corporal 00:22:56.650 --> 00:22:58.250 to private. For eating dinner with a friend. 00:22:58.430 --> 00:23:00.809 Yes. And he was reassigned to graves registration 00:23:00.809 --> 00:23:03.890 duties as a punishment. Digging up bodies. Exhuming 00:23:03.890 --> 00:23:06.970 mass graves. It was a direct punishment for the 00:23:06.970 --> 00:23:09.269 crime of eating dinner with a black friend. That 00:23:09.269 --> 00:23:11.950 fury, that sense of profound injustice burned 00:23:11.950 --> 00:23:14.369 in him forever. It explains so much about his 00:23:14.369 --> 00:23:16.839 later politics, which we'll get to. So he comes 00:23:16.839 --> 00:23:19.039 back from this absolute nightmare. How does he 00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:21.400 become the Tony Bennett we know? He uses the 00:23:21.400 --> 00:23:23.920 GI Bill to study at the American Theater Wing. 00:23:24.279 --> 00:23:26.880 And this is a crucial technical point. While 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:29.500 he was there, he learned the bel canto singing 00:23:29.500 --> 00:23:32.099 technique. Okay, let's pause right there. What 00:23:32.099 --> 00:23:34.720 exactly is bel canto and why does it matter so 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:37.640 much to his story? Bel canto literally translates 00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:40.859 to beautiful singing. It is a classical operatic 00:23:40.859 --> 00:23:44.069 technique. Most pop or jazz singers sing directly 00:23:44.069 --> 00:23:46.230 from the throat. It sounds great. It's raspy. 00:23:46.230 --> 00:23:48.630 It's intimate. But it puts tremendous physical 00:23:48.630 --> 00:23:51.369 strain on the vocal cords. So it wears out. If 00:23:51.369 --> 00:23:53.769 you sing from the throat for 40 years, you will 00:23:53.769 --> 00:23:56.470 lose your voice. It's inevitable. Belcanto teaches 00:23:56.470 --> 00:23:58.930 you to keep the throat completely open and relaxed 00:23:58.930 --> 00:24:02.190 and to support the sound entirely with your diaphragm 00:24:02.190 --> 00:24:04.430 and your core muscles. It's structural. Exactly. 00:24:04.549 --> 00:24:06.329 It's structural. His teacher told him if you 00:24:06.329 --> 00:24:08.269 learn this technique, your voice will last forever. 00:24:08.759 --> 00:24:11.380 And it did. It absolutely did. He was singing 00:24:11.380 --> 00:24:14.160 with perfect clarity in his 90s because he wasn't 00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:16.480 straining at all. He was treating his voice like 00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:18.880 a Stradivarius violin. So he has the technique. 00:24:19.099 --> 00:24:21.960 He gets discovered by Pearl Bailey. Bob Hope 00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:25.059 gives him the stage name Tony Bennett. And then 00:24:25.059 --> 00:24:29.960 the hits just start coming. Because of you. Rags 00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:31.980 to riches. He becomes a massive star. And then 00:24:31.980 --> 00:24:34.920 the monster hit. I left my heart in San Francisco 00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:39.089 in 1962. That song was the peak. It won multiple 00:24:39.089 --> 00:24:41.730 Grammys. It became his signature tune globally. 00:24:42.069 --> 00:24:46.170 But then the culture changed overnight. The Beatles. 00:24:46.430 --> 00:24:49.690 The Beatles arrived in 1964. Rock and roll completely 00:24:49.690 --> 00:24:52.049 took over the charts. And suddenly the traditional 00:24:52.049 --> 00:24:54.390 crooner was essentially extinct. This is the 00:24:54.390 --> 00:24:56.609 slump phase. And reading the sources, it sounds 00:24:56.609 --> 00:24:58.250 like it was really rough for him. The record 00:24:58.250 --> 00:25:00.470 executives really wanted him to change his style 00:25:00.470 --> 00:25:02.920 right. Clive Davis at Columbia Records pressured 00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:05.180 him relentlessly. He basically told him, nobody 00:25:05.180 --> 00:25:07.279 wants your jazz standards anymore, Tony. You 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:09.740 need to record rock songs. You need to be contemporary. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:12.859 And Bennett hated that. He despised it. There 00:25:12.859 --> 00:25:15.480 is a verified story that he actually physically 00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:18.240 vomited before a recording session because he 00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:20.480 was so disgusted by the material he was being 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:22.579 forced to sing. What were they making him sing? 00:25:22.940 --> 00:25:26.000 Songs like Eleanor Rigby, which is a great song, 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:28.039 but he just didn't connect with it. He felt he 00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:30.559 was completely selling out his art. And his personal 00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:33.140 life was spiraling at the same time, too. Very 00:25:33.140 --> 00:25:36.700 badly. By the late 70s, he had no recording contracts. 00:25:36.779 --> 00:25:39.640 He had no manager. He was living out in Los Angeles, 00:25:39.660 --> 00:25:42.559 severely addicted to cocaine, and the IRS was 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:44.940 trying to seize his house for back taxes. He 00:25:44.940 --> 00:25:47.559 was on the brink. He overdosed in a bathtub and 00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:50.640 had a literal near -death experience. That is 00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:52.859 rock bottom. So how on earth does he get out 00:25:52.859 --> 00:25:55.180 of that? He makes a phone call. He calls his 00:25:55.180 --> 00:25:57.890 sons. and his son Danny Bennett, who was actually 00:25:57.890 --> 00:26:00.450 an aspiring rock musician himself, but had a 00:26:00.450 --> 00:26:02.450 brilliant head for business, stepped up. Danny 00:26:02.450 --> 00:26:04.609 takes over. Danny took over as his full -time 00:26:04.609 --> 00:26:07.529 manager. And he came up with a strategy that 00:26:07.529 --> 00:26:10.109 was absolutely brilliant in its simplicity. What 00:26:10.109 --> 00:26:13.069 was the strategy? Danny realized that Tony's 00:26:13.069 --> 00:26:15.849 problem wasn't the music. The music itself was 00:26:15.849 --> 00:26:19.910 timeless. The problem was the audience. The current 00:26:19.910 --> 00:26:23.400 audience was literally dying out. So what do 00:26:23.400 --> 00:26:25.240 you do? Danny said, we aren't going to change 00:26:25.240 --> 00:26:27.400 the music at all. You're going to wear the suit. 00:26:27.720 --> 00:26:29.680 You're going to sing the great American songbook. 00:26:29.960 --> 00:26:31.900 But we are going to change where you sing it. 00:26:31.960 --> 00:26:34.940 So instead of Vegas lounges. He books him on 00:26:34.940 --> 00:26:36.779 Late Night with David Letterman. He gets him 00:26:36.779 --> 00:26:39.960 a guest spot on The Simpsons. Capital City. Exactly. 00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:43.259 And eventually the absolute masterstroke. MTV 00:26:43.259 --> 00:26:46.240 Unplugged. That MTV Unplugged album, I remember 00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:48.839 that so clearly. It was a massive cultural moment. 00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:51.940 It was huge. It's 1994. Tony Bennett walks out 00:26:51.940 --> 00:26:54.799 on the MTV stage. He is wearing an immaculate 00:26:54.799 --> 00:26:57.160 suit and tie. He looks like everyone's classy 00:26:57.160 --> 00:26:59.660 grandfather. And he just stands there and sings, 00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:02.099 Steppin' Out With My Baby. And the kids loved 00:27:02.099 --> 00:27:05.579 it. The slacker Generation X, the grunge kids 00:27:05.579 --> 00:27:08.220 in flannel shirts, they absolutely devoured it. 00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:09.740 Why do you think that worked so well? Why did 00:27:09.740 --> 00:27:12.200 they connect with him, of all people? Authenticity. 00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:15.440 Pure authenticity. He wasn't a 60 -something 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:17.619 guy trying to wear leather pants and pretend 00:27:17.619 --> 00:27:20.279 to be a rock star. He was just this cool, classy 00:27:20.279 --> 00:27:23.480 guy in a tie singing Gershwin flawlessly. He 00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:25.259 didn't try to be young. He just was himself. 00:27:25.660 --> 00:27:28.119 In a world of plastic pop, here was a guy who 00:27:28.119 --> 00:27:30.640 was the real deal. Exactly. He won the Grammy 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:32.839 for Album of the Year for that record. He beat 00:27:32.839 --> 00:27:35.140 out Pearl Jam and Eric Clapton, didn't he? He 00:27:35.140 --> 00:27:37.799 did. It is arguably the greatest comeback in 00:27:37.799 --> 00:27:40.339 music history. And that momentum carried him 00:27:40.339 --> 00:27:43.119 all the way into the modern era with Lady Gaga. 00:27:43.299 --> 00:27:44.960 Right. We have to talk about the end of his career, 00:27:45.019 --> 00:27:48.480 too. The collaborations with Gaga and the Alzheimer's 00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:50.720 diagnosis. He was revealed to the public in 2021, 00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:53.140 although he was actually diagnosed back in 2016. 00:27:53.619 --> 00:27:56.059 What is truly incredible, neurologically speaking, 00:27:56.319 --> 00:27:59.579 is that even with severe memory loss, the music 00:27:59.579 --> 00:28:01.920 remained completely intact. How is that possible? 00:28:02.200 --> 00:28:04.000 His neurologist actually noted that touring and 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:06.609 performing kept his brain stimulated. The neural 00:28:06.609 --> 00:28:08.410 pathways in the brain for musical performance 00:28:08.410 --> 00:28:10.470 are entirely different from declarative memory. 00:28:10.650 --> 00:28:12.890 So he might forget a conversation, but not a 00:28:12.890 --> 00:28:15.730 song. Exactly. He could step onto the stage at 00:28:15.730 --> 00:28:18.690 Radio City Music Hall alongside Lady Gaga, maybe 00:28:18.690 --> 00:28:20.730 not knowing exactly where he was five minutes 00:28:20.730 --> 00:28:24.009 before. But the exact second the piano started, 00:28:24.109 --> 00:28:26.970 he knew every lyric, every nuance, every note. 00:28:27.049 --> 00:28:30.859 It was muscle memory and soul memory. That is 00:28:30.859 --> 00:28:32.680 just beautiful. So we have these three really 00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:35.039 incredible lives. But I want to circle back to 00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:38.599 something we touched on earlier. Politics. Yes. 00:28:38.680 --> 00:28:41.180 Because according to the sources, all three of 00:28:41.180 --> 00:28:43.519 them were deeply involved in politics, weren't 00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:45.400 they? They were. And it's not just that they 00:28:45.400 --> 00:28:47.099 were involved. It's that they took very real 00:28:47.099 --> 00:28:50.500 personal and professional risks. But their motivations 00:28:50.500 --> 00:28:53.180 for doing so were entirely different. Let's break 00:28:53.180 --> 00:28:55.000 that down. We talked about Lawford fundraising 00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:57.539 for JFK. That was obviously personal. Right. 00:28:57.660 --> 00:29:00.150 Lawford was a partisan. He raised millions of 00:29:00.150 --> 00:29:01.730 dollars for the Democratic Party because his 00:29:01.730 --> 00:29:03.769 brother -in -law was the candidate. He was tribal. 00:29:03.990 --> 00:29:06.150 He was essentially the Hollywood ATM for the 00:29:06.150 --> 00:29:08.589 party. But it was fundamentally about family 00:29:08.589 --> 00:29:12.289 loyalty and proximity to power. And McLean. She 00:29:12.289 --> 00:29:15.049 seems a bit more ideological. Shirley McLean 00:29:15.049 --> 00:29:17.890 actually put her entire Hollywood career on hold 00:29:17.890 --> 00:29:21.970 in 1972 to campaign full time for George McGovern 00:29:21.970 --> 00:29:25.069 against Richard Dixon. I read her agent threatened 00:29:25.069 --> 00:29:28.519 to quit over it. He did. And she spent $250 ,000 00:29:28.519 --> 00:29:31.180 of her own money on the campaign, which adjusted 00:29:31.180 --> 00:29:34.420 for inflation is like $1 .4 million today. Wow. 00:29:34.599 --> 00:29:37.279 She was organizing. She was fundraising. She 00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:39.200 was writing books about the political process. 00:29:39.539 --> 00:29:41.759 She was a true believer in the anti -war movement. 00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:44.519 Her politics were deeply intellectual and spiritual. 00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:46.890 And then there's Bennett. Bennett's activism 00:29:46.890 --> 00:29:49.849 was born directly from his war experience and 00:29:49.849 --> 00:29:52.269 that traumatic demotion in the army. He marched 00:29:52.269 --> 00:29:54.730 in Selma with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965. 00:29:55.069 --> 00:29:57.630 That was incredibly dangerous at the time for 00:29:57.630 --> 00:30:00.049 a high -profile celebrity. Extremely dangerous. 00:30:01.640 --> 00:30:03.900 A white civil rights activist who actually drove 00:30:03.900 --> 00:30:06.779 Bennett to the airport after the march was murdered 00:30:06.779 --> 00:30:09.279 by the Ku Klux Klan later that exact same day. 00:30:09.339 --> 00:30:11.920 My God. Bennett knew the stakes. He performed 00:30:11.920 --> 00:30:14.099 on a makeshift stage in Montgomery made out of 00:30:14.099 --> 00:30:16.920 actual coffins. And years later, he absolutely 00:30:16.920 --> 00:30:19.299 refused to perform in apartheid South Africa. 00:30:19.460 --> 00:30:22.319 It wasn't PR for him. No. For him it wasn't about 00:30:22.319 --> 00:30:25.299 branding. It was a strict moral imperative. He 00:30:25.299 --> 00:30:27.480 had seen the concentration camps. He had felt 00:30:27.480 --> 00:30:31.059 the sting of racism in his own unit. He simply 00:30:31.059 --> 00:30:33.259 couldn't stay silent. It's really interesting 00:30:33.259 --> 00:30:35.700 to see how they all lean left politically, but 00:30:35.700 --> 00:30:38.140 for slightly different reasons. Just to summarize 00:30:38.140 --> 00:30:40.519 what the sources show, Lawford was driven by 00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:43.279 family ties, McLean by intellectual conviction, 00:30:43.460 --> 00:30:47.160 and Bennett by live trauma. Exactly. And I think 00:30:47.160 --> 00:30:50.180 this brings us to the real sort of so what of 00:30:50.180 --> 00:30:52.539 our deep dives today. The synthesis. Right. When 00:30:52.539 --> 00:30:55.119 we look at these three lives side by side, what 00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:57.039 do we actually see? Well, let's look at the scorecard. 00:30:57.220 --> 00:31:01.109 Lawford. He ends up sad, isolated, defined completely 00:31:01.109 --> 00:31:04.109 by his proximity to others. Lawford is the tragedy 00:31:04.109 --> 00:31:06.730 of the association. He defined his entire existence 00:31:06.730 --> 00:31:10.069 by who he knew. Sinatra, JFK, the Rat Pack. When 00:31:10.069 --> 00:31:12.049 those people cut him off, he literally ceased 00:31:12.049 --> 00:31:14.569 to exist in his own mind. He was a satellite 00:31:14.569 --> 00:31:17.410 that lost its planet. And McLean. McLean is the 00:31:17.410 --> 00:31:19.529 individualist. She frankly didn't care if the 00:31:19.529 --> 00:31:21.950 system liked her. She sued the system. She punched 00:31:21.950 --> 00:31:23.990 the critics in the mouth. She created her own 00:31:23.990 --> 00:31:26.569 philosophy. She survived because her sense of 00:31:26.569 --> 00:31:29.380 self came from inside. Even if that inside was 00:31:29.380 --> 00:31:32.339 filled with Atlantean spirits and UFOs. Exactly. 00:31:32.339 --> 00:31:35.079 It was hers. It belonged to her, not a studio. 00:31:35.339 --> 00:31:38.259 And Bennett, where does he fit? Bennett is the 00:31:38.259 --> 00:31:41.740 purist. He believed in the art. He believed in 00:31:41.740 --> 00:31:44.059 that Bel Canto technique he learned in the 40s. 00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:46.200 He believed that if he just kept doing the thing 00:31:46.200 --> 00:31:48.240 he was genuinely good at with total integrity, 00:31:48.500 --> 00:31:50.819 eventually the world would come back around to 00:31:50.819 --> 00:31:53.059 him. And he was right. He was completely right. 00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:56.019 He outlasted the trends by simply ignoring them. 00:31:56.220 --> 00:31:59.680 It's the art versus the celebrity. Lawford became 00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:02.440 famous for being famous. Bennett became a national 00:32:02.440 --> 00:32:04.940 endowment for the arts jazz master and an accomplished 00:32:04.940 --> 00:32:07.259 painter with his actual artwork hanging in the 00:32:07.259 --> 00:32:10.819 Smithsonian. McLean became an author and a legendary 00:32:10.819 --> 00:32:13.039 actress. It really makes you think about this 00:32:13.039 --> 00:32:15.339 whole concept of rebranding. We talk about it 00:32:15.339 --> 00:32:18.000 all the time now in modern culture. But Bennett 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:21.140 didn't rebrand. He stayed exactly the same. The 00:32:21.140 --> 00:32:23.710 world rebranded around him. That's fascinating. 00:32:23.930 --> 00:32:26.009 Lawford couldn't rebrand because he had no brand 00:32:26.009 --> 00:32:28.750 other than Kennedy and Law. And McLean rebranded 00:32:28.750 --> 00:32:31.329 constantly because she was just endlessly, relentlessly 00:32:31.329 --> 00:32:33.990 curious. That is a great way to put it. One thing 00:32:33.990 --> 00:32:36.089 that really stands out to me looking at all three 00:32:36.089 --> 00:32:38.750 is the role of resilience. All three of them 00:32:38.750 --> 00:32:40.829 faced a distinct moment where the industry basically 00:32:40.829 --> 00:32:43.490 said, we are done with you. Yes. For Lawford, 00:32:43.609 --> 00:32:46.369 it was the Sinatra snub. He accepted the verdict 00:32:46.369 --> 00:32:48.630 and he just withered away. For McLean, it was 00:32:48.630 --> 00:32:50.950 the contract disputes. She actively fought back. 00:32:51.089 --> 00:32:52.920 For Bennett, it was the... rock and roll era, 00:32:53.059 --> 00:32:57.059 and he just endured it. It really comes down 00:32:57.059 --> 00:33:00.119 to what you are anchored to in life. Are you 00:33:00.119 --> 00:33:02.380 anchored to other people's approval, or are you 00:33:02.380 --> 00:33:04.440 anchored to your own craft and your own deeply 00:33:04.440 --> 00:33:07.299 held beliefs? Authenticity is such a buzzword 00:33:07.299 --> 00:33:09.519 now, but Tony Bennett was the living, breathing 00:33:09.519 --> 00:33:12.380 embodiment of it. Shirley MacLaine is the embodiment 00:33:12.380 --> 00:33:15.880 of fearless curiosity. And Peter Lawford. He 00:33:15.880 --> 00:33:18.819 is a stark, cautionary tale of what happens when 00:33:18.819 --> 00:33:20.500 you build your house on someone else's land. 00:33:20.680 --> 00:33:22.970 Precisely. Competence is the only true security. 00:33:23.170 --> 00:33:24.930 So here is a final thought to leave you with 00:33:24.930 --> 00:33:27.890 today. We live in an era of influencers. We do. 00:33:27.990 --> 00:33:30.710 People who are famous strictly for who they know, 00:33:30.769 --> 00:33:32.710 what parties they go to, who they're seen with 00:33:32.710 --> 00:33:36.450 online. It feels very Peter Lawford. It does 00:33:36.450 --> 00:33:39.029 feel like that. It is a very fragile kind of 00:33:39.029 --> 00:33:41.069 thing. But Tony Bennett and Shirley MacLaine 00:33:41.069 --> 00:33:44.750 remind us that true longevity, the kind of career 00:33:44.750 --> 00:33:48.269 that lasts 70, 80, 90 years, requires something 00:33:48.269 --> 00:33:51.769 else entirely. It requires a tangible skill, 00:33:51.970 --> 00:33:55.470 a real belief, a solid core. Absolutely. If the 00:33:55.470 --> 00:33:57.230 Internet just turned off tomorrow and you lost 00:33:57.230 --> 00:33:59.289 all your followers and your famous friends stopped 00:33:59.289 --> 00:34:01.890 calling, who would you be? Would you crumble 00:34:01.890 --> 00:34:03.990 like Lawford or would you tighten ballet shoes 00:34:03.990 --> 00:34:05.410 or pick up the microphone and just keep going? 00:34:05.589 --> 00:34:07.769 That is the ultimate question. Thanks for diving 00:34:07.769 --> 00:34:08.989 deep with us. We'll see you next time.