Mailer

“It is very important to me 

not to be 

sent to some mental institution. 

I’m a sane man. 

If this happens, for the rest of my life, 

My Work will be considered as 

The Work of a man with a disordered mind.”

“Mailer is a Bolinbroker, a born usurper. He will raise an army anywhere, live off the country as best he can, helped by a devoted underground, even assisted at brief moments by rival claimants like myself. Yet when all is said, none of this is the way to live. And it is not a way — at least it makes the way harder — to make a literature, which, no doubt quixotically, remains the interest of each of us. I suppose if it helps Hemingway to think of literature as a Golden Gloves Tournament with himself pounding Maupassant to the mat or fighting Tolstoy to a draw, then no doubt the fantasy has been of some use. But there is also evidence that the preoccupation with Power is a great waste of time. And Mailer has had the honesty to confess that his own competitiveness has wasted him as he worries about reviewers and bad publicity and the seemingly spiteful successes of other novelists…..”

Vidal VS Mailer — A Battle of Wit!

The Dick Cavett Show

The infamous feud between novelist Norman Mailer and writer Gore Vidal comes to a head in a battle of wit, sarcasm, and condescension with the audience and Janet Flanner (reluctantly) in the front row.

Who do you think "won" this clash?

Date aired - December 1st, 1971 - 

Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Janet Flanner

Dick Cavett has been nominated for eleven Emmy awards (the most recent in 2012 for the HBO special, Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again), and won three.  Spanning five decades, Dick Cavett’s television career has defined excellence in the interview format.  He started at ABC in 1968, and also enjoyed success on PBS, USA, and CNBC.

 

His most recent television successes were the September 2014 PBS special, Dick Cavett’s Watergate, followed April 2015 by Dick Cavett’s Vietnam. He has appeared in movies, tv specials, tv commercials, and several Broadway plays. He starred in an off-Broadway production ofHellman v. McCarthy in 2014 and reprised the role at Theatre 40 in LA February 2015.

 

Cavett has published four books beginning with Cavett (1974) and Eye on Cavett (1983), co-authored with Christopher Porterfield.  His two recent books -- Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets (2010) and Brief Encounters: Conversations, Magic moments, and Assorted Hijinks(October 2014) are both collections of his online opinion column, written for The New York Times since 2007. Additionally, he has written for The New Yorker, TV Guide, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere.

#DickCavett #NormanMailer #GoreVidal #JanetFlanner #WomensLib #Feminism #Writers #NewYork #Awkward #Liberals #Conservatives #TheDickCavettShow

Why Norman Mailer Was So Infuriating

Dick Cavett | Big Think

Why Norman Mailer Was So Infuriating

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The famous clash between the author and Dick Cavett was triggered, in part, by Mailer’s misunderstanding of what an "interview" is supposed to be.

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DICK CAVETT:

Dick Cavett was the host of “The Dick Cavett Show” and the co-author of two books, “Cavett” (1974) and “Eye on Cavett” (1983). He has appeared on Broadway in “Otherwise Engaged,” “Into the Woods” and as narrator in “The Rocky Horror Show,” and has made guest appearances in movies and on TV shows including “Forrest Gump” and “The Simpsons.” He currently operates a blog for the “Opinionator” section of the New York Times.  Mr. Cavett lives in New York City and Montauk, N.Y.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question : 

How would you prepare for your shows?

Dick Cavett : 

Oh, preparation, well, the Paar Tonight Show sort of set the model for how talk shows worked and they had what would be called the talent coordinator and that person's job was to meet with, if possible, the star or the author, or the historian, or the psychiatrist, or whoever was going to be the guest, and talk to them a little bit, or at least call them on the phone and talk a bit, and just get some stuff down on paper. 

Like, ask him about the fact that 

his daughter just won a prize, 

or he wants you to be sure and mention 

that the Hanseatic League, or -

- I'm sorry, I'm really reaching here -

- but so you've got something for you to look down at, 

and I finally learned that that's great to have, 

but not even that is necessary if things 

roll the way you're supposed to and you have an engaging person, conversation moves as conversation does in real life and you don't necessarily have to look down and read off a note.

Maybe that's why on a notorious show of mine where Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal tried to eviscerate each other, when 

Mailer got pissed, well, he got pissed before he came to the studio, but annoyed at me on the air and I at him, and the thing, I guess, that really got me was when he said, "Why don't you just read the next question off the question sheet?" 

And that's when I said, somewhat famously now, 

"Why don't you fold it five ways and 

put it where the moon don't shine?" 

This got one of the longest laughs in my career 

and certainly in television and it went on from there. 

But the idea that the show was, 

he knew to pick on the thing 

that would anger a host the most, 

that he can't think of anything to say 

and has to read questions off a sheet.

Question: 

What was Norman Mailer like?

Dick Cavett: 

Oh, Norman was many, oh, my God, that woman again. 

Has anything we've done been caught on tape? 

I've had that happen by the way. 

Oh, I like Norman Mailer and 

I loved his writing and long before I knew him 

and he was not gifted in the area of humor,

 thus on that notorious show of mine, Gore Vidal was able to get laughs off of him without -- but Gore wasn't picking on him, he would just say things like, but Norman was pissed, I think drunk is the word I'm looking for, and came on to get even with Gore for something he said Gore had written about him.

But at one point he said, 

"Gore, can't you just talk to me 

instead of talking to the audience? 

Can't you just talk to me?" 

And Gore, in that elegant way that he has, 

said almost the following, 

I'll probably get 80% on it, a wonderful sentence, 

that got applause, it was, approximately, 

"Of course, I'd be happy to talk to you, Norman, 

but we don't find ourselves 

in the friendly neighborhood bar, 

but by election in front of a studio audience 

and it would be dishonest of us 

to pretend otherwise." 

And this great, one of those things, got a big hand, which of course, stung Norman. But he was on a later show, people said, "I bet you never spoke to him again!" 

Yeah, I did, I saw him a number of times after that 

and we remained friends, if not buddies.

Norman Mailer on When He Head-butted Gore Vidal On The Show! | The Dick ...

Dick Cavett welcomes American novelist Norman Mailer to the show where he clarifies his previous arguments with Gore Vidal on the Dick Cavett Show and how he head-butted him when in the dressing rooms.

Date aired - September 28th 1972 - 

Norman Mailer and Valerie Harper

For clip licensing opportunities please visit https://www.globalimageworks.com/the-...

Dick Cavett has been nominated for eleven Emmy awards (the most recent in 2012 for the HBO special, Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again), and won three.  Spanning five decades, Dick Cavett’s television career has defined excellence in the interview format.  He started at ABC in 1968, and also enjoyed success on PBS, USA, and CNBC.

 

His most recent television successes were the September 2014 PBS special, Dick Cavett’s Watergate, followed April 2015 by Dick Cavett’s Vietnam. He has appeared in movies, tv specials, tv commercials, and several Broadway plays. He starred in an off-Broadway production ofHellman v. McCarthy in 2014 and reprised the role at Theatre 40 in LA February 2015.

 

Cavett has published four books beginning with Cavett (1974) and Eye on Cavett (1983), co-authored with Christopher Porterfield.  His two recent books -- Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets (2010) and Brief Encounters: Conversations, Magic moments, and Assorted Hijinks(October 2014) are both collections of his online opinion column, written for The New York Times since 2007. Additionally, he has written for The New Yorker, TV Guide, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere.

#thedickcavettshow #NormanMailer #GoreVidal #ValerieHarper #DickCavett