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Interview With Chuck Fries

Aired November 21, 2003 - 14:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The question often asked, where were you when Kennedy was shot? It echoes through a generation. It's a defining moment in the lifeline of baby boomers and their parents. The assassination of John F. Kennedy has spawned 40 years of books, television specials, movies and perhaps dozens of conspiracy theories.
Is there anything, anything at all, left to be said? Well, TV and film producer Chuck Fries thinks so. He's compiled a personalized witness of the last days through his eyes and hearts of those who knew him. And it bears the tell-tale "We'll Never be Young Again."

Mr. Fries, good to have you with us.

CHUCK FRIES, "WE'LL NEVER BE YOUNG AGAIN": Thank you, sir.

O'BRIEN: How did you decide to do a book on something so well- documented in so many ways?

FRIES: Well it started many years ago. My partner and I, Earl Wilson, who co-authored the book with me, the two of us always wanted to do something around the day JFK was assassinated. We thought that was an interesting incident that everyone remembered where they were. It was like pearl harbor, the death of Delano Roosevelt and 9/11.

So, I have a lunch with a bunch of great old producers, writers and directors and one is Leonard Stern, he has a publishing company, Tall Fellow publishers. And he said he was doing a book about the Depression. People writing to them about where they were, their thoughts and impact of the year 1936.

I said, I have a great idea. I think that think is something that will attract a tremendous amount of attention and I think a lot of people like to give their thoughts and feelings. Not everyone I would say, but a lot of people would like to do that.

O'BRIEN: Let's try to get through a few excerpts to give people a sense of the kind of responses. Some are quite moving. Dominick Dunne, the famous writer. "The death of President Kennedy was like a deep wound," he writes. "My grief was as great as if he were a family member. He was our president and we were proud of him his beautiful wife. They were bigger than life characters on the world stage. And the magic they exuded was like nothing we had ever known before. The sense of loss was overpowering."

Strong words. I wonder if that kind of emotion was expressed by numerous people and how you kept the book from being repetitive. FRIES: When we first started the book we thought it was going to be a more celebrity-oriented Hollywood entertainment industry type group of people. And as we got those letters we did find that there was some similarity.

For example, Sherwood Schwartz who did "Gilligan's Island." My kids could repeat every word verbatim. They were run every 13 weeks, 65 episodes -- was shooting the pilot in Hawaii. He was -- was he going to stop? What was he going to do?

Another friend of mine was shooting "The Andy Williams Show." But we got to a upon where we thought, wait a minute, we have to broaden this perspective, we have to get a greater focus on a greater number of people outside the entertainment industry. And that's when the book really began to take shape, I think.

O'BRIEN: Having said that, you do broaden out quite a bit. We selected, of course, some names that you'd recognize nevertheless. Aaron Spelling, of course, the famous TV producer has this story to recount. He was producing three shows for a company, he got a call from his boss and said, "`Aaron, you've got me a favor. I can't stand to do it myself.' He told me the horrible news President Kennedy had just been assassinated in my hometown of Dallas, Texas. And asked me to go to every set, stop production and tell everyone to go home. I started crying over phone and told him I would do it."

He goes on to say that he ended up in the hospital the with an appendicitis that day which he links to the stress of this whole event. It's a remarkable story, isn't it? Did you hear a lot like that?

FRIES: Yes. Well, of course. But there were other interesting kind of situations. For example, Cecil Stoughton, who was the White House photographer, had just bought a new wide angle lens for his Leica camera. Thought, Well I'm going to Dallas, there might be a lot of great pictures. What will the opportunities be?

When you remember the picture, you see the picture in Air Force One, Air Force One, while Lyndon B. Johnson is being -- given his oath of office, Cecil Stoughton is standing on a seat in the front of the plane catching this wide angle of Jack Valenti down in the corner all the way over to Jackie Kennedy on the right-hand side with the Congressman Al Thomas in the background.

O'BRIEN: A picture we won't forget, of course.

FRIES: Of course.

O'BRIEN: I want to get one more in. Then let's wrap it up. Janet Leigh has some very moving words. "I never forgot that moment or the overwhelming despair that enveloped my soul. On Sunday my children witnessed an unexpected actual murder on television -- the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby. And I realized the world would never be the same again. We had all been robbed of our innocence." And that in a way takes us more recent events, 9/11 is what I'm thinking about. How this moment -- you had this real tangible sense of things changing forever.

FRIES: You -- you couldn't believe that this was happening. I mean, the last time that a president was assassinated was McKinley, that was in the early 1900s.

I mean, having -- I was 35 years of age at time, I was working for Columbia Pictures in the television production division when this happened. I couldn't believe it. I said, This is not the type of thing that happens in America. I mean we don't have this.

And it all went so quickly. I mean, first it was a shot, and very shortly thereafter he's dead. And there was this tremendous sense of loss. Here was this wonderful, handsome, charismatic, intelligent, bright, a man who was not much older than myself at the time, struck down by shots from a book depository by a young man who pleaded innocence up to the time that he was shot in the bowels of the Dallas Police Department.

Lee Harvey Oswald never ever admitted that he killed President Kennedy.

O'BRIEN: Chuck Fries is the editor who put together a remarkable book, "We'll Never be Young Again," the accounts of celebrities and many others where they were and what their thoughts were on that day 40 years ago. We appreciate you being with us.

FRIES: Thank you. A pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 21, 2003 - 14:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The question often asked, where were you when Kennedy was shot? It echoes through a generation. It's a defining moment in the lifeline of baby boomers and their parents. The assassination of John F. Kennedy has spawned 40 years of books, television specials, movies and perhaps dozens of conspiracy theories.
Is there anything, anything at all, left to be said? Well, TV and film producer Chuck Fries thinks so. He's compiled a personalized witness of the last days through his eyes and hearts of those who knew him. And it bears the tell-tale "We'll Never be Young Again."

Mr. Fries, good to have you with us.

CHUCK FRIES, "WE'LL NEVER BE YOUNG AGAIN": Thank you, sir.

O'BRIEN: How did you decide to do a book on something so well- documented in so many ways?

FRIES: Well it started many years ago. My partner and I, Earl Wilson, who co-authored the book with me, the two of us always wanted to do something around the day JFK was assassinated. We thought that was an interesting incident that everyone remembered where they were. It was like pearl harbor, the death of Delano Roosevelt and 9/11.

So, I have a lunch with a bunch of great old producers, writers and directors and one is Leonard Stern, he has a publishing company, Tall Fellow publishers. And he said he was doing a book about the Depression. People writing to them about where they were, their thoughts and impact of the year 1936.

I said, I have a great idea. I think that think is something that will attract a tremendous amount of attention and I think a lot of people like to give their thoughts and feelings. Not everyone I would say, but a lot of people would like to do that.

O'BRIEN: Let's try to get through a few excerpts to give people a sense of the kind of responses. Some are quite moving. Dominick Dunne, the famous writer. "The death of President Kennedy was like a deep wound," he writes. "My grief was as great as if he were a family member. He was our president and we were proud of him his beautiful wife. They were bigger than life characters on the world stage. And the magic they exuded was like nothing we had ever known before. The sense of loss was overpowering."

Strong words. I wonder if that kind of emotion was expressed by numerous people and how you kept the book from being repetitive. FRIES: When we first started the book we thought it was going to be a more celebrity-oriented Hollywood entertainment industry type group of people. And as we got those letters we did find that there was some similarity.

For example, Sherwood Schwartz who did "Gilligan's Island." My kids could repeat every word verbatim. They were run every 13 weeks, 65 episodes -- was shooting the pilot in Hawaii. He was -- was he going to stop? What was he going to do?

Another friend of mine was shooting "The Andy Williams Show." But we got to a upon where we thought, wait a minute, we have to broaden this perspective, we have to get a greater focus on a greater number of people outside the entertainment industry. And that's when the book really began to take shape, I think.

O'BRIEN: Having said that, you do broaden out quite a bit. We selected, of course, some names that you'd recognize nevertheless. Aaron Spelling, of course, the famous TV producer has this story to recount. He was producing three shows for a company, he got a call from his boss and said, "`Aaron, you've got me a favor. I can't stand to do it myself.' He told me the horrible news President Kennedy had just been assassinated in my hometown of Dallas, Texas. And asked me to go to every set, stop production and tell everyone to go home. I started crying over phone and told him I would do it."

He goes on to say that he ended up in the hospital the with an appendicitis that day which he links to the stress of this whole event. It's a remarkable story, isn't it? Did you hear a lot like that?

FRIES: Yes. Well, of course. But there were other interesting kind of situations. For example, Cecil Stoughton, who was the White House photographer, had just bought a new wide angle lens for his Leica camera. Thought, Well I'm going to Dallas, there might be a lot of great pictures. What will the opportunities be?

When you remember the picture, you see the picture in Air Force One, Air Force One, while Lyndon B. Johnson is being -- given his oath of office, Cecil Stoughton is standing on a seat in the front of the plane catching this wide angle of Jack Valenti down in the corner all the way over to Jackie Kennedy on the right-hand side with the Congressman Al Thomas in the background.

O'BRIEN: A picture we won't forget, of course.

FRIES: Of course.

O'BRIEN: I want to get one more in. Then let's wrap it up. Janet Leigh has some very moving words. "I never forgot that moment or the overwhelming despair that enveloped my soul. On Sunday my children witnessed an unexpected actual murder on television -- the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby. And I realized the world would never be the same again. We had all been robbed of our innocence." And that in a way takes us more recent events, 9/11 is what I'm thinking about. How this moment -- you had this real tangible sense of things changing forever.

FRIES: You -- you couldn't believe that this was happening. I mean, the last time that a president was assassinated was McKinley, that was in the early 1900s.

I mean, having -- I was 35 years of age at time, I was working for Columbia Pictures in the television production division when this happened. I couldn't believe it. I said, This is not the type of thing that happens in America. I mean we don't have this.

And it all went so quickly. I mean, first it was a shot, and very shortly thereafter he's dead. And there was this tremendous sense of loss. Here was this wonderful, handsome, charismatic, intelligent, bright, a man who was not much older than myself at the time, struck down by shots from a book depository by a young man who pleaded innocence up to the time that he was shot in the bowels of the Dallas Police Department.

Lee Harvey Oswald never ever admitted that he killed President Kennedy.

O'BRIEN: Chuck Fries is the editor who put together a remarkable book, "We'll Never be Young Again," the accounts of celebrities and many others where they were and what their thoughts were on that day 40 years ago. We appreciate you being with us.

FRIES: Thank you. A pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com