how did you get from hubert humphrey to thurgood marshall?[laughter] >> we interviewed roger wilson in the hubert humphrey film. they were friends. close to the end of the film, i was looking for new subjects and called roger. i said we would like to film his uncle roy. he said he was a good man. he was just straight and did all kinds of wonderful work, but he was a mid range businessman type and not that exciting historically. he said if you want to do an exciting story, do thurgood marshall. he said that because he grew up in baltimore and love thurgood marshall and thought he would be a great subject. thurgood marshall new vice president humphrey. they traveled together. there was a connection. that is how it happened. the reason i wanted to do it is because i like to tell untold stories [indiscernible] untold stories about people who are heroes who no one knows about who continue to shape our lives. this is really an untold story. there have been a lot of great books, but film has not done this part of the story. i like to tell those unto

of luther kinger martin in the aftermath of that assassination rioting in over cities.ican humphrey that hubert in new york at the time the riots broke out was told by the secret service we can't take you to your office on the senate side of the u.s. capitol, take you back to your office in the executive office building adjacent to the hite house because the rioters are so close to the capital and to the ers are so close white house that we can't assure vice presidenthe of the united states. april, in june of 1968, the assassination of senator the night of the greatest victory in the california primary. story is 245 kennedy celebrates victory in that deciding to do something different from what he usually did. usually when kennedy made that kind of appearance, he would exit the hall through the craft. his security people had through aring a path the crowd. he decided that night, he was going to go talk to the assembled press. quickest way to get there was to go out, not through through , but rather awaded ahen where there young palestinian immigrant sirhan with a .22 pistol in his hand who shot

[laughter] ronald reagan and hubert humphrey.an interesting thing about the campaign and i'm sorry we are jumping around here, the johnson and brown can't have a horrible strategy in 1966 as johnson puts it a hanging around his neck and bring him into the reincarnation of goldwater. they tried that strategy and it doesn't work so finally they send humphrey to try to save pat brown and he makes the case and that's what they are not seeing at this point is that's not for the a lot of people in california that's a an idea. >> two more questions. the gentleman back there. yes, sir. >> there was a piece a few days ago in "the new york times" by the boston university professor with a book coming out in early 1915 if i recall. the contention is that ronald reagan should be returned to history and the republican party return to the principles of lincoln, roosevelt and even eisenhower. overall, what is your view as to whether ronald reagan's defense reagan's's legacy during the presidency and afterwards has either affected the nation posi

nixon was running for governor in 62, a bug me in 1968 when i ran, lbj but his vice president hubert humphrey. is that true? was everyone bugging everyone and if so, was the burglary a non event? >> of berkeley was a very real attempt but it is an excellent question you are asking to get into the mind of nixon. nixon liked hardball, blood letting politics and admired people that were tough. one moment to indicate he is saying, want to be known for is something -- kennedy sold this camelot's mystique that he is an intellectual and beat man and all listed i want to be known for one thing, strong, confidence, kissinger said the president will be no overconfidence. i want to be known for guts. he never held against lyndon johnson if he was bugged by johnson because it showed johnson had guts and we have got to not forget the name j. edgar hoover who was wiretapping everybody, bugging everyone so there was a culture of this going on to be sure, but to take it to the limits that the nixon white house did, and to go in, the brookings institute, the watergate, to do it in such a sloppy fashion it bec

always been fascinated by fdr, largely because my two political mentors in minnesota from the hubert humphrey and walter mondale have in turn been hugely influenced by fdr. the democratic labor party of minnesota, where he came of age politically had been steeped in the legacy of fdr. now i've become especially interested because of my service in the white house and presidential leadership and a presidential decision-making and i feel so fortunate that i came by this incident in 1939, 1940s to write about. i didn't know much about fdr really when i started this after, the i quickly came across someone who did know him very well. and that was frances perkins. frances perkins was the first woman ever to be a member of the president's cabinet. she was fdr secretary of labor and she never had beginning in 1910 when he showed up in albany as a very young and somewhat buried at legislator. here's a frances perkins had to say. franklin roosevelt was not a simple man. the man. that quality of simplicity which we delay to think marks the great noble was not his. he was the most complicated human being

anecdotes of mankiewicz, john tunney, the senator, the son of the fighter gene tunney, endorsed hubert humphrey. we know willie brown went on to do so much more made famous by the mayor of san francisco. what he said to brown looking for his endorsement, said willie your father was in the navy, said yes, my father was in the navy. he was a boxer too, used, brown said yes was a boxer, he was a lightweight wasn't he? new what he was saying, yes was a lightweighed, he said i would rather have the heavyweight son of the lightweight champion than the lightweight son of a heavyweight champion. >> what was he like? >> he could look at a political situation, dissect it and when there was trouble he knew what to do for that person in trouble. he was the first phone call apparently that teddy kennedy made after chappaquiddick. he knew the english language better than anyone and david he invented a word, re retro-nym. >> i didn't know what retro-nyn is. >> now you do. >> thanks to you and thanks to frank mankiewicz. did he become more pessimistic about politics at the end? >> what he saw was the idea of i

i even have footage of him singing with hubert humphrey. >> i don't think i've seen that and i thinkerything on james brown. you talk to former band members in the film and two of them opened up and talked about what a strong man he was and how he demanded strength. watch this. >> you had to approach him with strength. you had to always be a man. and i really loved the guy. but i could never say to him, hey, man, i love you, man. because he had a way of taking advantage of that, or taking that for weakness. ♪ >> with men, he ain't that super tough guy. he wants to be. he's not. he is with women. brown would be a super tough guy with women, and the women do what he wants, when he wants. >> i mean, he was a very hard taskmaster and disciplinariadis. i know that first hand, since i was a teenager and been around him. you captured that in the film. why was telling that part of james brown so important? >> first of all, he was a band leader more than anything else. to understand how he led, but also he was beset by demons. and i think that was important to tell. you said it, late in the f

later on, hubert humphrey approached nelson regarding the campaign. >> by the way, you use a book from lyndon johnson, and it says that nelson's wife is not going to let him get off the ground, that was in 1964. >> that was part of the political realities of the time. it was funny, because people also have the contemporary connections. remember the mississippi elections when senator cochran won the him probably with the support of african-american voters who had registered. one of the great climactic, epic battle of these 64 campaign was goldwater versus rockefeller in california. which, and boasters, believe it or not, there was a poll but said that 70% of california republicans considered themselves moderates through the but it was the primary campaign to end all primary campaigns. groundwater was way ahead, and stews spencer, the great political strategist from the several campaigns, including ronald reagan, told me that were almost turned it around were african-american voters, mostly in los angeles, 50,000 of whom reregistered as republicans to vote in the primary for nelson rocke

is when he was running are kennedy's campaign, john tunney, the sob of gene tunney endorsed hubert humpl humphrey. we know willie brown went to do so much more made famous as the mayor of san francisco. but what he said to willie brown when he called him looking for his imorm endorsement, when he y had him, he said willie your father was in the navy right? and brown said, confused, yes, he was a light weight, brown said, yes was a light weight. frank mankeiwicz said i would rather have the ligh heavyweighn of the lightweight champion than the heightweight son of a heavyweight. he knew what to do for that person in trouble. he was the first phone call apparently that teddy kennedy made after chappaquiddick. he knew that language better than anyone and david he invented a word, red trown -- retronym. something a new word off of an old word. >> i didn't know that. >> now you do. >> thanks to you and thanks ofrank. as the politics changed over the years, did frank become more pessimistic about america at the end? >> i think what frank you saw, the idea of issues and the idea of talking about things t

you can see hubert humphrey who does find among liberals, but reagan is almost the if hubert humphrey of conservatives. >> the question is an interesting one. and a lot of ways why haven't we seen conservatives over the last 50 years in spite of the fact that republicans have this long streak of winning the presidency, why have not been able to put forward what everyone thinks of as the positive governing agenda under a conservative vision? republicans are good at winning election in a year where they're is a strong incumbent -- anti-incumbent sentiment in the country. you know, 2010, it might be this year. but what they have not been able to do is continue on that path of broadening the gain from there because there is no pressure in a way that we talk about politics to present that positive governing agenda. i think the roots of that is in this time, the mid-1950s, where you see politics starting to be about a contest between one side presenting government as the solution to all problems and the other side which sees government as the problem, as opposed to what had come before, the

next page with hubert humphrey like something else. it made him look-a-like a senator. dropped by volunteer to every house in the state and he won. sometimes he knows what he is doing. working campaign in utah back in '72. we had a guy beat incumbent republican, liberal democrat guy, owens, won the election. there is ego out there where people willing to take a big chance. you will see interesting races. jerry brown, that kid is unbelievable. going for his fourth term and they love him. only governor in the state people look up to on fiscal issues. this guy has it figured out. he was counted out couple years ago. nobody said we need jerry brown back. audacity, ego. key to american political sense. nobody is asked to run for office anymore. there are no parties that really matter. the individual with the id, says i can do it. that is how politics works in this country. what i worry we're losing some of that. great people aren't running anymore. very thin, thin rank of people running. that is my biggest fear about politics today. people don't have the guts to say damn it,

hubert hump free was up all night on the phone saying, please, you've got to come over, you have to do this. and they ended up winning by 71 votes but it was, even humphrey said the morning of the vote i think we're going to get maybe 68, 69. and there were people who were against bill, obviously, in the senate, but even there were some lobbyists who were against it. and they were probably deluded. but one of them said afterwards i thought we had it until halfway through vote when i started seeing people turn against us and vote for the filibuster. so, really, it was a cliffhanger in that sentence right up til the end. >> there any other questions? >> andrew, i saw a recent interview with james meredith a couple mights ago -- nights ago, and when he remembers his time at mississippi, he talks about pretty clearly that he had kind of an idea what he had to do and the messages he had to send while he was there. in the greater context of the civil rights movement. for perry, i know you mentioned that education was one of the main motivating factors for him to go to vanderbilt. in your talks with him, has he given any sense of that greater context during his