the house was built between 1832 and 1835 by a man who was an ancestor of zelda fitzgerald, who married scott fitzgerald. this was not here. it was down at the corner of -- if you want to look at the map, very close to the river. it was moved in 1921. this was probably montgomery first preservation project, because the house became an danger. endangered. it was going to be torn down in the white house association was formed in the 1900's. come this way. here is a copy of a painting that hangs in the pentagon in washington when jefferson davis was in washington, a senator from mississippi. he was also the secretary of war for franklin pierce. mississippi seceded from the union. he, regrettably, turned in his resignation and said it was the saddest day of his life. this is an original piece that was in his office in montgomery. this beautiful sofa. it was given to his private secretary when he left montgomery to go to richmond. because he did not want to take it with him. family gave this to the first white house of the confederacy. when the president and mrs. davis and their family lived

scott fitzgerald and his wife zelda. according to his claims, she was raging, painting her like a cranky shrew. >> reporter: in fact, f. scott fitzgerald, author of "the great gatsby," checked his wife zelda into an ashville hospital. >> others claim that he massagenistically dropped her off so he could can noodle with the ladies. >> reporter: he was living at the grove park inn. >> it is a beautiful, gorgeous hotel. >> reporter: and the mental hospital? >> to keep the patients from wandering around, quite literally they would strap them to their gurney, handcuffed and bound to their beds. and then it catches fire. >> reporter: march 10, 1948. >> if you can just imagine this chilly vision of all of these women awake and watching. the room burned around them, but they are tied to their beds. >> reporter: nine women died, including zelda fitzgerald. the bodies badly burned. unrecognizable, except for zelda, who parished wearing red >> that her husband's wealth managed to afford. it is those red leather shoes that allowed th

zelda fitzgerald's descent into madness. she was witty. loving. and really tough. was fantastic at a little bit of fear in her. a desire to please her. she knew how to parse out praise. in such a way as to make people try to please her. the letterman clip that she did. during the breakup of the marriage with my father. right after she made heartburn. mass all this stuff and kind of figured out how piece together. i think there were considerations. both pragmatic and philosophical. if you're writing a book you could have a fatal illness. if you are trying to make a film you can't get insured if you have a dreaded disease. the other part of it is to her everything is copy was the main set of victimhood. is beotes on social media the heroine of your life not the victim. the problem with fatal illness is how do you tell that story and not become the victim. the person there be says how are you? are you doing ok? they want to tell you what doctors call. she didn't want to be told to do these things. she said they've got me on these things that are working. she was on th

gerald writing about the breakup of his tzgerald writing about the breakup of his marriage and zelda fitzgeralddg about -- fitz spiral of this madness, so it seems like we could write this film and make it about her story and also an exploration about what it means to be a writer and we could share stuff that other people don't always want shared. charlie: how do you explain your mother? jacob: witty, funny, loving, and really tough. charlie: towards herself and everybody else? jacob: that's right. i think she was fantastic at i think in stilling in people both -- instilling in people both a little bit of fear and a desire to want to be with her. she would hand out praise in a way that would make people, you know, to make people try to please her. and she certainly did that with me. charlie: there is a whole series atclips from this show this table of your mother talking. know that you found this richness from her in these interviews? jacob: i do think we knew much of anything when we started. -- it was ad of somewhat haphazard process, in some ways. i think in documentary film making, you have

zelda's father died while living in the house and fitzgerald was giving his second contract job in hollywood. one he turned down at $750 a week but couldn't refuse the raise to $1200 a week. zelda finishes her novel and has a soaked breakdown when scott is back causing them to leave montgomery and go to shepherd prat hospital which was an annex of john's hopkins hospital in baltimore, maryland. this photograph is taken after the novel is released. this picture was posed for and the expressions on their face is unmisstakab unmistakable. they are looking unhappy and nervous and the reason is these photographs are appearing beside reviews of her novel calling her a third-rate writer and a woman only being published because of who her husband is. her mental health continued to decline. for the rest of the '30s she spent 90% of her waking hours in mental institutionstitutions le fitzgerald with his only daughter alone. scott sent scotty to bording schools and she would be in bording schools or college until the day fitzgerald died. he wasn't a man to leave no vestang of family life behind. he con

on book tv, -- >> we show you a house that was the turning point for scott and zelda fitzgerald. when they moved here, the idea was to regroup. when it was with a landing pad. it was a regrouping, as i've , stage, and was not the sort of place where you're going to find scott and zelda in domesticngaging activities, if you will. it was the sort of place where they were going to be planning their next move. >> on american history tv. campaign, wallace really does try to reach this racial moderate and really tries to campaign for the poor and working-class of alabama, campaigning for progressive improvements. he gets the support of the naacp and the initial campaign. unfortunately, he loses by a pretty significant margin to john patterson. he completely is devastated by this loss. all wallace wants to be as governor and he is really upset by this loss and he considers it a failing. him, what isle ask the take away from the 1958 try ton -- he says, i talk about progressive improvements, i tried to talk about good roads and good schools, and nobody would listen. but when i started ta

and zelda fitzgerald's desent into madness. and it raised some interesting questions to me about sort of, you know, what happens when you decide to do that. and what is the reality of that for the people around you. and so it seemed to me that we could make the film both her life story and in a certain way an exploration of what it means to be a writer and to share stuff that other people don't always want shared. >> rose: how do you explain your mother. >> witty, funny, loving, and really tough. >> rose: on herself and everybody else. >> yes, i think that's right. i men she was-- she was fantastic at, i think, instilling in people both a little bit of fear in her and a desire to please her. she knew how to parse out praise in such a way as to make people, you know, to make people try to please her. and she certainly did that with me. >> rose: take a look at this. this is the clip of tom hanks and others talking about nora as a filmmaker. >> the kid that we spent all of this time auditioning and getting ready and we loved and h

zelda does not find this very flattering. she has a huge fight with fitzgerald in which she burned all of the artwork she'd been producing in hollywood. and the couple very much tail between legs had to leave hollywood very, very soon after they arrived and move to a country house where hopefully they would be better at damage control in terms of their public reputations. as we continue we find out that zelda soon dedicates herself to ballet under the tutelage of a woman who went into prima ballerina in paris in the early 1920s and was now acting as an instructor. the relationship between them would be the equivalent of a modern celebrity such as miley cyrus retiring from her career in taking up the life of a professional athlete. today, modern scholars see this as the first major showing of zelda's bipolar nature. for the next two years zelda practiced ballet as if she wasn't in to be a prima ballerina. however, she was 28 when she begins this endeavor at the and two years later with a mental breakdown in paris in which she tries to take her own life. for the n

built between 1832 and 1835 by a man named william sayer who is the ancestor of zelda sayer who married scott fitzgerald. this is a picture of the house in the original location. it was not leer. it was down on the corner of lee and fifth street if you want to look the map, very close to the river. nd it was moved in 1921. this is montgomery's first preservation project because the house became endangered. it was going to be torn down. the white house association was formed in 1900 to save the house. come this way, won't you? here's a picture of a copy of a painting that hangs in the pentagon in washington. when jefferson davis was in washington he was the senator from mississippi but he was also secretary of war under franklin pierce. it was the end of 1860 when mississippi seceded from the union. he regrettabley turned in his resignation and said it was the saddest day of his life. this is an original piece that was within his office in montgomery, this beautiful sofa, and it was given to his private secretary when he left montgomery to go to richmond because he did not want to take it with him. much