What it's all about now? Huh?
[Interviewer] We're making
a documentary about Bill.
Oh, a documentary on him? Yes.
Oh. What about it?
What do you want me say about Bill?
[Camera Shutter Clicks]
[Bill] The best fashion show
is definitely on the street.
Always has been
and always will be.
It never occurred to me
that I'm just waiting.
It's always the hope
that you'll see...
some marvelous,
exotic bird of paradise,
meaning a very elegant,
stunning woman,
or someone wearing
something terrific.
A friend of mine, Steven O.,
called me at home,
and he said, "Patrick,
there's 17 pictures of you...
in the New York Times. "
I was walking on a cloud
for weeks after that. I still am.
I'm still on my dandy cloud.
[Bill]
Oh, my God.
Look at... Look at the shoes.
See the heels?
Isn't that wonderful?
You have to be able to give the reader...
in a flash on Sunday...
news and excitement
about what it was.
You know,
he has two columns.
One of them
which is about...
a documentation
of New York life,
in terms of the drivers of its social
and philanthropic world, political world,
and this other, which is really
an attempt to tease out trends...
in terms of the reality
of how people dress.
By covering those two aspects,
I think he really does address...
the whole spectrum
of what we are as New Yorkers,
and I believe
he's the only one who does it.
See, I don't decide anything.
I let the street speak to me.
In order for the street
to speak to you,
you've got to stay out there
and see what it is.
You just don't manufacture
in your head...
that skirts at the knee
are the thing.
Then you go out and photograph
people with skirts at the knee.
You've got to stay on the street and
let the street tell you what it is.
There's no shortcuts.
Believe me.
Oh, my goodness.
I don't know where to stop or start.
This is terrible.
What's your deadline?
You could... You could
really be a great help to me.
What?
Take these out like this, John.
Okay.
Make it easy.
And keep them like this,
and it would help me.
Put 'em in here.
Okay.
I hate to ask you.
I don't mean to use you...
or misuse you,
but it would be helpful.
[Interviewer]
Today is Thursday.
When do you usually
know when your page...
Right now.
Right now. I see.
Yeah, it should be done.
I see.
We haven't even got 'em scanned.
Do you know what your page is yet?
Your "On the Street" page?
Do you know
what it's going to be?
It's going to be, uh,
all on legs and shoes.
Oh, those are nice.
Now that's a good one.
I guess we'd better do it.
You're gonna call that store
you want me to run down to...
to go get your film?
Yeah.
[Clears Throat]
Oh, hello there.
Uh, this is the guy that
comes on a bicycle.
You're developing some film for me.
Yeah. Uh, listen, I'm in...
kind of running,
and a friend of mine
was gonna come and pick it up.
John.
He's a tall fella,
and he has long hair.
You know. Okay.
All right.
[John]
I'll go get it.
There's a couple of pictures on there
of shoes from this morning.
All right.
So, we need that for today.
- And I'll quickly get on this.
- Okay. I'll be right back with it.
Wait a minute. Come on.
Let's get snappin' and crackin'.
See, static, static.
Getting a little better.
Then when the wind blows a bit...
Oh, isn't that fun.
Oh, you see, the minute
you get in the rain...
When it rains,
it's a whole different scene.
Or when there's a blizzard
is the best time.
Things happen.
People forget about you.
If they see you,
they don't go putting on airs.
They're the way they are,
and if they happen to be wearing
what you're photographing,
then you're in business.
He's caught me on a rainy day
jumping puddles,
the same way I did for Avedon,
but...
[Laughs]
It was much less painful...
when Bill photographed me,
and much more natural.
He catches you
crossing a street...
with boots and
blue jeans and this,
and he's so happy,
and he's much happier
when you're in this...
looking terrible and ratty,
than he is...
if he saw you in something
incredibly elegant and smart.
That's my poncho.
They're so cheap...
that you wear them once or twice,
and then they start tearing.
First at the neck, immediately.
Well, why buy a new one?
It's only gonna tear anyway.
So you repair the old one.
Damn you, New Yorkers.
You're all so extravagant and wasteful.
But I don't believe in one wear.
So a little tape.
And we're back in business.
I know this embarrasses everyone.
It doesn't embarrass me.
I think everyone
that knows Bill...
and understands who he is
and what he represents...
will always be thrilled
to be photographed by Bill.
I mean, I've said many times
that we all get dressed for Bill.
[Man]
Anna! Anna!
[Woman]
Anna, right here, please?
Anna, right here.
Can you stop for a moment?
- She stopped for you.
- [Woman] She stopped for Bill.
[Wintour] He's sort of
been documenting me for...
Since I was a kid, like in my...
19, 20 years old,
and it's one snap, two snaps,
or he ignores you,
which is death, you know?
But he's always doing it
because he has a point of view.
He'd take my picture
whenever he saw me.
Sometimes it got into the Times,
and most often not.
And then little by little,
he began to photograph me more.
I would come into a place.
And he would say, "Oh, thank God you're here."
Every...
Oh, I guess you can't say that.
But he used to say, "Everybody here looks so boring.
Everybody looks alike. "
[Bill]
See, a lot of people have taste.
But they don't have
the daring to be creative.
Here we are in an age
of the cookie-cutter sameness.
There are few that are rarities.
Someone that doesn't look
like they were stamped out of...
ten million other people
looking all the same.
At the U.N.,
my friends used to...
Colleagues used to call me
the designing diplomat...
because during the day,
I wore my U.N. Suit,
which was very conservative,
but in the evenings,
I'd go out to Studio 54.
That's when Bill photographed me
for the first time.
I wish I could find the picture.
The first picture he ever took of
me in the New York Times.
I used to have this coat
with a big hood...
and it was a Hudson Bay blanket,
so it was all, like, bright striped,
and I used to wear them with,
like, little hot-pink ankle boots.
That's how I met him.
He used to run after me on the street.
He's like a w*r photographer in
that he'll do anything for the sh*t.
I've been in deep conversations
with him...
where he just will, like, run from
me 'cause he sees somebody.
So, I mean, he sees something that's
amazing, he has to go sh**t it.
I sometimes will look at his pages
in the Times or online,
and just be so amazed that he and I...
and all my team and all
the rest of the world...
we're all sitting
in the same fashion shows...
but he's seen something
on the street or on the runway...
that completely missed all of us,
and in six months' time, you know,
that will be a trend.
Hold that right there.
[Bill]
You have to do three things.
You don't get the most
information from any one.
You have to photograph
the collections.
You have to photograph
the women on the street...
who have bought the things
and how they're wearing them.
And then you have to go
to the evening events.
You can't report to the public
unless you've seen it all.
People just go off
and say what they think.
Well, it isn't really what I think.
It's what I see.
[Younger Bill] It doesn't
happen like in a day or an hour.
I go out and that's it.
I run around and photograph
all people with holes in their sneakers.
It's not that at all.
Suddenly I see something,
then I see it again,
and I think, "Ah, there's an idea,"
and other times I'll see it and I'll think,
"Wow, that's an idea,"
and then I'll look for it.
But I'll be doing ten other ideas
all at once, you see.
[Siren Chirps]
[Horn Honking]
They make the best sandwich.
And coffee... three dollars.
The cheaper the better, you know?
The coffee at the Times,
l... I... It's so... ugh.
My cord kept coming out of the
camera last night. Oh, yeah?
So I've been worried sick.
But I got something,
any rate, on that roll.
We'll see about the others.
[Interviewer] Do you know
anything about his personal life?
Nothing.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
[Apfel] I don't think anybody
gets to know him very well, do they?
I have the feeling that he doesn't sit down
to talk to people too much.
[De la Renta] I have no
idea about his private life.
I have no idea if he's lonely. I have no idea...
Where does he eat dinner every night?
You have no id...
I mean, I don't.
I wonder, you know,
what he does do.
[Speaking, Indistinct]
[Woman] For all the years
that I've known Bill,
he's lived at Carnegie Hall...
in a tiny, tiny room.
You know, I once went to his studio.
Have you been there? Oh, my God.
When I saw that,
I was just, like, wow.
[Woman] File cabinets,
file cabinets, file cabinets.
He has negatives
of every picture he's ever taken.
That's my filing system.
Okay.
And this is my clothes closet.
[Interviewer And Bill Chuckling]
Does he still sleep on the cabinets?
It's just like it was
just all a little room...
with all these file cabinets
and negatives,
and that was probably
30 years ago.
I know that the bathroom
was in the hall.
[Knocking]
Editta?
[Editta]
Come in.
[Editta]
I've been here 60 years.
Carnegie Hall.
And I'm
he only one here...
except Bill on this floor,
you know.
I've done...
[Interviewer] This is fabulous.
All the stars of Hollywood.
Yes.
Well, I'm very famous.
Look at the people I've done. Look.
Tyrone Power,
Henry Fonda, Mary Martin.
Let's see.
Andy Warhol here.
You can't photograph that.
[Interviewer]
Just you.
Not this. Not Andy.
Why not?
Because not.
What do you mean you can't
photograph Andy Warhol?
Who are you kidding?
What do you mean?
That's what he was all about.
What?
Being photographed.
I just sold two to China.
This is, uh, Bernstein,
and he lived here in Carnegie Hall.
June Carter.
See, this is, uh...
You know who she is.
[Interviewer] Oh, Tilda Swinton?
Yes!
Tilda Swinton.
Swinton.
Isn't that nice? Mm-hmm.
I was here 60 years.
I'm...
I'm really a, uh, a legend now.
[Interviewer]
A legend or a fixture?
Well, I'm both,
you know what I mean?
[Interviewer]
Does Bill live next door?
[Editta]
He's down on the corner.
He's got a tiny little place, yeah.
It's nothing.
By the way,
this is Lesley Vinson,
and Lesley was the art director
of Details Magazine.
The original Details
with Annie Flanders.
We worked well together.
She took me on and didn't mind
how many changes I made...
or how many pictures
I wanted to put in.
The most extraordinary
art director.
Incredible. Um...
The love of Bill's life,
I think.
Details got started
on the ides of March 1982.
The reason I remember that date...
was it was the date that the SoHo
News went out of business.
The vision that I had for Details
was really a continuation...
of what I had been doing
at SoHo News,
discovering people and giving them
their first opportunity to be in print.
[Bill] The reason Annie founded
the magazine was to give a platform...
to the downtown,
independent, small designers,
who no one else would pay attention
to until they were successful...
and then steal them from Annie.
[Laughing]
Oh, Annie was the Earth mother
of downtown.
I don't know if that's
what you called it. Oh, definitely.
Annie would just give Bill like...
Here's a hundred pages,
and Bill flourished with Annie
more than ever anywhere.
It was like she almost gave him his own little
mini magazine just to do it however he wanted.
He'd work all day,
and he'd come up at night,
and our sessions usually lasted
till about 4:00 in the morning.
I worked for the Establishment
during the day,
so I was like a bird getting out
of a cage, and I'd go down there.
It was marvelous.
I would come after my job
at the Times,
and we would lay this out,
and then I'd go home about 2:00.
Biked back from SoHo
where we were.
[Annie] I think one Details
Magazine, it was Fall Special...
125 pages of Bill Cunningham.
A hundred pages?
Ninety-nine.
Ninety-nine pages.
We just...
We never thought of it.
We just went on and did what we wanted
till we had said what we wanted to say.
111 pages.
111 pages.
Here what I did was I blew up
the embroidery of the coat,
and we put it on the pages,
and then put the coat, small,
in the middle of it,
'cause the news was in...
Yeah, the idea was
the big... was this.
'Cause it was like something
out of the Renaissance, you see?
You try to show the reader
what was really new.
Look at this. It's like something
from Paul Poiret, uh, 1910.
Scheherazade,
the Arabian Nights.
Look at the embroidery,
the tassels, the lace.
Now, I mean, can you imagine
the extravagance of these pages?
Annie Flanders never blinked.
You can't say anything, Annie.
I didn't take money,
so I can do what I want.
It's a wonder she didn't say,
"That didn't mean you can bankrupt me."
What I did
from the very first issue...
is I kept a list of how much
Bill would've gotten paid.
Well, the first check I sent him, he came in
the office and ceremoniously ripped it up.
The second check,
he did the same thing.
You see, if you don't take money,
they can't tell you what to do, kid.
That's... That's the key
to the whole thing.
Don't touch money.
It's the worst thing
you can do.
[Interviewer] There's a story
about the fact that Bill,
when you sold Details
to Cond Nast,
Bill refused to cash his check.
Yes.
And Si Newhouse was calling you
like every couple of months...
to say,
"Bill, your check is waiting."
Cond Nast bought it?
Yes, yes.
Newhouse bought it
a year ago.
Well, Newhouse is
taking the money.
Yeah, but they don't
own me, you see.
They don't own you.
That's the important thing,
never to be owned.
I know they don't own you.
I know they don't own you.
Money's the cheapest thing.
Liberty and freedom
is the most expensive.
No, you know
what I mean, Richard.
So you asked me... about not falling
into the traps of the rich.
I would think it was my first, uh, partner
in my fashion business.
A woman by the name
of Rebekah Harkness,
a very affluent New York family,
and she was looking to invest
in my hat shop and she did.
But then the army came along...
this is 1951...
I was drafted.
Well, they were appalled that I would go,
and their investment would be on hold.
Who knows what would happen?
I was appalled at them.
I thought, "You're drafted.
This is the country where you live,
who you are. You go. "
Well, they couldn't understand that at all.
Course I went in the army.
I wouldn't think otherwise.
They badgered me and they badgered
my family, and finally...
my aunt and uncle,
whom I lived with here in the city,
I think they returned the money
she had invested which... God...
Maybe it was a thousand dollars?
[Interviewer]
Which was a lot of money then.
To the Harkness family, I don't think
a thousand dollars was a lot of money.
Oh, they tried to have it...
I know what it was...
deducted from my army salary,
which would have taken about ten years,
'cause I don't know what you made...
You got paid maybe $90 a month
or something like that.
Some stupidity.
So my family paid it off,
and then when I got out of the army,
I paid my family back.
[Woman]
Don't take a picture of us.
[Woman ♪2] I'll break that
f*cking camera over your head.
Yeah, he wanted...
he wanted me...
to come up
and meet my replacement.
Your replacement.
Your...
Yes, you passed
on the torch to me.
You're just a trophy wife.
I was always there
at the beginning.
[John] I've showed her
some of your layouts.
Oh, you teaching, uh...
Uh, I don't teach.
Muffin or is she teaching you?
She's teaching me.
Now, see, you made those
too big, those flowers.
What flowers?
See, that's... that's too big.
Where's the love today, Bill?
Love? Just get the page done.
Show 'em where the love is, Bill.
Show 'em where the love is, right?
Just get the page done.
Winchester.
Winchester.
And he means the g*n
off the back shelf of the pickup truck.
John, let me see this one here.
Put your favorite up here.
[Vinson] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You see, it's a little
short coat in here.
[John]
Don't encourage him.
The good thing is he can't
hear me talking about him.
Maybe 190.
I don't know what it was.
Then all of a sudden,
when I don't think he can hear me,
he hears me perfectly well.
What?
Bill's fingerprints are all over
everything he does,
'cause he's never ever, ever sold out
one inch of anything.
When the hat business
was sort of sloughing off,
he was working
for Women's Wear Daily as a...
Writing a millinery column.
Part of his falling out with
Women's Wear Daily...
hadn't to do
with anything really big.
It had to do with this
ethical issue for him,
which was that many of his photographs
were being used for an "In and Out" list,
and his feeling is that
it's all equally in.
That's the reason he's documenting it.
He's incredibly kind.
I don't think we've ever seen
a cruel picture done by Bill,
and certainly he's had an opportunity
to really have done it.
He's chosen never to do it.
He was still working
at Women's Wear,
and he did a piece
on women on the street...
in the same clothes
as the models on the runway.
It was about how incredible women
had their own style...
and what they could do
with the clothes, side by side...
with what the designers did
on the runway,
and they changed his copy
to make fun of the women.
This idea of a valuation of one person
over another, or one image over another,
was not something
that he really subscribes to as a person.
He was so beyond upset.
It was so sad and it...
He didn't think he'd ever get over it,
because he was
so embarrassed and upset...
and really cared about the women
that he had put in this...
in this and what happened.
That was the end of his career
at Women's Wear Daily.
[Mouse Clicking]
Yeah, she's lovely.
[John] Jesus, what'd she...
Just get a garbage bag?
Rubbish bag. Looks like she's
in a rose, a black rose.
[John]
It's a garbage bag.
What the hell
you talking about a rose?
What would you people
from southern New Jersey know?
Oh-ho.
Beautiful woman.
These two are exquisite. Look at them.
[Apfel] It's really
hard to describe oneself...
because I think one lives very often
in other people's visions.
I see myself as the world's oldest living
teenager 'cause I have such a good time,
and I try to get as much kick
out of things as possible.
I have all my little animals, who,
by the way, are very jealous of me,
and so I have to give them jewelry...
otherwise they bite.
I always heard growing up that
Joan Crawford said that...
whenever she went out,
she had to go out as Joan Crawford.
So I took that to heart, and whenever I
go out, I have to be Patrick McDonald.
I have to be the dandy,
and I would never go out...
without my beauty mark,
my eyebrows, my hat.
I would never do that.
We're all canvases.
We're all blank canvases when we get up
in the morning, and we paint ourselves.
Sometimes we're surreal.
Sometimes we're impressionistic.
Sometimes we're modern.
It... It just depends on the day.
This is my, uh,
alphabet outfit, and,
this is another of,
uh, my... my clothing...
that appeared in "On the Street"
column of Bill Cunningham.
I call it "Awning Stripes."
A Scottish plaid outfit.
I don't know which clan
it belongs to.
When I wear this outfit, people smile, and
it kind of cheers them up a little bit.
This is one of my other
lollipop salesman's outfit.
A combination of different plaids
from Scotland.
This used to be
my old sofa, the jacket,
and my pants was...
used to be my ottoman.
These are, uh, the issues
from my appearances...
in Bill Cunningham's
"On the Street" column.
They're laminated so that this will
preserve it for, uh, my grandchildren.
Put this one
in the upper right-hand corner.
Give me these two together.
Lap them together.
Together.
Uh, put the dog back where
the cab is for the minute.
Let me see them again, John.
Now don't get angry.
Jiggle the mouse.
I'm going to jiggle you
right out that damn window.
Why don't you go get your film,
so I can straighten this out?
No, I will. Put it back.
As soon as I get exactly what I want.
[John] Oh, Jesus, give me
strength to deal with you today.
Oh, and we gotta leave room for that damn
three or four lines Web site, some nonsense.
Look at now. They've got the audio
thing going at the Times,
which they pushed me into, and they said,
"Well, a lot of people don't read the paper."
I said, "Okay, I'll do it.
Where do we do it?"
[Woman] Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
This is...
He's getting in a zone.
[Bill] I just go in the room and
say what's on my mind and that's it.
It's done in five minutes.
Okay. Yeah.
Uh, this is Bill Cunningham,
and "On the Street" this week...
... there's no question
black is the story this week.
Here we are, the first week in August, and
the New Yorkers are all in black clothes.
This is Bill Cunningham, and "On the
Street"this week is a very interesting...
Isn't it always?
But it really is.
The picture frame collar.
There was the most popular T-shirt this
summer was printed with multiple sunglasses.
There's no reason to be doom and gloom
and think that fashion is finished.
Just reach back into your closet...
I call it "the thin man."
It's a serious way of dressing.
They've got something going here,
and I thought it was serious enough...
for you to take a look at.
Thank you very much,
and I hope you enjoy it.
Hmm.
Okay, move it all over and take this woman
and put her in the corner.
Yeah, that's nice.
[John]
I think it's all right.
That's not bad.
You want me to order
your lunch today?
I beg pardon?
Do you want me to order you in lunch?
Oh. Lunch.
No. Soup, you know.
I'm not thinking about lunch.
No. I know what we need.
[John] What? Yeah. It's all right.
No, leave everything alone.
Uh, put her here,
and put her over here.
Yes. There it is. You got it.
See, the hair, the same gesture,
the wind. Wonderful.
If you examine his pictures,
he always is focused on some detail...
or some narrative or conceptual thing
that he's documenting.
Do you like
that we're dressed alike, Bill?
I said, do you like it that
we're dressed alike? Mm-hmm.
We've been hanging around
with each other for 60 years.
That's great.
We went to high school together.
That's great. Yeah. Terrific.
And we never
had a fight.
Oh, good.
That's better.
That's better.
There's enough people fighting.
Watch these
crazy cabdrivers.
Okay, good-bye.
[Koda] So his photographs,
rather than just paparazzi sh*ts,
are really evidence of what fashion is
at any given moment in the world.
His archive is really not just
an encapsulation of fashion,
but of New York life,
and I think it's wonderful
for fashion historians...
that this did happen...
That there was this
one individual...
who was willing
to dedicate his life...
to this fascinating
manifestation of culture.
[Bill]
It's not photography.
I mean, any real photographer
would say he's a fraud.
Well, they're right.
I'm just about capturing what I see
and documenting what I see.
Ah!
I mean, is he Horst?
Put a bunch of flowers in front of you?
No. He's not that,
but that's not what he wants to be.
I think he photographs life.
[Younger Bill] The parallel between the
emerging japanese designers in the early '80s...
and the bag people in New York...
was startling, astonishing.
No one would talk about it
or even show the pictures.
And as time went on,
the Japanese woman
Rei Kawakubo admitted...
that her inspiration...
That when someone said, "Who do you
think are the best-dressed women?"
And she said,
"The bag women in New York."
Now whether she was being facetious
or cynical...
or a real artist and saying
what she really thought,
you know, we're too close
to a very touchy subject.
But as a historian, uh,
what we see in New York
in the 1980s in some areas...
is close to medieval Europe.
The shapes, I mean, of these people.
[Interviewer] Didn't someone
give you your first camera?
David Montgomery, an American photographer
who lived and worked in London.
We were there at his home with
his wife and all for dinner one night.
I said, "Gee, do you have an assistant
who could take a picture for me tomorrow?"
Some fashion shop, I mentioned.
And... Yes,
he sent one of his assistants out.
And then when he came to New York
about three months later,
he said,
"Here, I brought you something."
He said, "Use it like a pen,
like you take notes.
Do it with a camera."
A little Olympus half-frame.
They were $39,
and you got 72 pictures
to a 36 roll of...
Frame roll of film
so I liked that even better.
One of the interesting
things about street style...
is that it emerged
at the same point...
that, um, Bill got a camera.
And by street style, I'm talking about fashions
that really did emerge from the street.
There was always a sense
of a kind of quotidian world...
that one sees in photographs that were done
at the turn of the century, for example,
by the Seeberger brothers, or different
people who were documenting the bon monde,
but it wasn't really street style in that it
wasn't, theoretically, "ordinary" people,
going about their business
dressed in fascinating ways.
That really begins to happen in the 1960s,
and that is the moment which Bill begins.
[Bill]
On an Easter Sunday,
I came back here to get film,
and the phone rang
and I picked it up,
and it was the Times fashion critic and editorial
writer Charlotte Curtis, who I knew very well.
And she said, "Bill, grab your cameras and get
up to the Sheep Meadow as quick as you can.
They're having a be-in."
What the hell is a be-in?
I jumped on my bike
and went up to the Sheep Meadow,
and there were thousands of kids.
Oh! I mean, you just never saw
anything like it.
All the flower children,
the hippies, everything,
All up there,
and it was a lovely day,
and they were lying on the grass
or the dirt or whatever it was,
and they were dressed.
It was marvelous,
and that really did me in.
From then on, that was it, kid.
My Sundays and Saturdays...
Saturdays down in SoHo, and Sundays up in the park...
were completely taken.
That was it.
Course, as Antonio said, "Yep, and you
photographed everything in black and white,
and it was all about color."
[Laughing]
Course he was right, but I couldn't
afford color film and developing...
so it's in black and white.
Oh, boy. Someday,
it's all gonna fall down on me.
[Vinson] I know. I don't even
want to think about that. My God.
If I disappear under a bunch of books,
you'll know what...
They're all fashion books.
Imagine me having to move
the end of June?
I thought it was just open-end.
That at some time, people would have to move out of here.
Is there a specific date when you have to leave?
Yeah, June 30th. So they say.
Bill, that's like in two
or three months. Hmm?
The battle against a plan to evict artists
who live and work at Carnegie Hall...
was taken to the steps
of city hall today.
Over the years, the studios have seen the likes
of Marlon Brando and Leonard Bernstein.
Now the remaining tenants at Carnegie
Hall are turning to the mayor for help.
CBS 2's Andrew Kirtzman reports.
[Kirtzman] Today, residents
gathered at City Hall...
with actor John Turturro
as their champion.
They want Mayor Bloomberg to step in,
since the city owns Carnegie Hall.
Not far away, the concert hall's artistic director
held his own City Hall press conference.
Their work... It is perfectly possible
for them to do somewhere else.
The work of Carnegie Hall,
and the work of music...
and our contribution to the city,
has to come from Carnegie Hall.
City hall sources tell Andrew that Mayor
Bloomberg will not intervene in the matter.
He reportedly feels it's a
private, landlord-tenant dispute.
There was no official comment
from the mayor's office.
The state of things now is,
I don't want to say grim,
but it feels like the
studios of Carnegie Hall,
the legendary studios,
are on its last legs.
There are six tenants remaining in
the building, all rent control.
Everything is turned into offices.
Corporate offices.
Beautiful artist studios like this
have been divided up...
with partitions and computers
and telemarketers.
Agnes de Mille's studio...
This is the famous one, Ballet Arts,
where she choreographed
Oklahoma.
Can you imagine how big that studio was?
That is now a sea of telemarketers.
For us it feels criminal.
It feels immoral that these people,
at this stage of their life,
are going to spend their twilight years,
fighting to hold on to these studios.
That's why it's a treat to see Bill and
Editta Sherman standing their ground...
and being the last holdouts here
of the Carnegie Studios.
Editta Sherman!
[Chattering]
[Woman]
Come on in!
[Editta]
What is this thing?
How come they're not doing
something on me?
[Man] We did something on you.
This is all of you.
We're doing something
on all of you now.
[Woman]
Well, why?
Here I am. They don't even
bring a cup of coffee.
Well, I think they're not very civilized.
Editta's always hungry.
She's always hungry.
You see?
This is a crazy house.
- [Man] That's so beautiful.
- [Editta] I know that.
[Interviewer] Suzette, how
long have you known Editta?
Were you here
when I moved in in '49?
No. You were here first.
Forty-nine.
I moved in here in the '40s.
I guess I must have been here
around 1940, huh?
And Bill was making hats.
He was a designer.
[Interviewer] In this building?
Yes. Yes, he made hats.
And I met him because I wanted
to buy one of the hats.
[Interviewer]
Did Suzette wear your hats?
Yeah. I wear the orange
one all the time.
Suzette is very conservative.
It's wearing out.
An orange one. The orange beret.
She had one.
There's a picture
of it around somewhere.
Yeah, I have
one downstairs...
A painting of it,
a big painting.
[Editta]
Well, I have the hats here.
One of them is a little beret,
which is very cute.
No, it's nothing.
Don't show them the garbage.
This is one of Bill's hats.
Everybody looks at me
on the street when I wear this hat.
Like that one?
[Bill] My hat salon
was on the 10th floor.
Ginger Rogers used to come and joan Crawford.
Marilyn Monroe was one,
and I had no interest
'cause they weren't stylish.
I think this is the way he has this.
We have it?
Maybe I should have
something light on, like this.
You like it?
This all right?
I know Bill Cunningham was a milliner,
and he went under a label William J.
You see, he didn't go...
He went by William.
There, his label.
Actually, I've seen a few of his hats
at F.I.T. At an exhibit.
They were quite beautiful.
That's what we have in common, also, that
he used to see me on the street in hats.
Well, I did the little trick.
I put my hat in front of my face,
and I changed hats.
It's just, so it's not so blatant.
It doesn't... It doesn't break the line.
And that's how I put on hats
when I'm in public.
I love this little bowler.
I feel like Mr.
Peanut in this little bowler.
It's kind of a different silhouette for me.
It's very Mr. Peanut.
Do you like this one?
Do you want the same fur?
Do you like it that way
or do you like it hanging?
My friend Ray Solowinski
on the eighth floor was a photographer,
and he had the studio
where Caruso made his first recordings.
Marlon Brando had
his studio here.
Mrs. Sherman, no lipstick.
Yes, I know.
It doesn't go with that costume.
Well...
[Interviewer] Do you have
any funny stories... Yeah!
Like about the three of you?
About living in Carnegie?
Yes. Oh, definitely.
Sherman...
Sherman was the centerpiece.
It had always been her hobby.
She was self-taught,
and she danced to the music
of the dying swan. [Laughs]
Whose music is the dying...
Oh, it was The Carnival of the Animals.
Yes.
You know how that goes.
♪ Da, da, da, dee, da, da, da ♪
♪♪[Orchestra: Saint-Sans,
Carnival of the Animals]
[Bill] We'd never seen
anything like this in our lives.
But Editta would turn off all the lights
, and on the night of a full moon...
the moon would come
through those skylights...
Editta would come out
and do the dying swan.
We were all mesmerized by that.
♪♪[Continues]
[Astor]
Someone like Editta Sherman...
She's married to the studio and her
craft, and that's her life.
And to extract her
out of this environment is...
That feels criminal to me because she's
an artist who works in this environment,
and it's because of this environment
she does what she does.
And it's true of a lot
of the other tenants.
So... to sort of displace them
at this stage in their lives,
into some sort of anonymous apartment
is just, you know, I think,
would be the beginning of the end
for a lot of these tenants.
Is it sad for you? They're going to
relocate us in the neighborhood.
So you're not worried... It'll be an
apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom.
Who the hell wants a kitchen
and a bathroom?
Mmm.
Just more rooms to clean.
[Laughing] Can you see one of
these fancy apartment houses...
where all they move in are filing cabinets?
I'm not gonna worry.
I have more fun going out and photographing.
I suppose it'll bother me at
the time, but so what?
Inconvenient but otherwise...
You can't interrupt your life
with that nonsense.
[Crowd Chattering]
Psst! Psst!
♪♪ [Band: Jazz]
- Look at Veronica!
- Bill, a hug.
Hello child. My...
The diamonds have gotten bigger.
Right?
[Laughs]
And, of course...
Now that they make them at Club Monaco,
they get bigger and bigger.
And, of course, they're all real.
Yes.
Absolutely.
In someone's mind.
[Laughs]
[Man] Bill, this gentleman here in the
velvet blazer straight ahead of you...
is David Koch,
who we're honoring tonight.
[Bill]
Oh, I know him, yeah.
[Koch] I've never had
an experience like this Bill.
I'm kind of over the moon about
it, you know? Good. Good.
Enjoy it. My head is spinning.
Well, you should be.
[Woman] "Evening Hours"documents
, perhaps to some, simply parties...
and the people who go to them,
but really, what it's about...
are the amazing connections
people have in this city...
with each other, with the
various organizations...
they think are important,
with the people who they honor,
and Bill really chronicles that.
This is Karole Armitage.
She has a dance company in New York.
[Armitage] You have to come
take pictures of my gala.
We need you.
[Laughs]
Remind me. Have someone at your place
send a postcard. Okay, I will.
No formality.
Just send me something in the mail.
These are all the ones
I couldn't get to last week.
You know, you simply can't get involved
in all of these things. It's...
I used to try.
This one I might go to, but I just don't know.
The security could be so awful.
First, I select a charity
that will do the most good.
Never looking at a guest list. As a
matter of fact, people call up and say,
"Well, this one's coming or that one.
" I say, "Don't bother even telling me,
and don't bother sending a guest list
'cause I'm not interested. "
"The Queen of Sweden,
the Queen of Jordan,
their Royal Highnesses"...
and, uh, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I'm interested in what the charity does,
and that's why the Times is there.
It really is that way.
People find it hard to believe. They
think it's a society column. [Chuckles]
It's not at all.
It never was meant to be.
[Man] There was a magazine.
It's now deceased.
They had a headline...
The best magazine
title I've ever seen.
"You went out last night.
Nobody wrote about it.
Do you exist?"
[Chuckling]
Now that's...
That's the frame of mind that
a lot of people got caught up in.
You kids print your names for me.
Where's it gonna be? Where's our picture gonna be?
He's New York Times.
Oh.
The Times have a little benefit page.
It's small stuff.
We gotta be in it.
Unimportant.
We're pretty
good-looking people.
[Laughs]
Yeah. That's what I thought.
New York is about status.
That's all it's about.
There is...
This is not a pleasant city to live in,
aside from the fact that there are a lot
of people, uh, here who are ambitious.
People are very pushy
socially in New York,
but they don't wave a flag.
[Chuckles]
They just move in the
right direction.
The right direction is toward
Bill Cunningham's camera.
I don't think that Bill
considers himself a social arbiter.
I really don't consider him as being someone who
gets a lift out of being with these people.
Yeah, that's it! Yeah.
That's... That's the way.
Yeah, it's a nice expression.
None of this stiff stuff.
[Laughs]
You caught us napping.
I get that with the benefactors up there.
How you doing today there?
Okay, kid.
[Woman]
There's a little fish in the back.
Would they bring you some fish
over to the other side?
Oh, no. I don't want anything.
Are you sure?
Oh, yeah. I eat with my eyes.
Yeah, I know, but you need
to keep your body up too.
Hmm? You won't let me
get you a little plate?
Oh, no. No, thank you, Mary.
Nobody would see you.
No. Thank you, child.
[Laughs] Okay.
[Bill] A lot of people
think it's a little peculiar...
that I never have a drink
or something like that,
but I made up my mind...
Oh, at Women's Wear.
People were always wining
and dining you,
and I thought,
"Well, I'm not into that."
I'm there just to
report for the Times.
I'm not there to be wined and dined,
and I certainly wouldn't compromise
the Times,
so I made up my mind
at that point...
I wouldn't take even
a glass of water.
I have something to eat
before I go to work, and that's it.
Period.
It's keeping a distance from what you're
doing, so you can be more objective.
Objective over what, I don't know,
but, uh, it works for me.
New York society
becomes harder and harder to define.
The latest definition...
is everything from the girls
who smile for party pictures...
to the old WASPs.
He loves, like, an old, stylish gal.
[Chuckling] Come on.
He loves an old, stylish gal.
And they all love him.
That's why I think...
I don't know the history of Bill,
but we suspected that there was some
kind of society connection with Bill,
because he also felt as comfortable
with Lady Astor,
and he knew all those people.
I'm David Rockefeller.
William Astor.
You look marvelous indeed.
Isn't that nice? When you think of all
that's going on, that they came tonight?
Why are you not making peace?
Hello, Bill.
Come with me. [Laughs]
[Bill] Brooke Astor...
Someone like that is a rarity.
She had such a human touch,
a correctness, about her,
but not in a stuffed-shirt way.
She immediately
made people feel at ease.
She believed not in exclusion,
but inclusion.
We're all the same.
We all have the same problems.
We all have family members
that are whatever the hell it is.
I've loved and admired
my mother...
for more than
three-quarters of a century.
Let's all toast to my mother,
who was born,
not only on the 30th of March,
but in 1902,
the 30th of March was Easter Day.
Mrs. Astor represented some timeless
sense of style and elegance...
and philanthropy...
and doing the right thing.
I really am not so extraordinary.
I'm just an ordinary person
who has had a very good life...
and is very near...
and it is getting very near to the end.
And I've had a wonderful time.
You've all really been so sweet.
[De la Renta] I think it was
impossible not to admire her.
They became really very close friends.
And he did chronicle
her every single move.
It was with a genuine kindness and
affection, and he protected her.
To the very end
they were great friends.
I'm guessing...
that he might actually have come
from a wealthy family because of that,
and because only people who come from
wealth can live the way he lives.
So that's always been my assumption,
but I've actually never discussed it
with him.
[McDonald] About ten years ago
, I was sitting outside...
downtown at a restaurant,
and it must have been 11 o'clock at night.
And all of a sudden,
there goes Bill Cunningham on his bike.
I thought, "Oh, I want to say hello,"
but he was gone in a fleeting moment.
And all I could see was his blue coat
and the bike go by.
And I knew where he was headed.
He goes to many events
in one evening.
He's in one event uptown,
and he's downtown at another event.
It's rigorous work.
[Horn Honks]
This is too early to be
at one of these downtown parties.
We're the only ones here. [Man] Bill's
gonna be here for five minutes and leave.
Big smiles.
Come on, Annie!
[Laughing]
[Bill]
Beautiful, guys.
[Man]
That's a classic Schwinn.
Someone gave it to me.
That's my 29th.
Wonderful.
I've had 28 stolen.
28 stolen bikes?
Yeah. That's the 29th.
Oh, my goodness, the kids are all here.
The kids are here.
I came out from L.A. With Annie.
Oh, how wonderful.
She's ensconced down there.
Oh, aren't you kids beautiful?
Look at you.
"You kids." Never changes.
Look at you two kids.
You gonna take?
Yes.
Of us?
Yes. In basic black? Are you kidding?
A very special one too. Yes.
[Koda]
Bill is a true egalitarian.
However, that doesn't mean
he isn't aware of the nuances...
of cultural division and hierarchies.
He just treats it all the same.
He really is the person who,
whether you're a bicycle messenger,
a woman who's breaking
the glass ceiling on Wall Street,
a socialite in New York...
who's an up-and-comer
and part of nouvelle society,
or an old Dutch or German family...
that is still in the last phases
of its denouement in Newport...
He doesn't care.
It's all, for him, the huge variety
of life in New York City.
[Man] When was the first
time Bill photographed you?
In 1986,
and the Times said...
He came to me the next week and
he said, "I'm so disappointed.
The Times said we can't put you in
because you're wearing a dress."
And he said, "But I'm going
to keep trying to get you in."
And I was like, "What the hell?
I'm wearing a pair
of workman's boots with that dress."
And he said, "I know Kenny,
but they won't put you in, but I'm trying."
And now, they put everything in.
He's such a maverick.
Really a maverick.
He means so much to people like us.
Really.
He's an artist.
We'll talk.
[Horns Honking]
[Loud Chattering]
You have two choices.
You can either have Jon Bon Jovi
give you the welcoming remarks...
and me doing the singing...
[Laughter]
Or the reverse.
Seriously, this is one
of the great jewels of New York.
It is great for the economy of this city.
It is great for the education of our kids.
It is great for everybody.
So you have a great evening tonight,
and thank you for all you're doing.
Thank you for your support
of this wonderful museum. God bless.
[Applause]
[John]
That's why I was going up with it.
[Bill]
Yes, like that. Yeah. That's nice.
Now let's put this one, a single
picture party, right in here.
Put this one down at the bottom,
this party, and put this one above it.
We'll see. We'll just...
Just put it on. Stop your antics.
Put it up there.
[Growling]
[Laughing]
Damn you kids!
I love this one. Scientists.
He must be quite a jokester.
He's a Nobel laureate
and so forth,
and he's teasing
the other scientist.
Look at this beautiful child,
but we have no room for her.
I think we need
someone new, young.
I didn't know who she was.
Just, I liked the way she looked.
The dress is terrific.
Asymmetric on the bias.
You never see that.
And it's not a model. That's a private
person that brought their own clothes.
I have the most beautiful
picture of Mrs. Bass.
She looks like
a John Singer Sargent portrait.
A what?
Absolutely ravishing.
Except, she's got a modesty bib
filling in the V-neckline.
What a crime.
That should have been...
I'm sure the dressmaker got timid.
You know, to fill it.
Isn't that a shame?
It should have been left open.
Look how elegant she is.
Oh, yeah.
Oh. That woman is amazing.
Uh, wasn't she in last week?
No. No.
Oh, no, you don't cut her arms.
Are you crazed?
Well, excuse me.
Keep her hands in.
My God, John.
Where's your sensitivity?
I mean, she's probably
the most elegant woman,
or one of the most elegant women,
in New York.
Oh, you wouldn't know.
What am I talking to you about that stuff?
[Chuckling] You're a lumberjack,
and here I'm talking dresses to you.
Are you talking to me?
I was completely ignoring you all that time.
Oh! Now stop it.
Turn that damn thing off.
[Interviewer] Bill, we're gonna hound you.
We're gonna hound you.
You've already done that.
Now stop it. [Laughter]
These guys are tough as nails.
They think they're taking over.
They're not taking over.
We're not.
I got news for them.
[Woman] Yeah.
[Laughing]
These jerks think
they're going to follow me to Paris.
Who are they kidding?
We are.
No, you're not.
♪♪[Man Singing In French]
[Bill]
I didn't get to Paris till 1951.
♪♪[Continues]
I was stationed
in the southwest of France.
I'd take the train up to Paris.
Of course,
it was very different from today.
They were only couture houses.
They were clothes
that gave women enormous security...
through the elegance of cut
and taste and refinement.
There was nothing
frivolous about them.
[Woman Speaking
French]
[Bill]
You see, when I began in the '40s,
there were no photographers
at fashion shows.
What the fashion houses had to do
was take their own photographs...
and bring them to the editors
to select something.
Then the ready-to-wear
came into existence in the...
in the end of the '60s,
beginning of the '70s, very slowly.
At Saint Laurent's
first ready-to-wear show,
I think there were maybe myself,
and maybe a Vogue photographer.
I mean, it didn't have this
fanatic following that it has now...
of all these manufacturers and
people that just would k*ll to get in...
because they need to steal ideas
for their own work.
So they let Paris
be the laboratory of ideas.
[Chattering]
The press entrance is that way,
so you have to ask them, unfortunately.
Nikki, should we go...
Just one person, huh?
Oh.
[Indistinct]
[Indistinct]
Nikki, um, I'll see you later.
[Bill]
Looking at these collections,
I look for what I think
a woman could wear, would wear,
and whether it would fit
a human body,
other than the model.
I'm very attuned to that.
If it isn't something a woman could
wear, I have no interest in it.
I've watched Bill photograph
from the front row,
and you can see when the camera goes up
or the camera stays down.
[Hastreiter]
And he's very opinionated.
He does not applaud
everyone.
He knows
what's innovative...
and what's borrowed or copied.
He knows if he sees someone, you know
, putting something on a runway...
if it was done, like,
30 years before.
And so he would pull it up.
Thirty years before,
and he'd show the picture and...
I mean, he got...
Designers would be devastated.
He once did that with Isaac Mizrahi.
He pulled up a Geoffrey Beene...
from like five years before
or something,
and Isaac was so mad, and even Geoffrey
Beene, I think, got mad at Isaac.
[Laughing] You know, it was like
he would definitely start trouble.
Not on purpose, but he would do...
He would definitely, like, point out,
like, if he saw something, he'd call it.
[Bill] The photographers at the
shows, they're all in the back,
so they get a clear photograph
with nothing disturbing.
They get a plain wall.
It's all fine.
But they're getting
everything straight on.
Well, fashion's not that way.
You have to know in an instant, "Oh, the
angle is this, and the detail is that. "
And it's not straight on.
I just like it on the side, so I
can get a front, a back, a profile...
or hopefully.
Most of the time I
miss it, but I try.
[Man] ♪I hear Jerusalem
bells are ringing ♪
♪Roman cavalry choirs are singing ♪
♪Be my mirror, my sword and shield ♪
♪My missionaries in
a foreign field ♪
♪For some reason I can't explain ♪
♪Once you go there was never,
never an honest word ♪
♪And that was when I
ruled the world ♪♪
The wider world
that perceives fashion as a...
sometimes a frivolity
that should be done away with...
in the face of social upheavals
and problems that are enormous...
The point is, in fact, that fashion...
Um...
You know, in point of fact,
it's the armor to survive
the reality of everyday life.
I don't think you could do away with it.
It would be like doing
away with civilization.
You know, l... That's what I think.
I mean, a lot of people think
"He's a crazy fanatic," you know.
[Laughing] At any rate,
that's what I think about it.
[Chattering]
[Interviewer] How is it different
sh**ting here than in New York?
Fashion week here is exceptional.
Why?
It educates the eye.
Paris?
That's right. That's really...
I come for the fashion,
but that's what happens.
Every six months
it's like going to school.
You have to go back
and reeducate the eye.
You couldn't take me
to a fine restaurant.
[Both Laugh]
So you don't care about food?
No.
Really?
Oh, no, no.
Do you listen to music?
I used to go to concerts here,
in the churches and the opera.
But that stopped years ago.
There's no time.
Yeah, sure.
[Indistinct]
Right.
I mean, if I'm lucky I get to
church on Sunday. [Laughs]
That's where I hear the music. Really?
You go to church to hear the music?
Do you go to church?
Yeah.
Every Sunday?
Yeah.
Really?
[Chuckles]
It's no big deal.
I go and repent.
[Both Laugh]
[Chattering]
[Man Shouting In French]
And you see all the paparazzi
going crazy? Oh, yeah.
Over Catherine Denueve.
[Bill] I can hear people say, "He's
gotta be the dumbest one in the crowd.
He didn't bother
photographing her. "
Well, she wasn't wearing
anything interesting.
I'm interested in clothes.
And even if I knew them, knew who
they were, and usually I don't,
I don't go to the movies much
and I've never owned television.
I'd never be a paparazzi.
I couldn't be.
To torment people and chase them...
Oh, that I couldn't do. I wouldn't do.
I think it has to be done
just discreetly and quietly.
"Invisible,"I think, is the word.
[Bill] This is the greatest subject
in all of Europe... Madame Piaggi.
C'est le video
The New York Times.
Yeah, I know.
The pumps. I don't like them
on me, but it's good on her.
[Interviewer]
When did he first photograph you?
Uh, in the '70s.
[Bill] I photographed her
outside Saint Laurent's couture show,
mixed in with all the other women that were
trying to be so chic with their pantsuits.
It was a revelation.
I mean, I never saw anyone like her.
I think she's a poet with clothes.
But a very fine poet.
Oh, my God, I wouldn't miss her.
To me, that's the
reason to go to Paris.
I mean, I just like fashion
as an art form of dressing the body.
If we all went out looking like a slob like
me, it would be a pretty dreary world.
No, see, I think Bill is very stylish.
He has a look. It's individual.
It's Bill... the blue smock.
The jacket is functional 'cause
it has all the pockets. Right.
And you can launder it.
And I thought the color was nice.
Originally, when I started to buy them
at the Bazar de L'Hotel de Ville,
they were $20.
And they were the ones
that the street sweepers wore.
They came in black
and white and blue.
And, you see, with the cameras,
the jackets all get torn here and ruined.
So that was another thing.
Why have an expensive,
beautiful jacket...
and wear it with all the cameras
rubbing on it and wreck it?
I mean,
I can't imagine such wastefulness.
Oh, don't mind me. These are my...
I have to take every morning
my heart pills.
Keep the heart going.
[Laughs]
This would be an upscale French
caf for me. Oh, really?
Not...
Not terribly upscale, but upscale.
I like very simple,
down-to-earth, basic things.
You know, I don't like anything fancy.
And of course, I suppose that's such
a contradiction. Well, exactly.
Here I love all these women
dressed up in all these...
[Laughs]
But I don't mind it. L...
What other people do
doesn't concern me.
It's just not my interest.
[Interviewer]
Tell me something about your family.
Oh, my family's
just working-class people.
Just marvelous, normal,
hardworking people.
And Catholic people.
I think I have, uh, half and half.
When I'm outgoing,
I guess I'm my dad.
And when I'm... uptight you'd call
it now, or whatever you call it,
uh, I'd be definitely my mother.
What does your family
think of what you do?
No one ever said anything about it,
but I think in years, in retrospect...
'cause I never thought about it...
they didn't think fashion
was a very manly pursuit,
or profession, for a man, you know.
So it was that kind of thing.
Right.
Whatever.
[Chuckles]
Do you feel honored to be getting
this award from the French?
Oh, it's very lovely of them.
It's exciting.
I don't know
why they're doing it, frankly.
Oh, come on, are you kidding?
'Cause you live long enough to hang around?
Are you kidding?
Congratulations.
Oh, Daphne! Oh, child!
It's you they should be honoring, not me.
[Laughs]
Merci.
It should be Jean Luc.
He's the one they should be honoring.
[Woman] No. Yes!
He doesn't want
to be honored.
He doesn't want
anything.
And I'm amazed
he accepted tonight.
He's not only Chevalier, but directly
Officer, which is exceptional.
Very deeply, I think
he doesn't believe he deserves it.
That's why he deserves it... even more.
[Chattering]
I just think it's so funny
that you're working at your own party.
My dear, it's not work.
It's pleasure.
You know, you're right, but still.
You think I'm gonna miss
a good picture?
Are you still living in Carnegie Hall?
Yeah.
In the same studio?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
They're going to throw me
out eventually. Oh, God.
No, no, no.
Either that or I go out in a coffin.
Who knows? Who cares?
Bonsoir, madame.
[Audience Applauds]
[Speaking French]
[Whistles, Cheers,
Applause]
Congratulations.
[Speaking French]
[Speaking French]
When I photograph...
[French]
But that's what we're here for.
I'm not interested in the celebrities,
with their free dresses.
That's...
C'est pas important.
At least look at the clothes.
[French]
It's the clothes,
not the celebrity,
and not the spectacle.
It's as true today as it ever was.
He who seeks beauty...
[Voice Cracking]
Will find it.
[Applause]
[Woman] We cannot base New
York City's entire economy...
on Wall Street and real estate.
[Bill] It's a rally to save, or protect
, the garment industry from disappearing.
But I'm afraid it's too late.
Uh...
All the jobbers are gone.
They've all more or less moved out.
90-95%
of the clothes Americans wear...
are made outside of America.
Michael!
[Shutter Clicks]
[Woman] Mr. Cunningham, they
would like you up there.
How are you?
Great. Good.
You?
Good to see you.
Good.
[Laughs]
I'm hanging out
behind the scenes.
I think I'll take one of those pea coats.
Made in America?
Get ready for the best part
of the pea coat.
Cashmere and neoprene.
Oh, too rich for me.
[Both Laugh]
David Wolfson is one of the last..."jobbers"?
What do you call yourself, David?
Oh, contractor. Contractor.
Excuse me. I'll get it straight.
There were thousands of them 30 years ago,
and there's now maybe 45.
You know? Yeah.
Oh, look at this.
[Shutter Clicks]
This would fit the bill
of the measurements...
of what Carnegie Hall said we were
entitled to or not to?
Yes.
Yeah.
Well, it would be nice if I had
clothes to hang here. [Laughs]
But it's beautiful,
with the whole wall of windows,
and the windowed kitchen
facing the park.
That's an embarrassment,
isn't it?
Uh, where's the next one?
[Chuckles]
The next one is on the 14th floor.
Here we go.
To your right.
I think... I think you'd like this one...
as an option.
Okay.
[Horns Honking]
[Shutter Clicks]
[Realtor] Bill, this was the one
that had the dining area...
My dear, l...
and the bigger kitchen.
I've never dined in, in my entire life.
[Laughs]
Well, maybe you'll start.
This seems smaller.
A little bit.
It could be the lighting.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, the view.
I appreciate your time, and I'll try
not to take more of it, you know?
You take as long as you need.
Well, yeah.
[Child Shouting]
[Interviewer] If you take one of these
apartments, when are you going to move?
What do you do with bicycles?
I don't know.
[Interviewer] So I'm going to ask
you two very personal questions...
you may or may not want to answer.
It's completely up to you.
But have you ever had a romantic
relationship in your entire life?
[Laughs]
Now, do you want to know
if I'm gay?
Yes.
[Laughs]
Isn't that a riot?
Well, that's probably why the family wanted
to keep me out of the fashion world.
They wouldn't speak of such a thing.
No. I haven't.
Never in your entire life?
No. It never occurred to me.
I guess I just was interested in clothes.
That's the obsession.
It's probably a little peculiar.
Is that something you regret?
No. I wouldn't even think about it.
No, I don't regret it.
There was no time.
I was working night and day.
I mean, I don't know when you'd...
Uh, no, it was...
And in my family, uh,
things like that were never discussed.
So it never...
It wasn't even in my head or my mind.
I wouldn't have known a thing about it.
So they needn't have worried.
But years later, I surmised...
that that must have been
in the back of their minds.
And certainly the women
from Chez Ninon.
[Mutters]
You've had good friends.
You've had good friends.
A few people that I've known.
Yes. Yeah.
Uh...
People that... Oh, you mean...
Just friends.
Oh, Yeah. Yeah.
No, I have friends.
I mean,
Antonio was a dear friend.
Oh, Antonio... I love those kids.
And Suzette.
Yes.
Yeah, they... It's just, I suppose I've...
I don't know.
You can't be in love with your work,
but I enjoyed it so much that it didn't...
Yeah.
But hey, listen, I am human.
[Laughing]
Exactly.
You do have, uh, body urges
or whatever,
but, uh,
you control it as best you can.
And then the other question is...
and again, you don't have to answer this...
but I know that you go to church
every Sunday.
Oh, yeah.
And does religion...
Is that an important component
of your life?
We don't have to talk about this.
Yeah, I think it's a good guidance
in your life.
Uh...
Yeah, it's something I need and, uh...
Yeah, I guess maybe
it's part of your upbringing.
I don't know.
Whatever it is, everyone...
You do whatever you do
the best you can work things out,
but yeah.
I find it very important. Yeah.
For whatever reason.
I don't know.
As a kid...
[Laughs]
I went to church and all I did
was look at women's hats.
You know.
But later, when you mature,
for different reasons.
There's nothing worse.
Yes, there is.
What you're about to go through
is worse than getting a pink slip.
All right? Are you ready?
Because it's this way. It's like...
Oh, my... [Staff] Surprise!
[All]
Happy birthday!
[Laughing, Clapping]
Look at them all in those jackets!
[Laughs]
How did you do it?
Spending all that money!
Oh!
Terrible. That's it.
We're taking you out the back way.
Look at those kids!
[Chattering, Laughing]
You kids are... You're a riot.
This old geezer...
...and we are so delighted...
to have you as part of our family
and be part of yours.
And... Family? I've fought
with every one of these kids!
[Laughter]
That's family!
[Man]
That's right. That's it.
That's right.
Gee whiz!
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday, dear Bill ♪
Well, okay.
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪♪
Don't forget to make a wish.
Let's see if I can get it, Melissa.
[Laughing]
This old geezer...
Okay, kid. [Woman] You got it.
Whoo!
That is really nice.
Bill, we wrote a...
I wrote a song for you.
Oh, my God.
♪ Bill, what's happening
out on the street today? ♪
♪ Bill, last night you partied
and now you pay ♪
♪ Bill, your page is late
and you're still out on your bike ♪
♪ Hemlines, black ties, fur coats,
pink scarves, sandals ♪
♪When will you make your mind up? ♪
♪ Bill, you can't fit all those pictures
on the page ♪
♪ Bill, we're going blind
and we're half your age ♪
♪ Bill ♪
♪Why can't we be like you are ♪
♪ Getting your own damn way ♪
♪ Oh, Bill, we celebrate you today ♪♪
[Man]
Yeah!
♪♪[Rock Ballad]
I just try to play a straight game,
and in New York that's very...
almost impossible.
To be honest and straight in New York,
that's like Don Quixote fighting windmills.
Ooh, hoo. Shut up, Cunningham.
[Chuckling] Let's get this thing
on the road and get up and work.
All right, turn off the cameras.
We've had enough of this.
[Woman]
♪ I'll be your mirror ♪
♪ Reflect what you are ♪
♪ In case you don't know ♪
♪ I'll be the wind,
the rain and the sunset ♪
♪ A light on your door ♪
♪ To show that you're home ♪
♪ When you think the night
has seen your mind ♪
♪ That inside you're
twisted and unkind ♪
♪ Let me stand to show
that you are blind ♪
♪ Please put down your hands ♪
♪ 'Cause I see you ♪
♪I find it hard
to believe you don't know ♪
♪ The beauty you are ♪
♪ But if you don't, let
me be your eyes ♪
♪ A hand to your darkness ♪
♪ So you won't be afraid ♪
♪ When you think
the night has seen your mind ♪
♪ That inside you're
twisted and unkind ♪
♪ Let me stand to show
that you are blind ♪
♪ Please put down your hands ♪
♪ 'Cause I see you ♪
♪ I'll be your mirror ♪ [Chorus]
♪Reflect what you are ♪
♪ I'll be your mirror ♪
♪ Reflect what you are ♪
♪ I'll be your mirror ♪
♪ Reflect what you are ♪
♪I'll be your mirror ♪
♪Reflect what you are ♪♪
♪♪[Fades, Ends]
[Shutter Clicking, Film Advancing]
Bill Cunningham New York (2010)
Moderator: Maskath3