Overturning the Roe v. Wade decision and wiping out the reproductive health. You've heard the headlines.
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Donate at plannedparenthood.org/slash defend. At Blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments. It's about you, your style, your space, your way. Whether you DIY or want the pros to handle it all, you'll have the confidence of knowing it's done right. From free expert design help to our 100% satisfaction guarantee, everything we do is made to fit your life and your windows.
Because at blinds.com, the only thing we treat better than windows is you. Visit blinds.com now for buy one, get one free on select styles plus a professional measure at no cost. Rules and restrictions apply. Good morning. I'm Jane Pauley, and this is Sunday morning.
This land is your land and this land is my land. From California to the New York Island, It's one of our most classic folk songs. To start us off this morning, Lee Cowan goes back in time to explore the history of Woody Guthrie's enduring tune that's helped define these United States. Then to President Trump's release of remaining government files about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Mr. Trump released files on the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy as well. But will releasing these files really set to rest?
speculation about just what the government does or doesn't know. We've asked Aaron Moriarty for a deep dive into the JFK files. For three decades, Jefferson Morley has fought to see all the government records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. And now it seems to be finally happening.
Why does this matter? It goes to the credibility of the government. What the newly released records reveal later on Sunday morning. I am big, says Norma Desmond. It's the pictures that got small.
That, of course, is one of the most famous lines in movie history from one of Hollywood's most celebrated films, Sunset Boulevard. The motion picture classic was released 75 years ago this month. With Tracy Smith, We'll Look Back. You don't know how much I've missed all of you. Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond is the face of Hollywood's dark side, a place that had no room for an older actress.
Was Gloria Swanson anything like Norma Desmond? No. She was much more real and sensible, and she was the only person. that understood that this movie had a truth to it that would never be forgotten. Sunset at 75, ahead on Sunday morning.
Four trillion dollars. That's a very big number. And a milestone. the total value the world's digital currencies reached for the first time last month. But for many of us the concept of crypto is still confusing, and its volatility strikes some as uh more than a little scary.
Joling Kent explores a world in which cash is no longer king. Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam. Like many Americans, President Donald Trump was once pretty skeptical of cryptocurrencies. The United States will be the crypto capital of the planet. Until he had a change of heart.
I feel like right now we're at the tipping point of Bitcoin going from the early adopter phase to really becoming a mainstream asset that's going to be a part of every person's life. What's behind the crypto craze sweeping Washington and Wall Street? It's a full house in here. Coming up. on Sunday morning.
John Blackstone this morning talks with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak about the risks of online scams. Faith Saley samples the strange new world of ASMR videos, plus another visit with Josh Seftel and his mom, Pat. And more. on this Sunday morning for the tenth of august, twenty twenty five. We'll be back in a moment.
This land is your land, this land is my land, from California to the New York Island, from the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Street Water. It's an American folk song like none other. Lee Cowan explains how this Woody Guthrie classic is all about these United States.
So, this is our archive. It's what we call the repository. Deep in a secure temperature-controlled vault at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
So it's way down here at the end. All the way at the end here. High on a shelf. I'll take it.
So it's a relic. Put it on the shelf. That's it, huh? Yeah. relic the Smithsonian has listed among the top 101 objects that made America.
How often does it get to come out and play? Not very often. This is a rare occasion. It's the test pressing of a song recorded way back in 1944. That years later went on to become one of our patriotic standards.
Feels like you're really in the room with it. This land is my land. California. The New York Island This land is your land. by renowned folk singer Woody Guthrie.
This land was made for you and me. This land is your land. The song turns 85 this year and Gotta say, it's aged pretty well. This flare dismiler. Lady Gaga made it part of her Super Bowl halftime show.
And it was the very first song sung in the Oscar-nominated biopic, not about Woody Guthrie, but about Bob Dylan. featuring Edward Norton as Guthrie's good friend. The late Pete Seeger. Oh my god. We all know the words.
to the Gulfstream Mars. Most of us learned them in school. Still, there are some of Guthrie's original lyrics. that are often left out today. There was a big high wall there.
Try to stop me. The sign was painted. had private property, but on the back side it didn't say nothing. This land was made for you and me. This is an America that is for me and for you, but we also have some troubles.
Maureen Lochran, the director and curator of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings? C.'s Guthrie song is historic because it's a commentary. On the responsibilities of democracy. If we're all in this project of making this nation, how do we look out for each other? Let us all be grateful.
By most accounts, Guthrie wrote it in response to Irving Berlin's. God bless America. Mm-hmm. God bless America. In fact, his original title was God Blessed America before he crossed it out.
So one is in the past with perhaps frustration, anger, all these emotional feelings versus this land is made for you and me, this is a positive way forward. That's Woody's granddaughter. Anna Kanone and before us is Woody's handwritten lyrics to this land. Just on a simple piece of loose leaf paper. There is like a power to the original document.
A reverence kind of that comes from it. That I find very moving. We met at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A treasure trove of lyrics and drawings and performances. that all draw visitors to this point.
to read for themselves. but they might have been singing all their lives. He hit a topic and he hit a nerve that I think we feel needs to be said again. Her grandfather didn't dislike God Bless America, but he worried it was too broad a brush. one that bypassed the less traveled roads that Guthrie, in fact, had traveled.
He saw a lot of people crying. Struggling, hungry. And he was just very um I want to say more than moved. He was hurt. That's Guthrie's youngest daughter.
Nora.
So he just felt that God bless America wasn't really telling the whole story. Yes. And he says, it's because I love. The Purdy Parts. that I want to fix.
The dirty parts. He wrote about sharecroppers fleeing the Dust Bowl. I ain't got no home, I'm just a roaming round. Just a wandering worker, I go from town to town. Oh, if you ain't got the door, me, folks.
He sang about migrants and the marginalized. Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee. Oh, you can't scare me. I'll stick it to the union. Laborers struggling to unionize.
He was a wandering wordsmith. Born in Okeema, Oklahoma, back in 1912. The town still proudly bears his name. Just about everywhere you look, in fact. A folk hero to the folks around here, for sure.
One might think that he wrote this land in the back of a pickup somewhere on the dusty plains, but he actually wrote it in New York City in a hotel room right near Times Square.
Now, coincidentally, The showroom for Steinway Pianos. Right in the heart of New York City, 42nd Street doesn't get any more, you know. American Mehmet. That hotel was just steps from Bryant Park. where the conversations that he heard inspired him to write even more.
even while getting his shoes shot. He was gobbling up everything around him, gobble, gobble, gobble, and he would digest it and it would come out. He would regurgitate it as a song. Jeez. It gets right to the heart.
Uh of the promise of what our country was supposed to be about. Bruce Springsteen once called Woody Guthrie's This Land. one of the greatest songs ever written about our nation. He played it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial alongside Pete Seeger back in 2009. And I just started weeping.
Every person that was standing there knew the words and was singing along. The occasion was the inauguration of America's first black president. This land, our land, had never seen such a thing before. But Woody Guthrie's idea that the promise that this land was indeed for everyone was on display that day. being celebrated as true.
At that moment I looked up and I said, So that's why you wrote it. Psycho walking. Psycho walk. Freedom Highway And suddenly this song grew to encompass Everyone in the country Everyone in the country for six verses. You know?
This land is your land. This land is my land. From California to be your guide. He may not be our official national anthem, but. An anthem it's become.
Nonetheless. This land was made for you and me put us. In a box. Go ahead. That just gives us something to break out of because the next generation 2025 GMC terrain elevation is raising the standard of what comes standard.
As far as expectations go, why meet them when you can shatter them? What we choose to challenge, we challenge completely. We are professional grade. Visit gmc.com to learn more. Martha listens to her favorite band all the time.
In the car, Jim. Even sleeping.
So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live. She saved so much, she got a seat close enough to actually see and hear them.
Sort of. You were made to scream from the front row. We were made to quietly save you more. Expedia, made to travel. Savings vary and subject to availability, Blight inclusive packages are at all protected.
What's become practically a way of life for some is downright cryptic to many others.
So what's behind cryptocurrency, digital money? Joling Kent sums it all up. For the 35,000 Bitcoin enthusiasts who descended on Cin City this spring, What happened in Vegas hardly stayed in Vegas. This is Bitcoin 2025, the biggest ever gathering of its kind. If you want digital drama, stick around this conference.
Between the high rollers, your goal should be to own at least one Bitcoin because by the time you retire, that could be worth 20, 30 million. And the true believers. You can't change the buy, it changes you. Same is true of Bitcoin. Everyone seemed to agree on one thing.
President Donald Trump's reelection has been like hitting the jackpot. And I'm here today to say loud and clear. With President Trump, crypto finally has a champion and an ally in the White House. Once dismissed by investors and still baffling to many Americans, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have won over supporters from Wall Street to Washington. In July, the President signed the Genius Act, which opens the door for companies including Walmart and Amazon to issue their own digital currencies.
The emerging digital asset ecosystem. And Congress is debating another bill that, for the first time, aims to regulate cryptocurrency trading. This after the industry spent more than $167 million on behalf of crypto-friendly candidates ahead of last year's election. How should people think of crypto? Is it like gold?
Is it a stock? Is it a beanie baby or maybe a laboo boo? You could think of it as gambling. You could think of it as a collectible. You could think of it as a type of investment.
But I think what's important to understand is that crypto is highly volatile. It's highly speculative. Amanda Fisher served as a top official in the Securities and Exchange Commission under President Biden. Crypto is often marketed to individuals as an investment opportunity that will yield them the possibility of great returns. But unlike, say, a stock, which represents a part of ownership of a company, it is not backed by any sort of business that is producing goods and services.
Unlike hard currencies like the dollar or the Euro, cryptocurrencies only exist online and are issued by individuals and companies, not central banks. And yet billions of dollars worth of crypto are traded every day. The number of scams, the types of scams, the sophistication of scams are so. Rife and plentiful that the capacity to lose your money in a crypto investment is substantially higher than if you're just investing in stocks and bonds. During the Biden administration, the SEC cracked down on the cryptocurrency industry.
The Trump administration has changed course, dismissing the largest outstanding cases, which Fisher says leaves consumers more vulnerable. We are seeing leaders in crypto say, we want to be regulated. And there is legislation currently here in Washington underway to regulate cryptocurrency. They say they want laws passed. They want laws that they write to be passed.
So the legislation currently being considered in Washington, DC. Is written by and for the crypto industry. I wish that was the case. That'd be fantastic. But no, it's not true.
David Bailey runs the Bitcoin Conference and is CEO of a Bitcoin holding company called Nakamoto. He's one of many crypto entrepreneurs who now call Puerto Rico home. It started because of the taxes.
Now it's like. the place to do business. But the 34-year-old's real claim to fame might be his role in convincing a skeptical President Trump. Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam. To go all in on Bitcoin during the 2024 campaign.
I want to thank David Bailey for inviting me. Special guy. What did you tell President Trump? to get him into crypto.
So first off, no one convinces the president of anything. He makes up his own mind about things. A lot of people, especially in Washington, have missed how big this has gotten. And so we made the case to the President about how many people hold this asset. he saw the opportunity that was here by embracing this industry.
I think we had a big part of swinging the election in his direction. The Federal Reserve says only 8% of Americans have bought or held cryptocurrency in the last year. and only 2% have ever used it to buy anything. But digital assets are increasingly part of the economy.
Soon you'll be able to use crypto as collateral for a mortgage. And this past week, the President signed an executive order to make it easier to hold cryptocurrency in your 401k. All the attention has helped drive the price of Bitcoin to an all-time high, recently passing $120,000. speech. How much was Bitcoin when you first bought it?
So Bitcoin was about ten dollars. And how much Bitcoin did you buy back then?
Well, you know, that that's something I'm not going to talk about on camera. Not enough. Let's just put it like that. Not enough. And as crypto's fortunes have improved, so have the presidents.
The World Liberty Financial Token Sale is now live. CBS News estimates that crypto ventures controlled by the Trump family have made up to seven hundred sixty five million dollars in revenue from token sales since the fall of twenty twenty four. The White House did not respond to questions about the token sales, but in a statement told CBS News, neither the President nor his family have ever engaged or will ever engage in conflicts of interest. Most experts in government ethics believe the situation is unprecedented. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe the president has changed his position on Bitcoin and crypto?
Because He can personally benefit from it or his family can. No, absolutely not. I don't think he embraced this industry. To enrich himself, I think that he just sees the same potential that I see. When you get excited about an idea, you feel compelled to do something about it.
Good job. And that potential is why investors are betting that crypto will soon become part of everyday life. We want our fellow Americans to know that crypto and digital assets and particularly Bitcoin are part of the mainstream economy and are here to stay. But for Amanda Fisher, that's a gamble. just not worth taking.
We heard the same thing about subprime mortgages going into 2008. We heard the same thing about complex financial derivatives going into the last crisis too. These products are wonderful and they're ways to extract so much value and wealth. until they're not. And I fear that crypto is going to follow down the same path.
Things are going great many times until they're not. As you've heard, to some investors, crypto is the way of the future, to others, it's little more than a scam. Either way, Buyer beware Here's John Blackstone. At the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, the exhibits chart how technology. Got to where it is today.
Originally, people didn't think that you needed a keyboard for a computer. That wasn't the idea.
Well, no, the way computers had always evolved is they started out as a processor like this with switches and lights. There could be no better guide to this history than Steve Wozniak. co-founder of Apple. Over here is the Apple One. Yeah.
Yeah. In 1976, Wozniak built the Apple I. And from that, he and Steve Jobs built a company. Incredible times, just caming down wanting to build a neat product. Wozniak was the inventor.
Jobs was the master salesman. And when Wozniak created the Apple II, Jobs had something new to sell. the first personal computer. To display color. That was the machine that really made personal computers go because it was so fun.
Look at the logo: six colors.
So many breakthroughs in there that are just so far out of the box. You helped start the computer revolution. that brought us where we are today. Good or bad?
Well, it was it's well, it's good.
Well, yeah, until the internet came and and it offered new business models, you know, ways to have power over other people and control a lot of customers. That's when some of the bad started happening. And some of that bad has happened to Steve Wozniak.
Some people said they lost their life savings. And of course, it's fraud. Wozniak's wife Janet learned from one of the victims that a scam on YouTube was using Wozniak to steal Bitcoin. I got an email on our web server that said, when are you going to send me my money? And I wrote back and I said, what are you talking about?
And they had actually taken video of Woz talking about Bitcoin and then they put a nice frame around it with a Bitcoin address that if you sent him any amount of Bitcoin, he would send you double that back. You might think that YouTube owned by Google would be quick to take down a fraudulent video using the image of Apple's co-founder. But you'd be wrong. We never got to YouTube. Our lawyer has gotten to their lawyer.
That's all. Brian Danitz is Wozniak's lawyer. We've asked YouTube over and over and it keeps happening.
So, Wozniak sued YouTube on behalf of some of those who lost money in the Bitcoin scam. I sent in. It was 0.9 Bitcoin worth $59,000 at the time. Jennifer Marion is one of them. And you thought you might get more than a hundred thousand dollars worth back?
Yes. And what did you get back? I got back. Nothing. He didn't think.
This is too good to be true. doubling your money in minutes. You know, in retrospect, it seems so obvious that this must be a scam, but in that moment, I was just comfortable at home. I was on YouTube.
well known platform. I was watching a Video from a verified business, and in that moment I viewed it like a business transaction. Like if I was in a physical Google store and the Google store representative told me there's a representative from a company over there, and they said, Okay, we're doing a special 50% off if you buy in cash. Hi. kind of viewed it like that.
It was like a kind of like a buy one, get one free For a Bitcoin. No, that's a crime. You know, a good person, if you see a crime happening, you step in and you do something about it. You tried to stop it. Wozniak's lawsuit against YouTube has been tied up in court now for five years, stalled by federal legislation known as Section 230.
Section 230 is a very broad statute that limits, if not totally, The ability to bring any kind of case against these social media platforms. Section 230 is sometimes called the 26 words that created the internet. It became law in 1996. It says that anything gets posted, they have no liability at all. It's totally absolute.
Google responded to our inquiry about Wozniak's lawsuit with a statement. We take abuse of our platform seriously and take action when we detect violations. We have tools for users to report channels that are impersonating their likeness or business. Janet Wozniak, however, says YouTube did nothing, even though she reported this scam video multiple times. You know, please take this down.
This is an obvious mistake. This is fraud. YouTube, you're helping dupe people out of their money. But they wouldn't.
So I think that users in general on YouTube need to be cautious and know that YouTube isn't fighting back. These scams that have been refined to be very effective and psychologically manipulative are allowed to continuously be put up on YouTube.
So they're there every day.
So you need to be aware that it's not safe. Don't think, oh, YouTube, you know, Google, be good, that kind of thing. That it's safe, it's not. YouTube is not the only platform used by scammers. They now operate across the Internet.
Over ten billion dollars in AI scams are happening on the Internet. five billion dollars in cybercurrency scams on the internet. We get contacted every week By People who have been scammed on the internet. Look at spam, look at the phishing attempts, just all over the place. There's not enough.
real, I don't know, muscle to fight it. as a pioneer of the personal computer. Wozniak's goal was to give computing power to the people. The internet did that as well. When the internet really began to be a public of a public use, it seemed to be there to democratize information.
Oh, I loved it for that. You could talk to people all over the world. They could publish knowledge that they knew without having to go through a third-party book publisher. What happened to that democratization of the content? What happened to it was companies figured out how to exploit it.
Then came the social web and Google. Google had to make money. And the only way to make money is tracking you and selling it to advertisers. Wozniak sold most of his Apple stock in the mid 1980s when he left the company. Today, though, he still gets a small paycheck from Apple for making speeches and representing the company.
How does it make you feel then seeing Apple become a trillion dollar company?
Well, of course, I'm proud, and Apple is still the best. And when Apple does things I don't like, and some of the closeness, I wish it were more open, I'll speak out about it. Nobody buys my voice. Apple listen to you when you speak out? No.
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Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com. This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info.
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Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response A S M R. What is it? Faith Saly has the answer. There is a quiet little corner of the internet getting louder and growing larger every day. Welcome to the whispery world of ASMR.
Today. We are going to make some. Great A S M R Dingo. Awesome. ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.
That very scientific sounding mouthful refers to a pleasant tingling sensation some people experience in response to certain sounds. or visuals. It's a brain sash. It's just so satisfying, melts your brain and makes you feel fuzzy and so calm. Maria Viktorovna should know.
She's been called the ASMR Queen. I love it. Does it suit me well? With 1.2 billion video views, it's easy to see why.
So, one of my latest videos I did shaving of celebrity faces, and people pinpointed, like, oh my god, can you do a whole video of that?
So, I did the whole video of that. You understand, this sounds. I know it sounds judgmental. This sounds strange. A lot of SMR triggers are.
sometimes out there and are very personal. The first ASMR videos came out around 2009. Since then, it's been Snap. Taking these crackers out of their wrappers. Crackle.
They came with my soup. and popping its way into the mainstream. Even into a 2019 Super Bowl commercial.
So pure, you can taste. It. This is my prop closet. But for Viktorovna, who in 2014 was able to quit her receptionist job. Just a comb in the plastic.
But it sounds lovely. and work on our channel full time. The rewards are far beyond financial. I get messages almost every single day.
Some of the most touching stories I get are from people who have experienced some kind of hardship, and once they start watching videos, They kind of get lulled into that space of safety and calmness, and everything's okay.
So this one right here is a brain scan when they were feeling the tingles. It's on fire! Yeah, it's red, orange, yellow colors mean those are the areas of the brain that are activated.
So when someone feels the tingles, they say they feel euphoric. Dr. Craig Richard is a professor of physiology at Shenandoah University in Virginia. He estimates only 20% of people are wired to experience ASMR. Are those of us who don't feel it missing out?
The people who are experiencing it will tell you yes, because it's a beautiful thing to be able to just turn on an ASMR video, have this moment of euphoria, then have these moments of relaxation. Yeah, you may be missing out on that. What else is missing is further research on ASMR. In some studies, it's been linked to lower blood pressure and heart rate. Craig Richard would like to see more.
Get that pile of research, especially that clinical-based research, up higher to show that this is a worthy medical treatment. How do you deliver ASMR in someone as a form of therapy? Rebecca Benvy has taken a hands-on approach to ASMR therapy, opening up Whisperwave in New York City. It's one of the few in-person ASMR spas in the world.
So there are millions of people watching ASMR videos. And yet there aren't in real life ASMR places to go. Customers will often say that they can't believe that this isn't more of a thing, and it's true. There's a huge gap in the market. It brings about a feeling of peace, of just like calm, like an escape.
From the real world. And I believe that this is sort of the natural evolution of the videos. It's more in-person experiences that people can seek out. And I think that this is really just the beginning. For now, most ASM artists, like Maria Viktorovna, are happy to remain online.
Whispering sweet nothings. How are you feeling, my dear? That can mean a whole lot. Do you feel relaxed at all? I feel like a lot of people are stressed and.
ASMR is so easy because it's online. You can just watch a video and as you watch it, it somehow transports you into a different place, into a little island of peace. Let your light Shine. Hi. How are you doing?
What's the biggest news in your life right now? I'm in the midst of moving to a senior citizen residence to be near my children. You're giving up your life. When we last heard from contributor Josh Seftel, his mother Pat had just moved from Florida to the Washington area to be closer to family. A physical and emotional downsizing of her life.
We thought we'd ask Josh how she's doing. Do you want me to buy you like a phone holder? I've got two of them. I just can't find them. Are you settling in?
Good. I like it here. Very good activities. Lectures, classical music. Food is pretty good most of the time.
Do you feel like you have some friends now? Yes. Sometimes there's a group that go out for lunch. It's a little like high school. I'm still getting used to it.
What are the hardest parts of the change? I've lost a lot of the familiarity of my life. of knowing where I'm going, where things are. Hi Pat. I don't have my car anymore.
That was very sad. I really liked my car, but I really don't need it anymore. Do you like getting to spend time with her daughter? Your grandkids and with the dog. I love it.
It's a million. He is a very special dog. Oh my god. Leaving my friends. It's one of the hardest things I've had to do.
There were nine dollars. Oh my god, that's a lot of wins. What was it like to talk? talk with them. I loved it.
I miss them all. Tell me what the plan is now for the rest of the day. How do you like us coming to visit you? I loved having you come. No, all right.
So you wanna see where grandma live? I didn't have as many toys and things for the kids. Yeah, I don't think they needed toys because they like playing with your reclining chair. Oh, that's right. How did you like our lunch together?
Oh, I loved it. There were a lot of french fries. But the best thing of all are the onion rings.
Now you're beautiful. How do you like the cookies we bought? They were good. Are there any left? Are you kidding?
Yeah. What's it like for you when we have to leave? It's kind of sad. I mean, you're much closer and you're going to be coming more often, so like that's what I think of. But it's always sad when people that you love who live far away leave.
Sad for us too. Yeah. What advice do you have for other people who might be going through a change like this? I wish they'd give me some of their advice. baby dorky.
Hang in there. There are certainly many, many more positives than negatives. Take care of yourself. Love your family. Enjoy one day at a time.
Oh, and you know what I did? I decided to take an art class. I think that's great. We should all be trying new things at every age. I'm trying.
All right, love you. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye. It'll be a very expensive picture.
Oh, I don't care about the money. I just want to work again. You don't know what it means to know that you want me. Nothing would please me more, Norma, if... If it were possible.
And remember, darling, I don't work before 10 in the morning and never after 4:30 in the afternoon. Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood, and in the case of Sunset Boulevard, the rest of us do too. Tracy Smith examines the legacy of a film some say is one of the greatest ever made on this its 75th anniversary. Still wonderful, isn't it? and no dialogue.
We didn't need dialogue. We had faces. There are some movies where just about every line is quotable. You're Norma Desmond. Used to be in silent pictures, used to be big.
I am big. It's the pictures that got small. Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder's 1950 masterpiece, which premiered 75 years ago this month, was anything but small. The legendary director had Gloria Swanson as the rejected silent film star Norma Desmond, who seemed to be going quietly out of her mind. and William Holden as the failed screenwriter Joe Gillis, who became her kept man.
It's quarter past ten. What time are they supposed to get here? Oh. The other guests. There are no other guests.
We don't want to share this night with other people. This is for you and me. She was 52 at the time. William Holden was 31. The age difference was extraordinary.
Today we might not think much of it, but it was big. University of Texas Austin film professor Noah Eisenberg says the noir Sunset Boulevard tested the limits of what a 1950 audience would bear. Nobody important, really. Just a movie writer with a couple of B pictures to his credit. The opening scene is gruesome enough, with the murdered Joe Gillis face down in a swimming pool.
But the film originally started in the LA morgue, with Joe and other cadavers talking about how they got there. The surviving footage is silent, but you get the idea. It was too dark, too morbid. Audiences weren't ready for it. Instead, you have John Seitz's camera.
point trained on that curb. You begin in the gutter. The film begins in the gutter. The original film, now restored in glorious 4K ultra-high death, is available from Paramount, and you can clearly see William Holden's inner turmoil. I've been hoping to run into you.
What for? To recover that knife you stuck in my back? Holden's co-star Nancy Olson was only 21 when she played aspiring writer Betty Schaefer. It says Paramount Pictures. This is the original Sunset Boulevard script.
Yes. Can you believe it? It's the only script I have ever kept. Ms. Olson, now 97, says William Holden's air of desperation in the film mirrored what was happening in his life.
Kaler was dying. And that's the character. If you look carefully, you will see one of the most extraordinary Real performance. performances of a man who gave up his soul for survival. Still, Nancy says they got along famously on set, especially when director Wilder lined them up for their first ever love scene.
in a crowded studio where some of the cast's family members happen to be present. And we got to the end. Where Bill says. my character. What happened?
And I turned to him slowly. An answer. You did it? Whereupon He takes me into his arms. gently starts to kiss me.
Now, Billy said, Do not separate until I say cut. And we both. or enjoying this. and all of a sudden There was a female voice saying, Hot. Damn it!
Cut! It was Mrs. Holden. I never got over it. Oh no.
But I'd learned something. What's that? Bill and I love to kiss. And moviegoers loved the film. Sunset Boulevard got 11 Academy Award nominations.
And a new star is born in Sunset Boulevard, Miss Nancy Olson. I was Shocked when they called me and said, the picture's up for the best award, you're up best, Bill, Gloria Swanson.
Now we didn't win. But we've outlasted everybody. It helps that Sunset Boulevard was reborn as a musical from Andrew Lloyd Weber. Sir Andrew was intrigued by the story of Hollywood discarding aging stars and got the blessing of Billy Wilder, who by then was being gently phased out of Hollywood himself. Did he, in a way, get the Norma Desmond treatment?
But he does tell a wonderful story about him going to see some young movie executive who had just been there. And this young executive says to him, well, Mr. Wilder, we're very impressed by this screenplay that you've done, but it would be really helpful if you could tell me what you have done in the past. And Billy turned around to this young executive and said, you first. Sunset Boulevard the Musical opened in London's West End in 1993 with Patty Lapone as Norma.
And when they brought the show to LA and New York, Glenn Close played the lead. Don't smile, I'm the girl. I'm not sure. And in the latest, radically reconceived version, Norma was played by former pop star Nicole Scherzinger. My love.
Let me play. Higher. What was it like to see Nicole as Norma for you? I have always rated Nicole as one of the most astounding singers I've ever worked with and I've worked with a few and I could say that Nicole is right up there with the very, very, very top ones and might even be the best. Waiting long enough, Father Lord.
Scherzinger brought a new level of intensity to Norma Desmond and took home a Tony this year. Thank you so much. It's an honor. God bless you. And I can't believe that this is still up.
I wanna take it home. I want to take it home and I want to put this in my garage. The show closed last month and we took Nicole back to the theater just before they took down all the signs. Oh yes, I think someone stole my face. Half of your face.
Oh my gosh. He stole my face. Yes, so it's crazy because it's just a shell of itself now. And this is where all the magic happened. What do you think Sunset Boulevard says about the entertainment industry and what it does to?
older women. it's difficult that the industry kind of puts an expiration date on you. when you've actually lived a life and actually Finally, have something really meaningful to say. And teach your friends some manners. Tell him without me, you wouldn't have any job, because without me, there wouldn't be any Paramount studio.
You're right, Miss Desmond. Hollywood has changed, and so is our parent company, Paramount. But 75 years on, Sunset Boulevard still holds up. Let's get a good look at you. For people who love movies, cinephiles, and film geeks, whatever we want to call them today, You can just luxuriate in a movie like Sunset Boulevard.
It just, it's like a warm bath. Gloria Swanson herself luxuriated in playing a fading movie queen. Even back then, she somehow knew that Sunset Boulevard would make her a legend.
Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up. Was Gloria Swanson anything like Norma Desmond? No. She was much more real and sensible, and she was the only person.
that understood that this movie would live forever. And that she would be remembered forever. She knew it. And that it was a story that had a truth to it that would never be forgotten. You see, this is my life.
It always will be. There's nothing else. Just us. Cameras. And those wonderful people out there in the dark.
Mama, Papa, Mickey. Corporate a rimante, and the robot very peque, very prompt. But no tenement sufferer for the mode with the vacos of classes of Amazon. Amazon, dastamenos, sonriemas.
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We take the hits together. We're on the same team. I'm right here with you, no matter what. I would never leave you hanging in the deep end. This place is a way of giving you new family.
Fire Country, all episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus. To quote the TV show The X-Files, the truth is out there.
So, when once secret intelligence records about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released not long ago, was the truth actually in there? Aaron Moriarty is on the case. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the past spring, a congressional task force led by Republican Congresswoman Ana Paulina Luna of Florida held hearings on Capitol Hill? For over six decades, questions have lingered, shrouded in secrecy and speculation.
Top of the agenda: what newly released government records reveal about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy? Mr. Jefferson Morley. Jefferson Morley waited 30 years for this moment.
The CIA destroyed a lot of records related to President Kennedy's assassination. This was kind of a dream come true for you, wasn't it? To be able to, after all this time, be able to tell the American public what you had found? Yes, it was. It was a great honor.
Morley is a researcher and editor of JFK Facts, a newsletter on Substack dedicated to the JFK assassination. This event, the President of the United States is shot dead in broad daylight and no one's ever brought to justice for the crime? That's something people still care about. Since 1995, the former Washington Post reporter has been on a singular mission to push the government to release every document related to the death of the 35th president. Why are they hiding the names of dead men?
because they have something to hide. Morley is consumed with the story even though he remembers little about November 22nd, 1963. Three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. I was in kindergarten, but I remember my family watching the T V all weekend. The events of that day, along with eyewitness accounts, were forever captured on film.
From Dallas, Texas, the flash, President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time. The official version of the shooting came from a 1964 report issued by the Warren Commission that concluded the president was killed by a single bullet fired by 24-year-old former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald, and that Oswald was then killed two days later. Oswald has been by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Why was Kennedy killed?
Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up? And then, 28 years later, the film JFK was released. Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK was a game changer. Mark UpdeGrove is a historian and author of a book about JFK's presidency, Incomparable Grace.
This is a major filmmaker with a blockbuster movie at the time, offering the notion that there was a much greater conspiracy at work. And I think that fundamentally changed the way we thought about the murder of John F. Kennedy. There are hundreds of documents that could help prove this conspiracy. Why are they being withheld or burned by the government?
The star-studded movie centered on former New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner, who believed Kennedy's assassination was part of a wide conspiracy involving the CIA and the mafia. Kings are killed, Mr. Garrison. Politics is power, nothing more. While the film was largely discounted by historians, public pressure led Congress to pass the JFK Records Act in 1992.
Ordering the release of all government records on the Kennedy assassination. And that's when Jefferson Morley, a seasoned reporter, began his own search for answers. Because it's a great story. And because people weren't attacking it in a disciplined journalistic way. I kind of have the story to myself.
Morley from his apartment in Washington, D.C. says he never guessed he'd still be working the story 30 years later. And this is all JFK. Yeah. So you'll see here we go day by day or week by week through 1963.
Morley estimates that four to five million pages of records have now been released. Look at this, this handwriting you have to get through. There's redactions you have to go through. That would make me crazy. It does make you crazy, and you have to be very patient.
Morley says records show what the CIA kept from the Warren Commission, that the agency had been monitoring Oswald's behavior for years, tracking his travel, reading his mail. We never understood before now how pervasive the surveillance of Oswald was. This guy was watched for four years. People at the top of the CIA knew what he was doing. They knew about his contacts.
They knew about his personal life. Did you kill the president? No, I've not been charged with that. In fact, nobody has said that to me yet. The official story that one man alone killed the president for no reason, we know that's not true.
Lee Harvey Oswald was not a lone nut. He was a known quantity to top CIA officers right before President Kennedy went to Dallas. We need an explanation of that story, and we still don't have it. Morley's patience seemed to be finally paying off when even more documents were released. A lot of people are waiting for this prolonged for years.
Yeah. For decades. Following President Donald Trump's executive order this past January. And everything will be revealed. And what did those documents reveal?
The attitude of obstruction and obfuscation from the CIA. started on November 22nd, 1963, and that attitude, unfortunately, has continued to the present day. What was clear from the congressional hearing that followed in April is that there are still no bombshells, nothing to conclusively contradict the official story of the assassination. Still, according to Morley, there is more evidence that the CIA buried what it knew about Oswald. But why?
So if in fact the CIA had been watching Lee Harvey Oswald. and they didn't realize that he was about to assassinate a president. That's very embarrassing. Couldn't that just be the only reason why they hid all that information? That's incompetence.
There is no CIA official who has ever said that. As far as I can see, there's nothing. that changes the conclusion. That Oswald acted alone in the assassination. It might surprise you to hear that Leon Panetta is as curious as the rest of us to learn what's in CIA records since Panetta ran the agency from 2009 through 2011 under President Barack Obama.
Wouldn't you know as a former director? Not really, because frankly, when you're a director of the CIA, you're pretty much focused. On the threats that you have to deal with in the world that you're in. But Panetta says the CIA is often concerned that releasing documents, even after decades, can jeopardize agency assets. Was there a legitimate concern that they were trying to protect?
Or was there something more sinister? And you know what? We really don't know the answer to that question.
So you don't rule out the idea that there might be something more sinister. You're just saying there's no evidence of that. That's correct. The transcript, which the CIA withheld from public view for half a century. Last April's hearings brought Jefferson Morley full circle.
I'm actually optimistic that we can get to the bottom of this matter. Testifying next to Oliver Stone, whose film first inspired him, even without any startling disclosures, Morley is confident that hidden in a government document somewhere, there's a story waiting to be told. People are expecting a blinding flash, a smoking gun. When you've been at this for a long time, you know, I'm not looking for a smoking gun. I'm looking to complete the picture.
Author David Sedara spends no small amount of time on the road. He has thoughts this morning. En route. My friend Dawn has two cats, and I went with her one afternoon to buy a bag of litter. This was in Minnesota, at a superstore that sold front doors and Halloween decorations and pet supplies, everything under one roof.
I'm guessing the bag of litter we got weighed a good forty pounds. It was really heavy, and I thought that if the only way you could get it home was to carry it in your arms, you'd probably put your cats to sleep after they'd gone through the first bag. The next morning, I left Dawn's house and flew to North Dakota. While in the Minneapolis airport, I went for breakfast at one of those places where you order from a screen. Then you enter all your credit card information and the machine asks if you want to tip 15, 20, or 22%.
For what? I thought. I mean, I sat myself, I ordered myself. I'm baying myself.
Someone would bring me the plate of eggs, but it would be relatively light nothing compared to the bag of litter I okay, Dawn had carried across a frozen parking lot the previous afternoon. And the thing is that if you don't hit the 22% option, you feel like a cheapskate. Here you are, about to fly on a plane. Can you afford the extra 60 cents? Of course you can.
I just feel that a portion of my tip should go toward me for all the work I've already done. Then the person brings you your food and you see that she's an immigrant and you think of how your grandparents were immigrants as well. Mine shined shoes while people shouted, Learn to speak English, why don't you? Years later they opened a newsstand that sold Playboys, and when people told them they were going to hell, they still didn't understand them because they never really learned English. They were so lazy that way, my grandparents.
Send them to the store for cat litter, and they'd have likely brought home a sack of birdseed. And so I felt better about my twenty two per cent tip. The woman earned it just for going through security. But wait, I thought, as I walked away, I went through security as well. It was too late to take back my extra sixty cents, though, and so I went to my gate and flew first class to North Dakota.
For me. grandchild of immigrants. Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning.
Now streaming. Hi again! TV's quirkiest crime solver. I'm Elsbeth Tassioni. I work with the police.
It's on the case. I like my outlandish theories with a heavy dose of evidence. And ready to go toe-to-toe with a cavalcade of guest stars. Are you saying that this is now a murder investigation? It's starting to look that way.
Don't miss a moment of the critically acclaimed hit El's Beth, all episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus and returned CBS Fall. That sounds like fun! Obviously, murder's not fun. Yeah.
