This week on From the Vault we spend some time with documentarian brothers Albert and David Maysles, whose unconventional subject choices led to groundbreaking films such as 1968’s Salesman, which takes to the road with a travelling Bible salesman, and Gimme Shelter, the iconic 1970 film chronicling the infamous (and deadly) 1969 Rolling Stones performance at the Altamont Speedway in northern California. First, from 1971, we sit in with younger brother David Maysles and writer Richard Geldstein in an interview at WBAI studios in New York with producer Jospeph Gelmis; David speaks candidly about his experiences with Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, and other elements of the Rolling Stones before and after the infamous concert at the Altamont Speedway. Forward to 1976, and we find ourselves with WBAI producers Charles Ruas and Karen Achenbach as discuss the cult film classic Grey Gardens with older brother Albert Maysles and director Ellen Hovde. Grey Gardens, the story of fallen socialites Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale (the aunt and cousin of former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis), is now on the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress and has inspired several award-winning adaptations.
From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio listeners.
First broadcast on Friday, August 10th, 2012.
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