June 9, 2023 • 57 mins
One of the most famous actors in Hollywood tries to keep his diagnosis under wraps - and ends up becoming the face of AIDS in America. You can find a list of books, articles, and documentaries we used in our research at bit.ly/fiascopod
If you like this series, mark your calendars: a new season of Fiasco is coming July 27, 2023, exclusively on Audible. Fiasco: Vigilante tells the story of a shooting that took place in 1984 on the New York City subway, leaving four Bronx teenagers gravely wounded and turning a man named Bernie Goetz into a national folk hero. Fiasco: Vigilante offers a panoramic but intimate view of how this era-defining story unfolded, giving voice for the first time to key players, and immersing listeners in the gritty, paranoid world of ’80s New York City. Listen to the trailer now at adbl.co/vigilante, only on Audible.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Leon Napok. I'm the host of Fiasco,
but you may also know me from the podcasts Slowburn,
Think Twice, Michael Jackson, and Backfired the Vaping Wars. I'm
excited to be sharing with you the next season of Backfired,
titled Attention Deficit, which is now available exclusively on Audible.
Backfired is a podcast about the business of unintended consequences.
(00:20):
In the first season, my co host Ril Pardess and
I dove deep into the world of vaping and how
the well intentioned quest for a safer cigarette went awry.
Now we're tackling ADHD and how the push to destigmatize
this hard to define childhood diagnosis has led to an
explosion of stimulant use in kids as well as adults.
It's a story about the promise of psychiatry to fix
(00:41):
our brains and the power of the pharmaceutical industry to
shape how we and our doctors think about what's wrong
with us. To hear both seasons of Backfired, go to
audible dot com slash Backfired and start a free trial
that's audible dot com slash Backfired. Fiasco is intended for
mature audio. For a list of books, articles and documentaries
(01:03):
we used in our research. Follow the link in the
show notes. Previously on fiasco.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's mysterious, it's deadly, and it's baffling medical science.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
The Food and Drug Administration has recommended that any man
who has had sex with another man since nineteen seventy
seven not donate blood.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
You had many people from the radical right expressing really
extreme measures.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
And I do believe that AIDS is a violation of
God's laws.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
How many of us have to die before you get
off your ass?
Speaker 7 (01:38):
We had no other resources but ourselves.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Rock Hudson magnificently proving the power of love and faith
in a great performance and lovely.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
When Rock Hudson appeared in the romantic comedy Pillow Talk
in nineteen fifty nine, he was already one of the
most famous leading men in America.
Speaker 8 (02:00):
A Beverly Hills, California, It's Rock Hudson honored again with
Photoplays Gold Medal the most Popular Actor Award.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Hudson was the very model of the mid century American man, Tall, stoic,
and transcendently good looking. According to Life Magazine, he was
a towering hunk of handsomeness.
Speaker 9 (02:18):
Rock Hudson, six Street four of Fighting Man, Enter, Tame
a Wildcat, Beauty makes will read this is Rock Hudson.
My new picture, Pillow Talk, brings me together with Doris Day.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
But the Pillow Talk was a milestone in Hudson's career,
his first romantic comedy and the first of several starring
roles opposite Doris Day. The premise of the movie was
that Hudson's character was pretending to be gay as part
of a ploy to win Day's heart.
Speaker 10 (02:46):
Don't you find me attractive?
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Why yes, ma'am, of course.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Then why haven't you ever ever what? I'm sorry, foolish.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
The characters made repeated references to homosexuality, all of them
disguised in wordplay and innuendo.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Either you're not.
Speaker 9 (03:07):
Telling the truth or or what. Well, there are some
men who just they're very devoted to their mothers, you know,
the type that likes to collect cooking recipes, exchange bits
of gossip.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
But there was a layer of irony to Pillow Talk
that few audience members would have known to look for.
Speaker 11 (03:27):
Here's a real life gay man playing a straight man
who at one point is pretending to be a gay
man to Lord Doris Day into bed.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
This is Mark Griffin, author of the Rock Hudson biography
All That Heaven Allows.
Speaker 11 (03:43):
So it's definitely a hall of mirrors, like you know,
several layers of surreal.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
As a star in the Hollywood studio system, Hudson was
an expert presenting a broadly appealing and inoffensive version of
himself to the world, but the details of his private
life were known to many of the people he worked
and socialized with.
Speaker 11 (04:04):
It was sort of this silent agreement that nobody was
going to talk about homosexuality unless you were among your
own and you felt very safe in discussing that.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Hudson's sexuality was something of an open secret in the
film industry, and everyone, including Hudson, knew that it would
ruin his career if moviegoers ever found out about it.
Speaker 11 (04:26):
There was this ironclad expectation that a star, especially one
of that magnitude, would never do anything in his private
life to embarrass his bosses or worse. At that time,
there was a morals clause in each contract player's contract
which forbade engaging in any behavior that might be deemed
(04:46):
socially unacceptable or immoral, and from there on in for
much of his career, Rock is working what I would
describe as a sort of very dangerous tight rope act.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
The main threat to Hudson's career came from the tabloid press.
Hudson's agent is rumored to have once given a journalist
damaging information about another one of his own clients in
exchange for killing a story about Hudson's sexuality. Another time,
there was gossip going around that Hudson might be romantically
involved with an actor named Jim Nabors. The truth was
(05:21):
they were just close friends, but Hudson was so worried
about the potential fallout that he stopped talking to neighbors entirely.
The stakes of keeping Hudson's identity as secret were perhaps
highest during the pillow talk era, but even as time
passed and his leading man days started the dwindle, Hudson
(05:42):
worked hard to maintain his public image. As long as
he did that he could live his life the way
he wanted to in private. One of the people who
got to see Hudson in that context was Ken Jilson,
a longtime fan who turned into one of Hudson's friends.
Jilson had worked at a movie theater when he was
a teenager, and he had loved Hudson's movies ever since.
Speaker 12 (06:02):
We would play these Rock Hudson movies Lover, Come Back
and things like that, and I had the strangest feeling
when I would look at the screen that I knew him.
I can't explain that.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
When Jillson and Hudson met in the early seventies, it
turned out that Hudson had just installed a home movie theater.
Speaker 12 (06:21):
He had a complete movie theater in his home with
thirty five millimeter projection equipment. And I said, well, you
know what, I used to work in a movie theater.
I know how to run the machines. I'll teach you
how to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Jillson and his partner grew close to Hudson. They even
convinced him to become the first investor in their gift
trapping business. Over the years, he would invite them to
dinner parties at his Beverly Hills estate, which boasted a
one hundred and eighty degree view of Los Angeles and
which Hudson called the Castle.
Speaker 12 (06:52):
It had a whole two story Spanish hacienda field to it,
and he had a piano in the movie theater. And
he loved to have his friends over and entertain. They'd
all come over, people like Carol Burnett, and they would.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Sing, could I wave the years?
Speaker 12 (07:12):
And I'll do like little shows on the stage.
Speaker 13 (07:14):
It was really cool, tears away when your eyes.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Are drunk.
Speaker 14 (07:20):
Seek.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
By the time he was in his mid forties, Hudson
was spending less of his time making big movies and
more of it on stage, acting in musical theater.
Speaker 12 (07:31):
He was in several musicals and he did on the
twentieth Century. He did Camelot and he couldn't I mean,
he could sing okay, And he just was in seventh
Heaven on the theater stage.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
He even released an album of covers called rock Gently.
Speaker 15 (07:48):
Now that the Summer is come and gone, I'll say
goodbye now that the Winner.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
In nineteen eighty four, Hudson got a chance to catch
up with a couple he had first gotten to know
decades earlier in Hollywood, Ronald and Nancy Reagan. As Mark
Griffin writes in his book, the two former actors invited
Hudson to the White House for an official state dinner
to honor the President of Mexico.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
President Missus del Madrid Mikaza Essukazza.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
At the event, Hudson chatted with the first Lady and
took photos with her.
Speaker 11 (08:24):
And of all people, Nancy Reagan noticed that when they
were posing for photos that he had a blemish on
his neck, and that she advised him to have it checked.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Hudson would later tell friends that after he was diagnosed
with AIDS, he went home and cried for a week.
There were so many unknowns, how long he could keep working,
how quickly the disease would progress. The one thing was obvious,
Hudson would be living this part of his life the
same way he had lived so many others in private.
(08:57):
I'm Leon Napock from Audible Origins and Prologue Projects. This
is fiasco.
Speaker 16 (09:03):
Just what is wrong with Rock Hutson? The nature of
his illness has become clouded in mystery and confusion.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Rock.
Speaker 13 (09:09):
The news media are clamoring for information. What do you
think I should do?
Speaker 17 (09:13):
They are violating the laws of nature, and nature is
striking back.
Speaker 18 (09:16):
Luis, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic?
Speaker 5 (09:20):
I think we just have to do the best we
can with this problem. I can understand both sides of it.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
In this episode, what happened when one of Hollywood's biggest
stars became sick with AIDS and what it took to
get President Reagan to pay attention to the epidemic. Michael Gottlieb,
an immunologist at UCLA, was used to getting referrals for
(09:50):
new patients, but it was a new experience for him
when a dermatologist in Beverly Hills called him on behalf
of an A list celebrity and.
Speaker 13 (09:58):
She mentioned his name, Rock Cuts, in which of course
a name I knew. So I climbed into my Dodge
Aspen that leaked and drove to U Cannon Drive or
Rodeo Driver or one of those places.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Gottlieb met with Hudson at the dermatologist's office, and.
Speaker 13 (10:14):
Then they left me alone with Rock, and he and
I talked, and then I examined him. He showed me
this capasi sarcoma lesion that he had on his left forearm.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Gottlieb went through his standard questions, just like he would
have with anyone.
Speaker 13 (10:29):
Else, and so at one point I asked Roc to
hop up on the exam table, and as he did that,
I had to look up because he was so tall,
and I said, my, you're tall, and he sort of
shrugged in a boyish way and said yeah, six ' four.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
After a short exam, Gottlieb confirmed what his new patient
had already guessed.
Speaker 13 (10:51):
I told him I thought he probably did have AIDS.
He knew what it was. We talked about the sexual
transmission of whatever was causing this, and he had already
prepared three or four anonymous letters to go to people
with whom he had had intercourse, telling them that they
had been exposed to someone who had AIDS, and he
(11:13):
was going to mail them once he had confirmation.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Got Leeb diagnosed Rock Hudson with AIDS on June fifth,
nineteen eighty four. By that point, more than five thousand
other Americans had received the same diagnosis, and roughly three
thousand of them had died, but President Ronald Reagan had
never once mentioned the disease in public. Reagan had met
Rock Hudson back when they were both working actors, but
(11:47):
while Hudson was able to make the leap to leading man,
Reagan never quite broke through. His most notable role came
in nineteen forty, when he played a football player in
Canute Rockney All American, the movie that gave gave him
a lifelong nickname, ask him to go.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
In there with all it win, just one for the Kipper.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Even though Reagan was never especially famous as an actor,
he was able to parlay his name recognition into a
career in politics. In nineteen sixty six, he ran for
governor of California.
Speaker 15 (12:19):
The biggest shot in the arm for the American Republican
Party in the election of Ronald Reagan as governor of California.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Reagan was unapologetically right wing on issues like crime and welfare,
but when it came to gay rights, Reagan's views were
not totally caught and dry. Here's historian Rick Pearlstein, author
of the book Reaganland.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
The first scandal of Reagan's gubernatorial term in nineteen sixty
seven happened when several of his aides trapped one of
his aids that they considered a bureaucratic rival in a
gay relationship in a motel room, you know, using listening devices,
and leaked it to the press.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Drew into a publishery board that homosexual reignan been uncovered
amongst your administration.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
And when this got out, people thought that Reagan's future
political ambitions might be checked by this scandal, and instead
Ronald Reagan said, you know, this is ridiculous. I'm not
going to, you know, through my administration and hold this
kind of witch hunt. This is stooping to destroy human beings,
innocent people.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
According to poles from this time, the vast majority of
Americans said they did not know any gay people personally.
Reagan was not one of them. He actually had friends
he knew were gay.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
But the same token he made the same kind of
homophobic jokes everyone did. Or he would say, I have
no problem with gay's working in state government, but of
course they shouldn't be working for the Department of Parks
and Recreation. You know, the suggestion that you know, gays
were forging through the bushes to kind of, you know,
do naughty things.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Reagan reportedly panicked when his son, Ron Junior told him
that he wanted to be a ballet dancer, fearing that
it meant he might be gay. At the same time,
Reagan made a point of opposing an anti gay ballot
initiative in California that would have given the school board
the right to fire people over their sexuality.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
Politicians from Jimmy Carter Torontald Reagan argued, which Hunt said
one cheering celebrant. It's obvious gays have a lot of
friends in California.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
He very specifically debunks the operative argument of the anti
gay right side in this huge, defining political fight, which
is that gays were trying to recruit young people, you know,
into their awful tribe. And he specifically said being gay
isn't a choice, which was a very progressive view for
the time.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
It all gave the impression that Reagan had a certain
amount of personal tolerance for gay people, but he was
also quick to tell angry constituents that his position wasn't
so much about tolerance as it was about opposing government overreach,
and he.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
Would always reassure them that while he was, you know,
against this specific initiative, you know, as an unwarketed government
intrusion for lives of individuals, he was absolutely opposed to
gay people quote unquote promoting their lifestyle, and that he
didn't believe sodomy's statutes should be overturned and that sort
of thing.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
As President, Reagan preferred to delegate most policy specifics to
his cabinet secretaries and other officials. A lot of Reagan's
closest advisors were part of the Republican establishment, and as
strange as it may sound now, they were worried that
aligning too closely with social conservatives like Jerry Folwell would
alienate moderate voters. Still, they had to give them something.
(15:39):
In the new administration, here again is Rick Pearlstein.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
And the solution they arrive at is to make their
most prominent patronage hire this guy. See ever Coop.
Speaker 19 (15:50):
Ronald Reagan's choice for a surgeon general one of the
most controversial decisions taken by the new administration.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
I think for precisely the reason that the surgeon General
is his very powerless role traditionally that a lot of
presidents didn't even bother to fill, you know it kind
of like manages, you know, quarantine expections at ports and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Coop had made a name for himself touring the country
as an anti abortion advocate. As surgeon General, he was
best known for his crusade against smoking and for his
distinctive appearance picture Colonel Sanders in a Navy uniform.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
He has this biblical temperament where everything is just kind
of black and white. He had this kind of prophetic
mean to him. George will described him in a gushing
profile as resembling an Old Testament prophet who has just
discovered his neighbors making graven images.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Cigarette smoking is clearly identified as the chief preventable cause
of death in our society.
Speaker 8 (16:44):
He attacked family planning programs for converting adolescent innocence into
sexually active teenagers.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Coop said pro.
Speaker 8 (16:50):
Abortion statements by Protestant denominations show their superficial theology, lack
of morality, and an insensitivity to the eventual reward for
their deprivative.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
In nineteen eighty two, a reporter at a White House
briefing asked Reagan's Press Secretary Larry Speaks about the mysterious
disease that had emerged in California, New York, Miami and elsewhere.
There were already hundreds of diagnosed cases, but Speaks said
he hadn't heard about it.
Speaker 18 (17:23):
Does the President have.
Speaker 19 (17:24):
Any reactions with the announced from the Center for Disease
Control of Atlanta that AIDS is now an epidemic of
six over six hundred cases. It's known as gay play.
Speaker 12 (17:39):
Oh it is.
Speaker 18 (17:39):
I mean, it's a pretty serious thing that one and
every three people that get this have died. And I
wondered if the President is aware.
Speaker 13 (17:45):
I don't have it?
Speaker 15 (17:47):
Are you you?
Speaker 18 (17:49):
You don't have it? Well, I'm relieved to hear that you.
Speaker 14 (17:53):
Didn't answer my question.
Speaker 15 (17:55):
How do you know?
Speaker 18 (17:56):
The president of the work the White House looks on this
as a great joke.
Speaker 20 (18:00):
Now I don't know anything about it, leans Ter.
Speaker 18 (18:02):
The president, does anybody in the White House know about
this epidemic?
Speaker 15 (18:05):
Lauri, I don't think so.
Speaker 20 (18:06):
I don't think any There been no personal experience here, Leicester.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
These comments came against the backdrop of a struggle over
AIDS funding that was playing out across various federal agencies,
but the President stayed out of the fray. At this point,
he had never even said the word AIDS in public,
not in a speech, not in a press conference, not
in any recorded conversation. It was not until June of
(18:31):
nineteen eighty three, at another White House briefing that Reagan's
press secretary indicated that the President was at least aware
of AIDS.
Speaker 20 (18:40):
President has been involved in brief down the AIDE situation
a number of months ago in a cabinet meeting, and
we have recently, as said, twelve million dollars be reprogrammed
for research on age. That's extent of the president's INVOLVMA,
which has been.
Speaker 19 (18:56):
Laurie, does the President think that it might help if
he suggested that gays cut down on their cruising.
Speaker 21 (19:05):
Told you.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's worth mentioning here that the reporter asking this question,
the same one you heard in the earlier press conference,
was a conservative provocateur named Lester Kinsolving. So while it
may sound like he's righteously standing up for people with AIDS,
it's more like he was worried that the disease would
spread to straight people. He wanted the president to condemn
the gay community for endangering everyone else.
Speaker 18 (19:28):
I didn't hear your answer.
Speaker 20 (19:30):
I just was acknowledge engineer and your interest in this set.
Speaker 19 (19:34):
You don't think that it would help if the gays
cut down on their cruising.
Speaker 20 (19:38):
We're researching if we come up with any any any
research that shed some light on whether the gay should
cruise or not. Crude were not available to you.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Through the end of his first term. That was the
extent of Reagan's involvement in the AIDS epidemic. Confirmation to
his press secretary that he had been briefed on the
matter for Michael Gottlieb Rock Hudson's new doctor these were
exhausting years. Gottlieb had been taking care of people with
(20:13):
AIDS as long as anyone. He had co authored the
first ever article about it, the one you heard about
in Episode one, that was published in the CDC's newsletter
on New Diseases. As more and more of his patients died,
Gottlieb grew increasingly frustrated by the lack of urgency around AIDS,
and so he began wearing two hats, one as a doctor,
(20:35):
the other as an activist. In that capacity, he pushed
for more research funding and attention to an epidemic that
was still being largely ignored.
Speaker 13 (20:45):
The stigma outweighed everything else. As AIDS and all its baggage,
Gottlieb was in a tricky position. As far as he
could tell, The UCLA Medical Center was like most hospitals
and cities dealing with major AIDS breaks. None of them
wanted to be known as an AIDS hospital, And the
more Gottlieb used his platform to talk about AIDS, the
(21:07):
more he felt the scrutiny of UCLA administrators. In retrospect,
it might seem strange that a hospital wouldn't want to
draw attention to the fact that its doctors were working
at the forefront of a major new disease, But Gottlieb
says administrators were worried about their bottom line, that being
known as an AIDS hospital would scare away patients with
(21:28):
other conditions. If I was too proactive, you know, questions
might have been raised as to my loyalties or the
reasons for my being so proactive amongst the faculty at
my institution. Then I was frustrated by the obstacles put
in our way.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
When Gottlieb first met Rock Hudson and realized he had AIDS,
he understood right away what a big deal it was,
or at least could be. If Hudson's died diagnosis ever
became public, he would be by far the most famous
person known to have AIDS. Real attention might finally be
paid to the cause Gottlieb had been dedicating his life
(22:11):
to for now. Though Hudson wasn't very sick and he
didn't have kapasis sarcoma legians that he couldn't cover up,
he had no intention of sharing his diagnosis with the world.
Speaker 13 (22:23):
He was doing okay, he had very little ks. It
wasn't even worthy of treatment that was so minor it
wasn't in any cosmetically sensitive location. Now he could continue
his work.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Gottlieb continued to check in on Hudson's symptoms and update
him on the latest developments in AIDS research. There were
some experimental treatments being tested in the US, but Gottlieb
had very little faith in them. Then he heard about
a French drug called HPA twenty three that had shown
some promise against leukemia in mice.
Speaker 13 (22:57):
That was a very large leap of faith to think
that it might be effective against HIV and man. However,
the French doctors were making it available to certain American
patients who were traveling there to receive it as intravenous infusions.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Hudson's condition was worsening, so Gottlieb thought the treatment was
worth a try.
Speaker 13 (23:19):
Yes, it was a long shot, but he was willing
to fly to Paris and take this experimental drug.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
So Hudson made the trip to Paris, ostensibly to attend
a film festival. After receiving the treatment, he flew back
to the United States to appear in the hit TV
show Dynasty.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
And You feel wonderful, Yes, product very you shouldn't.
Speaker 15 (23:41):
Why not because you got a long way to go
before you can feel so damn good about yourself.
Speaker 13 (23:46):
I remember, you know, seeing Rock on Dynasty and saying
to myself, you know, he really shouldn't be on TV
right now because he looked so well.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
In the summer of nineteen eighty five, Hudson met up
with his old friend and pill Talk co star Doris Day.
She was hosting a new TV show about animals on
the Christian Broadcast Network, and she brought Hudson on as
a special guest.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
He look great.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Day would later describe being shocked by Hudson's appearance at
the taping. He was only fifty nine, but he somehow
looked older, and he sounded weak and tired.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
We really had fun making movies, Yeah, didn't we?
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 14 (24:30):
What was your favorite movie?
Speaker 6 (24:32):
What was my favorite? I think I like Pillow Talk?
Speaker 15 (24:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 22 (24:37):
Did you No?
Speaker 5 (24:39):
I liked High Stage in Zebra.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
At a promotional event for the show, reporters noticed the
changes in Hudson's appearance. Hudson's agent told them he was
in perfect health and at the weight he had shed
was the result of a new diet, but the actor's
appearance still made national news.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
It takes it's no.
Speaker 23 (25:00):
Expert to see that something is seriously wrong with a
fifty nine year old actor. Here he is just a
few years ago on a Live at five set, and
here just last week with a former co star, Doris Day,
down considerably from the two hundred pounds Hudson normally carried
on his six foot four inch frame.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Michael Gottlie was watching all of this press coverage and
seeing Hudson's reps lie about his patient's health made him
acutely aware of the tension between his two roles as
a doctor and an activist.
Speaker 13 (25:31):
My primary job is to be a physician and to
hold to the tenets and the oaths of our profession.
And the patient is number one, and he's entitled to
his privacy and what other people say publicly, whether it's
the truth or a lie, as of no consequence to me. Yes,
As someone who's interested in social justice, someone who sees
(25:55):
HIV AIDS as a cause, Yes, of course, it would
be a shot in the arm to have a celebrity
diagnosed with AIDS and go public. On the other hand,
it's not going to go public through me without his permission.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
A major potential benefit of a famous person disclosing his
diagnosis was that it would help educate the general public.
Misinformation about AIDS and how it could be spread was rampant.
Even though the science said AIDS could only be transmitted
through blood or other bodily fluids, there was still widespread
fear that one could get it just by touching someone.
(26:39):
The confusion was fueled in part by comments made in
nineteen eighty three by a high ranking official at the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci.
Speaker 7 (26:49):
Doctor Anthony Fauci, writing in the Journal of the AMA,
says his study shows some children have picked up AIDS
within their families, and that means, says doctor Fauci, the
scope of the syndrome be enormous.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Children were getting AIDS from their parents through in uterotransmission,
but Fauchi didn't know that for sure, and he speculated
that it might be spread through close physical contact. Rick
Pearlstein again, and this was really a panic watershed. This
is when cops and firefighters start wearing masks and gloves.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
People are afraid of AIDS because they don't know much
about it except that it kills. So when a person
contracts the disease.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
He often finds people try to get away from him
or to get rid.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Of him, you know, kind of panicked newspaper articles Long
Island Grammar dead of AIDS, which was from her blood transfusion.
But it was easy to kind of imagine from the
headline that she was just kind of like walking around
and came too close to someone or something like that.
Speaker 17 (27:43):
This man is also a flight attendant. He does not
have AIDS, but he lost his job anyway. He has
swollen glens and that caused the airline to suspect he
might have the disease.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I am a healthy gay man and I went through
the same discrimination.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
This is really when the Christian right itself really kind
of begins to go gaga. You begin to see vigilante violence.
You have this terrible controversy over the holding of a
gay rodeo and reno in which a minister there says,
I think we should do what the Bible says and
cut their throats.
Speaker 24 (28:18):
Well, you could have typhoid Mary's.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
They are violating the laws of nature, and nature is
striking back.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
And it's very easy to conclude if you're a normal
American reading normal newspapers and not just the Christian right
that we have this kind of invasion of the body snatchers,
invisible population among us that might even devour the earth.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
By the time Rok Hudson made his appearance with Doris
Day in the middle of nineteen eighty five, thirteen thousand
Americans have been diagnosed with AIDS. More than half of
them had died. Meanwhile, the President was facing increased pressure
from Congress to act more decisively against the disease. Some
of that pressure was coming from lawmakers on the right,
(29:03):
who seemed to be more worried about protecting the healthy
from the sick than about providing additional funding for AIDS
research or patient care.
Speaker 13 (29:10):
We want to identify every person who's a carrier, and
we want to be open and honest about this disease
before it becomes a really serious national health threat.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Some of Reagan's conservative allies tried to convince the president
to increase testing and surveillance and to ban people with
HIV from entering the country.
Speaker 24 (29:26):
But more controversial are proposals to find and segregate those
exposed to AIDS, to prohibit those with AIDS from working
in healthcare, to make it a felony for those in
an aide's high risk group, to knowingly donate blood, and
to prohibit children with AIDS from attending school.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
The people pushing these policies felt like they had a
potential ally in the administration who's well positioned to help
their cause Surgeon General see Effett Coup.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
When AIDS begins to raise up as a public is shoe,
the Christian right actually reaches out to the Vagan administration
and says, why aren't you letting see if Ittt Coops
speak out on this issue, assuming that he's going to
be an ally of theirs, and as a matter of fact,
as he writes in his memoir, he'd been very explicitly
(30:17):
instructed that he wasn't to say a word about AIDS.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
In response to growing fear of AIDS transmission among the
general public and mounting criticism from multiple sides about the
lack of federal response, the White House decided it was
time for the President to say something, so in September
of nineteen eighty five, the Press Office started putting together
some talking points, But when a copy of the President's
(30:41):
briefing was circulated to the White House Council's Office for review,
a lawyer named John Roberts, suggested several passages be taken
out or changed. In a memo, Roberts and a colleague
flagged a talking point that said scientists didn't think AIDS
could be transmitted through casual or routine contact. Their legal
opinion was that the president should not be taking a
(31:04):
position on quote a disputed scientific issue. Years later, Roberts
explained his reasoning during his confirmation hearing to become Chief
Justice of the US Supreme Court.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I have to remember this was at the very beginning
of the AIDS coming into public consciousness, and I was
just concerned that the President not be giving out medical
statements if people weren't absolutely sure that.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
It was correct.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
In any event, the talking point about casual contact was
removed at the end of the day. Who could argue
with going above and beyond to protect America's kids?
Speaker 5 (31:45):
What do you need? Please be seated? I have a
statement here.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
At a press conference on September seventeenth, nineteen eighty five,
Reagan defended his administration's response to the AIDS crisis and
called it a top priority.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
It will amount to over half a billion dollars that
we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to
what I'm sure other medical groups are doing this.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
It was the first time Reagan had ever said the
word AIDS in public, four years after the first cases
emerged and two years after his press secretary first said
he was aware of it. Then Reagan said something that
made public health experts wins. When it came to the
school's issue, the President said he could understand both sides.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
I also have compassionate and I think we all do
for the child that has this and doesn't know and
can't have it explained to him, why somehow he is
now an outcast and can no longer associate with his
playmates and schoolmates. On the other hand, I can understand
the problem of the parents. It is true that some
medical sources have said that this cannot be communicated in
(32:54):
any way other than the ones we already know in
which would not involve a child being in the school.
And yet medicine has not come forth unequivocally and said
this we know for effect that it is safe, and
until they do.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
In truth, doctors had come forth and said exactly that.
But the president's comment gave anyone who wanted it permission
to be afraid. During the summer of nineteen eighty five,
Rock Hudson's health was rapidly deteriorating. Days after his appearance
(33:30):
with Doris Day in California, he flew back to Paris,
hoping to receive another transfusion of the experimental drug HPA
twenty three. Hudson had booked a room at the Ritz Carlton.
When he got there, he collapsed in the lobby and
was rushed to the American Hospital outside of Paris. The
scene made headlines around the world.
Speaker 16 (33:49):
Just what is wrong with Rock Hudson? The nature of
his illness has become clouded in mystery and confusion. Yesterday
it was reported that Hudson had liver cancer and possibly A's,
but today the hospital denied the cancer story and said
nothing about the A's rumor.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Hudson's pr rep, who had accompanied him to the hospital,
insisted that everything was fine and he looks wonderful.
Speaker 4 (34:09):
I must say, you guess you did?
Speaker 1 (34:13):
He said, how are you?
Speaker 15 (34:14):
I said, I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Tomorrow, nearly four thousand miles away in Washington, d c
Ronald Reagan watched the coverage as he himself recuperated from
cancer surgery. It was then that he asked his physician
to explain AIDS to him for the very first time.
Behind the scenes, Rock Hudson's handlers were desperate. They tried
(34:40):
to get their client transferred to a French military hospital,
where they believed he'd be able to get his experimental
drug treatment, but because he was not a French citizen,
Hudson was denied the transfer by the commanding General. Hudson's
agent thought that if the White House intervened, the military
hospital in France would admit his client. Agents sent an
urgent telegram to Nancy Reagan saying that Hudson's life could
(35:03):
depend on getting into the hospital, but the First Lady
declined to intervene on Hudson's behalf, though the President did
call him that day to wish him well. In the end,
it turned out that Hudson was too sick to receive
the HPA twenty three treatments anyway, so his team scrambled
(35:24):
to get him back home. And someone called Hudson's doctor,
Michael Gottlieb.
Speaker 13 (35:28):
And he said, we're making arrangements for Rock to come
back to you. We've chartered this seven forty seven. They've
pulled out all the seats from the first class compartment
and they have bolted in a hospital bed and he's
going to be flying back to Los Angeles at a
cost of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
When Hudson's plane landed in Los Angeles, hundreds of reporters
were there waiting for him.
Speaker 24 (35:52):
In the darkness before dawn. On Air France jumbo jet
arrived in Los Angeles, bringing Rock Hudson home for what
maybe the last time.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Cameramen with telescopic lenses were perched on rooftops at the airport.
They filmed Hudson as he was wheeled to a helicopter,
which took off for UCLA Medical Center. At this point,
Michael Gottlieb had been seeing Hudson in secret for over
a year. Now it looked like the secret was about
to come out.
Speaker 13 (36:20):
It's two or three in the morning, and I'm standing
on the roof waiting for him, and the skies are
a wash. In helicopters, there's news crews flying back and forth,
and so it was a dramatic moment, not knowing what
his condition's going to be, but knowing that you're going
to have to bring out the full court press if
(36:40):
he's going to survive, and the first time I look
at him, I just see he's mortally ill.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Hudson was delirious. Gottlieb got him hooked up to an
IV and treated his nu missists pneumonia with antibiotics. When
Hudson was lucid, Gottlieb knew that it was time for
the conversation.
Speaker 13 (37:02):
I'm getting flooded with calls from the press or somehow
coming through to my office, and so then I have
a conversation with Rock. The news media are clamoring for information.
What do you think I should do? And sitting by
his bedside, you know, we have a conversation about the
fact that in Paris they made an announcement that you
had aids. What do you want me to do here?
(37:25):
Do you want me to confirm that? And he says, look,
if it will do some good, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
With the green light from Hudson, UCLA Medical Center alerted
the media that there would be a press conference.
Speaker 13 (37:36):
It's kind of a pivotal moment. And I'm an ordinary guy.
I'm thrust in the limelight, not exactly by choice. I'm
a guy who expected to spend his life with patients
and in the lab and not a public figure. Am
I ready for prime time? I didn't train for prime time?
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Given how famous rock Hudson was, the announcement was staged
in a way that, to Gottlieb, seemed conspicuously muted.
Speaker 13 (38:05):
So they organized a press conference in the auditorium of
the Neuropsychiatric Institute, which is on Westwood Boulevard. It's kind
of out of the way. We're not doing a press
conference in front of the medical center like other hospitals
would do for acceptable diseases. In this instance, they send
out this junior professor, Michael Gottlieb, to break the news
(38:27):
without anyone being there to provide moral or other support.
Speaker 10 (38:32):
Let me introduce rock Cousin's attending physician at UCLA, doctor
Michael Gottlieb, who is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in
Immunology in the UCLA School of Medicine.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Finally, the national media was clamoring for information about AIDS,
but instead of taking the opportunity to educate the public
or answer questions, all Gottlieb felt he could do was
read a short statement.
Speaker 22 (39:01):
Rock Hudson was transferred from the American Hospital in Paris
to the UCLA Medical Center early today, mister Hudson is
being evaluated and treated for complications of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Speaker 13 (39:16):
And it's a very brief statement which I read, and
then we didn't take questions. Sorry, I cannot do.
Speaker 22 (39:25):
That at this time.
Speaker 13 (39:27):
It's a total embarrassment because you've invited the press to
hear some news of substance, and I felt constrained. I
felt as if there was a lot to say with
regards to Rock Hudson, with regards to AIDS, and it
was an opportunity that was missed.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Nevertheless, the announcement had an immediate seismic impact.
Speaker 21 (39:52):
Hudson, in becoming the first celebrity to have a publicly
acknowledged case of age, has brought a new round of
attention to the fatal disease.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Now that a household name had gotten sick, America's attention
was on AIDS. As journalist Randy Schiltz later wrote, there
were two clear phases to the disease in the United States.
There was AIDS before Rock Hudson, and AIDS after the.
Speaker 8 (40:15):
Fact that Rock Hudson has AIDS.
Speaker 13 (40:18):
Is that going to help public awareness? Now? We would hope.
Speaker 22 (40:21):
That people across the country would take note and.
Speaker 20 (40:24):
Perhaps stimulate their interest to find out more about the disease.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
The announcement provoked two seemingly contradictory reactions. First, that Hudson's
diagnosis was tantamount to coming out as gay. That even
though Gottlieb hadn't said anything about Hudson's private life, the
rumors that had circulated about him were all but confirmed. Second,
the news that Rock Hudson had AIDS meant that it
wasn't just a gay disease after all. The convoluted logic
(40:51):
of this response was rooted in the belief that Hudson,
as a beloved public figure, was somehow different from other
gay people. Among AIDS activists, the announcement was received with
a measure of ambivalence. There's lots of sympathy in the
gay community for Rock Hudson, said one activist, but also
some annoyance too that it takes a famous person to
call the public's attention to this illness. After Hudson's disclosure,
(41:15):
AIDS started to become a popular cause among many Hollywood
A listers. At a star studded gala in Beverly Hills
that September, Hudson's friends raised more than one million dollars
for AIDS research.
Speaker 20 (41:26):
Hudson sent a statement read by actor Burt Lancaster.
Speaker 21 (41:29):
I'm not happy that I have AIDS, but if that
is helping others, I can at least know that my
own misfortune has had some positive work.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Just two weeks later, Rock Hudson was dead.
Speaker 14 (41:49):
The carner arrived at Hudson's home in bel Air at
ten forty five this morning. As friends gathered and emotions
ran high. News cameras were kept at a distance as
the body was moved into the Corner's van.
Speaker 15 (42:01):
Towels were used to cover up the windows.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Ken Jilson, the friend who had taught Hudson how to
use a movie projector, was enlisted to help plan his
memorial service. At first, he was imagining a large event
at Forest Lawn Cemetery, but then he got a call
from a friend that Elizabeth Taylor was taking things in
a different direction.
Speaker 12 (42:21):
And he goes, guess what, Elizabeth has changed the whole thing.
We're going to have a memorial in his backyard, and
we'll have Margarita's Mariachi's, and it'll be a very upbeat
thing in the backyard with one hundred people I'll send
telegrams to people, and that's what it will be.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
The Margherita's and Mariachi Memorial was set up in Hudson's
backyard with the one hundred and eighty degree view of
Los Angeles. It was guaranteed to be a media circus,
but special precautions were taken to keep things under control.
Speaker 12 (42:54):
And they had a lot of security to try to
keep the paparazzi away, and there were helicopters, and what
they had done, which was very smart, they put a
big white tent in the backyard so that the whole
event could not be filmed from the air.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Despite these measures, a photographer dressed in camouflage tried to
climb up the side of the canyon behind the house,
and the neighbors sold access to her yard to reporters
for three hundred dollars each.
Speaker 12 (43:22):
And Carol Burnett spoke. But Carol Burnett was so destroyed
when she finished her speech, she just ran out of
the house and couldn't deal with it. And no one
could believe it that, wow, this guy fifty nine years
old is really gone.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
The New York Daily News canvassed local rock huts and
fans for their reactions to his death. Most said their
favorite of his films was Pillow Talk. Some said they
had heard rumors about him even before the announcement. Only
one said she would have nothing to do with the
man anymore. I think about him the way he is
on the screen, said one woman. That will always be
Rock Hudson. Hudson was approximately the ten thousandth person with
(44:13):
AIDS to die in the United States. He was the
first to be commemorated with an official statement from the
White House. Nancy and I are saddened by the news
of Rock Hudson's death. Reagan said he will be remembered
for his humanity, his sympathetic spirit, and well deserved reputation
for kindness. The statement studiously avoided any mention of how
(44:34):
or why Hudson had died. Still, Hudson's death had an
immediate impact on national AIDS funding. Literally within hours of
his death.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
And on hearing of his death, the House of Representatives
agreed to double the amount of AIDS funds for research
next year. There will now be one hundred and ninety
million dollars.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
According to an analysis by The Los Angeles Times, Media
coverage of AIDS more than tripled in the six months
after Hudson's death. At the same time, the controversy over
kids with AIDS attending school was continuing to heat up.
The most prominent case involved a name you may have
heard before.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
These people are raising money and signing petitions in a
fight to keep Ryan White out of their school.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Ryan White was thirteen years old. He had contracted HIV
through the Factor eight he used to manage his humophilia.
Many of his classmate's parents wanted him banned from attending school.
Speaker 21 (45:30):
He has a spill on a table, a chair, something,
Your daughter comes in.
Speaker 22 (45:33):
They say they wipe, but your daughter comes in touches it.
Speaker 14 (45:36):
Hey, what's to say she is not going to get it.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
The attention garnered by Rock Hudson and Ryan White led
to increased awareness of AIDS and how it could be prevented,
but it also generated a lot of fear and misinformation
and knew so called safety measures that were not based
in science. In Indiana, Ryan White's school forced him to
use a separate bathroom and disposable utensils. In Hollywood, concerns
(46:01):
about Rock Hudson's Dynasty kissing scene with Linda Evans led
to a panic about possible transmission through saliva. The Screen
Actors Guild even created new rules around open mouthed kissing
scenes for its members.
Speaker 24 (46:14):
Caution is also advocated by Screen Actors Guild president ed Asna.
Speaker 4 (46:18):
How wonderful be if everybody stopped kissing on film until
we know more about this horrible disease.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Rock Hudson was a beloved movie star and Ryan White
was an innocent kid. What they had in common was
that neither of them fit the stereotypes widely associated with
AIDS and homosexuality. Hudson and White made it clear that
AIDS could happen to anyone. In so doing, they helped
turn the disease into a cause among a lot of
(46:45):
influential people.
Speaker 6 (46:47):
This songs for.
Speaker 12 (46:51):
Elton.
Speaker 25 (46:51):
John dedicated a song to him at Farm Made four,
while Donald Trump and Michael Jackson visited his mother yesterday.
Speaker 16 (46:57):
And consoled her.
Speaker 25 (46:58):
Hollywood loved Ryan and White. The brave young man who
battled that dread disease and the infectious prejudice surrounding it,
inspired stars around the world.
Speaker 6 (47:09):
His story.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
About four months after Rock Hudson's death, Reagan asked Surgeon
General see Everett Coop to prepare a formal report on
the AIDS epidemic. The President was finally giving Coop the
go ahead to speak to the American people about AIDS,
but when it came to federal funding, Reagan was less
inclined to change his tune. Here again is historian Rick Pearlstein.
Speaker 6 (47:32):
And this is right around the times. You know, he's
basically proposing his budget, and the headline in newsday is
sharp cuts and AIDS funding socked. And for fiscal nineteen
eighty seven, he proposed spending about thirteen percent less than
the original nineteen eighty six level. So he's simultaneously calling
for cuts and ordering a major government report on AIDS.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Coop had spent years following White House guidance not to
discuss AIDS publicly. Many of his servative allies expected that
his report would be similarly restrained, but much to their surprise,
that was not at all what Coop had in mind.
Speaker 6 (48:11):
He spends nights and weekends at a stand up desk
in the basement of his townhouse, poring over every version,
carefully choosing every word. Anthony Fauci reviewed every draft, surely
with his earlier gaff right very much on his mind.
Fauci was quoted in the post, I was encouraging him
to push it to the limit of what he could
get away with.
Speaker 3 (48:30):
The nation's most senior medical official has added his voice
to the increasingly vocal concern about AIDS.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
When Coop released his report in October of nineteen eighty six,
he appeared to put his role as a public health
official ahead of any political loyalties. He wrote that the
country was fighting a disease, not people, and delivered information
about the epidemic in extraordinarily plain language.
Speaker 6 (48:52):
He talks about seamen. He mentions anal sex right. He
talks about unprotected sex. He talks about condoms. He says
that sexual education and as frank as possible, should begin
an early childhood.
Speaker 4 (49:03):
We're talking about death here. We're talking about death now.
Many people, especially our youth, are not receiving information that
is vital to their future health and well being because
of our reticence in dealing with the subjects of sex,
sexual practices, and homosexuality.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
Coop says he's not advocating avoiding specific lifestyles.
Speaker 4 (49:25):
If you are going to indulge in certain types of
sexual activity, there are ways to protect yourself.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
Coop was now one of the country's most prominent advocates
for comprehensive sex education. If his explicit and straightforward approach
thrilled many AIDS experts protectors, it also infuriated many White
House officials who are wary of alienating Reagan's base.
Speaker 6 (49:45):
This kind of civil war is breaking out over see
every Cooper.
Speaker 16 (49:48):
Here's doctor Coop fronting for the homosexual lobby, and we
would like to see him dismissed as a public statement
by President Reagan.
Speaker 6 (49:59):
There is growth sentiment in the White House that Reagan
should deliver a major address to the nation about AIDS.
Speaker 1 (50:04):
If the President were to go on TV and endorse
Coop's ideas about AIDS prevention, he could go a long
way towards changing cultural norms about condoms and sex education.
But Gary Bauer, one of the President's top domestic policy advisors,
thought that idea was ridiculous and beneath the office of
the president.
Speaker 6 (50:23):
Quote, I'm not sure I want to take the president
on nationwide TV saying well, the only two ways to
avoid AIDS are abstinence and masturbation. I mean, there are
some things that are presidential in things that are not.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
On the whole Reagan took Gary Bauer's advice. Though he
did start referring to AIDS as the number one public
health priority of his administration, he did not speak about
condoms or attempt to turn his advisors against abstinence only education. Meanwhile,
Rock Hudson's death had further multiplied private AIDS fundraising. In
(50:56):
his will, Hudson had designated two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars to start an AIDS foundation, and his doctor, Michael Gottlieb,
co founded that organization with a group that included some
of Hudson's Hollywood friends. The foundation AMPHAR became the country's
leading AIDS charity. AMPHAR planned its first major benefit to
take place in Washington, d C. In May of nineteen
(51:18):
eighty seven. Michael Gottlieb went to Washington to attend the
event alongside Elizabeth Taylor.
Speaker 13 (51:24):
The interesting thing to me was we'd come into these
senators chambers and she would introduce me as the discoverer
of AIDS, and they would pay no attention to me whatsoever.
Elizabeth would be all gussied up and totally made up,
and her hair perfect and wearing her jewels, and they
just ate it up.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Before the event, Taylor communicated privately with the President an
old friend from Hollywood, and convinced him to give the
keynote address. The knight of the gala May thirty first,
nineteen eighty seven was warm and brief. Forty four thousand
Americans have been diagnosed with AIDS and nearly twenty seven
(52:06):
thousand had died. The event was set up in a
big tent that was decorated with red and pink flowers.
Speaker 4 (52:12):
Gentlemen, the President of the United States and Missus.
Speaker 5 (52:15):
Reagan, I want to talk tonight about the disease that
has brought us all together. It has been talked about,
and I'm going to continue the The poet W. H.
Auden said that the true men of action in our
times are not the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists.
(52:38):
I believe that's especially true when it comes to the
AIDS epidemic.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Reagan's speechwriter had met with public health experts and political
advisors while he crafted the address. Safe and at first,
the President's remarks seem to closely track with the medical
community's advice.
Speaker 5 (52:53):
America faces a disease that is fatal and spreading, and
this calls for urgency, not panic. It calls for compassion
not blamed. We're still learning about how AIDS is transmitted.
But experts tell us you don't get it from telephones
or swimming pools or drinking fountains. You don't get it
from shaking hands or sitting on a bus or anywhere
(53:15):
else for that matter. As dangerous and deadly as AIDS is,
many of the fears surrounding it are unfounded. These fears
are based on ignorance.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Michael Gottlieb listened to these words with relief and satisfaction.
Speaker 13 (53:29):
I was excited, but then he gives you a kick
in that. You know what.
Speaker 1 (53:33):
The speech took a turn about three quarters of the
way through.
Speaker 13 (53:36):
That same speech, announce the travel ban against people with HIV.
Speaker 5 (53:42):
I've also asked HHS to add the AIDS virus to
the list of contagious diseases for which immigrants and aliens
seeking permanent residents in the United States can be denied entry.
They are presently entry for.
Speaker 13 (54:01):
Other inciting a great deal of displeasure among the crowd.
Speaker 5 (54:04):
Let me turn to what the States can.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
Do once again. Reagan seemed to be siding with the
most reactionary voices in his administration for the AIDS activists
in the room. It was enraging to hear the President
talk about acceptance and compassion and keeping people with AIDS
out of the country. In the same breath, the President
(54:27):
gave his first major speech on the subject to night.
Speaker 26 (54:30):
One that drew both cheers and jeers. The proposals, which
were championed by conservative factions in the administration, were unpopular
with many in the audience. Demonstrators outside marched in memory
of those who died of AIDS and called for more
research money We.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
Got the The activists inside the amphar benefit who booed
Reagan made national news, as did the hundreds of protesters
chanting and lighting candles outside. The groups that had begun
in New York, San Francisco and across the country were
now larger, bolder, and more professionalized. They were tired of
(55:07):
waiting years for incremental political developments. They were tired of
waiting years for the results of drug trials that were
conducted in complete secrecy. They were not going to wait anymore.
Speaker 15 (55:40):
Now that the summer is come and gone, I'll say goodbye.
Now that the winter is coming on, I'll say goodbye.
I'm not the first man or.
Speaker 1 (55:56):
The last on the next episode of Fiasco, a new
activist or organization forms and mounts a revolutionary fight for
access to experimental drugs.
Speaker 6 (56:05):
We've tried to be good little boys and girls.
Speaker 26 (56:07):
We've tried to work within the system.
Speaker 13 (56:10):
We just want to.
Speaker 6 (56:11):
Raise the issues.
Speaker 4 (56:12):
We are dying.
Speaker 15 (56:16):
For every star that falls to work on Lew and
Low for every Dream.
Speaker 1 (56:24):
Fiasco is presented by Audible Originals and Prologue Projects. The
show is produced by Andrew Parsons, Sam Graham, Felsen, Madewin, Kaplan,
Ulla Colpa, and me Leon Nafock. Our researcher is Francis Carr.
Editorial support from Jessica Miller and Nora waswas archival research
by Michelle Sullivan. The vice president of Audible Studios is
(56:46):
Mike Charzik. The editor in chief for Audible Originals is
David Blum. This season's music is composed by Edith Mudge.
Additional music by Nick Sylvester of Godmode, Billy libby Joel Saint,
Julian and Danning, Noah Heckt and Joe Valley. Our theme
song is by Spatial Relations. Our credit song this week
(57:07):
is I'll Say Goodbye by Rock Hudson. You also heard
Could I Leave You. Performed by Carol Burnett. Music licensing
courtesy of Anthony Roman. Audio mix by Erica Wong, with
additional support from Selina Urabe. Our artwork is designed by
Teddy Blanks at Chips and y Thanks to the Vanderbilt
Television Archive. Additional footage courtesy of ABC seven Los Angeles.
(57:30):
Special thanks to Peter Yass and Dan Works. Thanks for listening,
See you next week.
Hey, this is Leon Napok. I'm the host of Fiasco,
but you may also know me from the podcasts Slowburn,
Think Twice, Michael Jackson, and Backfired the Vaping Wars. I'm
excited to be sharing with you the next season of Backfired,
titled Attention Deficit, which is now available exclusively on Audible.
Backfired is a podcast about the business of unintended consequences.
(00:20):
In the first season, my co host Ril Pardess and
I dove deep into the world of vaping and how
the well intentioned quest for a safer cigarette went awry.
Now we're tackling ADHD and how the push to destigmatize
this hard to define childhood diagnosis has led to an
explosion of stimulant use in kids as well as adults.
It's a story about the promise of psychiatry to fix
(00:41):
our brains and the power of the pharmaceutical industry to
shape how we and our doctors think about what's wrong
with us. To hear both seasons of Backfired, go to
audible dot com slash Backfired and start a free trial
that's audible dot com slash Backfired. Fiasco is intended for
mature audio. For a list of books, articles and documentaries
(01:03):
we used in our research. Follow the link in the
show notes. Previously on fiasco.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's mysterious, it's deadly, and it's baffling medical science.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
The Food and Drug Administration has recommended that any man
who has had sex with another man since nineteen seventy
seven not donate blood.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
You had many people from the radical right expressing really
extreme measures.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
And I do believe that AIDS is a violation of
God's laws.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
How many of us have to die before you get
off your ass?
Speaker 7 (01:38):
We had no other resources but ourselves.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Rock Hudson magnificently proving the power of love and faith
in a great performance and lovely.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
When Rock Hudson appeared in the romantic comedy Pillow Talk
in nineteen fifty nine, he was already one of the
most famous leading men in America.
Speaker 8 (02:00):
A Beverly Hills, California, It's Rock Hudson honored again with
Photoplays Gold Medal the most Popular Actor Award.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Hudson was the very model of the mid century American man, Tall, stoic,
and transcendently good looking. According to Life Magazine, he was
a towering hunk of handsomeness.
Speaker 9 (02:18):
Rock Hudson, six Street four of Fighting Man, Enter, Tame
a Wildcat, Beauty makes will read this is Rock Hudson.
My new picture, Pillow Talk, brings me together with Doris Day.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
But the Pillow Talk was a milestone in Hudson's career,
his first romantic comedy and the first of several starring
roles opposite Doris Day. The premise of the movie was
that Hudson's character was pretending to be gay as part
of a ploy to win Day's heart.
Speaker 10 (02:46):
Don't you find me attractive?
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Why yes, ma'am, of course.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Then why haven't you ever ever what? I'm sorry, foolish.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
The characters made repeated references to homosexuality, all of them
disguised in wordplay and innuendo.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Either you're not.
Speaker 9 (03:07):
Telling the truth or or what. Well, there are some
men who just they're very devoted to their mothers, you know,
the type that likes to collect cooking recipes, exchange bits
of gossip.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
But there was a layer of irony to Pillow Talk
that few audience members would have known to look for.
Speaker 11 (03:27):
Here's a real life gay man playing a straight man
who at one point is pretending to be a gay
man to Lord Doris Day into bed.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
This is Mark Griffin, author of the Rock Hudson biography
All That Heaven Allows.
Speaker 11 (03:43):
So it's definitely a hall of mirrors, like you know,
several layers of surreal.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
As a star in the Hollywood studio system, Hudson was
an expert presenting a broadly appealing and inoffensive version of
himself to the world, but the details of his private
life were known to many of the people he worked
and socialized with.
Speaker 11 (04:04):
It was sort of this silent agreement that nobody was
going to talk about homosexuality unless you were among your
own and you felt very safe in discussing that.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Hudson's sexuality was something of an open secret in the
film industry, and everyone, including Hudson, knew that it would
ruin his career if moviegoers ever found out about it.
Speaker 11 (04:26):
There was this ironclad expectation that a star, especially one
of that magnitude, would never do anything in his private
life to embarrass his bosses or worse. At that time,
there was a morals clause in each contract player's contract
which forbade engaging in any behavior that might be deemed
(04:46):
socially unacceptable or immoral, and from there on in for
much of his career, Rock is working what I would
describe as a sort of very dangerous tight rope act.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
The main threat to Hudson's career came from the tabloid press.
Hudson's agent is rumored to have once given a journalist
damaging information about another one of his own clients in
exchange for killing a story about Hudson's sexuality. Another time,
there was gossip going around that Hudson might be romantically
involved with an actor named Jim Nabors. The truth was
(05:21):
they were just close friends, but Hudson was so worried
about the potential fallout that he stopped talking to neighbors entirely.
The stakes of keeping Hudson's identity as secret were perhaps
highest during the pillow talk era, but even as time
passed and his leading man days started the dwindle, Hudson
(05:42):
worked hard to maintain his public image. As long as
he did that he could live his life the way
he wanted to in private. One of the people who
got to see Hudson in that context was Ken Jilson,
a longtime fan who turned into one of Hudson's friends.
Jilson had worked at a movie theater when he was
a teenager, and he had loved Hudson's movies ever since.
Speaker 12 (06:02):
We would play these Rock Hudson movies Lover, Come Back
and things like that, and I had the strangest feeling
when I would look at the screen that I knew him.
I can't explain that.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
When Jillson and Hudson met in the early seventies, it
turned out that Hudson had just installed a home movie theater.
Speaker 12 (06:21):
He had a complete movie theater in his home with
thirty five millimeter projection equipment. And I said, well, you
know what, I used to work in a movie theater.
I know how to run the machines. I'll teach you
how to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Jillson and his partner grew close to Hudson. They even
convinced him to become the first investor in their gift
trapping business. Over the years, he would invite them to
dinner parties at his Beverly Hills estate, which boasted a
one hundred and eighty degree view of Los Angeles and
which Hudson called the Castle.
Speaker 12 (06:52):
It had a whole two story Spanish hacienda field to it,
and he had a piano in the movie theater. And
he loved to have his friends over and entertain. They'd
all come over, people like Carol Burnett, and they would.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Sing, could I wave the years?
Speaker 12 (07:12):
And I'll do like little shows on the stage.
Speaker 13 (07:14):
It was really cool, tears away when your eyes.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Are drunk.
Speaker 14 (07:20):
Seek.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
By the time he was in his mid forties, Hudson
was spending less of his time making big movies and
more of it on stage, acting in musical theater.
Speaker 12 (07:31):
He was in several musicals and he did on the
twentieth Century. He did Camelot and he couldn't I mean,
he could sing okay, And he just was in seventh
Heaven on the theater stage.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
He even released an album of covers called rock Gently.
Speaker 15 (07:48):
Now that the Summer is come and gone, I'll say
goodbye now that the Winner.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
In nineteen eighty four, Hudson got a chance to catch
up with a couple he had first gotten to know
decades earlier in Hollywood, Ronald and Nancy Reagan. As Mark
Griffin writes in his book, the two former actors invited
Hudson to the White House for an official state dinner
to honor the President of Mexico.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
President Missus del Madrid Mikaza Essukazza.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
At the event, Hudson chatted with the first Lady and
took photos with her.
Speaker 11 (08:24):
And of all people, Nancy Reagan noticed that when they
were posing for photos that he had a blemish on
his neck, and that she advised him to have it checked.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Hudson would later tell friends that after he was diagnosed
with AIDS, he went home and cried for a week.
There were so many unknowns, how long he could keep working,
how quickly the disease would progress. The one thing was obvious,
Hudson would be living this part of his life the
same way he had lived so many others in private.
(08:57):
I'm Leon Napock from Audible Origins and Prologue Projects. This
is fiasco.
Speaker 16 (09:03):
Just what is wrong with Rock Hutson? The nature of
his illness has become clouded in mystery and confusion.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Rock.
Speaker 13 (09:09):
The news media are clamoring for information. What do you
think I should do?
Speaker 17 (09:13):
They are violating the laws of nature, and nature is
striking back.
Speaker 18 (09:16):
Luis, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic?
Speaker 5 (09:20):
I think we just have to do the best we
can with this problem. I can understand both sides of it.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
In this episode, what happened when one of Hollywood's biggest
stars became sick with AIDS and what it took to
get President Reagan to pay attention to the epidemic. Michael Gottlieb,
an immunologist at UCLA, was used to getting referrals for
(09:50):
new patients, but it was a new experience for him
when a dermatologist in Beverly Hills called him on behalf
of an A list celebrity and.
Speaker 13 (09:58):
She mentioned his name, Rock Cuts, in which of course
a name I knew. So I climbed into my Dodge
Aspen that leaked and drove to U Cannon Drive or
Rodeo Driver or one of those places.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Gottlieb met with Hudson at the dermatologist's office, and.
Speaker 13 (10:14):
Then they left me alone with Rock, and he and
I talked, and then I examined him. He showed me
this capasi sarcoma lesion that he had on his left forearm.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Gottlieb went through his standard questions, just like he would
have with anyone.
Speaker 13 (10:29):
Else, and so at one point I asked Roc to
hop up on the exam table, and as he did that,
I had to look up because he was so tall,
and I said, my, you're tall, and he sort of
shrugged in a boyish way and said yeah, six ' four.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
After a short exam, Gottlieb confirmed what his new patient
had already guessed.
Speaker 13 (10:51):
I told him I thought he probably did have AIDS.
He knew what it was. We talked about the sexual
transmission of whatever was causing this, and he had already
prepared three or four anonymous letters to go to people
with whom he had had intercourse, telling them that they
had been exposed to someone who had AIDS, and he
(11:13):
was going to mail them once he had confirmation.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Got Leeb diagnosed Rock Hudson with AIDS on June fifth,
nineteen eighty four. By that point, more than five thousand
other Americans had received the same diagnosis, and roughly three
thousand of them had died, but President Ronald Reagan had
never once mentioned the disease in public. Reagan had met
Rock Hudson back when they were both working actors, but
(11:47):
while Hudson was able to make the leap to leading man,
Reagan never quite broke through. His most notable role came
in nineteen forty, when he played a football player in
Canute Rockney All American, the movie that gave gave him
a lifelong nickname, ask him to go.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
In there with all it win, just one for the Kipper.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Even though Reagan was never especially famous as an actor,
he was able to parlay his name recognition into a
career in politics. In nineteen sixty six, he ran for
governor of California.
Speaker 15 (12:19):
The biggest shot in the arm for the American Republican
Party in the election of Ronald Reagan as governor of California.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Reagan was unapologetically right wing on issues like crime and welfare,
but when it came to gay rights, Reagan's views were
not totally caught and dry. Here's historian Rick Pearlstein, author
of the book Reaganland.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
The first scandal of Reagan's gubernatorial term in nineteen sixty
seven happened when several of his aides trapped one of
his aids that they considered a bureaucratic rival in a
gay relationship in a motel room, you know, using listening devices,
and leaked it to the press.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Drew into a publishery board that homosexual reignan been uncovered
amongst your administration.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
And when this got out, people thought that Reagan's future
political ambitions might be checked by this scandal, and instead
Ronald Reagan said, you know, this is ridiculous. I'm not
going to, you know, through my administration and hold this
kind of witch hunt. This is stooping to destroy human beings,
innocent people.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
According to poles from this time, the vast majority of
Americans said they did not know any gay people personally.
Reagan was not one of them. He actually had friends
he knew were gay.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
But the same token he made the same kind of
homophobic jokes everyone did. Or he would say, I have
no problem with gay's working in state government, but of
course they shouldn't be working for the Department of Parks
and Recreation. You know, the suggestion that you know, gays
were forging through the bushes to kind of, you know,
do naughty things.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Reagan reportedly panicked when his son, Ron Junior told him
that he wanted to be a ballet dancer, fearing that
it meant he might be gay. At the same time,
Reagan made a point of opposing an anti gay ballot
initiative in California that would have given the school board
the right to fire people over their sexuality.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
Politicians from Jimmy Carter Torontald Reagan argued, which Hunt said
one cheering celebrant. It's obvious gays have a lot of
friends in California.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
He very specifically debunks the operative argument of the anti
gay right side in this huge, defining political fight, which
is that gays were trying to recruit young people, you know,
into their awful tribe. And he specifically said being gay
isn't a choice, which was a very progressive view for
the time.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
It all gave the impression that Reagan had a certain
amount of personal tolerance for gay people, but he was
also quick to tell angry constituents that his position wasn't
so much about tolerance as it was about opposing government overreach,
and he.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
Would always reassure them that while he was, you know,
against this specific initiative, you know, as an unwarketed government
intrusion for lives of individuals, he was absolutely opposed to
gay people quote unquote promoting their lifestyle, and that he
didn't believe sodomy's statutes should be overturned and that sort
of thing.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
As President, Reagan preferred to delegate most policy specifics to
his cabinet secretaries and other officials. A lot of Reagan's
closest advisors were part of the Republican establishment, and as
strange as it may sound now, they were worried that
aligning too closely with social conservatives like Jerry Folwell would
alienate moderate voters. Still, they had to give them something.
(15:39):
In the new administration, here again is Rick Pearlstein.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
And the solution they arrive at is to make their
most prominent patronage hire this guy. See ever Coop.
Speaker 19 (15:50):
Ronald Reagan's choice for a surgeon general one of the
most controversial decisions taken by the new administration.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
I think for precisely the reason that the surgeon General
is his very powerless role traditionally that a lot of
presidents didn't even bother to fill, you know it kind
of like manages, you know, quarantine expections at ports and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Coop had made a name for himself touring the country
as an anti abortion advocate. As surgeon General, he was
best known for his crusade against smoking and for his
distinctive appearance picture Colonel Sanders in a Navy uniform.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
He has this biblical temperament where everything is just kind
of black and white. He had this kind of prophetic
mean to him. George will described him in a gushing
profile as resembling an Old Testament prophet who has just
discovered his neighbors making graven images.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Cigarette smoking is clearly identified as the chief preventable cause
of death in our society.
Speaker 8 (16:44):
He attacked family planning programs for converting adolescent innocence into
sexually active teenagers.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Coop said pro.
Speaker 8 (16:50):
Abortion statements by Protestant denominations show their superficial theology, lack
of morality, and an insensitivity to the eventual reward for
their deprivative.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
In nineteen eighty two, a reporter at a White House
briefing asked Reagan's Press Secretary Larry Speaks about the mysterious
disease that had emerged in California, New York, Miami and elsewhere.
There were already hundreds of diagnosed cases, but Speaks said
he hadn't heard about it.
Speaker 18 (17:23):
Does the President have.
Speaker 19 (17:24):
Any reactions with the announced from the Center for Disease
Control of Atlanta that AIDS is now an epidemic of
six over six hundred cases. It's known as gay play.
Speaker 12 (17:39):
Oh it is.
Speaker 18 (17:39):
I mean, it's a pretty serious thing that one and
every three people that get this have died. And I
wondered if the President is aware.
Speaker 13 (17:45):
I don't have it?
Speaker 15 (17:47):
Are you you?
Speaker 18 (17:49):
You don't have it? Well, I'm relieved to hear that you.
Speaker 14 (17:53):
Didn't answer my question.
Speaker 15 (17:55):
How do you know?
Speaker 18 (17:56):
The president of the work the White House looks on this
as a great joke.
Speaker 20 (18:00):
Now I don't know anything about it, leans Ter.
Speaker 18 (18:02):
The president, does anybody in the White House know about
this epidemic?
Speaker 15 (18:05):
Lauri, I don't think so.
Speaker 20 (18:06):
I don't think any There been no personal experience here, Leicester.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
These comments came against the backdrop of a struggle over
AIDS funding that was playing out across various federal agencies,
but the President stayed out of the fray. At this point,
he had never even said the word AIDS in public,
not in a speech, not in a press conference, not
in any recorded conversation. It was not until June of
(18:31):
nineteen eighty three, at another White House briefing that Reagan's
press secretary indicated that the President was at least aware
of AIDS.
Speaker 20 (18:40):
President has been involved in brief down the AIDE situation
a number of months ago in a cabinet meeting, and
we have recently, as said, twelve million dollars be reprogrammed
for research on age. That's extent of the president's INVOLVMA,
which has been.
Speaker 19 (18:56):
Laurie, does the President think that it might help if
he suggested that gays cut down on their cruising.
Speaker 21 (19:05):
Told you.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's worth mentioning here that the reporter asking this question,
the same one you heard in the earlier press conference,
was a conservative provocateur named Lester Kinsolving. So while it
may sound like he's righteously standing up for people with AIDS,
it's more like he was worried that the disease would
spread to straight people. He wanted the president to condemn
the gay community for endangering everyone else.
Speaker 18 (19:28):
I didn't hear your answer.
Speaker 20 (19:30):
I just was acknowledge engineer and your interest in this set.
Speaker 19 (19:34):
You don't think that it would help if the gays
cut down on their cruising.
Speaker 20 (19:38):
We're researching if we come up with any any any
research that shed some light on whether the gay should
cruise or not. Crude were not available to you.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Through the end of his first term. That was the
extent of Reagan's involvement in the AIDS epidemic. Confirmation to
his press secretary that he had been briefed on the
matter for Michael Gottlieb Rock Hudson's new doctor these were
exhausting years. Gottlieb had been taking care of people with
(20:13):
AIDS as long as anyone. He had co authored the
first ever article about it, the one you heard about
in Episode one, that was published in the CDC's newsletter
on New Diseases. As more and more of his patients died,
Gottlieb grew increasingly frustrated by the lack of urgency around AIDS,
and so he began wearing two hats, one as a doctor,
(20:35):
the other as an activist. In that capacity, he pushed
for more research funding and attention to an epidemic that
was still being largely ignored.
Speaker 13 (20:45):
The stigma outweighed everything else. As AIDS and all its baggage,
Gottlieb was in a tricky position. As far as he
could tell, The UCLA Medical Center was like most hospitals
and cities dealing with major AIDS breaks. None of them
wanted to be known as an AIDS hospital, And the
more Gottlieb used his platform to talk about AIDS, the
(21:07):
more he felt the scrutiny of UCLA administrators. In retrospect,
it might seem strange that a hospital wouldn't want to
draw attention to the fact that its doctors were working
at the forefront of a major new disease, But Gottlieb
says administrators were worried about their bottom line, that being
known as an AIDS hospital would scare away patients with
(21:28):
other conditions. If I was too proactive, you know, questions
might have been raised as to my loyalties or the
reasons for my being so proactive amongst the faculty at
my institution. Then I was frustrated by the obstacles put
in our way.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
When Gottlieb first met Rock Hudson and realized he had AIDS,
he understood right away what a big deal it was,
or at least could be. If Hudson's died diagnosis ever
became public, he would be by far the most famous
person known to have AIDS. Real attention might finally be
paid to the cause Gottlieb had been dedicating his life
(22:11):
to for now. Though Hudson wasn't very sick and he
didn't have kapasis sarcoma legians that he couldn't cover up,
he had no intention of sharing his diagnosis with the world.
Speaker 13 (22:23):
He was doing okay, he had very little ks. It
wasn't even worthy of treatment that was so minor it
wasn't in any cosmetically sensitive location. Now he could continue
his work.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Gottlieb continued to check in on Hudson's symptoms and update
him on the latest developments in AIDS research. There were
some experimental treatments being tested in the US, but Gottlieb
had very little faith in them. Then he heard about
a French drug called HPA twenty three that had shown
some promise against leukemia in mice.
Speaker 13 (22:57):
That was a very large leap of faith to think
that it might be effective against HIV and man. However,
the French doctors were making it available to certain American
patients who were traveling there to receive it as intravenous infusions.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Hudson's condition was worsening, so Gottlieb thought the treatment was
worth a try.
Speaker 13 (23:19):
Yes, it was a long shot, but he was willing
to fly to Paris and take this experimental drug.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
So Hudson made the trip to Paris, ostensibly to attend
a film festival. After receiving the treatment, he flew back
to the United States to appear in the hit TV
show Dynasty.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
And You feel wonderful, Yes, product very you shouldn't.
Speaker 15 (23:41):
Why not because you got a long way to go
before you can feel so damn good about yourself.
Speaker 13 (23:46):
I remember, you know, seeing Rock on Dynasty and saying
to myself, you know, he really shouldn't be on TV
right now because he looked so well.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
In the summer of nineteen eighty five, Hudson met up
with his old friend and pill Talk co star Doris Day.
She was hosting a new TV show about animals on
the Christian Broadcast Network, and she brought Hudson on as
a special guest.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
He look great.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Day would later describe being shocked by Hudson's appearance at
the taping. He was only fifty nine, but he somehow
looked older, and he sounded weak and tired.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
We really had fun making movies, Yeah, didn't we?
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 14 (24:30):
What was your favorite movie?
Speaker 6 (24:32):
What was my favorite? I think I like Pillow Talk?
Speaker 15 (24:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 22 (24:37):
Did you No?
Speaker 5 (24:39):
I liked High Stage in Zebra.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
At a promotional event for the show, reporters noticed the
changes in Hudson's appearance. Hudson's agent told them he was
in perfect health and at the weight he had shed
was the result of a new diet, but the actor's
appearance still made national news.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
It takes it's no.
Speaker 23 (25:00):
Expert to see that something is seriously wrong with a
fifty nine year old actor. Here he is just a
few years ago on a Live at five set, and
here just last week with a former co star, Doris Day,
down considerably from the two hundred pounds Hudson normally carried
on his six foot four inch frame.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Michael Gottlie was watching all of this press coverage and
seeing Hudson's reps lie about his patient's health made him
acutely aware of the tension between his two roles as
a doctor and an activist.
Speaker 13 (25:31):
My primary job is to be a physician and to
hold to the tenets and the oaths of our profession.
And the patient is number one, and he's entitled to
his privacy and what other people say publicly, whether it's
the truth or a lie, as of no consequence to me. Yes,
As someone who's interested in social justice, someone who sees
(25:55):
HIV AIDS as a cause, Yes, of course, it would
be a shot in the arm to have a celebrity
diagnosed with AIDS and go public. On the other hand,
it's not going to go public through me without his permission.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
A major potential benefit of a famous person disclosing his
diagnosis was that it would help educate the general public.
Misinformation about AIDS and how it could be spread was rampant.
Even though the science said AIDS could only be transmitted
through blood or other bodily fluids, there was still widespread
fear that one could get it just by touching someone.
(26:39):
The confusion was fueled in part by comments made in
nineteen eighty three by a high ranking official at the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci.
Speaker 7 (26:49):
Doctor Anthony Fauci, writing in the Journal of the AMA,
says his study shows some children have picked up AIDS
within their families, and that means, says doctor Fauci, the
scope of the syndrome be enormous.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Children were getting AIDS from their parents through in uterotransmission,
but Fauchi didn't know that for sure, and he speculated
that it might be spread through close physical contact. Rick
Pearlstein again, and this was really a panic watershed. This
is when cops and firefighters start wearing masks and gloves.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
People are afraid of AIDS because they don't know much
about it except that it kills. So when a person
contracts the disease.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
He often finds people try to get away from him
or to get rid.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Of him, you know, kind of panicked newspaper articles Long
Island Grammar dead of AIDS, which was from her blood transfusion.
But it was easy to kind of imagine from the
headline that she was just kind of like walking around
and came too close to someone or something like that.
Speaker 17 (27:43):
This man is also a flight attendant. He does not
have AIDS, but he lost his job anyway. He has
swollen glens and that caused the airline to suspect he
might have the disease.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I am a healthy gay man and I went through
the same discrimination.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
This is really when the Christian right itself really kind
of begins to go gaga. You begin to see vigilante violence.
You have this terrible controversy over the holding of a
gay rodeo and reno in which a minister there says,
I think we should do what the Bible says and
cut their throats.
Speaker 24 (28:18):
Well, you could have typhoid Mary's.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
They are violating the laws of nature, and nature is
striking back.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
And it's very easy to conclude if you're a normal
American reading normal newspapers and not just the Christian right
that we have this kind of invasion of the body snatchers,
invisible population among us that might even devour the earth.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
By the time Rok Hudson made his appearance with Doris
Day in the middle of nineteen eighty five, thirteen thousand
Americans have been diagnosed with AIDS. More than half of
them had died. Meanwhile, the President was facing increased pressure
from Congress to act more decisively against the disease. Some
of that pressure was coming from lawmakers on the right,
(29:03):
who seemed to be more worried about protecting the healthy
from the sick than about providing additional funding for AIDS
research or patient care.
Speaker 13 (29:10):
We want to identify every person who's a carrier, and
we want to be open and honest about this disease
before it becomes a really serious national health threat.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Some of Reagan's conservative allies tried to convince the president
to increase testing and surveillance and to ban people with
HIV from entering the country.
Speaker 24 (29:26):
But more controversial are proposals to find and segregate those
exposed to AIDS, to prohibit those with AIDS from working
in healthcare, to make it a felony for those in
an aide's high risk group, to knowingly donate blood, and
to prohibit children with AIDS from attending school.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
The people pushing these policies felt like they had a
potential ally in the administration who's well positioned to help
their cause Surgeon General see Effett Coup.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
When AIDS begins to raise up as a public is shoe,
the Christian right actually reaches out to the Vagan administration
and says, why aren't you letting see if Ittt Coops
speak out on this issue, assuming that he's going to
be an ally of theirs, and as a matter of fact,
as he writes in his memoir, he'd been very explicitly
(30:17):
instructed that he wasn't to say a word about AIDS.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
In response to growing fear of AIDS transmission among the
general public and mounting criticism from multiple sides about the
lack of federal response, the White House decided it was
time for the President to say something, so in September
of nineteen eighty five, the Press Office started putting together
some talking points, But when a copy of the President's
(30:41):
briefing was circulated to the White House Council's Office for review,
a lawyer named John Roberts, suggested several passages be taken
out or changed. In a memo, Roberts and a colleague
flagged a talking point that said scientists didn't think AIDS
could be transmitted through casual or routine contact. Their legal
opinion was that the president should not be taking a
(31:04):
position on quote a disputed scientific issue. Years later, Roberts
explained his reasoning during his confirmation hearing to become Chief
Justice of the US Supreme Court.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I have to remember this was at the very beginning
of the AIDS coming into public consciousness, and I was
just concerned that the President not be giving out medical
statements if people weren't absolutely sure that.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
It was correct.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
In any event, the talking point about casual contact was
removed at the end of the day. Who could argue
with going above and beyond to protect America's kids?
Speaker 5 (31:45):
What do you need? Please be seated? I have a
statement here.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
At a press conference on September seventeenth, nineteen eighty five,
Reagan defended his administration's response to the AIDS crisis and
called it a top priority.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
It will amount to over half a billion dollars that
we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to
what I'm sure other medical groups are doing this.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
It was the first time Reagan had ever said the
word AIDS in public, four years after the first cases
emerged and two years after his press secretary first said
he was aware of it. Then Reagan said something that
made public health experts wins. When it came to the
school's issue, the President said he could understand both sides.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
I also have compassionate and I think we all do
for the child that has this and doesn't know and
can't have it explained to him, why somehow he is
now an outcast and can no longer associate with his
playmates and schoolmates. On the other hand, I can understand
the problem of the parents. It is true that some
medical sources have said that this cannot be communicated in
(32:54):
any way other than the ones we already know in
which would not involve a child being in the school.
And yet medicine has not come forth unequivocally and said
this we know for effect that it is safe, and
until they do.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
In truth, doctors had come forth and said exactly that.
But the president's comment gave anyone who wanted it permission
to be afraid. During the summer of nineteen eighty five,
Rock Hudson's health was rapidly deteriorating. Days after his appearance
(33:30):
with Doris Day in California, he flew back to Paris,
hoping to receive another transfusion of the experimental drug HPA
twenty three. Hudson had booked a room at the Ritz Carlton.
When he got there, he collapsed in the lobby and
was rushed to the American Hospital outside of Paris. The
scene made headlines around the world.
Speaker 16 (33:49):
Just what is wrong with Rock Hudson? The nature of
his illness has become clouded in mystery and confusion. Yesterday
it was reported that Hudson had liver cancer and possibly A's,
but today the hospital denied the cancer story and said
nothing about the A's rumor.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Hudson's pr rep, who had accompanied him to the hospital,
insisted that everything was fine and he looks wonderful.
Speaker 4 (34:09):
I must say, you guess you did?
Speaker 1 (34:13):
He said, how are you?
Speaker 15 (34:14):
I said, I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Tomorrow, nearly four thousand miles away in Washington, d c
Ronald Reagan watched the coverage as he himself recuperated from
cancer surgery. It was then that he asked his physician
to explain AIDS to him for the very first time.
Behind the scenes, Rock Hudson's handlers were desperate. They tried
(34:40):
to get their client transferred to a French military hospital,
where they believed he'd be able to get his experimental
drug treatment, but because he was not a French citizen,
Hudson was denied the transfer by the commanding General. Hudson's
agent thought that if the White House intervened, the military
hospital in France would admit his client. Agents sent an
urgent telegram to Nancy Reagan saying that Hudson's life could
(35:03):
depend on getting into the hospital, but the First Lady
declined to intervene on Hudson's behalf, though the President did
call him that day to wish him well. In the end,
it turned out that Hudson was too sick to receive
the HPA twenty three treatments anyway, so his team scrambled
(35:24):
to get him back home. And someone called Hudson's doctor,
Michael Gottlieb.
Speaker 13 (35:28):
And he said, we're making arrangements for Rock to come
back to you. We've chartered this seven forty seven. They've
pulled out all the seats from the first class compartment
and they have bolted in a hospital bed and he's
going to be flying back to Los Angeles at a
cost of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
When Hudson's plane landed in Los Angeles, hundreds of reporters
were there waiting for him.
Speaker 24 (35:52):
In the darkness before dawn. On Air France jumbo jet
arrived in Los Angeles, bringing Rock Hudson home for what
maybe the last time.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Cameramen with telescopic lenses were perched on rooftops at the airport.
They filmed Hudson as he was wheeled to a helicopter,
which took off for UCLA Medical Center. At this point,
Michael Gottlieb had been seeing Hudson in secret for over
a year. Now it looked like the secret was about
to come out.
Speaker 13 (36:20):
It's two or three in the morning, and I'm standing
on the roof waiting for him, and the skies are
a wash. In helicopters, there's news crews flying back and forth,
and so it was a dramatic moment, not knowing what
his condition's going to be, but knowing that you're going
to have to bring out the full court press if
(36:40):
he's going to survive, and the first time I look
at him, I just see he's mortally ill.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Hudson was delirious. Gottlieb got him hooked up to an
IV and treated his nu missists pneumonia with antibiotics. When
Hudson was lucid, Gottlieb knew that it was time for
the conversation.
Speaker 13 (37:02):
I'm getting flooded with calls from the press or somehow
coming through to my office, and so then I have
a conversation with Rock. The news media are clamoring for information.
What do you think I should do? And sitting by
his bedside, you know, we have a conversation about the
fact that in Paris they made an announcement that you
had aids. What do you want me to do here?
(37:25):
Do you want me to confirm that? And he says, look,
if it will do some good, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
With the green light from Hudson, UCLA Medical Center alerted
the media that there would be a press conference.
Speaker 13 (37:36):
It's kind of a pivotal moment. And I'm an ordinary guy.
I'm thrust in the limelight, not exactly by choice. I'm
a guy who expected to spend his life with patients
and in the lab and not a public figure. Am
I ready for prime time? I didn't train for prime time?
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Given how famous rock Hudson was, the announcement was staged
in a way that, to Gottlieb, seemed conspicuously muted.
Speaker 13 (38:05):
So they organized a press conference in the auditorium of
the Neuropsychiatric Institute, which is on Westwood Boulevard. It's kind
of out of the way. We're not doing a press
conference in front of the medical center like other hospitals
would do for acceptable diseases. In this instance, they send
out this junior professor, Michael Gottlieb, to break the news
(38:27):
without anyone being there to provide moral or other support.
Speaker 10 (38:32):
Let me introduce rock Cousin's attending physician at UCLA, doctor
Michael Gottlieb, who is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in
Immunology in the UCLA School of Medicine.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Finally, the national media was clamoring for information about AIDS,
but instead of taking the opportunity to educate the public
or answer questions, all Gottlieb felt he could do was
read a short statement.
Speaker 22 (39:01):
Rock Hudson was transferred from the American Hospital in Paris
to the UCLA Medical Center early today, mister Hudson is
being evaluated and treated for complications of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Speaker 13 (39:16):
And it's a very brief statement which I read, and
then we didn't take questions. Sorry, I cannot do.
Speaker 22 (39:25):
That at this time.
Speaker 13 (39:27):
It's a total embarrassment because you've invited the press to
hear some news of substance, and I felt constrained. I
felt as if there was a lot to say with
regards to Rock Hudson, with regards to AIDS, and it
was an opportunity that was missed.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Nevertheless, the announcement had an immediate seismic impact.
Speaker 21 (39:52):
Hudson, in becoming the first celebrity to have a publicly
acknowledged case of age, has brought a new round of
attention to the fatal disease.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Now that a household name had gotten sick, America's attention
was on AIDS. As journalist Randy Schiltz later wrote, there
were two clear phases to the disease in the United States.
There was AIDS before Rock Hudson, and AIDS after the.
Speaker 8 (40:15):
Fact that Rock Hudson has AIDS.
Speaker 13 (40:18):
Is that going to help public awareness? Now? We would hope.
Speaker 22 (40:21):
That people across the country would take note and.
Speaker 20 (40:24):
Perhaps stimulate their interest to find out more about the disease.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
The announcement provoked two seemingly contradictory reactions. First, that Hudson's
diagnosis was tantamount to coming out as gay. That even
though Gottlieb hadn't said anything about Hudson's private life, the
rumors that had circulated about him were all but confirmed. Second,
the news that Rock Hudson had AIDS meant that it
wasn't just a gay disease after all. The convoluted logic
(40:51):
of this response was rooted in the belief that Hudson,
as a beloved public figure, was somehow different from other
gay people. Among AIDS activists, the announcement was received with
a measure of ambivalence. There's lots of sympathy in the
gay community for Rock Hudson, said one activist, but also
some annoyance too that it takes a famous person to
call the public's attention to this illness. After Hudson's disclosure,
(41:15):
AIDS started to become a popular cause among many Hollywood
A listers. At a star studded gala in Beverly Hills
that September, Hudson's friends raised more than one million dollars
for AIDS research.
Speaker 20 (41:26):
Hudson sent a statement read by actor Burt Lancaster.
Speaker 21 (41:29):
I'm not happy that I have AIDS, but if that
is helping others, I can at least know that my
own misfortune has had some positive work.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Just two weeks later, Rock Hudson was dead.
Speaker 14 (41:49):
The carner arrived at Hudson's home in bel Air at
ten forty five this morning. As friends gathered and emotions
ran high. News cameras were kept at a distance as
the body was moved into the Corner's van.
Speaker 15 (42:01):
Towels were used to cover up the windows.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Ken Jilson, the friend who had taught Hudson how to
use a movie projector, was enlisted to help plan his
memorial service. At first, he was imagining a large event
at Forest Lawn Cemetery, but then he got a call
from a friend that Elizabeth Taylor was taking things in
a different direction.
Speaker 12 (42:21):
And he goes, guess what, Elizabeth has changed the whole thing.
We're going to have a memorial in his backyard, and
we'll have Margarita's Mariachi's, and it'll be a very upbeat
thing in the backyard with one hundred people I'll send
telegrams to people, and that's what it will be.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
The Margherita's and Mariachi Memorial was set up in Hudson's
backyard with the one hundred and eighty degree view of
Los Angeles. It was guaranteed to be a media circus,
but special precautions were taken to keep things under control.
Speaker 12 (42:54):
And they had a lot of security to try to
keep the paparazzi away, and there were helicopters, and what
they had done, which was very smart, they put a
big white tent in the backyard so that the whole
event could not be filmed from the air.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Despite these measures, a photographer dressed in camouflage tried to
climb up the side of the canyon behind the house,
and the neighbors sold access to her yard to reporters
for three hundred dollars each.
Speaker 12 (43:22):
And Carol Burnett spoke. But Carol Burnett was so destroyed
when she finished her speech, she just ran out of
the house and couldn't deal with it. And no one
could believe it that, wow, this guy fifty nine years
old is really gone.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
The New York Daily News canvassed local rock huts and
fans for their reactions to his death. Most said their
favorite of his films was Pillow Talk. Some said they
had heard rumors about him even before the announcement. Only
one said she would have nothing to do with the
man anymore. I think about him the way he is
on the screen, said one woman. That will always be
Rock Hudson. Hudson was approximately the ten thousandth person with
(44:13):
AIDS to die in the United States. He was the
first to be commemorated with an official statement from the
White House. Nancy and I are saddened by the news
of Rock Hudson's death. Reagan said he will be remembered
for his humanity, his sympathetic spirit, and well deserved reputation
for kindness. The statement studiously avoided any mention of how
(44:34):
or why Hudson had died. Still, Hudson's death had an
immediate impact on national AIDS funding. Literally within hours of
his death.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
And on hearing of his death, the House of Representatives
agreed to double the amount of AIDS funds for research
next year. There will now be one hundred and ninety
million dollars.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
According to an analysis by The Los Angeles Times, Media
coverage of AIDS more than tripled in the six months
after Hudson's death. At the same time, the controversy over
kids with AIDS attending school was continuing to heat up.
The most prominent case involved a name you may have
heard before.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
These people are raising money and signing petitions in a
fight to keep Ryan White out of their school.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Ryan White was thirteen years old. He had contracted HIV
through the Factor eight he used to manage his humophilia.
Many of his classmate's parents wanted him banned from attending school.
Speaker 21 (45:30):
He has a spill on a table, a chair, something,
Your daughter comes in.
Speaker 22 (45:33):
They say they wipe, but your daughter comes in touches it.
Speaker 14 (45:36):
Hey, what's to say she is not going to get it.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
The attention garnered by Rock Hudson and Ryan White led
to increased awareness of AIDS and how it could be prevented,
but it also generated a lot of fear and misinformation
and knew so called safety measures that were not based
in science. In Indiana, Ryan White's school forced him to
use a separate bathroom and disposable utensils. In Hollywood, concerns
(46:01):
about Rock Hudson's Dynasty kissing scene with Linda Evans led
to a panic about possible transmission through saliva. The Screen
Actors Guild even created new rules around open mouthed kissing
scenes for its members.
Speaker 24 (46:14):
Caution is also advocated by Screen Actors Guild president ed Asna.
Speaker 4 (46:18):
How wonderful be if everybody stopped kissing on film until
we know more about this horrible disease.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Rock Hudson was a beloved movie star and Ryan White
was an innocent kid. What they had in common was
that neither of them fit the stereotypes widely associated with
AIDS and homosexuality. Hudson and White made it clear that
AIDS could happen to anyone. In so doing, they helped
turn the disease into a cause among a lot of
(46:45):
influential people.
Speaker 6 (46:47):
This songs for.
Speaker 12 (46:51):
Elton.
Speaker 25 (46:51):
John dedicated a song to him at Farm Made four,
while Donald Trump and Michael Jackson visited his mother yesterday.
Speaker 16 (46:57):
And consoled her.
Speaker 25 (46:58):
Hollywood loved Ryan and White. The brave young man who
battled that dread disease and the infectious prejudice surrounding it,
inspired stars around the world.
Speaker 6 (47:09):
His story.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
About four months after Rock Hudson's death, Reagan asked Surgeon
General see Everett Coop to prepare a formal report on
the AIDS epidemic. The President was finally giving Coop the
go ahead to speak to the American people about AIDS,
but when it came to federal funding, Reagan was less
inclined to change his tune. Here again is historian Rick Pearlstein.
Speaker 6 (47:32):
And this is right around the times. You know, he's
basically proposing his budget, and the headline in newsday is
sharp cuts and AIDS funding socked. And for fiscal nineteen
eighty seven, he proposed spending about thirteen percent less than
the original nineteen eighty six level. So he's simultaneously calling
for cuts and ordering a major government report on AIDS.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Coop had spent years following White House guidance not to
discuss AIDS publicly. Many of his servative allies expected that
his report would be similarly restrained, but much to their surprise,
that was not at all what Coop had in mind.
Speaker 6 (48:11):
He spends nights and weekends at a stand up desk
in the basement of his townhouse, poring over every version,
carefully choosing every word. Anthony Fauci reviewed every draft, surely
with his earlier gaff right very much on his mind.
Fauci was quoted in the post, I was encouraging him
to push it to the limit of what he could
get away with.
Speaker 3 (48:30):
The nation's most senior medical official has added his voice
to the increasingly vocal concern about AIDS.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
When Coop released his report in October of nineteen eighty six,
he appeared to put his role as a public health
official ahead of any political loyalties. He wrote that the
country was fighting a disease, not people, and delivered information
about the epidemic in extraordinarily plain language.
Speaker 6 (48:52):
He talks about seamen. He mentions anal sex right. He
talks about unprotected sex. He talks about condoms. He says
that sexual education and as frank as possible, should begin
an early childhood.
Speaker 4 (49:03):
We're talking about death here. We're talking about death now.
Many people, especially our youth, are not receiving information that
is vital to their future health and well being because
of our reticence in dealing with the subjects of sex,
sexual practices, and homosexuality.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
Coop says he's not advocating avoiding specific lifestyles.
Speaker 4 (49:25):
If you are going to indulge in certain types of
sexual activity, there are ways to protect yourself.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
Coop was now one of the country's most prominent advocates
for comprehensive sex education. If his explicit and straightforward approach
thrilled many AIDS experts protectors, it also infuriated many White
House officials who are wary of alienating Reagan's base.
Speaker 6 (49:45):
This kind of civil war is breaking out over see
every Cooper.
Speaker 16 (49:48):
Here's doctor Coop fronting for the homosexual lobby, and we
would like to see him dismissed as a public statement
by President Reagan.
Speaker 6 (49:59):
There is growth sentiment in the White House that Reagan
should deliver a major address to the nation about AIDS.
Speaker 1 (50:04):
If the President were to go on TV and endorse
Coop's ideas about AIDS prevention, he could go a long
way towards changing cultural norms about condoms and sex education.
But Gary Bauer, one of the President's top domestic policy advisors,
thought that idea was ridiculous and beneath the office of
the president.
Speaker 6 (50:23):
Quote, I'm not sure I want to take the president
on nationwide TV saying well, the only two ways to
avoid AIDS are abstinence and masturbation. I mean, there are
some things that are presidential in things that are not.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
On the whole Reagan took Gary Bauer's advice. Though he
did start referring to AIDS as the number one public
health priority of his administration, he did not speak about
condoms or attempt to turn his advisors against abstinence only education. Meanwhile,
Rock Hudson's death had further multiplied private AIDS fundraising. In
(50:56):
his will, Hudson had designated two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars to start an AIDS foundation, and his doctor, Michael Gottlieb,
co founded that organization with a group that included some
of Hudson's Hollywood friends. The foundation AMPHAR became the country's
leading AIDS charity. AMPHAR planned its first major benefit to
take place in Washington, d C. In May of nineteen
(51:18):
eighty seven. Michael Gottlieb went to Washington to attend the
event alongside Elizabeth Taylor.
Speaker 13 (51:24):
The interesting thing to me was we'd come into these
senators chambers and she would introduce me as the discoverer
of AIDS, and they would pay no attention to me whatsoever.
Elizabeth would be all gussied up and totally made up,
and her hair perfect and wearing her jewels, and they
just ate it up.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Before the event, Taylor communicated privately with the President an
old friend from Hollywood, and convinced him to give the
keynote address. The knight of the gala May thirty first,
nineteen eighty seven was warm and brief. Forty four thousand
Americans have been diagnosed with AIDS and nearly twenty seven
(52:06):
thousand had died. The event was set up in a
big tent that was decorated with red and pink flowers.
Speaker 4 (52:12):
Gentlemen, the President of the United States and Missus.
Speaker 5 (52:15):
Reagan, I want to talk tonight about the disease that
has brought us all together. It has been talked about,
and I'm going to continue the The poet W. H.
Auden said that the true men of action in our
times are not the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists.
(52:38):
I believe that's especially true when it comes to the
AIDS epidemic.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Reagan's speechwriter had met with public health experts and political
advisors while he crafted the address. Safe and at first,
the President's remarks seem to closely track with the medical
community's advice.
Speaker 5 (52:53):
America faces a disease that is fatal and spreading, and
this calls for urgency, not panic. It calls for compassion
not blamed. We're still learning about how AIDS is transmitted.
But experts tell us you don't get it from telephones
or swimming pools or drinking fountains. You don't get it
from shaking hands or sitting on a bus or anywhere
(53:15):
else for that matter. As dangerous and deadly as AIDS is,
many of the fears surrounding it are unfounded. These fears
are based on ignorance.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Michael Gottlieb listened to these words with relief and satisfaction.
Speaker 13 (53:29):
I was excited, but then he gives you a kick
in that. You know what.
Speaker 1 (53:33):
The speech took a turn about three quarters of the
way through.
Speaker 13 (53:36):
That same speech, announce the travel ban against people with HIV.
Speaker 5 (53:42):
I've also asked HHS to add the AIDS virus to
the list of contagious diseases for which immigrants and aliens
seeking permanent residents in the United States can be denied entry.
They are presently entry for.
Speaker 13 (54:01):
Other inciting a great deal of displeasure among the crowd.
Speaker 5 (54:04):
Let me turn to what the States can.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
Do once again. Reagan seemed to be siding with the
most reactionary voices in his administration for the AIDS activists
in the room. It was enraging to hear the President
talk about acceptance and compassion and keeping people with AIDS
out of the country. In the same breath, the President
(54:27):
gave his first major speech on the subject to night.
Speaker 26 (54:30):
One that drew both cheers and jeers. The proposals, which
were championed by conservative factions in the administration, were unpopular
with many in the audience. Demonstrators outside marched in memory
of those who died of AIDS and called for more
research money We.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
Got the The activists inside the amphar benefit who booed
Reagan made national news, as did the hundreds of protesters
chanting and lighting candles outside. The groups that had begun
in New York, San Francisco and across the country were
now larger, bolder, and more professionalized. They were tired of
(55:07):
waiting years for incremental political developments. They were tired of
waiting years for the results of drug trials that were
conducted in complete secrecy. They were not going to wait anymore.
Speaker 15 (55:40):
Now that the summer is come and gone, I'll say goodbye.
Now that the winter is coming on, I'll say goodbye.
I'm not the first man or.
Speaker 1 (55:56):
The last on the next episode of Fiasco, a new
activist or organization forms and mounts a revolutionary fight for
access to experimental drugs.
Speaker 6 (56:05):
We've tried to be good little boys and girls.
Speaker 26 (56:07):
We've tried to work within the system.
Speaker 13 (56:10):
We just want to.
Speaker 6 (56:11):
Raise the issues.
Speaker 4 (56:12):
We are dying.
Speaker 15 (56:16):
For every star that falls to work on Lew and
Low for every Dream.
Speaker 1 (56:24):
Fiasco is presented by Audible Originals and Prologue Projects. The
show is produced by Andrew Parsons, Sam Graham, Felsen, Madewin, Kaplan,
Ulla Colpa, and me Leon Nafock. Our researcher is Francis Carr.
Editorial support from Jessica Miller and Nora waswas archival research
by Michelle Sullivan. The vice president of Audible Studios is
(56:46):
Mike Charzik. The editor in chief for Audible Originals is
David Blum. This season's music is composed by Edith Mudge.
Additional music by Nick Sylvester of Godmode, Billy libby Joel Saint,
Julian and Danning, Noah Heckt and Joe Valley. Our theme
song is by Spatial Relations. Our credit song this week
(57:07):
is I'll Say Goodbye by Rock Hudson. You also heard
Could I Leave You. Performed by Carol Burnett. Music licensing
courtesy of Anthony Roman. Audio mix by Erica Wong, with
additional support from Selina Urabe. Our artwork is designed by
Teddy Blanks at Chips and y Thanks to the Vanderbilt
Television Archive. Additional footage courtesy of ABC seven Los Angeles.
(57:30):
Special thanks to Peter Yass and Dan Works. Thanks for listening,
See you next week.
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