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The Fight: Mailer Vs. Cavett, Vidal, & Flanner

post #1 of 13
5/26/10 at 2:37am
Thread Starter 
Back in 1971 there was an episode of the Dick Cavett show wherein Cavett's guest Norman Mailer takes on the two other guests ... first Gore Vidal and then Janet Flanner ... and finally Cavett himself. Mailer attempts to insult them all ... but they keep getting the better of him ... so he's not a happy camper. Then when Mailer literally distances himself from Cavett and the other guests ... Cavett gets in two incredible punches as follows:

Cavett to Mailer: Perhaps you’d like two more chairs to contain your giant intellect.

Mailer to Cavett: I’ll take the two chairs if you will all accept finger bowls.

Cavett really hasn't a comeback ... so ...

Mailer to Cavett: Why don’t you look at your question sheet and ask a question?

Cavett to Mailer: Why don’t you fold it five ways and put it where the moon don’t shine.

In some ways the transcript and video remind me of a polite version of the discourse in CE.

More complete transcript:


Partial video:


I recall having heard about this ... but had never read the transcript or seen a tape until this evening.

Perhaps all of you know about this ... but after coming across it ... I just couldn't resist posting.
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post #2 of 13
5/26/10 at 10:08am
Flanner was a pistol. Was Mailer wearing patent leather boots?

The other great fight I remember from the early '70s:



lefty
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post #3 of 13
5/26/10 at 11:20pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lefty View Post
Flanner was a pistol.
Wasn't she ... I thought she was the winner all around.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lefty View Post
The other great fight I remember from the early '70s:
I remember that one quiet well.
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post #4 of 13
5/28/10 at 7:13am
Finally, an event that almost surpasses Whitney Houston and Serge Gainsbourg in my mind
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post #5 of 13
5/28/10 at 8:10am
It's always a treat to see a pugnacious round of personal insults. In the same vein, the homosexual film The Boys In The Band fulfills this quite well.
Quote:
Michael: You're stoned and you're late. You were supposed to arrive at this location at eight thirty dash nine o'clock. Harold: What I am Michael is a 32 year-old, ugly, pock marked Jew fairy, and if it takes me a little while to pull myself together, and if I smoke a little grass before I get up the nerve to show my face to the world, it's nobody's god damned business but my own. And how are you this evening? Michael: Show me a happy homosexual and I'll show you a gay corpse. Michael: [singing] Oh, you really gotta figger, it's tough to be a nigger, but it's tougher to be a Jew. Donald: My God, Michael! You're a charming host! Harold: Michael doesn't have charm, Donald. He has counter-charm.
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post #6 of 13
5/28/10 at 9:49am
Someone please explain the finger bowl thing.
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post #7 of 13
5/28/10 at 11:01am
I love the accents. I wish Brahmin weren't dying out.
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post #8 of 13
5/28/10 at 11:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jekyll View Post
Someone please explain the finger bowl thing.

Everyone else seemed to be in the same boat.
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post #9 of 13
5/28/10 at 4:56pm
Thread Starter 
Regarding the finger bowls ... my thinking is as follows ... Mailer would agree to accept two additional chairs to hold his "giant" intellect ... if Cavett, Vidal & Flanner would accept (small) finger bowls ... all that it would take to hold each of theirs ... from his point of view.
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post #10 of 13
5/28/10 at 5:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RSS View Post
Regarding the finger bowls ... my thinking is as follows ... Mailer would agree to accept two additional chairs to hold his "giant" intellect ... if Cavett, Vidal & Flanner would accept (small) finger bowls ... all that it would take to hold each of theirs ... from his point of view.

That's how I take it.
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post #11 of 13
5/28/10 at 5:41pm
All right, I just watched it (haven't read the entire transcript, though). Wow, was Mailer always such an ass? I've never seen or read an interview with him. Vidal almost comes off as soft and cuddly by comparison.
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post #12 of 13
5/28/10 at 5:53pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teacher View Post
All right, I just watched it (haven't read the entire transcript, though). Wow, was Mailer always such an ass? I've never seen or read an interview with him.
I always saw him as overly defensive for someone who was supposedly so very intelligent. I've heard he was a scrappy sort of fellow. And ... he did stab his wife. I'm assuming that all of the hoopla on the show was due to Vidal having written about the "3Ms" of misogyny ... Henry Miller, Normal Mailer and Charles Manson.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Teacher View Post
Vidal almost comes off as soft and cuddly by comparison.
That was my reaction ... and I have never before thought of Vidal in that way.
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post #13 of 13
5/28/10 at 5:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RSS View Post

That was my reaction ... and I have never before thought of Vidal in that way.

Exactly! There was an episode of Frasier in which Frasier was speaking about an upscale restaurant or somesuch. He said something like "Gore Vidal liked it...and he doesn't like anything!"
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