Episode 63 – 'Shooting "Midnight Cowboy"' w/ Author Glenn Frankel - a podcast by Phi Phenonenon

The podcast’s first Pulitzer Prize-winning guest! (/brag), author Glenn Frankel joins me (and, once again, Ted Haycraft) to discuss his new book, the third and final of his trilogy of cowboy movies and the historical era from which they emerged — 1969’s Best Picture Oscar winner and its only X-rated one, Midnight Cowboy. On this episode, we talk:

- why Frankel was drawn to the movie as a way to write about the homophobia and New York City of the era;
- how his book works as one of the first biographies of Cowboy novelist James Leo Herlihy (and a touching one as well);
- the nuts and bolts of researching and writing a book like this;
- and Frankel’s remarkably concise, compartmentalized, yet encyclopedic style of writing the biography of a film’s creation, life, and legacy.

Also:

- the intensity and serendipity of the chemistry between Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman;
- the story of why United Artist’s head Arthur Krim actually secretly rejected Cowboy’s initial R-rating;
- why director John Schlesinger deserves to be considered in the pantheon of Bogdanovich, Coppola, or Scorsese;
- and why, despite its Best Picture Oscar, why Midnight Cowboy is to this day an underrated film.

Glenn Frankel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of two other books on film and the eras in which they were made: The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend and High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic. A former Washington Post reporter and bureau chief in London, South Africa, and Jerusalem, his other books include Beyond the Promised Land: Jews and Arabs on the Hard Road to a New Israel and Rivonia’s Children: Three Families and the Cost of Conscience in White South Africa. You can find out more at his website.

Ted Haycraft is film critic for Evansville’s WFIE-14 and co-hosts Cinema Chat on its Midday show. He can also be found on Cinema Chat’s Facebook page.

Shooting Midnight Cowboy is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and is available online or at brick-and-mortar bookstores. Midnight Cowboy the film is currently streaming on Cinemax, available on VOD, and on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion.

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