posted 02-06-2006 12:28 PM               

What is the origin of this story? One suspects that it comes from the movie version of The Right Stuff and the oft-repeated bit of dialogue from mission control that Glenn was "go - at least seven orbits." As he starts his third orbit, Glenn is told to begin his retrofire sequence and come down. He asks "Only three orbits?" and is told yes, only three orbits. The movie clearly implies that Glenn's mission was cut short from seven orbits to only three.

posted 12-05-2007 06:52 AM               

Disk one is the standard movie with no extras (they probably wouldn't fit with as long as the film is). But disk two has some nice stuff on it. They have interviews with Gordo Cooper (might be his last TV interview ever) and I think Schirra and Carpenter are on it as well. But there is also a full length documentary on it, "John Glenn, American Hero" which came out after STS-98. It has some nice footage of Glenn during training and the shuttle mission itself.

posted 12-15-2007 03:22 PM               

The writer Tom Wolfe was there with photographer Annie Liebowitz to write the four-part story for Rolling Stone magazine that was the precursor of "The Right Stuff".

posted 07-31-2008 06:39 PM               

Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff is the Chicago Public Library's Fall 2008 One Book, One Chicago Selection

Chicago Public Library Board of Directors President Jayne Carr Thompson announced today that The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe will be the 15th selection for Chicago's citywide book club, One Book, One Chicago. The book, first published in 1979, tells the remarkable story of Project Mercury, the United States' first attempt to send a man into space, and the lives of the pilots at the center of the attention. The nonfiction account received the American Book Award that year and was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

"As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the creation of the NASA and the kickoff of Science Chicago, a year-long celebration of science, this book is a perfect choice to remind us how much can be achieved by those with the vision and the courage to take on a challenge such as literally 'shooting for the moon'," Thompson said in remarks at a press event at the Harold Washington Library Center. "We hope all Chicagoans will enjoy reading this compelling, yet human, account of the men who first ventured into space. We are excited to highlight Tom Wolfe's work of 'new journalism'" and proud to be presenting him with the Carl Sandburg Literary Award at the Chicago Public Library Foundation's dinner in October."

Throughout its 135-year history, the Chicago Public Library (CPL) has always encouraged Chicagoans of all ages to make reading a priority. One Book, One Chicago began in the fall of 2001, to encourage all Chicagoans to read the same book at the same time, and discuss a great piece of literature with friends and neighbors. CPL librarians have created resource guides and will conduct book discussions across the city in libraries, colleges and cultural institutions. One Book, One Chicago can be experienced in virtually every Chicago neighborhood throughout October. This includes film screenings, lectures, and panel discussions at the Adler Planetarium, Museum of Science and Industry, Steppenwolf Theatre and Beverly Arts Center.

August events
To kickoff the celebration this summer, the Motorola Foundation and the Illinois Science Council are joining with the Chicago Public Library and the Mayor's Office of Special Events to offer a free screening of the movie version of The Right Stuff in Grant Park on Thursday, August 14 at 8 p.m. The screening serves as an unofficial start of the Chicago Air & Water Show, which begins the next day. The Library will be present at North Avenue Beach during the Air & Water Show, handing out copies of the book as well as the resource guide and bookmarks.

On display throughout the Harold Washington Library Center through November 1 is an exhibit entitled "The Right Stuff - X-Vehicles and Spacecraft: Then and Now." With rarely-seen images and objects loaned by the Boeing Corporation, the Motorola Foundation and NASA, this exhibit gives readers of the book and other aerospace enthusiasts a chance to see photographs, technical drawings and renderings of X-vehicles and space vehicles from The Right Stuff era and beyond. The viewer gets a sense of the drama, excitement and ingenuity that characterized our country's earliest forays into space.

October events
The Library is partnering with the Adler Planetarium, the Museum of Science & Industry and Steppenwolf Theatre to present a variety of programs in October exploring not only the race to space and the real lives of the astronauts, but also Tom Wolfe's part in the development of the "new journalism" form of non-fiction writing. The author himself will appear at the Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington Library Center on October 16, for a conversation about his work with journalist Carol Marin.

DePaul University will once again offer a ten-week, graduate level course to explore the book beginning September 10. For more information, including course tuition, visit the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program Web site or call (773) 325-7839.

Additionally, Harold Washington College and Shimer College, located on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, will hold various public programs inspired by The Right Stuff and a series of book discussions. One Book, One Chicago discussions will also take place at select Barnes and Noble locations, Literacy Chicago, Gerber/Hart Library, Wright College and Loyola University. Nearly 2,000 copies of The Right Stuff and dozens of DVDs are available at Chicago Public Library locations. At seven Chicago Public Library branches, patrons can check out a Book Club in a Bag which contains eight copies of the novel and resource guides. One Book, One Chicago programs are open to the public and free of charge. For an up-to-date schedule of events, call (312) 747-8191 or visit chicagopubliclibrary.org.

The Fall 2008 One Book, One Chicago is presented by the Chicago Public Library, the Chicago Public Library Foundation, the Motorola Foundation and Boeing Corporation. Additional support is provided by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Public Radio, DePaul University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Corbis and Science Chicago.

One Book, One Chicago selections have been To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Night by Elie Wiesel, My Antonia by Willa Cather, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, The Coast of Chicago by Stuart Dybek, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, The Ox- Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin, The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler.

Now celebrating its 135th year, the Chicago Public Library continues to encourage lifelong learning by welcoming all people and offering equal access to information, entertainment and knowledge through materials, programs and cutting-edge technology.

The Chicago Public Library is comprised of the Harold Washington Library Center, two regional libraries and 76 neighborhood branches. All locations provide free access to a rich collection of books, DVDs, audio books and music; the Internet and WiFi; sophisticated research databases, many of which can be accessed from a home or office computer; newspapers and magazines; and continue to serve as cultural centers, presenting the highest quality author discussions, exhibits and programs for children, teens and adults.

The Harold Washington Library Center, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library and Conrad Sulzer Regional Library are open 7 days a week, the remaining 76 branch libraries are open 6 days a week and patrons can access all of the libraries ' collections online 24 hours a day. For more information, please visit the website or call the Chicago Public Library Press Office at (312) 747-4050.

posted 08-05-2008 07:03 PM               

(It's a wonderful event being planned by Chicago, and I am always glad to be able to discuss some of the literary and historical issues the book brings up.)

But I snipped this text from one of Dwayne's very astute comments and thought I'd respond below, sort of to buttress his point:

quote:

---

On a slightly different note, I remember that sometime after The Right Stuff and Chuck Yeager's autobiography came out, a military test pilot published a memoir that was an attempt to refute the image of the macho test pilot portrayed in those books. I don't remember the details, but do remember reading that the guy argued that military test pilots were in many ways very methodical, careful engineers who considered themselves to be part of a team. It was a self-effacing argument that test pilots were not brave heroes, but merely a part of a much bigger group of people working collectively to build better airplanes. [emphasis mine]

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"Thoroughness and mechanical aptitude," he decided halfway through his tour in Guam, were part of his "peculiar combination of talents." Note the self-effacing pride, typical of this kind of aviator: "I have a lot yet to learn about flying," he wrote to his wife, Rene, "but I know the P2V."

It's very OCD. It's very serious about the flying machine, and it's very much about the team--of mechanics and ordnance and petty chiefs and aviators that, working together methodically and seriously, make their machines safe to fly and to fight. This saves lives. It's an ethic. Show-offs and chest-thumpers and hotheads are shunned (p. 128, For Spacious Skies). That was my sense anyway, from the war correspondence.

About trash-talking about Carpenter. It happens in homogenous and highly competitive groups of macho guys. You all look kinda the same. You all fly the same planes. So what do you do? You work the differences.

Forget that Carpenter was TPS 13 at Patuxent in the top third of his class. Dismiss his work flying single-engine jet aircraft. You work the differences. And the difference is that Carpenter came to Patuxent straight from patrol planes. He's a rival in Project Mercury, so what do you do? You call him a patrol plane pilot. And still the guy unaccountably snags the country's second manned orbital flight. More trash talk ensues.

I'd like to return to Tom Wolfe, with his doctorate from Yale in American studies and his central intellectual fascination with how American men at the tops of their fields (Wall Street or NASA) strive in hyper-competitive and highly visible environments.

posted 08-08-2008 11:27 AM               

I'm an Aerospace Engineer that has also test flown a small hand full of Experimental airplanes. Do I have the Right stuff? Maybe, but deep down, probably not. Do modern astronauts have the Right Stuff? Maybe, but they are not flying unproven vehicles, boosters that blow up more often than some of us get paid, and everything that is designed by nerds with pencils and slide rules.

TRS tells a story of a different time. One that many people forgot or never knew about. I make it a point to watch it every few years with someone that doesn't know the story. I always ask for impressions after and the response is alwasy basically the same:

"Those guys had big ones"

Mission accomplished!

posted 08-13-2008 01:55 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe will be the 15th selection for Chicago's citywide book club, One Book, One Chicago... The Library is partnering with the Adler Planetarium.

---

posted 08-19-2008 01:06 PM               

The Library is partnering with the Adler Planetarium, the Museum of Science & Industry and Steppenwolf Theatre to present a variety of programs in October exploring not only the race to space and the real lives of the astronauts, but also Tom Wolfe's part in the development of the "new journalism" form of non-fiction writing.

posted 08-16-2010 02:52 PM               

As far as I can tell it is not factually inaccurate; sure those of us who know the events in real detail may disagree with the way some of them are expressed, but aren't those things we are debating on various threads even to this day? How is the film any less accurate than say 'Zulu' or 'Midway' or 'Gettysbury' where I am sure military historians could point out many inaccuracies?

The film is long, but not overly long, and I think it portrays reasonably well the whole ethos of the time. I also think the central characters are well cast; Ed Harris is excellent as John Glenn, Scott Glenn is a great Alan Shepard, and Sam Shepard is a good Chuck Yeager (just a shame the surnames couldn't all line up!). Not sure about Dennis Quaid as Gordo but the main three characters are good.

I know many of you have said in the past that the astronauts themselves have been critical of the film and I would be interested in any more details anyone can share. Is it just because they, as indeed we, are so close and passionate about this story that we feel so strongly about it, or is there something else?

Setting apart our interest in the events the film portrays, what actually makes 'The Right Stuff' a bad film? Over to you...

Editor's note: Threads merged.

posted 08-16-2010 05:21 PM               

Broadly speaking, I look at the movie in much the same way other people closer to the story it tells tend to think of it: As an entertaining, well-acted, outstanding technical exercise in filmmaking that is, to say the least, problematic in its portrayal of history. And I'd posit that most of their problem with it stems from it's recounting of one specific event: Gus Grissom, Liberty Bell 7, and the blown hatch.

Tom Wolfe, besides being one of the great prose stylists in modern American literature, was also a journalist who took his responsibility to the truth very seriously. My impression has always been that the astronauts and other figures central to the dawn of the first Space Age portrayed in Wolfe's book have for the most part believed that he did right by their story, and in the particular case of Gus Grissom, that Wolfe fairly addressed the blown-hatch controversy and the question of Grissom's role in it.

The movie was another matter. If you watched The Right Stuff without knowing anything about the actual history depicted, you could be forgiven for coming away from it thinking that Grissom was an embittered, incompetent loser instead of the man that NASA chose to command the subsequent first crewed flights of both Gemini and Apollo. That, compounded by the fact that he was no longer alive to defend his professional reputation, were, I believe, central to the bitterness that his colleagues felt about his screen portrayal in The Right Stuff.

posted 08-16-2010 09:53 PM               

When it was released in the early '80's there were alot of bad things happening in the world and the U.S. was in the middle of the protracted Cold War with the Soviets. A patriotic story like this played very well in that political climate.

I remember as a teenager sitting in the theater watching it for the first time. In the scene when the military official hangs up the phone as the reporter tries to get word out on Yeager's supersonic flight, he explains that they might not want the Russians to know about it.

The reporter's reply of "The Russians? They're our allies!" brought a nervous laughter throughout the audience. Today, that scene passes without even a hint of anything amiss, but I still chuckle at the thought of how times have changed (again).

posted 08-17-2010 06:33 AM               

I wish Carpenter's and Schirra's roles (and orbital flights) could have been expanded, but I understand the time constraints of a commercial film.

There have been very few movies in my lifetime that I have enjoyed as much as TRS. I watch it again every couple of years and I like it a little more with each viewing.

posted 08-17-2010 09:43 AM               

As an aside when I was in LA in January for the Excellence in Aviation award, I found a 1st edition 1st printing hard cover of TRS in a used book store.

Bob Cardenas kindly signed it at the event, and I added Joe Kittinger recently. I wanted to add Bob Hoover but someone there (who reads these postings) ruined it by handing him a large stack of items to sign.

Will I add Yeager? Only if I can add him for free.

posted 08-17-2010 10:04 AM               

Any well done story has tension - highs and lows. In my opinion, the Liberty Bell story told us unexplained things happen, because we make mistakes, are scared, or because "it just blew". The scene highlighted how a fickle public could snatch "all the goodies" when it perceived the pilot was at fault. NASA clearly felt otherwise and this explains why Grissom was given Command for the first Gemini and Apollo.

posted 08-18-2010 01:21 PM               

I just finished reading it today and I have to say I thought it was a fantastic read - page-turning throughout and I just couldn't wait to get reading the next part when I put it down for a while.

It gave me a better idea of what it was like back in those days of the early sixties and the highs and lows the Original 7 went through. I was also interested to read about the attitudes of some test pilots towards the astronauts and how they felt they were essentially 'Spam in a Can' as it wouldn't take any piloting skill to fly the Mercury spacecraft and how Gordo Cooper's flight essentially dismissed this theory that the spacecraft could fly just as well with a chimpanzee.

The trials and tribulations of the astronaut wives was also interesting and they're relationships with the press - I also thought it was funny how Rene Carpenter did all she could to avoid the press during Scott's flight, playing a game of hide-and-seek with them throughout!

The book also touches numerous times on the career of Chuck Yeager and the other Edwards pilots and those bits were excellent.

The Right Stuff is in my opinion a fascinating read and also a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the early days of the US space program. 10/10

posted 08-18-2010 01:39 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by AstroAutos:
Now to see the film, or not to see the film?

---

See it, but take several grains of salt with you.

Having read the book will have you well-equipped to judge the fairness and accuracy of the personalities and events depicted, and to what extent the filmmakers did Wolfe justice.

posted 08-18-2010 02:27 PM               

The UK DVD has some decent special features including a documentary with interviews with Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and Gordon Cooper as well as a seperate documentary about John Glenn.

posted 08-18-2010 03:30 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paul23:
Personally when I watch it I tend to skip the scenes relating to Gus Grissom's flight. It leaves less of a sour taste that way.

---

posted 08-18-2010 05:18 PM               

A few years later, I watched it again, and now do so on occasion. I have to admit that I am in agreement with most people that there are parts that you have to take with a salt block worth of salt. The parts involving Grissom's flight I agree are hard to watch, especially knowing the portrayal was so off, that creative licensing rearing it's ugly head again. Same thing with the portrayal of Slick Goodlin, they made both to be persons they were not.

I, like several posts in this message group, feel that there should have been some more emphasis on Carpenter, Schirra and Slayton. Their flights (and Slayton's grounding) are not even mentioned, and Wally's great sense of humor is barely noted. I would have loved to have seen the "Mongoose" joke played out on the big screen!

Creative license, as seen in TRS and "Apollo 13", embelishes a lot of events that took place, either by stretching the truth or modifying interactions between persons, whether it be due for the audience or otherwise. It makes the movie more entertaining but sacrifices accuracy.

I must admit, one of the best parts in the movie is the scene during towards the end in the Astrodome during the "feather dancer" scene. There is just something about that scene that was so well done, it's hard to explain.

Personally, as a History teacher-to-be, if I wanted to show students a movie about the space program, I would probably go with parts of "From the Earth to the Moon". TRS may be a little dry, and most have seen "Apollo 13". Just my opinion, I could be wrong...

As for a director of a TRS remake, I dunno, that would be an interesting question. There are several I could think of that could really do a good remake.

posted 08-18-2010 05:39 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by jasonelam:
Wally's great sense of humor is barely noted.

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posted 08-18-2010 07:34 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by jasonelam:
Personally, as a History teacher-to-be, if I wanted to show students a movie about the space program, I would probably go with parts of "From the Earth to the Moon".

---

A few parts were slightly over their heads, but with strategic pauses in the video and explanations, they did seem to get the point I was hoping to convey. Then came the best part, when we took a visit a couple of days later on a Saturday morning to the National Museum of the United States Air Force to see several missiles and space capsules, including Apollo 15's Endeavor. They seemed suitably impressed at seeing the command module from "their" video, and imagining how far it had traveled and how fast it had been moving.