Be-Spoke Book Interview

Zac Franzen Author

05/01/2023 Added

3 Plays

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Shari Veil, Dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, interviewed CoJMC alumna and fashion icon, Marylou Luther at her book launch party in NYC.

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[00:00:00.050]My sister used to be a fourth grade teacher,
[00:00:02.940]and I'm usually going (indistinct)
[00:00:07.272]to get everybody to quiet down, and that works every time.
[00:00:12.420]I'm Margaret Holman and I'm a proud member of this club,
[00:00:16.920]and it's wonderful to welcome you this evening.
[00:00:20.877]And I see another club member over there.
[00:00:24.540]And this is our beloved library,
[00:00:27.870]and it's really a pleasure to have you all
[00:00:30.750]with us this evening.
[00:00:33.900]I am also a proud alumna of the J-School
[00:00:40.200]as we all called it then. (audience laughing)
[00:00:44.250]And it's now the College of Journalism
[00:00:47.130]and Mass Communications,
[00:00:49.620]and I keep trying to get Sherry to...
[00:00:53.340]No. (audience laughing)
[00:00:55.860]Shorten the name.
[00:00:57.680]In any case, it's my pleasure and privilege to introduce you
[00:01:02.220]to our August author and the Dean
[00:01:07.350]of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications,
[00:01:12.570]otherwise known as the J-School.
[00:01:14.970]And Sherry has come to us from Kentucky,
[00:01:19.230]although you would never understand her accent,
[00:01:23.160]so she's lost it.
[00:01:24.990]And she has been with the college now for several years.
[00:01:30.600]She's done a remarkable job.
[00:01:33.746]We have a strategic plan for the first time,
[00:01:35.820]and I think enrollment is up by about 19%?
[00:01:41.796]16.
[00:01:42.634]16%. Okay.
[00:01:44.820]So this is Sherry Vale over here, and-
[00:01:50.447](audience clapping) (glass tapping)
[00:01:51.887](glass tapping) Sherry.
[00:01:53.280]And Sherry is going to introduce our author.
[00:01:58.410]I will invite you to get her book.
[00:02:01.543]I have been paging through it,
[00:02:05.160]and I have my copy for you to sign with her.
[00:02:08.186]And so we're going to do a little interview,
[00:02:12.240]and feel free to...
[00:02:15.930]We're not gonna go terribly long
[00:02:17.970]so you're not going to miss sitting.
[00:02:22.260]So over to Sherry.
[00:02:24.630]Thank you, Margaret.
[00:02:25.650]And thank you all for coming this evening
[00:02:27.480]for Marylou's book signing event.
[00:02:31.170]Marylou Luther-Imparato was raised
[00:02:34.380]in the bustling metropolis of Cambridge, Nebraska,
[00:02:37.620]population 1080 people. (audience laughing)
[00:02:41.040]After she studied journalism at the University of Nebraska,
[00:02:44.430]graduating in 1951, and then she began working on,
[00:02:48.360]what at that time, was called the Women's Desk.
[00:02:51.000]Whoo, (chuckles) throughout her incredible career,
[00:02:54.600]working for the Des Moines Register, Chicago Tribune,
[00:02:57.840]LA Times and called Fashion News,
[00:02:59.940]where she met a dashing young man,
[00:03:03.390]the LA Times Syndicate, International Fashion Syndicate,
[00:03:06.870]and Fashion Group International,
[00:03:08.730]where she, throughout her career,
[00:03:10.440]interviewed some of the most iconic figures in fashion
[00:03:13.620]while building a reputation as a revered fashion journalist
[00:03:16.920]with a keen eye for style.
[00:03:19.246]Marylou has won the Council of Fashion Designers
[00:03:22.110]of American's coveted Eugenia Sheppard Award
[00:03:25.050]for fashion journalism,
[00:03:26.790]and the French Ministry of Culture presented her with
[00:03:30.233]the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
[00:03:33.990]She also received the Women in Communication Award,
[00:03:37.170]and the Accessories Council
[00:03:38.970]very first Marylou Luther Award for fashion journalism.
[00:03:44.850]To celebrate her many accomplishments in the industry
[00:03:47.790]over the last 70 years, the countless journalists,
[00:03:52.230]and fashion enthusiasts she's inspired along the way,
[00:03:55.920]and to launch her beautiful book,
[00:03:58.318]I hope you, too, welcome Marylou Luther.
[00:04:01.248](audience clamoring) (glasses tapping)
[00:04:09.084]Thank you, (indistinct). (audience laughing)
[00:04:11.200]All right, Marylou, I'm very excited to learn
[00:04:14.190]more about your book.
[00:04:15.510]I've had my copy here for quite a while now.
[00:04:18.445]I ordered it as soon as it came out,
[00:04:19.890]so I was ready for you.
[00:04:22.017]Can you start at the beginning?
[00:04:23.640]What was the inspiration for this book?
[00:04:27.330]Through the years, I have interviewed a lot of designers
[00:04:31.320]and most people don't really ever
[00:04:34.770]get to talk to the designers.
[00:04:37.560]And I thought, I like to give them a voice.
[00:04:41.520]So I started collecting what I called designer comments.
[00:04:46.770]And I soon felt, well, this should be a book
[00:04:53.550]because I want to change, by giving 'em a voice,
[00:04:57.390]they've given us wardrobes.
[00:04:59.940]Now I want to give them a word-robe.
[00:05:05.032](audience laughing) I'd like to say that.
[00:05:09.480]Well, very good.
[00:05:10.920]The illustrations, of course,
[00:05:12.210]are beautiful. Oh, yeah.
[00:05:13.860]So tell me a little bit
[00:05:15.480]about bringing Ruben. Ruben on board?
[00:05:17.730]Okay, Ruben, I have known from probably
[00:05:22.650]shortly after he moved to the United States from Cuba.
[00:05:26.550]And his wife Isabelle is a fabulous designer.
[00:05:30.990]And they worked together always as a couple.
[00:05:34.710]And I always thought they were more like brother and sister.
[00:05:38.370]They even looked alike.
[00:05:41.280]And so anyway, I had known both of them forever.
[00:05:45.900]And I thought
[00:05:48.450]Ruben did a lot of illustrations
[00:05:50.430]for the fashion group each year.
[00:05:52.920]When they did the awards, he would draw each person
[00:05:57.390]who won the award, and I said to Ruben,
[00:06:00.877]"You know, maybe you've got enough illustrations
[00:06:05.070]that you've done for the fashion group
[00:06:06.600]that really you wouldn't have to work so hard doing more."
[00:06:10.560]Well, you can see, he did a lot more.
[00:06:15.600]To me, Ruben has really made the book.
[00:06:20.550]He's made it, you want to look inside.
[00:06:26.985]When I would tell him,
[00:06:27.818]"Okay now, I've got, well, Coco Chanel's book coming up
[00:06:32.970]I'm gonna send her quote over to you."
[00:06:36.030]And I would never say, "I want you to do this."
[00:06:39.270]I just gave him the quote.
[00:06:41.790]And whatever he did, he did totally by himself.
[00:06:49.500]And he's such a wonderful man to work with.
[00:06:55.667]Is there anyone here who knows Ruben?
[00:06:58.260]You do, Walter?
[00:06:59.280]I do know Ruben.
[00:07:01.308]and I know you cause you're my mother.
[00:07:03.062](audience laughing)
[00:07:07.275]So anyway,
[00:07:11.880]our first discussion happened in 2020 before the pandemic.
[00:07:18.030]And anyway, if the book is a treasure,
[00:07:25.710]it's because of Ruben's drawings, amazing.
[00:07:29.970]Well, book is also treasure
[00:07:31.470]with all the quotes that you've pulled from there
[00:07:33.240]from all those interviews.
[00:07:34.830]Do you have a favorite quote that sticks out?
[00:07:38.340]Yes, I do.
[00:07:39.390]I mean, every quote I love.
[00:07:43.410]I'm not really picking a favorite.
[00:07:45.720]I'm picking one that I think has more relevance
[00:07:48.660]to this moment in fashion history.
[00:07:51.630]I've got my back to you guys.
[00:07:53.524](audience laughing)
[00:07:55.710]Do you wanna move?
[00:07:57.233](audience laughing)
[00:07:59.848]You're happy over there?
[00:08:01.306](audience laughing)
[00:08:02.967]Okay.
[00:08:08.158]Well, what were I-
[00:08:08.991]Your favorite quote?
[00:08:11.190]Okay, the relevance of this quote
[00:08:13.740]and it came from Andre Courreges,
[00:08:16.200]a very famous French designer,
[00:08:19.320]and he told this to me in the 1970s.
[00:08:22.920]I couldn't put an exact date on it, but it was in the '70s.
[00:08:28.620]And in his quote, you're gonna read the quote.
[00:08:30.853]Sure, I can read the quote now.
[00:08:33.330]So he said, "Major trends which impact society
[00:08:36.690]for seven years or more always begin after a major calamity
[00:08:40.530]or scientific breakthrough.
[00:08:42.480]Fashion flowered in the 1930s
[00:08:44.580]following the stock market crash.
[00:08:46.650]Christian Dior's new look of 1947
[00:08:49.920]emerged after World War II.
[00:08:52.140]The youthquake of the 1960s
[00:08:54.780]followed the introduction of the pill.
[00:08:57.240]The pants revolution followed man's landing on the moon."
[00:09:01.530]And so of the question now remains is so what's next?
[00:09:06.810]Now, I bought my list of...
[00:09:11.490]But I'd love to hear any of you comment on what's next.
[00:09:19.440]I'm sure it been here.
[00:09:22.170]What has inspired these changes?
[00:09:26.670]Yes, hold on.
[00:09:34.333]Okay. I found it.
[00:09:37.860]These are some of the questions that I think
[00:09:43.037]that the pandemic...
[00:09:44.700]If that was the terrible thing that happened
[00:09:47.610]that caused us to change things in fashion,
[00:09:51.210]these are some of the questions (indistinct).
[00:09:53.839]What changed? Where are we going?
[00:09:56.040]And I think that's a question
[00:09:57.300]facing most designers still to this day,
[00:10:00.900]and I don't think it's happened yet.
[00:10:03.780]But my list would say,
[00:10:10.117]"I would like to speculate on the changes that could be."
[00:10:15.990]Okay, here it goes.
[00:10:18.367]"Seven years of one size fits all.
[00:10:22.357]Seven years of ambisextrous clothes,
[00:10:28.170]10 years of mooning around, the new reconstruction era,
[00:10:35.790]seven years of redos,
[00:10:39.300]everything everywhere all at once,
[00:10:41.700]that's the impact (indistinct),
[00:10:45.780]or Armageddon.
[00:10:48.900]Only God knows.
[00:10:50.858](audience laughing)
[00:10:52.677]But these are the why that quote means a lot to me.
[00:10:57.480]Are there any other quotes that stick out to you?
[00:10:59.880]Oh, there are. Christian Lacroix.
[00:11:04.770]I can look that one up.
[00:11:06.720]Uh-huh. Ah, there you go. 62.
[00:11:10.338]See, it has this great handy table contents up there
[00:11:12.840]where I can flick to the quotes.
[00:11:18.794]All right, this one. Okay.
[00:11:24.787]"Until the 18th century,
[00:11:26.430]each period lived in its own creation.
[00:11:28.830]There was no looking back until Louis the 16th.
[00:11:32.763]From the beginning of the 19th century,
[00:11:34.860]Fashion has taken the past as inspiration.
[00:11:37.890]In the 1910s, Paul (indistinct),
[00:11:39.874]first famous numbers were direct (indistinct).
[00:11:43.440]The late 1910s were romanticized 19th century updates.
[00:11:47.910]Christian Dior's new look was an homage to his mother.
[00:11:51.210]The 1960s began as a relaunch of the 1920s.
[00:11:55.590]And I thought it's interesting to know
[00:11:58.980]the background of of these clothes.
[00:12:01.383]What was inspiring designers in those days
[00:12:05.190]and what it is now?
[00:12:08.160]To me, the interesting thing about fashion
[00:12:10.470]has always been it's a reflection of the times.
[00:12:13.620]And, you know, we live in such a crazy time
[00:12:18.780]that we have crazy clothes to take or not.
[00:12:24.330]We also have comfortable clothes.
[00:12:26.880]We have pandemic-derived, stay-at-home clothes.
[00:12:32.580]We seem to be really in a moment of anything goes.
[00:12:35.850]That's why any time, anywhere.
[00:12:38.565](indistinct). Yes.
[00:12:42.390]Pierre Cardin.
[00:12:44.155]Cardin, okay.
[00:12:46.475]Okay, so now we can work.
[00:12:47.308]I wasn't ready for this part of it. (laughs)
[00:12:50.113]All right, (indistinct).
[00:12:58.050]I'm trying to be quicker. I wasn't ready for that.
[00:12:59.640]There we go. 16.
[00:13:04.327]"The immensity of the University..."
[00:13:06.127]"of the Universe."
[00:13:07.260]See, I'm used to saying universe.
[00:13:08.409](audience laughing)
[00:13:10.409]"The immensity of the universe
[00:13:11.670]and the microscopy of the cell, computers, and geometry.
[00:13:15.660]These are the sources of my inspiration.
[00:13:18.000]The garments I prefer are those I create
[00:13:20.670]for tomorrow's world."
[00:13:22.926]Then you can show Ruben's illustration.
[00:13:30.990]They really are inspirational, I think.
[00:13:39.450]Hopefully, you will see all the quotes
[00:13:42.180]because many of them are just my...
[00:13:45.960]Where's my friend Nicole?
[00:13:47.310]Nicole, do you have a favorite quote?
[00:13:51.135]Which one?
[00:13:52.746]Do you have a favorite?
[00:13:54.570]Nicole? Norman Norell,
[00:13:56.280]and she knows that.
[00:13:57.630]I know this one.
[00:13:58.920]It's the best.
[00:13:59.753]And then I have to say
[00:14:03.030]the very first quote in the book, Coco Chanel.
[00:14:05.978]Coco Chanel.
[00:14:06.811]So start with either one.
[00:14:08.100]Okay, I'll start with Coco Chanel
[00:14:10.054]'cause I know this has much more of a story behind it.
[00:14:13.759]I did look over it. This is a very good start.
[00:14:16.800]I should tell you, Coco Chanel always showed
[00:14:20.610]in her show (indistinct)
[00:14:23.430]And she had a stairway and she would sit
[00:14:28.500]at the top of the stairway
[00:14:30.300]and watch the clothes being modeled.
[00:14:33.930]Just so you know what might go through her mind.
[00:14:38.077]"Fashion fades. Only style remains the same.
[00:14:42.150]Only those with no memory insist on their originality."
[00:14:45.667]I love that.
[00:14:46.567]"Only those with no memory insist on their originality."
[00:14:51.021]I really like it. (audience laughing)
[00:14:54.788]Oh, there it is. My favorite part.
[00:14:56.670]Okay, "Yves Saint Laurent has excellent taste."
[00:15:00.780]Wait a minute, I don't know if they heard you say it.
[00:15:03.690]Yves Saint Laurent, she said, has excellent taste.
[00:15:07.477]"The more he copies me, the more taste he displays."
[00:15:10.395](audience laughing)
[00:15:12.257]That was so brilliant. She was fearless.
[00:15:17.340]Okay, so now this is Norman Norell's quote.
[00:15:20.947]"I was in Chicago for personal appearance
[00:15:23.340]at Marshall Field's.
[00:15:24.810]At the dinner party following my show,
[00:15:26.730]a man at my table came up to me.
[00:15:29.010]He wanted to know if I would ask the woman
[00:15:31.410]seated next to him to marry him.
[00:15:34.140]If I would tell her to say yes, he persisted.
[00:15:37.020]He knew she would say yes.
[00:15:39.090]I did, she did, and they got married a few weeks later."
[00:15:42.900]I know you know this story Marylou
[00:15:44.760]because you were that woman, and who is that man?
[00:15:49.200]Arthur Imparato, who was, at that time, even my boss.
[00:15:55.290]I married my boss.
[00:15:56.618](audience laughing)
[00:15:59.220]Oh, that's sweet.
[00:16:00.053]So you and Arthur had incredible careers
[00:16:02.670]tied to each other.
[00:16:03.540]You wanna talk a little bit about that relationship
[00:16:05.640]and how your careers worked together?
[00:16:07.980]Well, my husband was always my boss.
[00:16:13.020]In life and in work, and he was a great boss.
[00:16:18.060]He would listen and then if he didn't like it...
[00:16:21.780]His favorite quote about me was,
[00:16:26.430]and he would say this to anybody,
[00:16:28.560]he'd say, "To Marylou, long range thinking is Tuesday."
[00:16:34.092](audience laughing)
[00:16:36.360]Anyway, we were great partners, and because of us,
[00:16:39.870]we had two great children
[00:16:42.090]one of whom is here tonight.
[00:16:44.160]My son, Walter, who works for CNN
[00:16:46.590]and is as brilliant as he is nice.
[00:16:53.474]Thank you, mom. And I to have say,
[00:16:54.909]we had coffee with Walter yesterday.
[00:16:57.720]Get a little bit more insight on Marylou and he said,
[00:17:01.087]"My mom is my best friend." (laughs)
[00:17:06.090]He tells me that.
[00:17:06.923]And I said, "You've got to stop saying that."
[00:17:10.203](audience laughing)
[00:17:11.940]No woman will ever want anything to do with you.
[00:17:14.786](audience laughing)
[00:17:16.028]I'm single but that's the boy-
[00:17:18.667]I don't care.
[00:17:19.728](audio laughing)
[00:17:21.177]She'll think you're a mama's boy.
[00:17:23.510](audience laughing)
[00:17:25.142]Proud mama's boy.
[00:17:26.799](audience laughing)
[00:17:27.632]Well, I know Walter and Andy as well are very proud of you
[00:17:30.810]and we are very proud of you as an alumna of the college.
[00:17:34.410]So any advice for students coming up in journalism today?
[00:17:40.950]Yes, the advice comes from my very first...
[00:17:44.940]I started to work for the Lincoln Journal
[00:17:48.510]the day after I graduated from the University of Nebraska.
[00:17:52.500]And my wonderful professor, journalism professor said,
[00:17:58.087]"You know, you're gonna go to work for the Lincoln Journal.
[00:18:00.660]You're gonna start the day after graduation."
[00:18:03.630]And I thought, "Oh, no, no, no. I've worked very hard.
[00:18:07.500]I'm going home for the summer, home to Cambridge."
[00:18:10.740]And he said, "No, you're not."
[00:18:13.410]And he was right.
[00:18:15.190](audio laughs)
[00:18:16.200]So I started to work the day after graduation.
[00:18:18.870]Now, what I learned from this experience,
[00:18:22.620]my boss, Helen Hagee, had a car.
[00:18:27.480]Well, everybody drove to work in a car on those days
[00:18:30.420]and she would park right in front of the building,
[00:18:35.310]and would have to move it every two hours,
[00:18:38.310]because the police came along.
[00:18:40.017]And they had those long sticks with a chalk on the end
[00:18:47.070]and they would drive by and put that chalk
[00:18:50.130]on all of the tires so they didn't breach.
[00:18:53.820]And then if that chalk still was visible in two hours,
[00:18:58.620]they got a ticket.
[00:18:59.910]So my job was to move her car.
[00:19:03.418](audience laughing)
[00:19:05.160]And I didn't once think that that was beneath me.
[00:19:09.600]When I hear young people today, some of them say,
[00:19:14.039]when they're asked to do something, they say,
[00:19:16.207]"Well, that's not in my job description."
[00:19:20.070]If you said that in Lincoln, Nebraska,
[00:19:22.980]you would've been kicked out from the job.
[00:19:25.800]So anyway, I soon learned
[00:19:27.720]that I could erase those chalk marks.
[00:19:30.739](audience laughing)
[00:19:32.696]All I had to do was sit in the car
[00:19:34.710]and go back and forth several times
[00:19:37.890]and those marks would disappear
[00:19:40.107]and she wouldn't get a ticket,
[00:19:41.820]and I got to be out there for two hours.
[00:19:44.396](audio laughing)
[00:19:46.110]So my advice to young people
[00:19:48.480]is never think something is beneath you.
[00:19:52.620]Speak up, fine. But you're not entitled to anything.
[00:19:58.470]Sounds like you're pretty good
[00:19:59.430]at working smarter, not harder too. (laughs)
[00:20:03.552]Well, Marylou,
[00:20:04.385]is there anyone you would like to thank as you-
[00:20:08.184]Pardon me? Is there anyone
[00:20:09.017]you would like to thank for helping-
[00:20:10.830]I wish he were here tonight
[00:20:12.570]because I would like to thank him.
[00:20:14.400]His name is Jeffrey Banks.
[00:20:16.560]He's a menswear designer originally.
[00:20:21.360]He's the first Black member of the CFDA.
[00:20:24.990]He knows more about the history of fashion
[00:20:28.740]than anyone I know, anyone.
[00:20:31.320]And when he knew I was working on this book, he said to me,
[00:20:39.457]"You know, Rizzoli has published five of my books.
[00:20:43.920]I think I might help you there."
[00:20:46.260]And I said, "That would be fantastic."
[00:20:48.990]And so it's thanks absolutely to Jeffrey
[00:20:53.070]that I was introduced to Rizzoli.
[00:20:56.340]And then just as the time would go on,
[00:20:59.580]I always followed his advice.
[00:21:01.980]Like, I was annoyed when they changed
[00:21:05.190]what I thought was gonna be to cover, my choice,
[00:21:09.450]to the cover that is the cover now.
[00:21:12.917]'Cause I thought my cover,
[00:21:14.760]which is the back of the book now,
[00:21:17.610]was more about what the book was about.
[00:21:20.165]And my title for the book then was what I wanted was
[00:21:25.710]they said, "What?" (audience laughs)
[00:21:28.320]And then so forget that.
[00:21:30.480]And I was annoyed (audience laughs)
[00:21:34.364]But Jeffrey said, "Don't say a word.
[00:21:40.140]These people know what they're doing.
[00:21:42.150]They have to sell the book to bookstores.
[00:21:45.030]If they think the cover they have selected is better,
[00:21:48.750]just go with it."
[00:21:50.334]And he was right.
[00:21:51.933]I didn't say anything against it
[00:21:54.960]and just through all my time, he was always helpful.
[00:21:59.730]Just amazing person.
[00:22:02.250]And well, as I said, he has five books published by Rizzoli.
[00:22:10.990]Well, thank you Marylou.
[00:22:11.977]Thank you for sharing this moment with me
[00:22:14.820]and with all of us. (audience clapping)
[00:22:18.750]It isn't over till it's over.
[00:22:20.391](audience laughing)
[00:22:21.685]Alright, what do you sing? I wanna sing
[00:22:23.137]"There is No Place Like Nebraska."
[00:22:24.900]Okay. With that sing along.
[00:22:27.454](audience laughs) All right.
[00:22:29.632]♪ There is no place like Nebraska ♪
[00:22:33.328]♪ Good old Nebraska U ♪
[00:22:36.408]♪ Where girls are the fairest ♪
[00:22:38.598]♪ The boys are the squarest ♪
[00:22:41.117](group indistinctly chattering)
[00:22:45.381]♪ There is no place like Nebraska ♪
[00:22:47.959]♪ Where they're all true blue ♪
[00:22:51.092]♪ We'll all stick together ♪
[00:22:53.094]♪ In all kinds of weather ♪
[00:22:54.922]♪ For dear old Nebraska U ♪
[00:22:58.471](audience clapping) (audience clamoring)
[00:22:59.967]Whoo. Whoo.
[00:23:01.167](audience clapping) (audience clamoring)

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Be-Spoke Book Interview

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