Transcripts For KQED Charlie Rose 20141224

Cities on Six Continents around the world are competing to become part of the network. The effects of air quality have been written about on treasurers. Charlie danny aiello, on his i only know who i am when i am somebody else. The triumph of becoming an actor, one side did and i achieved that success. I knew it was the only thing in life for me to be able to act to escape into other people. When i have pain, the greatest times i have is to fall into a character and forget about the pain in real life. Charlie ken chenault, judith rodin and danny aiello, when we continue. Rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by rose additional funding provided by and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Charlie ken chenault is here, he is chairman and c. E. O. Of American Express, the multinational financial serves company, among the worlds bestknown brand. Its iconic credit card has been swiped by shoppers and business travelers for decades. The digital revolution is changing how we engage in commerce. Eric schmidt says ken exemplifies the best leadership ive ever worked with. I am pleased to have ken chenault at the table for the first time. In interest of full disclosure, American Express has been a supporter of the program for years. I am grateful and appreciative. Thanks for being here. Great to be here, charlie. Charlie tell me about it is that informs you about the change elements and how a Company Responds to that in the ability of a c. E. O. I think whats really exciting, in the times we live in today, is this convergence of the online and the offline world. It is presenting incredible possibilities. But whats very important is that you cant look at your business in a narrow way. So let me give you one example. It would be wrong for us to simply view ourselves as a company that is facilitating payments. Because if we look at one of the major developments, platform companies, amazon, alibaba, google, facebook, and we view ourselves as not just a company facilitating payments, but as a Platform Company that is delivering services, and we have the most integrated payment platform. So what were focused on is how do we change the commerce experience and become even more meaning 1 meaningful in people. Charlie its important to define who you are in terms of what kind of company you are, and the definition in your head may change as the world changes. Yes, but i think whats very important here, charlie, and i believe this strongly is i often talk to c. E. O. S and they look at me a little bit askance, whats the soul of your company . Charlie yeah. Because what that means is whats the core . What do you stand for as a company . For American Express, weve focused on two hallmarks, as i call them reinvention and constancy. Reinvention means weve got to innovate. The slogan i use in the company, innovate or die. Weve got to do that constantly. Weve reinvented ourselves. Its in our dna over 164 years. But then you have to have a constancy of values and our company, the heart and soul of our company is service, trust, integrity, and those attributes are what we use as the compass to navigate through this fastchanging world. Charlie and can you imagine where you will be in ten years . I think ten years on a relative basis despite the fact things are moving so rapidly is still a short period of time. But heres what ill tell you, one is the form factor of payments will change and i frankly do not care if plastic goes away. Thats really not what is relevant. Whats relevant is whats the business platform that were operating on, and back to this integrated platform is American Express has relationships with merchants like retailers where we get all that information and data, and we have relationships with the enduser customer, and that information and data is very critical because what it does is it gives us insights. I know where charlie rose spends, i know what time he spends, i can predict what are different items that he will have a greater interest in, and, so, i think were going to be far more involved in both the commerce journey and the lifestyle journey. Charlie and your competition will be . I think our competition, frankly, is going to be anyone in the service business. I think our competition will clearly be other payment providers, but i think our competition is going to be anyone whos Offering Services and, so, my view is, im partnering with companies that are competitors, that are frenemies. I work with many banks around the world who issue American Expressbranded cards, and people said to me 15 years ago, ken, how could you partner with banks that are competing with you in the credit card business . And i said, you dont understand. What were doing is were expanding our brand and our cards, and if we get more volume on our network, that makes us more relevant in the marketplace. Charlie when you look at Something Like apple and the big announcement tim cook made about where theyre going, you say so him welcome . What i said to tim, absolutely, is welcome. And what i also said to tim, when we had our conversation, is, again, what does apple stand for . And what we found is there was a commonality between our companies. One is we both stand for service, but tim, whats also is very clear, im focused on product. Im focused on service. And then what was very critical is the data, because data is our lifeblood. We talk about that as the closed loop where were connecting buyers and sellers. And tim said, im not interested in the data. And that was important to me. Charlie he said that before, too. Yes. Charlie hes said that to me at this table. Absolutely. Charlie so what about alibaba . I think that they are a fascinating company, and the reality is, as you know, theyre in payments, theyre in commerce, and what were increasingly doing is were bringing buyers and sellers together. Youve got to look, as i said, more broadly at payments. We had the largest rewardsbased program in the world. And the reality is, you can access our membership reward points in a new york city taxi, in uber, in airbnb, to pay your bill on amazon. So you cant just look at our business as simply facilitating a payment. Charlie tom freedman says hes thinking about a new book. You remember the book the world is flat. Now the world is flat. And he talks about uber and things like that, and the genius they bring is speed. Right. Charlie did that resonate with you . It absolutely resonates. I think, at the end of the day, speed is absolutely critical. But ill tell you another thing that uber brings, i think we are brig, i think there are a range of Successful Companies that are doing this speed, simplicity, convenience and being seamless. So if you look at the Uber Payments experience, youre not even going through the act of really paying. And what weve done is, with uber, is maybe it a seamless experience to earn points and redeem points. So the ability to, in fact, operate with speed is an essential requirement of success. Charlie do you believe that the consumer understands what American Express is today and how its changing . I think its evolving. Charlie or that part of an education that you as c. E. O. Have to do . Yeah, i think, when you think about the consumer, a consumer is not going to analyze the business like a business case. What a consumer is going to say is is this a company that understands me and is meeting my needs . Is this a company that is forming a connection . And what im absolutely convinced is that consumers believe that, with American Express, they form both a rational and emotional connection. But what were also doing is we are making the American Express brand a more welcoming, inclusive brand, and the way i characterize this for our organization is were going back to the future. 164 years ago, charlie, we were a Freight Forwarding company. Whats glam warehouse about that . The travelers check business had no income requirement. But one of the things that the Digital Transformation has changed is scale has been redefined, and we have to be meaningful in all peoples lives, the affluent and nonaffluent. So we have a higher purpose of service, but i also want us to have a higher purpose of meeting all segment needs. Charlie you have said one of the points i make consistently to our people is that we want to become the company that will put us out of business. Absolutely. Charlie so you want to become the person that disrupts American Express. Absolutely, because, at the end of the day, if youre the one on of fence, if youre the one bringing about change, youre going to be a winner, and the Creative Process is moving things forward. Challenging the status quo. Not standing still. Because if you stand still in this world, you fall back. So what i want the people in our organization to be focused on, we need to be disrupters. We need to change, we need to be willing to challenge the status quo. Ill give you one example that goes to the history of the company. For years the company debated should we get in the card business. We didnt come out with our card till 1958. The fear was if we entered the card business, it would cannibalize the travelers check business. Fortunately, the c. E. O. At the time, howard clark, decided were going to enter the card business. Charlie too much upside not to do it. Too much upside, and we should take the risk that well cannibalize. And i always think that if im going to be cannibalized, i want to make that choice. Charlie do you regret any choices that youve made as you have led American Express in which you said, well, if i could do it over, i might have gone the other way . Anything clearly that looks at you or is it more ambiguous . Its more subtle. The reality is, as far as the big strategic moves, i feel very good about the moves that weve made. I think, if there were mistakes, its not moving quick enough on people and ideas. Charlie not moving quick enough. Not moving quick enough. It goes back to the speed. And you can overcome that, and we have. But if anything, id like to move even faster. Charlie tell me about partnerships. Walmart, you have this thing, what do you call it, bluebird service. Yes. Charlie how does that work . Whats terrific about this partnership with walmart, and it also points to the importance of partnerships in general because no single company, i dont care how large you are, can operate with the speed and scale thats necessary in this marketplace alone. So what walmart provides us is that they have millions of customers who, in fact, need a product like bluebird. There are 70 million americans who are unbanked or underbanked, who, in fact, dont qualify for a credit card and, frankly, what were providing to them is a lowcost product that is on a digital platform. They can use it as a plastic card, but they can also use their mobile phone. And what it provides them are a set of capabilities for their financial affairs. It allows them to make payments. It allows them to deposit. And what is opened up is an opportunity that many of these customers who could not qualify for a credit card now can shop online. And the other thing walmart has done, theyve come up with a very innovative product called savings catcher where you can look on your mobile phone, you look at the bar code of a product youre purchasing in walmart, and in a 12mile radius, if, in fact, you could have purchased the product at a lower cost at another store, they will refund the difference to you on a gift card. Now, if you use a bluebird card, you could double the savings. So this is meeting a need and an unmet need at a lower cost, and its opening up a tremendous opportunity. Charlie Small Businesses are an area of great concern for you. I think whats very importance, charlie, with Small Businesses, because this is not an issue of Small Businesses against big businesses, the reality is Big Companies generate substantial opportunities for Small Businesses. But i think as we all know, the reality is that 23 million Small Businesses in the United States, they employ half the private workforce, generate twothirds of the net new jobs, and what we did 25 years ago is we were one of the First Financial services companies, payment companies, in fact any company, that put together a Business Unit that was 100 dedicated to meeting the needs of Small Businesses. Now, what do most Small Businesses want . They want more business. They want help with marketing. We have created an Online Community for Small Businesses where we bring experts in to work with them. Charlie you give them expertise beyond their own budget . Absolutely. Because were trying to take the resources and capabilities of a Large Company and bring them to Small Businesses. Small businesses are essential for our community, but i think what people sometimes miss is the level of cooperation and collaboration between big business and Small Businesses. But the success of Small Businesses and the growth is essential for our economy. Charlie we wen went througha terrible experience in 2007 and 2008. Doddfrank came out of that, and a lot of people were hurt, as you well know. Right. Absolutely. Charlie have we taken the measurers as a country to minimize the possibility of that happening again, or is it inevitable almost part of the business psychle . I think a few points i would make, charlie. First, i think the fact that we have been able to come out of the financial crisis as a country, as we did, speaks to the resilience of this country. For all the criticism of our political system and frustration that we all have had, it speaks to the strength of that political system. It speaks to the culture in this country. Very frankly, if you had said to me, in 2009, ken, here is where we would be in the economy in 2014 charlie you would have said . I would have said, charlie, i think you are way optimistic. Charlie really . Because there is the fear that we were falling off the cliff. What i do think is that, with the regulation that has been put in place, with the changes in business practices, it does not mean we wouldnt fall back, but i think the progress that weve made is substantial. The issue, at the end of the day in our society, is still income inequality and the fact that the benefits of the recovery have not trickled down. Charlie what else do we do . Because its going to be a central issue. Weve got to have an absolutely relentless focus on job creation in this country. It needs to be a combination of the private and Public Sector. We obviously need, as we look at our educational system, our training and development programs, i think the United States has to look at this as the primary issue, because, as we know, job creation is not just critical to our economy. Its critical to an individuals selfworth. Charlie what kind of grades do you give the president . Whats he done right and whats he done wrong . I think at the end of the day the focus has to be on outcomes. And i think on a relative basis of where the economy was, in 2008 and 2009 and where it is today, i think weve come a long way. If we hadnt come a long way, i think people would clearly say, real problem with the president. Charlie right. So i think weve made progress on the economy. I would like to have seen even more of an effort on job creation, because i think thats so essential to our economy and the well being of our society. Charlie hacking. Do you worry about it . I absolutely worry about it. The reality is cybersecurity and hacking is a major modernday threat that were dealing with because it impacts national security, it impacts the economy, and it impacts the safety and security of our individual citizens. Charlie not to speak of privacy. And the privacy is incredible. But whats very concerning, and you know some of these factoids charlie right. 400,000 new malicious programs launched every day, four new cyberthreats every second. We talk about breaches, of the companies that have been breached, 75 didnt know they were breached. They found out through a third party. So what is absolutely essential is not Just Companies and institutions have to be focused on it, but there has to be a far greater level of cooperation between the private and the Public Sector because this is a fundamental threat to the safety and security of the world. Charlie and in some cases may be statesponsored. The reality is we nee that. Charlie you seem to be speaking out more than when i first met you when i came to new york. Is it because you felt like there were issues and ideas important to discuss . You felt responsibility toward your own company to make sure that the Global Community understood it . Or is it a combination and Something Else . I think its a combination. One of the things that i believe in strongly, and i guess it was a maxim that i got from my father, that he said the one thing you can control is your performance, and thats what you need to focus on. So in first taking over as c. E. O. , i wanted to make sure that i performed. I also believe very strongly that companies, depending on how you run them, can make a major difference in our society, and i really believe that. So i focused on trying to not just have our company, American Express, be successful financially, i wanted us to be one of the most respected and trusted companies in the world because one of the things i believe in, charlie, is sustainable success is really hard. The second is that i also believe that whether youre in the private or Public Sector, its important that you make a difference in society. So if i have been speaking out more, its for that reason. One of the points i make is corporations exist because society allows us to exist. Charlie right. And we have a responsibility and an obligation to make a difference. Charlie thank you for coming. Thank you, charlie. Charlie good to see you. Charlie . Charlie judith rodin is here, president of the Rockefeller Foundation since 2005. Her tenure there is focused on programs that tackle most pressing global challenges and dispruptions of the 21s 21st century. Her new book is called the resilience dividend being strong in a world where things go wrong. It argues that building resiliyens is an urgent social and economic issue. I am pleased to have her back at the table. Welcome. Thanks, charlie. Great to be here. Charlie before the rockefeller fund, you were president of the university of pennsylvania and yale as well. Yep. Charlie so youve spent a lifetime in academia as well as running the Rockefeller Foundation. Whats this about, the resilience diviend . Its based on in the 21s 21st century, crisis may be the new normal. There isnt a week that goes by that somewhere in the world there is pt a violent storm, flood, cyberattack, civil unrest, epidemic, outbreak like ebola. So those who are going to do best are those who are prepared for the worst, no matter what the worst may be, and often were just reablghting and responding, and weve got to get ready. Weve got to plan and prepare. Charlie some say crisis, as you suggest, is the new normal. I mean, there is a crisis aplenty. Mmhmm. Charlie we look at Climate Change as one, global warming. We look at the kinds of things were hearing, the fear of some kind of global epidemic. You look at scarcity of water. And theres a whole range of issues that confront us now beyond the geopolitical issues. Well, theyre all folded in. In other words, many people will argue that wars over water are going to be the next big geopolitical issue. Our military is actually doing resilience planning. Secretary hagel ordered the entire military to really look at the potential impact of Food Insecurity and water shortage and things that you never would have thought the u. S. Military would need to be wor worrying at 50 years ago. Now we need to make the military have the capacity to plan and prepare for what kinds of disruptions. Charlie you talk about predisruptions, ushization, Climate Change and globalization. Its really the intersection of all three that makes us so vulnerable. Half the worlds population is now living in cities. Thats going to grow to 75 within the next 30 years. A lot of that will happen in some of the most vulnerable ecologies, that is vulnerable to Climate Change, africa, south asia, southeast asia. These cities dont have the physical capacity, let alone the infrastructure to absorb that. Globalization affects every part of the world as rapidly we saw the floods in bangkok took down entire Global Supply chains. We see ebola coming to the United States. Who would have thought things like that 50 years ago . Then Climate Change, which is really destroying not on the the environment but destroying the resilience of the infrastructure. We have a Global Initiative called 100 resilient cities and cities on Six Continents around the world are competing to become part of this network. Both rome and athens wrote about the effects of air quality, Climate Change traffic on their historic treasurers. So these things are all bumping into one another. Charlie whats the best example of a potential disaster that was, you know, somehow prevented from escalating . I think of boston and the boston marathon. Obviously, it was a disaster, three people died and a lot of people were hurt, but boston had spent years before that practicing for any kind of disruption for terrorism, a noreaster, a hurricane or any kind of civil unrest and, so, they had the complete play book worked out. They knew who the First Response Police Authority would be. They decided it would be the f. B. I. They decided governor patrick, no matter where it would occur in massachusetts would be the chief spokesperson. They had a full medical responder plan. So, in boston, nobody who got to a hospital died. Thats the first time with something of that magnitude that they could claim that. Nonetheless, boston applied in this round for 100 resilient cities. We selected them, and mayor walsh talked about the new things hes worried about, will be the 50th anniversary of the courtordered busing. Hes worried about inequality, racial issues, economic disparity. So this is also about how you plan for and respond to the sobering stresses not just the shocks. Charlie one of things im interested in going to soon is medine, colombia. Tell me about that. The most remarkable story. Drug trafficking, human trafficking, all the things we looked at. Business leaders, two successive mayors recognized perhaps the people were really vulnerable to all this, being drug mules and being trafficked, because they are so physically disconnected. The geography of meddine is the poor people are disconnected. So after trying policing and military intervention to try to stop the trafficking, they build a new transportation system, a metro system that goes along the floor and escalators and gondolas in the hills. Charlie, the stops have healthcare clinics and afterschool programs integrated into the transportation and the people are decorating the hills and their houses. Crime is way down, tourism way up and its a real success. Charlie whats the mandate of 100 Resilient Cities Program . The mandate is to help those cities to prepare for not the last stress or shock, but anything that may confront them. So they get a chief resilience officer which is an innovation. The chief resilience officers are connected now around the world, sharing best practices, and they get access to a whole suite of goods and services that the private sector is providing. So data analysts, cisco, microsoft, swiss reed creating new cay t. S. A. Ribonds for cities. New forms of municipal financing for the cities. So theyll work on physical infrastructure and social infrastructure. So st. Louis is just a new city. They were just selected in this round. Charlie why did you select them . We selected them because they had the most honest and compelling application about ferguson, social unrest and economic disparity. Charlie when . Three weeks ago. Charlie this was after ferguson . Yeah. And mayor slay and the rest of the people because this is also Civil Society and business. Not just government that applies for this. In fact, if they dont talk about how to engage the communities, whether their problem is hurricane or earthquake or social unrest, they dont get selected for this. This is a bottoms up as well as topdown approach. Charlie so whats happening in the foundation . The foundation is in great shape. Were excited about all the resilience work and were working on another equally important goal which is more economic inclusion and more inclusive prosperity and clearly the two are interconnected. You know, you think about the two blackouts new york had, 77 and 2003. In 77, it was the summer of son of sam. We were in an economic sort of pit in new york. White flight was occurring. With the blackout, there was violence and looting and all kinds of unrest. 2003, after 9 11, a lot of work on Building Back communities, a lot of preparation and planning on evacuation, no matter what the next thing would be. 23,000 lights out. Remember the orderly pictures of people going across the Brooklyn Bridge . Its an amazing difference. Charlie i see you have the name of somebody i know. Alex carp who have been on the show and participated in conferences with me, says judith rodin is a world class entrepreneurial philanthropist and draws on her deep and personal experience from around the world, using every tool available including most advanced technologies to understand the urban terrain and deploy real world pollutions with the goal of saving and improving human lives. There seems to me, i am fascinated by the idea, and larry expressed it, how do we enlist Corporate America or corporate global in terms of doling with the kinds of issues because of the Human Resources that they have within their institutions . Is that publicprivate an appealing idea to the Rockefeller Foundation . Absolutely, and were working very hard to make sure that kind of Publicprivate Partnership occurs. Let me give you San Francisco as an example. Its a wonderful one. San francisco has brought all of their businesses together in something they call the life lines council in preparation for any kind of disaster. Pg e, comcast, uber, lift, airbnb, they represent a resilience characteristic. Rather than business and government doing their own plans and communities doing their own, they have a completely integrated way to secure the lifelines of the city. So businesses are critical, theyre making their own plans. Theyre picking cities to locate in because of those cities being resilient. Deutsche banc, for example, chose puma in india for a new Operation Center because they became resilient looking at alltel communications, utility, their education and community and beat out every other indian city to get a deutsche banc center because they are more resilient. Charlie what are you reading these days . I just finished euphoria which i loved. Im a psychologist so lives of anthropologists. My first year in columbia, i took an anthropology course from margaret mead. She was so grand. She would walk down the aisle with students carrying her briefcase and walking stick. So reading the story of margaret and her love and life is extraordinary. Charlie the resilience diviend, by judith rodin, this picture is where things went wrong in galveston, texas, and demolished. Right. Charlie what year. 2011. Only house standing. Thts a real picture. Charlie how does one house stand . The right roof, pilings, resilience. Charlie this is what you do. Yep. Charlie most to have the cities devastated are doing that, arent they . Arent they approaching with we have to be more resilient if we rebuild. Not only what we rebuild but how we rebuild. The idea of the dividend is to get more bang for your buck so youre not making one sickle investment and doing things that make returns in the good times not only recovery in the bad times. Hoboken floods even when there isnt a hurricane. They lack real green recreational space and needed more parking. As a result of the postsandy recovery work and competition called rebuild by design we did with h. U. D. , hoboken proposed underground parking, engineered to be water overflow containers in times of flooding with surface green recreational space. So one investment, three bangs for the buck, thats the resilience dividend. Charlie good to see you. Great to be here, charlie, thanks. Charlie danny aiello is here, an Academy Award nominated actor. Career spans for decades. More than 85 films included moonstruck, do the right thing and many more. Hes here with his first memoir called i only know who i am when i am somebody else. He takes a look at his life on film, stage and things hes done. Welcome. Thank you very much. Charlie, its been a long time. Charlie it halls. But you have been here many times. Why a memory now . It took a long time for me to agree to do it. For three years they asked me to do a book. I said if i told total truth about parts of my life i may be hurting people and that was not my intent. Until of course i met this young Lady Jennifer who turned out to be my literary agent, and she was smart enough to talk me into doing it. I felt there were memories i had to surface again, bring back, start to remember and pass on to my grandchildren. Charlie they tell me once you start down that road and begin g to remember one thing that you hadnt thought about in a long time, you will remember the next and next and next. The book starts at the age of six. Why i chose six, i dont know. But its interesting, one thing popped into my head at age six, eczema. I had eczema as a child and was hospitalized as a result of it twice. It really adversely affected my life. What happened on that was that i went to sleep one night and what pops into my head, something other than that. A new thing. Something else at the age of six. And Something Else. Before i knew it, i had my whole life i was reliving at age six. How anyone could remember something that many years ago, i have no idea, but it happened. Charlie when you chose the title, i only know who i am when i am somebody else a person named jay grey recorded a song i only know who i am when i am somebody else. I brought it hope. I was impressed with the singer. I recorded some of his songs on my new album. My wife was listening to the songs. She said, what is that . I said j. J. Grey had written it. Im going to record it. She said thats you. You dont know who the hell you are. Thats how the title came about. In the beginning, they didnt want to use the title but i said its necessary for me to have it because its me. Am i a pool hustler, a petty thief, a Union Organizer . Who am i . Who is danny aiello . The only time i knew who i was was when i was playing a character. I knew exactly what i was going to say because it was written for me. Charlie but you dont know who you are other than the characters you play . Yes, i have great difficulty understanding exactly who i am till this day. Charlie what have been the triumoffs . To succeed at something in the beginning of my life i never intended to do. I never thought i could be an actor. It wasnt on my agenda. Charlie probably didnt know any actors. I had no idea. How do you get to hollywood . Im a new york kid, grew up on west 68th street in new york, never to be an actor, so the triumph of becoming an actor, not wanting to, but one side did, and i achieved that success, i knew it was the only thing in life for me to be able to act, to escape into other people. When i had pain, the greatest times i have is to fall into a chrkt and forget about the pain in real life. Thats what acting has done for me over the years. Its helped me considerably. Charlie when you talk about the pain, what are you talking about . Well, the loss of my son, danny. Danny iii, one of the top stunt coordinators in the business, the healthiest, most beautiful young man youve ever seen in your life and pancreatic cancer caught him and once diagnosed passed away eleven months later. Charlie how old . 53 years old. Beautiful kid who looked 20something. Charlie yeah. It was a devastating thing to occur. So what happens when Something Like that does occur in your life, you look for distractions. A good distraction. Good distractions have been my ability to go out and get jobs and act. Charlie your father wasnt there when you were born. My father was loved by us immensely. This was not a favter dearest book. Its one of the reasons i didnt want to bring a book in the beginning is because i thought people could ask me, well, your father wasnt there, he was nomadic, he showed up once a year. I loved my phat and the entire family did because my mother never bad mouthed him. We didnt know him enough to dislike him. He wasnt home that often. I didnt realized the difficulty of marriage to begin. With maybe that wasnt the case. Maybe he wasnt ready to marry at age 18. When i married my wife sandy, i thought, no sweat. Before i knew it, i had four kids and the pressure was so great i ended up in the Veterans Hospital with some sort of mental disorder at the time. Fortunately, i overcame it. Charlie this picture . Me at 17 years old. Charlie what year . 1951. Charlie going into the army . I went into the army at age 17. I felt i had to because i was getting in trouble in the bronx and i thought it would be the best thing for me. I left school, was going nothing but histling pool and i thought the best thing was to go in the army. Charlie and enlisted. Three years and honorably discharged. Charlie no combat . Was supposed to go to korea, two shiments, cut off both of them, name picked out of the hat to go to germany. Pure luck. Charlie is this . Sandy cohen aiello. Shes my wife. Thats me, a reasonable fax similar my of elvis presley. Charlie whos this . If anybody think i was worth anything as an actor, its because of him. He wrote me three off, off, off, off, offbroadway plays before i knew i was an actor. He said, danny, i have a play id love you to act in. I said im not an actor. He said, you are, you just dont know. He had written knock out and lamp post reunion. Charlie this is training for knock out. Knock out, i lost 28 pounds before i could get on stage. I was in great shape. Charlie do you like stage better or film . Stage. I suppose all actors fleactd the same way. Stage to me had this immediate. The response is great. The silence is great, if youre in the drama. Laughter is wonderful if its comedy. But the stage is electric fying. Its one of those things that sort of keeps you alive. Charlie you worked with denareo in bang the drum slowly. Yes. He was the worst ball player ever. He threw a ball like. This i could say it was like a woman but today women throw as well as men. So i couldnt say that. Charlie how did you meet . You had no experience. No, when i went, bobby had done a movie. I didnt know who he was because he wasnt famous. He was in a gang that couldnt shoot straight. In it he appeared to be a person in a priests outfit on a bicycle with an italian outfit. When i went to do the roll, john hancock said, well, we have bobby denareo as the lead. We got close. I was chosen because i was an excellent ball player for a number of years. The only reason i got the part in bang the drum slowly charlie you knew baseball. I couldnt act. He saw me throw, catch, hit. John hancock the director said, youve got the role. He said work with bobby to see if you can help him along to look somewhat like a professional. Impossible task. Charlie and what was the role you played in godfather ii . Tony ristato. Theres one question raised by everyone on the internet. Was the line danny aiello said in godfather two improvised . The line theyre talking about, michael corleone says, now, Frank Pentangeli was sitting at a bar. I walked behind him. I put a garrot around his neck. I say, michael corleone, drag him into a phone book and fail to kill him. We were rehearsing. Francis was there. Charlie the director. Yes. I was so intimidated by the man knowing the things he had done and here i am a neofite actor. There was no fine there. When i was coming from behind with the garrot to choke him, there was no line whatsoever. He said, lets rehearse, action. I come behind him. And i said, michael corleone says hello. I had no idea why i said it. He said, what did you say . I thought i was in trouble. I said, well, i think i said, michael corleone says hello. He said, good. Keep it in. It was an improvised line. And theres a history behind it. People are asking questions about it. I didnt think it was that interesting. Charlie after reading a spike lee script, you said all im seeing in the character, you want me to play is a guy tossing pizzas in the air. For an Italian American thats tantamount to showing a black man eating watermelon. Thats exactly what i said. Charlie what did he say . He laughed. Thats him. He and i were very close for a long time, and he became tops on my totem pole. You know why, charlie . He did something very personal. When danny passed away, we were at the campbell funeral home in new york. I was sitting down front, obviously, where my son was lying. My wife was near me, a couple of my sons. And it was loaded with people. Just about every actor that danny ever worked with was there in the back. I had no idea who was there. So i was told later this person kept walking down, stopping, walking down, stopping, going back, walking down, three times and back. It was spike lee. Finally, he reaches the front. He kneels near me and says, danny, may i Say Something . I said, of course. So he got up and did a eulogy for my son, danny, relating to danny, my son rick and i, all three aiellos being in the same movie do the right thing. I thought it was a precious thing he did for me son and meant a lot to me. I never forget him for it. If i had any fault with him before, it was all forgotten because of that. Charlie and this . Thats for the giver. Paul newman. Off camera, theres a girl he was flirting with. She must have been 19 years old. Thats on the street with abatchy the bronx. Then i got involved with his charity in connecticut. Charlie last picture . Robert in the middle and of course that great man on the left is sergi lee i don leone,m the santa claus. He was truly a great director, not only spaghetti western. Wed done a movie together. I used to tell him, oh, i have such a small role. He wanted me to come to the can, the festival. I didnt want to go because i thought the part didnt warrant it. He said, no, danny, i want you to come. So i came and kept complaining, oh, this is such a small part. It turns out to be one of his favorite roles. He says to me, what do you want to call the character because i have no name. I said, kale him aiello, no one knows me anyway. He called him that. Because of my complaints it being such a small role, he said, my next, movie, danny, you are going to be one of the stars with robert de niro. And the movie was called 90 days in leningrad. He worked ten years on the feature. I was looking, oh, here i go, im going to be in this great, epic movie, and he passed away and never got the do the movie, which would have been his favorite of all time. Charlie and probably yours, too. Yeah, probably would have been. Charlie one clip well show from do the right thing which we talked about. Roll tape. I never had no trouble with these people. I sat in the window and i watch these little kids get old and i see the old people get older. Yeah, sure, some of them dont like us, but most of them do. For christs sake, they grew up on my food. On my food. And im very proud of that. You may think its funny, but im very proud of that. Look, what im trying to say, son, is sals famous pizzaria is here to stay. Im sorry. Im your father and i love you. Im sorry, but thats the way it is. Charlie i should say also that you are a singer, sir. Yeah, a little. Charlie didnt you recently i have five albums. I just had my fifth coming out called blues times two. I never tried blues. Someone said you can crack with blues and it doesnt mean anything. So i found that to be very interesting. I recorded two songs, one called this river and the other called i only know who i am when i am somebody else, written by that fellow j. J. Grey. Hes just a great musician. You know, ive also worked with, i dont know whether you know this or not, but over a million hits on youtube for bessimocho. That song was written by vas byz when i was 16. This rapper was recording and i happened to be there. He was a fan. He came over and said, what are you doing here . I said, im recording. He said, are you producing . I said, no, im singing. So he laughed somewhat. We got together after that and decided to come together and make this album called bridges with is the music of two kinds of music sort of blended, one classic standards and the other rap. Keep in mind, i hated rap but liked him very much and decided towork with him. Charlie the memory called danny aiello, my life on the street and stage and the memoir, memori only know who i am whenm somebody else. Thank you. Charlie for more about this program and earlier episodes, visit us online at pbs. Org and charlierose. Com. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org report with Tyler Mathisen and susie gharib. Funded in part by thestreet. Com and action alerts plus where jim cramer and fellow Portfolio Manager stephanie link share their investment strategies, stock picks and market insights. You can learn more at thestreet. Com nbr. 18,000. The dow marks a new milestone as a nearly six year bull market charges ahead. We look at the drivers and examine what might lie ahead. Rapid expansion. Stocks take off after the u. S. Economy shows its strongest growth since 2003. Can it continue . We have all that and more for tuesday, december 23rd. Good evening, everyone and