Director of the documentary. He is the author of to swing through the sky a musical theater piece about the twin histories of jazz and powered flight. He was a longtime member of the wright experience team and was executive director of the discovery flight foundation. Paul is a graduate of Washington University in st. Louis with a degree in visual arts. In addition to aviation history and documentary film making, his career covers classical drawing, s. T. E. M. Education, exhibit design and photography. With that, id like to turn the stage over to paul and thank you all again so much for coming tonight. [ applause ] hello. Thank you so much for having me. Can everybody see me okay . Hear me okay . Great. Great. Let me make sure i turn this thing on correctly. Okay. Thank you, kathy, and to everyone at Smithsonian Associates for having me back. Im very happy to be here. Again, and share this story with you. Its, i think, a its a really fun story in a local kind of a way. Its a story of
You have written 1450 pages on material open the white house. What was the hardest part . Well, i guess the research was the hardest part. Also, compressing it for that many pages. Compressing the huge story for many things that could be used or had to be dealt with in the senate. I would love to have gone on and on about but i couldnt. Its the process of actually throwing things out. Even with 1400 pages. Ive got this here, two volume set. When did you first write this . The first part of it up to president trumans renditions novations at the white house. This takes the story to the end of the first bush administration. How did you approach the story . The whole story. Who are you writing it for . The central characters of the house and the various people who go there and the various people and their reactions to living there. The development of an institution which president obama will enter a very well organized institution to serve his work. And you have to look at it that way in t
So the book became a susan head of the idea come to you for telling the story at this time . Jeff when i try to do when i write nonfiction books is to go everywhere where the people i write about went. Id rather drive and that way you really get a sense of place. Somewhere along the line in the 30,000 or so miles i drive every year i started wondering how we got to be a country, a culture where we take for granted and we can get in a car and go anywhere we want to. I thought it would be a good idea to write a book about that and as always happens when you look into history, theres more to it than you ever expected. Susan your book begins and ends with someone thats a minor character, jeff bixby. Who was he and why was he interesting to you . Jeff one of the things that struck me as i researched the book was the vagabonds and edison and whoever may be with him on that trip could literally change the lives of anyone they met. They were considered magicians for everything they brought to
Jeff quinn, what is the story that you tell in the book the vagabonds . The story i meant to tell in the beginning was how america morphed into a car culture in just about 20 years from everyones horse and wagon to everyone wanting to get in cars and go places. I had not known until i started researching that henry ford and Thomas Edison were at the forefront of this, so the book became a story at that point in their life, too. How did the idea come to you for telling this particular story auto tht this time . This is my 22nd book and what i try to do when i write my nonfiction books is to go everywhere where the people i write about went. Id rather drive and that way you really get a sense of place. Somewhere along the line in the 30,000 or so miles i drive every year i started wondering how we got to be a country, a culture where we take for granted and we can get in a car and go anywhere we want to. I thought it would be a good idea to write a book about that and as always happens w