With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story (2010)
"With great power comes great responsibility" is a proverb popularized by Spider-Man in Marvel comics, films, and related media. Introduced by Stan Lee, it originally appeared as a closing narration in the 1962 Amazing Fantasy #15, and was later attributed to Uncle Ben as advice to the young Peter Parker. The idea—similar to the 1st century BC parable of the Sword of Damocles and the medieval principle of noblesse oblige—is that power cannot simply be enjoyed for its privileges alone but necessarily makes its holders morally responsible both for what they choose to do with it and for what they fail to do with it. After it was popularized by the Spider-Man franchise, similar formulations have been noticed in the work of earlier writers and orators. The formulation—usually in its Marvel Comics form—has been used by journalists, authors, and other writers, including the Supreme Court of the United States.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00:00The 2008 National Medal of Arts to Stan Lee for his groundbreaking work as one of America's
00:00:23most prolific storytellers, recreating the American comic book.
00:00:27His complex plots and humane superheroes celebrate courage, honesty, and the importance
00:00:32of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America's inherent goodness.
00:00:49Stan Lee is a giant, and a giant like Walt Disney is a giant.
00:00:53He created Spider-Man, and Hulk, and Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Iron Man.
00:00:58These characters are larger than life.
00:01:00Stan Lee is a pioneer in the truest sense.
00:01:04Without him, there are no comic book stories, no Marvel stories really being told.
00:01:08He really put himself into the comics.
00:01:11He hooks into old, tried and true themes, but he's done it in a way that I don't think
00:01:17anyone else has.
00:01:19Stan was really the first comic book writer to make the human being behind the mask more
00:01:24important than the mask itself.
00:01:28The most famous name in American comic book history.
00:01:31Stan Lee.
00:01:32Stan Lee.
00:01:33Stan Lee.
00:01:34Stan Lee.
00:01:35Stan is very hot.
00:01:36He's 86.
00:01:37I look older than he does.
00:01:38The man who kind of changed the face of comics.
00:01:41That's Stan Lee.
00:01:42That's, you know, I'm like, oh my God.
00:01:45It influenced the lives of like millions and millions.
00:01:49He's really become a major icon himself.
00:01:52When I met him on the set, I saw everybody crowding around him.
00:01:55You know, it was like Mick Jagger was there.
00:02:03I've been here for three days waiting for Stan Lee.
00:02:09I just relate to so much of what Stan Lee writes in his characters.
00:02:14Peter Parker reminds me of myself.
00:02:19Learn to read because of Spider-Man comics.
00:02:21Stan Lee.
00:02:24We love you, Stan!
00:02:32Thank you, Mr. Lee.
00:02:33Thank you very much.
00:02:48Stan Lee.
00:02:49Uh-oh.
00:02:51I'm her greatest fan ever.
00:03:14Stan Lee.
00:03:31Creating comics was never part of my childhood dream.
00:03:34I never thought of that at all.
00:03:36Believe it or not, I wanted to be an actor.
00:03:38I'd go to the movies and I'd think, gee, I wish I were up there on the screen.
00:03:42That must be the most fun you could have.
00:03:44I remember my really first hero was Errol Flynn.
00:03:54Did I upset your plan?
00:03:55Well, my upbringing was in the Depression days.
00:04:01We lived in the Bronx on University Avenue.
00:04:06That old apartment that we lived in, wow, I hated that.
00:04:09My mother and father slept in a couch in the living room
00:04:12that opened up into a double bed,
00:04:14and I slept in a little bedroom in a bed.
00:04:16I still remember how important it was to have enough money
00:04:19for a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk.
00:04:22One biggest worry my mother and father had
00:04:25that I used to hear them repeating all the time is,
00:04:28what'll we do if we can't scrape enough money together
00:04:31for the rent this month?
00:04:33And that went on and on.
00:04:35My father was too worried about just getting a job.
00:04:39The poor guy was out of work most of the time,
00:04:42which is why I was working even when I was in school.
00:04:45I always had part-time jobs.
00:04:47When I was 16, I worked in the world's
00:04:50second largest trouser manufacturing company.
00:04:53Then I got a job as an usher in New York
00:04:56at the Rivoli Theater in Times Square.
00:04:58I got into comics by accident
00:05:00when I heard there was a job open at magazine management.
00:05:04They wanted me to work in the comic department.
00:05:07Some department. It was two people, Joe and Jack.
00:05:10And they were the two who were really running Timely Comics
00:05:13when I came there to work.
00:05:15Jack was the artist, and he did some of the writing also.
00:05:19Joe was the writer mainly, but he was also the editor.
00:05:23So he was the one I had most to do with.
00:05:26He'd send me down for sandwiches or ask me to fill an inkwell.
00:05:30I mean, I did a lot of real journalistic things with him.
00:05:33I remember the first day he came here.
00:05:35He came to the office.
00:05:37He had a little flute, and he'd sit in the corner
00:05:40and play his flute and drive Jack Kirby crazy.
00:05:44I never thought when he came to the office he would make it.
00:05:49There was a time when they needed a two-page filler.
00:05:53Each comic book had to have two pages of prose
00:05:57to be accepted for second-class mailing privileges.
00:06:01It was our contention that nobody ever read that stuff.
00:06:05So I started Stan on writing these two pages.
00:06:09I thought, wow, my first assignment.
00:06:13So I wrote one called, I think,
00:06:15Captain America, The Traitor's Revenge.
00:06:18Stan treated the thing with great respect.
00:06:21He was now a professional writer.
00:06:24My name at the time was Stanley Martin Lieber.
00:06:28I took my first name, Stanley, and cut it in half.
00:06:31I didn't want to use the name Stanley Martin Lieber
00:06:35because I was saving that for the great American novel
00:06:39with which I never wrote.
00:06:46After about ten issues of Captain America, less than a year,
00:06:50Joe Simon and Jack Kirby suddenly left the entire company
00:06:53and all of a sudden we didn't have an editor.
00:06:56Captain America was left in the lurch
00:06:58without its main writer and artist.
00:07:00I looked around to see who'd replaced them
00:07:03and I realized there was nobody.
00:07:05I was the only guy there.
00:07:07So the publisher, Martin Goodman, he said,
00:07:10do you think you can hold down the job of editor
00:07:13and art director and head writer
00:07:15until I get, you know, a real person?
00:07:17I was about, I don't know, 18 when I said,
00:07:20sure, I can do it.
00:07:22It's more that he was there.
00:07:24He was writing. He was even a relative.
00:07:26But the main thing was he also would have recognized
00:07:29that Stan was a bright kid, he's working cheap,
00:07:32so why not put him in charge?
00:07:34I wrote a lot of the Captain America stories,
00:07:37but then eventually a lot of other writers did
00:07:40because there wasn't time for me to write everything.
00:07:54America went to war and the superheroes went to war
00:07:56along with them.
00:07:58What could be more of an ultimate supervillain
00:08:00than the Nazis?
00:08:02Simon and Kirby were the first two to really
00:08:05play Hitler up as the world's worst villain.
00:08:11If you'd look at almost any issue of a Marvel comic,
00:08:14which was then a timely comic, I guess,
00:08:17you'd see Sub-Mariner or the Human Torch
00:08:20or Captain America battling some really ugly,
00:08:24gruesome, fiendish-looking Nazi or Japanese villain.
00:08:31Comic books were selling.
00:08:33We were living our mythology.
00:08:35We were living our folklore.
00:08:37And we were winning the war through our superheroes
00:08:40and our real heroes overseas.
00:08:42And I guess I, myself, got so caught up in all of that
00:08:46that the next thing I knew, I had enlisted in the army.
00:08:58I felt our nation was really in danger.
00:09:01And I couldn't have lived with myself
00:09:04if I were a superhero.
00:09:06I was a superhero.
00:09:08In the army, I was classified as a playwright.
00:09:11They sent me to different camps
00:09:13where I wrote training films.
00:09:15He even drew a pamphlet about
00:09:17how not to get venereal disease,
00:09:19which he's very good at.
00:09:24There were only nine men in the army
00:09:26who were classified as playwrights.
00:09:28And I was in great company.
00:09:30There was William Shatner.
00:09:32I was in great company.
00:09:34I was in great company.
00:09:37I was in great company.
00:09:39There was William Soroyan,
00:09:41Carl Emily Jr., Frank Capra,
00:09:43and a guy named Theodore Geisel,
00:09:45whom you may know as Dr. Seuss.
00:09:47He was evidently so good,
00:09:49he could always finish his work so fast
00:09:51that he'd be able to sit around
00:09:53in Goldbrick for a while, I guess.
00:10:01After the war ended,
00:10:03we could all get back to normal.
00:10:05That was the last war we'd ever have.
00:10:07Now there'd be peace in the world.
00:10:25Hi, Mr. Lee.
00:10:27How are you?
00:10:29Glad to see you.
00:10:31Did you have a good day?
00:10:33You always look great.
00:10:35What would you like?
00:10:37I'd like to put my bag down for a minute.
00:10:39I'll be right back.
00:10:41How many years?
00:10:43Do you know how many years?
00:10:45Sixty.
00:10:47Sixty years this year.
00:10:49On the 5th of this month.
00:10:51And I still don't think I've got it right.
00:10:53Well, I may as well tell you
00:10:55the whole truth, really,
00:10:57nothing but the truth.
00:10:59I crossed over in the old Mauritania
00:11:01during the last of the lovely wars
00:11:03and I came over as a war bride.
00:11:05And I became a hat model.
00:11:09And Stan said to
00:11:11one of the salesmen there,
00:11:13that's the girl I'm going to marry.
00:11:15And they said, not a chance,
00:11:17she's married already.
00:11:19And he said, no, that's the girl I'm going to marry.
00:11:21And six weeks later I was in Reno
00:11:23spending his money.
00:11:25I can't do it.
00:11:27Come on, get up.
00:11:29People who think I'm wonderful,
00:11:31I will not let...
00:11:33No, no, please don't do this to me.
00:11:35You're real good.
00:11:37Should have seen her 60 years ago.
00:11:47This is what she hates.
00:11:51No, you don't do that.
00:11:53You don't do that.
00:11:56This is her.
00:11:58Now stop.
00:12:00There you go.
00:12:06Young and gay
00:12:08and sweet and dainty
00:12:10the girl from...
00:12:12Everything is mutual.
00:12:14I love her
00:12:16and she loves me
00:12:18loving her.
00:12:20And he loves her and I love him
00:12:22loving him.
00:12:24There we go.
00:12:26How lucky we are to be able to move
00:12:28like this at our age. Sweet Jesus.
00:12:30After World War II
00:12:32I got married, my wife and I,
00:12:34we lived in Long Island.
00:12:36We lived in a wonderful, crazy apartment
00:12:38he had, 96th and Madison.
00:12:40We had this little penthouse
00:12:42we had a lot of wonderful
00:12:44crazy friends.
00:12:48And Stan was with
00:12:50Timely Comics then
00:12:52he was on Empire State Building.
00:12:54I remember how mad it was
00:12:56to go up in that elevator
00:12:58and there would be Stan
00:13:00with these young men
00:13:02sketching and doing and laughing
00:13:04and talking.
00:13:06Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to welcome you
00:13:08to the home of Marvel Comics
00:13:10the Batty bullpen.
00:13:12Stan, I always wanted to visit the bullpen.
00:13:14What is the bullpen like?
00:13:16Well, there are very few bulls.
00:13:22There was an extensive bullpen
00:13:24coming and going in that bullpen
00:13:26with some of the giants of the industry
00:13:28and Stan had them at his disposal.
00:13:30We turn out about one
00:13:32complete comic magazine
00:13:34every working day.
00:13:38When I would describe the kind of
00:13:40drawings I want
00:13:42if somebody was recoiling in horror
00:13:44at some scene
00:13:46and the artist would draw like that
00:13:48I'd say, that's okay
00:13:50but how about like that?
00:13:52He would jump on the couch
00:13:54he would leap across
00:13:56he would do Aunt May's voice
00:13:58he would jump up on the desk
00:14:00practically to act out how he wanted the heroes to do
00:14:02and that was a major feat
00:14:04to get up on that desk with all that junk on it.
00:14:06He was a believer in the silent film
00:14:08approach to storytelling.
00:14:10Don't do anything mildly
00:14:12if somebody is going to pound on the desk
00:14:14you don't go
00:14:16no, you go
00:14:18smash
00:14:20that's the way he used to do
00:14:22so he would animate everything he wanted to do
00:14:24he'd say, have Doctor Doom do this
00:14:26jump and leap
00:14:28and he'd leap over the couch
00:14:30there are stories that before
00:14:32I was doing sessions with Stan
00:14:34that people down the hall
00:14:36they would see Stan doing these gyrations
00:14:38in his doorway
00:14:40one time he's doing the old comic stick
00:14:42where somebody is strangling you
00:14:44he was strangling himself
00:14:47and everybody comes running down
00:14:49they thought somebody was attacking Stan in his office
00:14:51but he was very animated
00:14:53You know
00:14:55it's a funny thing
00:14:57some people somewhere think that I wrote
00:14:59and drew
00:15:01they think that the strips were just mine
00:15:03but they would have been nothing
00:15:05if not for the artist that I worked with
00:15:07I just put the words in the people's mouth
00:15:09and I may have come up with the original idea
00:15:11but after that
00:15:13it was a partnership
00:15:15that allowed the artists to be themselves
00:15:17and that I think was the key
00:15:19if you take a look at credits on comic books
00:15:21back in the 1950s, good luck
00:15:23there were rarely any credits
00:15:25you didn't know who the writer was
00:15:27you didn't know who the artist was
00:15:29Stan made sure that everybody got a credit
00:15:31and he started building personality
00:15:33around these people
00:15:35I'm suddenly Jazzy John
00:15:37Gentleman Gene Koehler
00:15:39Joltin' Joe
00:15:41Darling Dick Ayers
00:15:43Now you're part of the bullpen
00:15:45you're somebody now
00:15:47I wanted our readers to feel
00:15:49they're part of a group
00:15:51an inner circle
00:15:53and we're all having a lot of fun
00:15:55that the rest of the world doesn't know about
00:15:57so I wanted to form a club
00:15:59I gave it a silly name
00:16:01the MMMS
00:16:03the Merry Marvel Marching Society
00:16:05You belong, you belong
00:16:07you belong, you belong
00:16:09to the Merry Marvel Marching Society
00:16:11This is Stan Lee speaking
00:16:13You've probably never heard a record like this before
00:16:15because no one would be nutty enough
00:16:17to make one with a bunch of offbeat artists
00:16:19so anything is liable to happen
00:16:21Hey, who made you with this, Jackie Lee?
00:16:23Well, well, jolly Jack Kirby
00:16:25say a few words to the fans, Jackson
00:16:27Okay, a few words
00:16:29Look, pal, I'll take care of the humor around here
00:16:31You, you've been using the same gags over and over for years
00:16:33Hey, what's all that commotion out there, Sol?
00:16:35Why, it's shy Steve Ditko
00:16:37He heard you making a record
00:16:39He's got mic fright
00:16:41Whoops, there he goes
00:16:43Out the window again?
00:16:45You know, I'm beginning to think he is Spider-Man
00:16:47You mean he isn't?
00:16:49Enough said. Now, let's all get back to work in the bullpen
00:16:51and as for you, Marvelous Merry Marchers
00:16:53Welcome home
00:16:59In the gay, halcyon early days
00:17:01Jack Kirby developed most of the Marvel heroes
00:17:03with me
00:17:05Jack drew like a movie director
00:17:08He couldn't draw anything dull
00:17:10In a very short span of
00:17:12about five or six years
00:17:14Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
00:17:16created more successful characters
00:17:18than any person or two people
00:17:20together have ever created
00:17:22in the history of comics
00:17:24I always marveled at the fact
00:17:26that Jack was able to design
00:17:28so many varied characters
00:17:30and yet
00:17:32make each one totally different
00:17:34than the other
00:17:36Jack would just put his pencil down
00:17:38and start drawing
00:17:40He drew with such certainty
00:17:42He knew just where every line
00:17:44was going to go
00:17:46There was no hesitation
00:17:48and it worked out perfectly
00:17:50It was incredible
00:17:52I feel that story first
00:17:54I know those people first
00:17:56When I put them down
00:17:58they've already lived
00:18:00and I put them down
00:18:02as I'd like them to live on those pages
00:18:04I had worked with Jack so much
00:18:06We did those monster stories
00:18:08We did westerns
00:18:10We did war
00:18:12We did everything
00:18:14I would give them
00:18:16the plot
00:18:18I told them what I wanted the story to be
00:18:20I used to hear them plotting stories
00:18:22but I don't remember them ever agreeing on anything
00:18:24Jack had his own idea
00:18:26He went home and did his version
00:18:28Stan, when he got the pages
00:18:30said, gee, Jack didn't remember anything we talked about
00:18:32Jack did one version
00:18:34Stan made it something else
00:18:36and that's why there's a disagreement
00:18:38between Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
00:18:40as to whose story they were
00:18:42We used to have disagreements
00:18:44I never thought it got him angry
00:18:46I love fighting with people
00:18:48Maybe it bothered him when I always said you're wrong
00:18:50A lot of reporters
00:18:52always thought, oh, Stan created everything
00:18:54They'd come into Stan's office
00:18:56and Stan would sit there
00:18:58and he's so charming and wonderful
00:19:00and he'd interview me
00:19:02for the Herald Tribune magazine section
00:19:04and I said, but look, if you're going to interview me
00:19:06I really think you should
00:19:08interview Jack Kirby at the same time
00:19:10because he works on it with me
00:19:12He came up to the office
00:19:14and he interviewed us
00:19:16Jack told me that he was going to stay
00:19:18up late Saturday night with his wife
00:19:20and they were going to go to the newsstand
00:19:22so they'd get it right away
00:19:24The first five columns
00:19:26were all about me and how wonderful I was
00:19:29In the sixth column
00:19:31he started talking about Jack
00:19:33in a very unflattering way
00:19:35I got a call from Roz, Jack's wife
00:19:37I hadn't seen the article
00:19:39I thought she was calling me
00:19:41to say how great it was
00:19:43how excited they were
00:19:45and she was in tears
00:19:47She said, how could this have happened?
00:19:49It was the most horrible thing, really
00:19:51Jack quit
00:19:53and I really suspect it might have been
00:19:55as simple as the fact
00:19:57I remember having the credits read
00:19:59by Stanley and Jack Kirby all the time
00:20:01He may have wanted to strike out on his own
00:20:03As far as I'm concerned
00:20:05there's no controversy
00:20:07He was the greatest partner
00:20:09a guy could have
00:20:11Jack contacted me
00:20:13and he wanted to come back again
00:20:15which made me happy
00:20:19Do you think there is any danger
00:20:21in taking young people
00:20:23and showing them
00:20:25figures and fantastic
00:20:27apparitions like some of your superheroes
00:20:29Captain America
00:20:31Hulk and so forth
00:20:33No, no more danger than reading
00:20:35fairytales or poetry
00:20:37or the Bible
00:20:39It is my opinion
00:20:41without any reasonable doubt
00:20:43and without any
00:20:45reservation
00:20:47that comic books
00:20:49are an important contributing
00:20:51factor in many
00:20:53cases of juvenile delinquency
00:20:55Dr. Wertham was the leading
00:20:57opponent of comics
00:20:59and the most vocal one
00:21:01At the time when he was having his big harangue
00:21:03against comics
00:21:05people were very concerned
00:21:07about violence and about sex
00:21:09and about, I guess, anything that Dr. Wertham
00:21:11wanted to mention
00:21:13He interviewed a hundred juvenile delinquents
00:21:15They all said that at one time or another
00:21:17they read comic books
00:21:19Therefore, Dr. Wertham concluded
00:21:21When I was a boy
00:21:23and played with the gang, we did a lot of things
00:21:25We roasted potatoes, went on expeditions
00:21:27We tipped over garbage cans now and then
00:21:29We wrote nasty remarks about the teacher
00:21:31on the sidewalk
00:21:33We never spent an afternoon sitting around like this
00:21:35reading
00:21:37They're reading stories devoted to adultery
00:21:39to sexual perversion
00:21:41to horror, to the most despicable of crimes
00:21:45Senators were merciless
00:21:47They would say
00:21:50You're in it for the money? Of course you're in it for the money
00:21:52We're not, you know
00:21:54Is it worth the money if you're going to distort
00:21:56youngsters' aspect of life?
00:22:02One of my favorite accusations that Dr. Wertham made
00:22:04was that comic books cause asthma
00:22:06because children were staying indoors
00:22:08to read them instead of playing in the fresh air
00:22:10The fact that he was a psychiatrist
00:22:12this impressed parents and they began to think
00:22:14Dahlia, what's going on in these comics?
00:22:16Dr. Wertham suddenly gave parents an easy answer
00:22:18Don't think you're a bad parent
00:22:20It's those damn comic books that are ruining your children
00:22:22And people seized on it and jumped on it
00:22:28See, Americans were embarrassed about comics
00:22:30Stan and I never used to say we worked on comics
00:22:32I said I was an illustrator
00:22:34Stan said he was a writer, never mentioned comics
00:22:36Occasionally some people
00:22:38who we weren't too familiar with
00:22:40would come over to me and say, what do you do?
00:22:42Oh man, I didn't want to admit
00:22:44what I did, so I'd say something like
00:22:46Oh, I'm a writer and I'd start to walk away
00:22:48but he'd follow me
00:22:50What do you write?
00:22:52Stories for children
00:22:54I'd walk away again, he'd follow me
00:22:56What kind of stories?
00:22:58At some point I had to say comic books
00:23:00At that point he would turn around and walk away
00:23:06The publishers got together
00:23:08and hired a psychiatrist or somebody
00:23:10I think her name was Truelock, Mrs. Truelock
00:23:12to head up an organization
00:23:14called the Comic Magazine Association
00:23:16of America
00:23:18And they would be a self-censorship group
00:23:20And they would make sure
00:23:22there was nothing objectionable
00:23:24for kids
00:23:26Not too sexy, not too violent, etc.
00:23:28You couldn't sell a book
00:23:30unless it had their seal on it
00:23:32approved by the Comics Code
00:23:36The imposition of the Comics Code
00:23:38created a blandness
00:23:40It stifled creativity
00:23:42The extremes that were built
00:23:44into the Code
00:23:46if you look at them today are almost laughable
00:23:52No comic shall explicitly present
00:23:54the unique details
00:23:56and methods of a crime
00:23:58Scenes of excessive violence
00:24:00shall be prohibited
00:24:02Suggestive and salacious
00:24:04illustrations is unacceptable
00:24:07It was an incredibly frustrating time
00:24:09also
00:24:11I would meet somebody
00:24:13somewhere
00:24:15Hey, you're the guy who writes Millie the Model
00:24:17Gee, I read that, that's great
00:24:19Never heard that
00:24:21The sales got very bad
00:24:23and our publisher, Martin Goodman
00:24:25had to drop a lot of comic books
00:24:29It took about two years
00:24:31when we got to the point
00:24:33where we were able to sell
00:24:35When we got to the point
00:24:37where that's when we went belly up
00:24:39And Martin said, Stan, I'm going to Miami
00:24:41and I'd like you to tell the staff
00:24:43that we have to let them go
00:24:45That was always the thing I had to do
00:24:47And that was like one of the worst moments
00:24:49of my life
00:24:51Because these weren't just artists and writers
00:24:53who worked for me
00:24:55These were people who were like my closest friends
00:24:57I mean, I knew their wives, I knew their kids
00:24:59I knew all about them
00:25:01And I'm sorry we won't have any work for you
00:25:03Maybe a year or two
00:25:05Oh God, it was the worst
00:25:07I didn't get any work
00:25:09There was no place I could get any work
00:25:11So I got a job as a security guard
00:25:13at General Foods
00:25:15I thought for sure in 54
00:25:17that I would never be working in comics again
00:25:19We moved up to 260 Park Avenue
00:25:21Stan, he had one little room
00:25:23and he was all by himself
00:25:25He had no secretary
00:25:27and no bullpen
00:25:29No one to do any corrections
00:25:31Stan was virtually the only employee
00:25:33in the comics
00:25:35Doing comics was like
00:25:37you were on the bottom rung
00:25:39of the creative totem pole, so to speak
00:25:41Here I am, a grown man
00:25:43I was in my 30s
00:25:45and I'm doing juvenile things
00:25:47Most of my neighbors
00:25:49they were stockbrokers
00:25:51they were bankers
00:25:53they were businessmen
00:25:55they were doctors
00:25:57they were lawyers
00:25:59What kind of reference
00:26:01was the fact that you
00:26:03had been writing comics?
00:26:05So I kept staying there
00:26:07because I had a wife
00:26:09and a baby, a child
00:26:11I didn't know where else to go
00:26:13but finally
00:26:15I was ready to quit
00:26:17by about 1960 or 61
00:26:19I had been doing it
00:26:21for 20 years
00:26:23I said to my wife
00:26:25Look, I'm sure there's something I can do
00:26:28I'll write a novel or something
00:26:30and she said, Stan, if you want to quit
00:26:32why don't you first do
00:26:34one comic book
00:26:36the way you'd like to do it
00:26:38for a slightly older audience
00:26:40write it the way you feel like writing it
00:26:42get it out of your system
00:26:44The worst that can happen
00:26:46is you'll be fired
00:26:48but you want to quit anyway
00:26:50When Joan finally said
00:26:52why don't you do one book
00:26:54the way you'd like to do it
00:26:56it exploded over my head
00:26:58I felt, well at least
00:27:00I'll get it out of my system
00:27:02and then I'll quit or be fired
00:27:06Martin said to me
00:27:08why don't you do a book
00:27:10with a bunch of heroes
00:27:12so I figured, ok, I'll get a group of heroes
00:27:14but this time I wanted to do them my way
00:27:16and I wanted to write things
00:27:18to appeal to older people too
00:27:22If I had a superpower
00:27:24there's no way
00:27:26I would wear a mask
00:27:28and not want people to know who I was
00:27:30I'd want everybody to know
00:27:32look at me, I can do things
00:27:34you can't do
00:27:36I'm better than you are
00:27:38and here's my name if you don't believe it
00:27:42It was right there in that moment
00:27:44with Fantastic Four number one
00:27:46that the Marvel age of comics started
00:27:48and that what Stan Lee has become
00:27:50started
00:27:521961
00:27:54there was a notable year
00:27:56John Kennedy became president
00:27:58Alan Shepard became the first American in space
00:28:00The Bikini became fashionable
00:28:02and Marvel Comics
00:28:04made its debut
00:28:06I saw these comics that were unlike anything
00:28:08that I'd seen before
00:28:10the pages rippled with energy
00:28:18Comic book superheroes
00:28:20in 1961
00:28:22were cardboard characters
00:28:24they didn't really have a sense of humor
00:28:26there was no texture to it
00:28:28there were no subplots
00:28:30We try to write stories we would enjoy
00:28:32and apparently there are enough people
00:28:34in the world who have the same tastes
00:28:36I hate to say that, I'd like to think my taste
00:28:38is far better, but apparently
00:28:40everybody must have pretty much the same taste
00:28:42because the books sell pretty well
00:28:44All of a sudden, Stan's superheroes
00:28:46were dealing with angst
00:28:49self torment
00:28:51anguish
00:28:53this was really the first time that an added dimension
00:28:55of personality had been brought in
00:28:57to the superhero
00:28:59Stan was able to tap into something
00:29:01where you became interested in the character
00:29:03as opposed to the costume
00:29:05wait a minute
00:29:07they're fighting with each other
00:29:09they don't particularly like each other
00:29:11they don't like their powers
00:29:13they think it's like a curse
00:29:15not something good that happened
00:29:19One character, The Thing
00:29:21who's one of the most popular ones
00:29:23the first time he wore a superhero
00:29:25outfit in the street
00:29:27he reacted in a way I've always felt
00:29:29a character in a book should react
00:29:31instead of taking it for granted
00:29:33he said, I feel like a nut in an outfit
00:29:35like this, people are looking at me
00:29:37and we've had stories where they were
00:29:39evicted from their headquarters
00:29:41because they had lost a lot of money in the stock market
00:29:43and they couldn't pay their rent
00:29:45things that had never happened to superheroes
00:29:47before
00:29:49see another thing
00:29:51I didn't see any reason for our superheroes
00:29:53such as the Fantastic Four
00:29:55to live in cities
00:29:57like Metropolis or Gotham City
00:29:59I figured hell
00:30:01why can't they live in New York
00:30:03I knew New York
00:30:05so I made it New York
00:30:07I could write comfortably about New York
00:30:09and when they went to the movies
00:30:11why did they go to the Bijou Theater
00:30:13why did they go to the Radio City Music Hall
00:30:15and when the Human Torch
00:30:17who was a teenager, Johnny Storm
00:30:19when he wanted a sports car
00:30:21he wouldn't buy a whiz-bang V8
00:30:23I got him a Chevy Corvette
00:30:25so again
00:30:27I tried to make things
00:30:29as realistic
00:30:31as possible even though
00:30:33these were fantasy stories
00:30:35things exploded at Marvel
00:30:37so much
00:30:39when he was doing this in the early 60's
00:30:41by the late 1960's
00:30:43the distributor that owned DC
00:30:45basically told Marvel
00:30:47you're selling so good
00:30:49we're making more money off of you
00:30:51than the publisher we own
00:30:53publish everything you want
00:30:55we sell about 60 million copies
00:30:5760 million magazines a year
00:30:59I guess that would break down
00:31:01to 5 million a month
00:31:03when we passed DC
00:31:05I almost flipped
00:31:07you know DC was the Cadillac
00:31:09of the industry
00:31:11it was absolutely a miracle
00:31:13I would say from 60 to 70
00:31:15that's when I enjoyed
00:31:17the comic book business more
00:31:19than I have ever enjoyed it
00:31:2161 was a Fantastic Four
00:31:2362 he had the Hulk
00:31:25Ant-Man and Thor and Spider-Man
00:31:271963
00:31:29Darth Fury, Iron Man, Giant Man
00:31:31Doctor Strange and X-Men
00:31:33The Avengers 64, Daredevil
00:31:351965, Big Fury
00:31:371966, The Silver Surfer
00:31:39it was like we were on a roll
00:31:41and nothing could stop us
00:31:51what makes Stan happiest?
00:31:53peace and quiet
00:31:55and his computer
00:32:01for the past 27 years
00:32:03since we've lived here
00:32:05everything I've written
00:32:07I've written in here
00:32:09this is where I work
00:32:11it's a functional room
00:32:13which has all the things I need to work in
00:32:15and I like it
00:32:17because it's comfortable
00:32:19I got my copier there
00:32:21my fax machine here
00:32:23my computer there
00:32:25and a little chair to sit on
00:32:27if I want to read a book
00:32:29and I have my desk to write things on
00:32:31and it's just the way I need it
00:32:33my wife hates this room
00:32:35with a hatred that defies understanding
00:32:39because I wouldn't let her decorate it
00:32:41she's not very happy about
00:32:43those things up there
00:32:45my little boxes with supplies
00:32:47she hates all the wires
00:32:49behind this computer
00:32:51she hates this room
00:32:53we have good Donnie Brooks
00:32:55nothing that's ever violent
00:32:57but then I'm very bossy
00:32:59and he's very bossy
00:33:01and we're always looking to top each other off
00:33:03the charts
00:33:05one of the worst fights we ever had
00:33:07I don't remember what I said or did
00:33:09but it got you angry
00:33:11and you remember I had that beautiful
00:33:13Remington noiseless
00:33:15portable typewriter
00:33:17my mother bought it for me
00:33:19I had it for years
00:33:21I wrote some of my first stories on it
00:33:23that's the typewriter
00:33:25I wrote the Fantastic Four on it
00:33:27and Spiderman
00:33:29you got mad at me about something I said
00:33:31probably something like
00:33:33Joan how can you stand there
00:33:35you idiot
00:33:37the sun's in the wrong position
00:33:39why would that get you angry?
00:33:41you have no idea
00:33:43whatever I said
00:33:45she lifted that typewriter up
00:33:47like that
00:33:49my heart was in my mouth
00:33:51she wouldn't
00:33:53she threw it down
00:33:55and it shattered
00:33:57into a million pieces
00:34:01boom
00:34:09the 60s was the atomic age
00:34:11and people started building
00:34:13bomb shelters in their backyards
00:34:15I remember we lived in Long Island
00:34:17at the time
00:34:19and there were one or two people in our neighborhood
00:34:21who actually got construction crews
00:34:23and they built these shelters
00:34:25cement reinforced
00:34:27heavy doors
00:34:29that would seal shut
00:34:31above the shelter
00:34:33and they stocked them with water
00:34:35and all kinds of canned food
00:34:37and they were going to sit it out
00:34:39if ever any atomic bomb was
00:34:41or missile was launched
00:34:43people were really afraid
00:34:45they'd be either killed
00:34:47or burned alive or horribly disfigured
00:34:49and everybody was involved in science
00:34:51nuclear fission
00:34:53so when I created the Hulk
00:34:55I wanted to give it a scientific basis
00:34:59music
00:35:13I had always loved the movie
00:35:15Frankenstein
00:35:17and I really thought
00:35:19that the monster was the good guy
00:35:21he didn't want to hurt anybody
00:35:23he just wanted to be left alone
00:35:25but those idiots with torches
00:35:27kept chasing him up and down the hills
00:35:29and through the countryside
00:35:31and he always had my sympathy
00:35:33I had also always loved
00:35:35Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
00:35:37and I said
00:35:39what if my monster could be a guy
00:35:41like Dr. Jekyll
00:35:43and when he becomes the monster
00:35:45that's like Mr. Hyde
00:35:47so I thought psychologically
00:35:49we could have fun with that
00:35:51story-wise
00:35:53the two entities of this
00:35:55one person
00:35:57and they both hate each other
00:35:59and would like to destroy each other
00:36:03The Hulk is a guy
00:36:05that's kind of a lost soul
00:36:07he's had no connection
00:36:09doesn't remember where he came from
00:36:11and he's basically searching for someone
00:36:13to like him, to be nice to him
00:36:15that he's an okay guy
00:36:19Stan walked in
00:36:21and
00:36:23in his take on superhumans
00:36:25he paid way more attention to the human
00:36:27than the super
00:36:29he made the characters real
00:36:31he made them feel like people who you knew
00:36:33they were your friends, they were your neighbors
00:36:35and suddenly people got emotionally invested in this
00:36:37and they cared about it
00:36:39and I think what Stan did was make really
00:36:41humanistic superheroes
00:36:43one of the things that I've learned from Stan is
00:36:45what's really important is not
00:36:47Spider-Man, it's the guy in the
00:36:49Spider-Man costume
00:36:51It has to be about Peter Parker
00:36:53Peter Parker was supposed to be every man
00:36:55or every young man
00:36:57with all the
00:36:59conflicts and
00:37:01uncertainties
00:37:03and confusions that any young man
00:37:05has. Peter Parker is your
00:37:07normal kid from Queens
00:37:09who's a bit socially awkward
00:37:11has girl problems, they have money
00:37:13problems. I tried to put him
00:37:15in the real world and give him the kind
00:37:17of things that regular readers
00:37:19could relate to
00:37:21I mean he'd have ingrown toenails
00:37:23his costume would tear
00:37:25while he was fighting
00:37:27It was very easy
00:37:29for me to identify with Peter
00:37:31Parker because all I had to do
00:37:33was think of a lot of things that happened
00:37:35when I was young. For example
00:37:37I might have a big date with a girl
00:37:39that I really liked and wouldn't
00:37:41you know I'd have an allergy attack
00:37:43at that night, I'd be sneezing all over
00:37:45the place or there'd be another
00:37:47girl that I really wanted to make an
00:37:49impression on. I'd take her out to dinner
00:37:51and then on the way home
00:37:53I realized I didn't have enough money for a
00:37:55cab and you could imagine
00:37:57the great impression it would make
00:37:59on a date if you have to take her home
00:38:01in a crowded subway
00:38:03so it was not too hard for me
00:38:05to come up with things for
00:38:07Peter Parker. I just had to think of the things
00:38:09that happened to me.
00:38:11Spider-Man is Stan. I absolutely
00:38:13feel that. All the things that
00:38:15Stan feels, morality
00:38:17Uncle Ben, you know
00:38:19all of that is Stan's
00:38:21attitude
00:38:23towards mankind.
00:38:25You see I always felt with
00:38:27superheroes, why
00:38:29would somebody spend his whole
00:38:31life fighting the bad guys?
00:38:33Why not just get married and have
00:38:35kids and lead a normal life?
00:38:37So I wanted to give Spider-Man a
00:38:39real motive, a real
00:38:41reason and let the reader understand
00:38:43that he always carried this
00:38:45guilt feeling with him and that was the
00:38:47reason for that. With great power
00:38:49comes great responsibility.
00:38:53It's a great morality
00:38:55tale. Peter Parker didn't come out
00:38:57of the gate as a good guy. He was
00:38:59selfish. He was like, look
00:39:01I got these powers, you know what?
00:39:03I'm gonna go make some money. I'm gonna
00:39:05cash out on this. And he went for that
00:39:07and he made a mistake.
00:39:09In a very karmic way
00:39:11let somebody who should have been
00:39:13apprehended by him
00:39:15and that person ended up
00:39:17killing his Uncle Ben.
00:39:19That was a real important
00:39:21lesson.
00:39:23My father,
00:39:25he just always told me, Stan
00:39:27the most important thing is to do
00:39:29the right thing.
00:39:31And I used to write, you know, if you
00:39:33treat other people the way you'd want to
00:39:35be treated, there couldn't be anything
00:39:37bad in the world.
00:39:39So from that came the nature of the man
00:39:41writing Spider-Man and the whole thing.
00:39:43How I came up with the idea for
00:39:45Spider-Man, I have said
00:39:47this so often at so many places
00:39:49that for all I know it might even be true.
00:39:51I was trying to think
00:39:53of a new character
00:39:55and obviously one of the most
00:39:57critical decisions you make
00:39:59is what super power
00:40:01does the character have?
00:40:03Well we already had the strongest man
00:40:05in the world, someone who could fly
00:40:07on and on. What was left?
00:40:09And then I saw a fly
00:40:11on the wall.
00:40:13And I thought, wow, wouldn't it be something
00:40:15if I had a character
00:40:17who could stick to walls like an insect?
00:40:19So I liked that
00:40:21and I said I'm going to do that.
00:40:23Then I needed a name. Names are very important.
00:40:25So I thought
00:40:27of the first logical one, Insect-Man.
00:40:29Somehow it didn't sound glamorous
00:40:31or dramatic.
00:40:33I figured, well, Fly-Man?
00:40:35No, that didn't do it.
00:40:37Mosquito-Man? I went down the list.
00:40:39I got to Spider.
00:40:41Spider-Man.
00:40:43I don't know why, but it sounded
00:40:45dramatic, frightening.
00:40:47I would want to read
00:40:49something called Spider-Man.
00:40:51Who wouldn't
00:40:53want to be able to
00:40:55swing on a web and stick to
00:40:57walls? Are you kidding me? I'm 46.
00:40:59If I could do that tomorrow,
00:41:01I'd come in from the top of this roof
00:41:03into the building every day going,
00:41:05yeah, I'm a Spider-Man.
00:41:07I've tried to call myself the co-creator
00:41:09of these characters.
00:41:11On Spider-Man, I came up
00:41:13with the idea.
00:41:15And then I first gave the strip
00:41:17to Jack Kirby to draw.
00:41:19And Jack drew the first couple of pages
00:41:21and I was looking over his shoulder
00:41:23and I said, wait a minute.
00:41:25You're still making him too glamorous looking.
00:41:27So I said, forget it, Jack.
00:41:29I'm going to give it to someone else.
00:41:31So it occurred to me to give it to Steve Ditko.
00:41:33Steve brought so much
00:41:35to the strip
00:41:37and I don't think the strip would have been
00:41:39as successful without
00:41:41Steve.
00:41:43I don't know what the
00:41:45universal conception of
00:41:47creator is.
00:41:49Steve definitely felt
00:41:51that he was the co-creator
00:41:53of Spider-Man.
00:41:55And that was really, after he said it
00:41:57I saw it meant a lot to him.
00:41:59That was fine with me.
00:42:01So I said, fine, I'll tell everybody you're the co-creator.
00:42:03That didn't quite satisfy him
00:42:05so I sent him a letter.
00:42:07I put it in writing.
00:42:09To whom it may concern,
00:42:11this is to
00:42:13state that I consider
00:42:15Steve Ditko to be the
00:42:17co-creator of Spider-Man
00:42:19along with me.
00:42:21Something like that.
00:42:23And I sent it to him and I said,
00:42:25Steve actually still lives
00:42:27in Manhattan, New York.
00:42:29And when I was in New York a few
00:42:31years ago, we did meet.
00:42:33And we did discuss doing a strip
00:42:35again sometime.
00:42:37Who knows, maybe we'll still come up with something
00:42:39and surprise the public with it.
00:42:41I would love that.
00:42:45When is Valentine's Day?
00:42:4714th of February.
00:42:49Why does nobody ever say, what is your wife going to get you for
00:42:51Valentine's Day?
00:42:53She's probably out shopping
00:42:55right now, figuring it out.
00:42:59He's the most romantic man in the world.
00:43:01Happy anniversary to
00:43:03beautiful Joanie.
00:43:05Wanted to give you the world
00:43:07but it wasn't for sale.
00:43:09Don't know about
00:43:11perfume because I'm a male.
00:43:13Can't buy jewelry.
00:43:15My pics would just
00:43:17be a waste. I'm a dunce
00:43:19about clothes and you have plenty
00:43:21of those. So all I can
00:43:23do and all I can give you
00:43:25is my love.
00:43:31Sorry.
00:43:33Can't go on.
00:43:35I adore you.
00:43:37To my wife.
00:43:41My wife is really
00:43:43the greatest person in the world. She's far
00:43:45more talented than I am.
00:43:47She sings, dances, had been
00:43:49an actress, was a model.
00:43:51It's a funny story.
00:43:53When I first married her, she had been
00:43:55acting and singing
00:43:57and had a great career ahead of her.
00:43:59But in those days, guys
00:44:01tried to be very macho.
00:44:03And I said to her,
00:44:05when we got married, I said,
00:44:07no wife of mine is going
00:44:09to work. And she said,
00:44:11okay.
00:44:13And it was the stupidest thing
00:44:15I ever did.
00:44:17You've been supporting me all
00:44:19these years. You know Stan's
00:44:21story told us, if you want to be
00:44:23successful and prolific,
00:44:25put yourself in debt.
00:44:27And the way to do that is to
00:44:29marry a wife who's a spender.
00:44:31And Joan Lee, he says,
00:44:33is responsible for half of his production
00:44:35because if she didn't get into so much
00:44:37debt, he wouldn't have had all the motivation
00:44:39to produce his body of work.
00:44:41So Stan Lee's debt has made
00:44:43the world richer. And Joan
00:44:45Lee is responsible for that.
00:44:47My daughter's not sensible and cautious,
00:44:49and I am not sensible and cautious.
00:44:51We just spend his money
00:44:53deeply.
00:44:55What's it like having a father who is
00:44:57the king of the comic books?
00:44:59Um...
00:45:01How do I say?
00:45:03I...
00:45:05He's unbeatable. I mean, his imagination,
00:45:07his creativity, and his
00:45:09brilliance has not made
00:45:11it easy for other men that I've met.
00:45:13Now I'll stop twisting your arm.
00:45:15How much did that cost you?
00:45:17A fortune. You see this new outfit?
00:45:19No, I'm his greatest fan.
00:45:21Maybe this is an actress he hired to come and do this.
00:45:23I have to say I'm his greatest fan.
00:45:25Now I'll send you back to central casting
00:45:27and I'll tell my daughter that everything went well.
00:45:31That's a great line.
00:45:35Coming from you, I appreciate it.
00:45:37Of all the characters your father's created, who's your favorite?
00:45:39Me.
00:45:41That's a better line.
00:45:45I haven't heard that one in a while.
00:45:49Her mother took care of
00:45:51most of the
00:45:53cultural life, I think.
00:45:55And she grew up wonderfully.
00:45:57She's the most beautiful woman, talented.
00:45:59She's a jewelry
00:46:01designer. She's an artist.
00:46:03Been an actress.
00:46:05We're very proud of her.
00:46:07We had another daughter
00:46:09who didn't survive,
00:46:11but we called her Jan,
00:46:13which Joan felt was the
00:46:15closest thing to Stan. Joan had
00:46:17her room all
00:46:19prepared. It was so
00:46:21beautifully decorated.
00:46:23So she lived about seven days
00:46:25and
00:46:27she died.
00:46:29But we never really
00:46:31discussed it. Interesting.
00:46:33We never really went on a great discussion
00:46:35about Jan.
00:46:37I saw her once. I just insisted that
00:46:39I see her.
00:46:41She was small. Smaller
00:46:43than Joan.
00:46:45Pretty, pretty little baby.
00:46:47And I'll
00:46:49never forget because they were so
00:46:51thrilled. They kept telling me, oh, she took a little
00:46:53water today. She took a little of this today.
00:46:55I was there the eight days
00:46:57that she was in the incubator.
00:46:59And the nurse that was
00:47:01there just came and said,
00:47:03baby done died.
00:47:07I
00:47:09had had my tubes tied off.
00:47:11They did that. And not only did my doctor tie
00:47:13them off because tubes can be
00:47:15changed, but he cut them
00:47:17so they could not be ever
00:47:19undone.
00:47:21I tried to adopt
00:47:23and I couldn't adopt.
00:47:25I couldn't adopt
00:47:27a Jewish baby
00:47:29because I'm not Jewish.
00:47:33I couldn't adopt from a Catholic family
00:47:35because I'm Episcopalian.
00:47:37But in that particular time,
00:47:39you couldn't do it.
00:47:41You couldn't adopt
00:47:43into any mixed marriage
00:47:45at that time.
00:47:47All anybody had to do was come and
00:47:49look at the way we lived, look at our daughter,
00:47:51look at my wife with our daughter,
00:47:53look at me.
00:47:55And they were investigating
00:47:57her and talking to her.
00:47:59She'd come home in tears.
00:48:01You don't remember how angry you were
00:48:03when you'd come home and you said,
00:48:05I won't put myself through this anymore
00:48:07about those interviews
00:48:09you had to go to.
00:48:11Have you forgotten?
00:48:13And how angry that made me.
00:48:15How would I bring the child up?
00:48:17There seems to be some quality in human
00:48:19nature where if
00:48:21everybody had the same religion
00:48:23and everybody lived in the same country,
00:48:25probably the black-haired
00:48:27people would hate blondes
00:48:29and maybe the redheads
00:48:31would be shunned.
00:48:33It seems that some people have to have
00:48:35somebody else to feel
00:48:37superior to and to dislike.
00:48:39His work was very symbolic
00:48:41of the era that he lived in.
00:48:43He really took a lot
00:48:45of the stuff that was happening
00:48:47and fused it into these characters.
00:48:49One thing I felt, there were not enough black
00:48:51superheroes, so
00:48:53I created the Black Panther.
00:48:55Stan was right there
00:48:57at the beginning. The Falcon,
00:48:59Captain America's, not sidekick,
00:49:01Captain America's partner.
00:49:03It was a whole new thing.
00:49:05These are amazing, amazing
00:49:07themes to be dealing with in comic books.
00:49:09In X-Men,
00:49:11I guess my intention was to
00:49:13show that the world
00:49:15never fully tolerates people
00:49:17who are different.
00:49:19So here, nobody could have been more
00:49:21different than these five or six
00:49:23mutants that I had created.
00:49:25And actually, we showed
00:49:27that people feared them
00:49:29and then little by little began to
00:49:31hate them because they were different.
00:49:33I think the way X-Men preaches tolerance is
00:49:35it comments on it quite blatantly.
00:49:37It's all about outcasts, and they talk
00:49:39about it, and they stick together, and
00:49:41they prevail. Although
00:49:43they're persecuted, they also
00:49:45are tolerant of their
00:49:47persecutors, of humans,
00:49:49or bad mutants.
00:49:51And in that way, they preach tolerance
00:49:53even as victims.
00:49:55People, you know,
00:49:57feel and have grown up
00:49:59feeling different. That's really
00:50:01what the X-Men universe is about,
00:50:03is indifference.
00:50:05Growing up, I felt very much like an outcast,
00:50:07although I imagine every adolescent feels that way.
00:50:09Perhaps a personal fantasy that what if my weaknesses
00:50:11or the things that make me different
00:50:13could be what makes me strong.
00:50:15And that's kind of at the heart of what X-Men is.
00:50:17What makes the X-Men heroic
00:50:19is not so much their superpowers
00:50:21but their cause and their focus,
00:50:23let's all embrace each other's
00:50:25individuality and learn to live with each other.
00:50:29But it was a subtle
00:50:31underlying theme, because basically
00:50:33the main theme was excitement
00:50:35and adventure and color.
00:50:37And if people
00:50:39got the theme fine, and if not,
00:50:41we still, I thought, had a good
00:50:43adventurous trip. There is something
00:50:45that anyone can take from it.
00:50:47The things that these characters can do will
00:50:49obviously appeal to young people especially.
00:50:51But then there are these other themes,
00:50:53these more complex themes, which give
00:50:55substance to the work.
00:50:57And as the 60s started to become
00:50:59the 60s, where
00:51:01themes of alienation and acceptance
00:51:03and feelings against
00:51:05the military-industrial complex
00:51:07became more and more important to a
00:51:09growing youth culture,
00:51:11he really turned
00:51:13everything on its head once again.
00:51:15At that time, everybody was turned
00:51:17off with the military-industrial
00:51:19complex. Just for fun, I thought
00:51:21I'd make Iron Man a symbol
00:51:23of the military-industrial
00:51:25complex, and I'd make the
00:51:27readers like him. Iron Man has
00:51:29dealt with a lot of different themes over the course of his
00:51:31long, storied career.
00:51:33Everything from dealing with
00:51:35the mixed blessing of
00:51:37a new, wonderful but
00:51:39dangerous technology.
00:51:41He's dealt with alcoholism as well.
00:51:43Stan
00:51:45kept addressing the issues
00:51:47of the day, the hot topics,
00:51:49and the personal
00:51:51issues and angst that teenagers have.
00:51:53So I decided to have a column
00:51:55every month where I would talk to the
00:51:57readers. I called it Stan's
00:51:59Soapbox. And I would talk about
00:52:01anything that occurred to me, about
00:52:03politics or about school.
00:52:05He was including the readers
00:52:07in everything we did.
00:52:09Over the past few years, Marvel
00:52:11comics have become some of the most popular
00:52:13reading matter on virtually every college campus
00:52:15in America today.
00:52:17Ladies and gentlemen, in the upcoming segment of the
00:52:19broadcast, we're going to be talking about
00:52:21comic strips, I guess.
00:52:23Years ago, we realized how much
00:52:25influence Marvel comics
00:52:27really do have on people.
00:52:29Our readership starts at the age of six
00:52:31and goes up, as I mentioned, to and beyond college.
00:52:33I would say that's my principal
00:52:35objective, to just sort of
00:52:37elevate comics to the point where
00:52:39they're a more respected
00:52:41medium of communication,
00:52:43and they're not thought of as merely
00:52:45something for young children.
00:53:01The University of California's
00:53:03Humor Magazine, The Pelican, recently
00:53:05called Marvel Comics the greatest
00:53:07revolution in literature on
00:53:09campus since the fold-out nude.
00:53:11About once a year
00:53:13we'd get a letter. Somebody would write,
00:53:15Hey, I bought one of your books
00:53:17and there's a staple missing.
00:53:19I want my money back.
00:53:21You know,
00:53:23I would run through the office
00:53:25waving this letter,
00:53:27We got a fan letter!
00:53:33I do a lot of
00:53:35lecturing on college campuses
00:53:37all over the country. In fact, tomorrow morning
00:53:39I'm going to Las Vegas, the University
00:53:41of Las Vegas. I guess there's
00:53:43a certain irony to the fact that
00:53:45some of the children who had
00:53:47comic books taken away from them
00:53:49when they were five years old,
00:53:51when they were in college,
00:53:53when they were twenty years old or so,
00:53:55they were inviting me to come
00:53:57and speak at their college.
00:54:01I've got a question to ask you.
00:54:03I have an answer for you. How did you create your new
00:54:05characters? Where would the ideas come from?
00:54:07I just wonder how far ahead you work on these?
00:54:09Well, I guess we work,
00:54:11you would consider it three months ahead.
00:54:13Have you ever had an issue rejected
00:54:15by the Commons Code?
00:54:17Oh yeah, a few times. Usually for
00:54:19nonsensical reasons.
00:54:31I would talk for, oh, maybe twenty minutes
00:54:33or as long as it was, but then
00:54:35the thing I loved the best was a questions
00:54:37and answer period. I didn't really
00:54:39do it to increase their fund
00:54:41of knowledge, but
00:54:43to increase my own.
00:54:45Every time I would leave
00:54:47one of those lectures, I knew
00:54:49more about what
00:54:51interested our fans
00:54:53than I did before I started the lecture.
00:54:55And I would try to take that
00:54:57knowledge back to the office with me
00:54:59and try to put it to use.
00:55:01Little by little, I found
00:55:03I was getting more questions
00:55:05about the silver surfer than
00:55:07any of our other characters from the college
00:55:09kids. And they were
00:55:11saying, Stan, were you
00:55:13interested in getting a character who
00:55:15embodied the Judeo-Christian
00:55:17philosophy and blah, blah, blah?
00:55:19Things I hadn't even thought of.
00:55:21He took this character
00:55:23and he sort of altered into
00:55:25sort of a flying flower child, you know,
00:55:27on the surfboard, who was constantly
00:55:29giving to thinking about the inhumanity
00:55:31of man to man and talking
00:55:33about how love would conquer all
00:55:35and so forth. And this kind of stuff spoke
00:55:37to a lot of the youth, and I think
00:55:39they embraced characters like the silver surfer.
00:55:57Marvel Comics began to take on a
00:55:59personality, and you began to see that there
00:56:01was one guy behind
00:56:03this whole thing.
00:56:07He marketed
00:56:09comic books and superheroes first
00:56:11to his core audience,
00:56:13second to the college audience,
00:56:15convincing them that these were as
00:56:17mature and sophisticated as they thought
00:56:19they were, and then making
00:56:21sure the world at large knew about it.
00:56:23Our characters became popular
00:56:25all over the world, and had gone
00:56:27to England and France and Poland
00:56:29and Belgium and Spain and
00:56:31Italy and Japan and
00:56:33China. And I began
00:56:35not to spend as much time in the
00:56:37office. I didn't see the writers as much.
00:56:39You had to have Thor
00:56:41and
00:56:43Spider-Man and Fantastic Four
00:56:45written by other people, and these were comics
00:56:47that had never, well, at least
00:56:49Spider-Man and Fantastic Four had never been
00:56:51written by anybody else.
00:56:53I devoted myself to just trying
00:56:55to bring the company into other fields,
00:56:57movies and television.
00:56:59I had come out of California
00:57:01on business. I'd stay for a day
00:57:03overnight, and I thought
00:57:05these people don't realize that they're
00:57:07living in paradise.
00:57:09The weather, the open
00:57:11feeling, so I schemed
00:57:13how can I move out to Los
00:57:15Angeles when all of Marvel
00:57:17is in New York? So I said to
00:57:19the powers that be, you know,
00:57:21why don't we set up our own
00:57:23studio out in Los
00:57:25Angeles, and I will
00:57:27even make the supreme sacrifice.
00:57:29I will uproot
00:57:31my family and myself,
00:57:33and we will move out
00:57:35there and make sure everything goes
00:57:37right. It's the least
00:57:39I can do for the company.
00:57:41Well, I don't think there was a dry eye
00:57:43in the room. You would do
00:57:45that for us, Stan.
00:57:47So they sent me out here
00:57:49to help set up Marvel Productions
00:57:51and little animation studio.
00:57:53Moved out with my wife and daughter.
00:57:55We sold everything in New York,
00:57:57and we've been here ever since.
00:57:59Welcome to Marvel
00:58:21Productions near Hollywood,
00:58:23California. This is where
00:58:25we're turning many of your favorite
00:58:27comic book heroes into animated
00:58:29TV shows. Spider-Friends,
00:58:31go for it!
00:58:33Very nice, very nice.
00:58:35We can use that. At the animation
00:58:37studio, Marvel Productions,
00:58:39I was the creative
00:58:41head of the studio. Really,
00:58:43I butted in on all the things
00:58:45they were doing, you know, on the scripts
00:58:47and the artwork and the direction.
00:58:49The company is currently churning out
00:58:51250 half hours
00:58:53of animated series, as well as
00:58:55three feature-length cartoons.
00:58:57I grew up with Stan, you know,
00:58:59from his doing
00:59:01his animation, you know, with his voice
00:59:03on Spider-Man and the Amazing Friends.
00:59:05Hi, Spidey fans. This is
00:59:07Stan Lee, inviting you to the
00:59:09annual dance at good old
00:59:11ESU. But
00:59:13take my advice. Don't get too
00:59:15comfortable, because we'll be knee-deep
00:59:17in danger before
00:59:19you know it. I knew him from the
00:59:21cartoon. I saw the cartoon on television,
00:59:23which I became obsessed with.
00:59:25Thousands of people
00:59:27never heard of Spider-Man. Hundreds
00:59:29of thousands never heard of Spider-Man until they saw
00:59:31that animated show. So they were right.
00:59:33Business-wise, it was a good move.
00:59:35Spider-Man, well-conveyed.
00:59:37He's ignored. Action is
00:59:39his reward to him.
00:59:41Life is a great big bang.
00:59:43Wherever there's a hang,
00:59:45you'll find a
00:59:47Spider-Man.
00:59:49My first stop will be the nearest TV studio.
00:59:51The experiment is sufficient
00:59:53as it stands. I'm not satisfied.
00:59:55I don't have to satisfy you.
00:59:59We did
01:00:01do a live-action
01:00:03television series of Spider-Man.
01:00:05There was no
01:00:07heart to the series.
01:00:09A villain would be doing something
01:00:11and he'd become
01:00:13Spider-Man and go chase the villain
01:00:15and catch him and climb up a building
01:00:17and that was it. And after the
01:00:19first few episodes, I realized
01:00:21it was going to go nowhere.
01:00:23And I called a meeting.
01:00:25And we had a meeting at the network.
01:00:27And I thought these people were sincere
01:00:29and they really wanted to hear
01:00:31my opinions
01:00:33of what I thought was wrong
01:00:35and how the series could be
01:00:37improved. And I said whatever
01:00:39I could. No changes were made
01:00:41and the show went on. And it was
01:00:43canceled after a few more episodes.
01:00:45Luckily, it didn't ruin
01:00:47the character for other things.
01:00:51Stan put in these emotions
01:00:53and these
01:00:55flaws within each of these
01:00:57characters that made you want to turn the page
01:00:59and keep reading. And people have been doing that for
01:01:01decades and decades. In comic books,
01:01:03it hadn't been translated to film necessarily.
01:01:05There were some films in the 80s
01:01:07which were in the early 90s which
01:01:09were frankly not very good.
01:01:11Up until then, I do believe it was just that surface
01:01:13translation that had been done on
01:01:15the rest of the comic book film.
01:01:17It's hard to explain the frustrations
01:01:19of we had these great
01:01:21characters and we knew
01:01:23how they should be portrayed.
01:01:25And there were people who
01:01:27wanted to do them
01:01:29but nothing really gelled.
01:01:31And fans didn't have any hope
01:01:33that Marvel would ever have any good movies.
01:01:35Rock and roll!
01:01:37I'll give you
01:01:39more!
01:01:41I can keep...
01:01:43Get down! Get down!
01:01:47Hey, what's going on?
01:01:51Did I scare you?
01:01:53That was
01:01:55interesting. I've never
01:01:57done that before. After years of
01:01:59lawsuits and ownership disputes, Marvel Comics
01:02:01and Sony have settled their differences,
01:02:03finally enabling the superhero
01:02:05Spider-Man to be fully marketed as a major
01:02:07motion picture failure. Now,
01:02:09the movie's only challenge is finding
01:02:11an actor worthy of the tight spandex costume
01:02:13and who, as chance would have it,
01:02:15was also born without genitals.
01:02:19Finally, one day, a fella named
01:02:21Avi Arad came to our studio
01:02:23and Avi understood our
01:02:25characters. I remember
01:02:27my first meeting with Stan in
01:02:29the Bel Air hotel
01:02:31and he said to me,
01:02:33everybody said they'll make movies out of this.
01:02:35But I think he kind of
01:02:37lost faith that this thing
01:02:39could ever go to the next
01:02:41level. There were
01:02:43false starts, movie making
01:02:45is complicated, it's expensive.
01:02:47What worked for us
01:02:49is there's a whole new generation
01:02:51of filmmakers who really got
01:02:53turned on to be in the business
01:02:55by comics.
01:02:57Geez, not yet, no. I heard you
01:02:59were here and I said, I don't care what.
01:03:01I've got to say hello to that man. I love him.
01:03:03I love you. You're a hero.
01:03:05You're like a father.
01:03:07Sam Raimi
01:03:09and this guy, they made
01:03:11Spider-Man. It couldn't have
01:03:13been what it was without this
01:03:15guy.
01:03:17I had no doubt
01:03:19that those comic
01:03:21books would become
01:03:23the most powerful and
01:03:25exciting entertainment the world has
01:03:27to offer today when the
01:03:29technology got
01:03:31to such a level that it could
01:03:33portray that universe
01:03:35in a way that would work with
01:03:37audiences. One of the films
01:03:39everybody's looking forward to this summer is
01:03:41X-Men. Is that in this
01:03:43venue? X-Men is
01:03:45basically a comic book on a screen.
01:03:47It's the first Marvel
01:03:49character that's going to be a big
01:03:51budget movie.
01:03:53A meeting was set up with the folks at Marvel
01:03:55and Stan Lee showed up at the meeting.
01:03:57He was so enthusiastic. So I thought,
01:03:59well, I'm going to go figure out how to honor
01:04:01what he created and his enthusiasm.
01:04:03Everything they were saying about the first X-Men was negative.
01:04:05And you'd read in the talkback and they'd go,
01:04:07well, it's a Marvel movie, so you know it's going to fail.
01:04:13And then it wasn't until the movie came out
01:04:15people's opinions changed on that and
01:04:17launched sort of the Marvel era of films
01:04:19that we're in now.
01:04:31The trick to the movies is when
01:04:51they capture the essence of what the great comics
01:04:53are. It's ironic that it
01:04:55took that long necessarily to realize that
01:04:57the emotional journey of who these characters are and what
01:04:59they expect, it's what you start with, it's what you stay
01:05:01true to. If you told us when we were
01:05:03kids that the weird, nerdy
01:05:05stuff would one day be
01:05:07the biggest commercial
01:05:09successes, I would have never believed that.
01:05:11When they realized, oh my god,
01:05:13this is drama, this is comedy,
01:05:15this is this, this is that, it became
01:05:17such a phenomenon that everybody was in.
01:05:19Stan Lee's
01:05:21decision to go Hollywood has paid
01:05:23off. Spider-Man, the action
01:05:25hero. Crawling all over 3,600
01:05:27movie screens. The boss of
01:05:29the box office. The most profitable movie
01:05:31of the year. It's bigger than life itself
01:05:33when you go into a theater
01:05:35and with all the special effects
01:05:37and all, that's all. It's
01:05:39hard to describe the feeling of
01:05:41seeing characters that I
01:05:43had a hand in creating
01:05:45up there on the big screen and
01:05:47especially up there
01:05:49and looking so good.
01:05:51Fantastic Four, Rise of the Silver Surfer
01:05:53opens this week. The first
01:05:55Fantastic Four movie grossed more than
01:05:57$300 million.
01:06:01All the things that Stan injected
01:06:03into his characters in those films.
01:06:05Here we go.
01:06:07Swing back a little.
01:06:09I created him.
01:06:11Wow.
01:06:13There it is.
01:06:15So
01:06:17I am just so...
01:06:19How are you, John?
01:06:21Who's got a camera? Who's got a camera?
01:06:23My grandmother had the candy store.
01:06:25I used to wait for the comics to come in
01:06:27every week, open them up with her, you know,
01:06:29and then we'd put them on the shelves
01:06:31and I would read them all.
01:06:33And they were yours.
01:06:35You keep seeing all your characters coming to life like this.
01:06:37Are you just like a kid inside just jumping up
01:06:39and down? You're doing it on the outside.
01:06:41No, I'm like an old guy wondering how successful
01:06:43it's going to be and how many more
01:06:45of these things I can come to
01:06:47and talk to guys like you.
01:06:49This is the fun of it, you know.
01:06:51I'm sorry, I'm too big for you now.
01:07:03You know, it's funny. It's a funny situation.
01:07:05You do all the work and I get so much
01:07:07credit for this, but I wouldn't have it
01:07:09any other way.
01:07:11I know, I keep writing you all the time
01:07:13to tell you that.
01:07:15I'm not upstaging you too much, am I?
01:07:17No, no.
01:07:19You know, I hear you have a bigger role than I do.
01:07:21All I say is, wow.
01:07:23I've always wanted to be an actor
01:07:25and to be able to have
01:07:27a little part in a movie,
01:07:29in any movie, but especially a good movie,
01:07:31it's really a thrill.
01:07:35Welcome back to the Baxter,
01:07:37Dr. Richards.
01:07:41Security ought to be beefed up a lot more
01:07:43in a play.
01:07:45I should be on that list.
01:07:47You know,
01:07:49I guess one person
01:07:51can make a difference.
01:07:53Enough said.
01:07:55A million years ago,
01:07:57when I was writing these comic books,
01:07:59I never suspected
01:08:01that one day I'd be walking down
01:08:03a green carpet and being interviewed
01:08:05and people would say,
01:08:07how do you feel?
01:08:09Nobody cared how I felt about anything
01:08:11in those days.
01:08:13Marvel is gearing up to do so many more.
01:08:15We'll have Captain America.
01:08:17We'll have Thor.
01:08:19We'll have S.H.I.E.L.D.
01:08:21It goes on and on. Ant-Man.
01:08:23Can you believe Ant-Man?
01:08:25You created so many characters with Jack Kirby.
01:08:27What would he think of all of this?
01:08:29Oh, he'd be thrilled.
01:08:31I'm so sorry that he isn't here to see it all.
01:08:33Jack was one of the nicest,
01:08:35most talented people I've ever known.
01:08:37When Jack Kirby died,
01:08:41it was almost unbelievable
01:08:43because there had always been
01:08:45a Jack Kirby,
01:08:47and he was always
01:08:49the king of the comics
01:08:51as far as everybody was concerned.
01:08:53I couldn't imagine
01:08:55not having him around,
01:08:57not having him drawing.
01:08:59He was certainly
01:09:01one of the best artists in the business,
01:09:03if not the best.
01:09:07Mr. Kirby,
01:09:09he created or co-created
01:09:11three of my favorite comic book characters.
01:09:13That's the Hulk, Captain America,
01:09:15Thor, and many, many others.
01:09:17There was nothing that Jack didn't do,
01:09:19couldn't do,
01:09:21and he never did less than his best.
01:09:23He was also
01:09:25one of the nicest,
01:09:27most cooperative,
01:09:29most helpful,
01:09:31most decent human beings around.
01:09:33It was a great loss when Jack went.
01:09:35It was hard because
01:09:37he meant so much to me,
01:09:39and I knew what we had lost.
01:09:53Marvel went bankrupt.
01:09:55It's hard to believe because they're so great now,
01:09:57but a lot of things happened.
01:09:59Marvel was financially bankrupt,
01:10:01but the characters,
01:10:03the intellectual properties
01:10:05were not bankrupt.
01:10:07One of the current heads of the company
01:10:09said to a group of bankers,
01:10:11Spider-Man alone is worth a billion dollars.
01:10:13And my contract was invalid,
01:10:15as all of them were,
01:10:17and I didn't want to stop working.
01:10:19So we got a company together.
01:10:21They wanted to call it Stanley Media,
01:10:23which I found very flattering.
01:10:25Stanley Media was formed
01:10:27during the Internet bubble,
01:10:29which was the craze,
01:10:31right around 1999.
01:10:33I started in comics
01:10:35during their infancy.
01:10:37Now I have an opportunity
01:10:39to get into the Internet
01:10:41when it is in its infancy,
01:10:43and it's a far bigger,
01:10:45more powerful field than comics ever were.
01:10:47These are the early days
01:10:49of what we're doing
01:10:51and what everybody is doing on the Web.
01:10:53We're going to make these things
01:10:55more and more interactive,
01:10:57and that's the one thing
01:10:59they can't do in television.
01:11:01And we're only starting,
01:11:03but we stand as an idea guy,
01:11:05stand as a creative dynamo.
01:11:13We were a fully functioning company.
01:11:15We had stock options.
01:11:17The company went public.
01:11:19Before I knew it,
01:11:21we had a staff of more than 200 people,
01:11:23and we were going great guns.
01:11:25I never had so much fun.
01:11:34electric guitar plays softly
01:12:00Stan is the constant between
01:12:02Stan is the consummate creator.
01:12:04He has nothing to do with business or financial side.
01:12:06It's possible to get taken advantage of.
01:12:08It was a terrible blow to me,
01:12:10especially people had invested in it
01:12:12that had my name on it.
01:12:14It was heartbreaking.
01:12:16People started to get laid off,
01:12:18and that's where it was really hard.
01:12:20Everyone was sad. We didn't want to go.
01:12:22We wanted to keep working and being productive.
01:12:24Hi, Anthony. This is Stan.
01:12:26I just wanted to tell you
01:12:28how bad I feel about the way things happen.
01:12:30I didn't expect that would happen so soon
01:12:32or the way it did.
01:12:34Oh, man, I feel terrible about it,
01:12:36and I wanted to tell you it was just a pleasure
01:12:38working with you. You were great.
01:12:40Stanley Media was unfortunate,
01:12:42but that was just a blip on the radar screen.
01:12:44Even at age 84, he's still coming up
01:12:46with ideas for superheroes for his new company.
01:12:48POW Entertainment,
01:12:50purveyors of wonder.
01:12:52For the first time now,
01:12:54I am able to do anything I want.
01:12:56If we want to do movies,
01:12:58television shows,
01:13:00DVDs, we can do them,
01:13:02and we are doing them.
01:13:04The new characters that Stan's creating for POW
01:13:06still have a lot of the original
01:13:08emphases and problems
01:13:10and sincerities
01:13:12that he had when he created
01:13:14some of his earlier creations.
01:13:16But today's world, they're maybe a little bit edgier.
01:13:18The culture is a little different,
01:13:20and the difference between
01:13:22heroes and villains isn't quite as clear.
01:13:24We have three movies
01:13:26in development at Disney.
01:13:32I still am concerned
01:13:34with just writing the stuff
01:13:36and making sure that
01:13:38somebody's going to care about it.
01:13:40Stan, you've been doing this for so long.
01:13:42You've been so successful.
01:13:44Some people wonder, why don't you retire
01:13:46and live permanently on exotic vacations?
01:13:48Why do you keep doing it?
01:13:50The word retire is a dirty word.
01:13:52You know, most people, when they retire,
01:13:54they say, at last I'll have a chance
01:13:56to do what I've always wanted to do.
01:13:58But I'm doing what I've always wanted to do.
01:14:00I'm working with artists,
01:14:02with writers, with directors.
01:14:04I'm working on creative things.
01:14:06I'm having fun.
01:14:08I mean, don't punish me
01:14:10by making me retire.
01:14:14Now that the comics are so successful
01:14:16and the movies are so big,
01:14:18they think of it as overnight success.
01:14:20I want to tell you,
01:14:22it's the longest overnight
01:14:24that anybody ever could have.
01:14:26Despite all his successes
01:14:28and recognition,
01:14:30Stan is really a regular guy.
01:14:32He truly is the guy
01:14:34that you recognize
01:14:36behind the mask of all his characters.
01:14:42I've done everything I want to do.
01:14:44I've wanted to write,
01:14:46and I've written.
01:14:48I want to do more movies.
01:14:50I want to do more television, more DVDs,
01:14:52more episodes.
01:14:54I want to do more lecturing.
01:14:56I want to do more of everything I'm doing.
01:14:58The only problem is time.
01:15:00I just wish there were more time.
01:15:18All these wonderful things I have,
01:15:20I could never have them.
01:15:22Well, you just bear that in mind,
01:15:24that they come from me.
01:15:26Because you are not extravagant.
01:15:28I couldn't afford to be extravagant with you.
01:15:30Now don't look at the camera.
01:15:32Wait, excuse me, dear.
01:15:34I was not looking at the camera.
01:15:36I was looking this way.
01:15:38Don't ever direct the master.
01:15:40Now start again if you wish.
01:15:42Now here it goes.
01:15:44Now let's get this straight.
01:15:46Me at all,
01:15:48do you think that you are the master?
01:15:50No, Joan.
01:15:52Me?
01:15:54My word.
01:15:56All right, come around here.
01:15:58I want to show you something else I bought today.
01:16:00I spent 60 years spoiling this woman.
01:16:02Trying to impress me.
01:16:04And I never succeeded.
01:16:16And I never succeeded.
01:16:46And I never succeeded.
01:17:16And I never succeeded.
01:17:46And I never succeeded.
01:18:16And I never succeeded.
01:18:46And I never succeeded.
01:18:48And I never succeeded.
01:18:50And I never succeeded.
01:18:52And I never succeeded.
01:18:54And I never succeeded.
01:18:56And I never succeeded.
01:18:58And I never succeeded.
01:19:00And I never succeeded.
01:19:02And I never succeeded.
01:19:04And I never succeeded.
01:19:06And I never succeeded.
01:19:08And I never succeeded.
01:19:10And I never succeeded.
01:19:12And I never succeeded.
01:19:14And I never succeeded.
01:19:16And I never succeeded.
01:19:18And I never succeeded.
01:19:20And I never succeeded.
01:19:22And I never succeeded.
01:19:24And I never succeeded.
01:19:26And I never succeeded.
01:19:28And I never succeeded.
01:19:30And I never succeeded.
01:19:32And I never succeeded.
01:19:34And I never succeeded.
01:19:36And I never succeeded.
01:19:38And I never succeeded.
01:19:40And I never succeeded.
01:19:42And I never succeeded.
01:19:44And I never succeeded.
01:19:46And I never succeeded.
01:19:48And I never succeeded.
01:19:50And I never succeeded.
01:19:52And I never succeeded.
01:19:54And I never succeeded.
01:19:56And I never succeeded.
01:19:58And I never succeeded.
01:20:00And I never succeeded.
01:20:02And I never succeeded.
01:20:04And I never succeeded.
01:20:06And I never succeeded.
01:20:08And I never succeeded.
01:20:10And I never succeeded.
01:20:12And I never succeeded.
01:20:14And I never succeeded.
01:20:16And I never succeeded.
01:20:18And I never succeeded.
01:20:20And I never succeeded.
01:20:22And I never succeeded.
01:20:24And I never succeeded.
01:20:26And I never succeeded.
01:20:28And I never succeeded.
01:20:30And I never succeeded.
01:20:32And I never succeeded.
01:20:34And I never succeeded.
01:20:36And I never succeeded.