The View from Hemingway's Attic

Capone’s Vault Argues Geraldo Rivera Was a Television Pioneer Who Changed TV Forever

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 15:32:00 +0000

A new book timed to the 40th anniversary of one of the most infamous broadcasts in television history is making a bold claim: Geraldo Rivera wasn’t just a host chasing a gangster story—he was a pioneer who helped invent modern television. In Capone’s Vault, author William Elliott Hazelgrove revisits the April 21, 1986 live broadcast in which Rivera opened a secret vault once linked to Al Capone before an audience of over 30 million viewers. The result—an empty vault—has long been remembered as a television disappointment. But Hazelgrove argues the opposite. “What looked like failure was actually a breakthrough,” says Hazelgrove. “That broadcast created a new kind of television—high-stakes, unscripted, event-driven programming that we now call reality TV.” At the time, the two-hour syndicated special The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults drew one of the largest audiences in television history. Viewers tuned in not for what was known—but for what might happen. That uncertainty, Hazelgrove argues, was revolutionary. “Geraldo understood something before the rest of television did,” Hazelgrove says. “People would watch not just for content, but for the possibility of discovery—live, unpredictable, and unscripted.” Today, that model dominates television—from reality competitions to live event programming. The book features new reporting, behind-the-scenes insights, and perspectives on how a single night reshaped the medium. It also reframes Rivera’s role—not as a punchline, but as a figure who pushed television into a new era. Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jonathan Eig praises the book as “more fun than the vault itself,” while Rivera himself has said the event was “a moment in time that changed television forever.” To mark the anniversary, Hazelgrove will stage a live on-location event in Chicago at the site of the former Lexington Hotel, recreating the vault opening moment 40 years later.

How Orson Welles War of the Worlds Led to Geraldo Rivera's Capones Vault

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 18:43:00 +0000

I have written two books on high risk high reward moments in media where boundaries were pushed and careers on the line and the result was that the mediums were changed forever and the men behind both events were pushed on to greater heights. At first glance there may seem to be no through line from Orson Welles to Geraldo Rievra but in fact for one night in both of their careers they were mirrors of a moment in time. My book Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrifed America tells the story of a twenty three year old boy genius who in 1938 put on a radio show that terrified the nation by telling people martians had invaded and were exterminating humans. Orson was growing tired of radio and was looking for a way out and it was in his DNA to push boundaries. His breaking news radio format had people convinced the human race was being exterminated. By the time it was revealed it wsa only a radio play that nation was in full blown panic. Orson was pilloried and received death threats.He was sure his career was over. But then at the last minute an editorial by Dorothy Thompson saved him and he was pushed onto Hollywood. The thinking was that anyone who could fool a nation could make a hell of a movie. Capones Vault tells the story of an unemployed edgy jounralist named Geraldo Rivera who became famous for opening a vault in the Lexington Hotel on the South Side of Chicago. This was to be Geraldos comeback after being fired from ABC.The two hour docutainment went on the air on April 21 1986 and for two hours crews blasted their way thorugh walls and brought down slabs to find only more dirt. It was quickly billed as the greatest disaster in television. Geraldo went and got drunk and knew his career was over. But the next day the ratings came out and Geraldo found out 30 million people watched The Mystery of Capones Vault. He had tweleve job offers and was given his own show. The opening of Capones Vault proved reality television had arrived as the networks realized that people didnt care about the payoff they just wanted the ride. In Orson Welles case radio was never the same. Dramatized news was forbidden by the FCC from then on which was the standard format. Only real news could be reported. So there you go. Orson and Geraldo were at the junction of change in two different mediums at two very different times but they were agents of change. High risk high reward moments that changed the lives of not only the men but radio and television forever.

“Five Things People Don’t Know About the Night Geraldo Opened Capone’s Vault.”

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 15:40:00 +0000

I interviewed Geraldo Rivera extensively for my book Capones Vault that is out in one month April 16. Here are five things that surprised me 1. When Geraldo was about to go on he asked where the teleprompter was and was told there wasnt one. It was then a producer grabbed him by the shirt and said, "you fucking got this...go out and kill it!" Geraldo said that stopped all his nervousness and from then the whole show was spontaneous. 2 They were going to blow up the wall leading to the vault with dynamite but Chicago didnt give the producers a permit until 4 PM the afternoon before the broadcast. When Geraldo pushed down the plunger some people feared the whole building would come down. 3 The first moment of doubt came when the 5000 pound slab came down the first chamber was too clean. There was no debris or left over artifacts except for two blue bottles. Everyone proclaimed thhey were from the twenties but privately they were identified as being from the forties. 4 Geraldo began to sit on a milkcrate in the darkness between takes when he began to realize along with the producers that there really might be nothing in the vault. 5 After the broadcast Geraldo got tequilla drunk and hung a DO NOT DISTURB sign on his door thinking his career was over. Doug Llellyn the producer slid the ratings under his door and it was then he realzied 30 million people had watched The Mystery of Capones Vault. A pile of messages by his phone turned out to be tweleve job offers. Geraldo had proven that people just wanted the ride.

Chicago Marks 40 Years Since the Night Reality Television Was Born: The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vault

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 17:21:00 +0000

Author William Elliott Hazelgrove reveals how Geraldo Rivera’s infamous broadcast changed television forever. On April 21, 1986, thirty million Americans tuned in to watch Geraldo Rivera open Al Capone’s vault live on television. The vault was empty—but the spectacle changed television forever. In his new book Capone’s Vault, historian William Elliott Hazelgrove reveals how the infamous broadcast became the moment reality television was born, transforming failure into one of the most watched events in TV history.An astonishing 30 million viewers tuned in, making it the highest-rated syndicated television special in history. As Rivera dramatically opened the vault live on air, anticipation built across the country. What would be found inside Capone’s secret chamber? The answer, famously, was nothing. Inside the vault were only a few dusty bottles and debris—no treasure, no hidden mob fortune. The moment was widely mocked as one of television’s greatest anticlimaxes. Yet with the passage of time, historians and media observers have come to see the broadcast differently. The spectacle of suspense, hype, and live television drama—despite the empty result—marked a turning point in American entertainment. In many ways, the program foreshadowed the modern era of reality television. Long before competitive reality shows and viral live broadcasts, the Capone vault special demonstrated that audiences would tune in by the millions to watch an unscripted event unfold in real time. The tension, speculation, and unpredictability of that night helped establish the formula for a new kind of television storytelling. Forty years later, the event remains a cultural touchstone. The Lexington Hotel itself is gone—demolished in the 1990s and replaced by an apartment building—but the legend of Capone’s hidden wealth persists. Some historians still speculate that portions of the gangster’s fortune may remain undiscovered somewhere in Chicago. In the new book Capone’s Vault, historian William Elliott Hazelgrove revisits the infamous broadcast, exploring how a night remembered as a television disaster actually reshaped the medium. By examining the behind-the-scenes planning, the personalities involved, and the cultural impact of the broadcast, Hazelgrove argues that the empty vault did not end the story—it began a new chapter in television history. What seemed like a failure in 1986 may ultimately be remembered as something else entirely: the night reality television was born.

Chicago Reopens Capones Vault--40 Years Later

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:47:00 +0000

CHICAGO, IL, March 12, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- On April 21, 1986, more than 30 million Americans tuned in to watch Geraldo Rivera open the sealed vault beneath the former headquarters of Al Capone during the live television special The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults. Chicago author William Elliott Hazelgrove, whose new book Capone's Vault reconstructs the behind-the-scenes story of the broadcast, will mark the anniversary with a series of media appearances and events across Chicago. Media coverage tied to the anniversary and the book release already includes: An interview with Chicago Magazine A television appearance on WGN-TV on April 16, the book's release date A special live on-location anniversary broadcast on WGN-TV April 21, marking the exact date of the original vault opening A national radio interview on Moody Radio with Janet Parshall A guest appearance on the history podcast History Unplugged A public talk hosted by the Chicago Public Library A Capones Vault Booksigning Party at a Capone Era Location Promoted for weeks with the tantalizing possibility that Capone's missing fortune might finally be discovered, the broadcast became the highest-rated syndicated television special in history. When the vault was finally opened, however, it was empty—creating one of television's most famous anticlimaxes. Hazelgrove's new book, Capone's Vault, explores how the broadcast came together and why the bizarre event captivated the country. For the book, Hazelgrove interviewed Rivera and several of the producers involved in the program and reconstruced the night that changed television. "Millions of Americans watched Capone's vault open live on television," Hazelgrove said. "The vault was empty—but television was never the same. Reality television had begun." The anniversary events in Chicago will revisit the moment when a Chicago mob legend, a mysterious vault, and a young television reporter briefly captured the imagination of the entire country.

Author of Capones Vault Says Capone's Missing Millions May Still Be Hidden--40 Years After the Mystery of Capones Vaults

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 17:51:00 +0000

CHICAGO — As the 40th anniversary of the famous live television event The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults approaches, National Bestselling author William ElliottHazelgrove says the legendary Chicago gangster's missing fortune may still be out there. On April 21, 1986, more than 30 million viewers tuned in to watch journalist Geraldo Rivera open a sealed vault beneath Chicago's Lexington Hotel in what became one of the most anticipated broadcasts in television history. The nationally syndicated special, The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults, remains the highest-rated syndicated television event ever aired. When the vault was finally opened live on television, however, the results stunned viewers. Instead of the rumored treasure, the vault appeared largely empty. But according to Hazelgrove, author of the new book Capone's Vault, the empty vault did not necessarily solve the mystery of Al Capone's missing fortune. "The vault was only one lead in a much larger mystery," Hazelgrove says. "Capone generated enormous amounts of cash during Prohibition, and much of that money was never accounted for. The empty vault actually deepened the legend rather than ending it." Hazelgrove's book examines the dramatic events behind the famous television special, including the planning of the broadcast, the intense public anticipation, and the aftermath of one of the most talked-about moments in television history. Based on extensive research and interviews with the producers of the program as well as Geraldo Rivera, the book explores how the broadcast helped usher in the era of modern reality television. Four decades later, the legend of Capone's hidden fortune still fascinates Chicagoans and historians alike. Stories of buried cash, secret hiding places, and lost mob money have circulated for decades, keeping the mystery alive long after the famous vault was opened.

Capones Vault Prologue

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 03:28:00 +0000

It was cold for April. Even for Chicago. The temperature had plunged to the twenties. Michigan Avenue still had the feel of Christmas with the twinkling lights of horse-drawn carriages for tourists who wanted to tour the Magnificent Mile. Further down on the South Side, crane-high movie lights blazed on an old hotel at 2135 South Michigan Avenue. Men in yellow hardhats spoke outside with their breath illuminated in the light. Diesel-puffing satellite trucks parked up and down the street. The whop whop whop of a helicopter began to get louder. Michigan Avenue was blocked off with crowds of people behind barricades. Mr. T was in the front of the crowd in his trademark gold chains and mohawk. Vendors sold T-shirts that proclaimed i was there when capone’s vault opened. They sold out in minutes. Reporters from all over the world stood around as the helicopter became deafening and everyone looked up. The flashing strobes suddenly appeared in front of the hotel. Then the helicopter with the camera poking out landed on Michigan Avenue. Geraldo Rivera appeared in the front door of the Lexington Hotel as a crane camera moved in. It was Monday, 8 p.m. Eastern in New York and 7 Central in Chicago and people around the world were locked in place in front of their televisions. Geraldo looked like he was breathing smoke in a half-zipped blue coat with a white shirt and tie. He looked at the camera with his trademark Groucho mustache and pointed with his finger. “I’m Geraldo Rivera and you are about to witness a live television event, a massive concrete vault has been discovered, and some think it belongs to none other than the notorious Al Capone. Well, tonight for the first time that vault is going to be opened. . . . LIVE!”

Why I Wrote Evil on the Roof of the World

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 16:02:00 +0000

Prologue Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin quit their Washington jobs and on July 17, 2017, began a bike trip around the world. On July 29, 2018, they biked along Highway A 385 in the Danghara District after biking through the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan along with five other cyclists. The Pamir Highway climbs to elevations of 15,000 feet and was once known as the Silk Road. One hundred kilometers south of the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, five ISIS terrorists ran the cyclists down with a South Korean Daewoo sedan and brutally murdered the two Americans along with a Dutch national and a Swiss citizen. Newspapers, radio stations, and television stations in the United States and around the world would pick up the story of the two twenty-nine-year-old Americans and speculate how two highly educated, well-connected millennials from Washington, DC, had crashed into the homicidal sights of ISIS terrorists on a remote mountain highway in Tajikistan. I read Jay and Lauren’s story in the New York Times in 2018, shortly after it happened. I was intrigued. Not so much by the horrifying way they died, but the crashing together of different cultures on a deserted mountain highway in Tajikistan. I was also intrigued by what motivated Jay and Lauren to leave well-paying Washington jobs and take the road less traveled. After writing a proposal for the publisher and digging into some research, I found Jay’s declaration that “he didn’t want to waste his years in front of a small rectangular screen at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, retire at sixty-five, and then die ten years later.” This resonated with me; it fit in with Americans who have thrown a conventional life aside to pursue a life less certain. Jay and Lauren’s desire for adventure or a different American dream fits the pantheon of people looking for something beyond the safe confines of a world without risk. American history is littered with adventurers, from Amelia Earhart’s daring aerial exploration to Teddy Roosevelt heading West to the Badlands, to Jack London’s famous trek into the Yukon, to Mark Twain lighting out for the territories, to Thomas Stevens, who in 1887 biked around the world on a big wheel bicycle, all the way back to Thoreau, and up to the present day of Chris McCandless’s journey into the wilds of Alaska.

Rave Publishers Weekly Review of Evil on the Roof of the World

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 14:19:00 +0000

Novelist and historian Hazelgrove (Hemingway's Attic) recounts the fate of American cyclists Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin, who were slain by terrorists in Tajikistan in 2018, in this chilling true crime tale. Drawing from the couple's blog and interviews with their friends and family, Hazelgrove portrays Jay as a charismatic idealist who convinced Lauren to give up her job to follow him on a four-year bike trip around the globe, beginning in South Africa and ending in South America. In Africa, they faced charging elephants, flies, and malaria; in Europe, they dealt with suspicious officials and a few gnarly crashes. Still, they pushed forward for two years, winding up in Central Asia's Pamir Mountains (nicknamed the "Roof of the World"). In Tajikistan, a group of young men radicalized by ISIS stalked and ambushed the couple after encountering them on a highway; four were then killed by local police, while the ringleader died in an American prison. Hazelgrove's prose is utilitarian ("Jay and Lauren ride on into Botswana, which proves to be flat, arid, wild, and hot"), letting the facts of the case carry the narrative forward. For the most part, the approach pays off, lending the account an unsettling air. Readers will be aghast. Photos. (Nov.)

Bloomsbury to Pulblish William Elliott Hazelgrove's Gripping New Nonfiction of Cycling Couple Murdered by ISIS

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 20:26:00 +0000

CHICAGO, IL, August 29, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ -- On November 13, 2025, Bloomsbury Publishing will release Evil on the Roof of the World, the latest book from acclaimed author William Elliott Hazelgrove. This harrowing true account follows the journey of two young American dreamers whose search for adventure ended in tragedy on one of the most remote highways in the world. On a bleak stretch of road in the mountains of Tajikistan, known as "the roof of the world," in July 2018, Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin—along with two other cyclists—were brutally murdered by five ISIS terrorists. Both Georgetown University graduates, Lauren and Jay had left behind promising careers in Washington, DC, to pursue a bold vision of the American Dream: biking around the globe in search of connection, beauty, and meaning. Drawing from their Simply Cycling travel blog, social media posts, intimate interviews with friends and family, and worldwide media coverage of the murder, Hazelgrove reconstructs the arc of their story. From hopeful beginnings to the challenges and triumphs on the road, from the haunting foreshadowing of danger to the devastating attack itself, Evil on the Roof of the World presents a deeply human narrative of love, adventure, and vulnerability in the face of extremism. "This book is about more than a single act of violence," Hazelgrove says. "It's about what it means to chase a dream into the unknown—and how that dream collided with the darkest forces of our time." Like Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, Hazelgrove's book explores the intersection of youthful idealism, risk, and fate. Blending travel adventure with true crime, it offers a sensitive yet unflinching look at how Jay and Lauren lived, what they hoped to find, and how the world made sense of their loss. William Elliott Hazelgrove is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction. Known for his fast-paced narrative style and deeply researched storytelling, Hazelgrove's work often explores the intersection of history, culture, and the human spirit. His nonfiction titles include Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson, Sally Rand: American Sex Symbol, Greed in America: The Real Story of Our Century, and Evil on the Roof of the World (Bloomsbury, 2025). His fiction works include the bestselling novel The Pitcher, along with Tobacco Sticks, Real Santa, and Rocket Man. Hazelgrove's books have been widely reviewed and featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, People, Chicago Tribune, and on NPR's All Things Considered. He has appeared on NBC, CBS, PBS, and C-SPAN, and his works have been optioned for film and television. A Chicago native, Hazelgrove was formerly the Writer-in-Residence at the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace, where he worked in Hemingway's attic writing studio. His writing has earned critical acclaim for blending historical depth with the compelling drive of fiction, often compared to the works of Erik Larson and Jon Krakauer.

Is the World too Dangerous to Travel Now?

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 15:27:00 +0000

My book Evil on the Roof of the World is about Jay Austin and Lauren Geohegan who decided to travel around the world in 2017. They quit their jobs and for a year planned their trip. They checked the State Department travel advistories that said the places they were planning to bike thorugh were safe. They paid close attention to the advisory on Tajikistan which borderes Afghanistan. Still the State Department advisory said it was safe. So they biked through Africa and Europe and had a few problems but nothing life threatening. Lauren felt that New York City was just as dangerous or more so than Tajikistan. When they entered the Pamir Mountains known also as The Roof of the World they were excited. This scenic route through the clouds was a the high point of their trip and again when they checked the State Department site there were no new warnings. On July 29 2018 they were spotted by ISIS terrorists who followed the couple then mowed them down with their car and attacked with butcher knives. When I was researching the book with friends and family I asked many times if Jay and Lauren were concerned about the risks of their trip. Jay blogged about the risks before they left saying without risk there is no adventure. When they stopped and stared across a river at Afghanistan Lauren expressed her fear to a fellow cyclist,Kim Potsma. She was scared but they had been biking a full year and while they had some dangerous encounters they had managed to stay on course and nothing had really threatened their lives. But now they had been killed at the hands of ISIS and social media went wild on how foolish, stupid, and arrogant these two millenials were to belive they could bike anywhere they wanted in the world. Many people took offence and saw the two Georgetown Graduates as emblematic of an entitled generation that felt the rules did not apply to them. Some people who posted were gleefully cruel. The Washington Post examined Lauren and Jays decision to bike through Afghanistan and asked the question if they were niave in their view of the world. Jay had famously said he did not belive in evil as a concept. Many in the blogosphere roasted him for this assertion. The Post concluded they were not niave and knew the risks and had taken all precautions. Their deaths were a large part due to bad luck. Destiny is a lonely word and to say they were destined to meet up with terrorists is a hard thing to get our heads around. I go back to Jays assertion that without risk there is no adventure. The State Department after the attack elevated the risk level on Tajikistan. Still, thousands of people bike the Pamir highway every year. It is a great adventure. Evil on the Roof of the World is due out in November

The Millenial Who Didnt Buy into the Thirty Year Grind

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:52:00 +0000

I read Jay and Lauren’s story in the New York Times in 2018, shortly after it happened. I was intrigued. Not so much by the horrifying way they died, but the crashing together of different cultures on a deserted mountain highway in Tajikistan. I was also intrigued by what motivated Jay and Lauren to leave well-paying Washington jobs and take the road less traveled. After writing a proposal for the publisher and digging into some research, I found Jay’s declaration that “he didn’t want to waste his years in front of a small rectangular screen at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, retire at sixty-five, and then die ten years later.”1 This resonated with me; it fit in with Americans who have thrown a conventional life aside to pursue a life less certain. Jay and Lauren’s desire for adventure or a different American dream fits the pantheon of people looking for something beyond the safe confines of a world without risk. American history is littered with adventurers, from Amelia Earhart’s daring aerial exploration to Teddy Roosevelt heading West to the Badlands, to Jack London’s famous trek into the Yukon, to Mark Twain lighting out for the territories, to Thomas Stevens, who in 1887 biked around the world on a big wheel bicycle, all the way back to Thoreau, and up to the present day of Chris McCandless’s journey into the wilds of Alaska.

Early Reviews for Evil on the Roof of the World Compare to Krakauer Into The Wild

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 19:41:00 +0000

“Lauren and Jay chased wonder on two wheels across continents, only to meet evil face-to- face—Evil on the Roof of the World is a sobering, gut-punch reminder that even the boldest dreams aren't safe from the darkness we pretend doesn't exist.” —Cory Mortensen, bestselling author of The Buddha and the Bee “A compelling investigation of both the liberating triumph and ultimate tragedy of Lauren and Jay’s cycle adventure. Evil on the Roof of the World sensitively explores the open-heartedness, courage and complicated motivations of two promising twenty-somethings and poses profound questions about the world we live in and the nature of risk and reward.” —Charlie Walker, award-winning British explorer, author of Through Sand & Snow and On Roads That Echo, and keynote speaker “Propelled by idealism and determination, Jay and Lauren set out to cycle around the world. Believing in the essential goodness of humanity, the couple find kindness and hospitality while slogging through desert sand in Namibia, fleeing an enraged elephant in Botswana, and enduring freezing rain in Spain. William Elliott Hazelgrove’s gripping account, reminiscent of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, chronicles Jay and Lauren’s epic journey toward an encounter with terrorists who decide that slaughtering these youthful seekers will serve ISIS’s cause.” —Doug Kari, author of The Berman Murders

A Couple Who Wanted a Different American Dream....Evil on the Roof of the World

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 16:47:00 +0000

On a bleak highway in the mountains of Tajikistan known as "the roof of the world", in July of 2018, Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin along with two other cyclists, were brutally murdered by five ISIS terrorists. They were both Georgetown University graduates who had quit their well-paying Washington, D.C. jobs to pursue a bike trip around the world, looking for a different kind of American Dream. Pieced together from Jay and Lauren's Simply Cycling travel blog and social media posts, interviews with their friends and family, and media coverage of their murder, author William Elliott Hazelgrove creates a complete, narrative retelling of Jay and Lauren's story. Evil on the Roof of the World combines biking and travel adventure with true crime elements, sensitively presenting the trajectory of Jay and Lauren's hopeful beginnings; the difficulties and meaningful experiences they found on their journey; the foreshadowing leading up to the attack; and the way they, their loved ones, the media, and the perpetrators made sense of this violent encounter. Like Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild, this is a story of a couple who went off the grid to find the great adventure of life.

The Great Dissatisfacton

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 20:42:00 +0000

It’s terrible, isn’t it? Everyone has gotten older. All these white males are so dissatisfied. Angus of AC DC looks like a grandfather. Robert DeNiro can barely walk. People die daily from heart attacks or prostate cancer. Still the white males plod on. The ones that are still walking and they dream still of being rock stars or professional baseball players or influencers or great filmmakers. The dreamers now haunted by that Supertramp line, when you look through the years at what you could have been what you might have if you had more time. And now they are out of time. And they have money. They would be considered successful by the old yardstick of being able to retire. But in their eyes, in their daily musings they are failures. They all have the great dissatisfaction of not being rich and famous. It is an epidemic. Brought up on rock stars and professional athletes and movie stars the young males form the suburbs dream of being president tone day. But that didn’t happen either. And most never took their shot when they could have. They opted for the job and the money and thought they might become famous on the side. A good hobby becoming famous. Something to do in retirement. But then they hit their sixties and now they realize it is the hardest thing in the world to become famous. It is impossible and to make matters worse the clock ticks on. And they cannot appreciate what they have because in our culture hope I die before I get old was a mantra as Roger Daltry crooned forty years ago then got old and is now pushing eighty. Mick is eighty-two. But they are famous. They are rich. So, the old white males have their dinners, have their drinks, and still think maybe…maybe I can pull it off. Maybe I can upload a song, a video, shoot a movie, write a book and I will be famous then and then I will be happy. But it is a mirage. So, they go to therapy. Take their antidepressants. Get stoned. Get drunk on one to two drinks. And instead of enjoying the time left to them they watch clips of old rock concerts on their phone when the youth culture had its heyday and everything was possible and listen to that song one more time… taunting them with who they might have been… what they could have been…if they had more time.

Daily Mail UK Feature by William Hazelgrove on the War of the Worlds Broadcast

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 18:04:00 +0000

The Real Carnage behind Orson Welles War of the Worlds Broadcast By William Elliott Hazelgrove

When I researched Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrified America, I found it hard to believe that intelligent people could believe Martians had landed on earth and were exterminating people with poison gas and heat rays. But in going through hundreds of newspapers and eyewitness accounts, I found out that through a perfect storm of events, millions of Americans did believe in fact the end of the world was at hand. Here is how it happened. At 8 PM Eastern on Halloween eve, October 30, 1938, Orson Welles broadcast his seventeenth episode of Mercury Theatre on the Air from a CBS studio high up in the Manhattan skyline. The twenty-three-year-old proclaimed genius was putting on a radio play based on an old novel by HG Wells called War of the Worlds. It was a fantastic story about Martians coming to earth and incinerating and gassing humans with heat ray guns and tentacles pumping out poisonous gas. Who would believe such a story from a man who raced around Manhattan in an ambulance to get from one radio show to another on time and had made his mark as the voice of The Shadow. Martians…really? But people did believe, in fact, up to twelve million people listened and believed Martians had landed and were exterminating the human race. The entire country had been on edge from Hitler’s threat to invade the Sudetenland weeks before and touch off World War II. The depression had dragged on. Radio had grown with ninety percent of the population possessing a radio and Congress had just required all cars to have an AM radio with the AM Amplitude Act. The radio show Amos and Andy was so popular utility companies reported people didn’t flush toilets during the show and movies stopped to play the latest episode along with a show featuring a dummy who belched out theatrics named Charlie McCarthy. The Golden Age of radio was in full swing as BREAKING NEWS BULLETINS peppered the American people with news of imminent war, natural catastrophes, and horrific crimes. People were waiting for the other shoe to drop as autumn closed in on Halloween and leaves scraped down sidewalks. Mercury Theatre on the Air’s seventeenth show began on October 30, 1938, at 8 PM Eastern. Orson Welles used a revolutionary breaking news format for his radio show which was really a broadcast in a broadcast. The beginning starts with Ramon Roquello and his orchestra playing in the ballroom of a local New York hotel when suddenly the first breaking news bulletin pulls listeners to Grovers Mill New Jersey where a Martian cylinder has landed. When the cylinder opens the Martians begin incinerating people. Orson’s on the spot reporter, Frank Reddick, is vaporized on the air as Orson holds up his hands for quiet in the studio and begins six seconds of dead air. This is the terrifying heart of the broadcast where the third wall of radio is pierced, and radio itself becomes part of the story. Six seconds of dead air convinces the listeners they have just heard a man burned alive and die. Now the Martians are heading for New York and the rest of the country. By now, people have left their radios, jumped in their cars, subways, taxis, started running, hiding, anything to get away from the awful terror Orson Welles unleashed from his broadcast that used the real names of towns and streets. Police stations and CBS switchboards lit up with frantic callers halfway into the broadcast. CBS executives and the police try to gain entrance to the studio to stop the broadcast, but Orson’s partner, John Houseman, keeps the door locked so Orson can make it to the station break and finish unleashing the terror. The Manhattan switchboards are overwhelmed with calls and police stations are overrun by people with their belongings demanding gas masks and demanding to know where to escape the murdering Martians. Traffic becomes a demolition derby as motorists listen and drive seventy miles an hour through stoplights and don’t stop for the police. Suddenly, everyone was speeding while the 126 affiliates of CBS spread Orson Welles broadcast from coast to coast. A Hollywood executive and his wife driving in the Redwood Forest in California hear the broadcast and try to get back home to their children but run out of gas. They write later that all they could do was wait to be incinerated by the invading Martians. People run out of restaurants without paying their checks. Bartenders leave customers to drink as much as they want. A man just out of surgery jumps out of his hospital bed, dresses, and drives himself home bleeding all over his car. A woman who had a baby is left when all the nurses run into the hallway and start crying. Another woman who had just been married finds herself alone at her reception and has the band strike up the Charleston while she dances for a half hour. A man comes home to find his wife staring at a bottle of cyanide at her kitchen table saying she would rather poison herself than let the Martians get her. A man gets a call from his crying daughter at college and drives the hundred miles to her college in his Studebaker, takes the doors off his car, and packs it with crying girls, tying some down across the hood and the trunk, and then driving full speed back down the highway. A bus full of people in North Carolina stops and a man jumps on and tells the driver Martians are killing everyone, and it is the end of the world. The bus driver, in a fit of panic takes his passengers on the wildest ride of their lives while trying to get away from the Martians. A young actress in Manhattan runs out of her apartment and falls down the stairs and breaks her arm. The next day she is featured all over the nation in front page articles proclaiming her a war casualty. People run into churches and scream that it is the end of the world while panicked congregations run out. In theatres, people shout Martians are killing everyone and the theaters empty out in minutes. A ma who has had an affair confesses to his wife only to find out later the broadcast wasn’t real. People in Concrete Washington run for the mountains after a power failure occurs during the broadcast. People run out of apartment buildings with wet blankets over their heads while hospitals all over the country admit people for shock and heart attacks. Men in Grovers Mill New Jersey, where the Martians land, ride around with shotguns and shoot up a water tower they think is one of the murdering Martians. The military issues an alert stating Martians are not invading and that there is no danger. Operators across the country answer calls saying four words. There are no Martians. Phone lines clog all over the country as people try and call loved ones for last goodbyes. Panic spreads as ten million people from the Charlie McCarthy show begin twisting the dial when Eddie Nelson begins to sing, and they land on War of the Worlds. Many people don’t even hear the broadcast but are told by family members to run for their lives. A man drives through his garage door, then looks at his wife and says, “Well, at least we don’t have to fix it.” The big newspapers tell the tale the next morning. RADIO PLAY TERRIFIES NATION, RADIO FAKE SCARES NATION, FAKE RADIO WAR STIRS TERROR THROUGH US. The terror continues until the morning when the hoax is revealed. Orson and CBS receive death threats and lawsuits are launched while the FCC surveys the damage and considers censoring radio. A press conference is held where Orson Welles pleads innocent, but this does nothing to quell the anger at Welles and CBS. It takes the famous columnist, Dorthy Parker, in an editorial to proclaim Welles a genius for showing how gullible, uneducated, and ignorant Americans are to believe such a ridiculous radio show. The columnist proclaims Orson a hero for showing what Adolf Hitler could do with the radio. Orson comes out smelling like a rose with a contract from RKO to go to Hollywood where he will make the greatest film ever, Citizen Kane. Years later during a bond drive, Orson is attacked in a hotel lobby by a man screaming he would kill him if he ever saw him again. Later, it was found his wife had committed suicide on the night of the broadcast of the War of the Worlds. Many have said Orson Welles never intended to create the mass panic of War of the Worlds. Part magician, thespian, conman, genius, the War of the Worlds broadcast was Orson’s greatest sleight of hand. Of course he meant to do it.

Wall Street Journal Review of Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrified America

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 17:42:00 +0000

William Elliott Hazelgrove’s richly anecdotal “Dead Air” is the story of Welles’s landmark October 1938 radio broadcast and the nationwide panic that resulted. Welles’s “you are there” adaptation, crafted to imitate a breaking-news bulletin, sent a tremor of panic into listeners across the country who believed it to be a real report of a flying-saucer invasion. Mr. Hazelgrove has scoured regional newspapers of the time to provide a ground-level view of the hysteria that Welles’s radio drama instilled—on the night before Halloween, no less. According to “Dead Air,” police switchboards lighted up across the nation; in Indiana, a woman ran into a church screaming: “New York has been destroyed! It’s the end of the world!” At a Harlem police station, “thirty people arrived with all their possessions packed and told officers they were ready to be evacuated.” In New Jersey, where the fictional invasion was supposedly taking place, some listeners loaded up their cars and took to the road. Mr. Hazelgrove has provided a granular history of this landmark in fake news, placing us inside CBS’s Studio One, where Welles orchestrated every detail to his exacting standards, then outside the studio doors, where confusion reigned until media stories of the stunt set minds at ease. 17 BOoks we read this week The caution and conscience of John Dickinson, spies in the library, spooky audiobooks for Halloween and more. Welles, for his part, worried that his budding career was over; he spent the days after the broadcast pondering potential jail time and lawsuits. The young auteur was widely censured for his dangerous gambit; an FCC investigation was floated but came to nothing. Hollywood was paying attention, however. Almost three years later, “Citizen Kane” was released, and Welles’s legendary career in film had begun. Mr. Weingarten is the author of “Thirsty: William Mulholland, California

Hemingways Attic Hell and Glory in Cuba and The Writing of the Old Man and the Sea

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 20:55:00 +0000

PUBLICATION JULY 1 2025

Publishers Weekly Review of Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrifed America

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 18:37:00 +0000

In this fine-grained account, historian Hazelgrove (Writing Gatsby) chronicles the mass hysteria that accompanied Orson Welles’s infamous 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. Hazelgrove presents Welles as an actor of immense ambition and preternatural talent, noting that by age 22, he had put on headline-grabbing plays (the government shut down his 1937 production of The Cradle Will Rock, fearing its pro-labor themes would be incendiary) and traveled around New York City in a faux ambulance to move more quickly between his numerous radio and theatrical commitments. The author recounts the rushed scriptwriting process for War of the Worlds and offers a play-by-play of the broadcast, but he lavishes the most attention on the havoc Welles wreaked. Contemporaneous news accounts reported college students fighting to telephone their parents, diners rushing out of restaurants without paying their bills, families fleeing to nearby mountains to escape the aliens’ poisonous gas, and even one woman’s attempted suicide. Hazelgrove largely brushes aside contemporary scholarship questioning whether the hysteria’s scope matched the sensational news reports, but he persuasively shows how the incident reignited elitist fears that “Americans were essentially gullible morons” and earned Welles the national recognition he’d yearned for. It’s a rollicking portrait of a director on the cusp of greatness. (Nov.)

Revisiting the Titanic

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 21:15:00 +0000

The Hubris of Titanic Strikes Again

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 19:34:00 +0000

We have heard this story before. The five souls lost in a technological breakdown of our most sophisticated effort to explore the seafloor and gaze at the Titanic. Titanic was a perfect example of hubris gone bad. A maiden voyage of an unsinkable ship steaming into an icefield full speed with the thought that electric sliding doors would save everyone by sealing off the sea in the bulkheads. It was the cutting edge technology of its time much like our Space Shuttle. And yet, she strikes an iceberg and five compartments are ripped open and sealed her fate. Titanic quickly became the posterchild for tempting fate by declaring science had conquered risk. We thought we had learned our lesson with more lifeboats and taking heed of wireless ice warnings. But maybe not. After 1985 discovery of Titanic we decided we could tempt fate again and descend almost three miles to the floor of the ocean to look at the last time hubris killed almost 1600 people. But we were secure that our technology would allow us to go where people were not meant to and we could offer that not only to explorers and scientist but for the people who could afford a 250,000 price tag. The very rich onnce again would ride the waves much like in 1912 and for an enormous amount of money descend to that wreck of the Gilded Age. But we found once again our assumption that we had conqured the hostile seas was flawed. Five people bitterly proved that there are some places humans have no business going...like the bottom of the Atlantic to stare at another example of human folly. And the very same shock has now descended as people contemplate how the very richest among us the very brightest could have placed themselves in harms way. Maybe the lesson of Titanic has not been learned. That we will never conquer our enviorment. That there are some places where human gall and hubris will not mitigate the risks. Yes we have a come a long way but so had the people in 1912. A wireless set that could send out a signal 2000 miles. A ship with electric bulkhead doors that could seal up on the flick of a swtich. Just the size of Titanic prohibited the idea of her sinking. But she did sink in less than three hours after hitting the iceberg and she settled to the ocean floor. She should have been a monnument to the idea of tempting fate to declaring all battles won with the planet and human supremacy allowing us to go wherever we want. But of course we ignored the biggest lesson of Titanic. Never assume anything.

The New York Road Not Taken

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Mon, 08 May 2023 14:49:00 +0000

I never did go to New York. A young writer just out of college I stayed in Chicago although I had been to New York many times. I even went for a full week and stayed in Brooklyn right before Christmas and slogged around from one agent to another dropping off horrible manuscripts until one annoyed agent burst out, "this is not how its done." Nothing came of my week in New York and I went back to Chicago to be the struggling writer. But I am haunted by the might of been of going to NY. I should have. I should have taken my shot in the big apple. If for nothing else to see what would have happened. It is where you go when you are young and want to make it as an artist. I knew that every time I went there. This is where I should be. All the big writers it seemed were launched there. The brat pack of McInerny Brett Eastion Ellis were born there. That was my group. My time. But I didnt make the leap. I stayed in Chicago and cranked out my prose and sent three queries a week to NY publishers but never followed them. The letters came back and rejected all that I had sent them. And then of course I got married and had kids and that door closed. The window to go was when I was broke, hungry and desperate. Which was of course the reason I didnt go even though I do remember considering it and talking about it with friends and family but I never did it. The closest I would come would be the week I stayed there and long weekends where I caroused with friends who had moved to NY. Thinking back I could have easily proposed I move in with them, but I never did. And when I finally broke through and had a two book deal with Bantam and a big advance and a big agent I went to NY and had dinner with my publlisher and agent in an upper east side restaurant and then went out and got smashed and the next day walked Manhattan on a Sunday and bought two first edition Fitzgerald collections of short stories and then flew back home. And now twenty five books later one could make the case I did the right thing by staying put and producing the work. Some say NY is so hard that the creativity dries up with the struggle to survive. Some are crushed by the Big Apple. Many return with their tale between their legs. But others, others are launched into the stratosphere from that hot melting pot of creativity that is New York and end up in the stars. You never know, but I wish I had found out.

WRITING GATSBY

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 19:19:00 +0000

The Great Gatsby has sold 25 million copies worldwide and sells 500, 000 copies annually. The book has been made into three movies and produced for the theatre. It is considered the Greatest American Novel ever written. Yet, the story of how The Great Gatsby was written has not been told except as embedded chapters of much larger biographies. This story is one of heartbreak, infidelity, struggle, alcoholism, financial hardship, and one man’s perseverance to be faithful to the raw diamond of his talent in circumstances that would have crushed others. The story of the writing of The Great Gatsby is a story in itself. Fitzgerald had descended into an alcoholic run of parties on Great Neck, NY, where he and Zelda had taken a home. His main source of income was writing for the “slicks” or magazines of the day the main source being the Saturday Evening Post where Fitzgerald’s name on a story got him as high as four thousand dollars. Then on May 1, 1924, he, Zelda, and baby daughter Scottie quietly slipped away from New York on a “dry” steamer to France, the writer in search of sobriety, sanity, and his muse, resulting on the publication of The Great Gatsby a year later.

Revisiting the Titanic

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Thu, 05 May 2022 02:08:00 +0000

ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT INTERVIEW ON THE RACE TO SAVE THE RMS TITANIC

bhazelgrove@gmail.com (William Elliott Hazelgrove ) — Sat, 16 Apr 2022 15:27:00 +0000

Here is the World News Tonight Interview of One Hundred and Sixty Minutes The Race To Save the RMS Titanic