mr rogers esquire article lloyd vogel
When tasked with profiling the well-acclaimed Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks), Vogel is unwilling to do so as it is a change from his typical exposs. And so it was that the puppets he employed on The Children's Corner would be the puppets he employed forty-four years later, and so it was that once he took off his jacket and his shoeswell, he was Mister Rogers for good. In the film, actor Matthew Rhys plays central character Lloyd Vogel, a journalist who's writing a profile on the legendary creator of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." Get instant access to 85+ years of Esquire. The first time I called Mister Rogers on the telephone, I woke him up from his nap. The boy had always been the object of prayer, and now he was being asked to pray for Mister Rogers, and although at first he didn't know if he could do it, he said he would, he said he'd try, and ever since then he keeps Mister Rogers in his prayers and doesn't talk about wanting to die anymore, because he figures Mister Rogers is close to God, and if Mister Rogers likes him, that must mean God likes him, too. He notes, "I think that my character is not just me. Hate is such a strong word to use so lightly. Lloyd has daddy issues, which Junod did not (at least not in the same way) something he outlines in a recent piece about Rogers for The Atlantic Monthly. He doesn't know the color of his walls, and one day, when I caught him looking toward his painted skies, I asked him to tell me what color they are, and he said, "I imagine they're blue, Tom." TJ: Yeah, yeah. Except that Mister Rogers wasn't going anywhere. I wanted to be him." Look at usI've just met you, but I'm investing in who you are and who you will be, and I can't help it. He moved his hand from her wrist to her palm and extended his other hand to me. The editor isn't looking for a cynical unpacking or a scathing expose, like Lloyd's used to writing; just 400 words that give a wee bit of insight to the man behind that (in Lloyd's words) "hokey kids' show." No, Mister Rogers was not a saint. Once upon a time, a little boy with a big sword went into battle against Mister Rogers. Well, not exactly. I mean, to be honest with you, Ive been going and going in front of a crowd [suddenly, a lightbulb in Junods eyeview explodes in flames] Woah! It's this faithfulness to the essence of Junod's story that makes A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood so intriguing, and it will be even more interesting to see how the film goes about achieving that faithfulness. Because Mister Rogers is such a busy man, however, he could not write the chapter himself, and he asked a woman who worked for him to write it instead. ", He was barely more than a boy himself when he learned what he would be fighting for, and fighting against, for the rest of his life. I'll let y'all know. ESQ: Another interesting thing in your piece is how you talk about how theres still a hunger for spreading goodness in the world. On this afternoon, the end of a hot, yellow day in New York City, he was very tired, and when I asked if I could go to his apartment and see him, he paused for a moment and said shyly, Well, Tom, Im in my bathrobe, if you dont mind. I told him I didnt mind, and when, five minutes later, I took the elevator to his floor, well, sure enough, there was Mister Rogers, silver-haired, standing in the golden door at the end of the hallway and wearing eyeglasses and suede moccasins with rawhide laces and a flimsy old blue-and-yellow bathrobe that revealed whatever part of his skinny white calves his dark-blue dress socks didnt hide. I dont like it. Mister Rogers recorded 20 episodes of a show aimed at adults titled "Old Friends . LloydRead More But A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is just not that movie.This isn't "The Mister Rogers Story," or a biopic like the surreal Elton John biography Rocketman or the rise-of-Dick-Cheney story Vice. Junod has stated that his encounter with Rogers changed his perspective on life. "Roy Rogers is done. But, in that same way, do you think he could have became what he did with social media instead of TV? If we wanted to go into the house, we should have called first. The movie is about Lloyd Vogel, (Matthew Rhys), an investigative journalist who receives an assignment to profile noted children's television host Fred Rogers, . Fred" But Mister Rogers was out of the car, with his camera in his hand and his legs moving so fast that the material of his gray suit pants furled and unfurled around both of his skinny legs, like flags exploding in a breeze. Fred Rogers, whose gentle . That's a true thing the real-life Rogers adopted a vegetarian lifestyle back in the 1970s, when eschewing meat was a radical, "hippie" kind of thing to do. The doctors were ophthalmologists. When he reaches the street, he looks right at the lens, as he always does, and says, speaking of the Neighborhood, "Let's go back to my place," and then makes a right turn toward Seventh Avenue, except that this time he just keeps going, and suddenly Margy Whitmer is saying, "Where is Fred? And for me going out and talking about it has been a great experience for me. Twenty minutes later, I got off the train, chose the closest of the stations 14 exits to start my Junod scavenger hunt from, reached the top of the stairs, turned to cross the street, and, wow, okayover on the other end, red turtleneck, black suit, there he is. Directed by 40-year old director Marielle Heller, the movie stars Tom Hanks, already known for his kindness, as Fred Rogers, and Matthew Rhys as Lloyd Vogel. But when I did my first draft for the The Atlantic, I wrote that I still dont know what Fred wants from me, or wants from us. "Rephrase in a positive manner," as in It is good to play where it is safe. he asked. But Junod says he recognizes Vogel's . The new film is inspired by the story of Rogers' relationship with journalist Tom Junod, who was assigned to profile Rogers in 1998 for a special issue of Esquire on American heroes. A distraction itself was dangerous. We hate that.' More than 150,000 Images beautiful High-Resolution photography, zoom into every . But ultimately, it wouldn't make a difference, as he praised director Marielle Heller's work, writing, "But in the screening room I had no such protection, because the director, Marielle Heller, had been so faithful to the essence of the story." In 2011 Michelle . Bill had driven us there, and now, sitting behind the wheel of his red Grand Cherokee, he was full of remonstrance. She was very pretty. He wrote, "I was well aware of his eccentricity, but unlike my character in the script, I had never rejected him or his message, which was that nothing is more important about a man than the way he looks, the way he carries himself, and the mystery of what my father called his 'allure. He clearly wanted me to pray. You know that they shot it with like the original cameras. Im not sure why perhaps as a Valentines gift to all of us or to make up for the guy who yesterday wrote that men who play with LEGOs are not real men but last night Esquire made one of the best profiles it (or anyone else) has ever published, Tom Junods 1998 profile of Mr. Rogers, available online. Harpster and Fitzerman-Blue were joined onstage by Tom Junod, whose beautiful 1998 profile of Mr. Rogers for Esquire provided a main influence on the film. "Fred, they're not home. His grandfather, his grandmother, his uncles, his aunts, his father-in-law and mother-in-law, even his family's servantshe went to each grave, and spoke their names, and told their stories, until finally I headed back down to the Jeep and turned back around to see Mister Rogers standing high on a green dell, smiling among the stones. And, its definitely one of the reasons that changing the name to Lloyd Vogel worked, because I think that things sort of drift towards magical realism at that time. One hundred and forty-three. ESQ: One thing I was really interested in how in the The Atlantic piece, you spell out masculinity as defined by your father. Three died, and they were still children, almost. She goes a little knock-kneed, directs a thumb toward her mouth. He was starting a television program, aimed at children, called Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. And then he was on the move again, happily, quickly, for he would not leave until he showed me all the places of all those who'd loved him into being. Can I take your picture, Tom? he asked. And the fact that Im talking to you at a fashion show with a turtleneck on, you know, the irony is not lost on me. On December 1, 1997oh, heck, once upon a timea boy, no longer little, told his friends to watch out, that he was going to do something "really big" the next day at school, and the next day at school he took his gun and his ammo and his earplugs and shot eight classmates who had clustered for a prayer meeting. But its the unintentional stuff that I think is really true to life. Junod had hoped the changes would bring protection, as he wrote, "I had counted on the plots many departures from my life to insulate me from the emotional effect of seeing some version of myself up there." TJ: Well, I think its always changed, just like yours that way. Did you have a special friend like that, Tom? "Oh, that's a nice name," Mister Rogers says, and then goes to the Thirty-fourth Street escalator to climb it one last time for the cameras. What is grace? They are boxers, egg-colored, and to rid himself of them he bends at the waist, and stands on one leg, and hops, and lifts one knee toward his chest and then the other and then Mister Rogers has no clothes on. "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" is more or less the story of how an Esquire article comes into being. Its like if you dont do it, maybe it wont happen. Koko watches television. Reading This 1998 Esquire Profile Of Mr. Rogers Will Feed Your Hungry Soul, GloRilla, Ice Spice, And The Carefree Black Girl Backlash, Karol G Tells Us About Her Most Personal Album Yet, Maana Ser Bonito, And Collaborating With Shakira, The Rundown: Between Cocaine Bears And Maple Syrup Heists, Margo Martindale Is Absolutely Thriving In 2023. he asked her, and when she said yes, he said, "Oh, thank you, my dear." It means that you can think but sometimes can't walk, or even talk. For example, much of Mister Rogers' investment in Lloyd rests upon his tumultuous relationship with his father (Chris Cooper). Once upon a time, you see, I lost something, and prayed to get it back, but when I lost it the second time, I didn't, and now this was it, the missing word, the unuttered promise, the prayer I'd been waiting to say a very long time. He prayed for Old Rabbit's safe return, and when, hours later, his mother and father came home with the filthy, precious strip of rabbity roadkill, he learned not only that prayers are sometimes answered but also the kind of severe effort they entail, the kind of endless frantic summoning. "Do you think we can go in?" His hand was warm, hers was cool, and we bowed our heads, and closed our eyes, and I heard Deb's voice calling out for the grace of God. Lloyd Vogel (based loosely on the real life journalist Tom Junod) is the anti-heroic protagonist of the 2019 drama film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.An embittered, self-absorbed, antisocial Esquire journalist who holds a grudge towards his philanderous father Jerry for abandoning his family, Lloyd is assigned to profile children's television host Fred Rogers for a magazine issue about . Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. 85+ Years of outstanding fiction from world-renowned authors. He woke up in the morning and prayed, and wrote, and prayed for people. And thats how I became Lloyd Vogel." A minute ago we were stand-ins for children watching the show; now we seem to be somehow inside the brain of Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a cynical Esquire reporter tasked with profiling Rogers for . And yet, here I am. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. "Now, Deb, I'd like to ask you a favor," he said. Im not gonna be describing anything but my social media experience, but I think that the social media experienceand I dont want to blame everything on social media, eitherbut I do think that social media tricks you into thinking that being unkind can be in itself, moral. "This man's name is Tom. This article was the basis for the plot of the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. I like to take pictures of all my new friends, so that I can show them to Joanne." And then, in the dark room, there was a wallop of white light, and Mister Rogers disappeared behind it. What is yours named?". Tom Junod's "Can You Say . . On his computer, the boy answered yes, of course, he would do anything for Mister Rogers, so then Mister Rogers said, "I would like you to pray for me. She had a long face and a dark blush to her skin. . There are some stories we can analyze all we want, but sometimes there are stories in which, no matter how much we pick them apart, what's on the surface for us to appreciate is more . We make so many connections here on earth. At work the next day, Lloyd plays off his shiner as the result of a softball injury and very reluctantly takes a 400-word profile of Mr. Rogers assigned by his editor at Esquire in an effort to . Margy couldn't stop them, and she couldn't stop him. Plot. His name was Old Rabbit. I mean, he's sort of a stand-in for all of the people that Fred Rogers had a relationship with. the Junod character is Lloyd Vogel, played by Matthew . She and the boy lived together in a city in California, and although she wanted very much for her son to meet Mister Rogers, she knew that he was far too disabled to travel all the way to Pittsburgh, so she figured he would never meet his hero, until one day she learned through a special foundation designed to help children like her son that Mister Rogers was coming to California and that after he visited the gorilla named Koko, he was coming to meet her son. Isn't that wonderful?". It takes one letter to say 'I' and four letters to say 'love' and three letters to say 'you.'. They just sang. We swung up to the fashion show venue, where I watched Junod practice his strut to untz-untz-untz beats and avoid a janky step at the start of the runway. "Oh, I don't know, Fred," she said. In fact, when Mister Rogers first told me the story, I complimented him on being so smartfor knowing that asking the boy for his prayers would make the boy feel better about himselfand Mister Rogers responded by looking at me at first with puzzlement and then with surprise. In 1998, Rogers strikes a friendship with Lloyd Vogel, a self-absorbed, embittered journalist who is assigned to interview him for the magazine Esquire. It is Vogeland, by extension, uswho grows as a result. Not his childhood, mind you, or even a childhoodno, just "childhood." Theyre polar opposites. "Looks a bit likeOld Rabbit, doesn't it, Tom? And even now, when he is producing only three weeks' worth of new programs a year, he still winds up agonizingagonizingabout whether to announce his theme as "Little and Big" or "Big and Little" and still makes only two edits per televised minute, because he doesn't want his message to be determined by the cuts and splices in a piece of tapeto become, despite all his fierce coherence, "a message of fragmentation.". To go into the house, we should have called first big sword into! From his nap that you can think but sometimes ca n't walk, or a... You dont do it, Tom up from his nap the wheel of his Grand! Looks a bit likeOld Rabbit, does n't it, Tom, Fred, '' he.... Was a wallop of white light, and they were still children, called Mister Rogers '.. A time, a little boy with a big sword went into battle Mister... N'T walk, or even a childhoodno, just `` childhood. like yours that way about how still... The unintentional stuff that I can show them to Joanne. as a result, Tom at,. 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