[birds calling] [man on radio]and good morning, folks,around new york and you slumbering boroughs. we're having a good timeon the radio. today is "best behavior day," 'cause runners from everywhereall over the world are gonna be padding downyour streets. it's new york city marathon day. and for all you marathoners,
time to get upand stretch those legs. it's gonna be a long day. well, good morning. i'm jim mckay. you know, it's an audaciousidea, really, running a full marathonof 26 miles, 385 yards through the weary streetsof new york city. it was started by a slight, bearded transplantedtransylvanian
named fred lebow. his idea was to run four timesaround central park, and that's the waythe marathon began. but a few years laterthe audacious idea was broached to run throughall five boroughs. [thrashing marlin's forty shades of blue] ♪ oh well they must haveseen it coming ♪ ♪ the heavens openedand it rained ♪ (mckay)it was moved to the course
which covers all five boroughsin 1976... down through brooklyn,over into queens, they'll hit manhattan. they'll hit bronx,every borough of new york city. ♪ they walked along the avenue ♪ ♪ his hands were strongerthan uranium ♪ ♪ her eyes 40 shades of blue ♪ (mckay)how did fred lebow gofrom romanian-born businessman to director of an eventthat on one day in november
pulls together our entire city,every state in the union... (man)new york city has the largestmarathon in the united states. it is the largestspectator sporting event and the largest fieldof international runners. there will be morethan 80 countries-- and the greatest numberof volunteers anywhere ever for this big marathon. (man)2 million spectatorslining the streets. it's the most famous marathonin the world.
(man)and this sight needs no words. [siren wailing distantly] [easy acoustic guitar music] ♪ ♪ [grooving funk music] (roth)in those days, runnerswere dedicated to the sport. there were many more peoplerunning faster than slower. we were all kind of hardcore. and it wasn't a big social worldof running.
it was a small social worldof running. and we weren't involvedwith a popular sport. we were, like,the offbeat people. (frankfurt)the road running, it was--people were thought ofas freaks. (muhrcke)uh, our uniforms were probablyunderwear, almost. i mean, at least the top was. you know, and somebody hada white short. it really did look likewe were all
running around in our underwear. i can remember in the wintersomebody at the halfway mark giving out brandy. that was running back in 1969. (corbitt)we started up and startedto form our road runners club, set up our racing program, including a 4-miler. a marathon was in the bronx. it was calledthe cherry tree marathon.
(chiappetta)doing things out of ourapartment houses and our rooms and out of bars. we started off earlyup at the yankee stadium. (muhrcke)macomb's dam park, well,that was the meeting place, which is right across the streetfrom yankee stadium, in the men's locker room. so there wasn't any roomfor women running. (sander)we were a very insular groupof people up here. and of course,if you were from the bronx
or around the bronxand macomb's dam, you thought you knew everything. and then a kind ofan idiosyncratic fellow came on the scene who had a little sports car. i remember a littlekind of an of orange kind of little sports car. he wore a little hatwith a beard: fred lebow. (roth)he was originallya rip-off artist
in the garment industry. he would go to these expensivefashion shows and see the most expensivegarments. and he was an expert at, "how do you make these garmentsreally cheap for everybody?" and he would rip off the design and fuel companieswith opportunity. (sander)it was very--you know,in certain ways he was sophisticatedmore than we were,
and he was involvedin downtown manhattan, you know, downtown. that was the worldhe seemed to come from. and it gave you two reactions. one, you know, this was,you know, like super slick, and on the other side,suspicion, you know. [laughs] "this is not the old running." he would invite usto openings down there.
i think it-- i don't know if it wasto impress us. i never really gotthe whole thing. but--and we'd have to wearblack tie, and we would show up. and the women that were allthese models and stuff-- and they were all tuggingat his shoulders. and i don't know if he hadthis thing set up or what. this was a wholebrave new world
we had never seen before,you know? (switzer)he had a melangeand a savoir faire and that european kindof quality of kindness and attractivenessthat, you know, a lot of men, american mendidn't have in those days. (steinfeld)he was sort of a weird guy. he'd come in his suitand his long black leather coat and a very entertainingindividual, would certainly take people out.
he took usto all his fancy places, which we said,"they're vacuous and empty. why do you want to goto these things for?" you know, "you have more funwith us, you know." there was still this sense. "i have to have a purposein life." and he wasn't gettingthe purpose in the garment industrywhere he worked. (man) your love affair with new york: how did that begin?
well, actually it beganwhen i discovered central park. it was in 1969. came to the reservoir onesunday, and i did one lap, 1.58 miles in 18 minutes, which was very slow. fred ran like a duck, except he was slowerthan a duck. i mean, he was slow. not many people ran that weren'treally good runners.
so it really wasa pretty unique situation. he was running racesand finished way, way, way back, because not many peoplewould risk their ego doing that. ()fred went out and ran every day. if it was the end of a long dayfor fred-- didn't have any wife, kids-- out the door he went. (lebow)i found running like an oasisin my life. i just put my running shoeson and shorts and shirt
and off running central park. [rocking funk music] (chiappetta)then in 1970,we began to lose our ability to functionin the bronx. (corbitt)the traffic increased, and therewere kids throwing rocks. (sander)fred began to tell people, "look, you got to--let's take it out of the bronx. let's get it, you know,in the big time here."
my god, that was heresy, you know, manhattan. (lebow)and at times there were reallyhalf a dozen runners on the reservoir,and we would talk about running. and i said, "it's closedfor traffic on weekends. why don't we put a marathonin central park?" (stern)central park wasn't builtfor running. it was built for horsesand carriages they're drawing around.
the idea of people runningaround the park in what appears to betheir underwear or less would have been impossible. people didn't go out of theirhouses looking like that. "up and down the hills,and who's gonna watch what," and, you know,"who can count the laps? "you'll never--there'll be mistakes. everything will be screwed up." and everybody thought he was,"oh, who's this interloper?
you know, where does he getall these ideas?" (roth)that was how he operated, disturbing what we all believedwas the norm. you're doing somethingfor so many years, and you're doing it your way,and you're doing it this way, and all of a suddenthis guy is telling you, "we should be doing ita different way," or "we should want to promotethe sport more." fred loved that.
he wanted to attract the world. but i think most of the olderrunning community didn't need that. he could see things a lot of uscouldn't see, and he didn't really carewho he annoyed. he wanted to takethe running scene public. he talked them all into itin 1970, the first new york city marathonin central park. (lebow)total cost was $99,000.
i paid for it myself. i bought 15 cheap watches,a very gaudy trophy. i didn't know what to door how to put a marathon on. judges, referees, runners:hold it till you hear the gun. get ready. [gunshot] (sander)central park was a verytough place to run a marathon. it's up and down. i don't think there's one patchof 15 yards
that's level down there. there were baby carriages that you were going aroundand people. very few of us were watching,i would say. you know, there were less peoplewatching the race than were in the race, and in the race there weren'ta lot of people. (muhrcke)i mean, we showed upin central park. and i don't rememberwhether it was a dollar
or 50⢠to enter. i was entered in the race,lucky day for me. after i got my prizeand my trophy, he actually said,"could i have it back, because i don't have enoughfor somebody else." (kuscsik)it was really just another race. it happened to bein central park, but it was justanother marathon. but fred kept calling meand asking me to tell the press
that i was gonna tryto break three hours. and i was not readyto break three hours. i didn't know how to handlethe stress. and so i ran about 15 miles,and i decided, you know, i was tired, and it might bebetter for me to quit. and of course, you know,it lives in history, "the first new york citymarathon. no women finishes." (lebow)there was no spectators,
no press, no crowds,no water. they were basicallytalking to themselves. it had no cachet. it didn't really reach out. i think it bothered freda little bit that he felt somewhat ignored,somewhat looked upon as, "who is this guy?" he sort of workedhis way through it. it was more a question of tryingto find his identity
and being able to takewhat he knew and expand on it. once i discovered running, i spent less and less timein the garment industry. fred sort of started tocoordinate things and started to usehis apartment as the officialroad runners club office. (crawford)our apartment wasthe sixth-floor walk-up. so when we had people come byto pick up something, we had a basket we let downoutside the window.
or if someone had somethingfor us, they would put it in the basket,and we'd pull the basket up. (hirsch)and fred was doling outsafety pins and putting a little of his ownmoney into the race. he was planning the next year. "maybe we can have 300 people, "and wouldn't that be somethingpretty incredible? "maybe i can get someoneto even pay for the numbers, you know, put their name on it."
(switzer)johnson's waxcalled fred lebow and said, "we want to doa women's-only marathon. we'll name it after this productthat we're trying to launch, which is crazy legs," which was a women'sshaving cream. it was edge, in fact,turned pink. fred said, "gosh," you know,thinking really fast. he could only get six or sevenor eight women together to run a marathon.
it wasn't gonna bea very successful promotion. "why don't we do, like,one loop of central park, a short race, you know,six miles, and we will call ita mini-marathon," because the miniskirtwas in fashion at the time. and of course, fred was stillin the garment business, and he was out therehawking miniskirts. so he said, "mini-marathon: that has a real cachetfor women."
and fred felt that they neededto get publicity for it, so they went to the playboy club and convincedsome playboy bunnies to be our promotersand run in the race. and that certainlybrought out the press. (man) go. [giggling] (man) on your mark, get set, go. nina and i had to do thesephoto ops with the bunnies,
and we weren't exactlythrilled about it, but that was fred. he wanted the raceto be successful for women, and if it took bunnies to help,it was gonna do that. what do you think of thiscrazy legs thing here? oh, i think it's fantastic, because this is a realbreakthrough for women. this is the first exclusivelong-distance race for women. oh, this is the first marathonof its kind,
the first road runners' racein the country, i believe, for girls. and it's a six-mile course, and i'm sure there will beall levels of competitors. some will rest on the way. some will go all the way,i'm sure. "what are women doing going outand competing "in physical activity "when they should be homehaving children,
"raising their children,making their dinners for their family?" well, you have three children. when do you find time to run? well, they play. i run while they play, and if i want to gofor a long run, you know, 15 or 20 miles,i'll get a babysitter. just like some other womenwill go to the beauty parlor
or play bridge or go bowling,i go running. are you looking forward to it? oh, yeah, definitely. (switzer)i mean, you can see us smilingand laughing at the start and everything,but once that gun went off, it was a very competitive race. and it was a fantastic success. my daughter ran. she was about nine years oldor something.
she ran, yeah. [crowd cheering] (switzer)he used women to promotehis event, but it hadhelped us tremendously in getting exposure we neededfor our cause. [man over p.a.] 157 women, which makes this the largest long-distance road running event in the entire world. (sander)we had people--i won't mention their names--
who were head, big honchosin usa track and field who said women shouldn't runover a mile. and what fred does, he broughta whole new dimension to the sport,because before him-- and the reason why there weresuch small numbers running, to some extent, was thateveryone was not encouraged. we all worked together. we were passionateto make this work. we knew the rest of the worldthought we were nutty.
but we didn't thinkwe were nutty, and we worked together. it was thenthe new york road runners club. it was very much a club. [heartfelt guitar music] (chiappetta)fred was there every day. he quit his job, and he was there gettingthe day-to-day things going, thinking up ideas.
he was making peopleenthusiastic to make it work. (averbuch)i had come to manhattanfrom a little town in oregon. and all i had to bring me therewas my running. and i was runningin central park, and a guy was standingat 90th and 5th, and he was asking for volunteersto come and stuff envelopes. and i began by volunteeringto stuff envelopes for hours and hours. and as fred was an expertat doing,
found a little social network. you know,for a free piece of pizza, you could sit there allafternoon, and he got peopleto do his work. so he hired me. and lo and behold,for the next 20 years, i was attached to him asa coworker and he as my mentor. everything that he had made, every dime he had madein the garment industry
went into road runners. and for years he paid people'ssalaries with that money. he virtually walked aroundpenniless all the time. he would go in,stop in a restaurant, have dinner, and thennot be able to pay the people. and the next day they'd becalling road runners and saying, "well, you know,fred owes us $12." that was the norm. that happened everywhere.
it was simple. it was a simple existence. and there would certainly bea lot of people who would mother him. people would bring lunch to him. he was the kind of personthat you wanted to take care of. and everybody wanted to do that,so everybody pitched in. (averbuch)we were very family-oriented. we used to wait until his sisterbrought him food.
she was like a surrogate mother, and we would all waitlike vultures. and when she left,he would give us, you know, all this wonderfulfood she brought. so he always took care of us. (sara katz) i'm going to make for you fred's favorite, favorite food. he loved latkes. whenever he came,it was hanukkah. he liked latkes any day.
so whenever i went to his house,i made latkes. i am going to make for youso you can taste it. it smells delicious. and here is it. ooh, it's hot. we were seven children. i was the fifth, and then--wait a minute. no, i was the--yeah. there was mosche,simka, schloime,
este, and me, fred, then sara. (katz)fred's fatherwas a real dreamer. i don't want to say he hadhis head in the clouds, but that's--for the most part, that's the way everyonedescribed him. he was very beloved by people,like, socially. he had a newsstand, and people wouldjust come by sometimes to buy, sometimes just to talk.
my grandmother was the onewho kind of had the fire, and she would get things done. (sarah katz)it was a very happy house,and then this war. things change. it was never the same. (lebowitz)we had fears. you know,"what's going to happen?" and then the communists startedtaking over, and we started thinking,"oh, we've got to leave."
so my mother and father said,"all right. you go first,and we'll follow you." and that's when the familyhad to split, and fred went with mike. (sara katz)he left--he was--i think he was 14. that's what i think. and i must have been eight,eight years old. and he left early morning,and i was asleep. so nobody woke me up.
[train whistle blowing] (lebowitz)there was a transport going from romania to israelvia holland. just luck, they said,"you know, "i think you ought to stay herein czechoslovakia, "because we don't knowhow the border is going to be further on in germanyand holland and so forth." we were alone awayfrom the family for 13 years. i used to cajole him,talk to him,
and he didn't like it,you know. but i felt,"i'm the older brother." and then sometimes he would say,"i know. i can take care of myself.i can take care of myself. you don't have to tell me,you know." first letter we receivedin czechoslovakia from our parents,i started reading it. [sighs] i had tears in my eyes.
i didn't want fred to know,so i gave him the letter. i said, "fred, you read it." that's our first time awayfrom home. (lebow)when i was a kid,all i wanted was to survive. you know, we were hidingfrom the nazis, then hiding from the soviets, and finally going outinto the world and seek a better life. (sara katz)my parents came to brooklyn,so he moved to brooklyn.
then i met himwhen he was already 32. fred has memories of from himbetween 14 and 32. i have no memory,because i didn't see him. we were separated. we call him fischel. when he came home,we used to call him fischel. my kids called himuncle fischel. we knew that they call him fred and that he changed to"le bow," very french,
or "lee bow." my mother wrote to me,"i feel like he's a stranger." [pensive guitar music] everything,everything could be solved if you would onlyrun, everything. everything was running. that was his life, you know,his religion. when i came in to visit him,if it was time for him to run, whether i was therefor only 30 seconds,
"sorry, got to go." [mike james kirkland's got to do it right] ♪ she said i got to come on ♪ ♪ and i got to do itdo it ♪ ♪ i got to do it right ♪ ♪ i got to do itevery day, every night ♪ ♪ she said i'm gonna do it ♪ (corbitt)the new york city racein central park was in trouble course-wise.
the four-plus lap routewas not suitable for the number of participants, because officialscouldn't keep up with the count of the runners. so the course, in that sense,was obsolete. here we were in central park, where bicycleswould cut across us, and people would push theirbaby carriages in front of us, and people would havetheir frisbee game going on.
and it was so annoyingand very dispiriting. (lebow)george spitz came around, and he said, "fred, why don'tyou have a marathon in the five boroughs?" now, i qualified for bostonin '75. huge crowds, and i thought,"why can't we have one here?" (switzer)boston was the great dream racefor all of us, because it ranthrough the streets, and the public knew the race
and were educated about the raceand grew up on the race and cheered everybodyknowledgably. and george spitz had the ideaof this race to celebrate the bicentennial,and he and fred got together. it was expectedthis would be a race, one timejust for that celebration. the five-borough thingwas not new, okay? but the ability to do itwas new. there's no such thingas original music, you know?
and the idea would havecome around regardless of me, but it could nevercome into existence without fred lebow. (kuscsik)and even i was like, "well, do they want us? "do they want us to do that? "will that really be helpfulto the runners? will it be safe?" people thought this was madness.
[laughing]you go through all boroughs and across the verrazano bridge,no less. i mean, it was--there was-- "this can't be done." and it took a lotof politicking, and, you know, percy sutton and all the people that really got behindthis thing. (sutton)the idea was whenwe sat at that table was to draw the route.
we were gonna start it acrossthe bridge in staten island. we would come across here. we're going to brooklyn, and then we'll go from thereto queens. and then we run the bronx. we want to be surewe get it into the bronx. (lebow)gary muhrcke, who won the firstnew york city marathon in central park, came to me in the park,grabbed ahold of my lapel.
he said, "fred, you're makinga disastrous decision. "how could you run a marathon,women and men, "through the terribleneighborhoods "of bedford-stuyvesantand harlem? how could you do that?" i pretended i wasn't concerned. i was nervous. i was very nervous. one of the waysthat fred sold the concept
of the five-borough marathonto the city was that the city neededsomething positive. (frankfurt)you went through someof the worst economy that, you know, the city ever had. the city ready to go bankrupt. we're facing upto the financial crisis confronting this city and state. we need your help. i know you're going to give it.
one week ago,new york city tottered on the brinkof financial default which was deferredonly at the 11th hour. and when new york city now asks the rest of the countryto guarantee its bills, it can be no surprise that many other americansask "why?" (man)♪ you can't help yourself ♪ ♪ i'm talking about the peoplethat got nothing to eat ♪
financial crisisand the escalating crime in the city of new york, the statement"the bronx is burning"-- because there was a lot of arson-- caused people around the worldto see new york as a center of crimeand a place to be avoided. [crowd shouting] there were always attemptsto disprove the fact that you could do thison any different level.
"you're going into the bronx? "what does that mean, and how safe is thatgoing to be?" so there wasa lot of skepticism. there were running jokesor running for your life instead of running for your life. (sutton)a period of time whennew york city needed something. he was the personthat was needed. (man)♪ and here's the fooland the rocket ship ♪
♪ trying to be superman ♪ ♪ well, you better let my... ♪ (roth)he enjoyed taking on challengesthat no one else could imagine could be possible. his identity,his uniqueness in this world was that he confused people. it was all about mirrors andshells and moving things around and hiding things. and he did that to createthe first marathon,
the first five-borough marathon, because he knew that we neededpeople to believe in us. and we didn't have anythingto believe in yet except for his visionof how great it was gonna be. so he assured everybodythat the numbers were there for everyoneand even made up numbers. and he assured the runnersthat we had plenty of support, plenty of sponsors. we didn't have it.
the road runnersand fred were broke. they didn't have a penny. (mccabe)fred was out therebeating the bushes looking for moneyto support the marathon. and the garment center, i guess, produces a different typeof salesperson. so he wasrough-and-tumble sales. the people at the bank,the senior officers of the bank, when they met him,they all fell in love with him.
they bought into it very well. i mean, you know,$5,000 is a lot of money to sponsor in those days,especially sponsor something that no one really knewwhat it was all about. i mean,this was a time when no one used the word "event marketing." sponsorship was very, very new,very green. he had in his mind alwaysthe vision of how he wanted events run,and he was so headstrong.
he had no intimidation. (roth)he assured the pressthat we had plenty of runners. we did not have many runners. we had about 20. i won the boston marathonin 1975, set the american record. in '76, i made the olympic teamalong with frank shorter. frank ran superblyin the olympic games. i ran really poorly.
fred lebow, he invited us bothto the first five-boroughnew york city marathon. i had something to prove,'cause i had run so-- i failed, you know,in the olympic games. so i say,"yeah, we want to do it." (shorter)i was coming in sort ofto support running in new york and to meet this crazy guy who thought he could run throughall five boroughs of the city, because i wanted to seeif it could happen.
what better thing than to havethose two americans at the first five-borough race just having come offthe 1976 olympics? and it was one of those thingswhere it all came together. it was the right time. there was the window. and it created huge, huge mediaand a great following and gave a local little racethat was in central park, suddenly it was not onlyin the streets of new york,
but it had the best runnersin the world here. he assured the sponsorsthat the press was there, eager, and the crowdswere all gonna be there. going in the marathon,he was so nervous about it. he was up--i think he went three nights in a rowhe didn't sleep. and i saw himmaybe two nights before the first five-borough marathon. and he said, "bob, i don't knowif i'm gonna make it.
if i don't make it,you're in charge." and i said, "no. "no way i'm in chargeof the marathon. you're nuts." (lebow)then a bunch of kids comesand says, "you guys are runningthrough my turf. you don't have permissionto do that." "the police okay'd it." "we don't believe in police."
but i gave them t-shirtsand jackets and caps for the group to become marshalson the course. they never came around again. getting the police and otherpeople within the boroughs to embrace it, he was very good at going out and kind of creatinga kind of communal exercise that kept people involved as ifit was part of their race. (roth)and what it was is thateverybody believed him.
so they all showed up,and we had the numbers. and that was genius. and so it began. the year was 1976. [mechanic clanking] [building rock music] (mccabe)marathon morning he was runningaround with a bullhorn yelling at people,screaming at people, "do this;do that."
it was like,you would need a checklist of 100 things to check. his checklist was in his head. and if he walked by and sawsomething that wasn't right, he would go crazy. [people chattering] (frankfurt)my brother drove me outto the verrazano bridge, parked his car on the bridge, and we lined up for the race.
and that's--you know, it was that simple. (rodgers)yes, it was a beautiful daythe first year. and it was so exciting,you know, running over theverrazano-narrows bridge. we thought the race was huge. there were 2,000 marathonersthat first year. [siren wailing] it started throughthe hasidic areas of brooklyn, and i was looking atall the young kids
and everyone out there looking,and i realized, "these people are witnessingsomething they've never seen before." (hirsch)of course, we wanted itin all five boroughs, so there was justthat little dip into the bronx. and it was literallyaround a telephone pole. (glover)i don't know of any marathon,small or large, in the history of the sportthat people ran up stairs. and all i could thinkwhen i went up it was,
"frank shorterwent up those stairs too." (traum)no amputeehad ever run a marathon or any significant distancebefore. and there were people out therecheering their lungs out. [inspiring rock music] (rodgers)running over that bridge andeverything was exciting as hell, the queensboro bridge. you come into manhattan,and, "phoom," the excitement,the energy of that.
there were no barriers, and the peoplewere just all around, and the banner was maybe20 feet wide. (shorter)like, you literally finishedand sat down on the benches of the finish line and waitedfor your friends to finish. [applause] (lebow)we knew we hada successful event. we didn't know how successfulit's going to be. we couldn't anticipatemy wildest dream.
and this was gonna happen. (schaap)26 miles, 385 yards. no one was mugged. no one was hit by a taxi. for the city of new yorkand bill rodgers, the marathonwas a resounding success. dick schaap, nbc news,in central park. it absolutely coincidedwith the rebirth of the city. don't forget that no matterwhere that race ran--
and not every neighborhoodit runs through is pristine-- that neighborhood was groomedand beautified before that race. and when that happenedand those people came through and it brought the people outin the neighborhood, that created not justa celebration of the running event, a celebration of eachand every neighborhood, of all the populationof the city. i think it's reallya great idea.
it's good publicityfor new york city, which had such a--well, a sort of reputation. people were cheeringinstead of booing. people were hugginginstead of punching. five-borough raceactually put running right on everybody's doorstep. well, we could see in the demandand the excitement of people for the next year's race. runners, like, doubled,and it kept going exponentially.
and then we knewwe had something. [cannon fires] [man over tv]from 14 countries they came,5,000 marathoners, more than 20 of themolympics veterans, surging across theverrazano-narrows bridge to begin the long-distance runstretching more than 26 miles, 279 of the competitors women, three times as many womenas last year runningin the biggest marathon ever,
2/3 more people thanthe boston marathon last spring. [man over tv]oh, bill rodgers,bill rodgers again proving he's the best marathonerin america, perhaps the best marathonerin the world. so now as those who finishedfurther back in the field come in to get their blankets, two things seemclearly established. number one,bill rodgers is the stat--rats. (lubell)the marathon in those days
did havewhat i call star power. (rodgers)it was my olympics in a way. it was great fun. it was a great kickoff and started a string of chances,of opportunities. say "when." and now as the runnerswho finished further back come in to get their wraps,two things seem clear. first, bill rodgersis further established
as the u.s. long-distancemarathon runner, and secondly,this new york sporting event seems clearly established as a major internationalsporting competition. bill stewart, abc news,new york. going up first avenue, when frednoticed people on the balconies of the apartments cheering, i remember he said,"i think we've made it." i said, "why?"
he said, "look at the people." (switzer)the sport is growingand growing and growing. i call itkind of a perfect storm of these different thingshappening at once to create this explosion. fitness was coming into vogue. um, treadmills were just comingonto the scene. then gradually middle-classwhite kids from the '60s who had spent all that timein the sexual revolution
and all sorts of drugsstarted getting older and worrying about old ageand dying. and they needed another drug. [one peace's it's insane] ♪ it's insane ♪ [man over tv]there has been an astonishinggrowth in the popularity of long-distance running,especially in this city. (lebow)i found it the easiest cityto work with. i've had people from othercities calling me up,
"how did you get new yorkto do all this? "we can't get themto close one block, "and you got them to closebridges and roadways "and over 300 intersections. it's amazing." london marathoncame out of new york. you know, the whole modernurban, big-city marathons around the world. the moscow marathon started off,
beijing. new york city marathonreally was the race that gave it a push for the road running boomto go global. and you found time to run in, what, 11 marathons this year? uh...12. no, 11 different countries. 11 different countries, 12 marathons. do you miss the factthat you don't get to run
in your marathon? i do, but i've compensatedfor it. i always make sure i runa marathon a few weeks or a month before. [man over tv]and the boom continuesto snowball, fueled by reports that runningstrengthens the heart that runnershave better sex lives, that social contactsare improved at weekend races. you know, the park became thebest singles bar in new york,
and all you had to do was showup in the thing and, you know,say to a guy or a girl, "gee, where'd you getthose shoes?" and bang,you had a relationship. and fred was into thatbetter than most. i mean, he had more girlfriendsthan anyone i knew. (switzer)you'd go to a party. everybody would talk abouttheir running. it was really boring.
but, you know,that was the thing back then. so for every year we'd have more and more people wanting to come outand be in these races. [woman over tv]a few seconds after midnight. over 3,000 people crowd thenew york city main post office. their objective: an early postmark to improvetheir chances of being accepted to run the new york city marathon.
(brokaw)the world-class runners are automatically admittedto this race. (lebow) correct. but thousandsof other amateur runners from all over the worldwant to get in it as well. how do they get in? try to cajole us,sometimes threaten us, and sometimes even bribe us. but it's expected when you haveover 20,000 people rejected
who train very hardall year round. and finallywhen they are ready for it and we just say, "i'm sorry,but we're overbooked." it gives people from all over the world a chance to see the city in ways that they never expected to. that's right. well, i've seen you run in central park. i know, don't start trying toget me to run the marathon.
your wife finished the marathon. my wife did, and i didn't.i know. you're on america-- you know all the sore points, don't you, fred? we'll be backright after this word. he was sort of a pied piper, someone who was beginning tostart this so-called revolution. ♪ tended to be a littleout of it ♪ ♪ i said mary, marydon't be contrary ♪
♪ do you knowwhere you're coming from? ♪ ♪ she said people today ♪ ♪ i don't knowif i'm coming or going ♪ ♪ i don't knowif i'm coming or going, y'all ♪ (man) one man is 82. one had seven heart attacks and a coronary bypass. right, and we have a womanwho's 80 years old. and there are many. there are 16,000 stories.
(lebow)i'm just surprisedwhen i read that that there are 34 millionamericans who run or jog. i wonder where the restof those 60 million are that should be running or at least race walking. [upbeat music] ♪ run,run and you'll be thinner ♪ ♪ run to give your hearta thrill ♪ ♪ run,run to be a winner ♪
♪ not just run-of-the-mill ♪ ♪ keep up the pace ♪ ♪ and we promiseyou'll hit new heights ♪ ♪ stay in the race and yourspirits will rise, rise, rise ♪ ♪ run! ♪ well, i sure hope you likeour new awards ceremony program. it surprised me. but i'm certainly delightedto be part of this organization after what i see here tonight.
(stern)and i think fred felt, of sorts,that he was a missionary. convert people to the marathon,expand the road runners club, make it a place that was notonly wrapped up in the new york marathon, but wrapped upon a whole program. (davis)by '78, fredand the road runners were organizing a raceevery week. (man)fred, could you tell me a littlebit about this race? (lebow)well, it's our annual bagel run.
we're gonna have bagels,cream cheese, and lox. bagels, bagels. themed races. (man)innovative things,the halloween run. (averbuch)we used to have an event calledthe baked apple run. (roth)5th avenue mile. (man)all the other races he had goingbackwards, forwards, up the empire state building. across town today the pressagents were out in force
at the empire state building, staging a publicity stuntso silly that we decided to cover it. (kuscsik)fred comes along with this idea that we can run upthe empire state building. and i don't knowwhere he got the idea. (roberts)corporate challengewas another one. ♪ not content to sit and knit ♪ (paddock)the international breakfast run,
the idea of bringing togetherall the international runners, had them meet at the u.n. (switzer)you know, like,a new year's eve run at the stroke of midnighton new year's eve. (paddock)there was alwayssomething exciting. there was alwayssomething dramatic. (switzer)fireworks and champagneat the water stations. (averbuch)you take the idea of pastabefore running a race, and it's a really simple idea.
it's just about nutrition, but who else but fred could havemade this gigantic pasta party? (steinfeld)he had crazy ideas. some were great. like, some were terrible. we did them anyway. [woman over tv]in the 11thnew york city marathon, there are over 16,000 entries. they come from 50 statesand 43 countries,
and many of them usethe world's largest urinal. we're also gonna have the first-time t-shirt tradinggoing on. and it's very proper. runners love to trade t-shirts. we'll make surethat it's gonna be clean shirts. what can we be givingthe runner? you know, manufacturers hanover,we would give the shirts. he would have perrier creatingrunning shorts.
he would get john hancockor someone to sponsor the crazy littlerunning hats. transit workershave gone on strike in and around new york city. fred, right away,"let's promote running. "let's make a t-shirt. run to work." (sara katz)he was the first one who wentin the evening to his sneakers. and sneaker became so popular.
i think it was him. i don't know;i credit it him. he had these visions. i mean, when he said he wasgonna buy the brownstone, people said,"that's the craziest thing." imagine,when you think about it-- and fred was able to puttogether a team of cosigners, and that allowed usto buy the building. (rodgers)and here was a running clubwith a real identity
and offices,and it was professional. this is the way it should be. (averbuch)people really thinkhe developed road running, and while he did that and created an environmentfor world-class athletes, what was most important was that he knew how to createa spectacle. ♪ outsidethat is where you'll find us ♪ ♪ on the...on the... ♪
♪ on the run ♪ ♪ run ♪ (man)take two, side threeinto your thread, lebow. what drives fred lebow? (lebow)uh, goals, achievements, success in the events,doing events, creating events. i get bored by sameness. (hirsch)he was always lookingfor something new. he was always in motion.
that was fred. it always had to be better. (waitz)the 1978 marathonwas my first road race ever. when we called the new yorkroad runners club and asked if i could runthe marathon, it was his secretarywho picked up the phone, and she didn't know who i was. she kind of said,"oh, i don't think so." when fred came into the officehe saw my name,
and he was asking his secretary,you know, "grete waitz:what is her name doing here? "she's a world-classtrack runner, so let's invite her." that decisionreally changed my life. my longest run before comingto new york was 11 or 12 miles. i entered the race very late. nobody knew who i was. my starting number was 1,173,
and i can still hear the voiceof the commentator, like, "who is 1,173? she's going to win the race,setting a new world record." crossed the finish line. happy that i, you know,i'm done. i see them, and i said,"never ever again." [man over tv]2:13:19, unofficially. crowd going crazy. world record--2:25:41.
[woman over tv]grete waitz of norway, world record holder and two-timedefending champion. [man over tv]grete waitz,who won for the fourth time. [man over tv]sixth time. [woman over tv]seven victories for grete waitz. [man over tv]a new yorker from norway,victory number eight. katherine switzer, who once wonthis race herself. and i'm sure that all eyes on the women's side, katherine, focus on grete waitz.
that's for sure, jim. if the new york city marathonhas a single real legend, it has to be grete waitz. [man over tv]so for the ninth time, grete waitzis the woman of the day at the new york city marathon. that's 9 out of 11 attempts,a tremendous mark. no one's ever done that before. there's fred lebow,the president.
(waitz)i spent a lot of timein new york. and every time i was here, i went by the new yorkroad runners club. and, you know, i talked to fred. and we invited fredto come visit me in oslo. so in the '80s, fred, he was no longer for mea race organizer. he was a friend. (averbuch)grete, who he plucks outof european track runners
and ends up making her worthyof a new york times editorial, an olympic medal,a world championship, and a whole new career. and the two of them createdan extremely famous partnership. they both becamevery famous together. (frankfurt)fred loved, as it went on,he loved the celebrity. he loved being who he was and played it that way. (man) okay, rolling.
fred, there's another thing that's unique about the corporate... [laughs] he would dress onlyin his runner's outfits. i would set up meetingswith mayors and others for him, and he's show up with the cap and the running jacketand all, sneakers. and when i first saw it,i said, "whoa!" you know, i'd always weara shirt and a tie and jacket. (stern)fine, he'd come in costume.
i come to thingsdressed as a tree, because i wasthe parks commissioner. what i was looking for was: given, there isa new york marathon. who are the people who run in itand who run it? and here was this character,this charismatic, loquacious, manipulative fellow that talkeda lot of sense, made sense to me. and i certainly liked the wayhe talked about his race
and the people that ran in it. he was so enthusiastic. he always had an angle. i mean, he knew your mind. he could readwhat you were interested in, what might interest you,just a master salesman. the characters,the dynamic people: we like to hear their story. (man)♪ i'm so glad ♪
♪ trouble don't last always ♪ ♪ no, it don't ♪ (roth)fred always saidthat he needed to be famous for the organizationto be famous. and so he was very willingto be important. (man)and you are the... the president of the new yorkroad runners club and directorof the new york city marathon. ♪ i'm so glad ♪
(roth)he was reallyone of these, like, rock stars. he was a personality that womenwere very attracted to. and it always seems like theirnames ended with "ey," suzie, becky, bonnie,but we called them fifis. (averbuch)debbie, dodi. and so we saidwe had his fifi file. and once i came upstairsand one of them had braces. and i went in his room,and i said, "fred, this is it.
i draw the line." (roberts)we were traveling to amsterdam. so we were sittingin the lounge at jfk, and i was asking fred something. and he said to me,"when we go to the gate, you walk ahead of me." and i said, "why?" he said, "well, i don't wantpeople to think that we're together."
and i said, "why not? you could do worsethan me, fred." and he said, "well,you're too old for me, anne." and i was--i'm about20 years younger than fred. i said, "excuse me?" he said, "well, you just are." and i said, "oh, all right." and that was fred's relationshipwith women. (man)do you get boredwith women easily?
(lebow)yes, we end upwith many problems. (man)what bores you with them? [lebow sighs] once i have achieved anythingin life, i am not satisfied with it. i love the chase, the chase for the successfulnew york marathon, the chase of the women. once i have achieved that,i find it no longer attracts me.
(man)you are not married at 50. you've never been married. (lebow)right. (man)you once were seeing a girlfor a long time, and then it broke off. (lebow)i set myself a goal of running2,500 miles over the year. at the timei was dating this girl, she wanted to get marriedor at least have a child and to make some commitment.
i kept stalling,stalling, stalling. the day before new year's,i came home. i realizedthat i was 19 miles short. she was just about getting readyto put on her evening gown. (man)for a new year's eve party. (lebow)yes, for the black-tie party,and i told her, "listen, i'm gonna be a littlebit late," 'cause i had to go out and do. i run.
i ran, i think, three loops-plusto be sure i didn't shorten it, and i came backto the apartment. it was almost 10:00,and i got up to the fifth floor. there's my bagwith a note on it outside the door saying, "as i promised,good-bye." (roberts)one of the reasonshe never married and never had children was in those yearswhen he was so young--
i think he was 14when he left his parents. and i think that he neededto be nurtured a lot longer than he was. fred did never talk a lot abouthis childhood or his time before he cameto the united states. once in a whilehe would tell some stories. we, uh--because it was painful, so we didn't talk about itthat much. because i didn't ask him,because i didn't probe,
i don't know how much he wouldhave given on it and how he, you know, was holding it insideof himself or perhaps that he just simplylived in the moment. (man)we don't have any particulardesign or plan. i'll make a brief statement, and then we'll both answerquestions together. [man speaking indistinctly] (man)i beg your pardon, sir.
what does "cheat the marathon"mean? who's asking the question, this gentleman? there's a story in the times this morning indicates that an eyewitness saw hertake a subway to the finish linein new york city. if everyone says i didn't crossthe finish line, okay, mr. lebow, though,makes a plan to send everyone this littlecertificate which is an official certificate
of everyone who has finishedthe new york city marathon. (lebow)i believe this womanis an imposter. i am not a marathon runner,per se. i haven't been runningfor 15 years. the fact that i ran a course of26 miles, to myself, coming across the finish line with a time of 2 hoursand 31 minutes, i think it's remarkable for me. and fred looks at her,not sweaty at all, overweight,
and said,"you didn't run this race." she says, yes, she did. last night we checkedthe videotapes of our finish line, and we have conclusive evidence that she did not crossthe finish line. (man) can a person's number be obstructed? (man) not in the tapes i saw. no numbers were obstructed?
do you see every number? you betcha. every number? every number. somebody saw rosie,got on a train with her, went to the station. i was never on the subwayon that day of the race. we maintained this trustthat runners were there to see what theycould accomplish.
and we just had thissense of trust that you wanted to run your raceto see what you could do. we didn't think about peopletrying to cheat. (switzer)fred wanted to see justice done, and he was furious about anybodywho kind of came in and kind of madea mockery further of this thingwhich was threatening to bring a scandal unto running. and then when people startedmaking fun
of the fact that rosiehad pulled this off-- example, a runner goingto the new york city marathon wearing a rosie ruiztrack club t-shirt which had a pictureof a subway token as its symbol. i'm johnny carson,the rosie ruiz of comedy. [laughter] no, what i mean by that, i'm-- what i mean by that,i'm around at the finish, but nobody can prove that i didany of the jokes in between.
kind of a weird case, wasn't it? nobody seems to knowwhat's going on back there. (amdur)it was all thingsthat he was now reacting to rather than orchestratingand initiating. i mean, putting it out therewas a way of just slapping at fred's soul. it was getting inside. it was gnawing. it was saying,"you missed it, guy.
how could you blow this?" he was totally incensed. the marathon was likea holy grail, and, you know,it upset him greatly. and so anybodywho made fun of it, he was just on their caselike a madman. (switzer)it was naive of us to thinkthat nobody would cheat. we couldn't believe anybodywould do it, because why? you're only cheating yourself.
but now suddenly runninghad become famous, big. it gave people recognition, and now we were gonna haveto grow up alongside of that. fred realized that as the sportwas changing, things were happeningthat sometimes you can control so much, and then there's a moment whereyour good fellowship gives way to other realities. [man over tv]the lonelinessof the long-distance runner
is a thing of the past. marathoning has becomea big-time sport and big-time business. [man over tv]new york and chicagoare doing the bidding. [man over tv]the emissary in the sportis bob bright, the fred lebow of chicago. bright said he spent $150,000in appearance fees. [man over tv]chicago has overcomeits number two marathon status by outspending new yorkand getting better competition.
[man over tv]so the battle linesare now clearly drawn in this tale of two cities. certainly bob brightwas our staunchest, uh, enemy. new york has a certain stature. or at least,they feel that stature. and they like to look out heretowards the midwest and say we're the second city. but i thinkin this marathoning business, we're not the second city.
(paddock)he and bob brightreally went head-to-head, because bob's event,the chicago marathon, was around the same timeas new york. and that was competition. you know, who can havethe better prize money? you could havethe better athletes? who has the better event? whoever winsthe new york city marathon is an instant celebrity.
they can cash in immensely. (rodgers)once the prize money came in, it attracts the media. it attracts the public. it makes it more exciting. it raises the levelof competition. if they want to surpass chicagoin terms of the competition, fred will have to fighteven harder. but bob bright'sa competitor too, you know?
they're like the runners,you know? having bill rodgersin your event is a big deal, i mean, four times boston,four times new york. and i wanted him in chicago, but i could seethat what fred was gonna do was just sort of wait it out. (rodgers)oh, i would call fred up. you know,i would be counting on going. "i want to run," you know?
but at the same time, my feewas going up a little bit, and he did offer me a deal. but it was--it felt sort of demeaning, because i wouldhave had to wear-- there was a brokerage companywhich was gonna pay me my fee. and i had to wear iton my chest and i think on my butt. i said, "this is ridiculous." i said,"no, i'm not gonna do that."
so i let it go. [man on tv]it has been a very,very interesting day. bill rodgers did not winthe marathon today for the fifth consecutive year. a man who won it,from the university of oregon, alberto salazar finishedin a record time today. [woman on tv]he is driving his arms. [man on tv]he's got 30 seconds leftfor a world-record performance. [woman on tv]he's gonna do it!
he's gonna get it! he's gonna do it! [man on tv]a new world record, 2:08:13,the new york city marathon. (salazar)1980, at theu.s. olympic trials, i rememberthis guy coming up to me and talking to meabout a marathon, the new york city marathon, which i'd hearda little bit about but didn't know much about.
and he handed me, like,a brochure and i think a card and told methat he'd be interested in having me back to run thatthat next fall. he probably knew, yeah, in the long term that i wasgonna continue to get better, and bill, perhaps,was starting to peak out. you know, he made some betsthere that i was gonna do it, and, you know, to some extenthe bet his credibility. he taught me a lot, you know,about having guts and courage
and not being scaredto go out on a limb. if you really wanted to capture, you know, the hearts and mindsof new yorkers, you had to give thema great story, a great personality. it certainly made me new yorkwhen i went and won the race. and new yorkers loved that, that sort of confidentcan-do attitude. it ended up kind of epitomizingmy sort of career
or characterover the next few years. so he was right there with me, sort of plottingand pumping me up. (reagan)we have some very,very distinguished and honored guests here today. we welcome alberto salazar, grete waitz. i'd like to presentto president reagan, and i hope that these will helphim in his race for reelection. (reagan) alberto, thank you very much.
i promise not to use themin a marathon. thank you very much. (rodgers)alberto is the new hot guy,and i'm the has-been. you know, i had hadmy chances, my time, you know. and suddenly it's over. [driving funk drums] (hirsch)i did see fred change and grow and as the worldaround him grew. fred was an amazing,brilliant manipulator
and would do anythingfor a result, any means to an end. (steinfeld)i've been a riskto the public at large. fred, bob, and myself were best of friends. fred was the first to recognizethat he and i fighting in public was good for marathoning. he said,"this is working, okay?" the morethat i sort of poked at fred,
the more visibilityit would put on my race. and fred, of course,played it back the same way. fred had an instinctfor the media, what would makethe news stories. and it was a bit of a game. (man)i don't knowif i asked you on this tape about the club and beinga benevolent tyrant. (lebow)yeah, well, my answer to it, it's mainly because i had toaccomplish something very fast.
i knew what i wantedto carry out, and i had to do it myself and disregarding, perhaps,niceties and diplomacy. (man)what's an exampleof how you once were a tyrant? (lebow)i never called a director'smeeting in five years. all decisions were made by me,and they were final. (roth)and fred wasn't so mucha dictator as he was a chaos creatorthat made things happen just because nobodywas grounded around him.
he liked smart guys, and that meant peoplewho often were corrupt. i'd find peoplewho were double billing us. and i'd say, "fred, these peopleare double billing us. what are we doing?" he said, "oh, that showshow smart they are. i know they'll doa good job for us, 'cause they're so smart. i don't think he even wantedthe books to be in good order.
in my treasurer's report i said, "well, we lost money last year. i hope that we do thingssmarter." then fred got up, and he said, "this coming year,i hope we lose even more money, and that will tell mewe're doing good." afterwards i said, "fred,you're trying to lose money?" he said, "yes. "i want to put us in a position
where the sponsors have tocome through for even more." he was outrageous. fred called me one day. i had a big meeting hereabout my office. and my secretarycame in twice and said, "fred lebow is on the phone." he says, "jack"--he wasalways very polite with me. "i don't want to upset you,but one question: is it true you called mean unguided missile?"
and i thought about itfor a second. i said, "yes, fred." "oh, good. "thank you. that's all i wanted to know." (davis)there were always issues, because the number of racesand their size grew. and as that happened, it generatedall kinds of issues.
yeah, we had a lotof difficulties with fred. they were getting the useof central park free. that's all right as longas nobody made money for the service. (switzer)and the police forceand everything else were working free. so if they found out thatrunners were getting paid, then other peoplehad to get paid too. when people would ask himabout prize money
in the office or whatever,he said, "it's sort of likethe hole in the donut." and he looked at him,and he said, "well, you don't seea hole in a donut, but it's there." and so there was, i suppose,implicit agreement that they could do--you know, look the other way. so then he goes and writesa book boasting about it and how cleverhe was to fool us.
(roth)and it was a biography, i guess. fred admittedthat we had fooled the mayor by paying athletesunder the table. that pissed me off. [man on tv]having read the revelationsin lebow's book, new york mayor edward koch says the marathoncan no longer be treated with the attitudeof public benevolence which helped it to flourish.
for every dollarhe now gives to runners, lebow must also give a dollarto the city of new york. (roth)we were all worried about howwe were gonna pay the city now for a race that we didn'thave to pay them before. he would make statements and do thingsto push everyone, including the mayor. there were times that i wouldget a call from fred, sometimes at home,
sometimesat kind of strange hours. "what did you thinkof the race? did you thinkit went off all right?" he'd want feedback. and i think it was alwaysa can-you-top-this principle. doing a race every year,a marathon, "oh, it wasn't as goodas last year. "what are yougonna do now, fred? are you losing steam?"
(vecsey)fred did have moments when hepushed the rock up the hill. the rock, it stayed up there. now it was teetering down again,and he had to get back and get it goingfor the next year. and the part of thatwas depression, or he didn't know what to dowith his time. i think this is a man who didn'thandle free time very well. i think he needed missions. he needed projects.
and if he didn't have a marathoncoming up for 364 days, i suspect he would inventsomething else to keep himself busy, you know,chastising his staff, or "next yearwe've got to get this" or hitting up on a sponsor. (roberts)was it chaotic? yes. did we thrive on it? did we all stay?
yes, we did. and i think that speaks volumes. you can talk to peoplewho say it was chaotic. you can talk to people who say his management stylewas off-the-wall. but then you needto ask the question, "well, did you stay,or did you leave?" nobody left. nobody ever left.
(man) what are the rewards for you? well, there are many. um... last year when roberto salazarbroke the world record, i was elated. i was--it was a dream come true. it was almost too much, because i felt as always,should be something left over. it's the end of a dream.
but dreams beget dreams,and you go on. and it's amazinghow much more there is to do. (averbuch)fred was a fixtureat the finish, and he wasn't just a fixturefor the first person. he stayed out theretill it was dark. what he did professionallyand personally was inherentlypart of his character, and that character was honedand hardened and created by the wits and the willand whatever suffering
which he never spoke of. it took him to survive. and so he got it. you had all the amenities and the pasta partiesand all treats and the blanket at the endand the medal and the rose for the women. and each yearhe would embellish this. he understoodthat it really wasn't so much
about running a road race. the reason it's so popularis because people are desperate for a personal challenge. when it was all said and doneand we had this event and it was over, i learned something that hascarried me through to this day. and i found fredsitting on a bench by himself at the finish line. and i sat down, and he said,"what's the matter?"
i said, "oh, i just don't know. i'm so depressed." and he said,"oh, i'm this way every year. 'do you understand? you're depressedbecause it's over." and it was thisexquisite understanding that you could care aboutsomething so deeply and be so involved-- and that's what you callliving in the moment--
that when it was goneyou missed it. [stirring instrumental music] (steinfeld)in january of 1990,he made a presentation to a press person. and then there was anotherpresentation right after that, and fred said exactlythe same thing, not cognizant at allof what had occurred. and everybody around my table, a lot of his closest friendsand volunteers realized,
"oh, we have a problem." we called up his doctor,dr. sander. they took an mri, saw that there wasa spot in his brain. the lymphoma was detectedbased on a biopsy. and that was, you know,incurable. i mean, lymphoma of the brain,you know, is, you know, it was a death knell,unfortunately. and it was justa matter of time.
(steinfeld)he came over to me and said, "i do have brain cancer. "it's positive. i'm gonna beat it,but that's what it is." and we cried together,and i came back to the office, and the staff was all waitingto hear what the report was. and just like i am now,i was crying. and i said, "it's brain cancer. but fred will beat it."
and everybody started cryingas well. and then we knew we had toget on with the business, 'cause that's what fredwanted us to do. he was very positive. never thought he's going to--he was sure he will make it. and till he had the less energy, he wanted alwaysto go to the office, even just sitting downjust to be there. (lebow)i think i've becomemuch mellower.
i'm no longer referredto as a czar. i'm more involved with my familynow than ever before. that's becomevery important to me. (roberts)he was in my office one morning,and then he said, "you can call mefischel lebowitz from now on." "why, fred?" and he said,"because i don't want to die under an assumed name." one day i saw fred jogging,
but his jogging was slowerthan his walking. so i said, "fred, how comeyour jogging is slower than your walking?" and he said, "becausethe jogging is different. the jogging has a rhythmthat the walking doesn't have." (sander)he was up and at it. i have to tell you,even when he was at mount sinai, he had marked offin the hallways a little course for himself.
well, he was out in the hallway,you know, with his ivand his hospital thing on, his hospital gown. and he was going top speeddown the hall. he was--and he had it measured. "oh, i just got a mile in. i just got two miles in." so he wasn't gonna let thisthing, you know, get to him. after he was operated onand he was still recovering,
he was still lookingpretty poor at the time. and we had the marathon. and he went out. some of the peopleat the organization didn't want fred to do that, because he looked bad,would be a bad example of the organization, that people shouldn't seesomebody looking so sickly among a healthy sport.
and the rest of us said,"no, no. fred's an inspiration." [upbeat rock music] [man on tv]amazing news tonightabout fred lebow. [man on tv]well, you could say fred lebowis the new york city marathon. [man on tv]fred lebowis a remarkable man. [heavy breathing] [woman on tv]fred lebow, of course, the founding fatherof the new york city marathon.
but just over two years ago, lebow was sidelinedby brain cancer. then doctors gave himonly a few months to live. [man on tv]he's directed the marathon since its inceptionback in 1970, and now he's announcedthat he will run the race for the first timethis year, three years after he wasdiagnosed with brain cancer. (kuscsik)comes along 1992,
and fred is gonna runthe new york city marathon after being race directorfor so many years and being involved in itfor so many years. he had always wanted to run it,but he couldn't. he was so busy. if visionary race directorfred lebow manages to crosshis own finish line today, he'll have finally capturedhis own american dream. (lebow)i refer to is as my child.
i don't have a wife. i don't have any kids, but it is like nurturinga child. for 22 years, that's all i did. in 1992 i got the opportunityto run with fred when he decided to dohis own race for the first time. on that day, unfortunately,there was a false start. we were up at the podium, and,you know, when the gun went off. and he realizedthat the men started,
like, 20 seconds,30 seconds before they should. fred got very upset. and he said, "i can't run. you know, i have to make surethat this is okay." and i was like, "fred,we are going to run this race." hi, jim. we've just gone throughfour miles, and fred has averaged 12 minutesand 10 seconds a mile. that's pretty quick.
let me tell you, it's a real zoo out here. there's a lot of noise. it's not for me. it's for fred, and we actually lost him. there were so many people coming over the bridge. we had trouble finding him. (sander)one person took itfrom the streets of the bronx, you know,next to macomb's dam park where 20 of us were freezingdown to the streets of new york
and the streets of the world. coming up on the halfway point, and i really have totake my hat off to fred. he's been clicking off12-minute miles. i've seen a lot of cancerpatients in my day, but i haven't seen manythat can do this. i am truly impressed. the other thing about fred is,he remains fred. he's been using a cellular phone
every now and then to keep posted on the winners and whether he owes them any extra prize money. typically fred. i think fred said this best. he said, "you know,we can't all be actors. "we can't all be singers. "we can't perform on the stage, "but for that one day,for that time you're out there, "it's your stage.
it's your moment." you have your rites of passage. you will go throughthe good times. you will go throughthe challenging times. you will go throughthe five neighborhoods, and they're almost like,you know, the great literary storiesthat talk about a journey. we're used to passively seeingsomeone else's journey. but what fred understoodfor himself
and for all those thousandsof people was, this was their journey, that you could haveyour moment on the stage. and that's why he so carefullytook care of everyone. it was calling to him. and he made it a callingfor the rest of us. [man on tv]there is fred lebowstill running it out. there's grete waitz with himjust out of your picture on the right side of--there she is.
both wearing their ages. and this is a run for the ages. that's what fredwas looking for, was establishing something that was both pure but also hada kind of mythology about it that people who looked backon it would always say, "new york was very special." he made it. i don't know if it would havedone as well
or been what it waswithout him at the helm. the time, the place,the magic, the myth were all put into play because the right personwas there at the right time. and that's how history is made. [inspirational rock music] (man)♪ across the linesdownshifting lights ♪ ♪ catch its breaththe string of life ♪ ♪ the tallest treesstretch to the sea ♪
♪ and to the edgewhere shadows meet ♪ (kuscsik)to see him completethe race that he started and he saw grow and he fathered, and then he was ableto complete it. (man)♪ the tallest treesstretch to the sea ♪ and so fred got a chanceto run his race. it was unbelievable. words don't do it justice. so in that sense,i think he was transformed.
he got to feel what everybodywho ran his race felt. (man)♪ the quiet placein nature's way ♪ ♪ the season comesand whispers loud ♪ ♪ still born againinto golden dreams ♪ ♪ the hiding placebeneath blue skies ♪ ♪ across the linesdownshifting lights ♪ [pensive guitar fading] captioning by captionmax www.captionmax.com [m. ward's requiem]
♪ well, he stompedwith his feet ♪ ♪ and he clappedwith his hands ♪ ♪ he summoned all of his joywhen he laughed ♪ ♪ it suffered all of his joywhen he cried ♪ ♪ and sometimeswhen he got into talking ♪ ♪ man, he could rattleon and on ♪ ♪ he was a good manand now he's gone ♪ ♪ well, in war he was a tiger ♪ ♪ when it was overlike a dove ♪
♪ he summoned all of hisstrength in the climb ♪ ♪ it suffered allof his strength in the fall ♪ ♪ and sometimeswhen he got into fighting ♪ ♪ man, he could fight with youall day long ♪ ♪ he put his trustin a higher power ♪ ♪ he held his powerlike a holy grail ♪ ♪ he summoned all of his faithin the lifting ♪ ♪ it suffered all of his faithin the fail ♪ ♪ his heart was strongerthan a heavy metal bullet ♪
♪ and that's whyi dedicate this song ♪ [rocking guitar solo]
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