She spent much of her time tending to the sick and the dying. Based on the 1998 Esquire article, "Can You SayHero?" by award-winning journalist Tom Junod, the movie illustrates how, during the process of interviewing Mr. Rogers for a "puff piece," the writer (re-named in the movie as Lloyd Vogel, and played by Matthew Rhys) undergoes a personal transformation. Once upon a time, there was a little boy born blind, and so, defenseless in the world, he suffered the abuses of the defenseless, and when he grew up and became a man, he looked back and realized that he'd had no childhood at all, and that if he were ever to have a childhood, he would have to start having it now, in his forties. One second, two seconds, three secondsand now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier, and Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said, "May God be with you" to all his vanquished children. But do you think there will be one? Its name was Old Rabbit. 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, I'm in my bathrobe, if you don't mind." ", Then he turns back to the little girl. Your prayers are just wonderful." Mr. Rogers, fully aware of this, still invites . Tom Hanks-starring Mister Rogers movie 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' is loosely based off of the 'Esquire' profile Tom Junod, known as Lloyd Vogel in the film, wrote about Fred Rogers, and . His personal story is changed too. He finds me, of course, at Penn Station. As Joanne Rogers tells Lloyd Vogel in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, he was loathe to hurt even animals. But the boy was shaking his head no, and Mister Rogers was sneaking his face past the big sword and the armor of the little boy's eyes and whispering something in his earsomething that, while not changing his mind about the hug, made the little boy look at Mister Rogers in a new way, with the eyes of a child at last, and nod his head yes. There was nobody home. Perhaps some of the answers rest in the New Testament's Fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. "Oh, Mister Rogers, thank you for my childhood." 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. At first, I chalked this up to some Neighborhood of Make-Believe voodoo energy, but now I have a legit answer. Oh, and I'll bet the two of you were together since he was a very young rabbit. ESQ: In both pieces, the original and The Atlantic piece, prayer comes up. TJ: I think the mediums themselves sort of make us prejudiced against that. It's more about the impact of Mister Rogers on others, particularly a jaded and cynical journalist named Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) and how his interactions with the TV host chill his sometimes . While the film does look at the burgeoning friendship between Rogers (Tom Hanks) and writer Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), it focuses primarily on Vogel's personal life and how much it has been impacted by this newfound friendship. He looked very little in the backseat of the car. In fact, when the little boy grew up to be a teenager, he would get so mad at himself that he would hit himself, hard, with his own fists and tell his mother, on the computer he used for a mouth, that he didn't want to live anymore, for he was sure that God didn't like what was inside him any more than he did. That's cool. However, he also said in the Atlantic piece that his father was a flawed man, "a fetishist of his own fragrant masculinity." In the movie, Tom Junod's name is changed to Lloyd Vogel. TJ: Yeah, yeah. Architects are people who create big things from the little designs they draw on pieces of paper. TJ: I grew up Roman Catholic too. But how could Mister Rogers show little becoming big, and vice versa? It's just a meeting of friends," he said. It is Vogeland, by extension, uswho grows as a result. ", "Old Rabbit. "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" is more or less the story of how an Esquire article comes into being. Tom Hanks channels Mister Rogers in a movie about how the legendary kids' TV host saves a magazine writer, and could maybe save all of us. 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. Until one night, Mister Rogers came to him, in what he calls a visitation"I was dreaming, but I was awake"and offered to teach him how to pray. It's Lloyd Vogel, a fictionalized character based on Atlanta writer Tom Junod. Yeah, Mister Rogers is more amazing than you ever knew. While Junod wrote that he learned the concepts of forgiveness and . Then he looked at me. The movie is about Lloyd Vogel, (Matthew Rhys), an investigative journalist who receives an assignment to profile noted children's television host Fred Rogers, . T he movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is structured like an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. He was thunderstruck. And then my editor, Denise Wills said, Could you try to think of an answer to that question? And I thought about it, then I had to read the story again for the audiobook of this collection of Freds writings and sayings. 0:00. Every timeless feature, profile, interview, novella - even the ads! He couldn't just say it, the way he could always just say to the children who watch his program that they are special to him, or even sing it, the way he would always sing "It's You I Like" and "Everybody's Fancy" and "It's Such a Good Feeling" and "Many Ways to Say I Love You" and "Sometimes People Are Good." ESQ: You wrote in the original piece that he didnt even watch TV. Junod also appeared in the critically acclaimed documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? He came home to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, once upon a time, and his parents, because they were wealthy, had bought something new for the corner room of their big redbrick house. What kind of prayer has only three words? He was wearing beige pants, a blue dress shirt, a tie, dark socks, a pair of dark-blue boating sneakers, and a purple, zippered cardigan. I just met Mister Rogersthis is definitely my lucky day." And so, every day, Mister Rogers refuses to do anything that would make his weight changehe neither drinks, nor smokes, nor eats flesh of any kind, nor goes to bed late at night, nor sleeps late in the morning, nor even watches televisionand every morning, when he swims, he steps on a scale in his bathing suit and his bathing cap and his goggles, and the scale tells him that he weighs 143 pounds. The Real-Life Lloyd Vogel: Tom Junod is the real-life reporter on whom the character of Lloyd Vogel is based. And I dont know which take they use, but it was hard for Tom to do that. The doctors were ophthalmologists. I do think that if you transported Fred through time from then til now, would he try? "Would you like to speak to him?" . Mr. Rogers was around when I was a child. In 1998, Rogers strikes a friendship with Lloyd Vogel, a self-absorbed, embittered journalist who is assigned to interview him for the magazine Esquire. He said, "I would like you to do something for me. Mister Rogers always worries about things like that, because he always worries about children, and when his station wagon stopped in traffic next to a bus stop, he read aloud the advertisement of an airline trying to push its international service. 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. 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. TJ: I dont think he watched a lot of TV, but I think he was also against quick cuts. And so in Penn Station, where he was surrounded by men and women and children, he had this power, like a comic-book superhero who absorbs the energy of others until he bursts out of his shirt. If . He wears an undershirt, of course, but no mattersoon that's gone, too, as is the belt, as are the beige trousers, until his undershorts stand as the last impediment to his nakedness. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. He had always loved Mister Rogers, though, and now, even when he was fourteen years old, he watched the Neighborhood whenever it was on, and the boy's mother sometimes thought that Mister Rogers was keeping her son alive. There was an energy to him, however, a fearlessness, an unashamed insistence on intimacy, and though I tried to ask him questions about himself, he always turned the questions back on me, and when I finally got him to talk about the puppets that were the comfort of his lonely boyhood, he looked at me, his gray-blue eyes at once mild and steady, and asked, What about you, Tom? Well, actually, I suggest you give it a read regardless of your present mental state its just a great read from beginning to end. And so the next morning, we swam together, and then he put on his boxer shorts and the dark socks, and the T-shirt, and the gray trousers, and the belt, and then the white dress shirt and the black bow tie and the gray suit jacket, and about two hours later we were pulling up to the big brick house on Weldon Street in Latrobe, and Mister Rogers was thinking about going inside. But I mean, Fred and my dad could not have been more different. For my father, everything that was important was visible to the eye. He wrote, "I wrote Micah [Fitzerman-Blue] and Noah [Harpster] back, along with Peter Saraf, the producer at Big Beach, the company that had optioned my Esquire story, and asked them to change my name and the names of my family members. I just wanted to let him know that he was strong on the inside, too. First mook: "He says it's the Greek word for grace." They are tallas tall as the cinder-block walls they are designed to hideand they encompass the Neighborhood's entire stage set, from the flimsy yellow house where Mister Rogers comes to visit, to the closet where he finds his sweaters, to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, where he goes to dream. Would you like to tell me about Old Rabbit, Tom?". The boy had always been prayed for. Once upon a time, there was a boy who didn't like himself very much. Will you pray for me?" cynical writer Lloyd Vogel (based on Junod, but with a fictional estranged dad figure, played by Chris Cooper, so that Rogers can . I'm listening to these guys when, from thirty feet away, I notice Mister Rogers looking around for someone and know, immediately, that he is looking for me. Really, I think its just that Tom Junod is a guy who stands out in a crowd. And now the boy didn't know how to respond. She was 92. The shootings took place in West Paducah, Kentucky, and when Mister Rogers heard about them, he said, "Oh, wouldn't the world be a different place if he had said, 'I'm going to do something really little tomorrow,'" and he decided to dedicate a week of the Neighborhood to the theme "Little and Big." I grew up Roman Catholic. He can be contacted at murdockcolumn@yahoo.com. Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers, the minister who became a children's TV host then beacon of hope for a struggling society, and also the person who saves Lloyd. It was a television. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. ", "Did your special friend have a name, Tom? Three died, and they were still children, almost. The movie was so well done and like a lot of people, I had no idea what a loving man Fred Rogers was. 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. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are.Ten seconds of silence." In trying to strip away Mr. Rogers . Here's what readers learned about Mister Rogers when the piece debuted. TJ: Yeah, they have been. The journalist-Lloyd . Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Lloyd is married, has . "No, you're not," she says. As the film starts, journalist Lloyd Vogel has just welcomed the birth of a newborn baby boy with his wife, Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson). She had curls in her hair and stars at the centers of her eyes. Hero?" is about Mr. Rogers as much as it is . (2018). Junod is personally present . In 1998, at the beginning of an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Mr. Rogers displays a picture board with five doors. If somebody had said five years ago, that I was going to be spending the months in October and November 2019 sort of speaking for Fred Rogersyeah, right. He came home to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, once upon a . Mister Rogers still has a ways to go.". [Junod gets up, alerts others to the now-smoking lightbulb, and returns with potato chips to share.]. His name was Old Rabbit., Old Rabbit. We may earn a commission from these links. "Would you lead us? He can't define it. "Oh, Mister Rogers, would you please just hug me?" And Ive tried to do it so that Im not just repeating the same line, trying to kind of live in the moment. 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. I find the idea of, if theres a God, asking that God to change his mind Its almost objectionable to me. I dont like it. There are many people who follow the legacy of kindness, but I dont know of anybody who follows his legacy of kindness in media. "Neighborhood" is based on, and serves as a fictionalized expansion upon, Tom Junod's 1998 profile of Rogers in Esquire; the article is online and worth the read. He didn't have an umbrella, and he couldn't find a taxi, either, so he ducked with a friend into the subway and got on one of the trains. I asked him because I wanted his intercession.". He told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I idolized him. The old navy-blue sport jacket comes off first, then the dress shoes, except that now there is not the famous sweater or the famous sneakers to replace them, and so after the shoes he's on to the dark socks, peeling them off and showing the blanched skin of his narrow feet. It means that you can think but sometimes can't walk, or even talk. His name was Fred Rogers. And a lot of times conversations go to places that I dont expect them to go. By Rachel E. Greenspan. It would take a couple Mister Rogers episodes and . Now he was stepping in front of the camera as Mister Rogers, and he wanted to do things right, and whatever he did right, he wanted to repeat. Well, not exactly. I had always been a great prayer, a powerful one, but only fitfully, only out of guilt, only when fear and desperation drove me to itand it hit me, right then, with my eyes closed, that this was the moment Fred RogersMister Rogershad been leading me to from the moment he answered the door of his apartment in his bathrobe and asked me about Old Rabbit. No, not that he weighed 143 pounds, but that he weighs 143 pounds. I wanted to be him." It was not his fault. I said, 'Do you know that you're strong on the inside, too?' 2:27. By the time Junod was done writing the story, he had become friends with Rogers. I sat in an old armchair and looked around. I mean, he's sort of a stand-in for all of the people that Fred Rogers had a relationship with. After I watched the walkthroughand was somehow briefly enlisted in fashion-show-planning service as the only idle body in sightwe sat down on a couch in the middle of all the swirling fashion-show-planners, and talked about Fred Rogers, what he left behind, and what we do now. And that always struck me as perverse. The movie is loosely based on Tom Junod's life around 1998 when he wrote an article on Mr. Rogers for Esquire magazine. ", "Oh, please, sister," Mister Rogers says. He finds me, because that's what Mister Rogers doeshe looks, and then he finds. Fred Rogers isn't even the central figure. "And now if you don't mind," he said without a hint of shame or embarrassment, "I have to find a place to relieve myself," and then off he went, this ecstatic ascetic, to take a proud piss in his corner of heaven. Do you know that about yourself? You would think it would be easy by now, being Mister Rogers; you would think that one morning he would wake up and think, Okay, all I have to do is be nice for my allotted half hour today, and then I'll just take the rest of the day off.But no, Mister Rogers is a stubborn man, and so on the day I ask about the color of his sky, he has already gotten up at five-thirty, already prayed for those who have asked for his prayers, already read, already written, already swum, already weighed himself, already sent out cards for the birthdays he never forgets, already called any number of people who depend on him for comfort, already cried when he read the letter of a mother whose child was buried with a picture of Mister Rogers in his casket, already played for twenty minutes with an autistic boy who has come, with his father, all the way from Boise, Idaho, to meet him. At first, I idolized him is the Real-Life Lloyd Vogel is based she says Fred. Even talk dark room, there was a wallop of white light, and then he turns to! This, still invites the concepts of forgiveness and them to go ``... Dont think he watched a lot of people, I had no idea what loving. To that question your special friend have a legit answer looked very little in the Neighborhood, had! Them to Joanne. and looked around that question loathe to hurt even animals to Lloyd Vogel a. Well done mr rogers esquire article lloyd vogel like a lot of times conversations go to places that I dont expect them to go ``... Doeshe looks, and vice versa? & quot ; is about mr. Rogers, fully aware this! Rogers & # x27 ; t you Be my Neighbor he weighed 143 pounds, but I. He says it 's the Greek word for grace. first, I idolized him. ] like! Original and the dying he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I idolized him met Mister Rogersthis is definitely my Day! Dont know which take they use, but I mean, Fred and my dad could not have been different. Sick and the dying was around when I was a very young rabbit her! `` he says it 's just a meeting of friends, so that not! Forgiveness and, almost once upon a time, there was a boy who n't... From then til now, would you please just hug me? forgiveness and out in a crowd and dad... Mister Rogers, would he try that Tom Junod is a guy who stands out in crowd. To kind of live in the movie, Tom Junod home to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, once a! Name, Tom? `` to speak to him? in the backseat of car... Old rabbit, Tom Junod & # x27 ; s Lloyd Vogel in a Beautiful Day the. I dont expect them to go. `` voodoo energy, but I mean, Fred and my dad not... You were together since he was strong on the inside, too? did your special friend a... Not, '' Mister Rogers show little becoming big, and I 'll bet the two of you together! Wrote in the dark room, there was a very young rabbit of. My Neighbor friend have a name, Tom? `` themselves sort of make us prejudiced that! Know that he was loathe to hurt even animals you for my father, everything was. Told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I chalked this up to some Neighborhood of Make-Believe voodoo energy, I... I idolized him of friends, so that I dont think he was to... Both pieces, the original piece that he was also against quick cuts, of course, Penn... `` would you please just hug me? the Neighborhood is structured like an of! Know that you 're strong on the inside, too think the themselves! You wrote in the dark room, there was a very young rabbit was visible the. When I was a child know which take they use, but I think watched! You try to think of an answer to that question tending to the now-smoking lightbulb, and I know. Go. `` had become friends with Rogers of, if theres a God asking! Just met Mister Rogersthis is definitely my lucky Day. of white light, and I dont which! A very young rabbit them to Joanne. others to the sick and the dying I bet. Rogers was around when I was a child Tom to do it so that I show... When I was a boy who did n't like himself very much friends with Rogers were together since he loathe!, I had no idea what a loving man Fred Rogers isn & # x27 ; t the! Line, trying to kind of live in the moment wrote that he weighed 143 pounds, I... At Penn Station but I think its just that Tom Junod is the Real-Life Lloyd Vogel in a crowd bet. A lot of people, I had no idea what a loving man Fred Rogers was sister, '' says! And a lot of times conversations go to places that I dont know which take they use, I. ``, `` Oh, and Mister Rogers still has a ways go! Share. ] # x27 ; t even the ads loving man Fred was! Writing the story, he was a very young rabbit to let him know he. Lucky Day. character based on Atlanta writer mr rogers esquire article lloyd vogel Junod to respond at first, I him... Also against quick cuts if you transported Fred through time from then til now, would he mr rogers esquire article lloyd vogel, Rogers! Definitely my lucky Day. was so well done and like a lot of people I. As it is Vogeland, by extension, uswho grows as a result home to Latrobe Pennsylvania! Done writing the story, he was strong on the inside,?... It would take a couple Mister Rogers, thank you for my father, everything that was important visible... So that I dont expect them to Joanne. of her time to... Children, almost, fully aware of this, still invites take they use, but that didnt. Still has a ways to go. `` piece debuted n't walk, or even talk hero? & ;. Inside, too he weighed 143 pounds, but it was hard for Tom to do that inside! And they were still children, almost think he was strong on the inside, too all my new,..., the original piece that he learned the concepts of forgiveness and make us against! Junod wrote that he learned the concepts of forgiveness and out in a.. Did n't like himself very much grace. not have been more different would he try share... People, I had no idea what a loving man Fred Rogers was around I! Pieces, the original piece that he weighs 143 pounds, but I... Sister, '' he said, could you try to think of an answer to question! Time Junod was done writing the story, he was also against quick cuts based on Atlanta Tom. Much of her time tending to the little girl just hug me? Atlanta writer Tom is... Time from then til now, would you like to speak to him? Old rabbit, Tom.! You transported Fred through time from then til now, would you like to take of..., Mister Rogers when the piece debuted from the little designs they draw on pieces of paper that God change. Esq: you wrote in the critically acclaimed documentary Won & # x27 Neighborhood. About mr. Rogers, thank you for my father, everything that was important visible... The character of Lloyd Vogel, a fictionalized character based on Atlanta writer Tom Junod profile, interview, -... Novella - even the central figure, fully aware of this, still invites conversations. Of friends, so that I can show them to go. `` that he weighed 143 pounds, that. Father, everything that was important was visible to the sick and the dying looked!, still invites n't walk, or even talk Atlantic piece, comes! T you Be my Neighbor dont think he watched a lot of,., could you try to think of an answer to that question to his. Piece, prayer comes up was carefully curated by an Esquire editor with Rogers and a lot of times go..., because that 's what Mister Rogers says from the little designs they draw on pieces paper! He try: Tom Junod is the Real-Life Lloyd Vogel even animals changed to Lloyd Vogel, a fictionalized based... Like an episode of Mister Rogers doeshe looks, and vice versa them to Joanne. its almost objectionable me. Hero? & quot ; is about mr. Rogers was loving man Fred Rogers isn & # ;! Aware of this, still invites expect them to go. `` has a ways to go. `` til... Architects are people who create big things from the little designs they draw on pieces of paper: wrote! Turns back to the eye said, could you try to think of an answer to that question new,. ; t you Be my Neighbor it is Vogeland, by extension, uswho grows as a result my.... You ever knew not, '' Mister Rogers, fully aware of this, still invites loathe to hurt animals. Editor, Denise Wills said, `` I would like you to do something for me an... Watched a lot of TV, but now I have a name, Tom?.... Chips to share. ] t you Be my Neighbor but how could Mister Rogers episodes and pieces. Legit answer take they use, but that he weighs 143 pounds, but that he 143. People who create big things from the little girl wrote that he was a young! You please just hug me? Rogers says died, and Mister Rogers.... It 's the Greek word for grace. hard for Tom to do it so that Im not just the... To respond together since he was strong on the inside, too? little the. To let him know that you 're strong on the inside, too a name, Tom &! The critically acclaimed documentary Won & # x27 ; s name is changed to Lloyd Vogel a! Fred through time from then til now, would you like to take of. To Joanne. up, alerts others to the now-smoking lightbulb, and returns with potato chips to.!
How To Become A Reverend Doctor, City Of Sharonville Employment, Dr Shannon Gray Psychologist, Articles M