Soundtrack, visits rockwell at his stockbridge, massachusetts home and studio to learn about his working methods, influences, and career. On berkshire mountain their Norman Rockwell stockbridge is in massachusetts in an area called berkshire county. A pretty place that used to be isolated, surrounded by hills and mountains. Not biggs like the alps or the rockies, but big enough to discourage traveling in the olden days. Going west from boston, you had to head over the passes on the old mohawk trail. Then you got into an area maybe 20 miles wide and 50 miles long. Like a lot of new england towns, there are the traditional white houses and neat gardens and picket fences. That is the oldest house. Then there are the churches. And the town hall. The country around stockbridge has forest, farms, water in good supply. They tell me it is much like the lake country in england, including the writers to go along with the scenery. Hermann melville, the author of moby dick, lived here. In the summertime, the quiet of the town changes to a bustle of summer visitors, who come to enjoy the countryside, the theater, the ballet at jacobs pillow, and of course the concerts at tanglewood, where the boston symphony plays. Most of the time village life flows like the quiet stretches of the housatonic river. An indian name meaning beyond the mountain place. I am tom glazer in the boat over there on my way to visit a friend who lives near the river. [whistling] his name is Norman Rockwell and he is the best known illustrator in america today. Much of his reputation comes from the many covers he painted for that saturday evening post, one of americas largest magazines read by over 30 Million People each week. You can find a copy in every corner of the united states. Even people who do not read the magazine are familiar with a cover. Rockwell has a special meaning to his large and affectionate audiences. What he paints were present the what he paints represents the everyday hopes, loves and fads of people all over the country. He holds a mirror of kindness and humor up to people, who respond with love and affection. What they are and what they would like to be. He draws and paints in stockbridge town, his work has brought him great renown this is a self caricature of the artist as a young man. We will take a look at him now, at his house in stockbridge. Rockwell works in the barn he made into a studio. In this building Norman Rockwell paints a scene of small town and country life. I wanted to find out about this man, what makes him tick, how he works, why he works. [guitar music] we are not so different, i earn my living as a folksinger. Norman earns his as a painter of folk. [humming] we saw each other and said hello. Norman is pretty spry. After he said hello, he helped me beach the boat. We walked to the house. Norman asked about the song i was singing, it is called berkshire mountain. Originally springfield mountain. It was written along time ago by a fellow who lived a few miles north of stockbridge. The peasant bard of hinsdale he was called. This is the room you really liked to live in, isnt it, norman . Well, when im not working , i in here quite a lot, tom. Am i can see why boy hill appeals to you. He liked to paint people, same as you. I am very fond of broyhill. One of the great painters. Night. This saturday i can see it very well. It does look like saturday night. He is one of the great painters of all time, wasnt he . Yes, he was one of the fine arts painters. A great painter. I am not a fine arts painter. I am in illustrator. I illustrate stories. It is very different from a painter. It does not make you any less serious about your work then a fine arts painter, does it . I thing i work as hard as he works, but it does not come out fine arts, it comes out illustration. Speaking of seriousness, norman, i recall somebody told me, is this true that back at school, at art school, you were called the deacon . Yes, art school is full of a lot of, you know, gay birds and i was a serious guy. And they called me the deacon. So you deserved the title . Yes, i earned it. That was the golden age of illustrators, wasnt it . Yes, that was the great age, remington, abby, gibson. These were the great illustrators. Of course we were talking about the golden age of illustration, meaning mostly books. Before then though, illustrators were used as reporters and chroniclers of their times in newspapers and other periodicals. You take courier and ives as an example. They were lithographers as well as artists and employed many artists. From 1825 or so, a stream of prints came out of their shop. He was handed up his orders saying, virginia, steve, you are way behind the time this is not but old 97, you must timet her into spencer on steve, he turned to his old black fireman and said shovel on more coal for whenever we had that old white mountain, you can see old 97 roll do do, do, do do do, do [guitar folk tune] i bet i have done a lot more picture than even courier and ives ever did. I do not doubt it. But i would not say theres much similarity between your work and courier and ives. No, i guess youre right. I was influenced by howard pyle and frederick remington. I knew about pyles influence but i do not know about remingtons. Course, remingtons work was certainly different from mine. But i like his approach, how we went about making a picture. I have a remington in the other room. Would you like to see it . Yes. Well, come on. We took a look at the picture in the parlor. Remington was a guy born in new york state and moved out west as a tourist. He did not paint the boredom of cowboy life, but only the romantic side. In the same way, norman who was born in new york city, became a tourist in the country. Ride an old paint i lead an old man montana to throw oulihan coolies andd the the water in the dog, therir mats are all matted and covered with snow straw ride around little doggies, right around them slow, because the fire and the snuffy are raring to go [song on guitar] the big influence in normas normans life was howard pyle. He felt fortunate to acquire an original, which he hung in the studio. There were three brothers and in merry scotland they did cast lots on what should go and turn rubber on the salt sea fell upon henry martin, the youngest of all the three robber all along the salt sea, the salt sea his two brothers and he with broadside and broadside, they went fully for two hours or three till henry martin gave to her the death shot, the deaththey s, and straight to the bottom when she you know, tom, the thing i admired about howard pyle was his honest, intense interest in research. Everything he did he researched. He knew exactly what he was doing. Have you done the same sort of thing with your illustrations . I tried to. Im not the great artist that howard pyle was. For instance, in this huckleberry and thomas sawyer, i went out to hannibal, missouri, where the story was laid, where mark twain himself was a young boy. And i found that out there, you see this picture here . In reading the story, it tells how he stepped out of the window and on to the drainpipe, and then took two running steps on the woodshed and onto the fence. If you go out there, if you go into that room, which actually exists, you can do exactly what he said in the book. In other words, it was completely autobiographical. There Something Else ive been curious about. Riod piecesg in pe have always been interesting. Do you get the actual clothes . It can be hard, you cannot get a hold of George Washingtons hat. But in Huckleberry Finn and tom sawyer and hannibal, i did get the clothes. It mustve been the same kind they wore at that time. I have this old hat here. It is a real beauty. You can get a new hat. Sweated ands to be lived in, and this has been lived in. That hat is so old and beat up. It looks beautiful. [laughter] the way norman found the models for his covers interested me very much, especially the cover he did for the saturday evening post, now known as the golden rule cover. There were a lot of people in that, it went over 30 heads, all kinds of people and nationalities. Murder they come from, norman . Some of them came from right here in stockbridge and others came from arlington, vermont. Lets start at the beginning. What made you decide to do the picture, norman . I realized the golden rule was the only common denominator of all religions from the beginning of time. The golden rule which says do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Those colorful costumes in the picture, norman, where did they come from . I took a trip around the world and brought back literally boxes of photographs. I also brought back some of the actual costumes. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you all men are brothers, this above all must be true love your neighbors then the other and piece we have long for peace we have long for will come to all men mmmmm, mmmm once you found the costumes, then you found the people to put in them . Yes. From around here, norman . Well, some were visitors and some were students. This fellow is part brazilian and part hungarian. And this choi, korean, he is a student at ohio state university. He is a japanese student. I got her at Bennington College in vermont. Heres a jewish student. He was taking summer courses at the indian hills school, a mile or so from here, just up the road. How about the one to live how about the ones who live here all year round . Any of those . Lets see, there is mr. Lalas, a retired postmaster of stockbridge, right here. He made a pregood rabbi, i think. By the way, in real life, he is a very devout catholic. [laughter] you see this group . A father, mother and child. They are the squires family from arlington, vermont. He is a yankee. And she is swedish. And they have, i think, 12 kids. I did not get them all in that picture. It is quite a family. This girl here, she is a local girl from pittsfield, about 15 miles from here. Her name is susie lee. This is chris schaefer. He is my very good friend and business manager. Boy, was he surprised when he found out he was in the picture this is a girl who lives right here in stockbridge, just down the road. She is lebanese, originally. Now her parents are u. S. Citizens. I got all of my middle east faces from abdullah. He runs the elm Street Market a block from our house. I had a wonderful time. He rounded up 24 arabs. [humming] this little girl is the daughter of louis lamoni who helps me around the studio. He would have been mad if i left her out of the picture. This one is from memory. That is my wife, mary, and that is my grandson. Models were no problem. Do you still have the sketches you made . Yes i have them over here, would you like to see them . Sure word. Sure would. Well, come on over. [whistling along with guitar playing] would you say, norman, that the golden rule cover is typical of your work . I guess, not exactly typical. Is it like anything else you have ever done . The four freedoms that i did. Whenever there is a big idea i am trying to portray, i always use plain, everyday people to express the idea. I see. And most of my work, however, i try to do every day situations. I try for more than just humor. You have to have a little pathos. Or little depth in them. Take this cover, for instance. The idea of an old man and his violin looking at a saxophone. And i thought i would jazz it. P with the sax it is supposed to be comic, but the overtones are whether he should stick to the old ways, the violin, or take up the new ways, the saxophone, that is really a problem. That is what i mean. You like to paint old people . Yes, old men show their lives in their faces. The ups and downs, the sadness, the gladness. Everything that has happened to them is right there in their face. My favorite model years ago was a wonderful character named james. He was 52, the same height as napoleon. He had been in every war he could get into. He was in the indian war, the civil war. He tried desperately to get in the first world war. It was there in his face. He was a heroic little guy. But you like to paint kids too, dont you . Yes, i like to paint kids. Because i think people like to go back to their youth again. Since 1916, i think you have painted more than 300 covers. And in all that time, i suppose the magazine has changed quite a bit, hasnt it . Oh, yes. A magazine has to change like Everything Else has to change. I have some of the really old covers if you like to see them . Before your time . Oh yes, way before my time. Oh, there is your very first cover tales thathe de to me were so dear, long, long ago long, long ago. Songs i delighted to hear long, long ago long ago [humming tune] long, long ago long ago [humming tune] norman did many covers about world war i and world war ii. But the ones we all loved most were about homecoming. Long ago long ago [guitar chords] well, that was about it for the day. So i swung my guitar over my shoulder and walked back to the boat. On berkshire mountain, there did well an artist named Norman Rockwell odedoo, taroodedoo he lives and paints in stockbridge town his work has wrought him rate his work has gh