WEBVTT 00:00.533 --> 00:01.901 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (jazz music) 00:01.901 --> 00:05.505 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - I first met Pat in 1961 when I called him up 00:05.505 --> 00:08.308 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and told him I'd like him to write for Commentary, 00:08.308 --> 00:09.976 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% and he said he'd be delighted. 00:09.976 --> 00:13.713 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - At that time, I'd become involved in a project 00:13.713 --> 00:16.983 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% to write a book on ethnic groups of New York City. 00:18.418 --> 00:20.053 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% I wanted to find someone 00:20.053 --> 00:22.756 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% who both had some intellectual sophistication, 00:22.756 --> 00:26.292 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% but also had direct experience and involvement. 00:27.694 --> 00:31.998 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Irving Kristol, who was editing The Reporter magazine, said, 00:31.998 --> 00:34.701 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% "You should talk to Pat Moynihan." 00:34.701 --> 00:36.169 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% And so we met. 00:36.169 --> 00:40.807 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - Irresistible, and he always was, the charm, the wit. 00:41.574 --> 00:42.075 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% Always a lot of fun. 00:43.877 --> 00:45.979 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - We'd have these long walks in New York 00:45.979 --> 00:47.847 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% and we'd... (laughs) 00:47.847 --> 00:49.315 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% We observed the buildings 00:49.315 --> 00:51.985 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and sometimes step into a bar and so on. 00:51.985 --> 00:54.354 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% And he always drank much more than I did, 00:54.354 --> 00:57.824 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% but it didn't seem to affect him in any way. 00:57.824 --> 01:02.629 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% And eventually, Pat wrote a wonderful essay on the Irish 01:02.629 --> 01:04.164 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% in New York and America. 01:04.164 --> 01:05.799 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (uptempo piano music) 01:05.799 --> 01:08.034 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Narrator] When it was published in 1963, 01:08.034 --> 01:11.337 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Glazer and Moynihan's book, "Beyond the Melting Pot", 01:11.337 --> 01:13.706 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% transformed how ethnicity was viewed. 01:14.841 --> 01:18.111 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% It challenged the notion of a homogenized America 01:18.111 --> 01:22.115 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and instead presented a country of jostling ethnic groups. 01:23.249 --> 01:24.651 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - There had been this idea 01:24.651 --> 01:26.686 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% that we'd all come over here, we were all different, 01:26.686 --> 01:28.121 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% we'd go into a melting pot, 01:28.121 --> 01:29.456 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% which is- - [Speaker] Israel Zangwill. 01:29.456 --> 01:31.391 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% - [Pat] Israel Zangwill. 01:31.391 --> 01:32.425 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker] The play, "The Melting Pot". 01:32.425 --> 01:33.560 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% - [Pat] Right. 01:33.560 --> 01:35.428 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% And that was our creed and our hope. 01:36.696 --> 01:38.631 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% What we looked at was a city in which 01:38.631 --> 01:40.934 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% that hadn't happened at all, 01:40.934 --> 01:42.302 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and if it wasn't gonna be there in New York, 01:42.302 --> 01:43.803 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% wasn't gonna be there anywhere. 01:45.205 --> 01:48.074 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - Pat Moynihan was very proud 01:48.074 --> 01:51.845 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and really claimed, I think, with some justification, 01:51.845 --> 01:55.548 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% that he was present at the creation 01:55.548 --> 01:59.452 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% of this whole idea of studying ethnicity 01:59.452 --> 02:02.355 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% as a serious academic subject. 02:02.355 --> 02:04.023 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% (uptempo piano music continues) 02:04.023 --> 02:06.092 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - I remember I was raised on 42nd Street 02:06.092 --> 02:08.628 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and taught to think that all the people lived on 43rd Street 02:08.628 --> 02:11.731 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% and 11th Avenue were somehow animals 02:11.731 --> 02:15.101 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and against us enlightened people who lived on 42nd Street 02:15.101 --> 02:16.336 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% and 11th Avenue. 02:16.336 --> 02:17.937 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% (uptempo piano music continues) 02:17.937 --> 02:21.040 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% We're a pretty mixed up population, and always have been 02:21.040 --> 02:24.244 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and are always going to have some of the tensions 02:24.244 --> 02:25.979 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% that come with this. 02:25.979 --> 02:27.113 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% That's one of the things 02:27.113 --> 02:29.149 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% that makes life interesting in the city. 02:29.149 --> 02:33.219 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% (uptempo piano music continues)