Sir Edmund Hillary Interview
Turns Out to be a Major Coup
 Sir Edmund Hillary, first
person to summit Mt. Everest, gave only three interviews for the 50th
anniversary of his famous climb on May 23, 1953. John scored one of the three,
a video interview for the American Alpine Club, done at the Hillary Home in
Auckland, NZ on Sept. 3, 2002. The other two were for National Geographic, a
sponsor of his 1953 climb, and Time-Life Books.
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While vacating in Breckenridge,
Colorado in July, 2002, for some forgotten reason the idea came to me that
I should try to arrange for a video interview with Sir Edmund Hillary, the
first man to set foot on the summit of Mt. Everest - the highest point in
the world.
But first, some background on why
I would want to interview the most famous of all mountain climbers.
Nestled against the Teton
Mountains in Jackson, Wyoming, is one of the best-kept secrets for climbers and those who
hike and enjoy the outdoors in one of the most beautiful areas in this
country.
Formerly a dude ranch, it is
called the Climbers Ranch and is maintained by the American Alpine Club.
At the Climbers Ranch you can get
a bunk in a cabin with no privacy, separate showers and toilets for males
and females, a cook shed and a rather impressive library of climbing
literature.
All for the price of $6 a night.
Years ago I adopted the Climbers
Ranch as a kind of modest charity. Numerous buildings had been damaged or
burned by a forest fire, and needed to be repaired or replaced.
Jackson at around 7,000 feet has a
very short summer. It rains and sometimes snows at the higher elevations.
So, when it rains what do you do to pass the time in a place miles from
Jackson?
Once on a climbing trip and
staying at the Ranch, I asked the manager if I could provide a Sony
Trinitron TV set and VCR for the library. She approved of the idea and it
was done. Then I began to build a video library of movies such as K2 and
The Eiger Sanction, along with rare taped TV programming on climbing.
Not long afterwards it occurred to
me that since video production was one of the services of my firm in
Washington, DC, why not start interviewing noted climbers for the Ranch
collection and the library at the American Alpine Club's headquarters in
Golden, Colorado?
Today, I have about 45 interviews.
With my own equipment, I edit them and send copies to the AAC and the
Ranch.
Therefore, it seemed to me, having
a collection of noted climbers without an interview with Sir Edmund
Hillary would be something akin to the Louvre without the Mona Lisa.
On my way down to the Denver
airport I stopped at the AAC national offices in Golden and talked to
Charlie Shimanski and Lloyd Athern, the two top staff members, about my Hillary idea.
Charlie thought I might not have
to travel to Auckland, New Zealand, where Sir Edmund lives. He said
Hillary usually came to San Francisco every year for the American
Himalayan Fund dinner, which provided financial resources for Sir Edmund's
health and education projects for the sherpas.
Lloyd provided the email address
for Zeke O'Connor, who raised money in Canada for the Hillary projects, as
a possible contact with Sir Edmund.
When I was back home in Arizona, I
sent an email to O'Connor. In short time he came back with the name and
email address of Sir Edmund's agent in Auckland. I then drafted an outline
of my project of doing video interviews of noted climbers exclusively for
the AAC, and sent it to the agent.
The agent's name was Debbie Tawse
and we began emailing back and forth for two or three weeks. Finally, on
July 22, 2002, I received an email from Debbie saying I could have one
hour at 10 a.m. on September 3 to do the interview at the Hillary home in
Auckland, providing I signed a contract stating the interview material
would not be sold and was for the exclusive use of the American Alpine
Club.
As a side note, not one single
person I told about the trip to see Sir Edmund knew he was still alive.
Moreover, once in New Zealand the locals were surprised his health was
good enough to be meeting with me.
After reading Debbie's email, I
could not type fast enough to send one back to her saying I accepted the
appointment and the terms.
But think about it. I was
traveling 10,000 miles for a one-hour interview of this famous of all
climbers.
Millions in the U.S. now had their
own camcorders. If you have one, think about walking into someone's home
where you've never been before, setting up the tripod with the camera,
putting lav mics on yourself and the interviewee, testing the lighting and
sound, and doing a decent interview all in 60 minutes.
In considering this situation, I
figured the maximum time I would have to talk to Sir Edmund if all went
well would be a maximum of 40 minutes.
During a period of three weeks
before I left for Australia and New Zealand via Qantas Airlines, I studied
every book, article and video I could find on Sir Edmund.
For the trip I took with me a new
Sony mini-dv camera, a backup Sony Hi-8 camera, tripod, lavaliere mics,
batteries and cables. In one of the emails I was assured that if I needed
power for the cameras and lights, my system would work in New Zealand.
That was not true, but an ample supply of batteries charged before I left
home solved the problem. And I did not have room in my luggage for lights.
Knowing I was on a limited budget,
Debbie had suggested a B&B a short distance from her office as a place to
stay. As the only guest in what had been a mansion owned by a prominent
banking family, my treatment was outstanding - as was everything else in
Auckland. Good food, pretty women, friendly people.
After a few days to recover from
the time difference, on September 3 the owner of the B&B drove me to the
Hillary home.
It was winter in New Zealand and a
dark, overcast morning with a slight drizzle. As we approached the Hillary
home, I could see a very noisy construction crew that seemed to be
demolishing the house next door to the very modest Hillary home. Sir
Edmund and Lady June greeted me warmly and I was ushered into their living
room with my equipment. It already had been decided where he would sit for
the interview, and where I would be setting up my camera.
He mentioned he had just heard
that one of our great American climbers, Galen Rowell, had been killed in
a plane crash. Galen not only was an outstanding climber, he had produced
numerous coffee table photograph books of mountains taken all over the
world. I had met Galen several times and finally persuaded him to sit for
an interview in the fall of 1999 at the AAC annual meeting in Washington,
DC.
When I had the equipment set up
and finally looked into the camera viewfinder at the great mountaineer,
his ruddy face was square in the middle of a backdrop that was an original
painting of many colors. Uh, oh.
I looked at Sir Edmund from about
eight feet of space from where the camera was placed in front of the sofa.
It was show time.
"Sir Edward," I said.
"It's Edmund."
I told him if he could please
excuse me, I of course knew his name and blamed it on jet lag.
Then I took a very big gamble with
my first question.
"Sir Edmund," I said, "you have
had countless media interviews over the last 50 years since you were the
first to set foot on Everest on May 29, 1953. You have made hundreds of
speeches. Has anyone ever questioned you about proof you were the first on
Everest? Because I have done a lot of research, and so far as I can find
there is no photograph of you up there."
He half smiled, his face a little
flushed against the painting in the background, and for sure he had not
expected this question. At this point we literally could have heard a pin
drop on the floor between us. And I realized I might be asked to pack up
my gear and leave immediately.
But he calmly responded it was
true there was no photograph of him atop Everest, even though books I had
seen showed photos of him standing on the summit.
He said he had taken pictures of
Tensing Norgay, the Sherpa with him, and other photos from the summit to
verify without doubt he had been there.
"I don't know if Tensing even knew
how to use a camera," he said. "At the time it just wasn't a matter of any
importance."
The ice between us was broken. I
think it was because he knew I had done my homework, and I had the
definite feeling Sir Edmund had never been challenged about his conquest
of Everest because he was not pictured there.
My interview continued. In short
time it seemed I had used a 60-minute tape, and stopped the camera to put
in a new one.
Lady June, who had been elsewhere
in the house, suddenly was standing in the doorway announcing lunch was
ready.
As goodwill gifts I had taken the
Hillarys a jar of orange blossom honey (he was a beekeeper when he climbed
Everest) and a book on the lodges of our great national parks that
accompanied the PBS series on these famous old inns and hotels.
We chatted about non-mountaining
items and ate French bread with butter and Brie cheese.
After lunch, we went back into the
living room to continue the interview.
Sir Edmund talked about his work
with building schools and health facilities for the s in the Himalaya, his
tractor trip across Antarctica which he felt was more dangerous than the
Everest climb, and his other adventures throughout the world.
About mid-afternoon all my video
tape had been used. I stopped the camera and we just continued talking.
I did, however, shoot some footage
of the Hillarys walking outside their home. And since the 100th
anniversary dinner for the American Alpine Club was coming up soon in
Denver, I asked him to send his congratulations via a videotape and it was
used at the event.
Sir Edmund's wife, Lady June Hillary, after giving a John a ride
from the Hillary home to his hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, after
his "one hour" interview with the famous climber.
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It was near 4 p.m. when I finally
had my gear packed and asked if Lady June might call a taxi to take me
back to where I was staying. They would hear none of it. She brought their
SUV around and very graciously drove me through Auckland to the B&B where
I was staying.
After I was back home and had
edited the interview to about two hours, I called The Washington Post and
The New York Times and offered it to them as a resource of the American
Alpine Club library. Both said thanks, but no thanks in rather short and
curt conversations.
In the spring of 2003 about a
month before the Everest anniversary, I received a call from Tensing
Norgay's son, Norbu, who works with the American Himalayan Fund in San Francisco. He wanted to know
if he could have copies of the tapes, I told him he could, and asked why
he was interested.
Norbu said the Fund would be
arranging one or two interviews for Sir Edmund as he made his way from
celebrating with the s in Nepal, with members of his 1953 British team
still living in England, and then he would be coming to San Francisco for
the AHF dinner. Norbu said they were leaning toward The Today Show, but
wanted to get some idea of what Sir Edmund had been discussing with me.
As the U.S. television coverage of
the anniversary began about two weeks before the actual date, I noted the
latest sound bites from Sir Edmund seemed to be from the 1980's. The
exception was a short comment at one of the celebrations where Hillary
chastised those who had gone to the Everest base camp just to get drunk as
part of the celebration.
The media coverage became more
intense, but still nothing of Hillary that was not from years ago. I kept
watching The Today Show but Sir Edmund, I'm told, was never a guest.
As a fan of Arizona Illustrated, a
half-hour program produced at KUAT-TV, the PBS station in Tucson, I called
and offered the Hillary tapes for its use.
Despite my strong protests, the
KUAT producer insisted I be part of its program using segments of the
Hillary interview. I even made myself look dumb to the KUAT audience by
telling that I had called the climbing legend "Sir Edward."
This did not result in national
recognition for KUAT. But of all the media outlets in this country, only
KUAT had segments of a recent on-camera interview with Sir Edmund.
After a time it became
evident what Sir Edmund’s choices had been for those of us in America. He
gave an interview to the National Geographic, which had partially
sponsored his 1953 climb and had an exhibit on him at its Washington, DC
headquarters. The issue with his interview featured him on the cover.
The second interview,
where he again was featured on the cover, was for a book Time, Inc.
did on famous adventurers.
And the third interview
was the “hour” at his home with me on September 3, 2002, a day I shall
never forget.
