Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard--America's First Spaceman (65 page)

page 224, “sadistic”: Ibid.

page 226, “unthinkable”: Ibid.

page 226, “inundated with the newness of everything”: Kraft,
Flight,
p. 116.

page 227, Shepard and the others assembled at the Cape: Ibid.

page 228, “That was a hell of a mess”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 72.

page 228, Cooper’s accountant told him he could pick any state: Cooper,
Leap of Faith.

page 229, “We were always looking for ways to let off steam”: Slayton an
d Cassut,
DEKE!,
p. 88.

page 229, “went berserk”: Schirra,
Schirra’s Space,
p. 65.

page 229, a “whippersnapper” whom none of them “respected”: Sho
rty Powers, oral history, NASA Historical Center.

page 229, “They were leery of me”: Ibid.

page 230, “A real pain in the ass”: Slayton and Cassut,
DEKE!
p. 80.

page 230, “they instinctively rebelled”: Powers, oral history.

page 231, “we would play games . . .”: Ibid.

page 231, “Daddy is going to Reno”: Ibid.

page 231, “That’s a lot of horseshit”: Author interview with Ralph Morse.

page 232, “cover space”: Ibid.

page 233, “How ’bout a cuppa coffee?” [entire scene]: Author interview with Morse.

page 234, “As debilitated as I have ever been”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 225.

11: “A harlot of a town”

page 236, “Sometimes we like to have a little fun, too”: Fallaci,
If the Sun Dies,
p. 93.

page 238, “sweep the monkey shit off the seat”: Slayton and Cassut,
DEKE!,
p. 82.

page 239, “They ran out of monkeys”: Al Neuharth, “Soft Side of Shepard: ‘Ran Out of Monkeys,’ ”
USA Today
(July 24, 1998).

page 239, He strutted through the belching factory: NASA film footage, National Archives and Records Administration.

page 240, “You literally couldn’t shut him up”: Paul Haney, oral history interview, NASA Historical Center.

page 240, “He talked his head off”: Author interview with Paul Haney.

page 240, “after that, Al outdistanced John”: Haney, oral history.

page 241, “I’ve had about all the monkey shit talk I can stand”: Slayton and Cassut,
DEKE!,
p. 82.

page 241, Deke’s speech and “Spam” comments [entire scene]: Slayton and Cassut,
DEKE!,
p. 82; Swenson et al,
This New Ocean;
Kraft,
Flight,
pp. 91–94.

page 242, “this girl . . . came over to me . . .”: John Glenn, speaking
at Deke Slayton’s memorial service (1994).

page 242, Sharing a room with Slayton . . . : Slayton and Cassut,
DEKE!,
p. 88; John Glenn’s speech at Deke Slayton’s memorial service.

page 242, He woke up early the next morning . . . : Kraft,
Flight,
pp. 91–94; Schefter, The Race, p. 88.

page 243, just 823 registered voters: Henri Landwirth,
Gift of Life
(self-published, 1996), p. 96.

page 243, “A stringbean of a town”: Lew Scarr, “The Space Age Had a Br
ight Beginning,”
The San Diego Union-Tribune
(September 1, 1985), p. 1.

page 244, the fastest-growing county in the nation: Matt Schude
l, “Rocket Town,”
Sunshine
magazine (October 18, 1998).

page 244, $143 worth per person: Martin Caidin,
The Cape,
p. 41.

page 244, America’s highest divorce rate: Schudel,
Sunshine
magazine.

page 244, “A harlot of a town”: Caidin,
The Cape,
p. 62.

page 244, “As sometimes happens in journalism . . .”: Author interview wi
th Howard Benedict.

page 244, DRINK SCHLITZ: Scarr,
The San Diego Union-Tribune.

page 245, “the greatest story in history, no question”: Schudel,
Sunshine
magazine.

page 245, “We couldn’t get near them”: Author interview with Howard Benedict.

page 245, “Maybe it gave me a little bit of an edge”: Author interview wi
th Walter Cronkite.

page 246, “What kind of a trap is this?” [entire scene]: Ibid.

page 246, “really a male-dominated world”: Author interview with Dee O’Hara.

page 247, “they were good and they knew it”: Ibid.

page 247, “It was a game with him”: Ibid.

page 247, “You only got so close to Alan”: Ibid.

page 250, “You should be proud of that”: Landwirth,
Gift of Life,
p. 138.

page 250, “awed” by the astronauts: Author interview with Henri Landwirth.

page 250, “austere, nondescript and totally uncomfortable”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 86.

page 250, “unpleasant walk”: Ibid.

page 251, The chimp . . . defecated onto his hands: Wendt, Still,
The UnbrokenChain,
p. 18.

page 251, The police found no evidence: Landwirth,
Gift of Life,
p. 118.

page 251, “Wherever the boys were . . .”: Author interview with Henri Landwirth.

page 252, “like a giant fraternity party”: Ibid.

page 252, “Any one of us . . . would not have to look very far”: Glenn,
A
Memoir,
p. 220.

page 252, “like something happening in a movie”: Landwirth,
Gift of Life,
p. 113.

page 252, “a real friend to all of us”: Ibid., p. 106.

page 252, “the funniest thing I’d ever seen”: Ibid., p. 122.

page 253, dumped it in the pool: Ibid.

page 253, wives understood each other “as no one else could”: Smaus and Spangler,
America’s First Spaceman,
p. 137.

page 254, “They were beautiful people”: Caidin,
The Cape,
p. 90.

page 254, “rather than stand around”: Louise Shepard, “Just Go Right Ahead,”
Life,
Vol. 47, No. 12 (September 21, 1959), p. 150.

page 255, ended the night by drag-racing in the new Corvette: Bishop Schuyler, “Finding Out About the Right Stuff from America’s First Man in Space,”
Sports
Illustrated
(October 8, 1984).

page 255, “his dick would have fallen off”: Author interview with Bill Dana.

page 256, “Shepard wanted his buddies to believe he was seeing Trish”: Author interview with Jay Barbree.

page 256, “that was one thing we didn’t discuss”: Author interview with Loraine Meyer.

12: “I think I got myself in trouble”

page 257, “Goes like a bat out of hell”: Author interview with Ralph Morse.

page 258, convinced a reluctant GM management to donate a brand-new Corvette: Temple,
Car Collector.

page 259, “a bunch of Okies”: Slayton and Cassut,
DEKE!,
p. 75.

page 260, Shepard once spun out on a rain-slicked bridge: Author interview with James Lovell.

page 260, the car spun out and slid two hundred feet: Temple,
Car Collector.

page 260, “concerned they’d kill themselves”: Author interview wit
h Bill Hines.

page 260, “There’s something wrong with this car”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 84.

page 260, Often he would get out and kick the car after losing: Author interview with John Fasolino.

page 260, “Gotcha,” Cooper said: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 84.

page 261, “John tries to behave as if . . .”:
We Seven,
p. 13.

page 261, “make me laugh”: Landwirth,
Gift of Life,
p. 120.

page 261, “I could have choked him”: Author interview with Henri Landwirth.

page 261, confessed that they were just messing with him: Landwirth,
Gift
of Life,
p. 105.

page 261, “charm a whole room by himself”: Author interview with Henri Landwirth.

page 262, “I want to be first because I want to be first”: Caidin,
Man into
Space,
p. 37.

page 264, “There is no doubt in my mind they will be first”: Allan C. Fisher Jr., “Exploring Tomorrow with the Space Agency,”:
National Geographic
(prepublication version of article, March 14, 1960).

page 264, “our objective in this program is not to beat the Russians”: Press conference, San Diego (September 25, 1959).

pages 264–265, “forced into a competitive race”: Fisher,
National Geographic.

page 265, NASA officials . . . deleted that quote: Ibid.

page 267, “When we came out of the room . . .”: Author interview with Gordon Cooper.

page 267, “some of us were more team players than others”: Ibid.

page 267, “I think I got myself in trouble”: Author interview with Al Blackburn.

page 267, “compromising” photographs: Shorty Powers, oral history, NASA.

page 267, Shorty . . . called Glenn . . . “it’s happened”: Author interview with John Glenn.

page 268, “godless communists . . . get back in the space race”: Author interview with John Glenn; Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 221.

page 268, “bland and upbeat”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 230.

page 268, “keep his pants zipped”: Ibid.

page 268, Shepard became furious at . . . Glenn’s “moralizing”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 78.

page 268, “Doesn’t everyone have the right to do what they want to do?”:
Moonshot: The Inside Story of the Apollo Project
(Turner Home Video, 1995).

page 269, “The camaraderie was incredible”: Cheney,
OpenUniverse.com
.

page 269, “My views were in the minority . . . I had made my point”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 221; author interview with John Glenn.

page 269, “a popularity contest”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 221.

13: “We had ’em by the short hairs, and we gave it away”

page 270, “If we wait any longer . . . ”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
pp. 77–81.

page 270, “the most difficult decision”: Ibid.

page 270, “Alan Shepard will make the first suborbital flight”: Ibid.

page 271, it was “not a moment to crow”:
We Seven,
p. 229.

page 271, “Than
k you very much, and good luck”: Alan B. Shepard, oral history interview with Roy Neal (Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, February 20, 1998).

page 271, “Lady, you can’t tell anyone . . .”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 81.

page 271, “Who let a Russian in here?”: Ibid.

pages 271–272, “really deflated . . . a very traumatic feeling . . . the
second team”:
Moonshot
(Turner Home Video, 1995).

page 272, “For Al, it was the competition”: Cheney,
OpenUniverse.com
.

page 272, “John figured he had made all the right moves”
: Slayton and Cassut,
DEKE!,
p. 93.

page 272, when Gilrut
h picked Shepard . . . : Slayton and Cassut,
DEKE!,
p. 93; Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 78.

page 272, “Of course! Politics!” Slayton thought: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 79.

page 273, “Glenn loved an audience . . .”: Williams,
Go.

page 273, “cozying up to top management”: Kraft,
Flight,
pp. 80–87.

page 273, “We wanted to put our best foot forward”: Williams,
Go.

page 274, “it’s not that way with Shepard”: Loudon S. Wainwright, “Shepard: A Cool Customer and a Hot Pilot with an Eye for the Big Picture,”
Life
(March 3, 1961), p. 30.

page 274, Shepard . . . “secrets”: Michael Collins, Ca
rrying the Fire: An Astro
naut’sJourney
(New York: Cooper Square Press, 1974), p. 24.

page 274, “He was an egotist”: Author interview with Chris Kraft.

page 276, “It’s how we learn”: Kraft,
Flight,
p. 136; author interview with Chris Kraft.

page 277, “I might have been penalized . . .”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 233.

page 277, “I didn’t think being an astronaut was a popularity contest”: Ibid.

page 277, “too lighthearted for the job”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 81.

page 277, “trying to knife each other”: Caidin,
Man into Space,
p. 39.

page 277, “Those were rough days for me”:
We Seven,
p. 304.

page 277, A lingering remorse . . .: Fred Bruning, “Glenn’s Return to Space: A 2nd Launch into History,”
Newsweek
(October 11, 1998).

page 278, “If I may be hypothetical . . .”: Press conference, San Diego (September 25, 1959).

page 279, excessive “German thoroughness”: Swenson et al.,
This New Ocean.

page 279, “We’re ready to go. Let’s go”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 91.

page 279, “the prestige of the United States”: Swenson et al.,
This New Ocean.

page 280, “chimp barbecue”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 235.

page 282, “I’ve come from outer space”: Schefter, The Race, p. 135.

page 283, “We had them by the short hairs”: Barbree et al.,
Moonshot,
p. 91.

page 283, “the grimmest I can remember in the White House”: Sherrod, unpublished manuscript, NASA archives.

page 284, “I don’t want to go . . . Please don’t send me”: Williams,
Go.

page 285, “the logical man to go first”: Smaus and Spangler,
America’s First
Spaceman,
p. 147.

page 285, “I needed it more than he did”:
We Seven,
p. 238.

page 286, “I don’t think two people could have worked more closely”: Author interview with John Glenn.

page 286, “Al’s alter ego, his virtual twin”: Glenn,
A Memoir,
p. 237.

14: “Light this candle!”

page 287, Douglas found a loose nail on the fourth toe:
We Seven,
p. 234.

page 288, “Hey, Gus . . .”: Ibid.

page 291, “I tried to pace myself . . .”: Ibid.

page 291, “Watch your language”:
Moonshot,
Turner Home Video.

page 291,
You’re building up too fast. Slow down
:
We Seven,
p. 247.

page 291, “the consequences of an unsuccessful flight”: Shepard,
Life
(May 19, 1961), p. 26.

page 292, “without any display of emotion”: TK, “Mrs. Shepard Sees Sho
t on TV,”
The New York Times
(AP) (May 6, 1961).