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Priscilla Johnson McMillan & Marina Oswald on The Dick Cavett Show


Max Good

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The Decades channel has been showing Dick Cavett re-runs.  Someone posted a recording of the 1977 show with Priscilla Johnson McMillan and Marina to YouTube a couple years ago, but it has since been taken down.

Does anyone have a recording of this program?  I am trying to obtain a decent copy for my Ruth Paine documentary...

It appears to be episode number 16 from the 1977 season on WNET (PBS affiliate in NYC).  The other guest was Henry Winkler. 

https://simkl.com/tv/19932/the-dick-cavett-show/season-1977/episode-16/

Thanks everyone

 

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I have seen the Marina, McMillan, Cavett interview.

This was a few years ago.

It's been taken down?  That's suspicious.

To me, Priscilla J. McMillan seemed in control of Marina. Marina would often look at McMillan before answering a question, almost as if Marina needed her approval, permission and ok to do so.

Yet, Marina seemed quite happy in the interview and emotionally close to McMillan. Creepy really.

McMillan reminded me of Carol Channing of "Hello Dolly" fame in her manner and style of speaking. Wide eyed, exaggerated smiling and slower, slightly baby talk talking?

Maybe this weird take on the interview was just my imagination? Someone else may have seen something different.

Edited by Joe Bauer
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16 minutes ago, Matt Allison said:

"Thanks for being here, Fonzie! Now please welcome our next guest, CIA groupie Priscilla McMillan, and the wife of the man set up to be blamed for JFK's death, Marina Oswald!"

I wonder if Dick Cavett asked McMillan about her relationship with Allen Dulles.  🤥

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4 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

I wonder if Dick Cavett asked McMillan about her relationship with Allen Dulles.  🤥

PM had been following Oswald since he first arrived in Russia!

She spent a long time with Marina, even living with her.

She came in well after Ruth Paine who I don't think Marina ever really personally liked nor felt comfortable with, although Marina probably truly appreciated Ruth's protective generosity and kindness during a truly desperate time in her life.

In the Cavett interview, the vibe I got from Marina and her smiling, relaxed manner and friendly glances toward PM throughout gave me the impression that she really liked this worldly and Carol Channing sounding charming spy...er uh...I mean woman.

And did PM actually speak some Russian?

And don't forget also that Marina in her PM phase had a decent amount of time to unwind from the JFK nightmare AND she was now a woman of financial means ( well over $100,000 ) from being sent $70,000 in sympathy donations combined with selling Oswald's belongings including his revolver ( $10,000 ) and a decent sized book advance. 

Times were much better for her during the interview than those extreme poverty stressful days with Lee.

Edited by Joe Bauer
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The point about PJM is that she tied up Marina for over ten years with that book contract.

And then, oh so conveniently, the book comes out while the HSCA is in session, fall of 1977.

This got some of the staffers on the committee a bit upset.  So, for the first time, some people gave PJM a going over about her and the State Department and the CIA.

Some very interesting interviews, and when I last saw them, back in the nineties, they were still partly redacted.

Not only did Dulles like her, so did Helms..  He once called her his favorite author on the JFK case.

Edited by James DiEugenio
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What jokes Max?  It was true.  She was a witting collaborator.  I had the document at one time.

Secondly, she continued where Ruth Paine left off.

She supplied the Warren Commission with alleged evidence that Oswald was in Mexico.  This was in August!  Even Liebeler could not stomach that one.  He said words to the effect, we are to think that in August, over 8 months after we convened, Priscilla Johnson and marina produce artifacts that the Dallas Police, the FBI and Secret Service could not?

It was a nice handoff.  From Ruth to PJM.  Same thing, different person.

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/4/2020 at 1:58 PM, Joe Bauer said:

McMillan reminded me of Carol Channing of "Hello Dolly" fame in her manner and style of speaking. Wide eyed, exaggerated smiling and slower, slightly baby talk talking?

She always looks and sounds like a lunatic.  In another documentary, she's got her head cocked way to the side (her neck looks broken in it) while her eyes are bugging out of her head and she's doing the baby-talk thing. 

She comes off as really creepy.

Evidently a CIA document refers to her in a derogatory manner, something about her being a "nut" or "nutty" or something like that. Didn't stop them from using her, though. 

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On 8/4/2020 at 3:33 PM, Matt Allison said:

"Thanks for being here, Fonzie! Now please welcome our next guest, CIA groupie Priscilla McMillan, and the wife of the man set up to be blamed for JFK's death, Marina Oswald!"

Did he say that? 

I love Dick Cavett regardless, watched about a dozen of his old programs. He was and is very genuine, a great interviewer. Thoughtful, funny, and reasonable. 

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1 hour ago, Richard Booth said:

Did he say that? 

I love Dick Cavett regardless, watched about a dozen of his old programs. He was and is very genuine, a great interviewer. Thoughtful, funny, and reasonable. 

So many great Dick Cavett interviews over the years...

A few of my personal favorites were with Orson Welles, Richard Burton, (when Burton was appearing on Broadway in Equus) E.L. Doctorow, and Jimi Hendrix.

 

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2 hours ago, Richard Booth said:

She always looks and sounds like a lunatic.  In another documentary, she's got her head cocked way to the side (her neck looks broken in it) while her eyes are bugging out of her head and she's doing the baby-talk thing. 

She comes off as really creepy.

Evidently a CIA document refers to her in a derogatory manner, something about her being a "nut" or "nutty" or something like that. Didn't stop them from using her, though. 

You noticed the Carol Channing big eyes, baby talk mannerism thing too RB?

Speaking of favorite Cavett interviews, have any of you seen the one with Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal? HA!  One of the funniest interviews ever! Even Cavett worried that hot headed Mailer might start throwing blows!

Cavett was so disgusted with Mailer's boorish, bragging, insulting ego maniac behavior and comments he actually said to Mailer (after Mailer condescendingly told Cavett to get back to his talking point list)  ..." why don't you fold it 5 different ways and stick it where the sun don't shine!" On air!

Mailer seemed somewhat inebriated during this interview. Mailer even insults the audience!

Another Cavett interview that was very interesting and even intriguing to me was the one with Jimmy Hoffa.

Hoffa not only doesn't hold back his hatred of the Kennedys ( JFK and especially Robert ) he blatantly brags how he had the building manager raise the flag back up to full mast after it had been lowered to half mast the day of JFK's murder  ( or was it RFK's? )  His hatred of the Kennedy's with no remorse at all about their brutal murders made me believe that if he could have done these killings himself, he would have.

Hoffa was brutish, thuggish. He believed in the use of violence in promoting the Teamsters influence, power and wealth.

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56 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

You noticed the Carol Channing big eyes, baby talk mannerism thing too RB?

Speaking of favorite Cavett interviews, have any of you seen the one with Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal? HA!  One of the funniest interviews ever! Even Cavett worried that hot headed Mailer might start throwing blows!

Cavett was so disgusted with Mailer's boorish, bragging, insulting ego maniac behavior and comments he actually said to Mailer (after Mailer condescendingly told Cavett to get back to his talking point list)  ..." why don't you fold it 5 different ways and stick it where the sun don't shine!" On air!

Mailer seemed somewhat inebriated during this interview. Mailer even insults the audience!

Another Cavett interview that was very interesting and even intriguing to me was the one with Jimmy Hoffa.

Hoffa not only doesn't hold back his hatred of the Kennedys ( JFK and especially Robert ) he blatantly brags how he had the building manager raise the flag back up to full mast after it had been lowered to half mast the day of JFK's murder  ( or was it RFK's? )  His hatred of the Kennedy's with no remorse at all about their brutal murders made me believe that if he could have done these killings himself, he would have.

Hoffa was brutish, thuggish. He believed in the use of violence in promoting the Teamsters influence, power and wealth.

I haven't seen the Cavett interview (and I want to) but I noticed something was wrong with Priscilla Johnson MacMillan pretty much immediately when I saw her on PBS Frontline. 

Her eyes bug out of her head and she seems to speak with a strange affect. I find her absolutely repulsive.

And yes I have seen the Mailer vs. Vidal episode, a classic. The audience loved the "fold it 5 ways and stick it where the sun don't shine"

Mailer was definitely drunk and was behaving like a real asshole. 

I haven't seen the Hoffa episode, but now I'm going to look for it.

P S Y C H O

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Edited by Richard Booth
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1 hour ago, Richard Booth said:

I haven't seen the Cavett interview (and I want to) but I noticed something was wrong with Priscilla Johnson MacMillan pretty much immediately when I saw her on PBS Frontline. 

Her eyes bug out of her head and she seems to speak with a strange affect. I find her absolutely repulsive.

And yes I have seen the Mailer vs. Vidal episode, a classic. The audience loved the "fold it 5 ways and stick it where the sun don't shine"

Mailer was definitely drunk and was behaving like a real asshole. 

I haven't seen the Hoffa episode, but now I'm going to look for it.

P S Y C H O

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Yes! That's the crazy Carol Channing face!

Minus the teeth.

Brando was a tough interview for Cavett as he was for every interviewer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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