Episode 11: MIDNIGHT COWBOY
Author Glenn Frankel reveals Joe Buck’s secrets
“None of us feels that he’s entirely normal. We’re all moving along hoping we’re getting away with an image of normalcy—but our secret is that we’ve got this sweet little place that isn’t quite like anybody else’s.”
Inspired by John Wayne, a Texas dishwasher named Joe Buck (Jon Voight) buys a cowboy hat, boots and leather jacket for his new life as a New York sex worker. He figures women will be into that. It turns out, gay men are really into it. After getting off a bus, Joe rents a room and begins wandering around Manhattan. At every turn, New Yorkers pick his pocket, including Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a coughing, limping. streetwise hustler who takes $20 off of the naive Buck.
In this episode, I interview Glenn Frankel, the author of Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic, about the classic film starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. Released with an X rating in 1969, the movie was a surprise hit for United Artists and director John Schlesinger.
— Todd Melby
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The opening image of Midnight Cowboy.
THE MIDNIGHT COWBOY FILE
Midnight Cowboy was a surprise hit at the box office, earning $44,8 million in 1969.
When Jon Voight asked director John Schlesinger about his character’s motivation, Schlesinger replied, “A good fuck for which you’ll be handsomely paid.”
Costume designer Ann Roth bought a lot of Ratso Rizzo’s clothes from sidewalk sellers on New York City streets near the Port Authority Bus Terminal and Times Square. She bought a white pants with “a gray line of dirt along the crease of each leg,” writes Glenn Frankel in Shooting Midnight Cowboy. Roth also bought what she called “cockroach-in-the-corner” shoes and a purple suit she dyed green. Frankel describes the suit this way: “It looked to her like some high school kid had rented it for his prom and then chucked it into a trash can after he threw up on it.”
Dustin Hoffman claims the taxi that nearly bumped into him was a surprise. As Ratso Rizzo, he erupted with his famous “I’m walking here” line. Author Glenn Frankel points out that a November 24, 1967 version of the Midnight Cowboy script includes a cab jumping into the pedestrian crosswalk, but not the “I’m walking here” line. Frankel says Hoffman should get full credit for coming up with “I’m walking here,” but that the cab driver was a crew member and the stunt was planned.
For their roles in Midnight Cowboy, Dustin Hoffman was paid $150,000 and Jon Voight was paid $17,000. Hoffman had become a big star after his previous movie—The Graduate—had become a hit.
At the Academy Awards in 1970, Midnight Cowboy won three Oscars: Best Picture (Jerome Hellman), Best Director (John Schlesinger) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium (Waldo Salt).
In 1994, Midnight Cowboy chosen for inclusion in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.
Next stop: Miami.