Finding Vivian Maier Page #3

and with the children.

In those days, your father

worked in New York,

and came out by train on Friday,

and went back on Sunday.

I don't think that's

changed very much.

If you go to the beach club today,

and, go down on the sand,

you'll see the nannies there.

Some of these women

have been lucky enough

to make their way up here

to the United States.

The girl who helps me, this is

her fifth or sixth year here.

- What's her name?

- Olivia.

Delightful. Delightful person.

I love her dearly.

She speaks very little English,

and I speak very little Spanish.

We get along beautifully.

It's been written about

that she had few friends,

and I consider myself

one of those friends.

I liked her a lot.

She was a terrific person.

I lived in Highland Park, I had a lot

of small children, I was home a lot.

One of my children was friendly with

one of the boys she took care of.

The children, they were always

at each other's houses,

and she would come by.

We had good conversations with kids

swirling around us ail the time.

I had a very freewheeling,

open household.

There weren't a lot of rules.

You know? Don't get

killed in the street.

She loved the children and

the children loved her.

She was wonderful to the children.

I think, probably loved them as much

as she probably loved anybody.

- Knock, knock!

- Who's there?

- Apple.

- Apple who?

- Apple knock knock!

- Who's there?

- Apple.

- Knock, knock!

- Who's there?

- Knock, knock.

Knock, knock who?

Oh, God!

Well, gentlemen...

I think she was quite lively, and a

wonderful person in her younger years.

I mean, she must have been a delight.

I can see how they worshipped her,

because she was doing the adventures

that, normally, a parent

would probably not do.

Life was more adventurous

with her around.

She was very opinionated about how

children should spend their time,

and mainly how they should spend

it was out and about with her.

She would load up the stroller with

the baby and her bag, and both kids,

and off they would go on outings.

And they had their routine.

There was a Marshall Field's

in downtown Evanston,

and it had a candy counter

on the first floor.

Well, that was always the first stop,

because there were always free samples.

She would avail herself very

heartily of the free samples.

Meaning, like, dump...

You know, she'd dump the

whole tray of Frango Mints

into her purse and walk away!

We stopped going

there all of a sudden,

but I believe that she was kicked

out of Marshall Field's, permanently.

A really clear memory

is her setting up

to take photos of all

these naked mannequins.

Some of them were headless,

some of them were toppled over a little bit.

There'll be probably an

amazing photograph.

But as a child,

it was taking forever,

standing there on the

corner of the street,

waiting while this weird lady takes pictures

of these naked, headless mannequins.

Then they would go out and they

would look in the alleys for junk,

because that was

what she liked to do.

She would come home with

pieces of metal, old furniture,

and we would look at it.

"Is this art? Is this not art?

What is this? Oh, this could be useful.

"This could come in handy sometime. "

My brother Robbie, he was riding

his bike home from school,

and he got hit by a car.

He was sort of laying in the middle of

the street, and an ambulance was coming,

and he... and he says,

and I don't know if this is true,

but he always said that Vivian was taking

pictures of him laying on the ground.

It wasn't, like,

"Oh, Robbie, are you OK?"

It was more just,

"Oh, this is a good photo op!"

My mother drove up and saw

my brother lying in the street.

She said, "Oh! I thought

the dogs got hit. "

Vivian was just kind

of above the fray.

And I remember thinking,

"There's Vivian, taking pictures, as usual".

She was aware of what was going on

in politics and society at the time.

She would bring this

cassette recorder...

and she goes to the supermarket,

and she's asking people in line...

- VHi, Carl.

- Hi.

I got you with my machine.

I was wondering if you had anything

to say about all this political scene.

- Well...

- About Nixon and so on.

I think it happened the way it

should for the best of the country.

And maybe it'll be a warning

for future politicians.

That's right. That's right.

But what did you think

of the impeachment?

- Come on!

- Am I on tape?

- Yes, you are. Come on.

- I don't know.

Well, you should have an opinion.

Women are supposed to be

opinionated, I hope. Come on.

There's one movie that she

made that has a note in it.

And it says, "1972,

Chicago murder of mother and baby.

"Market where she found

ad for baby-sitting job

"which had led to

disappearance and death.

Then you see her walking

to the supermarket.

She's walking in the

baby-sitter's footsteps.

You see her walking

to the neighbourhood.

I just wonder if that's

where the crime happened.

She goes to the funeral home.

She's kind of... a journalist

of the era, like a...

But... usually, you do

that to show people.

You know, to show,

"This is what happened. "

She just did it.

One day in 1977, I was

driving on Sheridan Road

and someone flagged

me for hitchhiking.

Plenty of people do that.

Turned out to be Vivian Maier.

When I met Vivian, back in 1972,

I was in grad school at Northwestern,

and I worked in the language lab.

And it was not at all unusual for eccentric

people to be coming through the lab.

She was French. She had lost

most of her accent, I would say.

She affected what, at the time, struck

me instantly as a fake French accent.

Some people have said that

she had a fake accent.

No, this is... this is not true.

My degree is in linguistics.

I have a PhD in linguistics.

The truth is, it was a fake accent.

I happened to see the film The

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,

and, probably not for nothing,

they were right...

And I have...

There's the lilting

sound of it, you know?

"Uh, I don't really know what you

want me to do, but you have to do it,

"come over later, and then

everything will be OK."

Her voice, it seemed like

it went up and down,

- you know what I'm saying?

- Oh, yes. Ooh!

Her vowels were longer in

duration than French vowels.

I mean, you know, this is the...

I did... My master's, thesis

was on vowel duration in French.

So I had a little bit of background.

I believe it's someone who had

polished their English accent,

having then lost some

of their French accent.

You don't want to see a copy

of my dissertation, so...

- Well...

- No! You don't, really.

I asked her her name.

She kind of paused. I remember that.

And she said, "Call me Smith. "

I mean, it was very clear she

didn't want to tell me her name.

I thought, "This is weird. "

She had been a customer of ours.

She was a pain in the neck,

to be truthful.

We held things for her

for as long as a year.

We would say, "What's your name?"

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