The Storyteller

Scott Galloway’s love

of history fuels his work

by Lori K. Tate    |     photography by Glenn Roberson

When Scott Galloway graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1990, his parents told him to “figure out what you want to do and pursue that.” The history major knew that he wanted to tell stories, so he got a job at a production company. Since that time he’s produced and/or directed pieces for ABC, A&E, Food Network, HGTV, The History Channel, PBS, Travel Channel and more.

As president of Susie Films, the Davidson resident has directed and produced two feature-length documentary films — A Man Named Pearl and Children of All Ages. He also wrote and directed Our Vanishing Americana, a documentary based on Mike Lassiter’s book of the same name. We recentl caught up with Galloway after he returned from a whirlwind trip to New York City to find out what he’s up to.

What were you doing in New York City?

I was doing a documentary on vegetarianism for the Cooking Channel. We shot at the Dovetail Restaurant, which is on the Upper West Side. It’s run by a guy named John Fraser, and in the culinary world he’s kind of a rock star. He’s basically created this program called Meatless Mondays. We watched him work. We went down to the Green Market at Union Square, where he picks all of his vegetables. He bases his menu on what’s fresh. I like vegetables. I like them. I don’t necessarily love them, but if I could eat there, I would be a vegetarian. Oh, it was so good.

You’re also doing some work for Lifetime’s Army Wives too, right?

It ran in August. We did a program called Army Wives Gives Back. These are little pieces that run during the shows where the actresses of the show give back to the community.

Didn’t Children of All Ages, your most recent documentary, premiere on WTVI in June?

It did.

How did this film come about?

We got commissioned to do a museum video about The Circus Museum in Sarasota. When I went down there I met with the docent, the curator and the other administrative staff.  There was this old guy who was there who is a former Ringling Bros. public relations person, and so he asked me if I could follow him into this back room. When I went back there he showed me the layout of this circus model that was 4,000 square feet big. It was the most intricate model of anything I’ve ever seen in my life. He started to walk around and tell me about this model, which basically profiled the circus back in its tented heyday. He had tears in his eyes, and it brought back all of these incredible memories. So I said to the circus people, “You know, I would love to do a film on this.”

How did you go about it?

I told the man I’d like to meet the guy who made the model, and I asked if he could find the greatest living circus performers because a lot of them live in Florida because that’s where they train. He did, and that’s how it got started. I kind of felt like I had two pieces of a three-ring circus. I had the last original circus performers, meaning the last people to perform under the big top when it was the Ringling Show back in its heyday, and then I had the largest miniature circus in the world. Then we found the oldest youth circus in the world so it’s kind of like a P.T. Barnum kind of thing, playing off of the three oxymorons and that’s essentially what the film is. We started shooting that in 2006. We aired it at the 2008 Sarasota International Film Festival.

Did it win?

No, but it did sell out though. From there it went to film festivals all over the country, which was fun.

What do you enjoy about making documentaries?

I love telling stories. I also love the experience. I like working with people who are extremely talented in different fields. I enjoy collaborating with them to create something that’s hopefully well done. To accomplish a great documentary you have to have a great cinematographer, you have to have a great editor. You have to have a talented composer and post-audio mix. You have to work with all of those people to accomplish it, so I really do like the process. I also like the fact that it gives me the opportunity to meet and interview and learn the stories of some of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met.

What surprised you about the circus world when you were making Children of All Ages?

I’m 42, and I kind of remember the circus being a big deal when I was a little kid, but if you were I don’t know ten years older than I am, the circus had an incredible impact not only on American entertainment but American culture. Circus day was as big as Christmas. No one went to school that day. The circus’ impact affects our vernacular. The term “jump on the bandwagon” is a circus idiom. We had lots of people come up to us after it [the film] ran and you know they were very emotional and just so thankful that the story had been told because it’s really gone, the circus as it once was. I’m talking about elephants walking down main streets in the middle of America. That was the only time those people would see animals. Now with the advent of zoos and the National Geographic Channel and the Internet, people know what a zebra looks like, but back in the day the only time you saw it was when the circus came to town.

When did Our Vanishing Americana premiere?

It premiered in November of 2009.

What has the reaction been to that piece of work?

Very rewarding. That was one of the more enjoyable things to do because Mike Lassiter (the author and photographer of Our Vanishing Americana) is a friend, and so it was neat to go and do a project with him. He’s here in Davidson, and our kids are friends. He had spent six or seven years going all over the state taking pictures so he knew the places. and he knew the people. You know with all that research laid out it was fun to go with the crew and then go and have those people tell their stories.

It was also fun because of the way we shot it. You know we’d take off on a Friday or a Monday and spend a weekend at the beach or a weekend in the mountains or a couple days in Raleigh and zip over to Mt. Airy. It was a really well laid out, nicely paced production schedule, and that almost never happens. The reaction has been really positive. I think it did strike a chord with a lot of people. Those places are disappearing. I’ve always maintained that Main Street is more than just an historic byway, it’s a way of life and it’s a way of life that’s disappearing and that’s a real tragedy.

Where are you originally from?

All over. My dad was a Presbyterian minister so we moved a lot. Primarily Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh area, but my mother was born and raised in Charlotte so we used to always come here as a kid.

How did you come across Pearl Fryar (the focus of A Man Named Pearl)?

We had done a show for Turner South on the best gardens of the South. I had a good friend of mine, Brent Pierson, produce that story and to be honest with you when the research came in and I looked at it, it was the Biltmore Gardens, Brookgreen Gardens and it was Bellingrath Gardens and Home. All of them are huge formal gardens with large staffs, and the fourth one was Pearl Fryar’s Topiary Garden. It was almost like Sesame Street, you know which one of these is not like the other.

So I told Brent, “Man, I don’t know what you’re going to get down there in Bishopville but good luck.” And so he called me at the end of the day and said, “You know there’s more than five minutes of television on this guy.” So he kept calling me and wanting me to go down and meet him. Brent is out of Los Angeles so he said, ‘I’ll fly in to meet him [Pearl] again.” So he came out, and then we went down we spent a weekend with him and that’s how it came to be.

That came out Labor Day weekend 2007 and traveled the film festival circuit?

Yes, Pearl won the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival. It won the Audience Choice Award at the Heartland Film Festival (it’s in Indianapolis). It won the Audience Choice Award at the Salem Film Festival, which is in Salem, Oregon.

It was funny too, when you go to film festivals, there’s a certain like I don’t want to say cult, but there is a certain cinephile who goes to film festivals, and they’re kind of predisposed to see a certain documentary. So it’s like tonight at 8 o’ clock, dysentery and so you’ve got dysentery and shrapnel and gangreen and A Man Named Pearl. So it was just interesting to watch audiences the first time it played in theatres because I just think they’re predisposed to the grim. When jokes would come up it would surprise people that he [Pearl] was funny and that he had such a good sense of humor.

What kind of work did you recently do for ABC?

It’s called the CMA Music Festival. It’s like the background stories of different stories. Essentially the show is the artists’ performances at the CMA Music Festival, which is held every June in Nashville. Just so that it’s not two or three hours of straight performances we have the opportunity to break it up with some of their stories. I love doing it because the country music artists as a collective are about the nicest, most professional group of people you’ll ever want to work with.

This time you worked with Taylor Swift and a group called Lady Antebellum. What was Taylor Swift like?

I thought she was fabulous. She will still be 20 years old when this comes out. I believe her birthday is in December, and she just couldn’t have been more pleasant to work with — very, very smart, a lot of poise. We did two stories with Taylor. The first story was the performance of her new hit Mine off of her new album. She was doing this super secretive event where she got to perform at a studio away from the CMA Music Festival, so a select group of fans got to see her. It was kind of the Beatlemania aspect of it if you will. You know you’ve been selected, you don’t know what’s going to happen but you’re going to see Taylor, and she’s going to perform a brand new song.

And then the second one was about how she wanted to sign autographs for her fans, thanking them for making her the top country artist in the world. So they rented out this huge arena. When I say they, I mean her people, and she had her tour buses there and all kinds of memorabilia there. She signed autographs for 14 almost 15 hours. It was unbelievable, and she never ever took a break. She never ate lunch. The only thing she did was a costume change to play a few songs in the middle of the day. I mean she never went to the bathroom. I don’t know how she did it, and she was wearing high heels the whole time.

But just watching her over that long period of time have to interact with such a diverse group of people of different ages, different backgrounds, different demands and expectations, I was really impressed. Her parents were really nice. That whole family is about as normal as you can be given how bizarre fame is.

How much do you travel?

I don’t travel that much. I go to New York and Los Angeles some. I usually have producers do pieces for us. In fact right now I’ve got a guy in Portland doing a story, another one is going to Austin. Usually what I do is television. I love making the films but independent film I used to always think was this euphemism for edgy, I’m going to do my own thing, but I’ve really come to learn that independent film means we don’t have any money. So I love making the films, but I have yet to figure out how to make a living doing it, so TV is a lot of what we do and I usually executive produce.

What’s your next project?

I’m working on a project in Washington. I can’t say what it is. I will say that it has to do with finance, which is hilarious because I have no idea how much money is in my bank account. Really, I’m clueless when it comes to that.

Lake Norman Currents Magazine, P.O. Box 1676, Cornelius NC 28031, phone 704-749-8788, fax 888-887-1431

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THE SCOOP

To watch the trailers of A Man Named Pearl and Children of All Ages, visit www.susiefilms.com.
Children of All Ages airs this month on WTVI on Saturday, November 6 at 10 p.m.