SI Vault: Hey, Mister Fantasy Man: Inside Bruce Jenner's Hollywood life
This story first appeared in the Nov. 3, 1980 issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.
Olympic hero, TV personality, rising movie star, enactor of the common man's dreams: he sails, he surfs, he flies planes, he races autos. Bruce Jenner is living baby, really living!
FADE IN on the top of Bruce Jenner's head. A tight shot, from the eyebrows up. His caramel-swirl hair is buffeted by winds. Occasionally, the wind stops; when it does the hair falls back perfectly into its sculptured cut as if God's hand had just reached down and patted it into place. Now the camera pulls back slowly, and we see that Jenner is at the wheel of his brandy-colored 1980 Porsche 924 Turbo. The windows are down and the sunroof is open. Between the traffic lights the car hums in third gear with the purr of an engine loafing well under its potential. Jenner is wearing tan terry-cloth running shorts and a white BMW T shirt. A gold chain at his throat bearing the numerals 73076, the date of his triumph in the decathlon at the Montreal Olympics, catches the sunlight. He is barefoot. He is smiling.
The camera continues pulling away, up through the open car roof, rising faster and faster, and now we see that the Porsche is tooling along the Pacific Coast Highway toward Malibu. The million-dollar shanty houses and the ocean are on the left, the towering sandy cliff on the right. At this point we notice that the smog is palpable. The air is thick with smoky haze and metallic gray in hue. The air is so dense that the titles are projected right onto the smog as the tiny Porsche rolls along far below.
Cut to title:
HEY, MISTER FANTASY MAN
The credits appear in simple white lettering on the smog. Throughout, the sound track is of the Village People humming The Olympic Hymn.
The music ends at the final credit, and on the highway, far below, the Porsche whips into a tight U-turn and scoots into a gap in a long row of parked cars. The camera zooms down to a close-up through the driver's window. On the other side of the Porsche we see an unpainted cedar fence, much like all the other fences that form a ragged wall for miles in either direction. The beach houses in Malibu turn their backsides to the highway, and like most Malibu fences, this one is posted. There is a sign with a drawing of a policeman, and it says: DON'T EVEN THINK OF PARKING HERE!
Jenner uncoils from the Porsche. In this shot, the juxtaposition of car and man serves to emphasize Jenner's stature: he is 6'2" and 190 pounds, with a deep chest and thickset shoulders. As he walks along the fence Jenner passes the open door of his two-car garage. Parked inside are a bone-white 1977 Porsche Turbo Carerra and a 1979 Jeep, open-topped, equipped with new BF Goodrich All-Terrain tires. Jenner traces a line across the roof of the white Porsche with a fingertip. The car is dusty from lack of use. He opens a gate in the fence, the camera following him as he sluffs down the rackety wooden steps to his bachelor apartment.
Like most of the beach shanties here, the house not only faces the ocean, but also looks as though it spends some of its time in the water. The structural woods are all salt-faded to a uniform gray, and there is a fine coating of sand on everything. Lined in a neat row on the porch are four Kawasaki Jet Skis. Beyond, at the corner of the house, is an 18-foot Hobie Cat. Jenner disappears inside for a moment and returns carrying a can of Coors. He sits down on the edge of the porch, pops open the can and swings his legs. He looks around, smiling at the Jet Skis, at his sailboat, at the sparkling Pacific. The camera closes in stealthily until the entire screen is filled with Jenner's big, perfect teeth. These are not the translucent white models that speak of expensive capping at the hands of a Hollywood dentist; they are original-owner, non-reflective, chalk-white, each one in precise alignment with its neighbor.
The cameraman holds this shot while the voice-over is heard for the first time. At times the voice will address Jenner directly; at other times it will merely lurk around making comments. The voice will sound both comforting and believable, blending the tones of, say, George Sanders and Claude Rains.
VOICE-OVER
This is a man and his toys. This is Bruce Jenner revisited, Bruce Jenner four years after his singular golden triumph in Montreal. Jenner does not toil, not in the sense that we know it. His role is unique, and for that reason it is particularly fitting that we find him here at his beachside hideaway. (Pause for dramatic effect.) Bruce Jenner is living out our fantasies for us. This is the role that we, ourselves, assigned to him when he emerged from the Olympics with his tawny hair ablaze, for in that bright moment, we all became a bit of Bruce Jenner.
We all fantasize: we swagger through our daydreams. But we are too thick-waisted to play the role in reality. Our hair, once so dense and lustrous, has turned mouse-colored and thin. Our teeth are irregular, and the cap on the upper left canine doesn't quite match the others. But those are mere cosmetic reasons. The final, crushing truth is that we're all too damn busy to do all of these things that Jenner does for us. We have reports to get out, deadlines to meet; who has time to go jet skiing in the middle of the day in the middle of the week?
(The camera begins slowly easing back from Jenner's teeth. He is still smiling, and the Pacific breeze is gently ruffling his hair--not rearranging the upside-down salad-bowl lines, but ruffling it.)
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And so it must be Bruce Jenner. At some future time, in some more advanced society, we shall hire people to live out our fantasies in a beautiful cavity-free world where everything is done in full color and wide screen. But for now, Bruce Jenner must do it for us. Jenner has the time, and we--all of us--have made sure that he has the money and the toys. He became our selection four years ago when he got 8,618 points in the decathlon--more than anyone in the world had ever scored--and when he behaved so graciously in victory. And we chose well: surely nobody had worked harder to win a decathlon gold medal or deserved it more, and surely no man was ever more honest about what he intended to do with his newfound celebrity. We all knew from the start that Bruce Jenner would not wear the gold medal, but that the gold medal would wear him. The association is forever locked into our subconscious, so that the words Jenner and decathlon and gold medal are inseparable. And, as we shall now see, in terms of living out our fantasies, Jenner is doing the best he can. FADE OUT.
FADE IN on the raggedy bluffs above Malibu. The Pacific is off in the distance. The ridge just ahead of the camera peaks into a sharply defined backbone. The '79 Jeep is slamming along this narrow line, one set of wheels on each side. It is clear that one wrong move will send the Jeep cartwheeling hundreds of feet down into the cliffside homes below. Jenner slams the Jeep to a stop just at the camera, and the cloud of reddish dust that has been following the vehicle catches up and settles thickly on him like gritty rain. He grins through it.
JENNER
If the Jeep goes over, you try to get out of the seat belt and jump clear. And then you just sort of start grabbing for sagebrush and stuff. (He leans out and peers down at the rooftops far below.) I don't know which would hit the bottom first, me or this Jeep.
VOICE-OVER
(Alarmed.) All right, just sit still. Now tell us, what are you up to these days? I mean, aside from this perilous position here on the spine of California.
JENNER
So much has changed. Everything has changed. I'm 31 now, pretty much the same size and same weight, but it's Bruce Jenner four years later. I seem to have assembled all these toys. I've been catching up for all the years I didn't play. There are the two Porsches. There's this Jeep, plus two trail bikes and four Jet Skis and some go-karts. And the Hobie 18 and a Beechcraft Bonanza. I'm going for my instrument rating. I've become a television sportscaster, a color man mostly. I've done commercials. I've appeared in a movie--Can't Stop the Music--to, uh, to mixed reviews. I'm going to make more movies--I'll tell you about them in a minute--and I race cars now; it's become a consuming passion. I'm getting a divorce from Chrystie--the all-American couple is splitting up. A lot has changed. But now I'm in control of my life; I run the whole thing....
VOICE-OVER
You mean you didn't...?
JENNER
That first year after the Games, I was naive. I mean, I relied on a lot of other people to make my decisions. After all, when I was growing up, I wasn't that much into books. I didn't have much confidence in myself intellectually. But now, four years later, I've found out that when you get out into the big, bad world, hey, it turns out you know just as much as everybody else does, because they don't know what they're talking about, either. They...
John G. Zimmerman/Sports Illustrated
VOICE-OVER
You've discovered our secret.
JENNER
(Starting the Jeep and revving the engine.) Right. Nobody really knows anything. A lot of people are faking it through life. We're all in the same boat here, just trying to get ahead. FADE OUT.
FADE IN: Head shot of a cherubic young man. He is wearing a caftan. He is talking on the phone. When he becomes aware of the camera, he waggles one finger in a be-with-you-in-a-minute gesture and goes on talking.
VOICE-OVER
This man is Allan Carr, onetime Hollywood business manager and agent, now a big producer--one of the very biggest. He co-produced Grease; it has made millions. He also produced Can't Stop the Music, which was not a box-office smash in this country, though it's making up for that overseas. Carr spotted Jenner a couple of years ago. He sees something very special in him, something Carr feels has been missing from U.S. movies for too long. He sees...
CARR
(Hangs up phone.) I'll tell you what it is. I'll describe it: I was giving a big party at my place. Everybody was there. Liza Minnelli, Halston, many others. There were at least 40 famous people in the room. Bruce walked in and basically stopped the party. People murmured, `Who's that?' Well, then. Bruce is aware of this, but he's gifted enough not to take himself too seriously. He looks like a leading man should look. Not at all like actors look today who come in three basic types. The most common is the Street Look, then there is the Italian Derivative, and after that everybody's a Travolta Clone. But Jenner will go on much in the manner of a Kirk Douglas--now there's another former athlete, a college wrestler, I believe, who went into acting--and like Douglas, Jenner will be bankable 20 years later.
VOICE-OVER
But this appeal that you ...
CARR
Jenner's appeal, dear chap, is not unlike that of Christopher Reeve, who played Superman. The appeal is to both sexes, to men and women. Women can ooh and aah over Jenner, and their husbands and boyfriends won't feel threatened by him. That's the appeal.
VOICE-OVER
And Bruce Jenner will be a star in your new movie? The Hitchcock-inspired detective story?
CARR
We hope to start shooting by spring, with Jenner in a leading role....
VOICE-OVER
What's the title of the new movie?
CARR
I won't tell you. If I told you, it would appear as a mini-drama on TV next week. I call it my "woman in jeopardy" movie. If you come up with a better title, call me. And, yes, it was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest; Jenner plays the Cary Grant role, if you can call it that.
VOICE-OVER
A detective, Jenner told us. I got it. Why not have Jenner wear a sort of pencil-line mustache, like William Powell in The Thin Man?
CARR
No. No pencil-line mustache. But maybe (he giggles), maybe just a little haircut. FADE OUT.
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FADE IN: A low-level shot of surf rolling in, three- and four-foot waves in close order. Gradually we become aware of an approaching high-pitched engine; it snarls, growing louder. Suddenly, a Kawasaki Jet Ski leaps into the picture, flying off the crest of a wave. It soars crookedly for 12 feet into the air, producing a halo of spray that shines like diamonds. Its driver, wearing a cut-off wet-suit and Bruce Jenner signature-model running shoes, accepts the fact that he is headed for a crash and pushes the Jet Ski away so that it won't land on him. Man and machine do half-barrel rolls and splash upside-down into the surf. In a moment, Jenner's head emerges from the top of another wave. He shakes the hair out of his eyes with a snap of his head and pulls the shut-off Jet Ski over. He crosses his arms on it and uses it as a float, resting his chin on his forearms.
JENNER
As I was saying, I run my own life these days. Funny, but I've found that my perspective has changed. Now, four years after the gold medal, I don't want to be seen quite as much. I don't know, perhaps I shouldn't be seen as much. I'd like to suddenly appear from time to time in something nice--like the football movie we're working on. And then the folks would say, `Hey, there's old Bruce. I haven't seen him in a while. It's good to see him.' That's one of the reasons I'm backing off a bit, becoming more selective about what jobs I do. I'm financially more secure, don't have to worry about the bills being paid next week. If there was a time when it seemed that I was too visible, you've got to remember that it wasn't so much me capitalizing on the Games--but that I needed a job. People offered me work at a nice salary. It was more like other people trying to capitalize on what I had done. They called me, I didn't call them. And that first year I did basically what everybody asked me to do ...
VOICE-OVER
I see that the much-decorated Eric Heiden zinged you pretty good after the Lake Placid Games.
JENNER
Hey, I don't put Heiden down at all. The only thing I didn't like was some of the comments he made. (He changes his voice and mimics what he thinks Heiden sounds like.) `I don't want to capitalize off the Games like Bruce Jenner did.' (Jenner makes a time-out signal with his hands.) Hold it! Time! Capitalize on the Games? Waaait a second. I would like to see what would happen if somebody came up to him and offered him a million dollars for two years of work. The guy would be craaaazy not to look seriously at it. But say also that it's something good, a good product that not only pays him money but starts a youth speed-skating camp where underprivileged kids can go and learn. Lots of good things can come out of this, not just Heiden getting a few dollars in his pocket. He can't just say, `He's wrong in doing that.' There's nothing that says you have to do anything after an Olympics; it depends on the individual. What the individual would like and where he's at ...
VOICE-OVER
(Dryly.) Or what space he's in ...
JENNER
(Enjoying this Hollywood parody.) Yeah, or where his head's at. Anyway, the criticism doesn't bother me. FADE OUT.
John G. Zimmerman/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
FADE IN on low-level shot of a blacktop racetrack, the rising heat waves distorting what seems to be an approaching red dot. Swiftly and noisily the dot takes shape as a race car, a shining Chevrolet Monza. We hear the driver pop it down through the gears, and the car stops at the camera. Most of the driver's face is obscured by his crash helmet, but the famous teeth, bared in an exuberant grin, tell us who it is. A square-jawed man with a stopwatch leans in the window and talks to the driver, who's zapping the engine all the while. When the man straightens, the Monza peels away in a burst of red, fishtailing a bit, the tires trailing smoke. The camera closes in on the man with the watch.
VOICE-OVER
This gentleman is Chris Cord, who is 40 years old, an investment banker, a brilliant builder of race cars and a member of an authentic U.S. automotive dynasty. He is a grandson of E.L. Cord, who designed the fabulous Cord automobile in 1929. Chris Cord is the owner, director and guiding force of a two-car GT-class team on the International Motor Sports Association's endurance circuit. The cars are built at Cord's shop in Los Angeles: 200-mph creatures that are a joy to behold. These people are serious; they're not candy-tails playing at racing. The cars are expensive--$150,000 each--and are sponsored by Budweiser. This is the only U.S. team left on a circuit now dominated by factory-supported Porsches and BMWs and Lord knows what all--and the promising new driver on this team is Jenner, who is, we guess, about as U.S. as you can get.
CORD
No question about it, Jenner's athletic background seems to uniquely qualify him to be a race driver. But beyond this native ability, he has the chemistry to drive well. That is, he adapts well to intense pressure....
(The car flashes past the camera again in a smear of bright red, and briefly, subliminally, we see the driver flash Cord a thumbs-up signal.)
This has been a shakedown season for these cars; they're very exotic, a combination of power and delicacy. By next season, hopefully with Brucein our crew, we expect to be very competitive, a force on this circuit.
VOICE-OVER
(Interrupting.) Do you happen to have one of your grandfather's Cord cars?
CORD
I do, indeed. A 1937 Supercharged Sportsman 812. I drive it regularly.
VOICE-OVER
You, uh, you wouldn't consider...
CORD
Of course not. Besides, we're in the middle of a movie, remember? FADE OUT.
Bruce Jenner with his then-girlfriend and son, Burt.
John G. Zimmerman/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
relaxes on the trampoline, one hand on the tiller.
JENNER
Consider this for just a second. This is why I worked so hard at first. When the Games ended on the evening of July 30, 1976, when I had won my medal, I figured that I had four years from that moment to learn a trade. Four years and no more, because when the next Olympic champion came along he'd obviously take my spot as the ... whatever you want to call it, as the sports hero I was. I'd like always to be remembered as the Olympic champion. But now because of the boycott, us not going to the Moscow Games, I'm still the last U.S. Olympic hero of the Summer Games. Still, I can't live on just that memory. And maybe now, at last, I'm starting to look a little more human. FADE OUT.
FADE IN on Sunset Boulevard at the point in Beverly Hills where it skirts the UCLA campus. It is early morning, and several joggers are laboring up Bush Hill, named for Track Coach Jim Bush, who sentences his teams to run the murderous slope in training. Gradually the camera closes in on one man: he's well-conditioned, dark-haired and in his early 40s. He's wearing a look so intense that his face seems almost aggrieved.
VOICE-OVER
This gentleman-jogger is George Wallach, the agent, adviser, molder, counselor--indeed, the founder--of Bruce Jenner. Well before the Olympics, Wallach saw the luminous potential in Jenner, and he has guided Jenner's career from the moment the Games ended.
(The jogger runs up to the camera and stops, puffing a bit. He lifts the bottom of his T shirt and pats his face dry.)
Wallach is a man who explodes with marketable ideas that elude you and me. While he is catching his breath, I'll give you an example. We all recall the Coca-Cola commercial featuring Mean Joe Greene and the little boy. Of course we do; it has played endlessly on TV, never failing to stir our hard hearts. It won one of advertising's Clio Awards. Well, it was George Wallach here who saw a story line that begins where the commercial ends. He has sold his idea to NBC, which will develop it into a one-hour drama for children. Wallach saw it this way: suppose that the kid were a runaway and he were to spend a week living with the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he finds out that a football team is, in effect, a family, not unlike the one he'd just run away from, and that families must learn to get along and ... are you with me? Of course. Wallach's current key project is a movie about Grambling football. It will be co-produced by Jenner and Wallach, who have formed their own movie-production company. They sold the movie to NBC, which has Jenner under contract and must use him to get its money's worth. Thus, NBC is providing the development money to make the picture. It's tentatively scheduled for next fall.
WALLACH
This movie will be based on a true story about the first white football player at Grambling, the once all-black college. We'll shoot it at Grambling, and Bruce will star as the white quarterback....
VOICE-OVER
The title?
WALLACH
The name of the book, by Bruce Bahrenburg, is My Little Brother's Coming Tomorrow. The working title on our teleplay has been White Tiger. But I....
VOICE-OVER
Don't tell me it'll air as White Tiger.
WALLACH
I don't think so. I hope not. But it will be a major move for us, Bruce and me. He's in line for Carr's woman-in-jeopardy film, as you know, and we're negotiating for the rights to the Peter Revson story, with Bruce to play the part of the late Peter Revson, the millionaire sports-car racer....
VOICE-OVER
Well, I must say it sounds as if your plans for Bruce are....
WALLACH
(Holds up one hand.) One more thing.
VOICE-OVER
Hmmmm?
WALLACH
Just this. Bruce wasn't offered the NBC contract, nor was he offered the opportunity to appear in a major film, because he won a track meet four years ago.
VOICE-OVER
I'm afraid I don't follow....
WALLACH
(Patiently.) Look. The opportunities came because Jenner won the gold medal. True. But the successes came because of his talent, because of the way he's handled it, because he's Bruce Jenner.
VOICE-OVER
And on that note....
WALLACH
I must be running along. FADE OUT.
Walter Iooss Jr for Sports Illustrated
FADE IN on Jenner's bachelor apartment in the beach house at Malibu. The windows and sliding door are open, and a soft breeze and the sound of nearby surf move through the rooms. Jenner is sprawled on his sofa wearing only gym shorts. He looks around happily at the comfortable clutter. Nearby is his TV set and tape deck, with video cassettes stacked randomly on top. A new guitar leans against a wall and another new guitar is in a chair on top of a pile of unsorted laundry, mostly T shirts. The dishwasher door is open, with the rack pulled out for easy access to clean dishes. The enormous round coffee table is covered with various objects: empty coffee mugs, the keys to assorted cars, crumpled paper money, books, magazines, note pads, a telephone. More books and magazines are piled along the walls.
JENNER
I just straightened this place up. You should have seen it. (He slumps further on the sofa and then grins in a burst of white.) Wallach told you about the Grambling movie? That's a tough acting role. That's a very heavy movie. I mean, it's going to be controversial. First, I'm dating a black girl, O.K.? In an all-black school in the late '60s. And going out for the football team. A lot of heavy, heavy scenes. The black guys say, "Hey, you're that good? You better prove yourself." I mean, they don't give him an inch. There's a good fight scene where the white kid has been knocked down for about the umpteenth time and he knows he's got to do something about it or it's going to go on forever. And, man, he comes up scrambling, and there's a hell of a fight. (He pauses, reflecting on the role.) You know, acting is a skill. A skill. When I was an athlete, we called it training. Now we call it rehearsal.
VOICE-OVER
All right. So much for Jenner the matinee idol. What of Jenner the man?
JENNER
(Grins.) One of my problems was that I could never live up to, quote, Bruce Jenner, unquote. I mean, because of the Olympics, people put me up on such a high pedestal.... It's just about impossible to live a normal life. I mean, I went out and people said, "Well, what'll you have, Bruce--a nice glass of milk?" And I go, "Um, if you don't mind, I'd rather have a beer." And they're shocked. As far as my getting a divorce, you wouldn't believe some of the stuff I've gotten; letters and all. Maybe somehow the divorce will make me seem more human. The Wheaties people were more concerned about me than they were upset. Bruce Jenner, all-American, apple pie and ice cream, and all of a sudden zappo! into a divorce. But it happens. I'm human, too. In spite of that, the way I lead my life pretty much matches the image. I don't fool around with women. Besides having a few beers, I don't drink. I don't go carousing. FADE OUT.
FADE IN: Headshot of an attractive blonde in her mid-to-late 20s. Her face has a certain familiar look of determination, perhaps emphasized by a squarish cast of jawline. She looks directly back at the camera, not smiling, not frowning.
VOICE-OVER
And this is Chrystie, the former Miss Chrystie Crownover. She married Bruce Jenner on Dec. 16, 1972 and gave birth to two children, Burt, on Sept. 6, 1978, and Casey, on June 10, 1980. She is soon to become the former Mrs. Bruce Jenner. Their story is more or less typically American, with no special surprises. They were college sweethearts at Graceland College in Iowa. Chrystie helped put Bruce through school; indeed, with Chrystie's stern guidance, Jenner made the dean's list on two occasions. In a post-Olympic book written with Jenner, author Phillip Finch recalls that it was a household joke--now deemed apocryphal, of course--that "If they should ever divorce, there may be a nasty argument over who gets custody of Bruce's diploma." Well, they are, in fact, getting divorced. But, as happens when big money and big success are involved, custody of the diploma may be the least of their problems. It's important to note here--if only for its uniqueness in Tinsel Town--that there is no scandal involved in this divorce; there have been no well-publicized outcries or carryings-on in the Hollywood press. This is that rarity, the quiet, civilized dissolution of a marriage. Chrystie might be bitter; we don't know. If so, she doesn't speak of it, again a unique stance in this let-me-tell-you-all-my-troubles world. What Chrystie does speak about is....
CHRYSTIE
Bruce's future. I tend to vacillate, I guess, on what course would be the best for him. I think that he has a super future as a sports newscaster or color man; he's becoming more and more relaxed at it. At the same time, the movies offer an exciting challenge. I must say that in Can't Stop the Music, while he played a naive, unaffected part, he's such a dazzling-looking man that he carried it off well. I was disappointed in that movie--but not in Bruce's contribution to it.
VOICE-OVER
Then you think that....
CHRYSTIE
I think that there is a definite future for Bruce in the movies. Only one thing: If I were still involved (she pauses, almost imperceptibly)--which I'm not--I'd advise him to stay away from playing a sports role. Better for his career, I think, if he were to play something else. FADE OUT.
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FADE IN on the Malibu living room again. Jenner looks up as the camera enters. He is still sprawled on the couch, with one leg propped on the coffee table, wiggling his bare toes. Between scenes he has added a bag of Famous Amos chocolate-chip cookies to the litter on the table. He indicates the bag with a help-yourself grin of welcome.
VOICE-OVER
Do you think that one day you'll get married again and perhaps settle down?
JENNER
Well, yeah. That's more my life-style. I don't really like running around; it's very boring. I believe in serious relationships and sharing my life with somebody. (He falls silent and stares out the window at the ocean.)
VOICE-OVER
Jenner has recently begun dating Linda Thompson. Linda is a stunning girl, the 1972 Miss Tennessee. She's also the immediate past No. 1 girl friend of the late Elvis Presley, which the gossip columnists still make much of, although Elvis has been dead and gone for three years. NBC even obtained Linda's permission to do a show with an I-was-Elvis'-girl-friend theme. But be that as it may, Bruce and Linda have established a warm relationship.
JENNER
Linda is a great, great lady. It's funny; because of her romance with Elvis and that whole bizarre scene, you'd think she would be different. But, no. She's one of the most down-home, nice, warm girls. She doesn't drink or anything, and she's very serious. I didn't want to get out of one relationship into another. But she came into my life when it was very difficult, a very down time....
VOICE-OVER
All right. But what does all of this mean to the more mature Jenner?
JENNER
(Snaps his fingers.) Listen. Here's what my life is all about. Linda found this--I'm sorry I can't give proper credit because we don't know who wrote it. But it's my credo, the words that I live by.
VOICE-OVER
All right. We're ready.
JENNER
(Speaking slowly and with emotion.) That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves this world a better place than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a rescued soul: who never lacks appreciation for earth's beauty or fails to express it; who looks for the best in others and gives the best he has.
VOICE-OVER
Beautiful.
JENNER
You bet it's beautiful. And so here I am. It has been a hectic four years. I've made a lot of money, and I've learned a lot. I've worked hard, and now I'm playing hard. Look at all these toys. It is kind of a fantasy life, isn't it? But this is what I worked for all those years before Montreal. I'll always have that tremendous feeling of accomplishment, the satisfaction of walking away from that arena and saying, "Hey, I did it." And now come the good times.
VOICE-OVER
To the victor....
JENNER
(Bursts into laughter. He rises, goes to the open door and faces the surf.) You got it! To the victor go the spoils. So let's get on with it. Let's enjoy some of the spoils!
UP MUSIC and FADE OUT as the camera closes in on Jenner's head.
