Here is a portion of my first documentary feature film made in 1969 when I was a young filmmaker in New York City. It was highly experimental. There had been a few documentaries before it that made it into the theatrical circuit and I saw an opportunity here.
Successful insurance salesman Murray King knocked on the door and walked into my office in New York City to sell me insurance. We spent about 30 minutes together and he was the most amazing salesman I ever met. I found out that he was headed to Las Vegas in just a few days to take a group of men on a junket. I didn’t know what a junket was but He told me that the top hotels in Vegas gave special deals to big gamblers like Murray and his friends.
I asked him if he would allow me to accompany him and make a documentary on what happened there. He was thrilled and saw it as an opportunity to help his sales efforts.
I said that I would hire an actress to go with him on the trip so we could set up some scenes - not realizing there was plenty of raw talent in Vegas ready to perform in any kind of movie. I called my documentary style “re-created reality”. I already knew from other work I had done that even cinéma vérité documentaries were not what they looked like. There was always a crew behind the camera influencing what was happening in front of it. So I thought I would show that.
Filming top insurance salesman Murray King and his buddies(clients who he had sold life insurance to) in Las Vegas was unbelievable for me. I had never been to Vegas. I was shocked by what I saw and my New England values were thrown askew. The story of what happened to me and this film titled King, Murray) can be seen here. It is quite a story.
• Filmmaker Shares Story...
or here: • How David Hoffman Made...
If you’d like to see the entire feature-length film which won the 1969 Cannes Film festival Critics Prize, a very honored award, besting the film Easy Rider which was also presented that year, go here. • David Hoffman's Reveal...
What happened to Murray King in his later life is also an incredible story. He went on to sell life and health insurance to the mafia folks in Las Vegas who treated us less than ideally as you will see if you watch this clip, where I reveal what happened during the filming. Murray lived long and successful life loving his experiences all the way and he continued to be a member of what they called the million dollar club, America's top life insurance salesmen, for many years..
No doubt some of Murray’s colleagues were womanizers and I’d say they were all sexist. It certainly looks that way today and to me it looked that way back then. But I see every person I have ever filmed as complex and no doubt, Murray was a complex person. There were elements of him that I thoroughly enjoyed and elements that I found admirable.
The reviews of King, Murray in the newspapers and on TV and radio were as complex as the film itself. On the edges were people who either hated it or loved it. It was selected as one of the 10 best films of the year in the Wall Street Journal and the Daily News (New York) review suggested that I should be thrown out of America for having made it. All that would cost just about $60,000 to make back then, it never did make its money back and today, is mostly used in film schools by students studying documentaries.
I know that many of my subscribers will have a strong reaction to this clip and I ask you to look at the two links above to understand my perspective towards my film and what occurred.
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