Ask a New Yorker: Good seeing you again! I met Neal
Hemphill on the Circle Line twilight boat tour around Manhattan. He was
the announcer/ tour guide.
Neal: It’s funny, I meet people and tell them I’m a tour guide on
a boat, they say, “Oh really?”, and I say, “Yes, I work for
New York Waterways”, and they say, “Oh, do you work for Circle Line?”
We have the most anonymous tour boat company. Circle Line is so branded, people
from all over the world…
Ask a New Yorker: Let’s get it straight, New
York Waterway Tours is where I met you, and the tour was fantastic.
Neal: It is a great tour. We go down the Hudson. We start at 38th Street and
12th Ave, Pier 78, and go up the East River to the mid-town area. We see the
UN, The Chrysler Building, and back down out across the harbor right up to the
Statue of Liberty. We sit very close to it for a little while. Then we go past
Ellis Island and back up the Hudson River.
Ask a New Yorker: What are some of your side stories you tell as you go under
the Manhattan Bridge?
Neal: The FDR Drive, I love that story! During the World War II, America took
a lot of relief ships to England to help all the residents that were suffering
under the bomb campaign, the blitz. We would take supplies over and drop them
off, empty the ships, and they needed ballast for the return trip across the
Atlantic so they used the rubble from the cities that had been bombed there.
When they came back they used the rubble to make landfill along Manhattan’s
East side and on the landfill, built the FDR Drive. I love telling that story
to groups of English tourists. They’re fascinated. There’s a mixture
of surprise and pride. You can see them registering what an amazing place the
world is when they hear that.
Ask a New Yorker: I Googled you and saw that you’re an accomplished actor
as well. You were in “Rounders” with Matt Damon, Law and Order,
NYPD Blue, All My Children, Of Mice and Men. You’ve done all kinds of
work on stage and TV and the movies. What’s your technique, Stanislavsky
or Adler?
Neal: Basically, from the Uta Hagan “Respect for Acting” book. Of
course she adapted a lot of Stanislavski techniques to her own.
Ask a New Yorker: You played Lenny in Of Mice and Men. What a powerful book.
I love Steinbeck.
Neal: Steinbeck and Hemingway are my favorite American writers. It’s the
best work I’ve ever done.
Ask a New Yorker: I forget, doesn’t Lenny squash a rabbit at the end?
Neal: No, the poor gal gets killed. Curley’s wife on the farm is lonesome,
and Curley is an S.O.B. He’s not talking to her. There are a lot of men
on the farm and she is craving attention, the poor gal. At one point she wanders
into the barn and Lenny is with his pup. The pup gets killed. Lenny kills the
pup accidentally, and he’s talking with this gal and she is combing her
hair and he starts to stroke her hair in the same innocent way, maybe not quite
as innocent but with the same attraction of petting a rabbit. And then all of
the sudden there’s a freak-out moment. Lenny gets scared and he grabs
onto her hair and tries to get away. He accidently breaks her neck.
Ask a New Yorker: That’s heavy. On a lighter note, any travel plans?
Neal: I grew up in Pittsburgh, and I’m heading there next month. I’m
kind of doing a roots trip for myself. I’m going to go first to Cooperstown.
October 13 is the 50th anniversary of the Pirates beating the Yankees in the
World Series on 1960. And every year all these guys gather where Forbes field
was and they listen to the game during the hours the game played. So I’m
going to do a real nostalgia trip. I’m also going to go to where my father
lived in a small steel town up the river from Pittsburgh. I’m going to
try to take a tour of the steel mill that his grandfather, his father and he
and I all worked in. And then I’m hopefully going to go down to southwestern
PA and visit where my mother grew up, coal-mining territory in a town called
Smithton.
Ask a New Yorker: You must be a big Steelers fan. What’s your favorite
Steelers memory?
Neal: Yea, I grew up playing football, baseball and basketball in Pittsburgh
and I got to see the ‘immaculate reception’. That was a real coming
of age moment going to that game with my dad, just the two of us. First time
I ever swore in front of my Dad was when the Raiders scored a touchdown and
went ahead 7-6. The Steelers vs. the Raiders and Kenny Stabler was the quarterback
for the Raiders. It was the most fiercesome rivalry of the 70’s. The Raiders
were badass and the Steelers were even badder. It was before instant replay.
It was 7-6 Raiders, end of the game, 4th down ten yards to go in midfield–
Bradshaw drops back throws the pass and ricochets and Franco Harris makes this
incredible grab and scampers down the sideline all the way. All the way down,
almost got pushed out of bounds but got in, touchdown and no one knew exactly
what happened. Here’s the thing I remembered about it: The refs all disappear
into the bowels of the stadium. They must be looking at tape. It was like a
novel concept. Finally this little door opens and the ref comes out and takes
two steps, raises his hands above, and gives the touchdown signal.
Ask a New Yorker: More drama. Love it. Let’s change it up a bit. What
building did Mies van der Rohe build in NYC in 1959?
Neal: The Seagrams Building in Manhattan on Park Ave, famous for the set back
and the clean lines.
Ask a New Yorker: Of course you know that, you are a tour guide. Just testing.
What’s your favorite all time movie?
Neal: The movie with the most profound impact on me ever was the Deer Hunter.
I was working in the steel mill at that time in western PA studying acting and
was hearing about Robert De Niro. I went to see the movie at 8 o’clock.
So it was from 8-11 and then I went to work in the steel mill all night from
midnight to 8 am. You could hear a pin drop the whole time in that theater.
From the moment Meryl Streep came on the screen, I’ve been in love with
her ever since. It was such an incredibly powerful movie. Then when I drove
up to the steel mill after seeing it, it looked exactly like some of the establishing
shots that they had in the movie. My job was to push a broom all night long
and just clean this huge area. I just kept playing the movie over and over again.
I’ve never seen it since.
Ask a New Yorker: That’s such a great visual story. Another sea change–Mosque,
should it stay where it is, or move?
Neal: I hate to put it in that black and white of term. I would say I don’t
know if it should stay exactly where it is. First of all, it’s not a mosque,
it’s a community center. And they should have a community center somewhere
down town. That’s how I feel. And if they have a prayer room there then
that’s fine. As far as being right next to the World trade Center, it’s
created such a reaction I don’t know if it’s still a good idea.
I don’t know if it’s a bad idea either. I’m just sickened
by the reaction to it.
Ask a New Yorker: What a pleasure seeing you again neighbor, hope to see you
again soon.
