"Salesman" came a little bit later. Not that much later, actually. But it came about because of our interest in making that leap towards a new kind of documentary filming, that is, the non-fiction feature. And so, having gotten to know Joe Fox, my brother had luncheon one day with Joe and at some point told him of our plan to make a non-fiction feature film; and Joe came up with the idea of filming door-to-door salesmen and that excited David. And so when David and I got together to discuss it, we thought- yeah, that's a great idea. Let's get somebody to research the notion, to find out just what kinds of stuff were being sold door-to-door. And so it took several months before we found a guy in Providence, Rhode Island who was selling a, a book with some special thing with magazines and so forth. It seemed very interesting because- because the son was in- was in Vietnam and so the whole family picture seemed to be an interesting one, besides the guy selling the stuff. But it somehow wasn't a big enough idea at that point. And certainly just going around selling Tupperware or, or various other products- it's okay; but when we discovered that there were guys, some 4,000 of them, selling a bible door-to-door- oh, that was great, because then it became a story of, of America; with the bible, the man coming to the door who represents, really, the rugged individualism of a capitalist society. It's up to him to, and him alone, to make that sale. And then of course on the other side of the door is the, the housewife- unsuspecting that she's going to have to lay out, if she buys the product, 50- 50 bucks. And then again too, it's so much a reflection of the community- of the consumer society where the most sacred text is offered as a product rather than for its spiritual value. All these things conspired to give the film a, the possibility of- of being a great American document. And so with that excitement, and especially upon finding that there were four guys from Boston- Irish guys at that- the Irish kids that we fought now become the men that we can try to understand and portray for- with what's going on in their lives; get to know them and like them. So when we found that there were four guys working for Mid-American Bible, which had its offices in Chicago- that there were these four guys from New England, from Boston as a matter of fact- our hometown- it had that autobiographical value that motivated us all the more so.
