Magnificent Desolation_ The Long Journey Home From the Moon - Buzz Aldrin [71]
Bill made the excuses for me, telling the media that I was receiving medication and undergoing therapy. “He’s on the down side of a depression cycle,” Bill said, putting it mildly. Bill told the press that I had spoken in Minneapolis the previous week and I had been fine. “I think the thing Buzz wants to get out is that you can’t hide a mental illness. He tells his own story and how he’s coming out of it. I think he overestimated how far along he was.”
One night Joan and I were attending an event in Antelope Valley honoring General Jimmy Doolittle. I enjoyed the evening and drank more than usual. Driving home in our sporty, red, two-passenger Saab Sonett, I got mixed up and was going the wrong way on some of the backstreets of Palmdale. I was angry with myself for having gotten lost, so for some totally illogical reason I decided to floor it, as though driving faster would get us out of the predicament more quickly. I headed south down an unfamiliar road, when we suddenly came to a “T” intersection and were supposed to stop, but some tree branches shrouded the stop sign and, driving as fast as I was, I didn’t see the sign until it was too late. We went through the intersection, hit a ditch, and went airborne, landing upright but with a horrible crash. Joan’s head slammed into the dashboard, and my body whipped forward and back violently, as well. Fortunately we were wearing seatbelts—a habit not practiced then as generally as it is now. Joan escaped with some bumps and two black eyes, and I survived with just some bruises, but the car was severely damaged.
Joan and I crawled out of the crumpled car and surveyed the damage. Because the car couldn’t be driven and we were out in the middle of nowhere, we started walking toward town. Before long, a motorist came along and offered us a ride. The police did not go out to the accident scene for several hours, so I was never checked for intoxication levels, but no doubt my judgment was impaired by the alcohol. It was a condition that would unfortunately get much worse before it got better.
3 Standard Times (New Bedford, MS), March 4, 1972.
4 Wayne Warga, “All Is Not Serene in US Space Program. Second Man on Moon Reveals Stress, Anxieties Caused Nervous Breakdown,” The Toledo Blade, March 5, 1972.
5 Wayne Warga, “The Making of a Hero,” Los Angeles Times, February 29, 1972.
6 From Dr. Don Flinn’s contemporaneous physician’s records. Used by permission.
7 Arthur J. Snider, “First Man on Moon Selected,” Chicago Daily News, syndicated in the Corpus Christi Times, evening edition, February 26, 1969, p. 1.
8 Ibid.
9 Arthur J. Snider, “First Man on Moon Selected,” Chicago Daily News, syndicated in the Corpus Christi Times, evening edition, February 26, 1969, p. 1.
10 Jean Douglas Murphy, “Life With a Space Superhero Who Cracked Up,” Los Angeles Times.
11 Ibid., p. 12A.
9
A CONTROLLED
ALCOHOLIC
IN EARLY 1974, A HOLLYWOOD TELEVISION AND MOVIE PROducer, Rupert Hitzig, came to our home in Hidden Hills to offer a formal proposal for the television movie based on Return to Earth. Rupert had written the Broadway musical hit Pippin, had produced an installment of ABC’s Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, and was in partnership with the well-known comedian Alan King.
A friendly fellow, Rupert was fascinated by our home’s “moon” décor, including a life-sized photo of the “visor shot,” as the famous picture of me on the moon was now known. Much to my delight, Rupert was especially intrigued by our “Moon Room,” which featured a well-stocked bar. I had found a new drinking buddy.
“Come on, let’s get a drink,” I said, motioning for Rupert to sit down at the bar. It was only