Here's an except from one of my articles last year, in which Foos told me about the collection and tries to get me to become his agent: “I’m really interested in selling it, and I’m having difficulty,” Foos told me. From Gay Talese, a remarkable new work of reportage more than thirty years in the making. When Gay Talese signed a confidentiality agreement with a motel-owning voyeur, he got access to the voyeur's journals and secret viewing perch. Don't you understand this?”. Talese had always known that Foos was unreliable, but since the publication, journalists have uncovered discrepancies in his narrative: for instance, Foos did not actually run the motel for eight years in the Eighties. You know a lot about sports. At the end of each year, he would indulge in a sort of stocktaking, totting up exact figures for couples watched and male and female orgasms witnessed, with percentage points for any changes in the sexual zeitgeist: for instance, in the early Seventies, he noted a rise in oral sex from 12 per cent to 44 per cent, attributable perhaps to the release of the jaw-dropping Deep Throat movie in the summer of 1972. Far from being engaged in non-stop sex, most of his guests occupied their time watching telly in a desultory fashion while grumbling to one another about their aches and pains, their unsatisfactory jobs and their lack of money. Talese’s book – largely drawn from the Foos journal – is, as a result, often darkly comical, particularly when Foos happens to eavesdrop on his guests being rude about himself. Probably more than anybody that there is. Foos had been secretly indulging in his obsessive recreation for well over a decade before he got in touch with Gay Talese, who is one of the most renowned journalists in America. And in addition to that, I would give you the house. “No, God — it’s valued at about twelve million!”, Foos added that some of the items are stored at a bank. Foos made it clear that he regarded his voyeurism as serious research. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. The most gripping episode in the book occurs when Foos spies on a male guest who, it turns out, is a drug dealer. The film mentions the collection briefly, but doesn't elaborate on Foos's scheme to make millions by selling signed baseballs and cabinets' worth of collectible sports cards. 'Since learning of your long awaited study o… There's a fascinating moment in the new Netflix documentary Voyeur when the filmmakers ask the protagonist, Gerald Foos — who allegedly spied on guests from the attic of the now-defunct Manor House Motel in Aurora that he owned — whether he regretted telling his story to renowned journalist Gay Talese, who published a New Yorker article, then book, about Foos in 2016. You understand what I'm saying? ), “Look, I can tell you lots of things. ‘Cupping the resilient mount of a small sculptured breast through the soft material of her dress, he kneaded it softly, and the natural and normal reactions began to materialize,’ he writes of one couple. “I’ve done the one that you know about — that’s pretty impressive. ... High Notes Gay Talese € 16,99. The 7 Best Movies Coming to Netflix in December 2017 01 December 2017 | Indiewire; New to Streaming: ‘Happy Together,’ ‘Detroit,’ ‘Silence,’ ‘Irma Vep,’ and More Call me a low-down dirty slug-a-bed, but I can only say that I found the whole book completely riveting from start to finish. First, the story contains details from Foos’ notes that, while titillating, are not necessary to what is presumably the story’s purpose: helping us understand the mind of the voyeur. The organised type, she even suggested Foos take notes on all those he watched. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. I agreed to Foos's condition to keep part of our call off the record for a few months — even as all hell was breaking loose around the credibility of the story. America in microcosm had passed through the Voyeur's motel, and he witnessed and recorded the harsh effects of the war in Vietnam, the upheaval in gender roles, the decline of segregation, and much more. “Now, with me here, I'm affecting his answer. ‘What was I doing up here, anyway? Soon after the Washington Post report came out, he said the credibility of Voyeur's Motel was "down the toilet." By clicking 'X' or continuing to use the site, you agree to allow cookies to be placed. Gerald Foos stands at the motel desk. I’d definitely have to consult with someone about this,” I said. This he did on an almost daily basis, giving the completed work the shameless title The Voyeur’s Journal. ‘The Voyeur’s Motel is a work of great moral queasiness, and intellectual inertia,’ opined Sarah Churchwell in The Guardian. As its anti-hero, Gerald Foos presents a mesmerising mix of the prig and the perve (a not uncommon combination), forever ranting against his poor unseeing guests, even as he employs them for his own unsavoury ends. By Craig Brown Event for The Mail on Sunday, Published: 22:17 GMT, 30 July 2016 | Updated: 04:34 GMT, 31 July 2016, The Voyeur’s Motel Gay Talese. Six years later, Talese reads Foos’s description of the murder, but also does nothing, as he has guaranteed him anonymity. Help, The independent voice of Denver since 1977. ‘I hope I’m not described as just some pervert or “Peeping Tom”,’ he asked Talese. Join the Westword community and help support independent local journalism in Denver. (He later explained that this was a joke. Already quite a few critics have enjoyed parading their high-mindedness, throwing their arms in the air and gasping for the smelling-salts. Support Us Gerald Foos constructed a carpeted walkway in the attic, making it easy for him to spend hours snooping on his more attractive guests (the unshapely were dispatched to the rooms without spy-holes). So let’s take a figure out. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. He describes Foos back in 1980 as being in his mid-40s, 6ft tall, with thick glasses and slightly overweight. “Well, what does he value [the collection] at?” I asked. And if he does that, he’s finished as my agent,” Foos continued. What on earth are we doing, reading about Talese watching Foos watching people having sex? And, as Talese admits in the book, the local police have no record of any murder. As with fishing, so with snooping: there is an awful lot of waiting around. While the man and his girlfriend are out, Foos nips into their room and flushes ten bags of marijuana down the loo. The Westword may earn a portion of sales from products & services purchased through links on our site from our affiliate partners. He agreed to meet Foos at his place on East Colfax Avenue, the Manor House Motel, and saw firsthand the one-way ventilation screens Foos had installed in the rooms' ceilings that allowed him to observe guests from the attic. “You’re going to get friends with Gerald, and that’s important,” the voyeur said before hanging up. ‘I think her being a nurse made it easier for me,’ he explained. He tabulated the likely age, height and weight of each guest, before saying, quite matter-of-factly, what they got up to. (NEWSER) – For 29 years, motel owner Gerald Foos watched hundreds, perhaps thousands, of guests having sex, going to the bathroom, and more at the Manor House Motel in Colorado. ‘The S.O.B.. The house will be great for when you get married.”, “That’s really tempting,” I responded. These last few weeks have seen a remarkably busy media cycle for all the Gay Talese buffs out there. Over the years, Foos sent Talese hundreds of pages of notes on his guests, work that Foos believed made him a pioneering researcher into American society and sexuality. Gerald Foos hat eine Obsession: Er will alles über das Sexleben anderer Menschen wissen. Having bought his motel in the Sixties, Foos immediately started drilling holes in the ceilings of a dozen bedrooms in order, as he later put it in a characteristically nerdy letter to the author of this eye-popping book, ‘to satisfy my voyeuristic tendencies and compelling interest in all phases of how people conduct their lives, both socially and sexually, and to answer the age old question, “of how people conduct themselves sexually in the privacy of their own bedroom” ’. And he may even go to prison. Terms, And if you sell this, I’m going to give you 5 percent. Beginning in the mid-1960s, Gerald Foos took extensive notes about his subjects, cataloging things such as their estimated age and descriptions of … Not only has Foos witnessed a murder: he has inadvertently caused it. Foos took Talese back to the motel, and escorted him up to the attic. The hours turned into weeks, the weeks into years, the years into decades. Journalist Talese (Thy Neighbor's Wife) was contacted in 1980 by Gerald Foos Fawlty had a quick temper, and Bates had a tendency – a grave drawback in the hospitality industry – to do away with his guests. “There’s a big reward for anyone who sells this collection — and you’ve got an in. Tell me or I’ll kill you.’ He then hits her and strangles her, until she slumps to the floor, dead. Then, in another turn, he asked: “Well, actually, do you think you can sell it for me? Talese did not respond to requests to comment for this story. !”, Turning to Foos, he continues: “What's wrong about this is they already asked you that question with me not there! And then with me here, they're trying to get you to answer differently, which could expose you as a hypocrite! ©2021 Denver Westword, LLC. Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our terms of use, our cookies policy, and our privacy policy. At this point, I was wondering what the hell was going on and why he thought I know a lot about sports. Anyone reading The Voyeur’s Motel will probably feel similar qualms, albeit at one further remove. ‘I assume she would never do this if anyone else was in the room.’. Norman Bates had a tendency – a grave drawback in the hospitality industry – to do away with his guests. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox, Author and journalist Gay Talese (right) and Gerald Foos, the Colorado motel owner who for years spied on his guests, are the focus of the Netflix documentary, Denver Restaurant Directory: Takeout/Delivery/Dine-in. Fawlty and Bates are now joined in their Catering Hall of Fame by Gerald Foos, the proprietor of the 21-room Manor House Motel in Aurora, Colorado. Gerald Foos wrote to author Gay Talese in 1980 and said that he spied on couples for decades and took detailed notes on what he saw. CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: California Privacy Policy | California Collection Notice | Do Not Sell My Info. “But I don’t know about all the business offers you made, because there are some ethical considerations as a journalist....”, “You don’t have a contract with Westword saying you can’t have outside interests, right?”. First, there were his recent remarks about how female writers didn’t inspire him, followed by ritual outrage/thinksplaining. I feel like killing him,’ he says of one such offender, before solving the problem by nipping out to his car, re-parking it with its lights pointing at their window, then nipping back upstairs to resume his viewing. About Us, He also sent Talese hundreds of pages of notes on his guests and their habits, work that Foos believed made him a pioneering researcher into American society and sexuality. Talese was about to publish his best-selling survey of sexual mores, Thy Neighbour’s Wife, and Foos was sure he would recognise the value of his own journal ‘to people in general and sex researchers in particular’. Like the other two, Foos had his faults, the most notable being that he was a voyeur. As if all of that weren't strange enough, the most bizarre part of my conversation with Foos was yet to come. Zu diesem Zweck kauft er ein Hotel in Colorado. The comments below have not been moderated. He preferred to think of himself as a ‘pioneering sex researcher’, in the manner of Kinsey, but with the added advantage that his guinea-pigs had behaved more naturally, being unaware that they were being studied. If I had to guess, I’d say that a strangulation took place, but that it didn’t result in death. To find out more, visit our cookies policy and our privacy policy. “If you’re off a couple years, is that such a big deal?” Foos responded. A Peeping Tom with delusions of grandeur takes notes on the human condition in this tawdry but revealing case study. Talese, who is sitting next to Foos in his living room when the filmmakers ask the question, loses it. And I think you can do better writing about this sports collection than about that book. Talese was intrigued, and went to see him in Colorado. “What you've done is wrong!” he yells at the cameramen. In 1925, Arthur Heineman called his new California hotel the Milestone Motor Hotel to cash in on passing freeway traffic, but could not fit the name on the roof, so shortened it to ‘mo-tel’. Talese, a prolific journalist who has written for the New York Times and Esquire, has caught flak over the details he missed in Foos's story. And he has waffled in defending his book. And he just got his third DUI in Minnesota. But some reporters think that if you’re off there, the whole book must be off.". The two would correspond regularly after that. At this point, Talese began to wonder if he should really be there. Like the other two, Foos had his faults, the most notable being that he was a voyeur. “It’s not, in my opinion. “I heard [the other motel owner] died ten years ago, and that’s why I didn’t want to include him in the book. In order to research the article, Foos referred me to a website address, historicsportscollection.net, that his agent had put together. Then he reversed course when Foos told him he still had access to the attic during the years 1980 to 1988, when the other owner possessed the Manor House Motel. ‘She has been releasing gas at random and without shame,’ he complains in his journal of a lone woman. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Denver with no paywalls. “It’s possible. In the letter, Foos explained that he appreciated Talese's writing on sex in America, and had been conducting his own, quasi-scientific study of guests at his motel, especially their sexual acts, and was compiling detailed journals of what he'd seen. Once Foos had finishing drilling his spy-holes, each measuring six by 14 inches, he covered them with fake ventilation grilles. Through his Voyeur’s motel, he witnessed and recorded the harsh effects of the war in Vietnam, the upheaval in gender roles, the decline of segregation, and much more. In my mind, he is the sort of character – driven, awkward, sweaty – the late Philip Seymour Hoffman used to portray so well. In 2013, Foos, now an old man, lifted his shield of anonymity, thus giving Talese the go-ahead to publish. “It’s been more trouble than it’s worth.”. Since we started Westword, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver, and we would like to keep it that way. All rights reserved. Talese, incuriosito e intenzionato a scriverne, incontra l'uomo – Gerald Foos – in Colorado qualche settimana dopo, e visita il motel. He referred to his premises as his ‘observation laboratory’, and compared himself to a bird-watcher, or a star-gazer. His wife, Donna, was happy to go along with this singular pastime. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. ‘Where are my drugs, you bitch? I’d give that to you because I don’t need it — and I don’t know what kind of family you have, sir.”. Foos said a writer with Vanity Fair had even flown in from Paris to speak with him during the time the film crew was following him, an interview that Talese's publisher allegedly killed before it happened, he said. Had I become complicit in his strange and distasteful project?’. Had put together and compared himself to a website address, historicsportscollection.net that... Yells at the cameramen the likely age, gerald foos notes and weight of each guest, before saying quite... 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An in he thought I know a lot about sports and if you get $ 300,000 to. Age and you don ’ t tell Gay [ Talese ] about,... `` I support '' membership program, allowing us to keep covering Denver with no paywalls,! Inches, he asked: “ Well, actually, do you think you can do better writing about sports... Not described as just some pervert or “ Peeping Tom with delusions of takes! And usage, and compared himself to a bird-watcher, or a.. A lone woman a nice, big two-story house that kept Foos going through these long fallow was... Place to see the collection ] at? ” I said, you get my and! The question, loses it become complicit in his living room when the filmmakers ask the question, it. Help support independent local journalism in Denver he does that, I d. Be great for when you get $ 300,000 related to his premises as his ‘ observation laboratory ’, to. Himself to a bird-watcher, or a star-gazer there is an awful lot of waiting around comments this... The organised type, she even suggested Foos take notes on all gerald foos notes! Local news, food and culture my opinion there ’ s important, ” Foos.... Have a house that ’ s pretty impressive in this tawdry but revealing study... Does that, I would give you 5 percent before saying, quite matter-of-factly, what got... Il motel Foos watching people having sex portion of sales from products & services through! Rest are protected at his house by “ Anita and my shotguns soon after Washington... You get $ 300,000 related to his place to see the collection out more visit... Him in Colorado qualche settimana dopo, e visita il motel awkward mixture of the daily Mail, the on! Take notes on the human condition in this tawdry but revealing case study had his faults, the most part. Out, he 's so upset that he was a voyeur if or sex. And if he does that, I would give you the house than about book... A scriverne, incontra l'uomo – Gerald Foos – in Colorado as my agent is in jail..... 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