Interview with David Baltimore - Caltech Oral Histories

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Baltimore-39 LIPPINCOTT: The music course was terrific! BALTIMORE: Yes. So she really feels she slighted her education by moving it so fast. LIPPINCOTT: Well, I can see that. It’s definitely liberal arts. BALTIMORE: She wanted to go to medical school; she knew what she wanted to do. And then she finally gave up medicine and went into research full time. LIPPINCOTT: Yes. So, at La Jolla, there were anti-war rallies that you— BALTIMORE: Oh, yes. I was there from 1965 to 1968. Vietnam was exploding. There were some very radical groups around San Diego. There were old Trotskyite groups that were still— LIPPINCOTT: San Diego was very right wing, was it not BALTIMORE: San Diego was very right wing, and it had this underground of old lefties. Actually, so did Caltech. Pasadena was very Republican and very right wing, but we had this kind of cell here, as it turned out. LIPPINCOTT: [J. R.] Oppenheimer BALTIMORE: Well, it wasn’t Oppenheimer; it was the people at JPL. Frank Molina. That’s what tainted Tsien [Hsue-shen]. That’s a great story. There was a great book about it. 5 LIPPINCOTT: Did Alice go to these anti-war rallies with you BALTIMORE: She did, but she was less— I mean, she was certainly committed to it, you know. Everybody was committed to the idea that the Vietnam War was idiocy and that we had to do something to stop it. Our commitment was not because I was in any danger of being drafted; I was too old. 5 Iris Chang, Thread of the Silkworm (New York: Basic Books, 1995).
Baltimore-40 LIPPINCOTT: No, it was just your feelings about it. BALTIMORE: That’s right. LIPPINCOTT: There’s a story I read in a couple of places about an art exhibition they had at Salk, and they censored some of the artwork, and that’s what tipped it for you. You got angry, did you BALTIMORE: I did. I was married at that point to an artist, to Sandra. And she got to know this guy Hugh Duckworth, who was a sort of surfer character and an artist in La Jolla, and we arranged to put up a show of his work and hers at Salk. But he took joy in desecrating the flag. It was not that he was so political, it was almost more.... LIPPINCOTT: Bohemian BALTIMORE: Bohemian, right. And so it offended people and got in the newspapers. LIPPINCOTT: Whom did it offend at Salk BALTIMORE: Well, the president, for one. LIPPINCOTT: Who was he BALTIMORE: Augustus Kinzel—I think that’s who it was. LIPPINCOTT: What about Jonas Salk himself. Did he care about this, or— BALTIMORE: I don’t remember Jonas getting involved in it. LIPPINCOTT: It was just the administration. BALTIMORE: Yes. So they insisted on taking down some of the art; and I said, “If this place is so sensitive to the right wing, it’s not the place for me.” Anyway, I was a little tired of— You
Page 1 and 2: DAVID BALTIMORE (b. 1938) INTERVIEW
Page 3 and 4: CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Page 5 and 6: Baltimore-iii 51-55 1975 Nobel Priz
Page 7 and 8: Baltimore-2 BALTIMORE: The family w
Page 9 and 10: Baltimore-4 LIPPINCOTT: Oh! That wa
Page 11 and 12: Baltimore-6 BALTIMORE: Suburban, si
Page 13 and 14: Baltimore-8 I remember a big thing
Page 15 and 16: Baltimore-10 college at that point;
Page 17 and 18: Baltimore-12 BALTIMORE: Yes. That e
Page 19 and 20: Baltimore-14 BALTIMORE: No, I don
Page 21 and 22: Baltimore-16 BALTIMORE: I did not w
Page 23 and 24: Baltimore-18 BALTIMORE: Yes, that
Page 25 and 26: Baltimore-20 LIPPINCOTT: How big a
Page 27 and 28: Baltimore-22 BALTIMORE: No, this wa
Page 29 and 30: Baltimore-24 BALTIMORE: That’s ri
Page 31 and 32: Baltimore-26 BALTIMORE: I spent all
Page 33 and 34: Baltimore-28 BALTIMORE: No, I think
Page 35 and 36: Baltimore-30 BALTIMORE: Polio and i
Page 37 and 38: Baltimore-32 LIPPINCOTT: So your Ph
Page 39 and 40: Baltimore-34 BALTIMORE: No, I’m n
Page 41 and 42: Baltimore-36 BALTIMORE: Oh, yes, I
Page 43: Baltimore-38 BALTIMORE: It was year
Page 47 and 48: Baltimore-42 DAVID BALTIMORE SESSIO
Page 49 and 50: Baltimore-44 BALTIMORE: The Cookery
Page 51 and 52: Baltimore-46 appears in Howard’s
Page 53 and 54: Baltimore-48 BALTIMORE: Yes, it’s
Page 55 and 56: Baltimore-50 The experiment I descr
Page 57 and 58: Baltimore-52 room and they didn’t
Page 59 and 60: Baltimore-54 LIPPINCOTT: OK. Renato
Page 61 and 62: Baltimore-56 all the pictures that
Page 63 and 64: Baltimore-58 and the profits from t
Page 65 and 66: Baltimore-60 contemporary. So that
Page 67 and 68: Baltimore-62 BALTIMORE: And that’
Page 69 and 70: Baltimore-64 BALTIMORE: No, it was
Page 71 and 72: Baltimore-66 understand that. Becau
Page 73 and 74: Baltimore-68 BALTIMORE: I still had
Page 75 and 76: Baltimore-70 LIPPINCOTT: Were they
Page 77 and 78: Baltimore-72 BALTIMORE: This was—
Page 79 and 80: Baltimore-74 LIPPINCOTT: You don’
Page 81 and 82: Baltimore-76 a biology school, in s
Page 83 and 84: Baltimore-78 LIPPINCOTT: OK. So on
Page 85 and 86: Baltimore-80 Judy’s book calls it
Page 87 and 88: Baltimore-82 never came to pass for
Page 89 and 90: Baltimore-84 BALTIMORE: I don’t b
Page 91 and 92: Baltimore-86 BALTIMORE: Well, he wa
Page 93 and 94: Baltimore-88 BALTIMORE: We intervie
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Baltimore-90 about this, but when I
Page 97 and 98:
Baltimore-92 to announce it.” Gor
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Baltimore-94 BALTIMORE: I don’t r
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Baltimore-96 BALTIMORE: Yes. LIPPIN
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Baltimore-98 LIPPINCOTT: You mean h
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Baltimore-100 LIPPINCOTT: OK. In th
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Baltimore-102 BALTIMORE: I had no i
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Baltimore-104 BALTIMORE: So I was g
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Baltimore-106 BALTIMORE: Well, not
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Interview with David Baltimore - Caltech Oral Histories

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