ANNIVERSAY ISSUE 0717 ver2A

Mulholland’s first break was in the
1980s, at the Arts network (A&E).
Mulholland was brought in to
write and direct documentaries by visionary
Curtis Davis, who headed the network. “It
was the beginning of cable television,”
Mulholland explains. “There were no set
running times, and whether our pieces were
27 or 38 minutes, we were allowed whatever
it took to tell the story.” His documentary
subjects varied from Van Gogh, to Charles
Dickens, to Macbeth, to many more subjects
he loved. Cooper and Hemingway’s friendship
is such a subject.
“When I was a teenager, my father introduced
me to Hemingway, and I was immediately
taken by his simple, no artifice style,”
Mulholland reminisces. “I also really liked
Gary Cooper— he truly became his characters.”
Part of why he chose to make this documentary
was because of the way these two
men were opposites, yet mirrors, of one
another. Hemingway’s public image was that
of an academic, war lover, misogynist, and
alcoholic. In contrast, Cooper was thought of
as dim, a cowboy type who was an overall
nice person. Mulholland began wondering
how two such apparent opposites could have
become so close. The research he began on
this ultimately turned into “Cooper &
Hemingway: The True Gen.”
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IN ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE 13