60 Minutes - Sunday, August 6, 2017

Episode Date: August 7, 2017

Scott Pelley returns to Newtown, Connecticut Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.auda...cyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:43 Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. For those who know only the name, the history of Newtown, Connecticut begins on December 14, 2012, when a mentally ill man murdered 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Anna Grace was the daughter of Nelba and Jimmy Green. One of the most compelling sermons I've ever heard was given at my daughter's funeral.
Starting point is 00:01:18 It talks about Jesus being with us in every season of our lives and that Anna's death would signify the beginning of a long and hard winter season. Is it springtime yet? I can't imagine a day that it will be spring. All right, let's go. Accusations that a major American manufacturer had knowingly provided defective surgical gowns
Starting point is 00:01:44 to U.S. health care workers were first shared with 60 Minutes at a time when the Ebola crisis was spiking. Did you sell protective equipment for Ebola that you knew was defective? No. And frankly, I think the allegations aren't based in the facts. You're saying they're completely false? Yes. Is that what he told you? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:04 Evidently, he forgot the 11th commandment. Which is? Do not lie to 60 Minutes. At first glance, you might mistake him for the bouncer at a leather bar, a professional wrestler, or the front man for a village people tribute band. But here in Paris, at a reception for the Biennale, one of the oldest art and antique fairs in the world, Peter Marino is instantly recognized and actively courted
Starting point is 00:02:37 by people you might think would run the other way. Would you think you're talking to a bright architect looking at a guy like me? I must have. Welcome to Play It, a new podcast network featuring radio and TV personalities talking business, sports, tech, entertainment, and more. Play it at play.it. There is no word in the English language for a parent who has lost a child. Maybe it's an abyss that we can't bear to make real by giving it a name. Bereaved parents feel that life itself lacks definition. What could be next for them? What could be worthwhile? A little over four years ago, we met mothers and fathers who sent their first graders to school one bright morning and have endured the twilight ever since. When we
Starting point is 00:03:39 returned to Newtown, Connecticut this past spring, We found those families will never move on, but they are finding ways to move forward. Newtown looks as it did the day before that day. The name is long outdated. It was founded before the Revolution. Its flagpole raised after the Civil War and its town hall erected in the Great Depression. But for those who know only the name, the history of Newtown, Connecticut begins on December 14, 2012,
Starting point is 00:04:14 when a mentally ill man murdered 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Anna Grace was the daughter of Nelba and Jimmy Green. Have you found people who don't know you after all these years expecting you to get over what happened? You just took my breath away because that happens a lot, and it is so incredibly painful. It's like losing her all over again. There have been those that have said things like,
Starting point is 00:04:45 you know, so you guys are good now, or I hope you've had some closure to your daughter's murder. In the back of my heart, and I know in Nelva's as well, it's like our family will never be intact again. Our daughter, Anna, was six years old. It was in that town hall, four months after the killing, that we first met the Greens and six other Newtown families. Every day I cry because I miss her so much. This is Dylan. There was Nicole Hockley. I think the picture kind of sums him up perfectly.
Starting point is 00:05:22 And we lost our sweet little Daniel Barden. Mark and Jackie Barden. Daniel was a light of positive energy in our home. Ben was six years old. David and Francine Wheeler. Ben was smart and funny. And our house is very quiet. David Wheeler filled that quiet with a shout to every parent. And our house is very quiet.
Starting point is 00:05:49 David Wheeler filled that quiet with a shout to every parent. I would like them to look in the mirror, and that's not a figure of speech, Scott. I mean, literally, find a mirror in your house and look in it and look in your eyes and say, this will never happen to me. It's going to happen again. It is going to happen again. It is going to happen again. And every time, you know, it's somebody else's school, it's somebody else's town, it's somebody else's community, until one day you wake up and it's not. That week, several of the families convinced the Connecticut legislature to pass universal background checks and to limit the size of ammunition magazines.
Starting point is 00:06:32 Then they marched on Washington to support a more modest proposal, just closing the loopholes so that all purchases require a background check. I stand before you now and ask you to stand with me. Polls showed most Americans stood with them, and so did the president. Jesse was brutally murdered. They needed 60 votes in the Senate. The yeas are 54, the nays are 46. But not even they could win a gunfight on Capitol Hill. When it was clear that they'd lost, it was like all the air went out of your body in one quick swoosh because that gut-wrenching defeat, how could this have just happened? Wasn't there a sense after that vote of, OK, we tried, I'm going home? No.
Starting point is 00:07:23 Not for me. Never. Why would we do that? That's not honoring our children. No. There's a saying, you know, fall nine times, get up ten. We'll just keep getting up. So Nicole Hockley and Mark Barton founded Sandy Hook Promise
Starting point is 00:07:41 to train teachers and students how to prevent violence. It was a revelation for Hockley after the FBI told the families that the gunman had been on a predictable path. And I remember asking the question, well, if you know these things about shooters, if you know that these signs and signals are given off, how come we don't know? And the director said, we just don't have the resources to train everyone in the country. We train law enforcement, we train other people, but we can't do it out to the mass public. And for me, that was the moment that I said, well, if you can't,
Starting point is 00:08:17 we can. Well, good morning, everyone. Hockley spends half the year on the road visiting schools, telling teachers and students how to spot the signs of social isolation. It's these tiny actions that we can each take that you all have the power to do that are going to change someone else's life. One program called Start With Hello trains students to connect with their peers who are ignored or bullied. So it means so much to us that you're here and that you're doing this. Another is Say Something, which encourages kids to speak up.
Starting point is 00:08:52 Listen to the program. Students are taught to watch for sudden changes in their classmates, a fascination with suicide or death or guns, changes in dress, or threats on social media. In 2015, Mark Barton trained students in Cincinnati, and shortly thereafter, a middle school student made a bomb threat. And it was overheard by another student who had been trained in our Say Something program. This eighth grade student said, I wouldn't have thought twice about what I saw in social media until I had your training, and I said, this is exactly what they're talking about. It gives me goosebumps just to
Starting point is 00:09:27 think about it. I know. Sandy Hook Promise says it has trained more than a million students and teachers, but it's had more reach on the internet. Hey, you must be bored. This video called Evan shows two students making a connection, but harder to spot in the background is what's happening to a troubled young man. So you like to write on desks? Yeah, that's what I do. If this program had been in place at Sandy Hook Elementary School the day before, do you think it... You read my mind. Sandy Hook was preventable. And had someone been able to see those signs and signals that our shooter gave off throughout his life
Starting point is 00:10:19 and connect those dots and make an intervention, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you today. A parent who has lost a child has one fear left, the end of remembering. And so many of the families have created projects that introduce their child to new people. Ben Wheeler now lives in the work of Ben's Lighthouse. His mother, Francine, creates service projects for Newtown kids. What a wonderful way to honor him and continue to be his parents. Continue to be his parents. Yeah. I can't live the rest of my life not talking about him.
Starting point is 00:11:01 I mean, imagine you having a six-year-old and then you don't anymore. Are you going to stop talking about him. I mean, imagine you having a six-year-old and then you don't anymore. Are you going to stop talking about them? The worst thing you can do to a grieving parent is not to mention the child. Then you're not acknowledging his existence. And so when people do acknowledge it, I'm so appreciative. I say, oh, thank you for it. And even if I'm crying, they're like, I'm sorry I made you cry. I'm like, no, you didn't make me cry.
Starting point is 00:11:25 You brought him back. It's like having him back for a minute. Yeah. The Wheelers wanted another child, a sibling for their oldest. And almost two years after Ben was killed, Matthew Bennett Wheeler was born. You try to make the world into the place you want it to be, and many times the only area that you have any control over is the square footage of your own house, and so you do what you can. David Wheeler is a songwriter and recently at a vigil against gun leave. Francine sang Leave a Light On.
Starting point is 00:12:06 You know I'm gonna leave. You know I will leave a light on. Because you always look for your home after this kind of craziness that happens to you. Where's your home? And he leaves that light on so that I can have a home in my heart for him. At that vigil, we met Hannah DeVino. Her sister Rachel was a therapist in Ben Wheeler's class. She died standing her ground between evil and innocence.
Starting point is 00:12:40 Growing up, her big sister had been the strong one in a troubled home. And so, DeVino says she lives today in purgatory, not quite the present. A lot of it is because I feel guilty for being alive and happy when my sister's dead. Rachel was your stability. Yes, she was. She really was. You know, I wonder when you hear of the next shooting, how does that affect you? I go back to my day one. I go back to 12, 14, not knowing where my sister was, looking for her. And you see people getting that reuniting hug, and that breaks my heart because I wish I got that hug. And then you see the people that are really distraught
Starting point is 00:13:34 because they're in this club now. Nicole, how would you describe the change in yourself? You couldn't be any more different from the confident, optimistic, happy-go-lucky type person I was beforehand. You have poured yourself into this so completely. Yes. Have you given yourself time to grieve? No. No? No. No. No.
Starting point is 00:14:12 I'm working on that right now. This is kind of my year that I'm feeling it's time to start finding myself again, but also to accept that no matter what I do, I can't get Dylan back. Jimmy Green summons his daughter's memory through his music. His album about Anna Grace was nominated for two Grammys. I do think this is how we reach kids. Nelba Marquez-Green is a therapist, and she has started the Anna Grace Project
Starting point is 00:14:57 to educate teachers about mental health. You mentioned your faith, and I wonder how your faith may have changed in all of this. One of the most compelling sermons I've ever heard was given at my daughter's funeral. It was just a beautiful sermon. It talks about Jesus being with us in every season of our lives, including the winter, and that Anna's death would signify the beginning of a long and hard winter season, and that winter would be made better with faith and family and friends. And I still feel that way. I really do. Is it springtime yet?
Starting point is 00:15:41 I can't imagine a day that it will be spring. The moment I'm reunited with her, I want to hear two things. I want to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant. And I want to hear, hi, Mom. Sandy Hook Elementary School was demolished and rebuilt, much like the families themselves. Changed, yet in the same place. Welcome to Play It, a new podcast network featuring radio and TV personalities
Starting point is 00:16:20 talking business, sports, tech, entertainment, and more. Play it at play.it. During the last major outbreak of the Ebola virus in 2014, more than 500 health care workers died of the disease. And something called personal protective equipment became essential to preventing the deaths of even more. We're talking about gowns, gloves, masks, and other gear designed to block the transmission of deadly bacteria and
Starting point is 00:16:46 viruses. They're used every day in hospitals to protect doctors, nurses, and patients. But Ebola was so lethal, it raised the stakes enormously. If the protective equipment fails, infectious bodily fluids can get through, a problem known as strikethrough. At the height of the Ebola outbreak, we received a tip that a major American manufacturer had knowingly provided defective protective equipment to health care workers in the U.S. and abroad. It's a serious accusation that had never been publicly examined until we first broadcast this story last year. If there's one thing that became evident during the Ebola outbreak of 2014, it's that personal protective equipment properly used could mean the difference between life and death. You probably remember the tragic images from West Africa and the workers in biohazard
Starting point is 00:17:40 suits trying to help without getting infected themselves. Certain types of gowns were also used during the outbreak. The nurses at this hospital in Liberia used gowns and full body suits to protect themselves after two of their top doctors died of the disease. Every day in the U.S., doctors and nurses rely on some of the same gowns the Centers for Disease Control recommended for Ebola. One of them is the MicroCool surgical gown, made by Halyard Health, which sells about 13 million gowns a year worldwide, including a quarter of the U.S. market. The MicroCool gown is supposed to provide the highest level of protection available against blood-borne bacteria and viruses. Its label says it meets a rigorous industry standard known as AMI Level 4.
Starting point is 00:18:33 All right, let's go. Which means it's impermeable, so that blood containing viruses like hepatitis and HIV won't get on surgeons' skin during an operation. There's just one problem. What was wrong with the level 4 gowns? They would leak. They would leak when we pressure tested them, especially in the seams. Bernard Vizot was the global strategic marketing director for MicroCool
Starting point is 00:18:55 and other products from 2012 to early 2015. He worked for Halyard Health, which was part of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation until November 2014. When two nurses at a Dallas hospital became infected after caring for a patient with Ebola, Vizzo says he was relieved the nurses hadn't been using microcooled gowns. But he was concerned by the way the company went into high gear to sell the product. These gowns were being recommended for use with Ebola? Aggressively being recommended.
Starting point is 00:19:25 In what way aggressively? We put a full court press to drive microcool cells. We told hospitals to stock up on our microcool products. We told them to have at least eight to 12 weeks of product on hand. And that's when things became very difficult for me. Difficult because Vizzo says he knew the gowns were not consistently meeting industry standards. There's a test for this, right? There's a test and it's conducted in outside facilities. So did your gowns consistently pass this test? No, they did not. Was the FDA aware of this? Were they notified? No, not that I'm aware of. Were customers warned? No, customers were not warned either. Why not? Well, because Kimberly-Clark knew that if they told customers, it would cost us a lot of business. They didn't tell the public. They didn't tell the
Starting point is 00:20:09 FDA. They didn't tell physicians. They told no one. They kept selling the gown to the tune of millions of dollars every month. Michael Avenetti is a California attorney who represents hospitals that are suing Halyard Health and Kimberly Clark for fraud. He showed us this report by an independent, certified laboratory that tested the sleeves of microcool gowns in December 2012 at the request of one of Kimberly Clark's competitors, Cardinal Health. At the time, Cardinal and Kimberly Clark
Starting point is 00:20:39 were in litigation against one another. And Cardinal had these gowns tested. And in fact, the results were disastrous for Kimberly Clark. What do you mean disastrous? Well, if you look through the report, you'll see that 77 percent of the gowns that were tested failed. 77 percent? 77 percent. At hospitals like UF Health in Jacksonville, Florida, we found surgeons who told us they repeatedly experienced strikethrough with blood getting through their gowns and onto their skin. Some surgeons were so upset about it, they took pictures of their bloody arms and gowns and sent them to the company.
Starting point is 00:21:15 Did you receive complaints from nurses, from surgeons at all? On these gowns? Yeah. Oh, frequently. On a very frequent basis. What kind of complaints? Oh, complaints of strikethrough, frequently. On a very frequent basis. What kind of complaints? Oh, complaints of strikethrough, sleeves falling off, ties falling off. Sleeves falling off. Sleeves falling off. Sleeves falling off during the procedure. Were you at meetings where these problems were discussed?
Starting point is 00:21:36 Every time. We were the ones who were telling senior management the problems that we were having. And what was their response? I remember the response one time from the COO was, nobody really cares about this. Nobody really cares about surgical grounds. That's just not true. Chris Lowry is the COO Vizzo was talking about, the chief operating officer of Halyard Health. Did you sell protective equipment for Ebola that you knew was defective?
Starting point is 00:22:02 No. And frankly, I think the allegations aren't based in the facts. You're saying they're completely false? Yes. We get less than one complaint for every million gowns sold, and even more so is we've never received even one report of a health care professional contracting an infection as a result of a flaw in our product.
Starting point is 00:22:23 Lowry says Bernard Vizot didn't raise his concerns until after he left the company. Vizot says he was fired because he was vocal about the problems. The company also questions the motives of this man, Keith Edgett, the former head of research and engineering for the gowns. In this video deposition, Edgett expresses the same concerns as Vizot about what was going on at the company. I believe that they were putting customers in harm's way, and I was struggling with that. I want to show you the results of a test performed by Intertech Labs.
Starting point is 00:22:55 It shows that 77% of your microcooled gowns failed one or both of the sleeves. 77% is a lot. Anderson, it's very important to put this cardinal test data into context. First, extreme outlier test results. We had never seen test data that reflected anything like this before or for that matter since. Halyard showed us its own test results from independent laboratories. The reports show the sleeves passed some of the time and failed at others. But Chris Lowry says they passed far more than they failed. And when they failed, it was at much lower rates than the cardinal test suggests. For the test in February 13, 18 out of 85 samples failed. That's 21 percent. We have to look at a test failure in the context
Starting point is 00:23:44 of all the tests that are passing. But you have failures in the product, you're still selling the product, and you don't inform the FDA and you're not informing customers. It's important to understand that no manufacturing process is perfect. You take that info- But these failures are above the industry standard. You're allowed a certain amount of failures when you actually fail a test, though, that's above the failure rate that's already built in. And in the testing that we completed after the Cardinal testing, we believe that we were fully compliant with our requirements
Starting point is 00:24:17 for the product as it had been cleared. Is that what he told you? Yeah. Evidently, he forgot the 11th commandment. Which is? Do not lie to 60 Minutes. The company had shown us this March 2013 lab report as part of its proof the gowns passed the test. But attorney Michael Avenetti says that's not what really happened. They claim to have submitted 79 samples and 75 passed. They said they passed, yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:45 Well, they didn't pass. They failed because they didn't submit 79 samples. They submitted 85 samples. And, in fact, six of the samples weren't even tested because the sleeves were so bad. The lab took them out of the package and they didn't even test them because it was obvious what was going to happen. And they didn't include that as failures? No, they didn't. And in fact, I mean, I brought the document that shows it. It's a spreadsheet prepared internally at Kimberly-Clark. It says six failed, not tested due to unsealed seams. Lot fails. You're saying this is an example of fuzzy math?
Starting point is 00:25:21 No, this isn't fuzzy math. This is fraud. When we asked Halyard about this, the company acknowledged it hadn't told us about those untested samples, but denied it was trying to deceive us. The company says even if a sleeve seam fails, the risk of a doctor or nurse getting infected is extremely low. They'd have to have some type of cut that would allow transmission. The defect would have to be in that exact place. The surgeon would have not covered the cut or abrasion as they should have per their procedure.
Starting point is 00:25:57 There's so many factors that have to align for that to occur. I think it's really easy for him to say that, but he's not the guy doing it. Dr. Sherry Wren is a vice chair of surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The bottom line is, is he going to stand there and volunteer to let me paint some hepatitis C blood on his arms and on his stomach? Probably not, it's going to be my guess. And you've had hepatitis C blood on your arms and on his stomach? Probably not, it's going to be my guess. And you've had hepatitis C blood on your arms and on your stomach? Of course. Dr. Wren specializes in gastrointestinal surgery and is co-author of guidelines for
Starting point is 00:26:33 surgeons operating on patients with Ebola. She has no connection to the lawsuit against Halyard, but she does wear microcool gowns for procedures like this one, in which she knew the person she was operating on had hepatitis C. Shortly after we recorded this surgery, Dr. Wren told us she got blood on her arms and hands three times while wearing three different microcooled gowns and operating on another patient who also had hepatitis C. We've been told that as long as your skin is intact, you're okay. Actually, with that case, I finished operating at five in the morning, and I looked down at my hand, and I realized
Starting point is 00:27:09 I had eroded off a callus, so I had ripped my own skin in the OR. It does matter then to you that these gowns are impervious. Yes, of course it matters. Do I really want to have somebody else's infected bodily fluids on my body? No, I do not. Internal documents we obtained suggest the company knew for a long time that it had a problem, which is why we wanted to ask the COO, Chris Lowry, about this November 2014 PowerPoint presentation that identifies a year and a half gap in sleeve seams passing the industry test. We've been told that in November of 2014, a timeline was presented,
Starting point is 00:27:50 and your own people acknowledged that there was a year-and-a-half period in which the sleeve seams didn't pass the test, which demonstrates the gown is impervious. Is that true? It's not. Because this is the presentation, and on the second page it says gap in sleeve seams passing ASTM 1671, and it shows a year-and-a-half gap. Anderson, if it's okay, I've not seen this presentation to my recollection,
Starting point is 00:28:17 and so I don't think that it's appropriate, particularly out of any context, to react to it. Do you think stuff like this happens? I think, Anderson, probably from a time perspective, if you don't mind. You want to stop? Yeah, I mean, I think that we probably, I think we've spent the time that we agreed to and team. After our interview, Halyard told us it was not required to meet new, more stringent testing criteria during that gap shown on the timeline. By January 2015, the company says it had new sealing machines in place to improve the quality of its sleeves. But before the new machines were up and running, the company sold thousands of microcooled gowns to the CDC's Strategic National Stockpile of Medical Supplies
Starting point is 00:29:07 for use in future outbreaks and emergencies. The government's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is conducting research on protective equipment. When it commissioned tests of gowns produced in 2014 for the stockpile, there were some sleeve failures in three out of four batches tested. Are federal or state authorities looking into this at all? I can't comment on that. They certainly should be, because forget about the civil liability. This is criminal conduct. In its most recent annual report, Halyard Health says it had been served with a subpoena
Starting point is 00:29:42 that is related to a United States Department of Justice investigation. The Justice Department and the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates medical devices, declined to comment further. The company said to us, basically, there's no evidence that anybody got sick or died directly related to a failure of any gowns. If it was so egregious, wouldn't there be many cases or even one clear case that you could point to that says, look, there was this failure of a gown and this doctor became infected with Ebola or HIV or any other disease? Until now, why would any doctor or nurse have any reason to question Kimberly Clark's representations regarding the effectiveness of this gown.
Starting point is 00:30:26 This story may, in fact, be the first time that physicians and nurses who have contracted disease take a step back and say, you know, maybe that's how I got it. Since our story first aired, one of the people we interviewed, former marketing director Bernard Vizzo has passed away. In April, after a nine-day trial, a Los Angeles jury found Kimberly Clark and Halyard Health liable for fraud and awarded $454 million in damages. Both companies say they'll challenge the decision in court. Welcome to Play It, a new podcast network featuring radio and TV personalities talking business, sports, tech, entertainment, and more.
Starting point is 00:31:10 Play it at play.it. Over the years, we've done stories on all sorts of people. But to our knowledge, we have never done one on a late middle-aged man who dresses in biker gear with visible tattoos and sterling silver skull rings, and certainly not one who also happens to be fluent in French and advanced mathematics. No, Peter Marino is one of a kind, and as we first reported this spring, if you follow the worlds of art, architecture, and high fashion, you probably know he is a serious player in all of them, a tastemaker for some of
Starting point is 00:31:46 the richest, most sophisticated people in the world, many of whom would agree that Marino's appearance is actually one of the least interesting things about him. At first glance, you might mistake him for the bouncer at a leather bar, a professional wrestler, or the front man for a village people tribute band. But here in Paris, at a reception for the Biennale, one of the oldest art and antique fairs in the world... Hi, how are you? I'm not too fine. Madam Marino.
Starting point is 00:32:15 Peter Marino is instantly recognized. I'm a big fan of yours. Oh, thank you, thank you, madam. And actively courted by people you might think would run the other way. A master. But behind the threatening keep-your-distance facade... Monsieur, venez expliquer tout.
Starting point is 00:32:33 ...is an amusing, ironic, highly accomplished artist and businessman with a sensitive soul. His talents are demonstrated in the beauty and breadth of his design work and architecture and contradict his carefully considered public image of a beast on a motorcycle. People make first judgments about people based on their appearance. There's an old saying, the clothes make the man. How about the older statement, don't judge a book by its cover? But you want people to judge you by this look. This is your look. Absolutely not. It's a decoy. A decoy. Sure. Would you think
Starting point is 00:33:12 you're talking to a bright architect looking at a guy like me? The arts and fashion worlds have always had a high tolerance for eccentricity. Take Tom Wolfe in his white suits, Karl Lagerfeld's dark glasses and fingerless gloves, and Lady Gaga. On your left, on your left eye. There is no question that Marino's signature look has made him one of a handful of living architects actually recognized by the media. One of your good friends said that you like the shock value.
Starting point is 00:33:41 Like, you like the fact that people say, what's with him? I like more the fact that I like to think out of the box. Thinking out of the box goes along with dressing out of the box and living out of the box. If you want to come up with a really original design idea and you want to capture a whole new design direction, perhaps the best way to arrive at that is not by acting and thinking and doing like everybody else. That's all. If the get-up was simply a publicity gimmick, Barrino would have disappeared decades ago.
Starting point is 00:34:14 His work would not be regularly featured in Architectural Digest and other glossy magazines. And the firm that bears his name would not be occupying two floors and 16,000 square feet of some of the most expensive office space in New York, which is furnished with museum-quality artwork, all for Marino's private collection. Paintings and sculpture, modern art and antiquities, all juxtaposed in perfect harmony. This is quite a room. Quite a reception area. This is quite a room. Quite a reception area.
Starting point is 00:34:48 What is this piece? This is 2003 Anselm Kiefer. And this? This is Gandharan, 3rd century A.D. Gandharan? Yeah, it's from Gandhara. And it's the region just on the Silk Road where the Chinese culture and the Indian culture just met with the Greek culture.
Starting point is 00:35:04 Art is at the center of Marino's universe and his knowledge of it is encyclopedic. He not only collects it, he curates it and commissions it for his projects. It covers nearly every inch of wall space. In his here, he says not to impress his clients, but to inspire the staff of 150 designers and architects with whom he turns out between 50 and 100 projects a year. Design-wise, I look at everything. If I don't personally design it, I'll review it.
Starting point is 00:35:33 I'm the kind of creative director of the firm. You're a bit of a control freak. You'd have to ask the staff for that. Bordering on the tyrannical. You'd have to confirm that with the staff. Do you see yourself as a tyrannical boss? No, I only care about the work, and I am not tyrannical personally in any way, shape, or form,
Starting point is 00:35:55 but I am absolutely passionate about the quality of the work. And so are the clients that can afford him, who mostly come from the world's wealthiest one hundredth of one percent, encompassing the Glitterati and the Amarati. This is a residential project we're building on the top of Los Angeles. It's a large site assembled from over seven homes. And this is in construction. And what is this structure?
Starting point is 00:36:20 This is for the subterranean parking. And this is a private home? This is a private home. And can you tell us anything about the owner? No. It's Marino's default answer. He won't comment about his clients, which have reportedly included the likes of multi-billionaires David Geffen and David Koch, as well as Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady. This home in Milan, we're told, was done for Giorgio Armani. I like my clients.
Starting point is 00:36:56 All of my clients say, Peter, you're talented, but your best virtue is your discretion. They really don't want to be talked about. This Hamptons beach house was designed for a young hedge fund manager and his wife in this ski chalet in Lebanon with ocean views for a Swiss banker. But for every private client Marino won't speak about, somewhere in the world he is unveiling a project that is the talk of the town. Like Boone the Shop, a multi-brand luxury shopping center that takes up two downtown blocks in Seoul, South Korea. No expense was spared.
Starting point is 00:37:30 It's all white Greek marble. These are trapezoids like they fell to space. It's an interesting building because the entire inside is rough concrete. He says it was built for the family that controls Samsung. I mean, it's fair to say you work with some of the richest people in the world, right? Yes. Do they need to be treated a different way? If they need to be treated a different way, no one's told me. I remember when I was meeting certain royal families, if I had to behave a certain way,
Starting point is 00:38:07 like, you better tell me what I'm supposed to say and do. They went, the way you look, it doesn't really matter. Just be yourself. I went, okay, okay. Those partnerships can produce some unusual optics. We watched this meeting with Sidney Toledano, the CEO of Christian Dior, who is one of Marino's biggest clients and biggest fans.
Starting point is 00:38:33 They have collaborated on dozens of Dior boutiques all over the world. Toledano is used to working with big egos and difficult people, but says Marino is not one of them. I never had the impression that it was complicated because he always finds a solution. And he's very professional. How important is it to your business? Or how important has he been to your business? He has been key. Don't tell him. He understands Dior.
Starting point is 00:38:55 He understands Dior. Toledano sees Marino's look as an artistic presentation of his personality. He doesn't even mind the fact that Marino also works for most of his competitors. This is a new building we'll be building for Chanel. So you've got Chanel up here, you've got Louis Vuitton. Who else? Dior, Hublot, Zania. We do Zania worldwide. We do Bulgari. We're opening a new one in London in December. Fendi, if you just saw the Fendi on 57th in Madison. For decades, Marino has been the architect of choice for nearly all of the
Starting point is 00:39:32 top fashion designers and luxury brands, and is widely credited with reimagining the use of retail space, moving away from boxy department stores and into elegant boutiques. His work lines the most conspicuous avenues and boulevards of the world. It's a third of his business. Every store is unique, and each one distills the essence and the look of the company it was built for. A sense of travel and luxury for Louis Vuitton, the timeless classic look for Chanel. How did you get them to all come to you?
Starting point is 00:40:06 It's the old question. Why do they all go to you? Steve, would you go to a knee doctor who had done two knee operations if you need an operation, or one who had done 300 successfully? Who would you go to? That's why they come to me. Marino's work ethic and personality are rooted in Queens, the New York neighborhood where he was born 67 years ago, the only son in a middle-class Italian family. In high school, he excelled in art and graduated from Cornell University in 1971 with a degree in architecture.
Starting point is 00:40:40 He learned the trade from the very best, serving apprenticeships with I.M.Pay in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. But he picked up the ways of the wealthy and the value of celebrity from another master, artist Andy Warhol, who always considered business one of the finer forms of art. He certainly knew how to get attention. The blonde wig. Dude, that was so good. The blonde wig. It's pretty hard to beat. Marino did some early work for Warhol and hung out at his New York studio called The Factory, which was a magnet for music and movie stars, socialites and royalty. Bob Colacello was the editor of Warhol's interview magazine when Marino first walked through the door. What was he like?
Starting point is 00:41:24 He had little bow ties and he was very properly dressed. You know, he was funny. He was talented. You could see that right away. Colacello, now a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine, and Isabel Ratazzi, the former model and longtime friend of Marino, think he has changed very little from those ironic factory days of Campbell's Soup Cans and pop art parodies of fame. Peter fed right into that. I mean, we were all on the same sort of wavelength, you know. Tongue-in-cheek. Tongue-in-cheek.
Starting point is 00:41:56 A lot of what we were doing was very tongue-in-cheek. Peter, I think, is still very tongue-in-cheek. Totally. He's enjoying it. It's a way to have fun at other people's expenses sometimes. I think Peter, deep down, more than anything, is an artist. He has an incredible sense of aesthetics. He loves beauty and anything in art and music. It's on display at Marino's 12-acre estate, where every summer there is a lavish party for friends to introduce young and up-and-coming classical musicians.
Starting point is 00:42:33 It's hosted by Peter and Jane Trapnell, his waspy wife of 33 years, a charming and accomplished costume designer who friends say is an essential part of the equation. She's too smart to be interviewed. But you've been married a long time. 33 years. That's great. You don't look like the perfect couple, if you know what I mean. It's a good marriage because each of us is what we are,
Starting point is 00:43:03 allows the other one to be themself, and appreciates each other for the right reason. You know, it's rare that you'll find people who don't try to change the other person and let everyone be what they are. What's this? The only other constant in Marino's life, as you may have guessed, are motorcycles, his latest prominently displayed on the project board.
Starting point is 00:43:27 This is my Super Duke KTM 1290. It's very fast. You're supposed to say, does Jane sit on the back? Does Jane sit on the back? Absolutely not. She's in the back of a car and driver with the two dogs. Marino finds cars claustrophobic. He has a half a dozen bikes, has ridden them all over the country,
Starting point is 00:43:50 and regularly uses them to commute between New York and his home on Long Island. It's his release and the core of his identity. Alone, on the road, where he can take in the air and the light and the space. All part of living life outside the box. I'm Steve Croft. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes. you

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