Dennis Nicholls

Where did "an astronaut named Gus?" come from?

If you are a fan of the film, The Right Stuff, you remember this exchange between Henry Luce and Gus Grissom:

Henry: ...or "by Virgil I. Grissom".
Gus: Gus...nobody calls me by that other name.
Henry: Gus? An astronaut named Gus? What's your middle name?
Gus: Ivan.
Henry: Ivan...hmmmm...maybe Gus isn't so bad. Might be something there. All right, you can be Gus.

I bought the Tom Wolfe book and read it cover to cover to find the exact wording of the exchange. To my surprise, the entire exchange does not appear in the book!

Does anyone know the story here? Did the screenplay author just make this up? Or is there some article someplace which is the authority for this exchange.

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Chris Lockwood

Re: Where did "an astronaut named Gus?" come from?

A screenplay that doesn't match the book word for word? I'm shocked! Surely this is the first time this has happened in movie history.

Jack Briggs

Re: Where did "an astronaut named Gus?" come from?

Dennis, that line from the 1983 film is apocryphal. JB

Scott Simonian

Re: Where did "an astronaut named Gus?" come from?

Idk, I remember that line from 'the Right Stuff'. About when the "NASA guys" go to that bar to meet the pilots.

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Dennis Nicholls

Re: Where did "an astronaut named Gus?" come from?

Jack,

I would like to include the exchange as a joke in a book I'm writing, and am thinking about copyright clearance issues. If Gus and Henry actually said this, it would't be much of a problem as they are both long dead. However if the screenwriter is quoting an apocryphal story it gets much more complicated. Do I approach Warner Bros.? You know how much fun that could be. I was hoping someone would remember it showing up in a book or article much earlier.

Feline videophiles Susie and Dukie.

Jack Briggs

Re: Where did "an astronaut named Gus?" come from?

It didn't, Dennis. It's purely the work of the screenwriters. In fact, nobody thought there was anything odd about an astronaut named Gus during the heyday of the Mercury Seven. And certainly through Gemini, leading up to Apollo, nobody made any noise about Mr. Grissom's name being in any way strange. (Look, Dennis, though the film was fun it did not touch Tom Wolfe's prevailing tone of irony and the absurd; the book is a masterful example of "new journalism.")