- All right, William, you sit over there in that seat.
- Hey, Bill.
- How you doing?
- Oh, hanging out.
God, getting ready for the Arkansas football season.
- In 2015, as part of a "Nathan for You" DVD release,
Comedy Central asked me
to record an audio commentary track
for some of my favorite episodes.
In one segment, I helped a struggling souvenir shop
and in the process
met a professional Bill Gates impersonator named Bill Heath.
- When we started our computers...
back in the '80s,
it was huge--
in the business, they were huge machines.
- I found him to be a really interesting person,
so when it came time to record the commentary
for his episode, I invited him to join us
and share his favorite memories from making the show.
- Yeah, the owner of the shop,
I came in-- I was explaining to him
about how the computers were founded
when we founded them and so forth.
- But during the recording
Bill's attention seemed scattered.
He not only took a seven-minute call from his phone company...
Right, people were posting about the event on Twitter.
- Yes, I want to lower the rate.
How long will it be?
- William, who is-- who is on the phone?
- AT&T. Yeah, what's your number?
I'm gonna call you back on this promotion.
- but he also went into detail
about a long-lost love from his past,
a woman named Frances Gaddy.
- I should have married her, everybody interfered.
- Who interfered?
- Oh, my mother, you know, a lot of friends.
They--they--you know, mothers, a lot of mothers
have picked out the girl they want you to marry.
Well, it doesn't work that way.
- Is that a regret of yours?
- It's one of 'em, yeah, I look back.
I should have married her.
[sighs]
I don't know where she is now.
I've been trying to find her.
- I didn't think much of it at the time,
but as the months went on,
Bill began to show up at the office unannounced
to deliver gifts...
- Oh, it's a serving set.
- Yeah.
- grab a quick snack,
or just to hang out,
and the name Frances Gaddy kept coming up.
Thoughts of this failed romance from over 50 years ago
seemed to completely consume him.
Frances? I don't know.
Can I use the bathroom quickly,
and then we'll talk when I come out?
- Sure. - Okay.
And in getting to know him, I began to understand why.
At the age of 78,
Bill lived alone and had never married.
His closest bond was with his alma mater's football team,
the Arkansas Razorbacks.
- Each year I give $3,000 total
for the Arkansas Razorbacks athletic programs.
Whoo, pigs! Sooey!
Razorbacks! Number one.
- His lifestyle was modest and very organized.
- This is a stack of loan offers.
RISE preapproved for $2,600.
Here's the same RISE for $5,000.
$1,000 prequalified, in your account $2,500.
- With such meticulous record keeping in his daily life,
it was surprising that he had no information about Frances
other than her name.
Have you looked for her? I mean--
- I tried once or twice, yeah.
- An exhaustive Internet search turned up nothing.
If she had married someone,
it was likely she'd have a different last name.
And that meant with over 600,000 women named Frances
currently living in the U.S.,
the task of finding the one Bill was looking for
would take an incredible amount of time and effort.
But the challenge of solving a near-impossible mystery
intrigued me.
Plus, there was something about an old man
so filled with regret that was hard for me to ignore,
and I realized if I didn't help him do this,
no one would.
[somber music]
* *
It was becoming clear that finding this woman
would take a lot more effort than a Google search.
But before devoting my time to this,
I wanted to see what Bill's motivations were.
- Oh, I need to confess a lot of things to her
about what-- between the time we--
the lapse of time and fill in the gaps,
her gaps and my gaps,
to put the puzzle together.
- I mean, a best-case scenario, what do you hope will happen?
- Well, I hope I can find her.
- And then what? What happens when you find her?
- Well, I'll go from there.
- Well, what does that mean?
- Well, if she's married,
you have to accept it that way.
- But if she's not?
- If she's not, well, maybe we could get married...
[laughs]
finally.
- You still love her?
- Yeah, I do.
- I was moved by how romantic of a tale this was.
- Love it hard to come by, you know.
- The possibility of reuniting Bill
with his long-lost love was so cool.
So I told him I had some good news.
I want to use the resources of my show
to help you find Frances.
- Well, that's--
I think that's a true friend that would do that.
- But Bill hadn't seen or spoken to Frances
in over 50 years,
leaving us with very little to go on.
- You know, she married on the rebound,
unhappy marriage, she got a divorce,
and I think she got another divorce, I don't know.
- So wait, who did she marry?
- Charles something. I don't remember his last name.
- She married a Charles.
- Yes.
- But she could be married again?
- She could be. - You just don't know.
- I don't know.
- The only thing he did know for sure
was her name before she was married
and what she looked like in 1961.
- Brown hair, brown eyes.
- With no photos and just a sketch of Frances
that Bill did from memory...
So this is the woman we're looking for?
* *
- Yes.
- it quickly became clear
this was going to be an uphill battle.
But Bill did recall one thing that could be helpful.
- Last time I saw her was in Little Rock in Arkansas.
I was working at Moses Melody Shop,
the music record store.
- I felt that if I could get Bill back to the city
where they first dated, it might jog some of his memories.
So I booked us a flight to Little Rock, Arkansas,
to begin our search for Frances.
[mid-tempo music]
It had been some time since Bill had been back
in his home state,
and he seemed enthusiastic to return.
Are you excited, Bill? - Yeah.
It's hometown, man. I grew up here.
- And as I had hoped, it wasn't long
before old memories began to come back.
- God, mother used to pick me up right there,
that station.
There was a plant right there.
Dr. Pepper Company right there, man.
Now, that's the old West Side Junior High.
My uncle taught there.
- With Bill's past fresh in his mind,
we headed downtown to Moses Melody Shop,
the last place Bill had seen Frances
over 50 years ago.
- It used to be right there, the second building.
I don't think it's there anymore.
Everything has changed.
- Things had changed.
Moses Melodies was now a wig store,
but once inside,
memories of that final encounter with Frances
began to resurface.
- Well, there was a counter, like, here.
I was right here, and she came in that way.
I was behind the counter here.
- Okay.
- She brought her tape recorder.
That's the last time I saw her.
- As he continued, I began to understand
what a loss this was for him.
- She cried, said, "I'll love you to my grave."
I never will forget that.
- That's what she said to you?
- Mm-hmm, that's what she told me.
- So why'd you never see her again?
- She said, "You want your career." I headed to Hollywood.
She said, "You want your career."
Those are the breaks. [chuckles]
- I was starting to realize
why I was so drawn to Bill's story.
As someone who also left a lot behind
to pursue a career in Hollywood,
I couldn't help but feel an odd kinship with him.
But the fact remained that
we still had nothing concrete to go off of
besides a first name and Bill's sketch.
- Yeah. - White?
- White. - She's white.
It was as if we were trying to find a missing person.
This is a woman.
And it was hard to know what would lead us to her
or where to even begin.
On the way back to our hotel,
Bill wanted to take me by his old high school.
- Central High, the integration, nine black students.
They had to get the federal troops in here
to enter them.
We always got along with the blacks,
no problem.
It's too bad that it had to come to this,
but it happened.
- It was neat to learn a bit of the history
of Bill's high school,
but then something came up that could be useful.
Did Frances go to your high school?
- Um...
No, she went to Dumas High School, I believe.
Dumas, Arkansas.
- Dumas.
It turned out that Dumas was a town
just under two hours from Little Rock,
and if I could get in touch with their high school,
they'd most likely have student records
or even an old yearbook that could give us a clue.
But the school was closed for the day
so we'd have to call in the morning
In the meantime, we checked into our hotel
in downtown Little Rock,
and after getting unpacked and grabbing some dinner,
we decided to call it a night.
[cell phone chimes off]
This is kind of a fun trip, huh?
- Yeah.
- Just the boys.
- Mm-hmm.
- Can I ask you something?
- Yes.
- What's your favorite memory of Frances?
- Probably when we were on the bed there together.
- When you were on the bed together?
- Yeah.
- What did you do on the bed?
- Well, I was trying to have sex with her.
- Oh, cool.
All right, should we go to bed?
- I guess so.
- All right, good night, Bill.
- Good night.
- You gonna get under the covers?
- Oh, I'm okay right now. Thank you.
- Okay.
[dramatic music]
* *
- The next morning while Bill was getting ready,
I decided to follow up
on our Dumas High School lead
when I hit a bit of a snag.
I'm not a parent.
- Well, on our campus, to be--
to even be here as a visitor
you're supposed to be a parent or a guardian.
- The school told me they wouldn't release
any of their student records
and their strict visitor policy
prevented us from even coming by
and looking at an old yearbook.
I guess a 78-year-old man
trying to track down a former student
that he's in love with does raise a few red flags.
But after doing a bit of research on the city of Dumas,
something occurred to me that could possibly be
our way in.
Dumas' main claim to fame was that
they were the shooting location for the 2012
Matthew McConaughey movie "Mud."
It was clearly a point of pride for everyone in Dumas.
So if we could pretend that we were in town
to shoot a sequel to "Mud,"
called "Mud 2: Never Clean,"
I was confident the city would grant us access
to any location in Dumas,
including their high school
with its archive of yearbooks.
But to pull this off, we'd need some credibility,
so I contacted an actor named Richard Ledbetter
who could be seen faintly in the background
of a scene in the original "Mud"
to come in and audition for what he believed
was a starring role in "Mud 2."
So firstly, we loved your work in "Mud" one.
- Thank you.
- I'm assuming you remember Bill Goldstein
from the original shoot.
- I don't know that we met. I don't think--
Your face is--both of your faces are very familiar.
- Oh, yeah. Well, we were around all the time,
so I'm sure you-- you saw us here and there.
- It's a fantastic movie. Great job.
- Thank you.
- For his audition, I'd written some lines
for a scene from "Mud 2" that Bill would read with him.
- [clears throat]
What's going on here?
This place is absolutely a mess.
- I know.
- We have to clean this high school library up.
It's covered in Mud again.
- And I thought things were dirty last time,
but this time it's filthy.
- It's absolutely ridiculous,
all this mud.
- Great. That was--
- He got into the lines very well.
The way he read it lightly and then he went into
a stronger phase of the wording.
- Okay. Let him know.
You can tell him.
- You've got the part.
- Fantastic. Thank you.
- With an actor from the original movie
now part of our team, we contacted Dumas High
to say we were in town scouting locations
for the "Mud" sequel.
And as I expected, they gladly opened their doors to us.
He was in the scene with the motorcycle
driving beside the train tracks.
- Okay. - You could see him
in the background with the shiny hair.
With the school staff starstruck,
they gave us the VIP treatment,
taking us on a tour of their entire campus
to show off what the high school had to offer.
But what they didn't know was that our real purpose
was to find their old yearbooks.
This is a great location.
Where do you keep the yearbooks?
We told them "Mud 2" was a 1950s period film
and that their yearbooks would be a helpful visual reference
for re-creating the era.
- Hey, there's '57.
- Frances was at Dumas High in the late '50s.
So when we found a '57, I knew we had what we needed.
Would it be possible for our props department
to look at one of these?
- I don't know why not.
- And with that, Bill and I had pulled off
a genuine heist.
So once we got to a secure location,
it was time to check out what we had.
- There she is.
[somber music]
That's her. - That's her?
- Yes, that is her.
* *
Golly.
* *
She-- [laughs]
That's her.
It's her.
* *
That's her.
* *
That's her.
* *
- The yearbook would be an amazing resource.
Not only did it have the names of her classmates
that we could try to track down,
but we also now had a photo of her,
and that meant there might be a way to figure out
what Frances looked like today.
So I contacted a professional age-progression specialist
who I had worked with in the past named, Cornelius Ladd,
flew him out to Arkansas,
and booked him a hotel room adjacent to ours
where he set up everything he needed to get to work.
- This is, um...
two of the same printer.
- Right, right.
You always want to have a backup when you travel.
- Oh, okay. That's great.
Good to have a...
backup. - Right.
Right.
- But after giving him the photo,
Cornelius pointed out that this job would require
a more advanced technique.
- The last one,
we only age progressed those children ten years.
- Right. - But now, you're talking about
50 years,
and the main thing about age progression is the gravity.
What makes people age is gravity.
If there were no gravity-- for instance,
if we all lived in outer space,
as we will one day,
your face would have-- would never change.
You'd always look like how you look right now.
- Okay. - There would be no gravity
pulling on your face.
With this picture I'm working with,
or this face or this person, I'm working with gravity.
- Right, okay.
- As a side note, though, you might find this interesting.
Scientists are predicting that in the next 30 years
we'll be able to walk into a doctor's office,
get a treatment that's affordable to everybody,
and you'll be able to live to be 600 years on average.
- I gave Cornelius a Jumpdrive
with a scanned copy of Frances' yearbook photo on it
and then left him to his work.
[upbeat music]
And a few hours later, he called me back in
with his completed rendition
of what Frances would look like today.
So this is her...
- I aged it--
- 75? - 76, yeah.
75, 76 years old.
And even at-- even at 76,
she still looks--she's still an attractive person.
- Right, yeah.
- I think.
- How--how accurate would you say this is
of what Frances looks like today?
- I would say it's a 95% chance
she looks just like that.
- 95%?
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.
I didn't know if I'd ever fully understand
the science of age progression,
but it was the best clue we had
as to what a 76-year-old Frances might look like.
So I brought Bill the updated photo
to see what he thought.
- Oh, my gosh.
- That's what we got.
I don't know if it's 100% accurate,
but there's not that many age progressionists around
so, you know, we have to take what we can get, I guess.
- Who did this?
- Cornelius Ladd.
If there was a chance Frances still lived in the area,
I felt it was worthwhile to do a poster campaign
while we chased down other leads.
So we put up hundreds of fliers
throughout Little Rock and Dumas
in the hope someone would recognize her
and give us a call.
The next morning, Bill decided to relocate from the hotel
to his niece Shelly's house
who lived on the outskirts of Little Rock.
She invited him to stay with her
and I was curious to meet a family member of Bill's
as I thought it might help me gain insight
into his past, and more importantly, Frances.
- Hi. - Hello!
- Hey there.
- How are you?
- Fine. Good to see you.
- Good to see you. Oh.
Y'all come on in.
Drake's married and moved to northwest Arkansas.
Natalie and-- - Who?
- Drake. - Oh, yeah.
- And Dakota, as you know, and Dylan are still in school.
So we're-- we're good.
Chris and I are finally empty nesters.
- Finally got freedom, huh?
- Yeah, that's right. That's right.
So no, but we're doing good so.
- Well, that color in the dining room,
you didn't have that when I was here, did you?
- I did have that when you were here, yeah.
- That's nice.
- Thank you.
- After some catching up with Shelly,
Bill headed upstairs to his grand-nephew Dakota's bedroom
to unpack and get settled.
Meanwhile, Shelly brought me into the kitchen
to show me some old family albums.
That's Bill? - That's Bill.
Isn't he cute? - Look at that haircut.
- [laughs] Look at that hat.
So this is Easter 1939,
and that's Bill.
- What a cutie. - I know.
That's a picture of him in, I think--
- This is Bill?
- Uh-huh, in his younger years.
- No. - Yeah.
Look at that hair.
- Oh, my God.
- Mm-hmm.
- I was stunned to see that Bill was once incredibly handsome,
and for the first time, his Hollywood aspirations
started to make sense.
So I was hopeful Shelly would be able to shine more light
on this man who left the love of his life
for a shot at fame.
- Bill's dad died when he was five years old,
and his dad, I think,
was in his 50s when he died,
so he was fairly young.
- Huh.
- And he really struggled emotionally
trying to deal with that.
And I think there's just different points of his life
that he just kind of felt, you know,
that maybe he's been entitled to certain things
and life doesn't always work out that way.
I think that's harder for him to move past.
- Bill's memories about Frances are very foggy...
- Mm-hmm. - and vague...
- Mm-hmm.
- and there's a lot of half information.
And so I was hoping maybe you might know stuff or--
Has he mentioned her to you?
- Briefly, but yeah, briefly, he has.
Evidently, I think he dated her
and my grandmother didn't want him to marry her.
Is that what he's told you?
- He said something like that, yeah.
I get a sense he really regrets not marrying her.
- Yes. - He says he should have
married her. - Yes.
And Bill keeps in touch with--
I mean, you know, he has his little, literally, black book
and he keeps in touch with a lot of people:
relatives, friends.
He's very, very good about that.
So the fact that he lost touch with her
is kind of interesting to me.
- It was curious that Shelly, who knew Bill so well,
thought it was odd he hadn't kept in touch with Frances.
And as we kept talking,
the conversation got even more interesting.
How long has Bill been doing
Bill Gates impersonations?
- Um...
I guess since he's been on the show.
- I mean--what?
- I guess since he's done him for you guys.
To our knowledge, he's never done any before.
- Before "Nathan for You"?
- I don't think he's done any impersonations.
Did he say he has?
- He told me he did it professionally
when I first met him.
- Oh, I don't know.
To my knowledge, he hasn't, be he--
here again, he could have done something
and I wouldn't know about it.
- Huh.
Bill was even more of an enigma than I had expected.
It was hard to tell what was true about him,
and it crossed my mind that his relationship with Frances
might not be all that he made it out to be.
If I was gonna continue dedicating my time
to helping this man,
I needed to know that he was being honest with me.
What's your favorite nut?
- Peanuts.
- I love peanuts.
- Yeah, I like it.
- Can I ask you something?
- Go ahead.
- How long have you been a Bill Gates impersonator for?
[upbeat music]
- Oh, four years, I think, wasn't it?
Why do you ask that?
- When I first met you...
- Yeah. - you told me
you impersonated Bill Gates for a living.
- Well...
did I say for a living?
- You do this for a living, right?
- Yes, sir. - Okay.
Yeah.
- Well, that must have been a misunderstanding.
- By you or by me?
- Well, you know, between two people
it could be a misunderstanding.
- So was it a misunderstanding or did you lie to me?
- [laughs] I never lied to you.
- You said you were a professional Bill Gates.
- I don't know where you got that.
- It's in the show.
* *
You told me on camera.
* *
Are you exaggerating anything about this relationship
with Frances that I should know about?
- No. No exaggeration.
Everything I've told you is the truth.
- You've told me everything?
- Well, everything that I can remember,
but if I think of anything else, I'll let you know.
* *
- You weren't like a stalker or anything, right?
- No. [laughs]
- Okay.
- No.
You think I was-- look like a stalker?
[dramatic music]
- It wasn't the most reassuring conversation.
Bill had an odd way of communicating
that was hard to decipher.
- Here I go digging in again.
* *
- And as I left that day,
I found it hard to know what to really believe
about this relationship from so long ago.
* *
- Her--her name is Frances?
Do you know her name before she got married by any chance?
Okay.
The next day I got a call from someone
who had seen one of our Frances posters
and thought it might be his great-grandmother.
Do you know what year she was born?
She's old, right?
He didn't know many details about her past,
but before putting us in touch with her,
he asked to meet us during his lunch break.
Okay, thanks so much. All right.
So I hurried over to Shelly's house
to update Bill on the news.
So a guy named Jake called
because he saw the Frances posters.
His great-grandma's name is Frances.
She has a different last name,
but he doesn't know what her name was.
- He thinks that's her?
- He doesn't know.
[dramatic music]
* *
[dog barking]
Jake? - Yes, sir.
- Hey. - Hey, how are you?
- Hi, how are you?
Nathan. - Nice to meet you.
- Bill. - Nice to meet you.
- You don't remember her maiden name?
- No. I'm--I'm her great-grandson so,
and she's been married--
well, she was actually married a couple of times.
- Who, she was?
- Yes.
- Remember, I told you that she was married twice.
- Right. How--she was married twice?
- More than once for sure. - Okay.
- She's out in Roland.
- Well, could I meet her now?
- Possibly, yeah.
- After showing Jake that we were good for the reward money,
he was willing to help us out.
So he gave us his great-grandma's address
and we headed across town
to see if this was the Frances
that Bill had been searching for.
I think we're close.
[dramatic music]
You ready?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
[birds chirping]
[knock on door]
- Hello. - How are you?
- I'm fine.
- You're Frances?
- I'm Frances. I'm Frances Watson.
- What was your maiden name? Was it Gaddy?
- No, my maiden name was Aplin.
- Oh, okay.
I was looking for a Francis Gaddy.
- No.
Come--come in, I'm sorry.
I'm not--I'm not meaning to make you stand out here
on the street corner.
- Hi, I'm Nathan.
- Hi, Nathan.
- Hi. - I'm Frances.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
Is this-- is this the--
- No.
- So this woman doesn't ring a bell?
Okay.
- Could I use your restroom?
- Just a moment and let me see if there's anybody in it
because there's more than one person in this house so.
- Okay.
- You can't wait?
- Well, when the bladder's full,
you feel better when you empty it
even though you could wait.
- I'll--I'll wait outside, Bill.
- God bless you.
- Thank you. I appreciate all your help.
* *
- Hey, you all good?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- It wasn't her, though.
* *
- How was her bathroom?
- Mm, it was all right, you know,
but it could have been cleaner.
- After doing some research in the phone book,
I discovered that there was no one
with the first name Frances that still lived in Dumas.
I was hopeful that one of her old classmates
might still have a connection to her
but I was struggling to find any that were still alive
who would respond to my emails.
While we were in town,
Bill attended his 60-year high school reunion
at Little Rock Central High.
- Oh, hello!
- Dozens of his old classmates who still lived in the area
came out to catch up, share stories,
and take photos.
Seeing all of Bill's old friends reconnect
gave me an idea
that maybe something like this would be a way
to get Frances' classmates to come to us.
In the yearbook we had, Frances was a sophomore.
So I designed an invite for a Dumas High School
class of 1959 57-year reunion,
printed out thousands of copies,
and then met up with a group of local boys with bikes
to distribute them in the hopes that anyone from the yearbook
who was still in town would come to the event.
All right, so which one of you guys is the leader?
- He's the boss.
- You're the leader? - Yeah.
- I'm gonna talk to you then. - All right.
- I'm gonna need these fliers distributed
to every home in Dumas, okay?
- All right. - Now, I don't want you guys,
you know, throwing them in the trash and saying you did it.
I really need them to go to every home, okay?
- All right. You got it.
- Got it? - Got it.
- Okay. You guys seem like good boys, so I can trust you.
All right. - Sounds good.
- Great. - Yes, sir.
- So with the invites being delivered,
I rented a church social hall and began preparations.
We decided it would be best if Bill attended
posing as a fellow student
so he could blend in and ask about Frances
without arousing suspicion.
Are you cool to go undercover again?
- Yeah.
- So I picked someone in the yearbook
who Bill somewhere resembled...
You kinda look like him.
and then we spent the afternoon practicing his portrayal
using the information we had.
- Hi, I'm Alex Sanford.
You might remember me from the chess club,
the glee club.
And we all were in high school together,
and I just want to say
happy Dumas class reunion.
- Bill was pretty convincing as Alex,
but I also needed him to memorize facts
about other members of the class
that he might encounter.
Tommy Peacock.
- Uh...
glee club, track.
- No, basketball, band, and track.
- Basketball, band, and track.
- Got it?
- Mm-hmm.
- He was still a little shaky,
but it would have to do, because before long,
the night of the reunion was upon us.
We had successfully transformed the church social hall
I had rented into a ballroom fit for Cinderella herself,
and Bill looked like the spitting image of Alex Sanford
in the thick-rimmed, nonprescription glasses
we had purchased from Sam's Club.
So while we waited for guests to arrive,
Bill hid outside while I changed into the outfit
of the school mascot, the Dumas Bobcat,
so I could covertly come to Bill's aid
if he ever needed help.
[big band music]
* *
We only got a few RSVPs,
but I was hopeful one of these people
would have kept in touch with Frances over the years
and perhaps even know her whereabouts.
So once the room had filled and the guests were mingling,
it was time for Bill to make his entrance.
[playing "When the Saints Go Marching In"]
* *
- Alex Sanford, Doris, it's been a while.
I'm a neurosurgeon.
- Before asking anyone about Frances,
I had Bill make some small talk
to make sure he was blending in.
- Well, I can't believe I'm sitting here with Tommy Peacock,
basketball, band, and track.
- [laughs]
I was a better tenor sax player
than I was at basketball or track runner.
- Are you still running track?
- No, sir. - No.
- But I knew that Bill would still have to do more
to be fully embraced by the group.
- Grade school, wasn't it?
- From my research, I learned that Dumas
had an unofficial town anthem
called "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas."
So before the event, I rehearsed it with Bill
knowing it would be a surefire way
of proving he was a local.
And with the song lyrics hidden on teleprompter
behind the Arkansas flag,
I signaled Bill to hit the stage
to cement his insider status.
[jazz music]
* *
- * Yeah, I'm a ding dong daddy from Dumas *
* And you ought to see me do my stuff *
* I'm a fella from Horner's Corner *
* Can you [stammers] *
* I'm a paper cuttin' cutie got a gal named Katy *
* She's a little heavy lady and I call her baby *
* I'm a ding dong daddy from Dumas *
* And you ought to see me do my stuff *
* Yes a ding dong daddy from Dumas *
* And you ought to see me do my stuff *
- The performance was a hit,
and it seemed like even the most skeptical in the group
couldn't deny they were looking at a local.
* *
So with Bill in their good graces,
it was time for him to start asking about Frances.
[cheers and applause]
- Thank you. - Whoo!
- Alex Sanford. Nice to see you again.
Have you ever heard anything from Frances Gaddy?
No.
Whatever happened to Frances Gaddy?
You ever hear from her?
- But no one Bill talked to had seen or heard from her
since high school.
Some thought she had moved out of state years ago
but no one was sure.
- Where is she now?
You haven't heard anything, period.
- If Frances had left the state,
this search would become exponentially more difficult,
and by the end of the night,
I was having serious doubts
that we would ever find this woman.
These are from 1960?
- Yes.
- All of these are from Frances?
- Frances.
- While going through some storage
at his older sister Betsy's house over the weekend,
Bill has discovered dozens of letters
that Frances has written him between 1960 and '61.
[somber piano music]
* *
- "Dear Bill, just a note to say I'm thinking about you
"as usual tonight.
"I'm all alone tonight and I wish you were here,
"but your picture is sitting on my other pillow.
"Each time that I look up and see your picture,
"it reminds me of how much that I love you.
"It seems like a thousand years since I've talked to you.
"I wish that it was possible for us to see each other
"but it isn't.
"I think about you a lot.
"Some day we will be able to have each other
"and we will appreciate the value
"of a pure and true love
"that we both have worked and waited so long for.
"My love is pure and clean for you, darling,
and only for you."
- That's a strong statement.
* *
- She was in love with you, Bill.
* *
It was the first real evidence of their relationship
I had seen, but as I kept reading,
I realized there was a lot more going on here
than Bill had led me to believe.
"Dearest Bill,
"I'm sorry I haven't written to you sooner this week.
"I'm warning you,
"I won't listen to this much longer.
"I am disgusted with you
"of all this talk and gossip
"about you and Gloria.
- You and who?
- Gloria?
- Was her name mentioned there?
- Yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
- Who's Gloria?
- That was a woman.
- Were you cheating on her?
- I think we went out a few times.
- These letters chronicled the breakdown of a relationship
that was far more complex than the storybook version
Bill had given me.
and it did make me wonder
if there was anything else he was hiding.
"I know I'm not beautiful
and I'm not an actress."
- Oh, she was beautiful, come on.
- "There are many things I do not know about you.
Bill, I can't believe that you're playing with my love."
- Yeah.
Well...
- Why does she say she doesn't know you?
"There are many things I do not know about you."
What does that mean?
- I don't know.
I--
Maybe she couldn't figure out me.
- Can you figure out you?
- [chuckles]
Myself?
Sometimes I wonder.
[dramatic music]
- And you find yourself in a different place...
a place where you were when you were 20 years old...
when you were attending the First Baptist Church
in Little Rock, Arkansas.
And take a look down at your feet...
and notice what you're wearing.
- I had booked Bill some sessions
with a local hypnotherapist
in the hopes it could dig up some memories
that would help me understand this man.
But after several sessions,
all he seemed to recall were old statistics
about the Arkansas Razorbacks.
- It was a bad call. We should have won the game.
Should have won the game,
and...
it was 15-14 was the final score.
- Wow.
- Meanwhile, I'd been going through the letters
Frances had sent Bill nearly 60 years ago
trying to piece together the details
of what I was beginning to understand
had been a very complex relationship.
Frances was head over heels for Bill,
and I was struck by how much she believed in him,
his career, and their future together.
- Each day makes me love you more
It's hard to explain.
In a way it is unexplainable.
We can work together for the kind of future that we want.
I realize that it will be a long, hard struggle
to reach your goal as an actor and singer,
but someday you will reach it with God's help.
You will make it.
- But as hopeful as she was,
there were some passages that gave me pause.
- One that I'll have for the man that I marry
will be purity.
If you don't want a girl like that, I'm sorry.
I knew that you wanted to know just how far that I would go.
Well, you know now.
Let us drop that subject now.
- In these letters, Bill almost seemed like
a different person than the man I knew.
- I don't believe you can love anyone
if you don't respect them.
- And I couldn't help but wonder
if he acted differently around women.
If there was a potential of reuniting these two,
I wanted to make sure that Bill would act appropriately.
There's this guy, Bill, that was--
he's, like, searching for this long-lost love.
- Okay.
- So I found someone online
who was willing to go on a date with Bill
so I could observe his behavior in a romantic setting.
Just so you know, he's-- he's very old.
Like, extremely old.
- [laughs]
I have a lot of clients that are widowed
or a lot that are widowed,
divorced, newly divorced. [laughs]
- Her name was Maci,
and even though I didn't know much about the escort business,
she was cool with my request to have the date with Bill
be only talking with no touching.
- Yeah, mm-hmm.
- So I made a booking through her website
at her flirtation rate of $350 an hour
and then met up with Bill
to see if I could get him to agree to a date with Maci.
I thought it might be nice for you to have
some companionship, you know,
someone to hang out with.
So I decided to book you a session
with an escort.
- [laughs] Really?
Escort service?
- Yeah, she's a professional escort.
- No, I'm sorry.
- You don't want that?
- I hate to use that term,
you gotta know what you're sticking it in.
- Jesus, Bill.
- That's right.
- Even after I told Bill it wasn't supposed to be sexual,
he declined, saying it went against his values.
- Sodom and Gomorrah sin.
- A sin? - Yes.
- It was too bad Bill didn't want to do it
but since we had already paid her,
I felt it might be worth interviewing Maci
to see if she had any insights into the mind-set
of old, single men.
So later that day, she agreed to meet up with me
for an on-camera chat.
- I've never done this, so...
- You've never been on camera.
- Like--no. - Oh, really?
- [laughs] Never.
- Is it weird for you?
- It is a little weird, yeah.
- Okay. Are you okay with it?
- Yeah, I'm okay. - Okay.
- It's just different.
- It took a little time for Maci to get comfortable
with the cameras, but she soon volunteered
to tell me about what she does.
- A lot of IT people,
a lot of, like, corporate America finance.
- That's who you see the most.
- Attorneys, doctors.
- Oh, wow. What about judges?
- I've met a judge, I have.
- Really? - I've met a preacher.
I've met-- [laughs]
I've actually met two preachers.
- Met, meaning, like, they--
- Yeah.
- I was surprised to learn that the escort business
was a lot more normal and accepted
than I initially thought.
- Like, I meet some really great people
and they'll want to keep in touch.
Like, they'll send emails and be like, "Hey, how are you doing?"
- Really? - "Hope everything's okay."
Yeah.
If I feel like I'm gonna connect with you,
I know I'm gonna have a good time,
and you're probably gonna have a good time, too.
- Maci's perspective was fascinating,
but she also wanted to know more about me.
I make a show called "Nathan for You" on--
- Okay. - and it's one Comedy Central.
It's-- - Is it funny?
Is it like a funny thing?
- I mean, I hope sometimes.
- [laughs] - I don't know.
Do you think I'm funny?
- I don't know.
You seem kind of serious right now.
- Do you want to see some of the show?
I have-- - Yeah.
- I have it in my computer in my backpack.
- Yeah, I'll watch it.
- You want to? - Yeah.
- Okay, I'll go get it.
- Okay. - All right, wait here.
- Okay.
- My name is Nathan Fielder,
and I graduated from one of Canada's top business schools
with really good grades.
Now, I'm using my knowledge
to help struggling small business owners...
- Was that actually your grades?
- competitive world.
Maci seemed to enjoy my show.
- You're a little funny.
- Okay. - Kind of mean but...
- Mean? - but you're a little funny.
Yeah. - What do you mean?
- You lied to every last one of them.
- I mean, it's business.
- You're like mean funny. [laughs]
- It's business, right?
- You're right, yeah.
- But eventually she had to get going,
so we said our good-byes.
Bye, Maci. - Bye.
[upbeat music]
- Without any promising leads to pursue,
I found myself stuck in a strange city
with a lot of free time on my hands.
I spent most of my nights staying in
and watching TV
or going out to a nearby bar to chat up the locals.
What does?
Oh, your watchband wears out?
Yeah, that-- that's not good.
But overall, I found the social interactions to be lacking,
and I realized the only interesting conversation
I'd had in a long time was with Maci.
So I decided to call her up
and see if she wanted to hang out again.
- Hello.
- Hi, Maci?
- Hey.
- I had a really good time
talking to you in the park and stuff.
I was wondering if you would want to hang out again
or...
- Well, it's $350 for the hour.
You just let me know when you want to book.
- Okay.
- Hey. - How's it going?
- Good. How are you?
- Good to see you.
- This is for you.
- We don't do that in public, but it's okay.
- Oh, okay, really?
- [laughs] Yes.
- Okay, when do I-- I didn't know.
I just wanted to make sure.
- It's a gift card or a gift bag.
- Oh, what do you mean?
- So it doesn't look funny in public.
- What am I supposed to do?
- [laughs] - Oh, you say--
- When you're in public--
- You give a gift card.
- Like a card, like a greeting card.
- Oh, okay. Okay, okay, I know for next time.
Okay. - Okay.
- Thank you. I'm so--yeah.
It was a little odd to be paying someone
for their company,
but Maci had a way of making it feel normal.
- I watched some more of your stuff.
- Really? - I did.
- What'd you think?
- Okay, so... [laughs]
I watched the...
Ghost Realtor.
- Oh, yeah.
- That one was really funny.
- Thank you, Maci.
That's really nice of you to say.
I had a really fun evening with Maci,
and after the hour was up, I knew I wanted to see her again.
So over the next week, I set up a couple more dates.
Happy birthday.
- [laughs] Thank you.
- I did it right, right?
- You did. You're learning. - Okay.
This is the type of place you'd propose to someone.
- Oh, you're not gonna propose, are you?
- No, I'm not.
- Okay, good. [laughs]
- I'm just saying, it's the type, you know what I mean.
- It is kind of the type of place.
- Yeah.
You have a nice laugh.
- I actually hate my laugh.
- Really? - Yeah.
- I think you have a nice laugh.
- It's awkward, I don't know.
- No, you have a nice laugh.
- Well, thank you.
- You're welcome.
[sighs]
- Bye, Maci. - Bye.
- Okay, see you soon.
- See ya.
- We had been in Arkansas for several weeks now
and I was starting to lose sight
of what I was even doing here.
I felt unfocused, just filming things for no reason
in the hope something interesting might happen.
We had accumulated hundreds of hours of footage
but I couldn't tell if this search for Frances
would amount to anything.
- Can you switch to Fox News?
- A part of me wondered if Bill was just a bored old man
looking for an adventure to keep himself busy
and if I was just a bored younger man
who also wanted an adventure
because he was tired of doing the same show
for four seasons.
[somber music]
- Happy birthday. - Thank you.
[laughs] - Okay.
Apparently they shot "Gone with the Wind" here.
- I've never seen it.
- And the more we kept shooting things,
the harder it was to tell where the show ended
and life began.
- Just do it again.
Okay, do it again. [laughs]
- No, only twice.
- You want me to hold your hand?
- Do you want to hold my hand?
- Kind of, yeah.
- Okay. - All right.
- Your hands are cold.
- I know.
- Does that make you uncomfortable?
- No. - Okay.
- I like it.
- Good.
- Near the end of one of our hangouts,
Maci asked if I wanted our next date
to be a little more private.
- You just let me know.
- Let you know what?
- That that's what you want to do.
- So I just-- just let you know...
- Yeah.
- what I want and then--
- Yeah.
- Okay. - Okay.
[upbeat music]
* *
- [breathes deeply]
Hello. - Hey, how are you?
- Hey. Good. How are you?
- Good. Nice to see you.
- Good to see you. Come on in.
[upbeat dance music]
- * Down, dig down, dig diggy diggy down down diggy *
* Down, dig down, dig diggy diggy down, diggy diggy *
- * Down, dig down, dig diggy diggy down down diggy *
* Down, dig down, dig diggy down down down down down *
- * Down, dig down, dig diggy diggy down down diggy *
* Down, dig down, dig diggy diggy down, diggy diggy *
- * Down, dig down, dig diggy diggy down down diggy *
* Down, dig down, dig diggy diggy down *
- * Down, dig down, dig diggy diggy down down diggy *
* Down, dig down, dig diggy diggy down, diggy diggy *
- * Down, dig down, dig diggy diggy down down diggy *
* Down, diggy diggy *
- [laughs]
- [exhales sharply]
- You okay?
- I'm fine.
- [laughs] Okay. Good.
- I like you.
- I like you, too.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- [laughs]
Cool.
[somber music]
We had been contacting local cemeteries
to see if they had anyone with the last name Gaddy
buried there.
At first, we weren't getting much traction,
but then a promising lead emerged.
We discovered that there was a Gaddy family grave plot
on the outskirts of Dumas.
- Here it is.
- It wasn't Frances,
but after Bill took a closer look,
the name seemed to ring a bell.
- Well, now that I'm looking at the names
and the dates here,
it's a possibility it could be her parents.
I vaguely remember her father's name.
- What was it?
- Well, I thought it was Robert.
I don't know about Crews.
- If Bill was remembering correctly,
and this was Frances' father's gravestone,
there's a chance his obituary would contain information
about any surviving children.
So the next day we headed to the Little Rock Public Library
to look at their newspaper archives
from 1982.
That's it? - Yeah.
- Okay. - See, that goes under there,
under the glass, and then under here.
[indistinct]
- Like that? - Yeah.
[somber music]
* *
Oh, wait, here it is.
Robert Crews Gaddy age 63,
of Texarkana, Texas,
formerly of Little Rock.
Survivors are two daughters,
Frances Munroe
of North Musk-- Muskegon, Michigan.
- With this information,
we were able to track down the Facebook page
of a Fran Munroe who lived in Bellaire, Michigan.
- My God. [laughs]
You think that's her?
- Oh, my God, Bill.
- Oh! [laughs]
- Look, Dumas Senior High.
- Yeah. That's gotta be her right now.
[laughs]
- Class of 1959. - Mm-hmm.
- That's her. - That's her.
- 100%.
- I would say 100%.
- I had to admit that even at 76,
she was stunning
and surprisingly similar to Cornelius' age progression.
- I can't believe they got this up.
[laughs]
- Look at you.
You look like a schoolboy again.
- [laughs]
Golly.
Whoo!
- But then we found something
that put a damper on Bill's excitement.
That's her husband.
- Shoot.
[sighs]
[dramatic music]
Let's see what he looks like, though.
- We had always known this was a possibility,
but it seemed to bring out a side of Bill
that I had never seen before.
- She could have done better than that.
He's not Mr. Good Looking, I don't think.
- Well, that's not very nice to say.
- I'm sorry, but I didn't mean it that way.
He looks like he's overweight.
- Bill became fixated on Frances' husband.
- He's an attorney.
BA in English, football, track captain,
glee club.
Gee. [laughs]
I should have married her.
Should have married her.
- And he started to get ideas in his head.
- Well, we go to Michigan.
- What? - We go there.
Meet her in person.
Rehash what should have been.
- But she's married now.
- She could get a divorce and marry me.
* *
- Okay.
* *
[exhales sharply]
[laughter]
Oh, all right.
* *
- She loved me to her grave.
She said it,
and that old saying, it's never too late.
- I didn't really know what to make
of what Bill was telling me.
He seemed undeterred by the fact that Frances had a husband
and just kept repeating the promise she had made to him
nearly 60 years ago.
- That's pretty strong words, I'll love you to my grave.
Well, she said she would love me to her grave.
Isn't that pretty strong love?
Remember, she said she'd love me to her grave.
- And for the first time since agreeing to help Bill,
I didn't know what to do.
- Bill was dead set on going to Michigan
to profess his love to Frances.
I knew he felt strongly about her,
but I hadn't considered the possibility
that Bill would try to get her to divorce her husband.
Do you think there's a chance she'd do that?
- There's a chance.
It's the roll of the dice.
7 come 11.
- My gut was telling me that this was a bad idea
and that Bill's chances of succeeding were slim.
But who knows?
Frances' love for Bill in those letters
seemed so deep.
Maybe after all these years
she felt the same regret he did.
Regardless, if Bill really wanted to surprise Frances
at her front door,
I felt obligated to make sure
he was putting his best foot forward.
So I found a professional actress online
who closely resembled Frances' look and age
to be Bill's rehearsal partner.
I then arranged with a local theater company
who is currently staging a production
of "Young Frankenstein"
to let us use their venue as a practice space
during one of their days off,
and using some furniture we found backstage,
we created a makeshift set to play as Frances' home.
Bye the time June, our actress, arrived from Los Angeles,
she had studied up on Frances' letters,
which I had given her so she'd have a better sense
of the woman she'd be portraying.
- He disappointed her and-- and hurt her.
- And before long, it was time for her to meet the man
she had read so much about.
- Oh, hi, Bill.
- June is the actress that will be playing Frances.
- Pleasure meeting you. - Pleasure.
- What do you think? Is the look pretty accurate?
- Yes. - Yeah?
- Not bad.
- [laughs]
- Not bad. - Okay.
- Of course, it's not-- - You've got nice teeth.
- Thank you. - You've got nice teeth.
- It's so long since you've seen her, right?
- Ooh, look at her teeth. Look at 'em.
You've got 'em all. They're yours.
- Yes, they're mine. - Nothing fake.
- They're mine. They're all mine.
- Right away, I began to see the side of Bill
that Frances had alluded to in her letters
and I knew we had a lot of work ahead of us.
For our initial run-through,
I asked Bill to show me what he was thinking of doing
when he arrived at Frances' home,
and then we would adjust from there if necessary.
All right, so, Bill, you're arriving at Frances' door.
This is the first time you've seen her in 50 years.
Okay, ready?
And action.
[knock on door]
- Frances, God, I can't believe it's you!
- Bill, oh, my God!
It's been so long.
Is it really you?
- Man.
- Oh. Oh, my goodness.
- I can't believe it's you.
[cries]
All these years.
- I know, I know, I know. Sit.
- We should have married. Why didn't you marry me?
- So, Bill, tell me all about yourself.
Now, easy on. It's been 47 years now.
I'm a married woman, so just take it easy.
Just take it slow.
I just want-- Now--
- Okay, pause.
Bill, can I ask you why you rubbed her leg like that?
- Where? Her leg?
- Yeah.
- I don't know. It's just--
- June, as Frances, how do you think she would feel
if he touched her?
- Uncomfortable.
- The first run-through was troubling.
Bill's initial attempts to win over Frances
came across as either creepy...
- Is your husband a jealous man?
- or desperate.
- But I'm asking you again to marry me, please.
- He just couldn't engage with Frances
like a normal human being.
- Surprise!
- And bringing in our "Mud 2" actor
to play her husband only seemed to make things worse.
- I'm here to marry...
- My wife. - your wife.
Do you understand... - But she's my wife.
- English?
- He was just unable to see the situation
from Frances' perspective.
And worst of all, our Frances stand-in
was not convinced.
- You should be a little bit more...
understanding,
'cause if you push that on her too fast--
- Yeah, that could be bad. - You know what I mean?
You know, be more like a gentleman.
- So to help Bill better understand
what Frances might be feeling,
we decided to do a role-reversal exercise
using a wig I picked up from a store down the block.
- You don't know how I've cried myself to sleep
thinking of you.
Losing sleep for hours.
- I'm sorry, Frances.
- Well, it's like when a person kills somebody,
they're sorry, but that doesn't bring 'em back to life.
- After embodying Frances for nearly an hour,
it seemed to give Bill some new perspective.
- Never heard from you, write you letters,
call you on the phone,
ignore the calls.
All you wanted was the career,
the career in Hollywood.
You were just doing it for yourself.
Self-centered.
- And once he switched back to himself again,
a softer side of Bill seemed to emerge.
- I cheated on you.
I kept you misleading that we were gonna marry.
I didn't answer your letters.
I've been living with regret
how I've-- it was really hard.
I know you have a happy family,
a nice home,
and happily married,
but I would be lying
if I said I didn't have feelings for you,
because I do.
I just want you to know, Frances,
that I really love you so much.
- By then end of rehearsal,
I felt like Bill had made huge strides.
[dramatic music]
[applause]
And even June was feeling optimistic
about his chances of winning over Frances.
- I think there's a possibility,
and of course, there's a stronger possibility
if she's not in a happy marriage.
But of course, you know, one doesn't know that
until the actual time comes.
- It was hard to know exactly how things would play out
on the day,
but we'd soon find out
because it was time to go to Michigan.
- Love you. - Bye, Shelly.
Love you.
- Okay. Well, good luck.
Let me know how it goes.
- Thank you.
I know.
- [laughs]
Oh. Are you okay?
- Yeah.
- Are you sure?
- [sniffs]
- You gonna be okay?
- It's gonna be okay.
- It is. It's gonna be okay.
So you never know.
You never know what you'll find up there.
- That's right.
- So [indistinct].
- [sniffs]
* *
- We headed to the airport and boarded our flight
for the 950-mile trip north
to Traverse City, Michigan.
By the time we arrived, it was getting late,
so we decided to head to the hotel and call it a night
with a plan to go to Frances' house
first thing in the morning.
- And that's why I'm introducing
comprehensive immigration reform
within the first 100 days with a path to citizenship.
- Thank you, Secretary Clinton.
I wanted to follow up--
- Look at the--
- Yeah?
- [chuckles]
He's--he's the man for the presidency,
I'm telling you.
I've told you that before.
Donald H. Trump,
I believe is his middle initial, isn't it?
- I think it's J.
- Huh?
- Why are you telling me this?
- Well, I'm trying to convince you
that Trump is the man.
You seem to think he's not gonna win.
- Well, he's losing in the polls.
- You can't go by the polls.
- What can you go by?
- I'd like to hear from--I'd like to hear from Secretary--
- Election day.
- I voted for border security and there are--
[dramatic music]
- The next morning as Bill got ready,
I copied down Frances' address and phone number
from the online Whitepages.
* *
Bill didn't say a word to me that entire morning.
I could tell there was a lot on his mind.
* *
It's funny how the more comfortable you get
with someone,
the less you feel the need to fill the silence with talk.
* *
What are you thinking?
- Well, I'm just thinking.
* *
- Bill?
- Mm-hmm.
- What are you thinking about?
- Oh, I'm just--
* *
- Frances' address
took us to a small, wooded neighborhood
off of Lake Michigan.
- [exhales sharply]
- The plan was for Bill to go to the door
by himself at first while we hung back
so she wouldn't be startled by the cameras.
This is it.
It's right down there.
- Oh. Okay.
[chuckles]
It's right down there.
- Yeah.
- [laughs]
Oh, Lord. God have mercy.
[laughs]
- [laughs]
But when it came time to get out,
Bill didn't want to go down without us.
- Well, I thought wouldn't you want it that way
with the cameras?
- Well, it seems like a personal moment for you.
- Oh, bring the cameras.
I like all the PR.
[laughs]
You heard it, the PR.
- What do you mean?
- Public relations, PR.
- And it concerned me that Bill didn't realize
how showing up at her front door with a camera crew
might freak her out.
What do you think it'll be like for her?
- I--she wouldn't mind it.
- The cameras?
- Right.
- If he really wanted to go down there with the crew,
I suggested that he call her first.
- We could. You have her number?
- So I moved our car out of sight around the corner
and dialed Frances' number into Bill's phone
so he could make the call.
You ready?
- Ready.
[telephone rings]
- Hello?
- Hello, Frances?
- Yes.
- How are you?
- Fine. Who's calling?
- Well, I want you to guess.
- Oh, I can't. [laughs]
I don't know.
- Well, you think hard.
Doesn't my voice sound familiar to you?
- No.
- No?
- No.
- It's been a long time, Frances.
- Yeah, you've got me wondering now.
Who is this?
Hello?
- Yeah, I'm here.
- Okay.
- Uh...
- Tell her.
- You don't know who I am?
Think hard.
I don't sound familiar to you?
- No.
Oh, wait a minute.
Is this Jim Beckley?
- Who?
- Beckley?
- No.
- No?
Oh.
- Tell her who you are.
- Yeah.
All right, I'm gonna tell you who I am.
- Okay.
- Bill Heath.
Hello?
- Hello.
- Bill Heath.
- Bill Heath?
- H-E-A-T-H.
- Okay. Hi, Bill, how are you?
- You remember me now, don't you?
- Yes, I do. Of course I do.
Well, what are you up to?
- Oh, trying to do right.
- [laughs]
Okay, is that hard?
- So--but I, you know, I've been thinking about you
a lot of the times and I said finally,
you know, I'm just gonna call you
and-- - Okay.
- So--
- So what's going on in your life?
- I'm out in LA now,
still working as an actor out there.
- Well, good for you.
Good for you. - So--
- That's what you always wanted to do.
- Right.
- Do you have any children?
- No, I--
I should have married you maybe.
You know-- you know how it is.
- [laughs]
Well, I have nine grandchildren.
- Really?
- Yes. - So--
- No, I'm a--I'm a grandmother with nine grandchildren,
and we have twin granddaughters
that are almost three years old.
- As the call went on, 15 minutes in,
Bill still hadn't mentioned to Frances
that he was right outside of her house.
- What do you remember most about my mother?
- What do I remember most about your mother?
She didn't like me.
- Oh! What?
- She didn't.
- Why do you say that?
- Well, it's true.
- What makes you say that?
- Why would she say it?
I don't know, but she--she didn't.
- Well, are you happy?
- Am I happy? Yes, I'm happy.
Why?
- You're on your second marriage, right?
- Mm-hmm.
- Good grief. Doesn't seem possible.
How many years has it been?
- Well, let's see.
Dave and I have been married for almost 47--
oh, we have been married 47 years.
- Mm.
Well, the years go by.
- Yeah, they do go by.
- The snap of a finger, they go by.
- [laughs]
- Have you thought about me much through the years?
- Of course.
- Do you ever want to pick up the phone and call me?
- Of course.
- But you never did.
Was it hard?
Hello?
- Hello.
- Was it hard to do that?
Can you hear me, Frances?
- Yes, I can-- Yes, I can hear you.
- Well--
well, I just--
you've been on my mind so much,
and I just had to call you...
- Well, thank you.
- you know, just to hear your voice.
My life is--
it's cheered me up so.
- Well, good for you. Are you all right?
- Am I all right?
- Mm-hmm. Your health-wise?
- Yes.
Knock on the wood.
- [laughs]
Well, listen, you take care of yourself.
It's nice to hear from you
and...
may God bless you.
- And what was that again?
- I said, and may God bless you.
- Oh, thank you. The same to you.
- Thank you, Bill.
- Bye-bye. God bless.
- Good-bye.
- All right.
How do you feel?
- How do I feel?
- [laughs] You know, about the conversation.
- How do you feel?
- You seemed more nervous than I--
I wasn't nervous, was I? I didn't seem nervous.
- Do you still want to go inside?
- No, I don't think so.
I talked to her, that's enough.
I couldn't marry her. It wouldn't work now.
- Do you feel like she's over you?
[somber music]
- Well, she sounded like it, like it was just memories or--
* *
She didn't even recognize my voice.
* *
- You okay?
- Yeah.
- You want to go home?
- Yeah.
* *
- When we got back to the hotel that night,
there was a bee on the loose...
- Oop!
- and Bill seemed determined to get it.
* *
- [sighs]
He won't give up.
[bleep]!
Excuse me.
* *
[toilet flushes]
All right, down the toilet.
- Good work.
- After spending so much time in Arkansas,
I found myself digging my way out of all the other work
that had piled up in Los Angeles.
I was working late hours
and finding it hard to adjust back to my routine.
Bill wasn't really on my mind much anymore.
I think a part of me wanted to believe
that he would find a happy ending,
and when that didn't happen,
it was a bit of a bummer.
Then one day out of the blue,
Bill asked to come by the office to give me something.
- I got something for you.
- Really?
This is for me?
- Yes.
- What is it?
Wow. Thank you, Bill.
Is this a serving tray?
- Yeah, you can put pasta on there,
salads, anything.
- Wow.
- I know the salesman and we picked it out.
We thought that that would be
appropriate for you.
- This is really sweet of you to give this to me.
- Of course.
That's a small token for what-- what you've done.
I appreciate everything.
- The tray was really nice, but I discovered
that Bill wasn't just here to say thanks.
- What are your thoughts on that actress that came from LA
to Arkansas?
- June?
I thought she was good.
- Well, just-- [laughs]
- What do you mean? What did you think of her?
- Well, you know.
She'd be a good contact for me.
- Why are you smiling, Bill?
- [laughs] I don't--
- Do you have a crush on her, Bill?
- I didn't say a crush on--
- Do you have a crush on June?
- I worked with her one time. [laughs]
- Why are you laughing? Look at you, Bill.
You're blushing.
Oh, my God.
- I don't know what her phone number is so.
- You want to call her right now?
- Yeah.
[telephone rings]
[ring]
- Hello.
- June?
- Yes.
- How are you?
- I'm good. How are you?
- Do you know who you're speaking with?
- Is this Bill?
- [laughs]
Yeah, that's-- this is Bill.
- It's easy to look at someone else's life
as a cautionary tale.
After all, no one wants to be old and filled with regret.
- Good grief.
- Oh, my goodness.
Oh, how sharp you look.
- Well, you look-- - Oh.
- Boy, you know, I'm gonna compliment your teeth again.
They're gorgeous.
- [laughs]
- Let's toast to your teeth.
- All right.
My mother always told me, she said,
"You get to that dentist every six months, June."
I said, "All right, Mom."
- But if you look closer and see that
that life is filled with moments of sincere joy,
however fleeting,
it's hard to say if it was really a bad life after all.
Anyways, I wanted to let you know
that I booked my ticket yesterday.
I'm really excited to see you.
Yours, Nathan.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Hey.
Good to see you.
- Good to see you.
- You want to hop-- - Can we sit up here?
- Sure, yeah.
It's good to see you again.
- [laughs] It's good to see you again.
It's an interesting little place.
- On the map it was blue,
so I thought it would be a nice river, but--
- Yeah, I thought we were gonna drive trucks.
- Yeah.
[laughter]
- You good with that?
- Mm-hmm.
- You and your super cold hands.
- Thanks for warming them up.
- No problem. [giggles]
It's kind of weird having cameras around, right?
- We can turn them off if you want.
- [laughs]
Could we?
- Do you want to?
- [laughs]
I feel like that--does that defeat the purpose maybe?
- Of what?
- I don't know.
- What's the purpose?
- You're filming something.
It's kind of the purpose, right?
[The Kinnardlys' "Be Happy For Me"]
* *
- We do have this drone.
It would be cool to get a drone shot maybe.
- Yeah.
[laughs]
* *
- * Don't be sad be glad *
* Be happy for me *
* I'll be home come sundown *
* In the land where I'm free *
* Though you think you're alone *
* By your side I will be *
* Don't be sad *
* Be happy for me *
* *
* And the mountains are high *
* In the land where I'm free *
* And they reach for the sky *
* Like my dreams *
* And the sound that I love *
* Is the song of the sea *
* Don't be sad *
* Be happy *
* Happy for me *
* *