John von Neumann made so many fundamental contributions that Paul Halmos remarked that it was almost like von Neumann maintained a list of various subjects that he wanted to touch and develop and he systematically kept ticking items off. This sounds to be remarkably true if one just has a glance at the dizzyingly long “known for” column below his photograph on his wikipedia entry.
John von Neumann with one of his computers.
Since Neumann died (young) in 1957, rather unfortunately, there aren’t very many audio/video recordings of his (if I am correct just one 2 minute video recording exists in the public domain so far).
I recently came across a fantastic film on him that I would very highly recommend. Although it is old and the audio quality is not the best, it is certainly worth spending an hour on. The fact that this film features Eugene Wigner, Stanislaw Ulam, Oskar Morgenstern, Paul Halmos (whose little presentation I really enjoyed), Herman Goldstein, Hans Bethe and Edward Teller (who I heard for the first time, spoke quite interestingly) alone makes it worthwhile.
Update: The following youtube links have been removed for breach of copyright. The producer of the film David Hoffman, tells us that the movie should be available as a DVD for purchase soon. Please check the comments to this post for more information.
Find Part 2 here.
________________
Thanks so much for these links! I had scoured the Web for von Neumann videos earlier, but the only thing I had found was the clip (also included in this one) of him talking to a bunch of school kids. Pity there isn’t more publicly available.
You are most welcome. Indeed, I too was looking for quite a while. This documentary is a treasure!
You are running my documentary on John von Neumann illegally. I ask you to remove it immediately. I made this documentary 48 years ago with The Mathematical Association of America and we jointly hold the copyright. Copies are available through me should any organization or individual want one.
Thank you for taking care of this immediately
David Hoffman
http://www.theHoffmancollection.com
Dear David,
I am simply linking to the documentary that appeared on youtube. I don’t have a copy neither did I put it up, I simply linked to it and wrote a short post about it (don’t think that is illegal). I have removed the vimeo link and the youtube link seems to be dead any way. If you want I can put the link to your website under that instead.
Regards,
Shubhendu.
Thank you for your rapid reply. The Association and I plan to offer the film to collectors and educational institutions shortly via DVD and streaming download. We are working to that end and have created an extraordinarily high quality copy of the original 16mm film. I will let you know as soon as it is available and thank you for your consideration. Good luck.
Dear David,
That is absolutely great to hear! I hope these would be up for purchase soon. This documentary is a treasure!
I have also updated the post accordingly.
With Regards,
Shubhendu.
Dear Shubendu: I have now completed the high-quality digitization and the film should be available for you and your colleagues within a month. I will let you know where you can get the DVD on Amazon. Thank you.
David Hoffman–filmmaker
Thank You David,
Do let us know. I look forward to buying the DVD. Will also place a link to the amazon item over here.
Regards,
Shubhendu.