Now streaming. I'll go missing. I get hired to help find them. When lives are on the line. Coulter, please find my daughter. He is the man for the job. I'm driving as I can. Culture's in trouble. I can feel it. Of TV's number one show. These people are dangerous. I'm doing this alone. Not at all. Every Batman got to have their robin. I made a promise. I'll never stop looking. All episodes now streaming on Paramount+. And returning CBS Fall. It's the finale of Survive 48.
I'm gonna do it. I know that I can. Any one of us can win this game. This is it. It's electric. It's adrenaline. Fear. Anticipation. And it's happening right now. The Survivor season finale, CBS Wednesday at 8, 7 central and streaming on Paramount+. Good morning. I'm Jane Pauley, and this is a special edition of Sunday Morning. We're in New Orleans.
known as the crescent city for the shape it forms around a bend in the lower mississippi river a place of uncommon resilience and a hub of unique culture The magnificent estate we're calling home for much of the morning is Longview House and Gardens, eight acres of lush greenery and vibrant color. Built as a private residence nearly 100 years ago, Longview and its gardens are now open to the public year-round, with local designers taking particular pride in its heritage.
But as Lee Cowan explains, that's just one part of the multifaceted legacy of New Orleans. It's been said New Orleans is as much a Filmes of sadness, feelings of faith. But most of all, It just feels wild. will take you through its neighborhoods, its parks, its restaurants, And Oliver. Coming up all throughout the morning. Gumbo, jambalaya, beignets, all traditional New Orleans fare. Morocco will introduce us to some chefs putting a new spin on the Crescent City's classic cuisine.
New Orleans has always been a culinary crossroads. Chefs Serene and Vi And Nina Compton are bringing something new to the mix. so tender more people need to go from their lives. They do. I agree. I agree. Beyond Gumbo. Later on Sunday morning. Actor Christian Bale is best known for the intensity of his performances. But as Tracy Smith will show us, Bale has an interest far closer to home.
In the movies, actor Christian Bale won a race in the California desert. Now he's out here again, building a real-life home for foster kids. 17 years since my daughter was three years old. Oscar winner Christian Bale on the Roll of a Lifetime, ahead on Sunday morning. And that's just for starters. Michelle Miller goes on the hunt for some of New Orleans' most distinctive designs. Jamie Wax shows why Seersucker is the preferred fabric for New Orleans' hottest party.
plus a look at a classic shoe with sole in every sense of the word. We'll have those stories and more on this Sunday morning by design. And we'll be back after this. In the heart of New Orleans, historic Jackson Square, named for future president Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. As Lee Cowan explains, it's just one of the colorful chapters in this beloved city's history.
That voice of the Mississippi, it still sings here in New Orleans. Old echoes in a city that is somehow always new. Mingles with Perrier. The Reverend holds hands with the sacred. It's a city that enjoys life. It's a city that lives for the moment. It's a city that's not judgmental. It's a city where people don't worry as much.
Like so many taken by New Orleans, Robert Florence came here to be a playwright and an author. There's an element of surprise to this city and I've been here a long time and I have no idea what's gonna happen when you walk out there. Long time to Tennessee Williams counted it among America's top And he's said to have remarked that everywhere else
cradled in the crescent of the Mississippi's embrace. The area had been inhabited by indigenous peoples for centuries, even though it later proved no easy It survived fires, wars, disease. Of course, the wrath of Katrina, a New Year's terrorist attack. And this past week, a jailbreak is still making headlines.
But we're still here. Those of us who are here want to be here because there's no place like it. Mona Lisa Saloy is a professor at Dillard University. I'm about how words work up a gumball of culture. As Louisiana's former poet laureate, she can paint the What for? Sitting under gallery shades, sipping lemonade, wearing the afternoon like a new dress. People seem to think that it's just a party city. And Lord, we know how to party. But it's families that make the tradition.
And those families have deep roots in a lot of places. The French claimed it in 1718. Later, it was controlled by Spain, then the French again, until Thomas Jefferson bought it as part of the Louisiana Purpose. Among those first settlers were some pretty hardy folks. Criminals, counterfeiters, pirates and prostitutes. They weren't the Puritans. At the same time, it's been a very religious city and a very spiritual city.
And maybe in that duality is the city's secret sauce. Has it always been a little naughty and a little nice in New Orleans? Always. Yeah, it's always been that way. There's the good folks and the you know. Like many cities in the South, New Orleans, of the enslaved. But unlike other places in the South, enslaved and free people of color. lived and were allowed to celebrate their traditions, not hide them. on Sunday afternoon after worship. black people could unite and sell their wares.
and practice drumming and dancing and singing. No other place in the country allowed that kind of public, free congregation of enslaved Africans and free. African traditions started to merge with the Like classical music, opera, the mambo, the tango. That's my Satchmo, the one with the horn. That fusion! The King Jacks. Birthed in this stew of cultures, locals like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, It created a sound that was never heard before. And it is still...
But if the music is the heartbeat of New Orleans, it's Creole cuisine. is the city's soul excesses Mark Twain, who grew up on Southern cooking, once said that New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin. And it's also just a feast for the eyes. The Grand Annabelle. And then there's this. It's people! at its finest. Elegance, grit, acceptance, and defiance. They are all in the marrow of New Orleans.
I think it's more than the buildings and the music and the food. I think it's the people that draws people here. If you could sum up New Orleans in a word, what do you think that word would be? happy yeah yeah we keep that it's part of us and we're not letting it go
When people go missing, I get hired to help find them. When lives are on the line. Coulter, please find my daughter. He is the man for the job. I'm driving as I can. Don't miss a moment. Coulter's in trouble. I can feel it. Of TV's number one show. These people are dangerous. I'm doing this alone. No, no, no. Every Batman got to have their ramen. I made a promise. I'll never stop looking. All episodes now streaming on Paramount+. And returning CBS Fall.
It's a big night here in Fiji. It's the finale of Survive 48. I'm gonna do it. I know that I can. Any one of us can win this game. You're excited. This is it. It's adrenaline, fear, anticipation, and it's happening right now. The Survivor season finale, CBS Wednesday at 8, 7 central and streaming on Paramount+.
It wasn't that long ago that our Michelle Miller was serving as First Lady of New Orleans. Her husband is former mayor, Mark Morial. All through the morning, she helps us tour the town. First, all aboard. In his work, artist Terrence Osborne creates a magical version of New Orleans. Everybody's getting on the streetcar to continue the second line. And they're uptown bound. And his painting, Uptown Bound, is a tribute to the city's most magical moving icon, the St. Charles Avenue streetcar.
You could paint a modern car, and it's going to be boring, right? It's just a car. A streetcar looks like something else, so it's much more interesting. They told me to take a streetcar and desire you. It tells a story about the place that it exists in. Streetcars once existed in cities all over America. But when the automobile came along, most were sent to the scrap heap. Even New Orleans replaced nearly all its streetcars with buses.
And yet, those iconic green cars just kept on humming, loudly. I think they're synonymous with the identity of New Orleans. Lona Edwards Hankins is the CEO of the city's transit authority. In the last two decades, the agency has reintroduced streetcars, modern streetcars, but not on the St. Charles Avenue line. These are the originals. These are the OGs. I mean, why not just modernize them? That is a challenge.
Built by the Perlier Thomas Company in 1923, it takes an army of craftsmen to keep them rolling. We have electricians, metal workers, wood workers, body men. Like machinist Anthony Maggio, who's been at it for 44 years. Anything that needs to be made, we can make it. What does it say that New Orleans is so committed to that rich century-old history I think it says that we love our city, just simply.
If you love something, you preserve it. And, says Terrence Osborne, as long as that magical streetcar is moving, the city will never be standing still. You can't have New Orleans without a streetcar. It won't make sense. New Orleans, of course, is a food town. Hot beignets, anyone? Still, Morocco reminds us there's a lot more on the menu. It's really my comfort food. My curry for me like on a rainy day or like a cold day. It makes my soul very happy. To eat in New Orleans is to taste the world.
So tender. More people need to go from their lives. They do. I agree. I agree. In 2015, Nina Compton, whom some will recognize from Bravo's Top Chef, opened Compare La Pan with her husband, Larry Miller. The two had met years earlier in Miami. I tasted her food before I met her. I heard this great laugh coming out of the kitchen. And when I figured out the same laugh was making that good food, I started pursuing her. What does compere la pan mean? It means by the rabbit.
It's a folktale I grew up with in Saint Lucia. Her father, Sir John Compton, led the Caribbean island of St. Lucia to independence in 1979, then served as its first prime minister. How much of this restaurant is St. Lucia? How much is New Orleans? I would say 50% are New Orleans and 50% St. Lucia. So it becomes a very harmonious menu. The restaurant's signature curried goat is something Compton ate growing up in St. Lucia.
It's the number one selling dish. People come for it, they ask for it. Did you grow up with goat? No, not at all. The first time I had goat was with her. We're in New Orleans, so let's talk about the other G word. Gumbo. It's not on the menu here? It's not on the menu. People assume that I would have gumbo on the menu. And when I moved here, it is such a personal thing. I just wanted to respect... the people that came before me and
The gumbo. The absence of gumbo hasn't seemed to hurt. In 2018, Nina Compton won the James Beard Foundation's award for Best Chef in the South. Sherrod, thank you for the shrimp. It looks beautiful. While Chef Compton has brought the Caribbean to New Orleans, Chef Serene Ambai is bringing West Africa to the Crescent City. I always get to share a story about how this play came about. Sometimes I give a deep...
history about what's happening here. Can I say one thing? I really love the colors. And I opened Dakar Nola in 2022 after it started as a pop-up restaurant where he met his business partner Effie Richardson. It was the first time I actually saw a tasting menu of West African food and I just loved the concept. Embai spent much of his youth in Senegal, Dakar as its capital, but he was born in Harlem, where he watched his mother cook for relatives and neighbors.
She was literally nurturing people's soul through the food. I realized that I wanted it. Something that reminisces how my mom made everyone feel. But it was in Senegal where Mbaye was inspired by the traditional one-pot cooking technique. A lot of dishes are composed by maybe six... or seven different components that's made in a different pot. Versus Senegal, everything happened within one pot. That spirit of unity is reflected in the restaurant's oval communal tables.
I love the table. Why is it this shape? It's a connector. I feel like it's a perfect table to connect people together. Allowing strangers to get to really know each other, especially when you eat with your hands. There's enough room on the table for the food, but then there's also closeness that allows you to really engage with
Everyone at the table. After biting into this cassava and trout roe starter, this correspondent understood why DeCarnola won the Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2024. It really has a kick also at the end, which I love. I'm a fan of yucca fries. It's a very refined but delicious hash brown.
While neither of these restaurants serves gumbo, both are bringing ingredients and traditions that have made New Orleans food scene an even richer stew. The food is not dainty or very frou-frou, it's really about... satisfying your soul and making you happy. back to our home away from home you'd be hard-pressed to find a house and gardens quite like Longview
Designed by Alan Biddle Shipman, this masterpiece of 20th century home and landscape architecture conjures the lush feeling of an English country estate. Longview was built for philanthropists Edgar and Edith Stern who wanted their home to exist in harmony with its surrounding gardens. Shipman hired architects William and Jeffrey Platt to help make her vision come to life.
Among many distinctive quirks, each of its four facades features a different architectural style, and all might be considered to be the front of the house. each opening onto a variety of unique gardens. Inside, Longview was one of the first homes in the humid south to have the then unheard-of luxury central air conditioning.
The Stearns always intended to raise their family at Longview and then donate it. And they did just that, giving Ellen Biddle Shipman's dream to the public for all to explore and enjoy. Inside Longview, it's easy to imagine some southern gentleman looking resplendent in a seersucker suit. Jamie Wax is a 38 short. It's springtime in New Orleans, and that means at Rubenstein's, the city's oldest men's clothing store, one item is selling like beignets. Seersucker soup.
It's just like it's not meant to be Andre Rubenstein is the second generation co-owner of the famed haberdashery in the heart of a place that just loves to suit up. There's a lot of formal occasions where tuxedos are suited appropriate. And there are restaurants here that require a jacket. It's that sort of formal influence that is still in this city.
And Rubenstein says there's another big reason why seersucker is so perfectly suited to New Orleans. Well, because it's hot. There's not many other fabrics that are worth wearing other than a nice cotton seersucker. And now... It comes in all kinds of colors. All kinds of colors, indeed. All right, this screams Easter, spring to me. The thing about a seersucker is it should be comfortable.
Wow, this is a statement piece. How many seersucker suits would you say move through this store per year? It's a couple of hundred every season. The word seersucker comes from the Persian shirashukar, meaning milk and sugar. It's made by weaving alternating tight tension yarn with loose tension yarn, allowing the loose yarn to bunch up while the tight remains smooth, creating small waves.
It's puckered. And what that does is it creates... the pockets of air and so it's laid off of your skin so it's breathable and it's comfortable. Laurie Haspel is fourth generation owner and CEO of Haspel, the New Orleans-born company that has been synonymous with seersucker suits. since her great-grandfather Joseph Haspel Sr. started making them in his New Orleans factory in the early 1900s. In those days, it was still only the wool, the flannel, the heavy.
suits that were made that were not breathable. So taking this seersucker fabric that was really very inexpensive at the time and turning it into a gentleman suit. It became a status symbol. Those breathable Haspel suits have made some prominent appearances through the years, from presidents. to authors and celebrities, and perhaps most famously, when Gregory Peck wore a custom-made three-piece haspel as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.
created equal. What is special about the connection between New Orleans and the seersucker suit? We make clothing that is meant for a good time and that's the culture of New Orleans. To put that theory to the test, we invited a small group of New Orleanians to join us wearing their own personal spins on seersucker at NOLA's International House Hotel.
I think it's New Orleans' only contribution to fashion. You can dress it up, you can dress it down. It fits like almost any occasion. It's casual, but it's also tailored, so it gives you that versatility. Seersucker used to be associated with, I think, old Southern men. stuffy clubs, that kind of thing. It's very different now. I mean, you see women in it constantly. I know. No, I think it's very hip. I think Sir Zuck is very hip. We have to keep the tradition going.
So now I see kids with it on. I think New Orleans has figured out a way to be the coolest place on the planet. also being the hottest. And Seersucker 2 is a lot like New Orleans, staying hot and cool era after era. a little bit rough. And a little Gracias. A city known for its centuries-old ironwork really needs someone who can keep it looking like new.
When I take something apart, it's like me having a conversation with the person that originally fabricated it. And what are you saying to that person? I'm not talking to him. He's talking to me. Daryl Reeves is a restoration blacksmith, one of just a handful of these once ubiquitous craftsmen. still working in New Orleans today. You could not have a town without a blacksmith and a doctor. It wouldn't survive. And with the industrial age, the blacksmith faded away.
But their work survives in the city's French Quarter. Elegantly simple, this wrought iron was hand forged by blacksmiths, including highly skilled, enslaved, and free African Americans. you can still find the African symbols they left hiding in plain sight. This is all wrought along here. This is all wrought. But, says Richard Campanella, a historical geographer with Tulane University's School of Architecture, By the 1820s,
a new method for melting iron had emerged. And then you could pour it in molds. You can make it as ornate as you want. You can acorns, oak leaves, elegant filigree. A blacksmith would be there for, you know, years. Exactly. In 1849, the French aristocrat Baroness Michaela Almonaster de Pontalba built two grand apartment buildings flanking Jackson Square.
Their intricate iron lace galleries kicked off a craze that would come to define New Orleans. I would describe it as keeping up with the Pontalpas. Now everyone wanted a beautiful cast iron gallery. Now 74, Darrell Reeves is training the next generation of New Orleans blacksmiths. He hopes the city's signature ironwork and the craft that made it possible can survive. I've restored a lot of pieces that's 100, 200 years old. You're the link in the chain.
get it going for another hundred years that's right when people have to take and restore my work They'll be looking at it like I look at it. You'll be talking to him? Yeah. Not unlike a garden, children need nurturing to grow and thrive. A philosophy actor Christian Bale has taken to heart. Tracy Smith explains. It's not who I am underneath. But what I do That defines me. You can say this about Christian Bale. He really knows how to commit.
the vice presidency is a mostly symbolic job through the years he's remade himself as a vice president yep that's him that's a good possibility a prize fighter even a And now he's all in on a real-life mission to help some kids who could really use a hero. This little plot of land east of Los Angeles in the desert community of Palmdale is where he's trying to make magic happen. The Oscar-winning actor is helping to build a foster care home. specially designed to keep orphaned siblings together.
How often do foster kids get separated from their brothers and sisters? It's approximately 75% of the time. And so you imagine the trauma of that, you know? Being taken from your parents and then you lose your siblings, you know? That's just something that we shouldn't be doing. Bale was a child actor and not a foster kid himself. So you might wonder why he's getting involved in this. He says he just had to. You moved around a lot as a kid. Do you think that had an effect on you?
I think it probably did, but I don't think you have to have any connection to foster care in your past. It's just about a basic understanding that as a society, how can we not take care of our children? So I don't think it requires a connection. It just requires having a heart. He says his inspiration came 17 years ago when he looked at the young daughter he had with his wife Sebi and thought of other kids who weren't so lucky.
He started looking into foster care and found Tim McCormick, who ran foster homes in Chicago for decades and made sure all of his kids got through high school. So 100% high school graduation rate, whereas the statistic for foster kids and graduation is... About 48%. Only 3% of the 400,000 kids in foster care ever graduate college. And I think this is what this site is about. We create a place for authentic goodness to flourish.
and it certainly impacts the child, but it impacts all of us. We create a different story of us as a society. They created Together California, a home for siblings, and the name really says it all. Here, siblings will all stay together in individual houses around a central garden, and they'll be cared for by trained foster parents whose only job will be to look after them. The home is designed by the architects at A.C. Martin. They usually do large-scale projects like skyscrapers.
Still, A.C. Martin boss Tom Shea says this. is one of their biggest priorities. We take care of these kids. We show them how much we love them. Why was this so important to you? Why did you take this on? I think we're at a point in our society where we have to help. And for me, what's exciting is creating the next high rise. We need to give back to society and community. This is small, but I'm tremendously proud of this project.
Bale shot the movie Ford versus Ferrari not far from here, so he's familiar with this part of Southern California. Right now, the home is still a construction site, but Christian Bale says he can already see it all. When you look around
Can you see it in your mind? Oh, absolutely, yeah. No, I love doing that. I love... designing I love architecture and it's like no because I see that and I see the steps and I'm changing this around so I adore the whole design process and so actually seeing it really coming to happen is just very very exciting And so, after 17 years of slow progress and some financial help from friends like Leonardo DiCaprio, they're hoping to welcome the first kids early next year.
Of course, for bail, it's not soon enough. You said you were a little bit naive. You thought it would take a couple years to complete. Well, ignorance is bliss. If I'd have known it had been 17 years, I still would have done it. You still would have done it. There's a lot more work ahead, like fundraising and finding the right foster parents. But it's all finally starting to take shape. And a Christian male, it's truly the role of a lifetime.
You're known as an actor who's rather intense about his roles. Have you approached this with the same intensity? More so. More so. Because this is something that when you know i'm closing my eyes for the last time i want to look and say You know, obviously my family. I want to be thinking about them. I want to think about, did I do some good? Did I make any changes in the world that were useful? And this will be one of the things that I'll be most proud of when I draw my last breath.
From homes with style to sneakers with soul, with Luke Burbank we take flight. Just last week in Queens, New York, more than 200 people lined up to pay $200 for a shoe most of them already owned. The Nike Air Jordan. The most successful basketball shoe in history turns 40 this year, and yet, it almost didn't happen. He didn't want to be. And he had told his agent, I'm not going.
Howard White was in the room back in 1984 when Michael Jordan, then a rookie, short on NBA experience but long on potential, was basically dragged to Oregon by his parents. to meet with a relatively small sneaker company called nike this is bigger than anything that we've done you know typically a great player would get like a hundred But this was so unique in terms of just doing it. The offer, $2.5 million to wear their shoes, triple what anyone else in the league was making.
Air Jordan by Nike. Jordan took the deal, and the rest is sneaker history. Nothing's hotter. When Nike launched the Air Jordans back in 1985, they hoped to sell $3 million worth of product. Instead, they sold $126 million in one year. Much of that success was thanks to Jordan's incredible play on the court. But there was also Nike's marketing approach, which was groundbreaking in its own right.
Joining the cultural conversation in ways few commercials for basketball shoes ever had. And don't forget the shoes design itself. a process that managed to blend sports technology with a set of aesthetic principles that would make Jordans as much a fashion statement as a basketball shoe. As evidenced by the Christian Dior Jordans Howard White was wearing for our interview, which retail for up to $17,000.
In order to translate what he did as a man into what we do as a brand, you have to start with a series of principles. We call them ethos. 40 years later, that design work falls to Jason Maiden, chief design officer for the Jordan brand, which these days is a standalone division within Nike that generates some $7 billion a year by itself. When you first start with connectivity, why this product has relevance and reference. then you put that into a very strict process that we call visionary.
What's interesting is we have a playbook. I can't show you what's in it. I can show you the cover. It's beautiful. If you could peek inside, you'd probably see one of the designs for their yearly Air Jordan relief. That's right. Nike has been putting out a new pair of Jordans every year for the last 39 years.
Does a lot of the stuff that your team designs, does Michael Jordan get eyes on it still, a lot of it? Like, how central is he to the operation here in 2025, 40 years in? Oh, he's very integral. He's very integral to the operation. He sees everything. He trusts us a lot.
He has opinions on things that are near and dear to him. It has given me my life's purpose. Legendary. Sean Williams founded the Social Studies Community Academy in Brooklyn, a program dedicated to studying, promoting, and collecting shoes. Sneakers are wearable art. You're giving the sneakers a level of depth and aka storytelling that convinces the consumer that they're making the right purchase when they buy them.
But for Howard White, who still works at Nike and still talks to Michael Jordan often, the Air Jordan success is because it's not actually the story of a shoe. It's the story of something much bigger. That's totally transcended bas- There have been a lot of basketball. It's not about basketball. And if this simple article of footwear can make people interpret themselves in a way that gives them just the power to believe. That's what the Jordan brand is about.
They called Daman Malasa the Babe Master of New Orleans. also with the smallest beads. That's where you get the most detail. But on Mardi Gras, he's also known as the Big Chief of the Young Seminole Hunters Black Masking Tribe. Long barred from official parade, African Americans created their own way to celebrate. Mardi Gras Indians wear massive, colorful suits to honor the Native Americans who help black people escaping slavery.
We're challenging each other. And the challenge is? The challenge is I'm gonna sing against you, I'm gonna dance against you, and I'm gonna show you how I'm better than you and so on. Melissa started masking when he was just 14. When he became a big chief, an elder noticed the beadwork on his suit. And he told me, he says, your turn, bro. Looking at my work, he was saying, man, you're more than just a black, masculine Indian. You're an artist. His work has been shown all over the world.
A solo exhibition is currently on display at Philadelphia's African American Museum. Jay Duckett is the museum's curator. You look at what Surratt was doing in the 19th century with oil paint, and now Demond is doing this with beadwork, which is to me is even more amazing and captivating. His main goal was, just like mine's, is to preserve this culture. And he takes us in places where I'd have never thought we'd have been.
Once practiced in secret, black masking has gone mainstream in New Orleans. The Backstreet Cultural Museum, where Horace X is a tour guide, attracts visitors from across the globe. It is a blessing to be able to tell our story. And earlier this year, the NFL hired a black masker, Queen Taj, to design the Super Bowl logo. All that attention is just fine for Big Chief Demond Meloncon. Come Mardi Gras day, he says he'll still be right here. You are making a suit right now to mask this coming, yeah.
in my life changed my life and made my life what it is today. you thank you for listening please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning now streaming when people go I get hired to help find him when lives are on the line. Coulter, please find my daughter. He is the man for the job. I'm the driver's in the cab. Culture's in trouble. I can... These people are dangerous. I'm doing this alone. No, no, no. Every Batman gotta have the right.
Justin Hartley stars. I made a promise. I would never stop looking. In Tracker. All episodes now streaming on Paramount+. And returning CBS Fall. Big night here. It's the finale of Survive 48. Cards are going to be I'm gonna do it. I know that I can. Any one of us can win this game. This is it. It's adrenaline, fear, anticipation, and it's happening right now. The Survivor season finale, CBS Wednesday at 8, 7 central and streaming on Paramount+.