I am currently "burning" to DVD-r some of my older interviews for the show, so I will be posting clips from them in the next few weeks. Here's a bit from my interview with the great Russ denying that Tom Wolfe had anything to do with the great 1970 pic Cherry, Harry & Raquel!. What was the truth of the situation, and why is the name "Tom Wolfe" part of the film's credits? Russ's friend Thomas McGowan co-scripted the film, and apparently wanted to hide under a pseudonym (his work on Disney productions might explain this), so he took the nom du cinema "Tom Wolfe," which of course led everyone to believe the Kandy-Kolored Tangarine-Flake Streamline guy collaborated on the film. Mr. McGowan, by the way, deserves our devoted worship for having directed one of the most memorable bad movies of all time, Night Train to Terror, which I wrote about here.
Check out Russ:
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Friday, January 18, 2008
"A giant death orgy with lotsa maniacs": More Mailer!
I have got to share two pieces of info I found in the all-Norman, all-the-time journal The Mailer Review, which has a web presence here. The two bits of trivia that just rocked my little mind are below. Thanks to Funhouse foundin' guy Patrick Fusco for helping me uncover this trove of Norman lore.
His literary executor/assistant fellow elaborates the many, many, many things to be found in the Mailer Archive which was deposited at the University of Texas. He goes on to include this gem: "At different moments in his life he has done impersonations of Brendan Behan, Marlon Brando, Broderick Crawford, Lord Beaverbrook, Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, LBJ, and Tony Soprano." Tapes, Mr. Lennon, do we have any audio on this??? Please!
And at two points in the magazine it is pointed out that Norman did reconcile with his former "nemesis" Gore Vidal. Lennon notes in the Review that the genius ex-"sparring partners" appeared in a staging of Don Juan in Hell, along with Susan Sontag and Kurt Vonnegut. Again, we'd love to see some video of this. If the discussion of Mailer's obsession to catalogue every single thing he ever did is any indication, he must've had a video copy of that play.
Since I can only offer what I've got on hand (although the Funhouse itself does sorta resemble the Mailer Archive, except I can't get the U of T to buy up my collection and free up some space in the apartment), I offer up this gem that I showed on the Funhouse last week. It's Mailer's own trailer for his amazing fusion of '50s melodrama, film noir, Tennessee Williams "hothouse" fables, and Norman's own wildly over-the-top sensibility, Tough Guys Don't Dance:
Click here if the above doesn't work.
His literary executor/assistant fellow elaborates the many, many, many things to be found in the Mailer Archive which was deposited at the University of Texas. He goes on to include this gem: "At different moments in his life he has done impersonations of Brendan Behan, Marlon Brando, Broderick Crawford, Lord Beaverbrook, Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, LBJ, and Tony Soprano." Tapes, Mr. Lennon, do we have any audio on this??? Please!
And at two points in the magazine it is pointed out that Norman did reconcile with his former "nemesis" Gore Vidal. Lennon notes in the Review that the genius ex-"sparring partners" appeared in a staging of Don Juan in Hell, along with Susan Sontag and Kurt Vonnegut. Again, we'd love to see some video of this. If the discussion of Mailer's obsession to catalogue every single thing he ever did is any indication, he must've had a video copy of that play.
Since I can only offer what I've got on hand (although the Funhouse itself does sorta resemble the Mailer Archive, except I can't get the U of T to buy up my collection and free up some space in the apartment), I offer up this gem that I showed on the Funhouse last week. It's Mailer's own trailer for his amazing fusion of '50s melodrama, film noir, Tennessee Williams "hothouse" fables, and Norman's own wildly over-the-top sensibility, Tough Guys Don't Dance:
Click here if the above doesn't work.
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