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SIXTIES POP CINEMA: THE CULT, THE BAD & THE CAMPY

Actress Valerie Starrett (soap fans will remember her as the original Diana Taylor on General Hospital) joins Nancy Czar, Lada Edmund, Jr., Mimsy Farmer, Aron Kincaid, Marlyn Mason, and Christopher Riordan as interviewees for my new book above. Valerie will be sharing anecdotes about the making of the biker film Run, Angel, Run. See trailer below:

DENNIS HOPPER

It is always sad to hear about the passing of anyone and actor Dennis Hopper is no exception. However "the Wild Man of Hollywood" went to his grave claiming he alone wrote Easy Rider (though recently he gave a it more credit to Peter Fonda) and that Terry Southern only contributed the title. That is untrue and all of Hollywood knew it but let him get away with his outrageous lie. Below is an excerpt from Gail Gerber's memoir Trippin' with Terry Southern describing how she remembered Dennis's contribution who turned up in New York weeks after Terry and Peter began working together:

When Dennis showed up at our house in New York we let him stay in Nile’s room, which he complained about and rudely called “a closet.” I tried to stay out of the way as best I could. Dennis was there for about two weeks, and at night he and Peter would be pacing around my living room, gesturing, and throwing out ideas between passing joints between the three of them. Though Terry was a martini man he would just hold the joint and pass it along most times. Somebody had to stay straight to do the writing so Terry sat with his pencil and a long yellow pad on our golden couch, scribbling away. He would hand the pages to the typist and she would type them up immediately. Dennis would rant and rave, using a lot of four-letter words, and the typist would break into tears, and run sobbing out into the night. Terry would have to call the typing pool the next day, and get another typist. Terry suggested that they change the “drug of choice” from marijuana to cocaine, which was not in fashion yet, because pot was too bulky to be carrying on the motorcycles. Dennis thought that running the credits upside down might be interesting, and he also whined about why the two characters had to die.

Terry loved collaborating with other people. He always felt that two heads were better than one when creating a story or screenplay. Terry was really in his element sharing concepts with Peter and Dennis. He just loved to work in this free-for-all fashion with people yelling out story ideas while nestled on the sofa he jotted down the better ones in pencil on his yellow legal pad. Peter once remarked that Terry agreed to work on Easy Rider on a handshake “just for the sake of having the freedom to play with an idea that appealed to his individual nature.” This statement is oh-so-true.

Terry had the scripts neatly bound and held on to the original. He handed copies to Peter and Dennis, and off they went back to Hollywood. Terry also gave a script to Rip Torn who retained his copy after all these years.

YOU BET YOUR SWEET IPPY

Gail Gerber and I at the gala 2010 Independent Book Publisher Awards in NYC accepting our Silver Medal for Best Autobiography/Memoir of 2010 for Trippin' with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember.

COUGAR TIME!

Former sixties starlet Gail Gerber was spotted at the gala 2010 Ippy Awards last night on the arms of a much younger man to accept her Silver Medal for Best Autobiography/Memoir of 2009. Our sources informed us that this fan boy is Matt Fletcher and yes boys he is single.

BOOK'EM DANO!

The only new TV series for the upcoming Fall season I am looking forward to is the re-boot of Hawaii Five-0 with Alex O'Loughlin as Steve Garrett, Scott Caan as Dano, and Lost's Daniel Dae Kim as Det. Chin Ho. Click here to view the new exciting opening using a faster tempo electronica versison of the classic theme (I like it a lot) and to see the original as well for comparison.

Sixties icon Nancy Kwan guest starred in the first episode of the original series and here's hoping she is asked to make a return appearance.

RAQUEL IN THE WEST

I have always been a Raquel Welch and spaghetti western fan so I think when one of her best movies is the revenge tale Hannie Caulder, which will finally be available on DVD in July. Though American produced and filmed, it has that offbeat Italian feel to it and Raquel is just awesome as a womann viciously raped and left for dead by three vile varmints Ernest Brognine, Strother Martin and Jack Elam. Raquel teams up with bounty hunter Robert Culp to track down and kill the men who did her wrong.

This along with El Condor starring Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef and Marianna Hill are my two fave westerns from the early seventies.