04 October 2005

drivers

last weekend's 50th anniversary of James Dean's death turnd Donald Turnupseed into a search engine fave. he drove his car into Dean's Porsche   becoming a footnote in history.

in some ways Frank O'Hara was a literary parallel to James Dean. so these past few days I've been wondering what happend to Kenneth Ruzicka who ran his jeep into O'Hara.

Turnupseed & Ruzicka were both 23 when the accidents happend. Turnupseed was a successful businessman & grandfather when he died 40 years after that crash. next summer will be 40 years since O'Hara's death. Brad Gooch interviewd Ruzicka in 1989 but I don't know any particulars of his life in the in-between.

1 comment:

a.d. samuelson said...

I, too, wonder what happened to Kenneth Ruzicka; I sit here not more than 2 miles from where Frank O'Hara was, essentially, killed, and I wonder what happened to the man who ran him over. Was he consumed with guilt? Did he get over it quickly? It would be interesting to know.