Karlheinz Bohm (1928-2014)

aka Carl Boehm

star of "Peeping Tom"

stats

my most popular posts have been abt actors -- Gary Brockette & Robert Drivas. & today there's a surge for Brandon de Wilde.

I daresay the reason is that all three were fetching men representd here by stunning photos.

an hour with Tom

Thomas Meyer has done a major interview with David Wilk abt the history of the Jargon Society. if you don't know abt Jonathan Williams listen to this now. & even if you do know abt Jonathan you'll learn something new.

the newsstand

is international. but for me it was always a big part of Hollywood. for years I wd wander from Hollywood Blvd to check out titles on view right there on the street on Las Palmas & Cahuenga.

last year Las Palmas Newsstand shut down. today World Book & News on Cahuenga shutterd.

I suspect the internet is partly to blame. people read papers & zines online rather than buying them.  whatever the reason this is part of my past which no longer holds hands with my present. now I'll have to look at old movies shot on location for glimpses of these famous newsstands.

in & out

plants in pots which spent the winter indoors are now out. most love it & have begun to thrive again.

I love

irises…. 

this was this morning before the arrival of my friend Karen who whiskd me off to a surprise breakfast. & she gave me a pair of rosebuds. so I have flowers inside & out.

Aunt Sophie's trumpet vine

my folks transplantd it from Caledonia to Elyria. then I brought some roots to Santa Fe.  several died but I'm happy to see this baby struggling with our challenging clime.

top billing

in the new series "Penny Dreadful" goes to Reeve Carney but he didn't appear till the second episode tonite & then only briefly. however he made a smashing entrance & in no time at all we see his glorous butt.

Carney is the latest actor to portray Dorian Gray.

almost 8 years ago I took this picture of him in the lobby of the Lensic where he & his band were the opening act for Jonny Lang.

Anna May Wong (1905-1961)

one of my Facebook friends posts a daily photo of this film legend. she was one of the screen's great beauties. & I met her just a half year before her early death.

it was summer of 1960. I was both cinephile & autograph collector.  I went to Cleveland for the premiere of "Portrait in Black."  local boy Ross Hunter was the producer & he liked to bring Hollywood glamour to his hometown.  so he'd fly in stars for premieres of his lavish productions.

I knew the hotel at which the film contingent was staying. I staked out the lobby with my copy of Daniel Blum's A Pictorial History of the Talkies hoping to add signatures to its pages.

my vigil paid off when the exotic star emerged from the elevator. I approachd her with the big book & made my pitch. she told me she'd sign if I helpd her. she requestd that I lick stamps & affix them to a batch of postcards she'd written. we both seemd pleased with the arrangement.

here's what she wrote while I lickd: 

HB MA

I'm not much of a phone person.  I call Mom twice a week but rarely anyone else. I bought a cell phone for travel but that's because pay phones are mostly gone. guess I remain a wordsman. in a long ago time I was a great letter writer.  the internet pretty much ended that. so rather than call folks I dashs off e-mails. & of course I'm addictd to Facebook.

but I do have one telephone ritual. today is the birthday of painter Mary Ann Begland. & for as many years as I can remember I call her.

today we spent a delightful hour catching up.  it's something we both enjoy.

20 years ago today

I put the key into the door of my new home after coming from Ohio with 2 cats.

more Milligan

I took this portrait of Michael on Morris Rd in the fall of 1983 with one of his drawings which he'd given me as a birthday gift: 

& here's a close-up. even tho I don't keep it in light the image has begun to fade.

on that visit he contributed this page to my book of the house:

over the years Michael & I shared adventures not just in Kent but also Cincinnati & Columbus & Cleveland & Jackson MI.  I didn't see him much in his last years. sometimes that happens. we can't rewrite. there were times when I had ambivalent feelings abt Michael. but in the end I like to think that we both considerd the other a friend.

when I was recently in Cleveland I spent time with a pair of his dearest friends -- Lainard Bush & Michael Pierce.  they talkd abt collecting images of his art work. so when I got back I began to make scans of what I had for the project.

one of my sweetest memories of Michael was at the house in Twin Lakes.  I was walking up the spiral staircase & encounterd him having an intimate moment with Jean-Claude van Itallie.  I smiled & hurried back down the stairs. the look on his face then is the one that comes to mind when I hear his name.

Michael K. Milligan (1953-1995)

it's been 40 years since I first set eyes on Michael. so I no longer recall if he was on stage or walking outrageously on campus. for that period he was flamboyant. in good weather he'd be teeteering around on platform shoes wearing a halter & looking like a cross between Gloria Grahame & Carmen Miranda. & in winter he'd be wearing more layers than I've ever seen on one body.

we had many friends in common so I began hanging out with him around 1976. he cd be flamingly over the top one minute & dead serious the next. but he was never dull. I remember us lunching with Lowell Nesbitt at Ray's & with Connie May at Red Radish.  there were dance concerts -- both ones he was in & those of others -- & of course movies. we shared the dance floor at a gay bar in Akron & my bed in Twin Lakes.

& when I moved from the lakes into town he was there -- along with David Meredith & Paul Ludick -- to help me move. & he made this for me:

as an artist he was prolific & generous. I think he had a bit of trouble with the art school. it probably was the first time some profs saw students present male nudes accompanied by quotations abt masturbation. but he was a meticulate draftsman with a personal vision.

we collaboratd on a sequence calld Visions of Jan-Michael Vincent. here is a photo of our mutual friend Michael Pierce with legendary James Broughton on my bed on Morris Rd. the drawings on the wall are from that suite.

& here is his lovely image of Marie Windsor who was the sequence's leading lady:

30 years ago today

I went to a Brideshead Revisted party.

I got drunk.  what happend after was as dark as anything I've lived thru. a week later I checkd into Edwin Shaw for rehab.

I haven't had a drink since.

today's hike

Chamisa Trail

Standing Rock

the weekend was mostly with Mom but I had to accomplish a bit of business in Kent.  so my host -- the painter Lainard Bush -- kindly drove me there for a quick unannounced visit.

Standing Rock is one of the important historical sites in Portage County.  it's the subject of the opening poem in the Kent section of my forthcoming book Ohio Triangle.

back

from visiting Mom 

a variant

whoever does the bibliography of Green Panda Press is in for some fun times. the wondrous Bree does odd runs with some reprints that differ.

last year she produced Listening to the music. it immediately became a bibliographical oddity because there were 2 states of the cover.  the caption of the cover photo of me ("with Rufus Wainwright's arm") was printed on the right on some covers & on the left on others.  I don't even know the total press run so have no idea how many of each there are.

yesterday Bree sent me copies of poems that drip blood. in the package were some other Green Panda items.  to my surprise there were these 2 chapbooks:

the original had green covers with white pages & Bree added my Jimmy Scott poem to the outside back cover.  on this version I just got all pages are a pink or rose & "Short Vincent" is inside at the end of the text.

special collections librarians may not like this but I'm retired from that now & love it.