I wasn’t referring to that joke.
Beforehand, I should say I wouldn’t have been very fond of the beatniks ( but then I wouldn’t have liked the 1950s anyway ) I am not interested in any of the things they enjoyed; I hate jazz; Kerouac and Ginsburg would bore me; beatnik fashions aren’t to my taste.
However, they had their own valid point of view, a respectable philosophy, a deeply spiritual side — I dunno if the hippies were their successors or that they morphed into hippies ---- and fought back against one of the most stifling conformities a conformist culture imposed.
Caen ridiculed them in the holy name of materialism, dubbed them beatniks to indicate a soviet likeness, and hounded a group of innocents.
Kerouac’s address was later published as “The Origins of the Beat Generation” (Playboy, June 1959). In that article Kerouac noted how his original beatific philosophy had been ignored amid maneuvers by several pundits, among them Herb Caen, the San Francisco newspaperman, to alter Kerouac’s concept with jokes and jargon:*
While Caen and other writers implied a connection with communism, there was no obvious or direct connection between the beat philosophy (as expressed by the leading authors of this literary movement) and the philosophy of the communist movement, other than the antipathy that both philosophies shared towards capitalism.*
Article as above.
To be intolerant of any harmless group is distasteful; to accuse those of soviet connections, linking them to one of the most hideous tyrannies on earth at a time when ordinary Americans were propagandised to fear and hate that tyranny to an absurd extent is the essence of bad faith.
A little anecdote: years ago (1970s), there was an upscale men’s clothing store in Lawrence, MA, called “Kap’s”. It sold really high end stuff-mostly Italian-made. they ran a TV ad with a clip from “Lawrence of Arabia”. It was the scene where O’Toole is in Bedouin robes, on top of a building…surrounded by arabs chanting “Lawrence, Lawrence”-I always wondered if they ever got in trouble for that.
An odd concept for a commercial, though. Unless they were selling Bedouin robes. If they’d found a movie clip in which characters shout the name of the shop (instead of the name of the town), it would make more sense.
(On top of a train, not on top of a building, by the way.)
In re Herb Caen: I’m not well-enough informed about his career to know whether the remarks posted here (about Caen’s writings about the Beats) are an accurate reflection of his views. Of course red-baiting is never an attractive activity, in any context.
I’ve loved Peter O’Toole since seeing Lawrence of Arabia–twice–in its original run.* My Favorite Year *may be my favorite movie…
But I popped in here to talk about Herb Caen. “Beatnik” was not “Red Baiting”–haven’t any of you whippersnappers studied history?
Some of the serious Beats were offended–Kerouac’s anger was exacerbated by the booze. But Caen was really talking about the wanna-bes. The kids who decided they liked the look & the lifestyle–but didn’t create anything. Think Maynard G Krebs. Neo-Beatnik Shag painted “Beat versus Beatnik” early this century…
A few years later, Caen invented “hippie” to describe the wanna-be hipsters flocking to his city by the Bay. He was a humorist & his remark on Peter O’Toole was a play on words, not a value judgment on the actor…
An odd concept for a commercial, though. Unless they were selling Bedouin robes. If they’d found a movie clip in which characters shout the name of the shop (instead of the name of the town), it would make more sense.
(On top of a train, not on top of a building, by the way.)
The commercial was pretty clever, as I recall-it started with a well-dressed guy showing all the nice clothes for sale at Kap’s, then cut to O’Toole-on top of the train. the announcer’s voice then said, all of this is available at Kaps…in Lawrence"-then the Arabs started chanting!
Or maybe I can rely on the views of messers Kerouac and Ginsberg on how Mr. Caen misrepresented their vision. The word “beatnik” was coined by Herb Caen in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958.[11] Caen coined the term by adding the Russian suffix -nik after Sputnik I to the Beat Generation. Caen’s column with the word came six months after the launch of Sputnik. Objecting to Caen’s twist on the term, Allen Ginsberg wrote to the New York Times to deplore “the foul word beatnik,” commenting, “If beatniks and not illuminated Beat poets overrun this country, they will have been created not by Kerouac but by industries of mass communication which continue to brainwash man.”
Kinda funny he was writing to the New York Times to denounce industries of mass communications…
Few journalists are read beyond their country, and I should not expect you to know the works of such once-known British columnists of that odd period as O’Connor ( Cassandra ) and Keith Waterhouse once dead: Kerouac and Ginsberg will be remembered for their virtues though, despite the fact I wouldn’t willingly read either.
Well, I’ve read & enjoyed Ginsberg–and some of the other Beats. Kerouac, not so much…
Despite their opinions about the entertaining Mr Caen, it was well known that “Beatniks” applied to the guys with goatees, berets & bongos–in search of Free Love & Mary Jane. The guys who never actually created a thing. The real “Beats” were a less stylish group & continued to evolve. Kerouac returned to his Mom’s house & the bottle.
I loved Lawrence of Arabia and have seen it many times.
Lowell Thomas: “What do you like about the desert?”
Lawrence: “It’s clean.”
I also adore My Favorite Year. My favorite scene in that movie is when the man comes over to Alan Swann’s table at the Stork Club and asks him to come to his table to meet his wife Ann because it’s their anniversary. Swann stands and says, “Take me to the fair Ann,” and then twirls her around the room in a beautiful waltz, never taking his eyes off her face. As they gracefully swoop and turn, the other dancers fall back and soon they are dancing within a wall of adoring, smiling faces. It’s impossible not to smile from ear to ear when watching that scene.
The scenes at Benjy’s mom’s (Lainie Kazan in a fabulous role!) in Brooklyn are priceless. Benjy’s aunt comes down in her 1920’s wedding dress, and when Alan compliments her on it, she says drily. “I only wore it once.”
And in the end, Alan does turn out to be a hero, saving King Kaiser from a real-life, serious physical threat.
Actually taken from the great John Barrymore who, when surprised peeing into a potted plant by an astonished lady, said and did just this. (The movie was based on Barrymore.)
Coincidentally I just saw a young O’Toole in The Day They Robbed The Bank of England. A true original. Ave atque vale, Peter.
For anybody who doesn’t know, that actress was Gloria Stuart, 50 years after her hey day but more than a decade before Titanic made her famous again.
Mel Brooks was talking about his own experiences that made their way into My Favorite Year and said Swann wasn’t just Errol Flynn but a composite. Does anybody know who the other actors put on drunk watch were?
That’s tough to determine because there were a lot of them. First one that comes to mind is John Barrymore whose frequent episodes of alcoholic excess became legendary. Even though Barrymore was dead by the time Brooks was working in TV during the 50s, I’m sure he worked with a lot of people in show business who witnessed Barrymore’s drunken exploits first-hand.
