Cairn, John was manic depressive. Lived at home. First marriage fell apart. He was an only child. Smoked. Kept his room dark with heavy curtains. We met in one of the best literature classes I had in college. A Shakespeare class where the professor loved his subject and brought it to life. John and I became fast friends. We both avid readers of SF. And we stayed close until about 1990 when he passed. His wife and I once roomies and friends fell apart after his death.
Good post y'all. You also a sometimes screen writer? Small world. My latest attempt is a comedy about all those white vans in the parking lots of Home Despots. They would censor the heck out of it.
Pacing and the craft of film are obstacles. Drama interests me too. Phones make film feasible on the fly. A comedy I want to make -a director who uses iPhone like Medvedkin did in his film train through the Ukraine filming workers then screening film back same day. As high comedy in a dotcom. Screen the day back as part of the corporate process. Last scene is the A.I. corporate owner in Hong Kong with 10,000 screens flowing images.
Hunter S. Thompson’s name first appears on the Ramparts masthead, November 1967.
But he was a friend of yours during that time period in the late ‘60s at Ramparts?
Oh yeah. I never knew him before. He just walked into the office one night. He walks in my office says, “Yeah, I’m Hunter Thompson.” This is after the Hell’s Angels book, and I’d read it and it was terrific. So anyway, we had a couple of drinks; I know we walked up the street. This is when the Ramparts offices were on Broadway at the very end at the top of the strip. So we went up the street to have dinner and came back. I had a monkey at the time—named Henry Luce to piss off the guy at Time magazine, which did get him pissed off. (Luce found a reporter and asked him if it was true those people up there have a monkey called by my name? It made me happy.) Anyway, we get back (Hunter had thrown his knapsack on the couch in my office) and I hadn’t locked the [monkey’s] cage or something like that. The monkey had gotten out and gotten into Hunter’s knapsack. And it had a whole bunch, a lot of bottles of pills in there, and they were all over the floor but they were all empty. The monkey must have gobbled them all, well obviously he did, and he was berserk. He was just running. It was an old government building where they did scientific research (I’m sure poison gas), and they had these government-type windows on the side, and in the whole center of the space were these partitions, half wood and half glass you can’t see through. The monkey was running around the top of that thing and it had its leash on—the leash was flying! And it just turned into a completely vicious bastard. It was a sweet monkey before. It was up there for a day or so. No one was going to touch the goddamn thing; it wouldn’t stop running. And Hunter just sat there and said, “Goddamned monkey stole my pills.” It did steal his pills. I said, “Fuck you why didn’t you lock your knapsack?”
“Why should I lock my knapsack? You should have security around here.”
“Not from the monkey.”
There was the period when you were at Ramparts, and then there was Scanlan’s and Gonzo journalism and all of that stuff, but after that, in the ‘80s you were working at the Examiner with Hunter….
Oh yeah, that’s another big thing in this Hunter book. That whole Examiner period and the Mitchell Brothers period. The introduction, which is this thing I wrote, mentions everything. And it’s at least a third of the book; that’s where most of the illustrations come in, that history. But that includes the whole Mitchell Brothers period, which is not that very well-known. It’s kind of known he was the night manager of the Mitchell Brothers [O’Farrell] Theatre, but those stories are fabulous and the adventures extreme. And there’s a lot of art and photos from that period. It’s not about inside the sex business, it’s about this bizarre cultural part of San Francisco where these porn merchants were actually the Medicis of the fucking town. They were the ones really laying out money for artists and having this open place where even politicians would come to connive at night. It was like some great 19th century operation in this bizarre atmosphere of naked women running around, the shows, the constant fights with the authorities, and Diane Feinstein going crazy. It’s a wonderful period. And part of that was the Examiner at the time….
A Hearst paper…
It became a really interesting paper. It became extremely wild and crazy and liberal, and it didn’t have anything to lose because it was the second paper in a land-lock, JOA, joint operating deal where they got half the money. Anyway, the Chronicle became more and more conservative after my friend Scott Newhall, another madman—a genius—left, got kicked out because he saved the paper. So Will Hearst got it for a period of years. He became the publisher. He has a concentration span about as long as a straw, a very rapidly changing mind. Will, I know him quite well, he’s a good guy. He wanted to do the paper to have some fun, and that fit perfectly with the Mitchell Brothers cultural period, and Hunter being there and me being friends with these guys. I mean, you look back at the time and the Mitchell Brothers got very good treatment in the Examiner. Sunday Magazine spreads…“The Mitchell Brothers are home with all their kids and boxes of Wheaties.” They were friends, and the government was against them, so it was crass. It was a very funny period.
Great find, lol. Those, as they say, were the days. My favorite comedian - Hunter Thompson. The 1960's in Bay Area California were quite the playground.
Comparisons are natural. And have been made. Biden and Democrats are not unhappy cringing. Sending just like Canada-who had a Chinese balloon as well-the virtue signal.
I can see why you are laughing too much to keep from crying.
What you wrote started me laughing and laughing stopped me from crying.
Real life is funnier than make-believe comedy.
Anyway, some relief now as the balloon has been shot down. They waited until it was over water.
Sad Stegiel about your friend's fish making your friend finish himself off.
Cairn, John was manic depressive. Lived at home. First marriage fell apart. He was an only child. Smoked. Kept his room dark with heavy curtains. We met in one of the best literature classes I had in college. A Shakespeare class where the professor loved his subject and brought it to life. John and I became fast friends. We both avid readers of SF. And we stayed close until about 1990 when he passed. His wife and I once roomies and friends fell apart after his death.
Good post y'all. You also a sometimes screen writer? Small world. My latest attempt is a comedy about all those white vans in the parking lots of Home Despots. They would censor the heck out of it.
Pacing and the craft of film are obstacles. Drama interests me too. Phones make film feasible on the fly. A comedy I want to make -a director who uses iPhone like Medvedkin did in his film train through the Ukraine filming workers then screening film back same day. As high comedy in a dotcom. Screen the day back as part of the corporate process. Last scene is the A.I. corporate owner in Hong Kong with 10,000 screens flowing images.
I think I just published a current script - the one on the House Of Lords.
My Home Despots one is on the back burner until Zelensky is available for a walk on.
Just encountered a great Hunter Thompson piece by Warren Hinckle. https://babylonfalling.tumblr.com/warren_hinckle_interview_pg1
Hunter S. Thompson’s name first appears on the Ramparts masthead, November 1967.
But he was a friend of yours during that time period in the late ‘60s at Ramparts?
Oh yeah. I never knew him before. He just walked into the office one night. He walks in my office says, “Yeah, I’m Hunter Thompson.” This is after the Hell’s Angels book, and I’d read it and it was terrific. So anyway, we had a couple of drinks; I know we walked up the street. This is when the Ramparts offices were on Broadway at the very end at the top of the strip. So we went up the street to have dinner and came back. I had a monkey at the time—named Henry Luce to piss off the guy at Time magazine, which did get him pissed off. (Luce found a reporter and asked him if it was true those people up there have a monkey called by my name? It made me happy.) Anyway, we get back (Hunter had thrown his knapsack on the couch in my office) and I hadn’t locked the [monkey’s] cage or something like that. The monkey had gotten out and gotten into Hunter’s knapsack. And it had a whole bunch, a lot of bottles of pills in there, and they were all over the floor but they were all empty. The monkey must have gobbled them all, well obviously he did, and he was berserk. He was just running. It was an old government building where they did scientific research (I’m sure poison gas), and they had these government-type windows on the side, and in the whole center of the space were these partitions, half wood and half glass you can’t see through. The monkey was running around the top of that thing and it had its leash on—the leash was flying! And it just turned into a completely vicious bastard. It was a sweet monkey before. It was up there for a day or so. No one was going to touch the goddamn thing; it wouldn’t stop running. And Hunter just sat there and said, “Goddamned monkey stole my pills.” It did steal his pills. I said, “Fuck you why didn’t you lock your knapsack?”
“Why should I lock my knapsack? You should have security around here.”
“Not from the monkey.”
There was the period when you were at Ramparts, and then there was Scanlan’s and Gonzo journalism and all of that stuff, but after that, in the ‘80s you were working at the Examiner with Hunter….
Oh yeah, that’s another big thing in this Hunter book. That whole Examiner period and the Mitchell Brothers period. The introduction, which is this thing I wrote, mentions everything. And it’s at least a third of the book; that’s where most of the illustrations come in, that history. But that includes the whole Mitchell Brothers period, which is not that very well-known. It’s kind of known he was the night manager of the Mitchell Brothers [O’Farrell] Theatre, but those stories are fabulous and the adventures extreme. And there’s a lot of art and photos from that period. It’s not about inside the sex business, it’s about this bizarre cultural part of San Francisco where these porn merchants were actually the Medicis of the fucking town. They were the ones really laying out money for artists and having this open place where even politicians would come to connive at night. It was like some great 19th century operation in this bizarre atmosphere of naked women running around, the shows, the constant fights with the authorities, and Diane Feinstein going crazy. It’s a wonderful period. And part of that was the Examiner at the time….
A Hearst paper…
It became a really interesting paper. It became extremely wild and crazy and liberal, and it didn’t have anything to lose because it was the second paper in a land-lock, JOA, joint operating deal where they got half the money. Anyway, the Chronicle became more and more conservative after my friend Scott Newhall, another madman—a genius—left, got kicked out because he saved the paper. So Will Hearst got it for a period of years. He became the publisher. He has a concentration span about as long as a straw, a very rapidly changing mind. Will, I know him quite well, he’s a good guy. He wanted to do the paper to have some fun, and that fit perfectly with the Mitchell Brothers cultural period, and Hunter being there and me being friends with these guys. I mean, you look back at the time and the Mitchell Brothers got very good treatment in the Examiner. Sunday Magazine spreads…“The Mitchell Brothers are home with all their kids and boxes of Wheaties.” They were friends, and the government was against them, so it was crass. It was a very funny period.
Great find, lol. Those, as they say, were the days. My favorite comedian - Hunter Thompson. The 1960's in Bay Area California were quite the playground.
Comparisons are natural. And have been made. Biden and Democrats are not unhappy cringing. Sending just like Canada-who had a Chinese balloon as well-the virtue signal.