Defunct Florida Roadside Attractions
Before Disney World ruined everything, there used to be a slew of great roadside attractions in Florida that were cheap, sometimes sleazy and always satisfying! I was fortunate to have…
Jack Kerouac: Safe in Heaven Drunk
Date of Birth: March 12, 1922 Place of Birth: Lowell, Massachusetts Actual Name: Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac Nicknames: Ti-Jean (Little Jean), Memory Babe Family: Leo & Gabrielle Kerouac, parents; Gerard, brother (died at age of…
William S. Burroughs: Secret Agent in Hell
[1914-1997] Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri Family: Mortimer & Laura Lee Burroughs, parents; Mortimer Burroughs Jr., brother; William S. Burroughs Sr., grandfather (inventor of the adding machine) Nicknames: William Lee, El Hombre Invisible, Cosmonaut…
Searching for the Ghost of Ernest Hemingway in Key West
“The whiskey warmed his tongue and the back of his throat, but it did not change his ideas any, and suddenly, looking at himself in the mirror behind the bar,…
Weekend in Aintry! James Dickey and the Making of Deliverance
"I believe that I am in hell, therefore I am there." —Arthur Rimbaud, Une Saison en Enfer "The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air-conditioning systems cooling empty hotels…
Harry Crews: Out of the Gates, Slowly Bleeding
An autographed photograph of author Harry Crews (1935-2012) hangs inside my hallway closet (for some unknown reason, my wife won’t let me hang it in the living room). It’s a…
Johnny Eck: King of the Freaks
Often billed as "The Amazing Half Boy," Johnny Eck (1911-1991) appeared in Tod Browning's 1932 horror classic, Freaks. Eck (real name: Johnny Eckhardt) was born without a body below the…
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (2014)
The infamous 1996 version of H. G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau, which starred Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer, has gained a justified reputation as simply one of the…
Heartworn Highways (1976)
“The best music and the best whiskey come from the same part of the country.” Directed by James Szalapski, Heartworn Highways documents some of the leading singer-songwriters in the so-called…
Filmworker (2017)
“The remarkable, untold story of Leon Vitali who gave up fame and fortune to serve for decades as Stanley Kubrick’s right-hand man.” Leon Vitali gave up his career as a…