Wednesday, May 20, 2009

John Gilmore- Laid Bare

I've been laying around sick for a few days, head full of snot, retching up some horrid yellow bile (some sort of side effect from the chronic hep c), and blogerating is the last thing I feel like doing, but lying around staring at TCM, too out of it to even bother starting a new book, I find myself re-reading one of my favorite showbiz memoirs, a book that got almost no attention here in New York when it was published back in '97 (I assume it must have made a stink in L.A. because when I was there in '97 living high on the hog at the Chateau Marmont just a mention of Gilmore's name would send folks into seismic frenzies of denial), but I assure you this is a book you want to read: Laid Bare by John Gilmore (Amok Press, 1997).  Gilmore's clear eyed, lucid prose captures Janis Joplin years before fame as a down and out North Beach tramp, Hank Williams at the Opry on the verge of superstardom and then pissing his pants months before his death, the only account of James Dean I've ever read that made him seem like a real person, scathing looks at Steve McQueen, Dennis Hopper, the underbelly of Hollywood-- the Black Dahlia, Manson, Mickey Cohen, and wait, a side trip to Tuscon to cover the trial of Charles Schmidt, the Pied Piper Of Tuscon, sleaze galore from Barbara Payton and Franchot Tone, sad sack Tom Neal ("fate can point the finger at you or me, for any reason at all"), the sadly forgotten John Hodiak, Brigitte Bardot in Paris, Jane Seberg, Lenny Bruce, Vampira, every page of this book is fascinating. I can't remember who turned me onto it, I just remember an uncorrected manuscript showing up in my mailbox at WFMU at I think my final show (who did I pass that on to? I hope it found a good home....). I've given away a dozen copies over the years and have read every other book Gilmore's written (they're all excellent, I especially like Deranged aka the Tuscon Murders aka Cold Blooded), but Laid Bare is something truly special, a tell all that tells the truth, and it is written so well it sparkles like jewels on the page. I'm going back to my sick bed for a few days, I suggest you hunt down a copy of Laid Bare for yourself.

7 comments:

J.D. King said...

WOW! I wanna read it!!!

PS: Several years ago, didn't a certain writing duo have an oral history of the Manson Family they were submitting to publishers? Do you know what happened to that? My guess has always been that the powers that be in Hollywood killed it because it exposed, um, like everyone in the 1960's L.A. music biz for being a pal of Charlie Manson.

Anonymous said...

this guy is second only to kenneth anger in terms of misinfo, outright lies, and fables. a fun read, but strictly as fiction.

DefChef said...

Yeah, I ran across a copy of Gilmore's "LA Despair," which (apparently) covers some of the same ground as "Laid Bare" - there's a looong, incredibly gruesome story about Barbra Peyton et al, and practically every page there's something where you're like "can't he get sued for that?!?" I agree that there's no way it can all be true, but still....great stuff...

Anonymous said...

Tucson, Hound, TUCSON, Spell it right. For a kid growing up there, Charles Shmidt, Jr (aka Smitty) was the sure enough boogeyman - even though he was incarcerated! When he escaped - ever so briefly - in the early seventies, the whole town shit its collective pants. Even 12 years later, my World Cultures' teacher choked up at the mention of victim (and former student) Gretchen Fritz's name. Then again, Smitty couldn't have been ALL bad if his fave record was Bo's 'Who Do You Love?', right?

J.D. King said...

Thanks for the recommendation! GREAT book! Gilmore has a fine eye and memory for detail, a good ear and memory for dialogue.

It's a fascinating book, start to finish!

timgt said...

Strangely, it seems the saxophonist by the same name made an album by the same name...
http://www.last.fm/music/John+Gilmore/Laid+Bare

The Hound said...

"Strangely, it seems the saxophonist by the same name made an album by the same name..."

This isn't an album by Sun Ra Arkestra tenor player John Gilmore, it's the author reading from Laid Bare
over music by Skip Heller. John Gilmore did cut one LP without Sun Ra, issued on Blue Note in the 50's it's called Blowing From Chicago.

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