FRIDAY

Today I heard Erik Larson read a selection from his work and he is a terrific writer but I was listening to him when I was in the car and I was wondering how I would remember his name. Still, as you can see, I did.

Today I thought about Eric Loos. He had such a strange name and I remember very little about him other than the fact that he had a terrifically shaped head, very handsome, and a really great crew cut that conformed to his terrifically shaped head, and he was eight years old. I doubt he has a crew cut anymore and I bet by now his hair is grey. I also remember that he yelled GOTCHA when he hit me with the ball during a game of dodgeball in 1964, the day before the Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan Show. * Everything else about Eric Loos are things that I would have to guess, like his name. Loos is, what, Scandanavian, I think? Or German like Adolf Loos the architect dandy or Czech, it could be Czech. Didn’t Anita Loos write GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES? And that’s French of course. Also Eric Loos had a living room was one long plate glass window and I think he also had a sister who was very pretty, and seven.

Today I thought about Jack Larson, I am not completely sure, but I think that after he played “Jimmy Olsen”** in SUPERMAN he became really serious about music and did stuff in music and I may be wrong but I think that he was drinking with Virgil Thompson and Frank O’Hara on Fire Island on the night that Frank O’Hara got run over by a beach buggy. I am not sure if Jack Larson is homosexual, but since he was drinking with Virgil Thompson and Frank O’Hara at three in the morning on Fire Island he might be. Or too bad for Jack Larson if he wasn't. Oh. That is a very narrow way of looking at things, isn’t it? I have no reason to think one thing or another. But come on, I mean, really. And even if he is a composer, still, it is really hard to take Jack Larson seriously. All I can think of when I see his face is the word “Jeepers.” Even if his hair is now grey, which I suppose it must be by now unless he is dead, or bald.



* I made this part up, of course.

** I actually have an abiding affection for Jimmy Olsen, and I can thank Jack Larson for that. I bet he is a terrific musician.

Comments

Unknown said…
Wikipedia's entry on Jack Larson verifies all.
Ricky Garni said…
You're right, but It's bittersweet. Even though it throws in JL's preferences, and even though it throws in a little Montgomery Clift for good measure, we still don't know about that night on Fire Island. And I would still like to hear Jack Larson sing, although as a librettist, I don't imagine he had to, necessarily. Still, it would be trippy, in the extreme.

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