by Lee Hill
multiple projects, 72, 77, 175, 240
obituaries and tributes, 299–300
oblivious to unfinished screenplays, 232
persona, 20–21, 45, 55–56
personal characteristics, 9, 16, 39, 47, 48, 55, 155, 211, 303
personal philosophy, 29, 154
public interest in, 280–81, 283
relationship with women, 3, 48, 141
status, 124, 128, 129, 157, 294–95, 300
success of, 194
tax problems, 169–70, 171, 192, 195, 199, 206, 275, 286
teaching, 209, 218, 275, 286–87, 291, 297
Southern Methodist University (SMU), 16–17, 18
“South’s Summer Idyll” (TS), 77
Spencer, Kenneth, 81, 83
Spielberg, Steven, 127, 183, 230, 271
Spin, 284–85
“Spy’s Corner, The” (column, TS), 103
Stander, Lionel, 134
Steiger, Rod, 134
Starr, Ringo, 156, 168, 184, 185, 187, 188, 212, 213, 268–69
Stein, Jean, 60–61, 97, 148, 222, 226, 244, 261, 282, 295, 296
Steinbeck, John, 17, 155
Stern, Jacques, 221–22, 223–26, 227, 228, 230–31
Stop Thief! (teleplay), 216
Story magazine, 34, 62
“Strange Sex We Have Known” (TS and Burroughs), 207
“Strangelove Outtake” (TS), 294
style (TS), 49, 77, 164, 191, 229
Styron, William, 44, 53, 64, 87, 94, 97, 104, 178
“Sun and Still-born Stars, The” (TS), 42–43, 49, 65
Sundance Screenwriters lab, 275
Susskind, David, 155
Talese, Gay, 30, 105, 151, 206, 293
Taylor, Gilbert, 120
Telephone, The (script), 269, 270–72, 275
television, 70, 76, 78, 95, 245–51
Tennant, Emma, 78
Texas Summer (TS), 7, 10, 281, 283–84, 286, 289–90, 292
Thompson, Hunter S., 206, 210, 231
“Thriving on a Riff” (TS), 40
Time magazine, 56, 124, 168, 199, 228
Tinkle, Julien Lon, 16–17
“Tito Bandini (If That Indeed Is His Name)” (TS), 260
Torn, Rip, 22, 137, 138, 165, 171, 174, 208, 216, 217, 232, 271, 272, 285
lawsuit against Hopper, 295–96
Tough City (script by Loguidice), 230, 231, 232
Toynbee, Philip, 57
Tristan, Dorothy, 179–82
Trocchi, Alexander, 46–48, 52, 67, 101–2, 186, 297
Twentieth Century Fox, 189, 201, 202, 242, 261
“Twice on Top” (TS), 208
“Twirling at Ole Miss” (TS), 105, 107, 122, 178, 205
in New Journalism anthology, 206
2001: A Space Odyssey (film), 126, 147
Tynan, Kathleen, 85, 148
Tynan, Kenneth, 85, 97–98, 99, 115, 144, 148
United Artists, 148, 183, 238, 268
U.S. Supreme Court, 95
Vadim, Roger, 139, 148, 155, 161, 162, 164
Variety, 83, 124
Vidal, Gore, 31, 75, 97, 123, 157, 169, 207, 281
video, 208, 257
Vietnam War, 169, 176, 182, 191–92, 206, 207, 220
Vonnegut, Kurt, 18, 41, 96, 101
Warhol, Andy, 143, 148, 149, 153, 155–56, 202, 221, 228
Warner Bros., 199, 211–12, 213, 216
Wasserman, Paul, 222
Waters, John, 194, 207
Waugh, Evelyn, 1, 3, 20, 21, 124, 134–35
Weld, Tuesday, 131, 137, 179
Welles, Orson, 113, 142
Wenner, Jann, 209–10
West, Nathanael, 12, 59, 83, 132, 201
Wexler, Haskell, 4, 134, 135, 178, 241
“When Film Gets Good” (TS), 101, 110
Whut? (script), 289–90
Wigan, Gareth, 142
Willam Morris (agency), 97, 230, 254
Willis, Gordon, 179, 181
Wilner, Hal, 247, 275, 293–94
Winters, Jonathan, 5, 134, 293
With Extreme Prejudice, 232
Wolfe, Tom, 105, 206
works (TS), 2, 229–30, 280
children’s story, 72
influence of, 302–3
in limbo, 282
memoir, 294
playlet for McGovern, 205–6
published, 110
and satire boom, 98
stories-in-progress, 49
theme of, 303
thesis, 28
trying to get published, 65
unfinished, 232
unpublished, 283
World War II, 17–19, 53, 147
Wright, Richard, 30, 44
writer (TS), 33, 283
aspirations, 17, 28, 47
development as, 21, 49
identity as, 52–53
transition from literary to interdisciplinary, 95–96
Writers Guild of America, 189
Writers in Revolt (anthology), 48, 102, 123
writing (TS), 31–32, 41–42, 48, 52, 77, 94, 97, 116, 154, 196, 251, 258, 265, 291
approach to, 55
drugs and, 220
early, 12
in Geneva, 70
idea of fun in, 300
letters to friends, 207
multiple projects, 57
TS on, 297
Wyler, William, 122, 129, 130
Yates, Peter, 122
“You Gotta Leave Your Mark” (TS), 65
Youngblood (TS), 7, 235, 261
“You’re Too Hip, Baby” (TS), 40–41, 122, 213
Youth International Party (Yippie movement), 176–77
Acknowledgments
Biographies are labor-intensive and this book presented its own unique challenges. My work on Terry Southern’s life and art felt like a high-wire act at times, but the journey was turned into a grand adventure by the many people (“a veritable cast of thousands!”) who helped me since this project’s modest beginnings in 1990. I am extremely grateful to Nile and Carol Southern, and to Gail Gerber for their warm and open cooperation during all stages of my research. As executor of the Terry Southern estate, Nile was especially helpful in providing me with complete and unmediated access to his father’s papers.
I am also grateful for the assistance of the following individuals who either allowed themselves to be interviewed, answered queries, or assisted with research: Ellen Adler, Lewis Allen, Mark Amerika, David Amram, Diana Athill, George and Alexandra Avakian, Peter Beard, Richard Benjamin, Victor Bockris, Peta Button, David Cammell, William Claxton, Stuart Cornfeld, Andre Deutsch, Bettina Drew, Patti Dryden, Roger Ebert, Harlan Ellison, James Goldstone, Jonathan Gill, Bruce Jay Friedman, Josh Alan Friedman, Anthony Frewin, Jack Gelber, Mike Golden, James Grauerholz, James Harris, Buck Henry, Helene Hladum, Juliette Hoffenberg, Darius James, Nick Jones, Arthur Kopit, Paul Krassner, Ted Kotcheff, Christiane Kubrick, Sandy Lieberson, Si Litvinoff, Joe Loguidice, Nelson Lyon, Norman Mailer, Gerard Malanga, John Marquand Jr., Susan Martin, Peter Matthiessen, Harry Matthews, Joseph McGrath, Barry Miles, Jonathan Miller, Laura Mulvey and Mike Allen at the British Film Institute, David Newman, Michael O’Donoghue, Maggie Paley, Anita Pallenberg, Charles Pike, George Plimpton, Perry and Ellie Richardson, Mordecai Richler, Nicolas Roeg, Barney Rosset, Ovid Santoro, Richard and Jeanette Seaver, Jerry Schatzberg, Mark Singer of the New Yorker, Jean Stein, Jeremy Treglown, Dorothy Tristan, David Tully, Kathleen Tynan, Gore Vidal, Jimmy Vines, and Hal Wilner.
This book was written in New York City, London, England, and Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and I wish to acknowledge the assistance of the staffs of the Columbia University Rare Book Room, the British Film Institute, the British Library, the University of London libraries, the University of Calgary, and the Calgary Public Library system in making my research easier.
For advice, counsel, hospitality, friendship, and in some cases much needed freelance work: John Baxter, Victor Bockris, the Calgary Society of Independent Filmm
akers, Paul Cremin, Phil Coombs, Elaine’s Restaurant, Sean French, David Godwin, Stephen and Colin Gilmour, Matthew Hamilton at Bloomsbury Publishing, Jean, Leonie, and Piers Hartard, Warren Kinsella, Maria and Gabriella Licudi, David Locke, Patrick McGilligan, Tom McSorley, Kirk Miles, Martin Morrow, Scot Morison of the sadly defunct Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Dan Nearing, Leslie Needham, Annie Nocenti at Scenario, Dennis Perrin, Sandra Sawatzky, Mathew Schneck, Nick Stevens, David Tully, Eamonn and Jean Whelan, Damon Wise, the music of the Beatles, John Barry, Burt Bacharach, Stereolab, Miles Davis, and the Rolling Stones, and the inimitable Andre Zelli at Vox.
I would like to extend a special thanks to my editors, Tom Dupree and Yung Kim, and their colleagues at Spike/Avon and HarperCollins for their support, faith, enthusiasm, and patience. I am also grateful to my agent, Kim Witherspoon, and her staff at Witherspoon and Associates, New York City, for making the business of writing easier.
And last and certainly not least to Terry Southern, the original Grand Guy, who allowed me to become his “Boz.”
About the Author
Lee Hill has written about film, literature, music, and popular culture for the Guardian, Scenario, and Neon, Cameo, Vox, and other U.S., Canadian, and English publications. He is also the author of Easy Rider, a part of the British Film Institute’s ongoing Modern Classic Series. This biography grew out of a series of conversations and interviews with Terry Southern that began in 1990 and lasted until the writer’s death in 1995.
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Copyright
Some images were unavailable for the electronic edition.
A GRAND GUY. Copyright © 2001 by Lee Hill. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hill, Lee
A grand guy : the art and life of Terry Southern / Lee Hill.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-380-97786-9
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Southern, Terry. 2. Novelists, American—20th century—Biography. 3. Humorists, American—20th century—Biography. 4. Screenwriters—United States—Biography. 5. Satire, American—History and criticism. I. Title.
PS3569.08 Z69 2001
813'.54—dc21
[B] 00-063167
EPub Edition © March 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-201283-8
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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