Jack Smith: Flaming Creature: His Amazing Life and Times

Rating:
Summary: It's always after they're gone...
Review: Jack was a friend of mine. I first saw him perform Thanksgiving night, 1979, up the stairs at the O-P Screen Room in lower Manhattan. He called it a Jungle Jack radio adventure and he read into a big old microphone from pages stored in a shoebox. He had a belly dancer whom he called Scheherezade Thompson read from Somerset Maughn's Rain. The audience was tiny and appreciative, but it went on for hours and hours. I felt privileged to be there, like I was watching the dust settle at the edge of eternity. This collection of essays about Jack is a necessity, because it can evoke his world, and it was a fascinating one. His humor and his eccentricity and his seriousness are all reflected in this collection. Today he is spoken of as a gay icon, but Jack did not regard his gayness as political. He was about glamor. I wish this book wasn't so expensive, because that will put off some of the folks who would benefit most from this. But it's worth it, folks. And, by the way, thanks a lot, Jack.

Rating:
Summary: It's always after they're gone...
Review: Jack was a friend of mine. I first saw him perform Thanksgiving night, 1979, up the stairs at the O-P Screen Room in lower Manhattan. He called it a Jungle Jack radio adventure and he read into a big old microphone from pages stored in a shoebox. He had a belly dancer whom he called Scheherezade Thompson read from Somerset Maughn's Rain. The audience was tiny and appreciative, but it went on for hours and hours. I felt privileged to be there, like I was watching the dust settle at the edge of eternity. This collection of essays about Jack is a necessity, because it can evoke his world, and it was a fascinating one. His humor and his eccentricity and his seriousness are all reflected in this collection. Today he is spoken of as a gay icon, but Jack did not regard his gayness as political. He was about glamor. I wish this book wasn't so expensive, because that will put off some of the folks who would benefit most from this. But it's worth it, folks. And, by the way, thanks a lot, Jack.