{"id":3671,"date":"2015-10-08T12:17:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T12:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixtiescinema.com\/?p=3671"},"modified":"2015-10-08T12:17:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T12:17:01","slug":"easy-rider-from-trippin-with-terry-southern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/2015\/10\/08\/easy-rider-from-trippin-with-terry-southern\/","title":{"rendered":"“Easy Rider” from Trippin’ with Terry Southern"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gerber_Trippin\"<\/a>
\n<\/a>In honor of it being the late Gail Gerber’s birthday month, thought I would share an excerpt on how the classic\u00a0Easy Rider<\/em>\u00a0was created from her 2010 memoir Trippin’ with Terry Southern<\/strong>. It was the most talked about section as she refutes most of the bullshit Peter Fonda and the late Dennis Hopper have been shoveling for decades.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/UjlxqANj68U<\/p>\n

Excerpt from “Uneasy Rider” from Trippin with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember<\/em> by Gail Gerber with Tom Lisanti<\/p>\n

Peter Fonda showed up at the carriage house on East 36th Street one rainy night in November of 1967.\u00a0 The son of Henry Fonda and sister of Jane, Peter gave an impressive Golden Globe-nominated performance as a solider in The Victors<\/em> (1963) but the studios tabbed him a new romantic lead pairing him with Sandra Dee in the corny Tammy and the Doctor<\/em> (1963) and with Sharon Hugueny in The Young Lovers<\/em> (1964).\u00a0 Fonda was saved from becoming another Troy Donahue when American International Pictures asked him to step in at the last minute as a replacement for actor George Chakiris who balked at doing his own motorcycle riding in Roger Corman\u2019s The Wild Angels<\/em> (1966).\u00a0 Peter played Heavenly Blues the leader of a local Hell\u2019s Angels motorcycle club chapter.\u00a0 The film was an immediate hit and suddenly a long-haired Peter Fonda was cool in the eyes of the youth culture.\u00a0 Signed to do two more films for AIP, Fonda next starred as a TV commercial director who decides to experiment with LSD in The Trip<\/em> (1967).\u00a0 He had one more film owed on his contract and that\u2019s when he knocked on our door.<\/p>\n

Terry had known Peter Fonda from the time he arrived in Hollywood in 1964 when it was a sleepy town in the doldrums between cinematic highs, and the children of the great stars of another era were trying to develop careers \u2026 or not.\u00a0 Terry and I would spend time at the Malibu home of Bobby Walker where we met and became friendly with Peter.<\/p>\n

Terry was expecting Peter when he turned up at our doorstep on that chilly autumn night.\u00a0 While Terry was in Rome a few weeks prior he had lunch with Peter who was making a movie for Roger Vadim and where he shared with Terry an idea for a film that came to him in a hotel room in Toronto.\u00a0 Per Terry it was first about two daredevil racecar drivers being exploited by greedy promoters but then morphed into a tale about two bikers who score some dope, go on a road trip, and have a series of \u201cinteresting incidences\u201d when Peter realized that he owed American International Pictures one more biker film.<\/p>\n

Terry was very enthusiastic about the project but Peter felt he wouldn\u2019t have enough in the budget to pay Terry\u2019s fee to write the script.\u00a0 After I let Peter into our home he reiterated the plot once again to Terry and said he had a title for the movie, something like The Loners<\/em>.\u00a0 Terry, sitting on our golden couch, raised his hand to indicate a marquee, and said, \u201cWhy not call it Easy Rider<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Terry once again expressed great interest in writing the screenplay.\u00a0 As I remember, which differs from Peter\u2019s recollection, the rest of the conversation went something as follows:<\/p>\n

Peter: \u201cWe can\u2019t afford you Terry. \u00a0Can you do it on deferment?\u201d<\/p>\n

Terry: \u201cI can\u2019t, but I\u2019ll do it for scale and a percentage.\u00a0 Who is going to direct?\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter: \u201cDennis Hopper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terry: \u201cAre you sure!?!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennis had never directed before and had such a bad reputation at this time.\u00a0 Despite his trepidation about Hopper, Terry agreed with the understanding of receiving a percentage of the profits and was to come up with the \u201cinteresting incidences.\u201d\u00a0 Fonda was pleased, and rushed out into the night.\u00a0 This was the era of oral agreements and handshake deals, and Terry had no reason to doubt Peter.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that he had co-authored such classic movies as Dr. Strangelove<\/em>, The Loved One<\/em>, The Cincinnati Kid<\/em>, and Barbarella<\/em>, Terry wasn\u2019t getting any offers in the U.S. at this time.\u00a0 I thought it was a little strange, (soon we would learn that the FBI had a hand in Terry not working) but was not involved in his business.\u00a0 I assumed he had smart New York and Los Angeles people looking after his \u201cbest interests,\u201d but it seems that they were looking out for their own welfare, where Terry only thought of the next project.\u00a0 Terry said to me once, \u201cAn agent never got me a job, but was always there to take their percentage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter returned after the holidays and moved into the monk-like half furnished room on the third floor.\u00a0 He and Terry finally got down to business, hired a typist from a typing pool in Washington D.C who came to the house, and started on the series of \u201cinteresting incidences.\u201d\u00a0 They worked nonstop all day for about a month, Terry with his yellow pad and pencil, and Peter pacing around the living room\u2014the better to think.\u00a0 The typist would come by about five o\u2019clock in the afternoon and type up the pages, triple spaced, and then Terry would work on the script some more into the wee hours of the night.<\/p>\n

One night, very late, Peter had gone out on the town.\u00a0 Terry continued to work with the typist.\u00a0 They finished up and were just talking while I made drinks.\u00a0 The typist mentioned that she had done a lot of typing for the government, and that these classified documents she was working on had to do with how there are alien people from outer space walking around amongst us, and working for the government.\u00a0 They looked just like us, and had infiltrated the highest offices, and had blended right in.<\/p>\n

After she left, Terry got right to work on it and incorporated this into a scene he wrote with his good friend Rip Torn in mind.\u00a0 The part was that of the \u201cFaulkner-like\u201d country lawyer eventually played by Jack Nicholson in the movie.\u00a0 As Wyatt and Billy sit around a campfire with the lawyer getting stoned, he regales the bikers with this conspiracy theory about the government covering up the existence of aliens.\u00a0 Terry showed the scene to Rip and asked if he would do it.\u00a0 Rip was busy with rehearsals for his new play called The Cuban Thing<\/em>, which coincidentally was the same play I had auditioned for but didn\u2019t get.\u00a0 Rip said he would try to do the movie if his schedule worked out.<\/p>\n

Eventually Dennis Hopper, who was to direct Easy Rider<\/em>, arrived.\u00a0 Early in his career Hopper was being compared to James Dean.\u00a0 A confrontation with legendary director Henry Hathaway on the set of From Hell to Texas<\/em> in 1958 pretty much blackballed him from the film industry though he remained active on television.\u00a0 Terry had met Dennis in 1965 when he was hired by Vogue<\/em> to do a magazine piece on Hopper\u2019s then-wife Brooke Hayward, daughter of the Broadway producer Leland Hayward.\u00a0 Dennis was not working as an actor at the time, but as a photographer.\u00a0 They had a house in the Hollywood Hills, and Dennis had quite a collection of contemporary art.\u00a0 Terry entitled his article, \u201cThe Loved House of the Dennis Hopper\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

We stayed friendly with Brooke and Dennis (Terry, always with the nicknames, called him \u201cDen\u201d), and we\u2019d go to the house for dinner.\u00a0 Brooke would serve something wonderful and wisely go to bed.\u00a0 Dennis and Terry would retire, with drinks in hand, to the living room, which had a disconcerting dentist\u2019s chair.\u00a0 I would find a cozy sofa and watch Dennis and Terry talk.\u00a0 Dennis would expound on his idea of how Shakespeare should be spoken, and rant on about a film he wanted to direct called The Last Movie<\/em>, which he eventually managed to make.\u00a0 Terry loved madness and people behaving badly (and you couldn\u2019t get any madder or badder than Hopper).\u00a0 Terry would draw this behavior out, and then go home and write \u201cfiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Dennis showed up at our house in New York we let him stay in Nile\u2019s room, which he complained about and rudely called \u201ca closet.\u201d \u00a0I tried to stay out of the way as best I could.\u00a0 Dennis was there for about two weeks, and at night he and Peter would be pacing around my living room, gesturing, and throwing out ideas between passing joints between the three of them.\u00a0 Though Terry was a martini man he would just hold the joint and pass it along most times.\u00a0 Somebody had to stay straight to do the writing so Terry sat with his pencil and a long yellow pad on our golden couch, scribbling away.\u00a0 He would hand the pages to the typist and she would type them up immediately.\u00a0 Dennis would rant and rave, using a lot of four-letter words, and the typist would break into tears, and run sobbing out into the night.\u00a0 Terry would have to call the typing pool the next day, and get another typist.\u00a0 Terry suggested that they change the \u201cdrug of choice\u201d from marijuana to cocaine, which was not in fashion yet, because pot was too bulky to be carrying on the motorcycles.\u00a0 Dennis thought that running the credits upside down might be interesting, and he also whined about why the two characters had to die.<\/p>\n

Terry loved collaborating with other people. He always felt that two heads were better than one when creating a story or screenplay. Terry was really in his element sharing concepts with Peter and Dennis.\u00a0 He just loved to work in this free-for-all fashion with people yelling out story ideas while nestled on the sofa he jotted down the better ones in pencil on his yellow legal pad.\u00a0 Peter once remarked that Terry agreed to work on Easy Rider<\/em> on a handshake \u201cjust for the sake of having the freedom to play with an idea that appealed to his individual nature.\u201d\u00a0 This statement is oh-so-true.<\/p>\n

Terry had the scripts neatly bound and held on to the original.\u00a0 He handed copies to Peter and Dennis, and off they went back to Hollywood.\u00a0 Terry also gave a script to Rip Torn who retained his copy after all these years.<\/p>\n

Peter, who owed American International Pictures one more movie, took the script to studio heads James Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff.\u00a0 Peter and Dennis were trying to use this biker movie to make a more interesting statement about the current state of affairs in the U.S. but also as a springboard to launch Dennis\u2019 directing career.\u00a0 But due to the proposed budget and the rampant drug use, AIP turned it down to Sam Arkoff\u2019s forever regrets.\u00a0 Fonda then made an agreement with Bert Schneider who, along with director Bob Rafelson, brought The Monkees to television and produced their movie Head<\/em> in 1968.\u00a0 Bert had a production deal with Columbia Pictures, which wound up distributing the movie.\u00a0 However, there was a stipulation as the studio gave Dennis and Peter about $40,000 to go to New Orleans Mardi Gras to shoot some test footage, which was eventually used in the film, to see if they could really pull off making a movie.<\/p>\n

This shoot was scheduled to commence in March.\u00a0 At the last minute someone was bright enough to check and discovered Mardi Gras that year was in February so the rush was on to get to New Orleans for the parade, where one of the last scenes was to be shot in a graveyard.\u00a0 It was Peter\u2019s soliloquy, and a photo exists of Terry and Peter discussing it, with Fonda clutching the script.<\/p>\n

Terry and I flew down to New Orleans and found the cast and crew settled in a crummy motel at the airport.\u00a0 We caught the end of the parade and then went to the graveyard for Peter\u2019s scene.\u00a0 When night came there was no crew to light the set.\u00a0 In the book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Generation Saved Hollywood <\/em>by Peter Biskind, a crew member said that there was so much chaos someone\u2019s girlfriend had to hold the Sun Gun. I was that person.\u00a0 I had no idea what a Sun Gun was when I volunteered to help while standing late at night in a boggy, soggy New Orleans cemetery.\u00a0 Some guy’s voice came out of the dark, and\u00a0said, “We have no one to hold the Sun Gun.\u201d\u00a0Trying to be helpful,\u00a0I chirped, “I’ll do it!”\u00a0 Before I knew what was happening, a couple of burly guys strapped this giant, heavy battery pack around my waist, which caused me to sink further into the bog.\u00a0 I was to hold this pole the size of a broomstick with a bright light on the end and keep it steady on Peter’s face while he did his monologue.\u00a0This was a lengthy speech and it took all night to shoot.\u00a0 I tried so hard to keep the pole steady, while I continued to sink further and further into the misty marsh. \u00a0Peter was emoting like mad, and the crew was concentrating, knowing this was going to be a one-take shot that they only had one chance to get.\u00a0Luckily, we got it. If not, I\u2019m afraid that I might have disappeared completely into the bog never to be heard from again.<\/p>\n

Everyone slept all the next day, which is odd for people who are supposed to be shooting a movie.\u00a0 In the morning I went wandering, and found a classic New Orleans funeral.\u00a0 I saw the Dirge and later the joyful exit, and the Second Line with umbrellas in the light drizzle of rain.\u00a0 Later that afternoon, we gathered in someone\u2019s room in the motel.\u00a0 It had been raining all day, and Dennis insisted he needed the camera to film the neon lights reflected in the puddles.\u00a0 No one was about to give Dennis a camera.\u00a0 I went back to our room and didn\u2019t see the camera go through the motel\u2019s plate glass window.<\/p>\n

The next day I told Terry that I was going back to New York.\u00a0 I returned home to East 36th Street, and a few days later Terry showed up.\u00a0 He looked perturbed but was tight-lipped about it.\u00a0 When I asked him what went on down there after I left, all he would manage to bark out was a \u201cHrrrmph.\u201d\u00a0 Actress Karen Black, who played a New Orleans prostitute in the film, said Dennis\u2019 behavior became so unruly that Terry turned to him and said, \u201cThe cacophony of your verbiage is driving me insane.\u201d\u00a0 There was nothing more to shoot in New Orleans that I know of, and I guess they all de-camped.\u00a0 The filming was finished for the moment.\u00a0 Peter and Dennis returned to Hollywood with the screenplay to raise the rest of the money.\u00a0 Everyone in the film business knows you can\u2019t get financing without a script.<\/p>\n

Later, in the early summer after Columbia agreed to release Easy Rider<\/em>, there was a meeting in a restaurant on the Upper East Side to discuss shooting the rest of the movie with Peter, Dennis, Terry, Rip Torn, myself, and a director whose name I can\u2019t remember.\u00a0 Dennis was late so we went ahead and ordered drinks and appetizers.\u00a0 Terry was sitting on my left and Dennis\u2019 place was on my right.\u00a0 I was the only woman at the table.\u00a0 Rip was on the other side of the round table, and so was Peter, who was talking to a couple of pretty girls sitting nearby.\u00a0 Dennis soon showed up in full Easy Rider<\/em> regalia\u2014long hair, bushy mustache, and fringed buckskin jacket. He didn\u2019t sit down but continued to stand on my right at his place at the table.\u00a0 Agitated, he exclaimed, \u201cMan, I\u2019ve been lookin\u2019 for shootin\u2019 locations in Texas and man, I\u2019m lucky I\u2019m still alive\u2014those mother-fuckin\u2019, redneck bastards!\u201d\u00a0 He then spotted Rip across the table and said, \u201cHey Rip, you\u2019re from fuckin\u2019 Texas, aren\u2019t you?\u201d\u00a0 Rip replied, \u201cYes, but don\u2019t judge all bastards by me.\u201d\u00a0 Dennis continued his ranting and, still standing, picked up the knife at his place setting and leaned across the table, brandishing the knife at Rip.\u00a0 Rip, who had been in the army and was a tough Texan, didn\u2019t even get up, but leaned over the table, grabbed Dennis\u2019 wrist, and twisted.\u00a0 The knife clanked to the table.\u00a0 Peter, who had been leaning back in his chair and balancing on two legs so he could flirt with the girls, fell over backwards.\u00a0 Rip, controlling his temper, offered to meet Dennis outside to finish the fight, and left the restaurant.\u00a0 Dennis sat down, acting as if nothing had happened, and continued to dominate the conversation all through dinner.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Rip refused to work with Dennis Hopper and backed out of the movie.\u00a0 He not only lost out on a memorable movie role but unfortunately for Rip the controversial play he was starring in The Cuban Thing<\/em> about a Cuban family during Fidel Castro\u2019s revolution closed after opening night.\u00a0 During previews a Cuban resistance group bombed the theatre in protest of the play.<\/p>\n

Scrambling to find a replacement for Rip, Peter purportedly talked with William Wellman, Jr. about a role but when Wellman learned that Dennis was co-starring and directing he opted to work in a Bob Hope comedy instead.\u00a0 Finally, they found someone who would work with Dennis\u2014Jack Nicholson who was recommended by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider.\u00a0 It was a star-making role for Jack, which was not surprising as Terry wrote wonderful dialogue for the character and Jack brilliantly brought to life this straight laconic Southern lawyer who smokes marijuana for the first time.\u00a0 At this point Terry had moved onto his next endeavor while Peter and Dennis traveled the country filming Easy Rider<\/em> from Terry\u2019s script…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honor of it being the late Gail Gerber’s birthday month, thought I would share an excerpt on how the classic\u00a0Easy Rider\u00a0was created from her 2010 memoir Trippin’ with Terry Southern. It was the most talked about section as she refutes most of the bullshit Peter Fonda and the late Dennis Hopper have been shoveling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}