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April 2002
Is there anything to the rumor that Andy was once considered for the lead role in a movie based on Hunter Thompson's book Fear and Loathing?
For those that don't know, the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream) is a hilarious masterwork and IMHO a resounding dump on the utopian idealism of the 60s drug culture. In a nutshell (pun intended), it's the story of a writer named Raoul Duke, Thompson's alter ego, and his drug fueled road trip to cover a sporting event. The surreal images and wacked out characters make this a feast of fun reading.
As for the Question of the Month, I have failed to find the truth! Neverthless, I will fill you in on what I have to date. The whole mission began with my uncovering a very obscure message board posting from 1997. Here's a portion:
The other day someone mentioned reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for the first time. Thought I'd mention that, in just a few weeks, a movie version of this 25 year old book is FINALLY going into production...The film version has a crazy history. Back in the 70s there was a version in the works for Andy Kaufman to star in. This project was scrapped....[more in the middle of this page].
The film DID indeed have a crazy history. For example, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, and buddies Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi all wanted to bring it to film at one time or another. Directors/writers continued to toy with the book for decades, and in 1998 it was finally released. Although directed by Terry Gilliam (Monty Python), written in part (supposedly) by Alex Cox (Sid and Nancy), starring Johnny Depp (as the lead), and featuring interesting cameos by Gary Busey and Penn and Teller, the long awaited film bombed...and bombed big on its overdose of psychedelia. But then again, that probably shouldn't have been all that big a surprise. Drugs and movies don't seem to sell anymore. When was the last Cheech and Chong movie?
Anyway, the idea that Andy Kaufman might have played the part of Hunter Thompson (or a likeness of same) is fascinating. On the surface, the match seems incredibly unlikely. If you're not familiar with Hunter Thompson, by the way, Bill Murray played a great rendition of the man in the movie Where the Buffalo Roam based on another Thompson penned story. Imagine the Andy Kaufman we've known playing the part of a gun crazy, Nixon hating writer, particularly when Andy was never very political. And more significantly, drugs are a MAJOR player in Fear and Loathing, and Andy was not one to use/advocate drugs, certainly not during his professional life. But without a doubt, he was talented enough to pull it off, even if he didn't really care for the character or some of the subject matter. One need look no further than Taxi. By all accounts, Taxi was not much more than a paycheck to Andy, yet many of his performances oozed with talent. It would have been a gutsy move had he spread his wings with a movie version of Fear and Loathing, particularly when considering the likes of Heartbeeps which IMHO had no real bite at all.
Well, back to my efforts to get to the truth, I tracked down the source of the rumor above. He couldn't remember where he read/heard it, but had a feeling it came from Variety. Needless to say, my efforts in searching Variety for the truth were completely fruitless. Turning to our CAKS friend, Angel Coffee, yielded nothing more. So, without any further corroboration, I have to believe for the time being that this was just a rumor.
As an interesting sidenote, some folks believe that many of Hunter Thompson's autobiographical stories are fake (or at least wildly embellished) and that he is the literary equivalent of Andy Kaufman!
March 2002
Has anyone else in Andy's family
had a career in Hollywood or the performing arts in general?
Probably the most well known instances
are the performance of Andy's family in the film The Real Andy Kaufman and
Michael Kaufman's turn as Tony Clifton in Andy
Kaufman Plays Carnegie Hall. Apparently,
Andy's grandfather, Paul Kaufman, almost took a chance with show business. In Bill Zehme's Lost in the Funhouse (page 7)
we learn that he was "a repressed
showman whose youthful antics....caught the fancy of a vaudeville producer," but he passed on this career
at the behest of his wife. And probably most intriguing was the videography for Michael Kaufman (listed as "Brother
of Andy Kaufman") in the Internet Movie Database. He was listed as having appeared in a bunch of movies including Nixon
and Bulworth ! But alas, the Internet Movie Database had it nearly
all wrong as you shall soon read below. After digging around a bit more, friends of Zilch Publishing Inc.* set
us straight and gave us a horde of other interesting tidbits about Andy's family and show business:
1. Grandpa Paul was a "ham", loved practical jokes and was head of entertainment, we think for children,
at his country club. To the best of our knowledge, he was never in showbusiness. PS: Andy caddied for his grandfather.
2. Andy's parents played Andy's real parents at the end of a summer variety
show. They were yelling at Andy to come up for dinner and to leave the
fantasy world he was in. The audience sees Andy with a real "peanut gallery"
and dancing the hula with a Playboy playmate. So Andy was able to portray
his real fantasy life, on the made-up world of TV, with a real peanut gallery
and guest.
3. Andy's brother and sister, MIchael and Carol, appeared with Andy on Hour
Magazine, hosted by Gary Collins. They each sang, awfully.
4. Andy's maternal grandmother Pearl, danced with Andy on the Joe Franklin
show, where Andy gave her credit for writing all of Andy's material.
5. Andy's mother and father were on the David Letterman show with Andy, and
David phoned grandma Lillie on that show.
6. Michael played Tony Clifton at Carnegie Hall (4/79) as well as Huntingdon
Hartford in Los Angeles the previous December. (1978)
7. Michael performed with Andy at William Paterson College in New Jersey,
posing as a singer whose career was cut short by an auto accident to the
vocal chords. Andy gives him a chance for a comeback, and not only does the
audience hoot, holler and throw things, Andy subjects them to a second song.
There was so much releasing of energy, normally saved for wrestling, that by
the time Andy did the wrestling, the audience was passive and didn't do much
yelling.
PS: During one of the songs, when the audience was throwing things, Andy
took a 2nd microphone and asked them not to throw anything "hard". Andy
loved the idea of throwing things, he just didn't want Michael to get hurt.
This was not videotaped.
8. As you now know, Michael was not in Bulworth, Nixon nor just about any
other place you may see his name if not connected with Andy. The 1
exception, is that he was a bank loan officer in the rap movie, "Krush
Groove". He denied a loan to the central figures of the movie. Michael's
only other movie, "And Then?" was shot on video around 1985, hardly any
budget, and will probably never be seen.
9. Michael did stand-up comedy from fall 1983 to fall 1985. Mostly at the
New York Improv. Usually late night or early evening, not the peak hours.
Michael has been know to say that the audience smiled, which is not very
encouraging when one relies on a vocal response.
* Zilch Publishing Inc. is the
place to learn about and purchase Andy Kaufman's writings. Click here to find out more.
And that's not all! Click Here for More Monthly Questions!