Road to New York City
By Michael Dare

 

Video Review only gave me three days in New York, which wasn't enough. I asked around for a place to stay. Alex Gorby was in New York and promised to pal around, but couldn't offer a bed. Old pal Marc Cohen knew stage director Tom O'Horgan, a prince, who was leaving town for a week and wouldn't mind at all if I stayed at his place, fifth avenue downtown with a perfect view of the Empire State Building.

 

O'Horgan remains one of the most brilliant people I've ever met, and if you've never understood what was the big deal about Hair or Jesus Christ Superstar, it's because you've only seen the so-so movies instead of the mind boggling stage productions of Tom O'Horgan.       He had one of the world's greatest collections of international percussive instruments, filling the whole living room and the rest of the house. Wherever you look there's something you want to hit with a stick or pick up and shake, but you don't have to. Tom hooked up a string to each instrument which led to the ceiling and one single spot in the center of the living room where they were knotted together. You could sit in a chair in the middle of the room, pull the knotted strings from the ceiling, and set off congas from Borneo and wooden xylophones from Mozambique and gongs from China and rattles from South Africa. It alone was worth the trip to New York City.

    On my last day in New York, Alex and I did some sightseeing, from the Empire State Building to the U.N. to the Statue of Liberty, from the bottom of the tallest buildings on earth to the top of the tallest buildings on earth.
 

     I didn't know it would be the last time I would ever see Peter Ivers at that last New Wave Theatre shooting. I didn't know it would be the last time I would ever see David Jove when we had lunch at the Desert Hot Springs Spa a few years ago. I didn't know it would be the last time I would ever see Alex Gorby, who died just a couple years after my trip to New York. I also didn't know it would be the last time I would stand atop the World Trade Center, the city at my feet, king of the world, prizewinning videographer, up and coming journalist, on my way back home to conquer Hollywood.

New York City in 41 Polaroids
June, 1989

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