JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

Sohar The International Fortean Organization (INFO) will pay tribute to John Michell and John Keel this weekend, April 24 and 25, at the Peabody Court Hotel in Baltimore.  The speakers include Joscelyn Godwin, Stephen Baude, Daniel Pinchbeck, Gary Mangiacopra, Phyllis Benjamin, Orion Foxwood, and myself (Doug Skinner).  You can find more particulars at www.forteans.com.

Town Tease was another quickie risqué novel, written under John’s preferred pseudonym, Harry Gibbs, and published by Midwood Enterprises in 1966. And who was Greg Hamilton?

Rhoda and Ben Barrington aren’t getting along too well; in fact, he seems to be having an affair, and has lost all interest in her. So when the invitation to her high school reunion arrives, she decides to go back to Bellville alone — and to seduce all of the men she turned down back then. They’re happy enough to comply, but, somehow, something usually goes wrong. At the end, Rhoda and Ben rekindle their marriage; and he buys her a new car.

What John remembered the most about this was a running joke about the sartorial habits of upstate New York — somebody is always passing by wearing a plaid hunting jacket.

In 1999, George Kuchar (right) made a video mini-series about John Keel (left). It will be shown at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC on Saturday, April 17 at 5:30 and Sunday, April 18 at 8:00. (Click on the link for the address and other useful info.)

George’s description of “Secrets of the Shadow World” is perhaps the most appropriate:

“Centering on the paranormal ideas of UFO author John Keel, this sprawling mini-series spans the four corners of tolerance as it delves into mysteries whispered about on national television and tacky talkfests worldwide. Not simply about little green or gray beings from other planets, this video’s endless delving into a rainbow display of people and places tries to put the whole kit and kaboodle into perspective. Proving that it’s not all a crock of crap but a cornucopia of corned beef and cabbage plus a ton of other culinary concoctions, the secrets that you will crack in this caloric overdose will split your trousers and expand both buttocks and cosmic consciousness at the same time. And that time clocks in at about two hours and twenty minutes.  So prepare yourself for a three-course feast of triple-scooped treats.”

Let me add that this is your only chance to see John and George visit Mount Shasta. And that the photo above is not from the video, but one of the snapshots from the trip. Here are a couple more:

John loved film, and shot a number of 8mm movies himself.  Some were simply home reels; others were more ambitious.  There was, apparently, a screening of a few of them in 1972.  Veteran Forteans may recall that he used to show “Egypt — 1954” at meetings of the New York Fortean Society and the International Fortean Organization. 

The Bowery News — originally the Hobo News — was a kind of raffish paper that celebrated the culture of the Bowery.  It included cartoons, verses, racing tips, and news and gossip about hoboes, bums, panhandlers, barflies, hitch-hikers, tramps, pearl-divers (dishwashers), and the rest of  “Society’s basement.”

John wrote for it in his teens; the photo shows him outside the office when he was nineteen.

And here, for good measure, is a picture of the Brakebeam Kid, also from 1949.

All of which leads us to a Keel bio and poem from the Bowery News, December 15, 1948.  The novel mentioned was West of Washington Square — lost long ago.  And I assume that the joke that follows was just filler added by the editor.

Readers of The Mothman Prophecies may remember Jaye P. Paro, a radio personality at the Long Island station WBAB.  There is much on her in Chapter 15; she met the curious “Princess Moon Owl,” and had an “unnerving experience” with a man in a black Cadillac.

Ms. Paro also appears in Strange Creatures, in Chapter 10.  John describes some of the folklore and creature sightings on Mount Misery, in Long Island; and mentions that she and a couple of her friends saw “something that resembled a human, disfigured face, long wild black hair, and dressed in a long black garment.”  John adds that they took a picture of this creepy character.  A Googling tells me that some people out there are curious about this photo, so I’ll post it here.  It’s none too impressive; it looks, as John says, like “a dark blob.”  But here it is; you can see for yourself.

It was published in the July 1969 issue of Beyond.  The same magazine published a (clearer) photo of Ms. Paro; I’ve posted that above, so you can put a face to the name.

As readers of Jadoo know, the dedication reads: “This book was written for Lite who lived part of it and suffered all of it.”

John met Lite in Germany; she accompanied him on many of his wanderings through the East, and then joined him in Barcelona, where he finished the book. There were several passages about her in the first draft, but all were cut by the time it was published. As John recalled, their romance didn’t survive his return to NYC. But here they are, looking happy, in Germany in 1954.

This letter appeared in the December 1964 issue of Playboy. It gives a glimpse into John’s early days in Greenwich Village, in the late ’40s; as well as a memoir of one of the Village’s more memorable characters. For those of you unfamiliar with Bodenheim, he was sometimes known as “The King of Greenwich Village”: he wrote many volumes of verse, and a few rambling novels (with titles like New York Madness and Naked on Roller Skates). After a long decline into poverty and alcoholism, he was murdered, in a particularly sordid case that kept the NYC tabloids busy for weeks.

John was living in Woodstock in 1973, and introduced himself to the local paper, the Woodstock Times, with a typically Keelian note.

The first column was published with the letter, the second (“UFOs over Woodstock”) in the next issue.  Both were light-hearted takes on subjects John treated more fully elsewhere.  Does anyone out there know if there were more?

And here’s the first one.  For the benefit of non-US readers, let me note that Agnew was then Vice President, and one of the more unpopular politicians of the time.

[As a postscript to the last post, here is the obituary for Mary Hyre, as it appeared in the Athens Messenger on February 17, 1970.]

Point Correspondent Mary Hyre Dies at 54

By MAXINE WALTERS

Messenger Special Writer

POINT PLEASANT — Mrs. Mary E. Hyre, 54, of 2911 Jackson Ave., Point Pleasant, died Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Holzer Medical Center in Gallipolis after an illness of four weeks.

Mrs. Hyre had served as correspondent for the Athens Messenger for the past 27 years, and was in charge of the Point Pleasant branch office.  Prior to working in the news department, she was employed in the circulation department, and was in charge of carrier boys for several years.

She wrote the widely-read “Where the Waters Mingle” column in The Messenger in addition to her regular news coverage.  There was, perhaps, no story about which Mrs. Hyre wrote more than the collapse of the Silver Bridge in December, 1967.

A native of Gallia County, she was born at Clippers Mill, a daughter of the late Elmer E. and Anna Laura Ervin Plymale.  Her husband, Walter (Scotty) Hyre died Dec. 1, 1968.

She was a member of the Christ Episcopal Church and the Service Guild of the church, Chapter No. 75 of the Order of Eastern Star and the American Legion Auxiliary.

She is survived by a step-daughter, Mrs. L. R. Trembly of Charleston; two sisters, Mrs. Clinton Sayre of Point Pleasant and Mrs. Faye Carpenter of New Haven; one brother, Ervin J. Plymale of St. Albans; three step grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

 Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Christ Episcopal Church with the Rev. Clifford Schane officiating.  Burial will be in Kirkland Memorial Gardens.

Friends may call at the Crow-Hussell Funeral Home after 7 p.m. Monday.  Eastern Star memorial services will be held at the funeral home Tuesday evening.