So much is happening now that we finally have warmer weather. It also makes me remember folks from the past who are often forgotten but really deserve a lot more recognition than they get.
We just had National Poetry Month, and it took a while for Northeast Ohio to recognize one of its own who was getting lots of attention nationwide. His name was d.a. levy, and he wrote his name in lower case. His birth name was Darryl Allen Levy but by 1964 he was better known as d.a. He lived in Ohio City before it was cool.
levy captured the dark side of Cleveland in words that painted a pretty dismal picture. Before self-publishing was common, levy put out his own books on a mimeograph machine. The city’s emerging counterculture embraced him, but that didn’t win him any fans with the so-called “establishment.”
His bookstore buddy got a free ride downtown to face obscenity charges, and levy eventually just turned himself in. The charges finally got whittled down to a $200 fine. levy, battered but not broken, kept writing and started an underground paper called the Buddhist Third Class Junkmail Oracle which later gave way to the Great Swamp Erie da da Boom. In November 1968, levy died by his own hand after giving away his possessions. He was pretty much forgotten in his hometown until CSU’s Cleveland Memory Project started documenting his life and work.
Another Name to Know
Do you know about Peter Laughner? He’s another person who died way too young, just 24 when he met his end in 1977. Laughner helped bring together two of Cleveland’s better alternative ‘70s rockers, Rocket from the Tombs and Pere Ubu, and wrote extensively in the local and national press about the power of music.
Laughner spent some quality time observing the early to mid-70s New York music scene, was a great fan of Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen, and drew the wrath of Lou Reed over a negative review.
The recent film festivals made me think about one of the classic movies done right here in Cleveland. Jim Jarmusch gave us Stranger Than Paradise, a film about a guy in New York who follows his Hungarian cousin who’s in the U.S. to visit Cleveland in the winter. Black and white, no laugh track and the scenes of 1980s Cleveland (again, in the winter!) will take you back like a time machine.
Captain Frank’s Restaurant, Southgate, the industrial flats. Great stuff, you’ll watch it a second time to catch what you might have missed on the first screening.
Desi Arnaz, Jackie Coogan (better known as Uncle Fester), Gabe Dell and Huntz Hall from the Bowery Boys franchise were in The Escape Artist, another film with shot in Cleveland.It’s about a teenage magician who locks horns with a corrupt mayor. It’s fun to check out the actors in Cleveland neighborhoods.
BOOM TRIVIA: Last issue, I asked for the name of the animal mascot on the Cleveland Press’ kids page. Does anyone remember…Bizzy Bear? For next time, name the Cleveland mayoral candidate whose campaign was derailed, in part, by a suspected DUI accident.