|
Dear sweet Andy,
I fell in love with you one day. It was quiet and sweet and I knew I'd found the one I was looking for my whole
life. I look into your eyes and I can't look away. You are the most beautiful boy who ever lived, and I am jealous
of angels now. The whole world looks so different since I found you. I can't forget you. I can't call a taxi or
eat milk and cookies, listen to Elvis, think of Santa Claus, watch Ricky Ricardo's bongo drums, laugh at Archie
Bunker or Saturday Night Live without falling for you all over again. Is it magic that you do? Was Latka putting
special potions into those gas tanks at the Sunshine Cab Company? What really happens to us when we chant "ah-boo-da-be"
with you? We all become friends, thats what. When your with us, enemies put their arms around each other, sway
to the music and fall into you forever. Is the puppet show over, Andy? Are you ever gonna come back and play, Andy!
? Do you need me to make sure that no one forgets you and that all those little children that had to settle for
Pee-Wee Herman instead of "Uncle Andy's Funhouse" grow to know your name? When I say "ok" you
say "ok"... Oh, and I'm still searching for "Mr. Fred Blassie and the breakfast mass".The lady
at the video store looked at me like I was that "half a man" at the freak show you loved when I cried
out,"My Breakfast with Blassie, please!" She scribbled your name in her book and mumbled something about
death making the film scarce and, in her mind, obsolete as DVD's take the stage. Is 1983 such a far off place that
we can no longer touch it, Andy? I know you are watching over Mr. Carrey, making sure he stays sane in between
finding lost pets and stealing Christmas trees from Who-villes finest. Do you smile when he thinks of you and laughs
because you make his world "such a wonderful place to wander through"? It was never your mon! ey or fame
that attracted me. I love that little boy with the face full of chocolate cake who sits by his record player all
day. You were an angel on earth... you have wings now! I love you, Mr. K! Thank you very much for making my life
so sweet. God bless you always, dearest Andy!
Yours forever and even after the curtain call,
Chrissy Dom-
P.S. can you peek around the clouds and watch me once in a while, Andy? I'll be famous someday soon!
wdominelli@earthlink.net
Submitted 12/5/00
---------------------
Dear Andy,Since I started actively learning about you less than
a year ago, you have fascinated me immensely. I have
read the books, seen the shows and spent an
occassional near-sleepless night pondering the tale ofyour bittersweet life.
You were no angel, of course (few people are,
particularly where artists are concerned). You were
prone to being self-centered, single-minded, stubborn,
moody, conflicted, provoking, manipulative (indeed,
that was part of your art), shy and withdrawn, andhorny.
To write these traits down wrenches my heart somewhat,
because although they were a part of you, I think too
many people think that they were all they were to you.
And that's a shame. This is partly because you
couldn't seem to help some of those flaws, but
especially because you were also frequently gentle,
giving, warm, religious, self-aware, courageous,deeply imaginative, and loving.
You were aware of your loneliness and the way your
view of life differed from that of most everyone
else...of the strange quirks of your mind and heart.
You struggled to deal with them...to balance the sweet
and the sour...the man and the child...to follow the
dreams that gestated in your heart...to find ways tomake people feel.
And from your sorrows and joys, there emerged a host
of wonders in the art you created...creations that
would be so personal and emotion-evoking that many
people couldn't really relate to them and eventually
stopped even reacting to them, which was
understandable but made you more of an outcast than
ever - yet you could not deny them because they meant
so much to you; you could not stop dreaming andcreating...
And then you died of an illness that must have been
lurking in you for years, intending to destroy you in
the cruelest of times, to render you merely infamous,
that you might never create beauty again, and that all
your prior beauty might go forgotten.
But if that is what was intended, it failed.
You and your dreams were so full of true beauty and
love that those who cared about you refused to let you
be forgotten. People fascinated by you saw your work
as an inspiration. And your sudden vanishing from
this world made some who were confused realize what
you really were doing and see the beauty too (Bill
Zehme's biography was quite canny in quoting from the
"funeral" in "Tom Sawyer" to make this point).
The love all these people have for you endures. They
are working to spread the tale of you, sometimes
creating wonderful new art in the process. The love
is growing to include more and more people with open
hearts and minds, including those who weren't able to
experience the beauty you wrought as you wrought it.
From the sweet by-and-by you are still opening
people's eyes to the strange wonders and possibilities
of existence. As you sought enlightenment among your
other desires, you enlighten others.You enlightened me.
Sometimes my heart mourns the sadnesses that were in
your life, and it becomes hard to remember the joys,
maybe because sadnesses are inherently more dramatic,
memorable, and endemic to human existence. But then
again, I think of the time I was working very late,
with cracked and bleeding hands. On a break, I caught
the "Saturday Night Live" in which you read from "The
Great Gatsby". It delighted me so much, that when I
returned to work I was so busy thinking about you
while hefting and opening boxes that I did not thinkof my sore hands.
I hope that wherever you are now you are safe and
loved there. And I hope you are aware of the love we
in the world you once knew hold for you, deep in theirhearts. God bless you.
Love,(Miss) Rori Stevens
--------------
Here's a nice email I received about a month ago:
dear andy,
i no we havent met and im sure i had no chance of meeting u. im
only 13 years old and u (sopposedly) died before i was born. when i was 5 i
was watching a video of all my mothers taxi reruns and it just had started.
back then i didnt know what taxi was. then as a watched i experienced the
funniest man. he was this goofy mechanic named latka. from then on i looked
every where for info on latka and i got andy kaufman. andy kaufman was my
hero and i obsessed to my family but they just didnt get it. they thought i
was crazy. then a miracle : a movie on his life came out. man on the moon
only had a portion of ur life stories on it. then i got the book by ur friend
and co-conspirator bob zmuda. this was great and now i knew everything about
u. well if ur still alive then my search is over for a man is not dead until
he is forgotten. i hope to meet u some day in this "friendly,friendly world "
from a friend ,
julian
-------------------------------------------
Here is a wonderful 700 plus word essay on Andy. Enjoy.
www.joshozersky.cjb.net
|
