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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 มิ.ย. 2011
- GREGORY CORSO and HERBERT HUNCKE
Two lions of the Beat Generation filmed by Francois Bernadi
Original Beats is a short documentary film by Francois Bernadi on Gregory Corso and Herbert Huncke.
Huncke was the original Beat. He coined the term, lived the life and was on the road long before Kerouac. Here he talks about his life as petty criminal, drug user and Beat writer.
Corso believed the poet and his life are inseparable. It was a belief he held true, otherwise the poet couldn't write like a lion, write truthfully.
This is a fascinating and informative portrait on the eldest and the youngest of the original Beats, filmed shortly before Huncke's death in 1996.
Often overshadowed by the Beat triumvurate of Burroughs, Ginsberg and Kerouac, Herbert Huncke and Gregory Corso were nonetheless integral to the Beat family and, on a personal level at least, often the most interesting. Both had been in jail (the same jail though not at the same time), both, in contrast to the Big Three who were all Columbia Grads, were self taught.
I never read a lot of Corso because he mostly wrote poetry and I don't read a lot of poetry. I still have my copy of Huncke's 'The Evening Sun Turned Crimson', which, despite a relative lack of artlessness, is direct, honest, even charming. Huncke details his early life hustling, plumbing the depths of drug addiction (I still recall, even years after I read the book, Huncke describing walking into Alphabet City with open sores on his face after scratching his skin raw shooting speed). This kind of thing has been done to death (literally), but Huncke was the firstest, even amongst the Beats, and his stories about the people he met along the way -- drag queens, hustlers, junkies, and general people around the city -- often have warmth, even tenderness, even when he described the most desperate characters.
Corso I remember most from 'The Beat Hotel', a dive hotel in Paris where Corso lived and shared a bed with Ginsberg and Ginsberg's love Peter Orlovsky. Not that Corso got into any kinky three way thing. Corso knew from his days in jail that he was into chicks, and chicks only -- they shared a bed because they had no heat.
In contrast to the gaunt, priestlike (or creepy, depending on your point of view) Burroughs, who lived in his own room on an upper floor, the three younger men (and Corso was the youngest of all) run wild like especially Rabelesian college kids on a spree. Invited to meet the French surrealists, they arrive ecstatically drunk, crawl around on all fours barking like dogs in what they thought was an appropriately Surrealist action. Corso, I think it was, jumped on Breton's lap and chewed on his tie. Breton and most of the other guests, good Parisian bourgeoisie despite their pretensions, were not amused by this behaviour. Duchamp, the exception, was charmed by their very American irreverence and energy.
These guys were still around when I first got to New York. I had a friend who knew Huncke through Robert Frank. Huncke used to come by his place on East 3rd, bum cigarettes and talk. He was a great talker apparently. I missed meeting him one afternoon by a few minutes apparently. I missed meeting Ginsberg as well, which I regret less, having been oggled by the Great Man in the East Village a couple of times. I don't say this out of any vanity -- if you were under 30 and male and in the East Village before 1995, you were likely oggled by Allen Ginsberg.
In this charming half-hour short by film-maker Francois Bernadi, which was shot in 1996 shortly before Herbert Huncke's death, Corso and Huncke read at the St. Mark's Poetry Project and are interviewed separately. Corso is irascible, brittle; Huncke is more amenable, sitting at a desk in his room in the Chelsea Hotel. We see the lobby of the Chelsea, and the 42nd that Huncke first discovered in the '50s. Of this discovery, Huncke says:
"I liked the lights, I liked the way people moved. It was fresh . . . people seemed a lot freer in their actions than people did elsewhere."
Corso, who also hustled on 42nd for a time, getting older men to take him out to dinner then running off, remembers the Deuce in less romantic terms:
"The most deplorable area to hang around -- only the lowest of the low hang around there, if you've got nothing to offer society or even themselves . . . there was no class there."
When I first moved to New York, the Beat tradition lived on, in places like the Tribes gallery, Nuyorican Cafe, in countless places now long gone, and amongst the Unbearables, Sensitive Skin Magazine, Red Tape. By the mid-'90s, the Beats were becoming a brand, more famous for their lives than their books, endlessly imitated in form if not in spirit. Some of these groups, or former members of these groups survive in rent-controlled apartments, in places they were lucky enough to buy when the real estate was still cheap. But no one would call the East Village bohemian now.
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My dad was a beat beat started in Greenwich village then on to sf then ended up in Mendocino an had me at age 57 ... to finally have kids.. my dad had stories for days r.i.p everyone new him . He had a post card from jack Kerouac
Greetings young Amanda, for the memories of the lost generation. It is a time that lives in my memory. Beautiful and distant years, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs. Greetings from México.
Rip, your dad was a wonderful man I bet.
RIP. I’m a boomer, Grandad WWI vet, Dad WWII vet, Sisters ( twins rip beat), brother Woodstock, Hoffman following Hippie.
At least until he was drafted for Vietnam.
It was a awesome ( often tumultuous) , life. I witnessed and experienced it all.
Your dad lived a groovy life and so have I.
For an older beat he had a beautiful daughter.
Did you know my grandmother Hilda Pertha? She helped to establish the Art Center in mendocino and lived and had a studio over the Zacca gallery on main st.
I have just arrived, this afternoon, at our rented holiday home by the sea. And in the hall through the front door is a bookcase. And on that bookcase is “On The Road.” I have a few days to take it easy and take my time with Kerouac’s gold. Because sometimes, things just work like that.
The opening tune is "Senor Blues" by the late Horace Silver.
I went to his funetal reception in nyc....maybe '93. Very influencial as a kid in the 8Os reading his stories. R. I. P.
i ran away at 12 also, i can relate to what Huncke says---when you're a sensitive child growing up in emotional chaos it opens up the road to you.
I ran away at two. Needless to say, I didn't get far.
I was out of home early too. I believe my mother wd have loved me to have died in the gutter. It kills her that I am now quite successful.
@@frankboothsedated.7054 I am told that I did too. I couldn't get out quick enough!!!
@@pinkmissmuffett me either. My dad never liked me even as a little girl. I started running away to nowhere when I was 14
I am 67 years old and have been fascinated by the Beats for the last 25 years. If I had been as studious in my high school years, I would own several college degrees! Peace.
Never knew this existed, great stuff. These are the guy's who caught my attention when I was still in high-school, their stories were something else to read, instead of the boring old stuff they want you to read. Love these old junkies...!
I was thinking about how much I missed growing up in that time. I wanted to be part of the beat generation; wondered how they survived, how they got enough money/jobs to eat day by day and...then at about 15:00 he says to the interviewer that he was hustling...what do you think I was doing? Wakes you up to realize that there is nothing to envy.
Rich parents allowance.
burroughs' life was somewhat enviable.
Well Burroughs suffered a lot during his life. He accidentially killed his wife Joan, then his only son Billy jr. died from cirrhosis of the liver. He struggled with drug addiction and alcoholism almost for his entire life, this struggle was fueled by him being conflicted about his sexuality. He had a crush on Ginsberg and this longing for a rather conventional life together but their attraction was more on an intellectual level - certainly from Allan's side - and they never came together. If you read Burrough's letters and also the foreword for "Queer" you realize how much he struggled with his homosexuality (there is a teriffic scene in Cronenberg's Naked Lunch btw!) and how long it took for him to finally come to terms with his orientation. He viewed the publication of "Queer" as his duty to support the struggle of gay people. Burroughs might have always shied away from physical confrontations in life but when it came to make a statement, you know when it really counted he always was willing to take a stand, he was a brave man with convictions.
And btw Burroughs never identified much with the so-called Beat Generation and in interviews tried to distance himself from any attempt certainly of the media who tried to claim his work as part of a movement. Later on journalists tried to label him as the Godfather of punkmusic, the pioneer of the cyberpunk genre and other subcultures but Burroughs steadfastly refused any of these attempts to monopolize his work and thought.
@@TheMundusvultdecipi i know alot of guys who were in punk rock bands who idolize Burroughs. He was much too old for ginseburgs liking. Ginsberg liked young boys being a member of NAMBLA. Ginsburg was a low life pos
I love this Huncke character. So many great stories and an interesting perspective.
I love this so much. Even the extras are amazing. One of my favorite Beat docs of all time. It's small, casual, and goes down smooth.
Jerry Garcia payed Huncke's rent till the day he died, that's how much respect people had for huncke and knew how "important" he was.
Jerry never even meet him just knew he was a right dude with love from the diggers
I was abt to make the same comment.
Jerry probably did chip in. The rent fund was organized by Kim and Thurston of Sonic Youth. They petitioned many artists to contribute. Unlike Garcia, they knew and worked with HH.
Met him quite a few times when I lived in the East Village.
I watch that documentary every fuckin day of my life. Just need it...
Hail to the Beats
Hail to That Beat
I relate to the "Beats" my Poet friend Gregory Hall turned me on to "On the Road" & HOWL at 14 years old.
Opening talking from walking down stairs is from Kerouac. "We went out, we drank...then we went bar hopping...a fire in Barbara' room..."
Ginsberg had the keenest intellect of all of them. Check out him reading a poem (created while on LSD) on Firing Line with William F. Buckley
R.i.p denney Curtis Hemens .... this video reminds me of him so much I could cry
Very important historical work. Thanks for posting. Well done to all...FEB 21 FL USA
"Huncke..., whom you'll see on Times Square, somnolent and alert, sad, sweet, dark, holy." Also known as the "Mayor of 42nd Street".
If anyone has Herbert Huncke videos that haven't been uploaded on youtube yet, please share.
Herbert, you are my favorite.
Corso wasn't an "Original" beat he came much later, the originals were, Hal Chase, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Lucian Carr and of course, Huncke. This was 1944, 45'. Neal Cassady came a year later.
Yep. This is the right answer.
Would you E J include John Clellon Holmes in that list? John knew them all early on in the 40s & wrote a book about them called "The Daybreak Boys," which when published (1950) became a novel called "Go." It appeared 7 years before On the Road (1957).
So I think his importance among the Beats (and he was present when Kerouac coined the term) is justified. Because writing-wise Kerouac's first novel "The Town & the City," was written in a more Thomas Wolfe style which changed after Kerouac met & spoke with Herbert Hunke. So, John was already writing in that style that became known as beat.
And Hal Chase, while being an original, and friend of Jack's -- has little to show for it & there is little known about him. Did he just drop away after introducing Neal Cassady to the other beats? He certainly did not continue with them after moving west.
I would think Lawrence Ferlinghetti is also considered one of the originals. He certainly maintained their personas through the decades & I believe he's still alive today at 101. The last survivor of the originals.
Just an inquiry, not a challenge. Thanks.
@@lastrada52 His bio says" JCH was more of an observer and documenter of the Beats " However -his novel, Go , was considered the first beat novel. "The Beat generation was a whole bunch of people , off all different nationalities , who came to the conclusion that society sucks". - john clellon holmes
@@lastrada52 yes, I would include john holmes, since he was around during the earlier times and of course wrote the first book on the beats, "Go."
Remember what Gregory said about the beat "generation"...
"4 or 5 friends do not a generation make." In the beginning, it was a very small group of friends, it was like that for a while, then after a while, they started meeting other people, through the people they already knew, like Cassidy, and once they started publishing books, traveling to other places and doing poetry readings, which brings more people to the group. Yeah, john holmes was more of a homebody, and although he was obviously a writer, he wanted to "Observe" instead of 'Participate." But Im sure he went out a couple times. I would consider ferlinghetti more of an associate rather than being a "member." he didn't open City Lights until 1953, the very early group of friends already knew each other by 1945,1946,1947.
@@lastrada52 I thought Herbert Huncke dropped the line I am beaten till my socks.
Really enjoyed this docu. GreetZ from Holland and thx for posting
I wish they'd put Huncke's work back into print. Used copies of his books are very expensive, so I've never been able to read them.
@Wallace Christensen I read a little excerpt in some sampler of Beat authors, but it was very short--two or three pages. Not enough to form any real impression of what his writing was like :(
See if you can get a copy of 'the herbert hunke reader', it's much cheaper and has a good selection of stuff in it.
@@davidw9736 Thanks, I'll check it out! Been curious about Huncke's writing ever since I saw him interviewed in "Burroughs: The Movie."
Thank You for Sharing this catgroove. I dig the Beat Poets. I miss Joe Cardarelli. I hope that you are doing well. I subscribed to your channel.
Wonderful piece. I think I'm coming closer to an author I can read past the first 20 pages.
*My dad was a beat ! A dead beat, that is !*
Until I saw this video, I had no idea that HH was so articulate.
(( Mis héroes de la literatura, de la vida))
LIMA - PERÚ
Great indeed, but compared to Huncke's closing poem about the ephemetal and transitory nature of physical proximity, how UNlike Marc Connolly describing the Algonquin Round Table set meeting at Neysa MacMein's studio for cocktails as "a chance to tell stories and remember old times, as we hadn't seen each other since lunch, and who knows, we might not meet again until after supper...unless we had supper together!"
I love Huncke's poem.
It seems as though Corso is disturbed by Huncke's comfortability with himself.
Corso was disturbed by everything ha
Huncke !! what a great cat he was.
ten years after, your comment is still relevant.
are you still alive my virtual friend
from Canterbury U.K
@@royferguson3909 Still kickin' bro'
Huncke didn't have to worry about next month's rent because the Grateful Dead paid his rent at the Chelsea Hotel for as long as he lived there until he died. Most people don't know this.
That's when Huncke became really older but he did live a heavy life and was a real man.
Kerouac did not have an Ivy league background. He briefly attended Columbia on a football scholarship but left because the coach treated him with derision.. Kerouac ended up in the Merchant Marine on the USS Dorchester. Corso has no Ivy league background. I don't recall what Burroughs formal education consisted of.
Burroughs was from an upper class family with fancy prep schools and Harvard. Ginsburg was Columbia but middle -class background.
@@SandfordSmythe OK -thanks
@@SandfordSmythe OK -thanks
@@delqui1511 Burroughs education can be verified easy enough but I don't think he went to Columbia.
Corso was funny as hell!
He's standing on the iron balcony. When I lived down the street, a balcony snapped and fell to the sidewalk.
The hotel was very seedy and dirty.
It's totally been reshaped and is very upscale. I wouldn't want to stay in the hotel then and certainly not now.
Jerry garcia paid for his rent wherever this apartment is.. basically Jerry just gave this dude a certain amount of $ a month just to take care of one of the original beats.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but my understanding is that the Dead actually provided Huncke an actual stipend through their charitable foundation, the Rex Foundation. Not saying that Garcia didn't chip in some bucks of his own, but for the most part it was actually a formal foundation grant.
huncke's rent?
Rex Found. paid his Hotel Chelsea rent last year of his life
Yikes
Back then Chelsea Hotel was about $5 a night
Roger Richards featured in this film is an unfortunately little-known literary historian.
And he was my fathers older brother. How lucky we were
Been looking for this doc for years
This is really good
My Dad give me a drum for Christmas & told me to Beat it ! HA !
his rent at the chelsea was paid for...of course about $$ ; no worries....thanks to jerry garcia/landlord.....r.i.p....
luv those big balconey apts at the chelsea
bak when...
herbert is amazing !
CIA was so worried with those guys, chasing them.
They couldn't harm anyone.
Waste of money
Anyone know where to get a copy of Guilty Of Everything for less than $100 ? I am surprised there is no re print available.
Damn, Gregory went to Danamora prison and Rikers at a time when doing hard time meant doing hard time...."I gotta one up man-ship on that 76 year old bastard."... Gregory can say some funny shit sometimes, besides, Huncke was a true hustler, he would tell you anything.
Why wasn’t Hubert Selby, Jr. considered a beat?
He lived long life
What was he reading from at the end. Can anyone inform? Thanx.
These people can party. Champs! 🤣
HERBERT HUNCKE!
Huncke seemed like a great fella, Corso I’ve never liked.
Someone pls tell me what's the name of that tune in the beginning?
The song at the beginning is "Señor Blues" by Horace Silver, on the album "6 Pieces Of Silver" on Blue Note Records.
01:42 Huncke's sublime way of saying he goes to methadone clinic every day
Man, A. Rimbaud the original beat.
You dig baby?
and Kerouac did not graduate
If you want a true American poet who lived down toward the bottom and described it beautifully then bukowski is your man or perhaps a confederate general from Big Sur by Richard bruatigan
NYC now?
Huncke got a beat deal.
ufff
Do the Zoot Suits figure into this in any way ? 🤔
Degenerate art from the Beats and earlier writers like Bukowski owed everything to the times they were attached to. It was very ahead of it's time to talk about such things in prim 20th century society. In recent decades, it is everywhere.
is Huncke running a spieler in his hotel room?
03:59 Gregory looks like Whitman!
10:27 cats dont worry
well well life is a journey ...take your ticket and you will see
well well well to you dear chief, amazing my journey keeps ending back at you, it wasn't youtube that brought my attention, I am a daughter of one of the Merry Prankster's side kicks, Peter Demma, I mentioned him to a few replies now only to find Chief (I hope this is you George) "Clinton, I have been following and studying you because of your music and how it changes my soul, followed you through all of the trials posted that I could to find you win what you put out for soooo many years and your family that still sticks by you, I stick by you too, because, when I hugged you on that Oct. 19 at the Catalyst here in Santa Cruz, I felt like I had died and gone to heaven only to find the reason was I felt like I had just hugged my own Dad in Black form...he always a black man's good neighbor...in a Black neighborhood, the only one now here in Santa Cruz, CA. It's me, Missy D. "Peter Weeds" Daughter...
dear @@melyssademma8739 i'm a huge fan of pfunk music and also a free mind reader i'm only a french tennis coach and i 'm proud to connect with the daugter of a merry prankster it is hard to be be a outlaw you have to be honest
Macintosh
this is all well and good except Bob Kaufman is the OG beat and the originator of the term, he'd had a life as a merchant marine prior to getting into poetry, i believe he set out at age 13... the term relates to the zeitgeist of rhythm which none of the "beats" have except for Kaufman, the name became a tool and an endless riddle. i've heard it sourced in the patrol of a particular cop who loved to terrorize Bob and *beat* him literally. both Huncke and Corso went to prison... once. Kaufman went to prison over 20 times one year alone. he was also committed against his will and tortured via electroshock "therapy". while Corso sweats his cool out worrying about his ranking, Kaufman was writing in the truly timeless, vaulted, style as a living poet seer. in addition Kerouac got his understanding of beatification from this Saint, who would sleep on the sidewalks by City Lights publishing as dickheads bought stacks of poetry books and ushered hurriedly passed the lump of human being they took to be worthless. he not only wrote in the mythic iconoclast neohoodoo style-- he lived it! Bob Kaufman was THE Beat Poet in a way all these others quite frankly pretended to be.
Did you know of Bob Kaufman firsthand? What are your favorite poems of his?
I agree but Corso and Huncke were also good in their own way. Kaufman is also probably the best poet of the lot.
Roger Richards
1954 !
whats the title of the track at 15:30?
I produced that track with Steve Huz and Reggie Payne :)
@@catgroove Is this tune available?
@@djfloodmusic I produced that tune years ago with Reggie Payne and Steve Hutz
@@catgroove is it released on anything or anywhere?
Tony Montana at 14:55 lol.
Charles Bukowski didn't have a cushy life. He drank and wrote.
The beats seem pretentious compared to Bukowski.
Actually I think Bukowski wanted us to believe he lived in a dump or maybe alot of us wanted to believe that. He worked for the post office and had various jobs. Alot of booze nearly killed him a few times but he lived into his 70s. He didnt live in poverty like these cats. He liked to drink at home or a dive bar. A cut above these fellas
@Marlin Williams they wanted him to live in a sleezy hotel, drink his booze from a paper bag, hang out like a drunk on the street. They dont know much about him if they arent aware that he WORKED omygawd. How dare he
Cant recall the name of the book I really liked by bukowski about his childhood. A very honest look into his life. Alot of it was really sad but I then understood why he wrote much of what he did
@@lastnamefirst4035:. He worked for the post office about 14 years. But before that he did live in poverty. He wrote his poetry, drank beer and wine, and barely kept himself alive. Granted, his drinking exacerbated his wretched condition, but even after he made big money from the "Barfly" movie, he still drank heavily.
i love him,, and the old ny, glad i got to be there for some of it, such dirty divine dreams and hot sexual poets
Corso is stoned, you can see it (21:10 and on!)
Ginzburg called RFK? Really? Prove it!
viva la deviants.
Jesus loves you so much.
: )
beats were hippies with good hygiene and class
...who also read good literature.
Great input, many thanks
Produc3d 4 U to enjoy
Not real
Is it just me or does Corso look & act like a bad parody of Benny Hill?
Yes! I couldnt figure out who. Thanks
Huncke had zero talent. And Corso wrote one good poem.
says who?
What one?
The afraid popcorn metabolically borrow because saxophone successively scrape aboard a forgetful table. encouraging, dear tuba
HERBERT HUNCKE!