Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind (28 page)

NOTES

W
hile this book isn’t meant to be a scholarly tome, I want readers to be able to check out its sources—so each quotation in the main text gets a citation in the following notes, referring to the book or magazine in the bibliography from where it came (or to an interview that I conducted). Where it seems particularly illuminating, I also provide references for other information. I refer consistently to River’s mother below as Heart Phoenix, because that was the name she was using when I interviewed her.

I am in debt to all my sources, but I am particularly grateful for the biographers of River who came before me, especially Tad Friend, John Glatt, Barry C. Lawrence, and Roberta and David Ritz, and to Chris Snyder for his very entertaining book about working with Iris Burton. If you are interested in more information on any particular chapter, pursue the notes: wanting to know more about the history of Southern Californian religions, for example, will take you to Carey McWilliams’s book. But if you want to read just one other piece of writing about River Phoenix, I recommend you track down Michael Angeli’s 1991 profile from
Movieline,
which is a vivid portrait of River living in Florida just before the release of
My Own Private Idaho,
full of talent and charm. (Compiling the bibliography was bittersweet because of all the great magazines that aren’t around anymore, especially
Movieline, Premiere, The Face,
and
Sassy
.)

INTRODUCTION

“I think he was the best”: Heath (1994). “River was one of those people”: Hawke. “He was the kind of guy”: Wade Evans, as quoted in Friend. “His eyes made him”: Friend. “He had very long hair”: Abramowitz et al. Patricia Arquette: author interview with Richmond Arquette (2013). “there was a specific road”: Van Buskirk. “The guy was having a good time”: Millea.

PART ONE

1. SKYLARKING

Author interviews with William Richert (2013) and Ione Skye (2012).

2. THE SEARCHERS

“I just wanted to be loved”: author interview with Heart Phoenix (1997). “I wasn’t thrilled”: Glatt. “I ran away from home”: Glatt. “It’s very interesting”: Catalano. “gift from God”: Glatt. “I just instantly saw,” “Maybe you didn’t need”: Boyd. “We were flower children”: Reed. “They were a rather strange lot”: Lawrence. “The river has taught me”: Hesse. “three and a half hours”: Lawrence. “When the baby came out”: author interview with Heart Phoenix (1997). “The book
Siddhartha
talks about”: Lawrence. “Why don’t you receive me?”: Guthman (May 19, 1979).

3. DEAR GOD

“There will be no billion-dollar tax bill”: Reitman. Details of Miscavige lifestyle: Reitman, Wright. Aimee Semple McPherson: Epstein. History of California cults: McWilliams. Pentecostal movement: Robeck. The Source Family: Aquarian with Aquarian.

4. ONE NIGHT AT THE VIPER ROOM

“Would you give me,” “I can get”: Ebner.

5. SUFFER THE CHILDREN

“One dark night”: Chancellor. “come-union”: Ward. “Christian sex cult”: Glatt. “It was not until I kicked over”: Chancellor. “We have a sexy God,” “revolutionary sexual freedoms”: Ward. Treatment of the children of the Children of God: See, for example, Jones, Jones, and Buhring. “There was a big effort”: Walters. “Like most cults, you were cut off”: Zuckerman. “When I was five”: author interview with Rose McGowan (2007). “Their whole thing”: Zuckerman. After River’s family left the Children of God, the cult changed its name to the Family.

6. FOLLOW THE LEADER

Used stereos and TV sets: Lattin. “We’ll blow like Krakatoa”: Chancellor. Drunk cowboys shooting: Wangerin. Rain’s birth date has sometimes been erroneously reported as being in March 1973, but the November 21, 1972, date is correct according to the “Texas Birth Index 1903–1997” provided by the Texas Department of State Health Services. “We moved around a
lot
”: Keough. “Archbishop of Venezuela and the Caribbean”: Some sources have the title as “Archbishop of South America”; John may have had both titles at various points. “The kids grew up going out”: Boyd. “They were devoted parents”: Ritz and Ritz. “We did it because we needed money”: Catalano. “It was what God told them”: Lawrence. “I’ve been through some pretty desperate times”: Catalano. “What greater way”: Chancellor. “The guy running it got crazy”: Glatt. “He may have been a sexual pervert”: Glatt. “They tried to evangelize and entertain”: Lawrence. “I got the feeling”: Ritz and Ritz. “While they were definitely poor”: Lawrence. “When a journalist would come”: Author interview with George Sluizer (2013). “Is there anything you did”: Dolce. Glatt printed an expanded version of the exchange that included River saying, “I didn’t want those young vaginas and different body parts that were in my face to make me perverse when I was older.” After the interview was printed, River claimed he had been joking. “Yes, yes, yes”: Lawrence. “Happy? Well, it was interesting”: Blair (August 1988).

7. ANOTHER NIGHT AT THE VIPER ROOM

“You know, these people sure do party strange”: author interview with Richmond Arquette (2013).

8. MEAT IS MURDER

“An airplane is not the only way”: Lawrence. “the crew discovered us”: Angeli. “These weren’t bad people”: Kelly (1989). “It was the first time that I really saw”: Weisenthal. “I tell my kids to celebrate the Earth”: Author interview with Heart Phoenix (1997). “ultravegetarianism”: Friend. “It was hard to give up dairy”: Weisenthal. “Every child starts out loving animals”: Kelly (1989). “Vegetarianism is a link to perfection”: Weisenthal. “Hello, I’m River Phoenix”: PETA PSA and outtakes available online on sites including YouTube.

PART TWO

9. BACK IN THE U.S.A.

“companies paid people’s families”: Friend. “that he never really got its logic”: Friend. “When I was in first grade”: Glatt. “Ask your father”: Peters. “generic items you’d find”: Angeli. “We all look completely different”: Yakir (July 1989). “We never treated them like children”: MacDonald. “The youngest gets to yell the loudest”: MacDonald. “They were really trippy”: Lawrence. “They were the best clothes”: Glatt. Joaquin as X-Men fan: Snyder, who learned of Joaquin’s long-running appreciation of the mutant super-heroes when the actor was up for the role of Wolverine in the X-Men movie (Dougray Scott had to pull out due to his role in
Mission: Impossible II,
but Hugh Jackman hadn’t yet been cast). “We all wanted to be entertainers”: Angeli. “Those girls were moving”: Guthman (May 1, 1979). “Except a man be born again”: the line is from John 3:3. “independent missionaries,” “I hope to be famous,” “This was an 8-year-old talking”: Guthman (May 19, 1979). “They answered”: Angeli. “Things went wrong”: Glatt. “We’d roll into gas stations”: Glatt.

10. JOHNNY CAME FROM MIAMI F-L-A

All quotations from author interview with Johnny Depp (2007).

11. SHOW-BIZ BABIES

“I put a bowl of fruit”: Lawrence. “We were really naïve”: Glatt. “We schlepped forever”: Angeli. “When they went to L.A.”: Lawrence. “So what’s been the happiest day of your life?” (and ensuing dialogue): author interview with Heart Phoenix (1997). “I’m a groomer”: Stark. “Throw a white sheet”: Snyder. “Kids are pieces of meat”: Stark. “Commercials were too phony for me”: Glatt. The video of the Phoenix kids in yellow tank tops can be seen in the opening minutes of
I’m Still Here,
the fake Joaquin Phoenix documentary (2010) directed by Casey Affleck.

12. LET’S WORK

“What are your goals?”: Kozar. “I averaged about four hours”: Kozar. “Laser Head”: Morton.

13. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

“He came in with that”: Glatt. “I just leaped”: Glatt. “He would burst out crying”: Glatt. The dinnertime scene is from the pilot episode of
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
. “a sad little child”: Lawrence.

14. TV EYE

“kind of dreary”: Peters. “River was very much part”: Glatt.

15. ECHO #1:
SURVIVING

All dialogue from
Surviving,
also known as
Surviving: A Family in Crisis
and
Tragedy
.

16. UNMAPPED TERRITORY

“I got a thrill”: Glatt. “I saw him practicing”: Hawke. “River had to do the most acting”: Ritz and Ritz. “Although River liked to be cool”: Glatt. “It was the longest shoot”: Ritz and Ritz. “We competed”: Ritz and Ritz. “Getting laid was a major goal”: Glatt. “River had a very doctrinaire”: Glatt. “naïve pretentiousness”: Ritz and Ritz. “River didn’t have a lot of material knowledge”: Glatt. “Television wasn’t really”: author interview with Heart Phoenix (1997). Three Stooges: Lawrence. “We got along exceptionally”: Lawrence. “Are you going to be famous?” and ensuing conversation: Ritz and Ritz. “One day, John showed up”: Ritz and Ritz, relating a story from an anonymous source. “It’s charmingly odd”: Maslin (1985). “I believe it is profoundly negative”: Ritz and Ritz. “He would send me into fits of envy”: Udovitch (1994). “My biggest fear”: author interview with Ethan Hawke (2004). “I would have really liked”: Udovitch (1994). The Looney Tunes cartoon that Hawke remembered (mostly accurately) was “Show Biz Bugs,” starring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Determined to outdo Bugs on a vaudeville stage, Daffy drinks “a generous portion of gasoline,” nitroglycerine, “a goodly amount of gunpowder,” uranium-238, and then swallows a match. He explodes, to massive applause. “They loved it! They want more!” Bugs tells him. As a ghostly Daffy floats off this mortal plane, he says, “I know, I know, but I can only do it once.”

17. IF THE SKY THAT WE LOOK UPON SHOULD TUMBLE AND FALL INTO THE SEA

“I kind of limped in”: Lawrence. “He was a young James Dean”: Larnick. “And River was cool”: Greene. “He was so professional”: Larnick. “Whenever we saw each other on auditions”: Larnick. “The other guys dared me to do it” and ensuing dialogue with Kiefer Sutherland: Yakir (July 1989). “There was no alcohol”: Lawrence. “Kids never got along with me”: Lawrence. “We both coughed a lot”: Nardwuar the Human Serviette (actually his legal name—he’s a Canadian music obsessive and oddball but effective celebrity interviewer). “Sex was nearly all”: Lawrence. “It was a beautiful experience”: Glatt. “A very strange experience”: Glatt. “WELL IT HAPPENED”: Glatt. “Is there a moment”: Lawrence. “it took him a while”: Glatt. “Personally, I didn’t think”: Glatt.

18. ECHO #2:
STAND BY ME

“sad and weird and eerie”: from Rob Reiner’s commentary track on the DVD of
Stand by Me (Special Edition),
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 1986.

19. YOUNG HOLLYWOOD 1985

“Yertle the Turtle”: Kiedis. “Michael Stipe / despite the hype”: Heller.

20. FAMILY AFFAIR

Financial details: Lawrence. All dialogue from “My Tutor,” the seventh episode of the fourth season of
Family Ties
.

21. TILT-A-WHIRL

“We partied all day”: Glatt. “River looked very unsure”: Glatt. “the devil’s dandruff”: Angeli.

PART THREE

22. SMALL-TOWN HOLLYWOOD

“Our neighborhood”: author interview with Ione Skye (2012).

23. WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

“There’s a boy on this tape”: Catalano. “I finally said to myself”: Catalano.

24. ECHO #3:
THE MOSQUITO COAST

“I knew that character”: Glatt. “Paul Theroux didn’t steal”: Angeli.

25. JUNGLE BOY

“It was very hot”: Lawrence. “In a matter of months,” “But the more he stepped”: Rosefelt. “River Phoenix was born to movies”: Glatt. “In his position”: Lawrence. “There are a lot of people”: Rosefelt. “I wondered if there was something strange” Rosefelt. “I was a curious kid”: Rosefelt. “With a young person”: Glatt. “He’d stuff himself”: Glatt. “It was like living”: Blair (August 1988). “I’ve been so much more”: Boyd. “The character’s just so weird”: Harris. “But we couldn’t stand each other”: Reed. “I knew what it was like”: Harris. “Martha Plimpton was his first”: Ritz and Ritz. “I learned that even among”: Lawrence. “Half the conflict of the film”: Benson. “It just feels so good”: Glatt.

26. LAST YEAR AT THE VIPER ROOM

All quotations from Ebner.

27. HIS NAME IS RIO AND HE DANCES ON THE SAND

“one of the most exciting”: Reed. “Because he made such an impact”: Lawrence. “After
Stand by Me
came out”: Glatt. “That room was filled with kids”: Abramowitz et al. “They teach you how to pose”: Woods. “I like girls who are so natural,” “It’s a great feeling”: Glatt. “It’s like there’s a grandstand”: Voland. “He told me that he had to get up”: Rosefelt. “Yo, Mama-jama”: Reed. “That’s been a lot of fun”: Blair (August 1988). “His parents saw him”: Friend. “It was something like”: Glatt.

28. MARTHA MY DEAR

“River went off”: author interview with Ione Skye (2012). “I loved him for that”: Friend.

29. COMING OF AGE STORY

“and he was completely surrounded by light,” and following dialogue between River and Richert: author interview with William Richert (2013). “intelligent teenage comedy”: Lawrence. “In three months”: author interview with William Richert (2013). “I could get away with a lot”: Boyd. “How many blow jobs”: Author interview with William Richert (2013). “very party atmosphere”: author interview with Ione Skye (2012). “The most out-of-control thing”: Glatt. “Don’t tell anybody,” “Like, yeah, I’m going to call”: Glatt. “I’m the monogamous type”: Glatt. “You were listening to the ultimate makeout record,” “I remember thinking”: author interview with Ione Skye (2012). “She seemed to be in charge”: Glatt. “I wrote that back”: author interview with William Richert (2013). “Where do I cry,” “Not in this one”: author interview with William Richert (2013). “He was very powerful”: author interview with Ione Skye (2012). “and his handwriting,” “Well, I really do want to say”: author interview with William Richert (2013).

30. RATTLESNAKE SPEEDWAY