Hopper (32 page)

Fans came to Taos from far and wide. An old jazz cat was dressed in his Harlem best—pinstripes and white-and-black spats. A few LA guys wore
Crash
hats, having worked on the TV series in which Hopper played a deranged music producer. Stoic Tiwa Indians represented the Taos Pueblo. Billy and Captain America once rode through on their way to the movie commune. Coming back full circle after a thousand years, ready to join the riders, were bikers clad in leather and cutoff jean vests, veterans of the bike events “Red River 2010” and “Los Compadres 13th Annual 1991 Bike Run.”

Blasts farted from their American hogs. Real hogs to be ridden flat out onto the open road, not stuck in some graveyard museum. No Euro crotch rockets here.

Trailing was the scraggly Dutchman of Taos, the grandson of a Hudson River Valley artist. Hopper once admired his orange Indian chopper now navigating the narrow dirt trail. It was said the man over there with coyote-blue eyes and a silver-tipped cane could get you a buffalo skull if the price was right; he had arranged for Hopper's burial in this Penitente graveyard, rangy with old crosses and plastic rainbow-colored flowers atop the rock mounds piled on the graves.

“Wow, this is the
hippest
place to be buried,” remarked one of Hopper's art pals to a writer.

A rock-and-roller concluded this was Hopper's final blow in the Chicano-hippie war: he'd not only set foot on their turf and taken their women, but he'd also be buried on their land.

In the shadow of mystical, smiling Taos Mountain, the white pine box was lowered into the earth. Hopper got his send-off, kicked off by that orange Indian chopper.

VAROOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VAROOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VAROOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VAROOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VAROOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VAROOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VAROOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The roar was deafening.

Jack Nicholson burst into tears.

Suddenly, a Tiwa Indian woman, who was known to have visions, saw Hopper shooting out from his grave on his customized orange-and-yellow Harley-Davidson with the Panhead engine and flames on the gas tank. He was heading higher and higher to a more monumental valley.

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader's search tools.

Note: Page numbers in
italics
refer to illustrations.

abstract expressionist movement, 30–31, 66–67, 74

Academy Awards

and
Blue Velvet
nomination, 242

and
Easy Rider
nomination,
152
, 153, 275

and
Hoosiers
nomination, 242

of Jones, 269–270

acting career of Hopper

and agents, 31, 76, 180

blackballing of, 65, 66–67

Broadway debut, 69

Dean's influence on, 55–56

early television roles, 28–29, 31

first leading role, 68–69

inspiration for, 11, 15

in youth, 22–27

See also
directors and Hopper;
specific films and television shows

Actors Studio

Dean's studies with, 44

Hopper's appearance on show, 64–65

Hopper's studies with, 65, 66–67

Newman and Woodward as alumni of, 59

reputation of alumni from, 62

Adams, Ansel, 164

Adams, Nick, 48, 50, 52

agents of Hopper, 31, 76, 180

Alabama and civil rights movement, 79

alcohol

and creativity, 52

and
Mad Dog Morgan
shoot, 200

rate of consumption, 241

Alta-Light Productions, 156

The American Dreamer
(1971), 166–67

American Dream of Hopper, 14

The American Friend
(1977), 209

American International Pictures (AIP)

and
Easy Rider
filming, 119–120

and
The Trip
(1967), 98, 105

Z pictures of, 87

Amtrak, 191

amyl nitrate, 217–18, 228–29, 235

ancestors of Hopper, 239–240

Anderson, G. M., 170, 277–78

Angel in Hell
(Scharf), 263

Anspaugh, David, 235–37

Apocalypse Now
(1979), 202–9,
204

Brando-Hopper tension, 205–6, 207–10

Coppola's direction of Hopper in, 204–5, 209

machete incident, 203

wild dog encounter, 206–7

Archerd, Army, 88

Arkoff, Samuel Z., 120

Arnoldi, Chuck, 243

arrests of Hopper

for drug possession, on Sunset Strip, 121–22

in Mexico, 222–23

for shooting incident, in Taos, 198–99,
199
, 284

Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico, 123

Arroyo Seco, New Mexico, 155–56

art, accidental nature of, 110, 281

art collection of Hopper

auctioning of, 273–74

and death of Hopper, 272

IRS's confiscation of, 197

in Los Angles residence, 74–76

in Taos residence, 164–65, 196–97

in Venice Beach residence, 261–62, 272

and Warhol's
Mao
silk screen, 187, 274

art films

Hopper's interest in, 80, 88–89, 97

The Last Movie
(1971), 93, 135

and manifesto of Hopper, 84

artistry of Hopper, Gordon on, 213

The Art of the Motorcycle
Guggenheim exhibit, 259–260

art work of Hopper

abstract paintings, 30–31, 71, 73, 275

Bomb Drop
piece, 165

found after Hopper's death, 275

Found Object: Dennis Hopper
, 83–84

Hotel Green
Duchamp/Hopper collaboration piece, 76, 273–74

painting classes of Hopper's youth, 241

in Taos, 188

See also
photography of Hopper

Australia, 200–201

Autry, Gene, 14

Backtrack
(renamed
Catchfire;
1990), 264–65, 284

Baez, Joan, 79

Baja California, 99–100

Baker, Ruth, 15

Banksy, 274

Barrymore, John, 23, 77

Basil, Toni, 109–10, 111–12, 116–17

Basquiat
(1996), 263

Basquiat, Jean-Michel, 263, 274

The Beard
(McClure), 102

Beaton, Cecil,
6

Beatty, Warren, 61, 279

Bel Air fire (1961), 71

Belgrade International Film Festival, 191

Bell, Larry, 73, 188

Bengston, Billy Al, 73

Ben-Hur
(1925), 62

Benton, Thomas Hart, 31, 241

Berman, Wallace, 68

Big H Motors Speedway, 220–21, 251

bikers

in
The Glory Stompers
(1967), 103

Guggenheim Motorcycle Club, 259

at Hopper's funeral, 285

Billy the Kid
(1941), 60

birthday party in France, 271

Black, Karen, 109–10, 111–12, 113–14, 115–17

blackballing of Hopper, 65, 66–67

Blank, Les, 113

Blue Velvet
(1986), 226–230,
228
, 242

Blum, Irving, 73, 74, 188

Bodie, Cheyenne, 59

Bogart, Humphrey, 9

bohemians of Hollywood, 23, 30

Bomb Drop
(Hopper), 165

Bonney, William “Billy the Kid,” 59

Boone, Daniel, 17, 19

Booth, Frank (
Blue Velvet
character), 226–230, 242

Brando, Marlon

acting style of, 23

on
Apocalypse Now
shoot, 202–3, 205–6, 207–10

and the civil rights movement, 79

and Dean, 202–3, 206, 209

dislike of Hopper, 205–6, 207–10

and Fonda, 106–7

Broadway debut, 69

broken-plate portrait of Hopper, 263

Brown, James, 79

Burch, Ruth, 28

Burr, Raymond, 24

Burroughs, William, 251

Bush, George W., 263–64

Byrds, 79

Cameron, Marjorie, 68–69

Campbell's Soup Cans
(Warhol), 73–74

Camus, Albert, 37–38

cancer diagnosis of Hopper, 272, 274

Cannes Film Festival (1969), 132, 133

Carradine, David, 197

Carson, Kit, 166

Cass, Elliot “Mama,” 101, 164

Catchfire
(1990), 264–65

Catholic Church, 145–150

Cavalcade for America
(television series), 28–29

chandelier in Taos residence, 266–67

Charlie Rose
talk show, 249

Cheyenne
(television series), 58–59

Chicano-Hippie War, 155–58, 285

childhood and youth of Hopper, 8–20

acting-career roots in, 11, 14

in California, 21–27

cowboys of, 11, 15

in Dodge City, Kansas, 8–20,
9

and
Dodge City
premiere (1939), 8–11,
9

education, 22, 25, 27

on family farm, 11–12, 70, 268

film depicting (proposed), 268

grandmother's role in, 12–13, 15, 18–19

high dive incident, 20

movies seen in, 14, 15, 23

painting classes of, 241

parents of (
see
Hopper, Jay; Hopper, Marjorie Mae Davis)

theater exposure during, 22–27,
26

trains of, 12, 13, 14, 18

and World War II, 12, 17–18, 19, 20

children of Hopper

and acting role choices, 249

and art collection, 76, 272

with Brooke Hayward, 76, 188, 272

with Daria Halprin, 192

and divorces, 131, 192

children of Hopper (
continued
)

and hair of Hopper, 137

with Katherine LaNasa, 249, 273

Chincheros village, 7–8

Christie's, 274, 275

A Christmas Carol
(stage production), 22

Citizen Kane
(1941), 80, 159, 276–77

civil rights movement, 79

Clift, Montgomery, 23, 203

cocaine

and drug rehab of Hopper, 225

and
Easy Rider
, 131, 190

effect of, on the sixties, 190

extent of Hopper's drug use, 241

Hopper's use of, 141, 187

in Peru, 143

Cocteau, Jean, 78, 110, 253, 281

Coffin, Doug, 284

Cohn, Harry, 33–34

Colombo, Todd, 170–71, 178, 182–83

Colors
(1988), 244–47

Columbia

and
Easy Rider
(1969), 34, 178

initial meeting with Cohn, 33–34

and release of
The Last Movie
(1971), 184

commercialism, 260

Conner, Bruce, 163, 274, 277

Cool Hand Luke
(1967), 95

Cooper, Ron, 172–73

Coppola, Francis Ford, 203, 204–5, 209

Corman, Roger

and
Easy Rider
(1969), 119–120

and Edgar Allan Poe films, 87

The Glory Stompers
(1967), 103

and
The Wild Angels
(1966), 96

cowboy hat of Hopper,
152
, 153–54

cowboys

early cowboy films, 277–78

of Hopper's childhood, 11, 14, 15

and
The Last Movie
(1971), 138

Cox, Alex, 264–65

Coyote, Peter, 103–4, 257

creativity

Cocteau on origins of, 110, 281

Hopper's emphasis on, 78

of Hopper's generation, 154

role of sex, drugs, and alcohol in, 52

critics, 184

Crosby, David, 79

The Cry Baby Killer
(1958), 97

Cukor, George, 95

Dalí, Salvador, 89

D'Amore, Patsy, 39

Davis, Lonnie

Davis, Nellie Bly McInteer

Davis, Sammy, Jr., 34, 56

Dean, James

acting style of, 42–45, 55–56, 62–63

and Brando, 202–3, 206, 209

death of, 45

and Desiree, 196

documentary on, 42

Fonda's interest in, 107

and
Giant
(1956), 54–55, 62–63

Hopper's connection with, 209, 237–38

Hopper's fascination with, 42–43, 57, 107, 115

imaginary line of, 54, 64

and “James Dean Replacement Sweepstakes,” 48–49, 52

and
The Last Movie
(1971), 145–46

and Manz, 216

mass dedicated to, 145–46

Mora's vision of, in Hopper's face, 201

mother's death, 114–15

peeing incident, 54–55

post-death contact with, 45–47

and
Rebel Without a Cause
(1955), 37–38, 41, 42–44,
43

The Defenders
(television series), 74

Dennis Hopper, 1971
(Warhol), 274,
276

Dennis Hopper One Man Show
(Conner), 274

Dern, Bruce, 105

Desiree, 196–99, 217–18, 225, 274

D. H. Lawrence Ranch, 126–27

The Diary of Anne Frank
(1959), 69

Diddley, Bo, 172

Diebenkorn, Richard, 30

Diggers, 103–4, 129, 257

Dill, Laddie John, 243

directing career

Catchfire
(1990), 264–65

Colors
(1988), 244–47

The Hot Spot
(1990), 266

Out of the Blue
(1980), 214–15

and reputation of Hopper, 32

Tod's Pashmy Dream
(promotional film), 267

The Yin(g) and the Yang
(unmade), 88

See also
Easy Rider
(1969);
The Last Movie
(1971)

directors and Hopper

Anspaugh, in
Hoosiers
, 235–37

Coppola, in
Apocalypse Now
, 204–5, 209

Hathaway, in
From Hell to Texas
, 61–65

Jaglom, in
Tracks
, 193, 194–95

Lynch, in
Blue Velvet
, 226–230

Dodge City
(1939), 8–11,
9

Dodge City, Kansas, 8–11,
9
, 20