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[Robert Frank: Pull My Daisy] [By: Kerouac, Jack] [May, 2008]
Pull My Daisy is a collectable object containing Robert Frank's famous film of 1959 on DVD; a text booklet with an introduction, the transcript of the film and lyrics to the opening song; and a photo-magazine of on-set documentary photos by John Cohen. Pull My Daisy typifies the Beat Generation. Directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, Pull My Daisy was adapted by Jack Kerouac from the third act of a stage play he never finished entitled Beat Generation. Kerouac also provided improvised narration. It stars Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers, Peter Orlovsky, David Amram, Richard Bellamy, Alice Neel, Sally Gross and Pablo, Frank's then infant son. Based on an incident in the life of Neal Cassady and his wife Carolyn, the movie tells the story of a railway brakeman whose painter wife invites a respectable bishop over for dinner. However, the brakeman's bohemian friends crash the party, with comic results. Pull My Daisy was praised for years as an improvisational masterpiece, until Leslie revealed in 1968 that the film was actually carefully planned, rehearsed, and directed by him and Frank.
- GenresPhotographyFilm
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1961
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 28, 2018
so i like reading about beatniks and doing research on their lives. i think what jerry tallmer says about them in this book’s introduction is a good summary of the beat generation:
“it is also, like the movie, an ugly poem - ugly for its put-downs, its woman-hatred, its sexual squareness (all beat sex is square), its holier-than-thou infantile anarchies.”
beatnik works are ugly and obscene and honest; that may be the reason i like them because they seriously don’t care. it is hard to consider anything they do as literary masterpieces (minor or major) but it would be bad to completely ignore their influence in the literary world either.
i give this 3,5 stars because i don’t know how to react to these people and their work anymore.
“it is also, like the movie, an ugly poem - ugly for its put-downs, its woman-hatred, its sexual squareness (all beat sex is square), its holier-than-thou infantile anarchies.”
beatnik works are ugly and obscene and honest; that may be the reason i like them because they seriously don’t care. it is hard to consider anything they do as literary masterpieces (minor or major) but it would be bad to completely ignore their influence in the literary world either.
i give this 3,5 stars because i don’t know how to react to these people and their work anymore.
August 4, 2012
A book or object by the German publisher Steidl is always excellent. They simply do not put out bad titles or books. And for the past so-many years they are the press to go to with respect to the works of Robert Frank. "Pull My Daisy" is a film made by Frank and Alfred Leslie that is basically ground zero for the Beat Generation. Based on an un-produced play by Jack Kerouac, this 28 minute film stars poets Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and painter Larry Rivers. With Alice Neal and David Amram. And a totally improvised voice-over by Kerouac.
This is a work that has 'charm' all over it. In many ways a goof, but as one knows in the Beat world, a goof is sort of a heightened experience. Kerouac is a genius, and there is no bad Jack. Sometimes there is weak Jack, or Jack-can-be-better - but overall this titan of Beat can really do no wrong with me.
For around $28 you get a beautifully (and simply) designed box with two books. The 'script' with essay and another book by the great photographer John Cohen with his footage of the making of this film and other images of them just hanging out. Simply essential in a goofy way.
This is a work that has 'charm' all over it. In many ways a goof, but as one knows in the Beat world, a goof is sort of a heightened experience. Kerouac is a genius, and there is no bad Jack. Sometimes there is weak Jack, or Jack-can-be-better - but overall this titan of Beat can really do no wrong with me.
For around $28 you get a beautifully (and simply) designed box with two books. The 'script' with essay and another book by the great photographer John Cohen with his footage of the making of this film and other images of them just hanging out. Simply essential in a goofy way.
September 10, 2024
a love letter to the beat generation. i think if you attempt to take this work as anything beyond this, you will miss the simple wild beauty of it. wonderful film shots accompanied with frantic expression. ‘well, they turn over their little purple moonlight pages in which their secret doodlings do show.’
December 14, 2020
It's fair to say I had no idea what I was getting when I bought this book, which I picked up because of the involvement of Kerouac. Kerouac wrote the poem that accompanies the images, but the book itself is a simulacrum of a 28-minute beat film with the title Pull My Daisy. I have never heard of, let alone seen, this movie, but apparently it is a well-known artifact of the beat era by people who study it more than I do.
The book is mostly pictures from the film, with an introduction (which is actually the best part of the book) and the poem by Kerouac. I think the whole thing will be more valuable to you if you know something about this movie.
To someone like me, with a vague interest in the beats, this is an inessential piece of cultural flotsam.
The book is mostly pictures from the film, with an introduction (which is actually the best part of the book) and the poem by Kerouac. I think the whole thing will be more valuable to you if you know something about this movie.
To someone like me, with a vague interest in the beats, this is an inessential piece of cultural flotsam.
February 27, 2021
A short film, based on the third act of Kerouac's play "The Beat Generation", which I just read! Another, stranger connection is that the transcript in this book mentions Ma Rainey, and I just saw a movie about her! Weird...
The strength of this book is the pictures! I think that they are stills from the film, but they are still pretty cool! The poem is in here, as is a script, or is it a transcript, of the short movie. And finally, there is a layout of photos with quotes from the movie under them, sort of like a storyboard. I still don't think the play makes a lot of sense, but I'm curious to see the film!
“The bishop says, What, holy, holy?”
The strength of this book is the pictures! I think that they are stills from the film, but they are still pretty cool! The poem is in here, as is a script, or is it a transcript, of the short movie. And finally, there is a layout of photos with quotes from the movie under them, sort of like a storyboard. I still don't think the play makes a lot of sense, but I'm curious to see the film!
“The bishop says, What, holy, holy?”
December 5, 2017
This is a great little portrait- in words and pictures- of The Beat Generation at its moment of explosion. Kerouac's spontaneous narration moves and bounces like the best jazz of its time.
October 5, 2010
i wish i could watch the movie, but this is a nice enough thing.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews