Kerouac, Ginsberg and Friends in NYC 1959

Here’s the second in our series of “Annotated Streaming Video(s)” (the first, on “Pull My Daisy”, was posted Monday, and can be accessed here).” Kerouac, Ginsberg and Friends in NYC, 1959″ – under such matter-of-fact description lies another rarity and treasure – a true internet treasure (over 230,000 people have viewed it since it was first put up on You Tube in June of 2007 – [over 200,000 and counting on this 2014 posting! ] )  – a particularly remarkable thing, since, all this time, it has remained something of a mystery, and is black-and-white, silent (sic) footage – Who? what? where?). The date is Spring (or early Summer), 1959, and the location? – no question at all about that – is the Harmony Bar and Restaurant, then located on Manhattan’s Third Avenue, on the corner of Third Avenue and East 9th Street. The “featured players”? – well, recognizably, Allen and Jack Kerouac – but also Lucien Carr and his wife Francesca (and their three sons, Simon, Caleb and Ethan), also, Mary Frank (wife of the filmmaker) and their two children, (Pablo and Andrea) – and behind the camera? (well, uncredited, so we’re not one-hundred percent certain, but wouldn’t that be Robert Frank himself? [2015 update – tho’ we’re told the filmmaker himsekf denies it}

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