This is the story of Neal Cassady, as told to me by his daughter, Jami. As a person who grew up in the 1950s, I had heard his name and I did read Jack Kerouac's On The Road, but I really didn't know much about him until I sat down with Jami and conducted this interview. I made and make no judgment about the life he lived though it is a life I could not have lived and would not have wanted to. He influenced a generation of writers and musicians and adventurers and hippies and outcasts and may have been the major influence on The Beat Generation. Many of you, my viewers, will have strong and different opinions about Neal Cassady and I present this story here because as a social cultural filmmaker, iconic characters like Neal Cassady fascinate me.
Many commentators on my videos regarding the 1950s have spoken either glowing way (it was the best time to be alive in America) or critically (I felt stifled and squeezed). The Beatniks were a small group of rebels. Allen Ginsberg. Jack Kerouac. Ken Kesey. William Burroughs. They were poets, authors, painters, in some cases musicians - a group living outside the norm. Rebelling. When Jack Kerouac wrote "on the Road" he used Neal Cassady as a character, the model, because Cassady really live that way. That's what this video indicates. And his daughter Jami, whose mom was Carolyn Cassady, took the time to give me a sense of her experience with her extraordinary, rebellious, iconic father.
And I want to thank Jami and her husband Randy for allowing me to tell just a part of their story and to see just a piece of their incredible collection of Neal's life and work.
If you found this interview of interest, I would appreciate your supporting my efforts to continue doing these and providing them for you and other subscribers by clicking the Super Thanks button below the video screen. Your support is critical to my continuing of these efforts. I'm trying to make a living from this and it ain't easy.
Thank you
David Hoffman filmmaker
28 сен 2024
