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Fred Olen Ray, known far and wide as a mega fan, not to mention a producer/director of exploitation films, had put John in a couple of his films with titles like ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT CENTERFOLD. John was starting to get noticed by the baby boomers in the business who, like myself, were mesmerized by the Z-Man back in 1970.

During this time Fred had a birthday party at his home and John and his wife took me with them. We met some great people there like Russ Tamblyn and France Nuyen, lots of actors from old Hollywood. During that evening John started talking about his career and how he was about to break out to super stardom. He was really tripping on it but in a cool way, or so it seemed at the time. I want to emphasize that John did not drink during this period and was the picture of health, at least physically. He worked out everyday and it showed! He was buff and tanned if not a little hyper, like a man with no time left to waste.

Several months went by and I heard that John has left his wife and kids and moved in with a middle-aged school teacher who better understood his need to “get his career on track”.

I spoke with John a few times on the phone, sensing a growing desperation in his voice about how the next year would see him in major acting roles and if their had been any justice his role in DOLLS would have brought him the Oscar and stardom etc….. About two weeks later I got another call from John asking me if he could crash at my place for a few days as I live near the production office that is about to employ him for a low budget film. When I ask where he is at the moment he says “I’m staying at Jeff Burr’s place but he is out of town scouting locations and we are just not getting along.”

This should have tipped me off that something was terribly wrong, however I told John to come on over and I would fix a place for him in the living room for a few days. I left a message on Jeff Burr’s answering service for him get in touch as I now had John Lazar as a house guest.

What happened next was like outtakes from BVD in Hell. John arrived at my place close to midnight with the middle-aged school teacher in tow and he was demonically drunk. He tears into this woman with abuse you had to witness to believe, yet she took it for about 45 minutes before leaving in tears. I had never seen John like this and still could not reconcile the man I was staring at with the man I thought I knew over the last year who was a fitness freak.

Now I really needed to speak with Jeff Burr, and to decide what to do with Mr. Hyde! The next morning John was up at 6am doing push ups then announced he was off to the gym in Beverly Hills about half a mile from where I live. He left before I could really have it out with him about his behavior the night before. Around noon he returned with a six pack of giant beer cans, two of which were already gone. This was how John Lazar capped off a workout??

Now I have had more than my share of encounters with alcoholics, including having the most notorious drinker of all, Lawrence Tierney, stay with me for days, yet he never drank in my presence, lucky for me!! This was just such a shock as I was completely unprepared to see John in such a state. Finally I got Jeff on the phone, only to find out that when Jeff returned to his apt he found that John had taken all the food Jeff had left for the week – around $300 worth of goods, back to the market for a REFUND! Then John proceeded to buy booze with the money, spending the remainder of his time at Jeff’s trashing the place before coming over to me.

For the next three days I lived like someone from THE LOST WEEKEND, or some weird variation of a TV movie of the week about alcohol abuse, or more like hitting rock bottom with Linda Blair!

At one point I gave my heartfelt salvation speech to John and I really did emphasize how he had let his family down as well as any fans he might have in the future. John would have none of it. He was going to be a star and a year from now we would be sitting at the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel in New York toasting his new-found success with Champagne! He told me he had a grown son in San Francisco from his first marriage but they were estranged….not hard to believe under the circumstances. I now began to see what happened to his acting career. The one film I look up between DOLLS and now is directed by another friend of mine, Jim Wynorski, who later tells me the same sad story of alcohol abuse on location.

Finally I simply had to put an end to his staying in my apt so he began his search for another person to take over…it didn’t take long for him to locate Sage Stallone, the son of Sly Stallone. Sage is a nice guy who loves films, even creating a company to distribute cult titles like THE BEYOND, and not surprisingly he also wants to be an actor. John had him dazzled I guess, because the next day Sage arrived and took John to a motel, renting him a room for a month. I was so grateful to Sage I felt guilty not telling him right off what he has in store. Jeff and I left messages with all the facts we thought he needed to know, yet Sage never retuned one call. Later on I met the ladies from BVD, as well as other journalists who unknowingly tried to take John to a restaurant or coffee house for an interview, only to have their own horror stories regarding Z-MAN’S antics which always began with a drink.

I will always admire John Lazar the actor who gave me such pleasure with his talent in Russ Meyer’s masterpiece as it is being rediscovered all over again and again with the DVD just around the corner. All I can hope for is that John Lazar finds a friend or lover who can lift him out of his addiction because the talent has always been there, he just needs to believe that as much as I do. Bon Chance Z-MAN!

Subversive Cinema has made a career out of resurrecting films that might otherwise disappear from the face of the earth. Case in point, a film made in Puerto Rico with cult star Joe Dallesandro entitled SEEDS OF EVIL or, as it is now known, THE GARDENER.

I became familiar with this film years ago as it would pop up on late night television in the Bay Area, perhaps the only film of Joe’s to show up on commercial television in those days before cable.

The film is meant to be a retelling of the Greek legend of Persephone but what we get is “Little Joe wandering around a lot of lush tropical ferns forever shirtless in skin tight suede jeans exhibiting his special brand of hauteur. In other words Joe was stoned and could care less where he was…

Kate Hepburn’s niece Kate Houghton who appeared with her ‘aunt’ in GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER in 1967, is the leading lady in this epic of killer ferns and the hunk who plants them. Now where all this becomes interesting is the rumor going around that the niece is really the daughter of Spencer Tracy and Hepburn and all is supposed to be revealed in Houghton’s memoirs, or so I was told. Why she would choose to be in such a film will take some explanation on her part someday as well.

This film is a guilty pleasure if ever there was one. The plot, such as it is, moves very slowly, much like plant life itself. However if seeing our Joe at the height of his beauty is enough for you than this film will fulfill its purpose. Director Jim Kay never made another film and explains why in a fun feature on the DVD. Subversive did an amazing job with this release and their hard work shows in every detail. Fans of Rita Gam will want to check this out to see the former bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lust openly for Little Joe’s watering skills only to wind up being just another weed in his garden of Evil! What happens to Joe at the films climax is a first even for our Little Joe! Check out his website “Little Joe Superstar for details.

Until next time may all your dreams be in scope and 70mm.

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