•

Camp David

CAMP DAVID MAY 2008: MICHAEL BERRYMAN & SAMSON DE BRIER

By • May 15th, 2008 • Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Share This:

LA PERVERSA—THE PHANTOM OF THE FERRIS WHEEL

Hollywood has long held the dubious reputation for spawning myths regarding its inhabitants both famous and infamous alike. During the twenty-five years that I called Beverly Hills home I witnessed first hand my share of these myths in progress. I cannot even remember now when I first physically set eyes on that little diminutive white-haired gentleman known in sophisticated circles around Hollywood as Samson De Brier who, in a certain light, looked to me exactly like an illustration of an English witch during the time of Matthew Hopkins, although Kenneth Anger always thought of him visually as the old Sorcerer in FANTASIA who has Mickey Mouse as an apprentice. The end result regarding Samson’s appearance was always an Occult reference, which makes sense when you understand the groove in which he and his friends socialized.

As I began to put this together I realized that for the sake of accuracy I should reveal that I had first seen a photograph of Samson De Brier as a child in, of all things, a monster magazine! It was an early issue of Forrest J. Ackerman’s ‘Famous Monsters of Filmland’ in the early sixties, when I was about 12 years of age. Ackerman used to run a mystery photo in every issue. So he ran this really creepy photo of a weird looking demonic creature with huge fingernails dressed in what looked like a spider web painted on a shroud. Ackerman identified the picture as a scene from THE PHANTOM OF THE FERRIS WHEEL by Ray Bradbury as if it was a lost film of the author’s DARK CARNIVAL. I never forgot that image and it was years later that I discovered it was a frame enlargement from Kenneth Anger’s INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME. I still remember the Proust-like moment when I finally saw the garment in person decades later, residing in a dusty frame amid the clutter of Samson’s parlor.

Now before you read any further I must advise there are spoilers ahead for those who still remain starry-eyed regarding the mythology surrounding avant garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger and his self conscious social circle of acquaintances in Hollywood. I confess to being one of those who was once dazzled by the idea of actually meeting some of these characters, though at the time I did not fully appreciate the phrase “Be careful what you wish for.” If you read enough of my observations from this period you will soon discover that I became, shall we say, “disenchanted” with the reality vs. the myth of these dilettantish creatures with their cruel intentions and insincere friends.

On paper the concept that one could actually have lunch and kind of hang out with characters out of INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME is a trippy one to be sure. I was born too late to have ever met most of Kenneth Anger’s inspirations like the Great beast Aleister Crowley, also known as “the wickedest man in the world,” Sergei Eisenstein, a world class director and cinema God, or Jean Cocteau, all acknowledged geniuses in their respective fields. I did however manage to make the acquaintance of three of the actors from the Pleasure Dome – the director Kenneth Anger who played Hecate in the film, Curtis Harrington who played the role of “slave” in a Caligari make-up, and the subject of this memoir, Samson De Brier, upon whom Kenneth bestowed three roles – Lord Shiva, The Great Beast and Osiris.

It was Samson’s home and social contacts that made him of interest to Anger in the making of this film, rather than any artistic similarities, and I would realize much later that it would be the artifice of Samson De Brier and the famous people who passed through his life that made him a celebrity rather than any real accomplishment in the Arts.

It had to have been around the time I was getting to know both Curtis Harrington and Kenneth Anger, probably around 1976. Samson De Brier is of course a character, not a real person, rather the invention of an aging, self-styled Hollywood courtesan who knew only too well that time was always on his side, especially if you start outliving all the witnesses to your life.

Continue to page: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Tagged as: , ,
Share This Article: Digg it | del.icio.us | Google | StumbleUpon | Technorati

Comments are closed.