Hunter S. Thompson, 1978; John Kaye for the rest of it
Not written by Thompson, but nevertheless:
“I was told by Mister Thompson to mark you down as a VIP, that you were on a mission of considerable importance,” said Inga, the head of guest services, as we rode the elevator up to my floor. “Since he was dressed quite eccentrically, in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, I assumed he was pulling my leg. The bellman who fetched his bags said he was a famous writer. Are you a writer also?” I told her I wrote movies. “Are you famous?”
“No.”
“Do you have any cocaine?”
I stared at her. Her smile was odd, both reassuring and intensely hopeful. In the cartoon balloon I saw over her head were the words: I’m yours if you do. “Yes, I do.”
“That is good.”
The author of the piece, screenwriter John Kaye, goes on to talk about having sex with various women in New Orleans over various years, a hitch-hiking trip he took from his parents’ home in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles to New Orleans, and about a boxing match in New Orleans that he attended while shadowing Thompson under the aegis of writing what would eventually become the film Where the Buffalo Roam. Much to discover in this piece about Mr. Kaye, while Mr. Thompson remains a bit player.
With a voice-over from JAMES SALTER.
Hunter S. Thompson’s campaign video for Sheriff of Piktin County, Colorado in 1970.
