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    The First Gonzo Journalist
    The First Gonzo Journalist
    The First Gonzo Journalist
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    The First Gonzo Journalist

    By Shirrel Rhoades

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    About this ebook

    Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is considered to be the first gonzo journalist. But, fact is, there were writers doing first-person stories long before his writing got tagged as “gonzo” in 1970. Shirrel Rhoades, for instance.
    Gonzo journalism is a style of writing in which the writer is part of the story. According to the definition, the personality of the writer is as important as the event being chronicled. That certainly describes Hunter Thompson’s writing. But back in the mid-‘60s when Rhoades was doing this kind of writing for the Florida Times-Union, his editor called it “participatory journalism.”
    Here is a collection of some of the features stories that earned him that little-known place in literary history.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbsolutelyAmazingEbooks.com
    Release dateJan 7, 2017
    ISBN9781370218684
    The First Gonzo Journalist

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      Book preview

      The First Gonzo Journalist - Shirrel Rhoades

      The First

      Gonzo

      Journalist

      Shirrel Rhoades

      The New Atlantian Library

      is an imprint of

      ABSOLUTELY AMAZING eBOOKS

      Published by Whiz Bang LLC, 926 Truman Avenue, Key West, Florida 33040, USA.

      The First Gonzo Journalist copyright © 2017 by Gee Whiz Entertainment LLC. Electronic compilation / paperback edition copyright © 2017 by Whiz Bang LLC. Articles reprinted by permission of Florida Times-Union.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized ebook editions.

      This work is based on factual events. While the author has made every effort to provide accurate information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their contents. How the e-book displays on a given reader is beyond the publisher’s control.

      For information contact

      Publisher@AbsolutelyAmazingEbooks.com

      The First

      Gonzo

      Journalist

      Table of Contents

      Definition

      Introduction

      I Passed as a High School Student

      Sighted Sub - Simulated Sinking Same

      I was the World’s Worst Waiter

      Shirrel and the Silver Skates

      The Quick and the Dead

      Joey Bishop Interview

      The Cattleman

      Inside Hansontown

      (Award Winner)

      .

      About the Author

      Definition

      GONZO JOURNALISM describes a style of writing where the reporter is included as part of the story, often a first-person narrative.

      The word gonzo had been around for a long time.

      Some dictionaries trace it back to the Italian gonzo -- meaning foolish. One definition states that it’s often associated with journalistic writing of an exaggerated, subjective, and fictionalized style.

      The term Gonzo Journalism was first applied to the writings of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson in 1970 by Bill Cardoso, who was editor of the Boston Globe Magazine. He was describing Thompson’s article The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, which appeared in Scanlon’s Monthly.

      Cardoso claimed gonzo was South Boston Irish slang for the last man standing after an all-night drinking marathon.

      Some attributed it to 1960 hit song of the same name by New Orleans rhythm and blues pianist James Bookers. Others pointed out that the song took its name from a character in the 1960 movie The Pusher, which in turn was based on a 1956 novel by Evan Hunter.

      Whatever the origin, it stuck as a definition for a personalized style of journalism.

      Hunter Thompson first referred to his own work as gonzo on page 12 of his classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He wrote, "But what was the story? Nobody had bothered to say. So we would have to drum it up on our own. Free Enterprise. The American Dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas. Do it now: pure Gonzo journalism."

      Thompson even included a character named Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson’s friend Johnny Depp played a clone of the writer called Raoul Duke in the movie. Benicio Del Torres was cast as Dr. Gonzo.

      Although Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is cited as a prime example of gonzo journalism, Thompson considered it a failure. Intending it to be a real-time stream-of-consciousness narrative, he wound up editing the book five times before publication.

      Gonzo Journalism is sometimes considered a subset of New Journalism, the immersive reporting style practiced by Tom Wolfe, George Plimpton, Lester Bangs, and Terry Southern. But Thompson disagreed. Asked if there was a difference between the two, he replied, Yeah, I think so. Unlike Tom Wolfe or Gay Talese, for instance, I almost never try to reconstruct a story. They’re both much better reporters than I am, but then I don’t really think of myself as a reporter.

      Introduction

      DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON is considered to be the first gonzo journalist. But, fact is, there were writers doing first-person stories long before his writing got tagged as gonzo in 1970.

      Me, for instance.

      Back in the mid-‘60s when I became known for this kind of writing, I was a feature writer for the Florida Times-Union. My editor called it participatory journalism.

      Gonzo journalism is a style of writing in which the writer is part of the story. According to the definition, the personality of the writer is as important as the event being chronicled.

      That certainly describes Hunter Thompson’s writing. And mine.

      My kindly ol’ editor (as we called Charlie Brock) once told me: What makes you a good writer is that you have a unique viewpoint. You don’t see things like other people. That was a compliment … I think.

      That quality probably would have made me a bad reporter. Not objective enough in transcribing events. But then again, I didn’t do newspaper reportage. I was a feature writer for the paper’s Sunday Magazine.

      Why this book?

      Not to take anything away from Thompson, but New Atlantian Library’s editorial director Hollis George (back then, also a frequent byline in the Florida Times-Union) urged me to compile this book, a collection of my gonzo writing from the ‘60s. Proof of claim, I suppose.

      Years later, when I was Associate Publisher of Harper’s Magazine, I became friends with such New Journalism stars as Tom Wolfe (he married Harper’s art director) and George Plimpton (he was a contributing editor at Harper’s), but I accepted that my old writing style was more akin to Hunter Thompson’s than theirs.

      Thompson was writing for Rolling Stone by then. And I had moved to the other side of the desk, to the business end of publishing. Besides, Thompson had already claimed the word gonzo.

      And despite being Evan Hunter’s neighbor in the Silvermine section of Connecticut, I never asked him where he got the word gonzo for his 57th Precinct mystery, The Pusher. After all, he started it.

      Best I can do is explain how I came to write the articles preserved in this egocentric collection of pre-gonzo writing.

      In 1964 I graduated from Stetson University. I’d transferred there to study art, after studying short story writing and such at Wake Forest. Minoring in advertising, my old mentor Willard G. Freeman, a former McCann-Erickson Mad Man who served as an adjunct professor at Stetson, set up several interviews for me with ad agencies in nearby Jacksonville, Florida.

      After a number of fruitless interviews, the headhunter who was shuttling me from agency to agency said, The local newspaper has an opening for someone in their art department. Since you have a degree in art, you may as well talk with them while you’re here in town. So I went.

      The job, it turned out, was working part-time on the paper’s Sunday Magazine, laying out its pages, and working the other half of my time in the newspaper’s large art department, monotonously sizing photographs for reproduction in the paper.

      I liked the idea of working for a magazine. Even one that was stuffed into your Sunday newspaper. I’d always been a magazine junkie.

      Lucky me, Sunday Magazine editor Charlie Brock offered me the job. He was impressed with my creativity, based on my printed resume with a piece of string taped to the front. Under it the message: Tie this string around your finger so you won’t forget my application. Corny, yes. But it made me stand out from the pack.

      I accepted the position, working half time for the magazine, the other half for the paper’s art department. It paid $62.50 a week. That was below the poverty level even in 1964.

      Charlie dumped a stack of old Life and Look magazines next to my drawing board. These are our style guide, he announced. When we give you a story for next week’s issue, simply copy one of these page layouts.

      My transformation into a writer came in stages. One day my kindly ol’ editor tossed me a book and said, You seem like a smart kid. Want to try writing a review?

      The magazine devoted half a page to brief book reviews, usually done on a volunteer basis by the daily news staff. Sounded like a good deal to me. You got paid $5 (that was like getting an 8% raise), plus you got to keep the book. Some of these were $20 hardbacks. Wow!

      Turns out, he liked my review. So he started

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