Jack Kerouac's Life in Orlando Florida

[@AnthonyMonaghan]

The Dharma Bums is a brilliant book, more coherent than On The Road...but Big Sur is on another level. By far his greatest achievement, the documentation of his own final dissolution. The raw honesty of his alcoholic break down in Big Sur is chilling and completely real...yet it ends on a triumphant note. Special mention for my other favourite Kerouac books Desolation Angels and the deeply moving and sad Lonesome Traveller. Each of his books were like different chapters of his life laid bare. Rave on Jack Kerouac...

[@jylyhughes5085]

Yes! Big Sur. Lonesome Traveller. October in the Railroad Earth. Scripture of the Golden Eternity .... Jack, the Great Jack ... xxx

[@AnthonyMonaghan]

@@jylyhughes5085 I love Lonesome Traveller also. Interesting book from Jacks works. Desolation Angels is also a favourite.

[@jylyhughes5085]

@@AnthonyMonaghan yes. Desolation Angels is magnificent. Time to re-read. Rave on Jack Kerouac indeed xxx

[@AnthonyMonaghan]

@@jylyhughes5085 A good time to re read any Kerouac. We are still in lockdown in New Zealand, though it has eased to level three. Still stuck at home most of the day though. Thanks.

[@jylyhughes5085]

@@AnthonyMonaghan ... Kerouac is such an inspiration! Here in Australia there are a few relaxed changes to the social distancing. I'm waiting for the day when we can sit once again in cafes, drinking coffee, as we read and write and observe. I've just ordered Jack's 'Scripture of the Golden Eternity" ...

[@sunbecomesea]

I grew up in Tampa and back in 1994 I was in Clearwater looking through the phone book and found Kerouac's name, phone number, and address still listed. Very surreal. I then sought and found the house in St. Petersburg. I regret not ripping that page out of the phone book and keeping it. Good documentary, thank you.

[@donarthiazi2443]

You should have given Ti Jean a ring.

[@cobra5088]

pretty cool knowing there was a time you could be famous, have your number published and no one bother you. and the fact they were still publishing his name an number until 1994 is cool in itself if what you say is actually true.

[@lescook9021]

@@donarthiazi2443 It would have been pretty hard to get him to come to the phone, considering that he had been dead for a quarter of a century.

[@donarthiazi2443]

@@lescook9021 R/WHOOOSH

[@sunbecomesea]

Wow, 9 years ago. So what I should have included was I remember the address being on 7th St, or something close to there, going down to it around the old northeast neighborhood, which isn't the house on 10th Ave. This is coming up 30 years on my memory, so just spelling it out here. Does anyone know if Keroauc or his mom had another house before the one on 10th Ave?

[@SWW_Productions]

Kerouac was a genius hands down - darn I would love to see that roll! What a piece of work!

[@shangrila73eldorado]

The Dharma Bums is a better reflection of Kerouac's politics. He was not exactly a conservative in the current sense of the word. He had a lot of progressive views regarding sexuality, the environment, religious diversity, immigration, and art. Kerouac existed before Reaganomics. There was a 90% tax rate on the wealthiest Americans in the 1950's. Conservatism had a totally different meaning back then. What Jack resented were the hateful revolutionaries who disrespected America. America, which had been very good to him and his immigrant family. Jack was a patriot. He loved America. On the Road was a spiritual dedication to America.

[@jeffschick1669]

I agree, particularly with what you wrote at the end.

[@pgroove163]

well lets be honest..the hippies and the so called counterculture of the 60's was basically an invention of the C.I.A. and the media..he knew they were frauds.phony.jive..not only did they go against the values of his youth of poor working class Lowell, Mass. but also against the values of his art..and the values of both were to work your rear end off ..to Jack and his Beat friends it didn't matter if u were a janitor , cabby , painter or writer..u broke your ass creating..even if u did some speed , smoked some reefer, drank , you kept typing away and listening to jazz...he saw the hippie/ flower child movement and their university compatriots as a middle class movement of spoiled folks who never had to struggle , and could not embrace the feeling of joy of work or hitting the road as a spiritual experience..he was a very hip patriot..

[@Saturnia2014]

Then he couldn't understand the plight of other Americans who didn't have it good in their own country. The only reason why Americans were so angry at the US in those days was justifiably the reaction to have had, with all that was happening in those decades

[@8angst8]

Kerouac, raised Catholic and remaining Catholic 'til the end, always had a core ideal in mind as he sought Nirvana. He was conservative in that sense: There are methods for reaching Nirvana. Though he usually led an utterly sloppy life, he still respected his immigrant father's journey of owning his own printing shop (even though he eventually lost it). I agree with you that "On the Road" was about loving the American Spirit.

[@8angst8]

@@pgroove163 The Counterculture was a Marxist invention of Academia and Mass Media, not the CIA. Utterly failed in their late '60s/early '70s experiment. And now brought to life again by the media today. Someone needs to stomp this idiocy out.

[@3340steve]

Thank you for the excellent teaching video. Great music in background Thelonious Monk " thats the way I feel now " aka Monk's Mood.

[@ProducedbyEricka]

Thank you. Still amazes me how often people find this video years later.

[@James_Bowie]

The word beat, in this context, was in fact coined by Herbert Hunke.

[@99somerville]

One of the few docs about Kerouac that does not repeat the same old stuff. Too short though.

[@sebuteo]

Excellent! Fascinating and informative. Really enjoyed that a lot. Thanks for sharing it. I'll have to read the book about Kerouac's time in Florida.

[@jonhoward4884]

Wow, I'm born and raised in Orlando and live in College Park. I had no idea. Back then Orlando was sleepy, very Southern town. My gosh how times have changed since Disney.

[@danielafreedman]

Ain't life a bitch. Jack entering his one room apartment through the bathroom. Sound like my goofy little apartment in Gainesville. Being a poet is like putting a picture of a fish on your back on April 1st! Love love you always....

[@ShanOakley]

+Daniel Freedman You sound like a good sort. Keep on keepin' on!

[@daktraveler56]

I'm a poet. It's not an easy life, but it's a worthwhile one. The struggle Is always worth it.

[@8angst8]

@@daktraveler56 You're not a poet unless someone else wants to hear what you have to say.

[@daktraveler56]

@@8angst8 well, plenty of people have heard me, so put that in your pipe and smoke it, bitch.

[@bobdobbs7000]

In his final years leading up to his death, Jack eschewed drugs and began his real slide into terminal alcoholism. His friends reported that Jack would drink a full glass of straight whisky upon awakening. What a sad ending for this great writer.

[@bobdobbs7000]

Thanks for the recognition. It's always comforting to know that there are always fellow souls somewhere out there synchronizing everywhere and everywhen.

[@u.sonomabeach6528]

Since he was Catholic he said that he can't commit suicide so instead he intended to drink himself to death.

[@drinkingpoolwater]

imagine all the wear and tear on his mental health? lots of past trauma, probably major depression. played football when he was younger too.

[@jacklowe3429]

@@u.sonomabeach6528 Mission accomplished.

[@donarthiazi2443]

@@bobdobbs7000 His 'friends' _reporting_ how he was in such a horrible place that when he woke up he'd immediately knock back a large glass of booze. Hey thanks for sharing such happy times with the entire world... I just love the uplifting support from my wonderful *friends.*

[@jeromefecto8085]

Merci beaucoup, il fait plaisir de voir votre passion pour cet écrivain spécial.

[@violetarodriguez4840]

I was four years all when this talented man was already famous! Sad and beautiful story. Tanks

[@rr7firefly]

E X C E L L E N T ! Bob Keeling has my respect and gratitude for his research. I've always loved "The Dharma Bums" -- so much so that I have given it to several friends. // Kerouac's alcoholism brings to mind Keith Richards' abuse of drugs. In his autobiography I learned that he was a deep thinker who felt uncomfortable performing for huge audiences and being a rock star phenomenon. It took its toll.

[@Lonewolf78100]

Thanks for posting....Very interesting

[@maxryan2849]

“Three writers does not a generation make.” - Gregory Corso

[@James_Bowie]

But one book did.

[@christopherpaul7588]

There were plenty more, just as there were plenty of writers during the Lost Generation, but only Hemingway and Fitzgerald really made an impact on the movement. Corso wanted recognition and that's why he said it. To me honestly, as much as I love Howl and Other Poems, Corso and Ferlinghetti were much more consistent as poets.

[@justinedse3314]

@@christopherpaul7588 The great Gatsby was boring

[@christopherpaul7588]

@@justinedse3314 haha! Okay. You should be watching TV if you're so easily bored. Gatsby was beautifully written, concise, prose and amazing social criticism. I loved it.

[@massimonipote5899]

Forse,non fanno una generazione. Ma di sicuro,la rappresentano...la descrivono,la raccontano e la fanno conoscere. Nessuno ha la verità assoluta,neppure Kerouac... Ma,è innegabile,che sia riuscito a dare voce e forma,all'irrequietezza e allo smarrimento che i giovani vivevano e vivono tutt'ora.

[@sebuteo]

PS - to Menthol Drop: if you enjoyed this, you really should watch 'What Happens To Kerouac' a beautiful and moving tribute to a flawed genius.

[@jeremymnemonic5226]

I’m having a hard time finding this. I want to watch!

[@ProducedbyEricka]

Thank you!

[@Chesterton7]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@lynncohen2897]

I live close to this area. It’s a great piece of history, but Kerouac actually didn’t like it here in Orlando because of the heat. He only came to visit his mom who lived in the house

[@xx7secondsxx]

Yea I'm in Sanford/ Lake Mary. I love FL. Been on tour with my band and lived other places but its gold here. Too hot but there isn't snow. F some snow! Plus the blue skies down here errbody takes for granted. Plus the thunderstorms! I lived in Forest grove OG. It rained ALL the time! Just light showers and NO THUNDER!!! Was weird after living here

[@pgroove163]

he loved NYC...lived in Manhattan and Queens..he liked the rhythm of the city..reminded him of a jazz solo...

[@slimedog]

yes, a tragic story but the art he left us with - is well worth his life and I believe he would agree with this.

[@pgroove163]

i pass his 2nd floor apt in queens,nyc everyday on the bus ..

[@massimonipote5899]

Ho letto e ho,tutti i suoi libri... Per me è stato determinante quando ero teenager... Ancora adesso è il mio scrittore preferito!... Anche altri sono bravi,ma lui è unico e nessun'altro scrive come lui...! Tra tutti i libri,il mio preferito è: The dharma... Ma è difficile sceglierne uno solo! Kerouac è uno solo,e irripetibile.... proprio come quegli anni!...

[@williamgabriel2286]

good post !

[@blackspring114]

I used to deliver for ups and the Kerouac house in college park was on my first bid route.

[@FreakyDoudou]

BEST DOC ABOUT kEROUAC; tHANKS;

[@wraithstrongopark]

i enjoyed this feature.

[@wendypelaez9305]

My parents rented a house to some family members of Jack’s in College Park. The house was on New Hampshire

[@FlatEarthCourt]

that was so good. thanks.🔥

[@fasteddylove-muffin6415]

I pause to wonder if the reason Kerouac didn't write much about his time here in Orlando was to give him psychological distance from the rest of his life? To really make it a retreat, oasis of sorts from everything else in his life.

[@Sefardi79]

Thanks👍

[@ankuchaskathesalmon9428]

love the man, my brother

[@tmac8892]

I'm hip when I shoot/and I shoot from the hip.

[@Austria88586]

Love Kerouac!

[@jwichmann1306]

I thought he lived in Newport during this time.

[@scottfoster3548]

Remember in the end JK even said it at one of his last interviews in French. Kerouac one of the main influences on the counterculture was in the end a good CATHOLIC boy. HILARIOUS love it.

[@terrymiller111]

[ ] wrote a novel [x ] smoke weed [x] drink alcohol [x] ate fresh citrus for breakfast while living in Florida. I will leave that last one unchecked, Jack. Don't want to steal your shine.

[@tmac8892]

I myself know something about otown, and orange avenue, and golden horns in the American night. the night sean drunk shayed down Washington ave to lake eola in his hipster silver buckled shoes. we howled, but we were just kids. lake eola was throwing various multi colored lights, and the wind was throwing the water from the fountains, white spray cascading sway ways, and all that time went by. and now we are still here in the American night, and sean took too much heroin one night in boston in 1999. and they buried him by a golf course back in otown. and so it goes.

[@philchalker2648]

t mac ;Thanks..so good.p

[@nealm6764]

Very well done. Too many people glamourize his life, but he was more cautionary tail than hero. I wonder what he could have been had he committed himself to football and academics at Columbia, and stayed away from the booze, drugs and really lousy, destructive people that were attracted to him.

[@matthewmaguire8852]

Neal M Charlie didn't surf and Icarus didn't play football 🍺

[@Zepster77]

No one’s fault but his own….

[@lockedout8643]

He would have been an anonymous nobody.

[@Supertramp1966]

Good documentary, but the time frames are misleading. Jack never stayed anywhere for long, so I highly doubt he spent "significant portions" of his life in Orlando between 1956-1962... And Joyce Johnson claims Kerouac was with her in N.Y. when On The Road was released, not Orlando...

[@BGTuyau]

Squirrelly guy he was.

[@Lyrielonwind]

Beat is more connected to music than being burned out or down low in dirty shame. The Beatles played too with the word to come out with their name.

[@fbd1949]

Flawed, drunk, desolated.....So AM I... So ARE WE, he was real and did not care so much about his fake mortal image...He was not afraid of death and he did not live to sell his next book

[@ShanOakley]

Kerouac was terrified of death. Most Catholics tend to be. But he reveled in his terror of death. Quite immature.

[@pablosmoglives]

I'm not drunk. I hate alcohol. Death is not romantic.

[@shombie2737]

He had schizophrenia and self-medicated.

[@nealm6764]

You are talking about some image of him in your mind, and not the real person. He was haunted by death from the time his brother died when he was a boy, and feared he would die in pain and alone at a young age. He was very committed to his mother and not eager to leave her alone in her old age by his death. He was a catholic conservative, not some hedonist as you imagine him to be.

[@sint0xicateme]

@D. Alex Hutchinson Bukowski wrote "Don't Try" and that advice was on his tombstone. A lot of people think that it's an example of Bukowski being a pessimist, but in context he meant that one shouldn't have to 'try' to write. A true writer doesn't try to write - they are instead compelled to write, and must write, lest they go insane.

[@barneythorpe9928]

It seems that people that avoid the limelight are the gratess

[@davidreed4261]

Yes, yes, yes!

[@MarlinWilliams-ts5ul]

Florida must have been a great place in the 1960s; uncrowded, not expensive, still southern.

[@brianschaefer9182]

I thought I knew everything about ti Jean.

[@reddwing4368]

Wasn't the term"beat" Coined by Hunky The times square hustler

[@diegopehu1752]

Why do they don't talking about Lucien Carr

[@makinworks]

at Lou Carr’s request...read burroughs account of lou coming at night pounding on the door, threatening to beat him ....if he published ‘hippoes were boiled in tjeir tanks’ the novel co written by burroughs and jack kerouac but hidden under wooden floorboards...it started the real beat gen....this myth that he wrote on the road in three weeks is half truth...the original scroll is readable but different than the edited over seven years...that was why it took so long to get published. also dharma bums was already in his backpack....he just typed the manuscript. so this doc is incorrect and i think just wants people to visit orlando....its more of tourism, than a literary truth. however i like the novel and another that focused on this death period as it is really important in jack going back to Catholicism and Conservatism....not expanding like Ginsberg into the counter=culture. burroughs was also very conservative even though a homosexual we normally think burroughs to be leftist, he was not. lucien carr was very conservative and hated the idea of his homosexuality to go public. he was a ceo or president of a advertising company i think in atlanta...research yourself...it has been a while, but reading about hippoes boilee tanks book it explains the most about lucien carr, and watch the film that harry potter plays allen ginsberg and lucien carr is portrayed as th real inspiration even though he never wrote he did influence or promote the three that did get all the fame in history books.

[@steve-si3oz]

@@makinworks Great comment!

[@whatIdontSEE]

"Deadbelly don't hide it. Lead killed Leadbelly. Deadbelly admit. Deadbelly a modern cat. Cooolll...Deadbelly, mann... Craziest!"

[@u.sonomabeach6528]

Dead belly dead ahead

[@Kodachrome40]

He probably met up with Walt Disney when Disney was in Orlando buying up all the land for Disney World. I wonder what that encounter was like.

[@sebuteo]

Argh! Sorry, that's 'What Happened To Kerouac?' Damn predictive text!

[@8angst8]

Kerouac talks/writes a good game, but he always returned to his Mommie. Not just in Orlando, but throughout his whole life. As his first wife said, he didn't even know what size socks and shirt he wore, because his Mommie always bought his clothes for him. There's something incredibly wrong with a man who doesn't even know his shirt size.

[@wallacechrstensen7406]

Jesus loves you so much.

[@richardeaton8670]

Keeper of dig and hip

[@TheMegrims]

horseshit. Kerouac wrote several rewrites of OTR. He was a fucking working man- his first scroll was finished in 51 and it took him years of fine tuning and shopping it to publishers before finally hitting the right place and time. Darma came out in 58 the year after On The Road. What decade are you referring to?

[@peterguitarhowitt268]

😎

[@MrRatherino]

Jimi Hendrix lives

[@Johnconno]

Mummy! Jack done big poopoo! Where toilet roll!

[@DavidKokaska]

Rock ‘n roll - simple - weird 3 minute songs.. real kinda cheap - not junk - ha ha - but cheap. 😊

[@SpockMonroe]

Broke, homeless, exhauste.

[@musashi-san____1409]

LOL He was living in Florida, and all he could write about was California.

[@JoseighBlogs]

So many geniuses die young ~ look at Jesus Christ fer Christ's Sake?

[@kevinc9006]

They say he ran over dogs for fun

[@Supertramp1966]

Who's "they"? From everything I've read about Jack, he loved and befriended animals, especially his beloved "Tyke"... Don't believe everything you read....lots of envious "Kerouac haters" out there.

[@pmf598]

That was probably "ran with" . . . if "they" said it at all . .

[@gunpeiyokoifan]

@Joshua Jung Source?

[@SandfordSmythe]

It was a Zen thing.

[@8angst8]

Hey, don't post random stuff like this. I think Kerouac was big slob, but I've never read a single thing about him abusing animals.

[@DavidKokaska]

It was Great Stuff; but it wasn’t BOP that changed America - well not for thinking men? It was Elvis - non- conformity & kids. Teeny-boppers. But I prefer Jack. Sorry Lil Richard - cheap stuff

[@markwesley6228]

Good stuff back in the day. Dated stuff today. He was always a drunk. . .

[@rsohlich1]

It's still great

[@MarlinWilliams-ts5ul]

Good literature is never dated.

[@dianegordon5366]

There is so much mythology out there, it's hard to parse it from what really happened. I have read he wrote the Dharma Bums in 11 days. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kerouac