Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003)

[Henry Gale]

Title: Mayor of the Sunset Strip

Tagline: One unlikely man made America listen

Genre: Documentary, Music

Director: George Hickenlooper

Cast: Rodney Bingenheimer, Kim Fowley, Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Courtney Love, Alice Cooper, Debbie Harry, Neil Young, George Wendt, Pete Townshend, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, David Johansen, Poe, Beck, David Bowie, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Joan Jett, Annabella Lwin, Paul Reubens, Tori Amos, Neve Campbell

Release: 2003-06-17

Runtime: 94

Plot: A look at the history of fame in the world through the eyes of pop star impresario, Rodney Bingenheimer

The tagline of this documentary is, "You should have been there...."

Well, I was there, so yesterday I went to San Antonio's art house to check out Rodney Bingenheimer's last hurrah.

36 years ago Rodney was not the Mayor of Sunset, some other character whose name I've long forgotten held that title. Rodney was just some androgynous little waif who hung out with a series of young girls and the G.T.O.s.
These, and other street characters, Larry Fisher for instance, all showed up on various Zappa albums. The G.T.O.s
invented thrift shop chic, and some of them died or wish they had. Miss Pamela made a career out of Star F*c*i*g.

Rodney knew everyone, probably because he brought Pamela along. What other movie includes Cher, Tori, Bowie, Kato, Mick, Joan Jett, Deborah Harry, Brooke Shields and Lance Loud?
And for proof that vampyrs are real, Michael Des Barres and Kim Fowley.

I really was expecting the movie to be fun, instead I got Rodney as a mounful cabbage patch doll, hanging on to the radio station he helped establish, by a thread....3 hours in the middle of the night, once a week.

But, you really should see it...it's easier than having been there.

 

[Gary->dee]

I'd be interested in seeing this documentary since I live in L.A. but wasn't around during the late 60's. I'm interested in this particular era of the Sunset Strip and I vaguely know who Rodney Bingenheimer is, but that's probably from being here in the late 70's. From what I've seen from various footage and such there was a riot on Sunset blvd('the sunset riots'?), Paul Newman owned(I believe) a restaurant/club called The Factory, The Whiskey was the place to be along with the London Fog across the street where The Viper Room is now.

There are quite a few movies that were filmed during that era. I think The Graduate was shot on the strip even though that was like the mid-60's. Peter Sellers "I Love You Alice B. Tolkas" involves a lot of Sunset blvd. and hippies. I love spotting and recognizng the Sunset Strip in older movies, whether from the 60's or 70's.

 

[JoeStemme]

George Hickenlooper's look at the strange odyssey that is Rodney Bingenheimer's life remains a curious documentary. On one hand, the undersized suburban kid Bingenheimer traveling to Hollywood during the swinging 60s and “taking over the town” is a fascinating “only in America tale” that one might believe is an urban legend if it weren't (mostly) true. On the other, Hickenlooper's doc has curious, and potentially damaging omissions and never deeply confronts its subject. Interviews with the infamous Kim Fowley are as close as the film gets to sullying Bingenheimer's name.

Bingenheimer, was, for years, a hanger-on. He just seemed to show up at parties, clubs, recording sessions and TV tapings. Eventually, he opened his own night club, The English Disco, which gained a notorious reputation for its sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. No matter how debauched the tales are, Hickenlooper portrays Bingenheimer as an innocent gnome who just smiled his way to fame, eventually ending up in his gig of a lifetime - being the foremost DJ on L.A.'s influential KROQ ('Rodney on the ROQ') - a gig he held for almost 40 years.

Hickenlooper's camera, at times, gets uncomfortably close, capturing Bingenheimer at his most vulnerable. Still, with all the footage and personal access, the documentary never quite cracks the case of what makes its subject tick. As the film ends, we see Bingenheimer struggling to keep his radio program on the air. KROQ has banished his once prominent show to the graveyard Midnight to 3am shift - and only on Sunday nights. It's a bitter and somewhat sad irony that Bingenheimer craved even that tiny bit of attention so tenaciously that he continued on in that ignominious shift for another 14 years after this Doc's release!!