Video Tape Component

Component No: 1 of 7235  1993 CPB Ralph Lowell award: Henry Hampton

Item Id: 35346

Description: 1993 CPB Ralph Lowell award: Henry Hampton He hailed from a political family, his maternal grandfather having been some kind of chieftain in Hudson County, where we grew up. When we graduated from grammar school, I saluted him in his autograph book as "the 45th President of the United States." Joe was the enemy of no one. He was loyal and kind-hearted. He could defuse any tense situation with his wit and sense of humor. He wrote wonderful poems and prose. He could play the Stones, Miles, the Blues and Broadway on that trumpet. I was always happy to be around him, even as those opportunities trickled down to a precious few. I remember one night when we were upperclassmen at St. Joes's. We were out driving in multiple cars with Steve Melli, or Pete Hetherington, or Eddie Ferrer, or Louie DiStasio, or Tom Thaler or Damian - perhaps they'll remember if they were there. We were somewhere in Bergen County, perhaps on Bergen Turnpike, and we passed a drive-in just as it was projecting the image a naked woman. Joe saw it first and immediately shouted... Well, I'll leave it up to you to imagine what he shouted. Brakes screeched and wheels swerved. We all found a vantage point in a nearby park to see whatever came next. It was a moment of pure adolescent hilarity in a night I've never forgotten. ? Joe was no stranger to pain and sorrow. He had his demons and they exacted their payment. Yet somehow he kept on going in his eccentric, spacey, startled way, always saying what was on his mind - unvarnished and unfiltered. Poet. Musician. Artist. Friend. One of Allen Ginsburg's "Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection/to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night." May he rest in peace.

Format: Video Tape

Category: Archival element

Tech. Code: Video home system

First Rack No: VHS.3954

Number of Carriers: 1

Base: polyethylene terephthalate

Gauge: 1/2 in.

Material Type: Viewing copy

Vault Site: Washington University Film and Media Archive (West Campus)

Aspect Ratio: 1:33 - Standard Sound Aperture

Duration: 0 hr 9 min 30 sec 

Languages: English (Original Language)

Source: CRPI

Acquisition: 1 of 2927 CRPI (Organization)

Collection: Henry Hampton Collection