Why Isn't My Life This Cool?

April 27, 2005 10:02 PM

Peter Beard – Famous Photographer, Jet Setting Playboy, Animal Conservationist, African Adventurer
posted by Staggering Jack (6 comments total)

Cool post.

I can't work out the navigation on the french site (under links playboy, animal and conservationist). It seems like there ought to be much more there but I keep hitting dead ends.
posted by handee at 4:59 AM on April 28, 2005

Thanks for the post, Staggering Jack. Beard is one of those larger-than-life characters of our time ... he was Andy Warhol's neighbor for a time in Montauk - this page - Andy Warhol in Montauk - has a great pic of Peter when young, and also a photo he did of Andy. Warhol descibes Beard as " ... one of the most fascinating men in the world ...... he's like a modern Tarzan. He jumps in and out of the snake pit he keeps at his home. He cuts himself and paints with the blood. He wears sandals and no socks in the middle of Winter. He lived in a parked car on 13th Street for six months. He moved when he woke up and found a transvestite sleeping on the roof."


There are also some fascinating stories of Beard's on-tour travels with MicK Jagger ...

"While on tour Peter became good friends with Mick Jagger. They partied they way across the country in the "Lapping Tongue" - the Stones speciality outfitted DC-7. As has been well documented they flew considerably higher than the clouds that surrounded them. Half way through the tour, Truman Capote met the group in Kansas City. In tow was his new best friend, Lee Radziwill. The mix of rock royalty and Fortunate Four Hundred did not work well. Jagger hated Capote's mincing manners, and Capote called Mick - "...a scared little boy ..... about as sexy as a pissing toad." Stones guitarist Keith Richards welcomed the cultured Radziwill by banging on her hotel door that night, screaming "Princess Radish ....... C'mom you old tart, there's a party going' downstairs!"
posted by madamjujujive at 5:29 AM on April 28, 2005

Thanks for the comments and the link to the Warhol page. To navigate on the French site, go to the bottom of the page and there is a line with "Peter Beard" written in cursive. Each end of the line has an arrow which will take you backwards or forwards in that section.
posted by Staggering Jack at 7:16 AM on April 28, 2005

the style, the sprezzatura, the women, Africa, the Nikons, Paris, the elephants.
for many years now I've been wishing to have Beard's life. and his talent of course.

also, anybody who takes Gina Gershon's picture after he has dunked a gallon of pig blood over her head is my hero. good post.
posted by matteo at 3:44 PM on April 28, 2005

i have some clothes from Peter Beard's basement (a friend of mine used to work for him), including Gina Gershon's coat.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:53 PM on April 28, 2005

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by matteo at 6:43 PM on April 28, 2005