Quirky DJ Rodney Bigenheimer inspires documentary
Lili2
By JIM FARBER
He was, arguably, the first major American deejay to spin records by the Sex
Pistols, the Ramones, Oasis, Coldplay and the Strokes.
And he served as the ringmaster for L.A.'s glam-rock scene in the '70s, and
punk-rock movement of the '80s.
But do those credits qualify Rodney Bingenheimer as a fit subject for a
two-hour documentary?
The surprising answer is yes, as evidenced by the new film "The Mayor of Sunset
Strip," an improbably rich and complex portrait of not just Bingenheimer, but
the whole culture of celebrity the filmmaker feels that he epitomizes and
propagates.
At first, even the movie's director, George Hickenlooper, wasn't convinced he'd
found a suitable subject for the film, which opens April 2.
Hickenlooper, who earlier crafted documentaries on the making of Francis Ford
Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" and the life of director Peter Bogdanovich, has
never been a big music fan. But he was intrigued when he came across
Bingenheimer's radio show, which has run on L.A.'s biggest rock station, KROQ,
for the last 28 years.
"I was taken by this unprepossessing, whiny voice," Hickenlooper says. "It was
so different from the chocolatey timbres of your standard FM deejay."
Several years ago, Hickenlooper was contacted by Chris Carter, guitarist for
the defunct L.A. band Dramarama and Bingenheimer's best friend, about making a
movie focusing on this West Coast cult figure. But the director wasn't sold
until he visited Rodney in his modest Hollywood home and watched him show off
his memorabilia.
"His house was covered ceiling to floor with photos of himself with this weird
combination of celebrities," Hickenlooper says. "When he talked about them,
this shy guy became luminous. It was almost a physical transformation. That's
when I saw something in him that was more than just a music story. The photos
were a mirror for something he was hungry for in his life - love."
To the director, Bingenheimer seemed like a real-world version of the Woody
Allen character Zelig, a man who only becomes real through his ability to
mirror others, and through his proximity to powerful figures. In archival
footage used in the film, we see Bingenheimer appearing in every key scene in
L.A. rock over the last 37 years, suggesting a musical version of Forrest Gump
or Peter Sellers in "Being There."
Bingenheimer first came to the Sunset Strip as a 15-year-old runaway. His
family took little interest in him. They don't pay much more attention these
days, as the film sadly chronicles.
Always drawn to celebrities, Bingenheimer quickly met and befriended Sonny and
Cher, who became like surrogate parents.
"They showed me the score," Bingenheimer told the Daily News.
MONKEE SUBSTITUTE
Cher is one of many celebrities who speak about Bingenheimer with great
affection in the film. Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, Joan Jett,
Kato Kaelin and Courtney Love also turn up with colorful anecdotes. David Bowie
even licensed a rare song for the movie's soundtrack at almost no fee. The CD
also features a cut the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson wrote for the deejay called
"Rodney on the Roq."
Binghenheimer began his career as a stand-in for Davy Jones of the Monkees.
Later he ran L.A.'s English Disco, which introduced British glam to California
in the early '70s. His KROQ gig started in August 1976.
Bingenheimer's show has since been shunted to the graveyard shift, midnight to
3 a.m. He has never made much money and he has no family of his own. A young
woman he calls his girlfriend in the film turns out to be nothing of the kind.
The movie paints a sad portrait of a lonely man living on his memories and his
access to fame.
But Bingenheimer hardly sees his life that way. He insists he doesn't care
about celebrity at all.
"It's about the music," he says "It's about collecting memorabilia and getting
rare import recordings and being the first one to play them and turning people
on to new bands. It's a thrill for me."
He believes the director pushed the celebrity angle "just to get people's
attention. Otherwise, who's heard of me in Kansas City?" he asks.
Hickenlooper feels he captured the reality of what he saw.
"Rodney is a metaphor for what has happened in our culture," he says.
"Celebrity has come to fill in the emotional gaps in people's lives. [It's] an
extension of our need to be adored."
Not that the director is aloof from these feelings.
"Every one of us is interested in [fame]," he says. "Anyone who says they're
not, is either 95 years old - or they're lying."