Jim Morrison: The Dumb Waiter 1963

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Morrison was certainly talented in a lot more areas than just rock singing. We know he made his first film at High School and read his first poetry to an audience at the same time when he read in a Washington coffee shop.

He studied Philosophies of Protest and Psychology of Crowds, which he identified later as two of his favorite classes.
He also wrote a research paper on the imagery of heaven and hell in the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch.
Finally, he managed to get a part in Harold Pinter's play The Dumbwaiter without having any previous acting experience.

He could also play the piano contrary to popular belief that Jim did not play an instrument.
Clever lad.



Photo from The Florida Flambeau Volume 50, Number 60 from December 3, 1963.
It features a photo of student Jim Morrison on the front page. Morrison played the part of Gus in Harold Pinter's one-act play, The Dumb Waiter and is pictured with his co-star in a scene from the play.
Strangely, Morrison is listed as "Stanislous Bolislavsky" in the caption for the photo.
The production took place on December 4 and 6, 1963 at Florida State University's Conradi Theater.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter 1957

Two hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment. Ben is the senior member of the team and is reading a newspaper when the action begins. Gus is the junior member and is tying his shoes as the play opens. Gus asks many questions of Ben as he gets ready for their job and tries to make tea, including questions about their job (Gus seems to be questioning the concept of being a hit-man). They argue over the semantics of "light the kettle" and "put on the kettle". Ben continues reading his paper most of the time, and reads excerpts of it to Gus sometimes, it seems, to change the topic of conversation. Ben gets increasingly more animated in his newspaper story-telling, and Gus's questions become more and more pointed, and at points nearly nonsensical. As the tension rises the physicality of the two players increases accordingly.

In the back of the room is a dumbwaiter, which delivers occasional food orders. This is mysterious and both characters seem to be puzzled as to why these orders keep coming. At one point they send up some snack food that Gus had brought along. As these orders come in, the tension builds to the point where they even come to blows. Ben has to explain to the people above via the dumbwaiter's "speaking tube" that there is no food. This whole sequence is rather odd because the basement is clearly not outfitted for fulfillment of the orders.

Gus leaves the room to get a drink of water in the bathroom, and the dumbwaiter's speaking tube whistles (a sign that there is a person on the other end who wishes to communicate). Ben listens carefully—we gather from his replies that their victim has arrived and is on his way to the room. Ben shouts for Gus, who is still out of the room. The door that the target is supposed to enter from flies open, Ben rounds on it with his gun, and Gus enters, stripped of his jacket, waistcoat, tie and gun. There is a long silence as the two stare at each other before the curtain comes down (the implication is that Gus is the person that Ben has been employed to kill.


See also
Jim Morrison: Genesis of a Poet

Pinman Jim Morrison's first film

Jim Morrison UCLA Film School

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Jim Morrison at Florida State

Most Doors fans know that Jim Morrison studied film at UCLA where he met a graduate student named Ray Manzarek.
But before enrolling at UCLA, Morrison attended Florida State University in Tallahassee.
At FSU, in 1962, Jim studied art and psychology and fell in with a bohemian crowd.
He also appeared in a student production of Harold Pinter's play, The Dumbwaiter. Here, in an exclusive interview with American Legends, Gerry McClain remembers his fellow FSU student, Jim Morrison.

AL: How did you meet Jim Morrison?


GM: I was a film student at FSU. At that time, the department consisted of two people: myself and Werner Vagt who ran the operation. There were no formal classes. Werner made short films for the university and some outside clients. He had been a director in Germany. Jim Morrison appeared in a short we did for United Way. As I recall, he walked to a mailbox and mailed a letter.


AL: Was Jim interested in film then?

GM: His whole interest was film. He did some editing work under Werner and would go to the FSU library to read film reviews in back issues of The Village Voice. Jim also made an 8 mm film on campus--guys peeking around bushes, that kind of thing.

AL: What was Jim Morrison like back then?

GM: He hung around with a bohemian crowd: people who liked to wear pants with holes in them. Jim posed as a model for the art department, and they would all sell blood to the Red Cross to get a few bucks. Once, I saw Jim go around the college coffee shop eating scraps off tables. I felt he--and the others--were living an image--the starving young artist.

AL: Was Morrison interested in music?

GM: The only time I heard Jim mention music at FSU was at a party. He said, "I want you to hear this guy. He's really great." Jim put on this record by a singer nobody had ever heard of. It was Bob Dylan.

AL: A recent biography by Patricia Butler suggests that Jim Morrison may have had a gay experience in St. Petersburg before enrolling at FSU.

GM: At FSU, he had a girlfriend, Mary Werbelow. Jim brought her to a party. Some guy was bending over to talk to her and Jim got jealous. He grabbed the guy by the belt and threw him across the room. Jim got very drunk when he drank. I realized drinking made him crazy. Another time, Morrison grabbed the wheel of my car and wanted to drive to Georgia to this carnival where girls danced nude. Jim Morrison wasn't gay.

AL: Did Morrison talk about leaving FSU?

GM: No. One time I hadn't seen him for a couple of days and over semester break I dropped by Werner's office and asked if he'd seen Jim. Werner said: "Morrison's gone. He's going out to California to film school at UCLA."