Henry Miller photographer Florian Steiner is on YouTube at age 71 with a video of Casa Florian in Asolo Italy which he built himself and was constantly inviting me and everyone else to visit him at.
It was posted it says, 7 yrs. ago, so he would be almost 80 if still alive now which wouldn't surprise me.
Emil White first put me in touch with him saying, you ought to interview this guy; he has many Henry Miller photos and tape recordings he has made.
I did correspond with him and next thing I know he shows up unannounced on my doorstep at my old West LA apt on Barrington Ave.@Ohio St. with a rented Ford Escort which he used as an emergency crash pad(the rental car itself)&asking me to crash on my crappy couch(which I did only for him and Irving Stettner in return for
interviews about them and Henry Miller) in those days...
We accomplished several
things during that visit and stay; including the tape recorded interview about him and Emil White and Henry Miller and Bill Webb.
I took him over to UCLA Special Collections where Brooke Whiting; the then Curator; found a whole folder under the title of Floriano instead of Florian Steiner; which Henry
Miller had kept, and donated to UCLA Special Collections.
Florian astonished me that day by talking his way out of a parking ticket he got there! No small feat!
Jack Nicholson's secretary Ann Marshall left a voicemail on my answering machine inviting Florian to dinner on Mulholland Dr. at his house, during the visit, and Florian went, and told me about it and how he got to know Jack when Florian was the staff photographer on the movie The Passenger directed by Antonioni.
And last but not least Ephraim Doner during my taped interview with him and his wife Rosa in Carmel California; whipped out a magazine with a rare photo of Aldous Huxley without glasses on, late in life, after Huxley's blindness, taken by none other than Florian Steiner!
This understandably blew my mind and vouched for Florian's unusual persuasiveness and charm. I got him to talk about his Huxley photo along with Jack and Miller too.
Later on Bill Webb and Caryl Hill remembered Florian to me also. Florian mentioned being picked up hitchhiking(I think he said)by Joan Baez in the olden days in Big Sur during his 1960's visits.
After staying with me a few days, he drove in the rented Ford Escort to Big Sur and back to visit Emil White and Bill Webb. He told me he watched satellite TV movies at the latter and that Emil still had his mental faculties and looked otherwise alright to him, despite
Emil's Parkinson's disease.
July 06, 2015
Henry Miller Photographer Florian Steiner on You Tube
December 24, 2007
CELEBRITIES WHO READ OR HAVE READ HENRY MILLER
(12-24-2007) WATCHED ACTOR JOHN CUSACK SAY ON 'INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO TV SHOW' ON BRAVO CHANNEL THAT HE READ HENRY MILLER TO INSPIRE HIM TO PUT SOUL INTO HIS PERFORMANCES.
ROBERT REDFORD WENT INTO A LOT ABOUT THE INFLUENCE OF READING HENRY MILLER IN HIS IN-DEPTH PLAYBOY MAGAZINE INTERVIEW YEARS AGO. HOW HE, REDFORD STARVED TOO IN ITALY WHEN HE WAS TRYING TO BE A PAINTER AND GOT HALLUCINATIONATORY FROM IT MAKING A SORT OF ANALYGY IN MY MIND TO MILLER'S PROSE POEM HALLUCINATORY STYLISTIC TURNS IN HIS WRITING. AL PACINO MENTIONED READING MILLER IN HIS OWN IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW IN THE SAME MAGAZINE.
FLORIAN STEINER TOLD ME THAT JACK NICOLSON WANTED TO MEET MILLER SO HE HELPED JACK WITH INFORMATION AND LO AND BEHOLD JACK TURNED UP AT MILLER'S HOUSE ONE DAY AND WAS WELCOMED IN(WHICH WASN'T ALWAYS THE CASE WITH UNEXPECTED GUESTS WITH MILLER).
MARTIN SCORCESE OFTEN PUT REFERENCES TO HENRY MILLER IN PASSING IN THE THE DIALOGUE OF SOME OF HIS MOVIES, I HAVE NOTICED.
AND I'LL NEVER FORGET WATCHING THE LATE NORMAN MAILER TALK FOR AN HOUR ABOUT THE INFLUENCE MILLER HAD ON HIM FROM HIS HARVARD DAYS WHEN HE WAS ABLE TO GET ACCESS TO THE THEN BANNED TROPIC OF CANCER BOOK THROUGH THE WIDENER LIBRARY. THAT WAS ON A SHOW I THINK WAS CALLED 'BOOK BEAT' OUT OF CHICAGO I THINK --HOSTED BY BOB CROMEY AND THE PRETEXT WAS MAILER'S THEN RECENTLY RELEASED GENIUS AND LUST WITH SELECTED EXCERPTS OF MILLER'S BOOKS THAT MAILER LIKED AND WHICH WERE GOOD BUT AS WITH WARREN BEATTY'S USE OF MILLER IN A CAMEO IN HIS FILM 'REDS' FOR WHICH HE WON THE DIRECTORS ACADEMY AWARD--MILLER UNBILLED IN THE MOVIE AND HIS PURPOSE AND REASON FOR BEING IN IT ARE NOT ESTABLISHED BY WARRREN...
...IN A SIMILAR FASHION, WHILE MAILER'S MILLER EXCERPTS ARE GOOD, MAILER'S COMMENTARY AND INTRODUCTION AND SPECULATION ARE OFF THE TRACK AND WRONG--SO IT'S BITTERSWEET LIKE WARREN'S USE OF HIM IN THE MOVIE 'REDS' BUT NOTEWORTHY NEVERTHELESS.
STEVE ALLEN WAS A BIG MILLER FAN AND HAD HIM ON HIS TV SHOW AS DID MERV GRIFFIN. I REMEMBER SEEING ELLEN BURSTYN ON THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW YEARS AGO WHEN I LIVED IN MASSACHUSETTS TELLING MERV EXCITEDLY HOW SHE HAD GOT THE PART OF JUNE/MONA IN THE UPCOMING MOVIE TROPIC OF CANCER OPPOSITE RIP TORN AND DIRECTED BY JOSEPH STRICK. I SAW THAT MOVIE AT THE HARVARD SQUARE THEATRE AND LIKED IT THOUGH THE CRITICS DIDN'T AND PAULINE KAEL OF ALL PEOPLE PANNED IT BUT NOT MILLER OR THE BOOK ITSELF WHICH SHE MADE A SPECIFIC DISTINCTION BETWEEN.
NEVER TO RARELY DO I FIND MYSELF AGREEING WITH THE ACADEMY AWARDS BY THE WAY WHICH LOOKS MORE LIKE A POPULARITY CONTEST THAN A QUALITY CONTEST VOTE TO ME--SO MUCH SO THAT I CAN'T STAND TO WATCH IT NOW.
ROBERT REDFORD WENT INTO A LOT ABOUT THE INFLUENCE OF READING HENRY MILLER IN HIS IN-DEPTH PLAYBOY MAGAZINE INTERVIEW YEARS AGO. HOW HE, REDFORD STARVED TOO IN ITALY WHEN HE WAS TRYING TO BE A PAINTER AND GOT HALLUCINATIONATORY FROM IT MAKING A SORT OF ANALYGY IN MY MIND TO MILLER'S PROSE POEM HALLUCINATORY STYLISTIC TURNS IN HIS WRITING. AL PACINO MENTIONED READING MILLER IN HIS OWN IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW IN THE SAME MAGAZINE.
FLORIAN STEINER TOLD ME THAT JACK NICOLSON WANTED TO MEET MILLER SO HE HELPED JACK WITH INFORMATION AND LO AND BEHOLD JACK TURNED UP AT MILLER'S HOUSE ONE DAY AND WAS WELCOMED IN(WHICH WASN'T ALWAYS THE CASE WITH UNEXPECTED GUESTS WITH MILLER).
MARTIN SCORCESE OFTEN PUT REFERENCES TO HENRY MILLER IN PASSING IN THE THE DIALOGUE OF SOME OF HIS MOVIES, I HAVE NOTICED.
AND I'LL NEVER FORGET WATCHING THE LATE NORMAN MAILER TALK FOR AN HOUR ABOUT THE INFLUENCE MILLER HAD ON HIM FROM HIS HARVARD DAYS WHEN HE WAS ABLE TO GET ACCESS TO THE THEN BANNED TROPIC OF CANCER BOOK THROUGH THE WIDENER LIBRARY. THAT WAS ON A SHOW I THINK WAS CALLED 'BOOK BEAT' OUT OF CHICAGO I THINK --HOSTED BY BOB CROMEY AND THE PRETEXT WAS MAILER'S THEN RECENTLY RELEASED GENIUS AND LUST WITH SELECTED EXCERPTS OF MILLER'S BOOKS THAT MAILER LIKED AND WHICH WERE GOOD BUT AS WITH WARREN BEATTY'S USE OF MILLER IN A CAMEO IN HIS FILM 'REDS' FOR WHICH HE WON THE DIRECTORS ACADEMY AWARD--MILLER UNBILLED IN THE MOVIE AND HIS PURPOSE AND REASON FOR BEING IN IT ARE NOT ESTABLISHED BY WARRREN...
...IN A SIMILAR FASHION, WHILE MAILER'S MILLER EXCERPTS ARE GOOD, MAILER'S COMMENTARY AND INTRODUCTION AND SPECULATION ARE OFF THE TRACK AND WRONG--SO IT'S BITTERSWEET LIKE WARREN'S USE OF HIM IN THE MOVIE 'REDS' BUT NOTEWORTHY NEVERTHELESS.
STEVE ALLEN WAS A BIG MILLER FAN AND HAD HIM ON HIS TV SHOW AS DID MERV GRIFFIN. I REMEMBER SEEING ELLEN BURSTYN ON THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW YEARS AGO WHEN I LIVED IN MASSACHUSETTS TELLING MERV EXCITEDLY HOW SHE HAD GOT THE PART OF JUNE/MONA IN THE UPCOMING MOVIE TROPIC OF CANCER OPPOSITE RIP TORN AND DIRECTED BY JOSEPH STRICK. I SAW THAT MOVIE AT THE HARVARD SQUARE THEATRE AND LIKED IT THOUGH THE CRITICS DIDN'T AND PAULINE KAEL OF ALL PEOPLE PANNED IT BUT NOT MILLER OR THE BOOK ITSELF WHICH SHE MADE A SPECIFIC DISTINCTION BETWEEN.
NEVER TO RARELY DO I FIND MYSELF AGREEING WITH THE ACADEMY AWARDS BY THE WAY WHICH LOOKS MORE LIKE A POPULARITY CONTEST THAN A QUALITY CONTEST VOTE TO ME--SO MUCH SO THAT I CAN'T STAND TO WATCH IT NOW.
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