In case you don't ever come across it, I would highly recommend following the Unfair Park blog from the Dallas Observer. I like to peruse it and get a feel for what it happening in Dallas. It offers a different perspective than you might find in the Dallas Morning News. Robert Wilonsky often finds interesting historic things from Dallas that makes this city a little more interesting. If you don't believe me, check out the story on "The Tragic Tale of That Giant Santa Who Once Sat Upon Porter Chevrolet on Mockingbird" (http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/12/the_tragic_tale_of_that_giant.php).
I came across this short film documentary this morning about Stanley Maupin (made in 1973). The film is called, Sometimes I Run. Stanley was a sidewalk flusher (yes, you read that right). Unfair Park ran a piece and a link to the film on youtube (http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/03/sometimes_i_run_the_greatest_f.php) and called it the greatest film about downtown Dallas you've never seen. I'm fascinated already. The night shots of a 1973 Dallas are fantastic.
It got me thinking about a different kind of hero, maybe a serial that I will run and release here on the blog. Find me an artist and we'll make it into a graphic novel. It could be loads of fun.
Here's the premise: Imagine Dallas in 1973. It's 5 years before the television show or the intense urban sprawl known as South Oklahoma, Deep Ellum is full of jazz, Little Mexico still exists and movie palaces line elm street. Downtown is not quite the shell it is today. The city is still wounded from the Kennedy assassination and people still talk about Candy Barr. That fancy iconic Reunion tower isn't completed and The Statler Hilton isn't abandoned quite yet. A tired Police Chief Dyson is trying desperately to hold the city together amongst civil unrest and racial divide even though a wounded population is still reeling from Dallas's only riot. Everyone needs a hero. Enter Stanley Maupin. He's an overnight street flusher. His passions are the city's best chef salad that he can purchase for $1.10, cut off button down shirts, Bruce Lee's Fists of Fury, digging through trash cans for discarded bottles for a 5 cent refund, and of course, high pressured water spewing from a hose. He might have the occasion to hose down a drunk refusing to move out of his way, but he's courteous all the same. From his vantage point, he sees the city in a way that only he can. He knows every place in town. Accompanied by his long time buddy who he simply calls Brown, described as a Christian who likes to sin, Maupin strolls the streets in an attempt to keep the sidewalks clean.
It's late one typical humid night in Dallas. The air is sticky and working with water doesn't make it much more bearable. Stanley and Brown are making their usual run through the streets. Full of the free coffee that Maupin drinks after his $1.10 chef salad, he decides to relieve himself behind a dumpster. The guard across the street turns a blind eye because he knows Maupin will just hose it down after he's done. He always does. Stanley doesn't pay much attention as he enters the dark alley on Commerce street, just behind the Carousel Club. The sound of urine hitting the pavement doesn't sound quite the same because tonight, it isn't. Barely visible in the shadows is the body of seventeen year old runaway stripper, May Etier, aka Lily Liberty.
I don't know - it's just a start. A spark of sorts. I like the idea of a kind of 1970's noir story with an unlikely hero. And I like the idea of playing with Dallas's notorious underbelly. I think Stanley could be quite the character as he and Brown get deeper into the world of gangsters and the dirty politics that is so typical in Dallas. Maybe a young John Wiley-Price or Dwayne Carraway makes an appearance. Or just for fun, the beginnings of Arnold and Archie (that one is for Jim Schutze). If you've ever read Joe R. Lansdale and have heard of his Hap and Leonard series, you get the idea, but this one might be distinctively Dallas. After all, where else do urban legends begin if not hidden somewhere on the deep underbelly of Dallas.
Who's in?
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