MOTM
Momchilov, BK
READER OF THE DAY: Dear David Poland,
I read with keen interest your article about the strange WWW site known as andylives.org.
As the creator and keeper of The Andy Kaufman Home Page, I couldn’t be more displeased with this site. The Andy Kaufman Home Page has been live on the Internet since October 3, 1995, and although I’m happy to see other Web sites devoted to keeping Andy’s memory alive, I strongly believe that the andylives.org site is a sham and an insult to Andy Kaufman.
Having said that, I hope you’ll find the time to visit my site located at:http://andykaufman.jvlnet.com.
By the way, it is hosted by an Internet Service Provider (JVLNET) based out of Janesville, Wisconsin. The company is owned by Bob Kerman. Bob is Rick Kerman’s brother. Rick is married to Andy’s baby sister, Carol.
Please note, in the past year I’ve worked closely with Bill Zehme as he wrote the only authorized biography of Andy Kaufman, “Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman.” Bill’s book will be available at the end of this month, and it is fascinating.
I think I’ve successfully built an Internet shrine to Andy’s short and extraordinary life and to see other WWW sites steal blatantly from mine — not to mention trash Andy’s memory causes me great sadness.
Brian Momchilov
E ME: The more “AndyLives” posters show up, the more clear it is that Universal is the source of the financing for the venture in Blair Witch-like misdirectional promotion. Let’s hear about the movies, folks! What have you seen, what have you felt, what have you remembered?
Which leads me to my other recent peeve, Andylives.org, an allegedly “underground” Web site devoted to keeping alive the memory of comedian Andy Kaufman. The site, we are told, was erected by a band known as AKA (Andy Kaufman’s Army) for no other aim than to give fans of the late star of “Saturday Night Live” and “Taxi” a place to rant and pay tribute.
But as Sharon Waxman recently reported in The Washington Post, Andylives.org was paid for with $100,000 from Universal and was designed solely to promote Universal’s new movie about the life of Mr. Kaufman, “Man on the Moon,” starring Jim Carrey.
One of the movie’s producers told the Post that she and others urged Universal to pursue this “unconventional approach” because it would be a good source of buzz for a movie thought to be buzz-deficient. The studio found four self-proclaimed fans of Andy and signed them up, telling them they could say what they wanted on the site — just don’t sell “Man on the Moon” directly.
Andylives.org certainly carried out its marching orders well. The front page opens with a long, rambling essay about whether Mr. Kaufman really did die in 1984 of lung cancer. “But as you read this,” it says, “if you are smart, you will probably consider that these very words too are part of the conspiracy. Maybe Andy Kaufman is writing them himself, or has employed us to do so. As the web gets more and more intricate, all the more satisfying the final joke will be. Right?” Uh, right.
Discerning surfers can probably see through the ruse. For one thing, despite its highly polished appearance, Andylives.org is remarkably light on the things that make up your average fansite: photos, episode guides, news, etc.
“Not only were they totally clueless about Andy, but their profane, hip-hop-influenced Generation X ramblings were a total disgrace,” says Brian Momchilov, whose outstanding site (andykaufman.jvlnet.com) is everything Andylives.org isn’t.
“I’ve worked hard for many years to create and maintain The Andy Kaufman Home Page and I was highly offended by Universal’s bogus `andy fan’ website and its pathetic attempt as a marketing ploy,” Mr. Momchilov says. (Needless to say, he was not contacted by Universal prior to the film’s release.)
Pathetic or not, it’s obvious to me that this “Man on the Moon” campaign is just the beginning. I fully expect to see bogus home pages cooked up this summer to promote new fall TV series, created by anonymous “fans” with untraceable e-mail addresses. Worse, because studios can afford the time and expense to promote the site online, these pages will likely pop up on search engines everywhere, annoying us for years after the actual shows are cancelled.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030120104001/http://www.tvbarn.com/2000/01/10.shtml
https://twitter.com/BKMomchilov
https://www.facebook.com/bkmomchilov
https://www.facebook.com/brian.momchilov
Huey Williams Notes
http://andykaufman.jvlnet.com/hueyw.htm
Primer
Kaufman, Andy
The funeral took place on May 19, 1984, three days after his death.
Services were at the Nassau Funeral Home in Great Neck, NY (his hometown)
Wrestler “Classy” Freddy Blassie sat front row, at Andy’s request.
Many of his friends chose not to attend, expecting another prank.
He is buried in Section One-4 of Beth David cemetery in Elmont, NY.
Andy Kaufman’s social security number is not listed in the Social Security Administrations death index.
His SSN is still active and has listed many addresses over the past twenty years.
Four years before he announced his illness, he wrote a screenplay where his character dies of cancer in Cedars Sinai Hospital and comes back later.
The Tony Clifton Story Script
Andy wrote his “last will and testament” on the eve of his 13th birthday, and again backstage the Letterman Show in 1982. Robert Morton, Barry Sand, and Sandra Farton witnessed the signing.
After his diagnosis, Andy told manager Shapiro that he wanted to go on Letterman one more time. When he would be asked what he got for Christmas, Andy planned to respond, “Cancer.” Andy died before he had this opportunity.
Initially, the comedian began joking that he was going to lie about dying because he ate too much chocolate, but he later changed his mind and pretended to be dead for cancer. “Maybe I’ll just stick with cancer,” he was quoted as saying.
Then, he decided to stick with cancer and when he started coughing repeatedly, Zmuda told him “Stop with the coughing already – I think it’s a dead giveaway,” to which Andy Kaufman answered, “I don’t know. Everyone seems to believe it.”
In November 1983 (six months before death), Andy appeared as quack Dr. Vinnie Boombatz on the Rodney Dangerfield Special. His character smoked, and there was a gag about a casket being moved, with the body left behind.
Death certificates are occasionally used to fake a person’s death for insurance fraud and to evade law enforcement officials or irate relatives. “Official” Los Angeles County death certificates, for example, were readily available in the mid-1990s for between $500 and $1,000 each. For fraudulent purposes, people have often used death certificates from remote nations and from countries in turmoil.
In 2004, to keep his name and legacy vibrant, [the family] instituted The Andy Kaufman Award for promising comedians. And in 2010, they signed with CMG Worldwide, which, among other things, got the website andykaufman.com, which Universal had set up for “Man on the Moon,” for the estate.
Grandma Pearl was the one who really piqued his interest in sports by taking Andy to pro wrestling matches at Madison Square Garden and the Commack Arena. Watching “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers, Killer Kowalski and Bruno Sammartino.
She would also take him to Coney Island and into the city, where Andy stood in front of Hubert’s Museum and Flea Circus, a freak show in Times Square, and marveled at “Turko the Half Man.”
Andy graduated from high school in 1967 and received a 4-F deferment (“paranoid schizophrenic with psychotic tendencies”) from the military draft after failing the psychological portion of the test.
Lynne Margulies, Andy’s last girlfriend, said that he was one of the most mentally healthy people she has known.
She recently revealed that Andy was bisexual.
His writer, Bob Zmuda says Andy preferred bigger, muscular girls who were more equipped for wrestling.
He also speculates that satisfied his gay fantasies. Some people in the Castro District think Andy died of AIDS.
Andy allegedly slept with all the 42 girls at the Mustang Ranch Brothel. He was also friends with Ron Jeremy (porn star), Hugh Hefner (Playboy), and Dennis Hof (Bunny Ranch Brothel). Hof gave free “dates” for everyone with a ticket stub to the Dead or Alive show. Hof later named one of the rooms at his bordello after Kaufman.
An anonymous prostitute from the Mustang Ranch told Zmuda that Andy was an “ass bandit” who was bi. She also reported that the other sex workers would gossip about how he always wanted the girls to lay flat on their stomachs, motionless, as to resemble a young man.
“If Bob Zmuda says Andy Kaufman is dead — and he does — then I believe him.” – Joe Conforte (Mustang Ranch)
Andy loved bombing. He always kept face. He was raised on kay fabe and carnival.
Andy hired cops to bust up his gigs.
His alter-ego Tony Clifton, the sleazy Vegas lounge singer, (sometimes performed by Zmuda or Andy’s brother Michael) was escorted out of Taxi rehearsal by studio security.
He played homeless outside his Carnegie Hall show holding “Andy Kaufman=Antichrist” sign. Michael performed as Tony Clifton for that event.
Kaufman appeared alongside the singer Deborah Harry in the ill-fated Broadway play Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap, which closed after only two performances in April 1983.
Andy told no less than FIFTEEN people that he planned to fake his death.
Many more friends think he could have, and would have.
Andy Kaufman Confidential 