How the Cino Looked – 2

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Incidents, 1964

Photos by Peter Moore. Collection of Larry Loonin. Scanned by Carlo Altomare.

NEIL FLANAGAN in white. See who’s sharing Neil’s table HERE.

Facing west. YVONNE RAINER and LARRY LOONIN perform their Incidents, June, 1964. NEIL FLANAGAN in white watches.

Audience member BOB DAHDAH assists with table- moving. Dark central hallway led to dressing-room.

Facing east, toward Cornelia Street. South wall at right. The door is open, for you can see behind the woman in glasses KENNY BURGESS’ outside door panel (the big ‘Ci’ of ‘Cino’). Above the ‘EXIT’ sign, the long storage loft where curtains and occasionally homeless Cinoites were stored. (Note: * WILLIAM M. HOFFMAN reminds me that the loft was also where MICHAEL GRISWOLD was stowed for his half of a phone conversation with LINDA ESKENAS in Hoffman’s Good Night, I Love You (1965). See another treatment of that conversation, fourth row on the left HERE.

North wall at right. YVONNE RAINER is principally known as a dancer and choreographer. A many-parted work of hers was called The Mind Is a Muscle. In the early 1960s, LANFORD WILSON and I lived near to Yvonne. Lanford was in awe of the grace and style with which she did something as simple as stride down the street. He once said to me, ‘She moves her hair better than anyone this side of Rita Hayworth!’

SOREN AGENOUX made the flyer for the show by scrawling information on a still from the movie, The Man with the Golden Arm.

Behind the Desi Arnaz-looking man is a poster for a play called The Street of Good Friends, produced in March, 1964. LARRY LOONIN: “I also ‘staged’ The Commercial Fisherman and other short (perhaps 10 to 20 minute pieces) between shows of other authors including John Guare[Robert Patrick’s note: John Guare plays are listed as being done at the Cino in April 1965 and October 1966]. We did these ‘pieces’ in 62-64 perhaps as many as 7 times. I usually did them with Michael O’Donoghue of Saturday Night Live and another performer or two. No program or reviews, but I have stumbled upon my ‘notes’ which by no means were a script but which did remind me of my attempts at ‘controlled spontaneity.’” [NOTE: April 04 2008, Loonin found and e-mailed to me a script called Our First Gobi Fossils, which he says was used in various forms for various shows in various venues, including as Incidents with him and Yvonne Rainer at the Cino, June 1964.]

One reason for the dangling light-connections and the general undecorated look of the place might be that Incidents took place in between two productions of The Madness of Lady Bright, which instantly became Joe’s favorite show, and everything might be in readiness to restore to positions for that play.