Al Capp Auditions

In an interview, Goldie Hawn, recounted that Al Capp, the creator of “Li’l Abner”, the comic strip– yes, the one that did a rather savage parody of Joan Baez in the 1960’s (calling her “Phony Joany”)–once arranged an “audition” for her for a movie he claimed was going to be made from his comic strip. At the audition, he demanded sex with her. When she refused, he told her she would never work in “this town” because that’s just the way things are done.

Apparently, she was not the only actress to be auditioned by Al Capp.

I feel better having this reason to dislike Capp, since his tasteless parodies of Baez, of course, were political in nature.

He also flew up to Montreal and took on John Lennon and Yoko Ono, in person, at their “bed-in for peace”.  Lennon eventually found him tiresome and asked him to leave.

But then, all good satire– I mean, really good satire– is subtle and nuanced and suggestive, and his parodies of Joan Baez were none of these things.

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