Time Line: 1986 - 1990

1986

Jay S. Jacobs (2000): "For the first time in his career, he met the challenge of creating a fully rounded, feature-length character, and he did it with skill and subtlety. He based his character on a DJ he'd listened to as a teen in National City. He was called Lonely Lee "Baby" Sims, and the station he worked for promoted his show by begging listeners to come and visit the man at work so he wouldn't be so alone. Eventually, Lee "Baby" moved on, disappearing from Waits's radio and entering his memory bank. When Waits took on the character Of DJ Zach, something stirred up that old memory, and he decided to give Zach the professional name of Lee "Baby" Sims. The problem was that Waits had made a false assumption. He figured that Sims had vanished from the scene long ago, that he was no longer "real." But, as Waits found out, "Lee 'Baby' Sims is one of the best-paid disc jockeys in the Western Hemisphere." Tom told O' Donohue, "I think he lives in Hawaii. I think he was trying to sue us after Down by Law came out. He didn't like being portrayed as a ne'er-do-well. There was no offense made or intended, honestly ... I had no idea that since I'm a kid he became this big sensation and he's a giant in the broadcasting world." He added, "No offense, Lee 'Baby' - it's all done with love and affection ... Don't sue me." (Source: "Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits". Jay. S. Jacobs, ECW Press 2000)

Jay S. Jacobs (2002): "Terry Kinney was set to direct Frank's Wild Years, but just a few weeks before it was scheduled to open, Kinney resigned (or was fired) over creative differences with Waits. Steppenwolf's head was actor Gary Sinise (who would later win an Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Forrest Gump and turn in strong performances in Apollo 13, Mission to Mars, Ransom, and Of Mice and Men). Sinise stepped into the breach and became Frank's director. There was some talk of retooling the production - building new stage sets - but by this point both time and money were in short supply. Waits remained calm. He told O' Donohue he felt that such turmoil was "normal. Sometimes the spark comes from a conflict of ideas. It's just wood and lights and people walking around until you somehow bang up against something, and something breaks, and something sparks, and something catches and then it has a life. Until then it's just on the page." The cast included Steppenwolf regulars Gary Cole, Moira Harris, Vince Viverito, Randall Arney, and Tom Irwin. Waits's touring band played Frank's band, and Teller (of Penn and Teller) worked up some magic tricks for Frank to perform. Frank, of course, was played by his creator, and Waits carried the production solidly on his shoulders. But the play remained in a state of flux; they tinkered with it constantly, even during its run. The reviews were decent, but there were no raves. Frank's Wild Years played Chicago's Briar Street Theater for three months." (Source: "Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits". Jay. S. Jacobs, ECW Press 2000)

1987

Tom Waits (1987): "Kathleen and I put together the ideas for it. It was done up there at the Chi Chi Club ... in [San Francisco's] North Beach. Miss Keiko's Chi Chi Club right there on Broadway next to Big Al's. I worked with a girl named Val Diamond, who played a doll. She drew eyeballs on the outside of her eyelids and wore a Spanish dress and I unscrewed one of her legs and pulled a bottle out of it. It's got some entertainment value." (Source: "Morning Becomes Eclectic": KCRW-FM, Deirdre O' Donohue. August, 1987)

Tom Waits (1987): "I play a character called Rudy, I get hit in the head in the train yard with a big stick on a raid. I die in the emergency ward at the end from a hemorrhage or internal bleeding, brain damage, and exhaustion. It's all about ... alcohol, baptism, and redemption ... It was a good experience for me. I got a chance to work with great people. Well, in this one I was forced to drink against my will. Everybody was told, 'Cause it's part of the story. . .' So there was a lot of drinking going on." (Source: "Morning Becomes Eclectic": KCRW-FM, Deirdre O' Donohue. August, 1987)

1988

Tom Waits (1988): "What we tried to avoid is having a concert film that felt like a stuffed bird. I tried to film it like a Mexican cockfight instead of air-conditioned concert footage. Some of it felt like it was shot through a safari rifle. You forget about the camera, which is what I was trying to do. But when you see yourself in concert, it rarely looks like the way you feel when you're up there. I thought I was much taller. I thought I looked like Robert Wagner ... if we had more money, we would have done the Rangoon gladiator sequences. And the shot of the audience holding up their matches and all that. We could have gotten the underwater ballet sequences, but it really would have been a different film, I think ... Now that it's completed, I would not have had my underwear coming out of the back of my pants like I did, but there's always something you want to change after it's over." (Source "Tom Waits and His Act", Rolling Stone magazine, David Sheff. October, 1988)

1989

1990

Further reading
Performances 1949-1975
Pictures 1949-1975
Interviews