OPEN CITY No. 41, Feb. 9–15, 1968 — Bukowski Early Version of a Scene from Barfly, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Mayor Yorty

An issue of the Los Angeles underground weekly in the full broadsheet format, featuring Charles Bukowski's "Notes of a Dirty Old Man." The column is an early version of a scene that would later be included in the Barfly screenplay. It opens with a reader's letter asking what Bukowski was doing before he started writing at 35 — he answers: not writing. What follows is a long, whiskey-soaked night with Mary, a woman who won't leave, calling herself a whore and him a god-damned whore too, slamming doors, threatening to crack his skull with her purse — this is his third K.O. from her — before he drains the wineglass, opens the door, and chases her down the hall in shorts and undershirt, spinning her and giving her a fair open-handed slap along the cheek. She goes down, legs in tight nylon, and he thinks he must be crazy. Another door opens: it is another woman, Mary's friend, whose husband has hit her too. He puts her up for the night on the couch. Days later Mary returns with Eddie and the Dutchess, wine is poured, the Dutchess claims she was raped, accusations fly, a full glass of wine smashes against the north wall, Bukowski grabs the Dutchess and puts the chain on the door. In the morning he finds women's clothes scattered across the neighborhood, gathers them up, and phones the Salvation Army. An old man in the backyard hands him the clothes back over the fence in a box. The column closes with Mary, Eddie, and the Dutchess returning that night, more wine poured, and love — of a battered, linoleum-tossed sort — having taken over.

The front cover features a pointed caricature of President Johnson alongside coverage of Dr. Benjamin Spock's antiwar activism and a profile of Derek Taylor, press officer for the Beatles. Interior includes a full-page Pinnacle concert advertisement featuring Jefferson Airplane and Cream at the Shrine Auditorium. The back cover reproduces in full a letter from the office of Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, dated January 29, 1968, declaring Open City "obviously communist inspired" and containing material "contrary to good morals." Large tabloid format, 17" x 11", black and white throughout.

Provenance: Mailing label on front cover addressed to John Bryan Sr., father of Open City editor John Bryan, and a newspaper man himself.

This copy has an even fold but with some small tears and chips to the top and bottom page edges. There is overall age to the paper and some light browning to the edges.