The Decline Of Spengler
From The Joe Frank Wiki
| Series | |
|---|---|
| WBAI And NPR Playhouse | |
| Original Broadcast Date | |
| 1983 | |
| Cast | |
| Barbara Sohmers, Joseph Palmieri, Lester Nafzger, Irene Wagner, Tim Jerome, Leslie Cass, David Rapkin, Rosemary Foley, Charles Potter, Arthur Miller, Brother Theodore, Joe Frank | |
| Format | |
| 1 hour | |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by: | The End |
| Followed by: | The Queen Of Puerto Rico |
"Hoffman died today."
The Decline of Spengler is the name of a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series WBAI And NPR Playhouse. It was originally broadcast in 1983.
Synopsis
- Hoffman dies in surgery
- Joe ponders technology and society on a plane. Robot stewardess.
- Joe dreams he is a doctor on horseback. Hoffman's funeral and the fountain of youth is in Florida.
- Dream: film of Austria with weapons demos.
- Human centrifuge and fast-moving-foods dialog.
- Dream: Joe is a lawyer before a jury of prophets and seers.
- Joe gets cold call from Mrs. Waterman, they go to hotel, she is in a wheelchair (monologue, followed by actress).
- A doctor is called to a hotel where an operation is performed on him.
- A German engineer is mistakenly trapped on a train bound for a concentration camp, he escapes and finds the messiah.
- A three act play about a film about a man who loses his memory, emerges from the screen and is shot. The shooter than begs the projectionist to run the film backwards. Later a muffled telephone conversation accompanies a theological debate.
- A doctor dismisses a patient in a call-in medical program.
- Old people at a beach chat. Joe visits the zaddik of Rome.
- The messiah talks about time and decay, denies responsibility.
- Joe imagines a life married to a woman in Tampa who finds Jesus.
- Cleaning out Hoffman's room, finding a ticket to a rocket ship launch in Dreamland, ending up crashed in the swamp hundreds of years in the future.
- Nonsense monologue.
Interesting Facts
Music
- "I Wish You Love" - Andre Kostelanetz And His Orchestra (from I Wish You Love, 1964) | YouTube
- "Music For 18 Musicians" - Steve Reich (from Music For 18 Musicians, 1978) | YouTube
- "Diamond Dust" - Jeff Beck (from Blow By Blow, 1975) | YouTube
Commentary
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