Remembering Dollypop

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 1:01am

It's been quite a while since we've heard from the old man and though I know it's just because he's without power and dealing with the aftermath of the hurricane he claimed he was going to ride out and not because of a tragic turn of events. Still, I got to thinking, you know, how would we as a community come together virtually to celebrate somebody who was here from the beginning, if he indeed was... gone?

And then I thought, "Why should we wait until someone is no longer with us to say the things about them we always wanted to say? Wouldn't it be great to hear those things while still alive?" In that spirit, I would like to share the great times, nothing mean or negative that does not at least have a sort of positive spin on it.

I will miss the very lengthy interviews he conducts for our community, very often with people I have never heard of but Dollypop gives me, the reader, the sense that I very well should know them because they are very important. Many interviewers get out of the way during an interview and try to pass off the illusion that only the subject is there, that the interviewer is practically invisible. Not Dollypop. He was always one to defy conventions, to be the centerpiece of an intimate story about two special people, himself and his interview subjects.

Many interviewers choose to bring the reader into some sort of proximity with the subject, to give the reader a sense of "being there" with them. But Dollypop says "no" to all that clap trap. With Dollypop, it's more a sense of implied closeness between he and the subject, and the reader is always aware that there are unspoken connections between DP (a nickname he always disliked once he found out it stands for "double penetration" in the porn genre) and the subject that, no matter how lucky the reader is in the rest of her life, she will never quite experience such an insider sensation as Dollypop has with this celebrity. In a way even slightly more severe than the gossip mavens of the '50s, Dollypop is always between you and the interviewee and will definitely mediate any information flowing in your direction. And anything you would like to say to the subject? Just forget about it!

What he wrote was totally different from the kind of interviews that make a subject accessible to a reader, instead with Dollypop, it's more a case of his declaring "I know something you don't know!", which as any child on a grade school playground will tell you, is a very tantalizing idea indeed.

I guess that's one of the things I will miss most about Dollypop. Um, you know, after he's gone, many many years from now, and not because of any tragedy resulting from the unfortunate weather incident.

Updated On: 11/4/12 at 01:01 AM

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 1:11am

This is weirdly inappropriate. Never met the guy, but he seems pretty harmless.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 1:13am

I fondly remember the sharing of the intimate information of the Levi Johnston Playgirl shoot!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 1:16am

Everytime I go into a Starbucks I berate and belittle whoever makes my drink, just like I learned from little Elizabeth. And I thank Dollypop for unleashing her upon the world. Without him, she would never be free to teach us that those in the service industry are small and insignificant.

Thank you Dolly and rest in peace.





When the time comes, of course. I mean, obviously when the time comes.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 1:30am

Definitely not until the time comes.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 7:30am

Dollypop was the first person I interacted with on these boards.

I had read one of his interviews with the legendary Ms.Carol Channing, and had noticed that he had described her as "inimical". I enquired naively (in his self-promoting thread) whether he had actually meant to use the word "inimitable". Before I could blink, the article had been edited and Dollypop responded saying my misunderstanding was surely the result of a substance abuse problem.

I knew then that BroadwayWorld was a very special place indeed.

Posted: 11/3/12 at 8:25am

THIS is why I come to BWW! Namo, thank you for that appreciation. Truly, DP is inimical.

Updated On: 11/3/12 at 08:25 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 8:35am

Let us not omit mention of the great love of DP's life:

[NYadgal]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 8:59am

It always brought tears to my eyes when DP spoke of his career in teaching.

(I absolutely cried for the students he couldn't wait to get away from!)

I will also be sorry never to have read* the book he promised to write (in a 2008 thread entitled Teachers Unite): I can only imagine how inspiring he was in the classroom.

I'm working on my memoirs. They are called "Hey Mistuh, Can I Go To The Bathroom?". It's the one question I answered more than any other in 36 years of teaching.


* you know, if he doesn't write it before his time comes


Thank you for this thread, Namo. We all need this place to come together during this time. As we all wait...

Updated On: 11/3/12 at 08:59 AM

[Wynbish]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 9:46am

Long live God

[tazber]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 10:51am

I too fondly the recall the stories of his esteemed teaching career that Dolly would regale us with. His patience and understanding of his students never failed to amaze me.

Mostly because he had none.

And who could forget those glorious 40 days when Mr. Pop gave up BWW for Lent. The rare calm that settled over the OT board during that time will always remain a highlight for me.

[Jane2]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 10:51am

My memories go all the way back to the board on broadway.com, where dollyplop fought with and was mean to almost everyone there. I really think he was the reason the place closed down.

I tried to be friendly to him on this board way back, but he snapped at me and said I was dead to him. I was trying to get him an interview with a cast member of Altar Boyz, but then I made a joke about Carol Channing and he cursed me and posted personal information about me publicly.

Since then I don't care to respond directly to him but reading his posts, I see he hasn't changed.

Pity, such a pity.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 10:59am

He's brought so much to everyone he's touched. Both young and on the rare occasion, old.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 11:33am

It always inspired me when he would return from his annual pilgrimages to Lourdes (the grotto, not Madge's daughter) and be more filled with piss and vinegar than when he left. It was as if the holy water had the opposite effect on him than it had on anyone else.

May he burn eternally...you know, when the time comes.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 11:38am

Definitely not until the time comes.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 11:39am

Like England's Rose, the Princess of Wales.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 11:45am

In Dollypop's honor I will be screening the 1969 20th Century-Fox musical, HELLO, DOLLY! Starring the legendary Barbra Streisand in all it's widescreen, stereophonic, roadshow glory!

Dear "pop": Wherever u is, I will be thinking of you with every glorious, lush note that emanates from Streisand's throat as she sings those legendary Jerry Herman toe-tappers.

I know how much HELLO, DOLLY! means to you, it's the very least I could do to honor your memory.

Here's to you Dollypop!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 11:47am

That's beautiful. Or, if you will, hello, gorgeous.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 11:55am

It's the very least I could do. *sniff* *sniff*... *HONK*...

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 12:02pm

I was so impressed that he had the courage to keep his screen name even after it was pointed out to him what the name actually meant...
Dolly Pop

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 12:05pm

So weird, I once heard a porn star tell Oprah she "wouldn't do DP," I thought that meant two in the same orifice simultaneously

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 12:08pm

Oh my @ that definition.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 12:09pm

Who will replace him as Broadway World's resident Chicken Hawk?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 12:24pm

For a man struggling with sugar diabetes, he sure was fond of the twinkies.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 11/3/12 at 12:36pm

He never did tell us however how his date with Levi went when they saw HAIR together.