UPDATE: Make that Alfred Leslie and Frank O'Hara's Lamp [see below]
UPDATE UPDATE Just to be clear, let's make that Alfred Leslie and Frank O'Hara's Lamp by Larry Rivers
Obviously the best part of Richard O. Moore's 1966 WNET profile of Frank O'Hara is the poet reading "Having A Coke With You." But 2nd and 3rd best are a tossup between footage of New York back in the day, and this totally bonkers, homemade floor lamp in Alfred Leslie's studio. That's how awesome that lamp is.
UPDATE
Thanks to Maureen O'Hara for pointing out that this scene was actually shot in Frank's loft, and that the lamp was his, made by Larry Rivers.
Though I did wonder how Alfred Leslie's range included figurative portraits and the large abstract painting behind them, I didn't wonder hard enough to realize it wasn't by Leslie at all. [It's by Mike Goldberg, the subject of O'Hara's 1957 poem, "Why I Am Not A Painter."]
Anyway, clips from Moore's film, as well as other Frank O'Hara interviews and readings are at frankohara.org.
And now that I know a bit better what to look for, here are a couple of additional photos of the lamp in O'Hara's loft, taken, I believe, by Mario Schifano in 1964:
l-r: Kenneth Koch, John Ashberry photobomb, Patsy Southgate, Frank O'Hara, lamp
l=r: Southgate, lamp, Bill Berkson, O'Hara (seated), Ashberry, Koch (seated)
This bottom one is almost clear enough to reconstruct the lamp, if need be. Oh, wait, yes, Schifano, as seen in Homage to Frank O'Hara, Berkson and LaSueur's 1988 Pinterest board-avant la lettre, and tumbld by poets.org. So basically, I could take Lamp with Poets here to Canal Hardware and walk out with a complete lamp kit:
And for additional context, here's at least one other lamp/sculpture Rivers made, this one from 1966.
Blue Lamp looks like a spray painted construction of welded metal scraps and industrial hardware, with a "studio label" and a stock number on the bottom. Acquired directly from the artist, it didn't sell at Wright20 in 2011, because est. $5-7,000.
USA: Poetry: Frank O'Hara (1966) [youtube via VNY via @jameswagner]
Frank O'Hara - Video [frankohara.org]
