The Playboy Professor

I’ll admit I’m not taking a particularly huge leap of faith when I choose this guy–maybe “Harvard Works Because We Do” will inspire me to think beyond the ivory towers–but I’ve been interested in the history of Medill Professor David Standish’s life ever since he came to talk to us in class.

When he lectured us in McCormick Tribune Forum, for what was basically a Medill-sponsored pep talk on why you shouldn’t run screaming from the field of journalism, he didn’t approach the lectern as most other professors do. He sat on the edge of the stage, and without much of an introduction began telling the narrative of his life, from his college years to where he is now.

He seemed to fall accidentally into the role of a journalism teacher, and the fall was a particularly interesting one. He started a satirical newspaper in college with a couple of friends (something I admittedly was thinking of doing around the time he spoke to us…damn you, the Shmaily). From there, he moved to Chicago “Chasing after a girl…after all, what better reason is there to do anything in life?” He got a job as Playboy’s first “party jokes” editor, which consisted of reading through a sea of reader-submitted quips, most of them not entirely funny. He eventually earned his way up to the position of Staff Writer, and that’s where his story gets more interesting.

One of the first assignments they sent him on was to review an early Cream concert (I believe that involved interviewing Eric Clapton as well), as well as the then-unheard-of opener, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. He continued to cover bands emerging in the early 1970s (I’m a huge fan of the era, musically speaking). I can’t remember all the details of his speech, but the highlights involved riding with Willie Nelson on his tour bus (which probably made for some high times), hanging out with and covering KISS as they toured through South America, and other musical experiences (I think the Grateful Dead were in there, too) that would leave any music fan who lived during the time period jealous. It just leaves me wishing I had been born a few decades earlier.

He also said he met and spoke to Kurt Vonnegut, a personal favorite writer of mine, as well as witnessed Hunter S. Thompson light one of his friends on fire at a party they both attended. I feel like he’s the silent observer of the New Journalism movement, and all the associated craziness that ensued. I’ve been wanting to interview him for a while for a story…but I feel like letting him retell these anecdotes (and editing them into a longer essay for this class) will do him much more service than my words in a feature article ever would. There’s a chance I may get him as a professor next year, but something tells me I won’t be able to get all these stories out of him at once like I would be if I approached him for this next essay.

You would never know any of this at first glance though. That might be another way to take it–how he nonchalantly recounts meeting many of the biggest names of the 60s and 70s as if it was easy enough for anyone to do. Also, he wrote for friggin’ Playboy, and is employed by a journalism school that takes itself very (read: way too) seriously. I’m sure there’s something there.

Also, someone just saw me writing this in the library and said “Sounds like ‘Almost Famous’” as I finished explaining it to them. Interviewing a journalistically qualified rock groupie, if you will. Should make for an entertaining read. Anyway, he fits the discription of the blog post prompt—about his life, I am “most curious.”