This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 22, 2011 - "The Jaybird," Cosmo Landesman told a cousin Monday, "has gone to a better place."
Perhaps, although some reasonably may doubt a man such as Jay Landesman, who gave energetic meaning to the term bon vivant, would agree with the uncharacteristically sentimental remark of his son, Cosmo.
Nevertheless, former St. Louisan Jay Landesman -- playwright, producer, writer, aquilifer of the artistic-sexual-intellectual avant garde, editor of the magazine "Neurotica," a friend or acquaintance of everyone from Jack Kerouac to the late Princess Margaret, hipster, quipster and emeritus wizard of Gaslight Square -- died Sunday morning at home in London. He was 91.
The cousin, Rocco Landesman, now chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, noted that his uncle was the last remaining of the four children of the late Benjamin and Beatrice Landesman. Benjamin Landesman came to the United States to paint murals in a pavilion of the 1904 World's Fair and established the family as an artistic presence here.
The artistic spotlight was focused to shine most dazzlingly on the family in the 1950s, when Jay (real name Irving) and his brother Fred (Alfred) established a bistro called the Crystal Palace, originally in what's now Grand Center, and then as the luminous epicenter of Gaslight Square a mile or so to the west on Olive Street.
The Palace was a magical place, an exotically brilliant saloon and 300-seat theater decorated with stained-glass windows, ornate elevator gates and the gleaming chandeliers that conjured up its name.
It was an incubator of young talent: Woody Allen, Alan Arkin, Phyllis Diller, Barbra Streisand, the Smothers Brothers, Lenny Bruce, Mike Nichols and Elaine May. All of them played the Crystal Palace at one time or another. So did a theatrical troupe Mr. Landesman lured to St. Louis. It was an improv group called the Compass Players, and from it evolved the celebrated Second City company. A young artist named Ernest Trova painted abstract expressionist pictures there, listening to jazz.
For a twinkling, thanks principally to Mr. Landesman and his kin, a formerly down-at-the-heels neighborhood achieved genuine luster, and St. Louis basked in its offbeat radiance. Mr. Landesman was ringmaster. The composition of the audiences was fascinating: Beatniks rubbed shoulders with Veiled Prophet queens, and everyone had a very interesting time.
In 1950, Mr. Landesman married a woman from New York named Frances Deitsch, and it was a fascinating match. They lived nearby in a big house in Westminster Place, and together they cut a wide swath, prompting some to compare them to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Fran Landesman, who survives her husband, is a songwriter of considerable reputation, and in 2008 she and her son, Miles, came home for a moment and performed at the Gaslight Theatre on Boyle Avenue, around the corner from their old residence and the Crystal Palace.
With Miles, she sold out the houses and was a hit with comic repartee and her repertory of songs. Included was the often sung and frequently recorded "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," one of the embarrassment of riches of a show called "The Nervous Set."
In 1959, after a successful run at the Crystal Palace, the Landesmans took this musical to Broadway. Mr. Landesman wrote the book; his wife, the songs; and the music was by the Palace's music director, Tommy Wolf. It ran a disappointing 23 performances giving an impression that New York wasn't up to the challenges of a off-beat Beat Generation show from St. Louis.
The website Wikibin gives an interesting account of it: " 'The Nervous Set' is also truthful, a serious social document, a record of a time and place that should never be forgotten, when America had lost its way and lost track of what's important. It is a loving evocation of the Beat Generation, with all its warts and contradictions, all its nihilism and its earth-shattering realignment of modern literature and poetry. Everyone knows about the hippies, but how many people know where the hippies came from? 'The Nervous Set' shines the light once again on some of America's true giants, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg (who had been friends since 1944), John Clellon Holmes, and Jay Landesman."
In 1964, Fran and Jay Landesman moved their base of operations from St. Louis to London for what initially was described as a talent tune up. Their only real connection to the hip and happening was Peter Cook's telephone number. The connection most successfully was made, and "Fran and Jay" moved quickly into the artistic life of London.
Mr. Landesman's "mems," as he called them, were published in three volumes: "Rebel Without Applause," "Jaywalking" and "Tales of a Cultural Conduit."
Other than infrequent visits home, Mr. Landesman and his family never returned, having settled into a house in Duncan Terrace in Islington, where Mr. Landesman continued to hold forth in his inimitable fashion, and on Sunday, died in his sleep.
His wife and his sons, Cosmo, a writer and critic, and Miles Davis, a musician, all of London, survive him.