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Ferris Cairo bursts on the scene


Neil Cassady, Ferris Cairo
and Jack Kerouac, 1952
It was the 1990s in San Francisco.  I was the day time bartender at the John Barleycorn pub on Larkin, just off of California Street and the Cable Cars.

My friend, Ed O’Leary, who as the archetypical Irishman, never refused an Irish Coffee (just to sober up, mind you).  He had just bestowed on me, my cherished Nom du Plume.  He had taken “Ferris” from a certain unnamed movie (just happening to star Mathew Broderick) and added it to “Cairo,” from Peter Lorre’s character in “The Maltese Falcon” and, viola,  Ferris Cairo was introduced to the world.
I just loved it.  This was huge to me.  Like Tim Robbins, in “Bull Durham,”  I wanted to announce my presence with authority.  A new book on the life of Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassady, from San Francisco’s Beat Generation had just been released and it provided me with the inspiration I needed.

I created this postcard, front and back and had several printed.  I then mailed one to all of my San Francisco friends.  And remember!  This was all before PhotoShop made it easy.  This was actual cutting with scissors, pasting with glue and multiple attempts at using a Xerox to get the reduction / enlargement just right.



Train-obsessed?  Who?  Me?


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