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Friday, April 8, 2005

Glam Rock Meets Home Teaching

I'm not sure I ever heard of the New York Dolls, apparently a very influential glam rock bank, until today. This morning I ran into the story of the Mormon home teacher who discovered that the ward member to whom he was assigned, Arthur Kane, a volunteer at a Family History Center in California, was the band's bass player in a former life. The home teacher himself, Greg Whiteley, happens to make movies. He knew a great story when he saw one, and the result is New York Doll, a film that charmed audiences at Sundance this year.

Kane's dream was to get the band - those who survived the lifestyle - back together for an encore performance. It happened, and Whiteley's documentary tells the tale. I haven't seen the film yet, but I may have to, if only for the sake of seeing a bunch of rockers with oversized hair and fishnet stockings pausing to pray like Mormons before going onstage.

See this piece at greg.org (the Greg of greg.org is a Greg Allen, not Greg Whiteley) and this Associated Press article, here in the Reno Gazette-Journal.

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