Michael John Fles (born 11 November 1936), known both as John Fles and Michael Fles, is an American poet, editor, musician and film personality. Professor David James referred to him as "the single most important promoter of underground film" in Los Angeles.

Biography

Michael John Fles was born to a Dutch father, George Fles, and a British mother, Pearl Rimel. As conscious communists, his parents had moved to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, where his father fell victim to

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...

. The mother, pregnant with Michael John, had left the Soviet Union to give birth in London. Mother and son later emigrated to the United States, where Pearl Rimel found employment in the aircraft industry. Michael John grew up in Los Angeles and

Ojai, California Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

, where he graduated from the Ojai Valley School in 1950.

Beat poet and editor

Fles studied philosophy at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, but did not graduate. While a student, he became the managing editor of the ''

Chicago Review ''Chicago Review'' is a literary magazine founded in 1946 and published quarterly in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. The magazine features contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism, often publishing works in translation and ...

''. In 1959 Fles was involved in the founding of the influential literary magazine '' Big Table''. Later he was the editor of ''The Trembling Lamb'', a one shot literary magazine that published

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

's "Van Gogh: The Man Suicided by Society",

LeRoi Jones Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...

's "The System of Dante's Inferno", and

Carl Solomon Carl Solomon (March 30, 1928 – February 26, 1993) was an American writer. One of his best-known pieces of writing is ''Report from the Asylum: Afterthoughts of a Shock Patient''. Biography Solomon was born in the New York City borough of the ...

's "Danish Impasse". In 1960 and 1961 he was a managing and contributing editor of ''

Kulchur Dr. Lita Romola Rothbard Hornick (1927–2000) was an American literary researcher, editor, publisher, patron of poets, and art collector, best known for the beatnik magazine ''Kulchur'' that she turned into the Kulchur Foundation. Life and career ...

''. During all these years he published his poetry far and wide.

Film personality and musician

In October 1963 he founded the Movies Round Midnight program at the Cinema Theatre at 1122 N. Western Ave. in Los Angeles, along with Mike Getz. He ran the program until 1965. From 1962 and into the 1980s he wrote over a dozen movie scripts, usually with co-authors. Since, Fles has been active as a musician and music therapist, in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Israel. He lives in Trinidad, California and is now retired.

Bibliography

Poetry

* 1957 – ''Arrow-less Alleys'' (Three Penny Press) * 1957 – ''Beat and Beatific'' (Three Penny Press), with Gene Maslow * 1958 – ''Testament'' (Three Penny Press) * 1959 – ''Lawrence Lies Crucified'' (Three Penny Press) * 1964 – ''Doon Glyn, Summer 1963'' (self-published)

Fiction

* 1958 – ''The Man Who Lived Underground'' (unpublished screenplay), with John Evans after a story by Richard Wright

Nonfiction

* 1960 – "The End of the Affair, or Beyond the Beat Generation", ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

'' 6 (8) (15 Dec): 4, 12. * 1960 – "The Root", ''

'' 1960 (Spring): 39–41 * 1961 – "The Great Chicago Poetry Reading", '' Swank'' 8 (1) (March) 65–68, 70. * 1961 – "Uncle Bill Burroughs' Guided Tour: Naked Lunch", ''Swank'' 8 (3) (July): 50. * 1963 – "Personal State Meant" ("written and read at the Cinema T

eater Eater may refer to: * Eater (band), an English punk rock group * "Eater" (''Fear Itself''), a 2008 episode of the NBC television horror anthology ''Fear Itself'' * ''Eater'' (novel), a 2000 science fiction novel by Gregory Benford * ''Eater'' (w ...

on May 9, 1963"), published as chapter 5 in James, David, and Hyman, Adam (eds.): ''Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980'',

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...

, 2015, pp 41–42. * 1963 – "Are Movies Junk?", '' Film Culture'' 29, republished as chapter 7 in James, David, and Hyman, Adam (eds.): ''Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980'',

, 2015, pp 45–46. * 1964 – ''Seeing is Believing'' (self-published), republished as chapter 9 in James, David, and Hyman, Adam (eds.): ''Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980'',

, 2015, pp 53–56. * 1995 – "Sound Wave Mirror", chapter 11 in Kenny CB (editor): ''Listening, Playing, Creating: Essays on the Power of Sound''.

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

State University of New York Press The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...

References

External links

Michael John Fles
1959 photos at

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Sahaja
2014 musical video produced by Shody Ryon
2017 interview
of Michael Fles {{DEFAULTSORT:Fles, Michael John 1936 births Living people Film people from Los Angeles American magazine editors American modernist poets American non-fiction writers American people of Dutch-Jewish descent Beat Generation poets Beat Generation writers English emigrants to the United States Jewish American musicians Jewish American poets Music therapists Musicians from London Musicians from Los Angeles People from Ojai, California People from Trinidad, California University of Chicago alumni Writers from London Writers from Los Angeles 20th-century American poets 20th-century American musicians 21st-century American musicians 21st-century American Jews