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Vanity Fair
December, 1993

Planet Geezers
by Henry Alford

Hired as the activities director at the Duplex Nursing Home in the suburbs
of Boston in 1979, David Greenberger started interviewing the home's
residents and publishing their strange and sometimes visionary answers in a
magazine he called The Duplex Planet. Filled with aphoristic aperçus such
as "If you are an old man, and you go into a bar in pajamas, people will
buy you drinks," the publication has, in its 15-year history, drawn a cult
following, including among its subscribers Jonathan Demme, George Carlin,
Allen Ginsberg, Penn & Teller, and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe (who asked one
resident/contributor to do artwork for the R.E.M. album Out of Time).
Indeed, Greenberger's gambit has spawned an entire industry -- a Duplex
Planet CD collection, a set of Duplex Planet collector's cards, and, yes,
even a Duplex Planet coffee mug. (Can the Duplex Planet tote bag be far
off?)

Next month, Faber and Faber will publish the Duplex Planet book -- Duplex
Planet: Everybody's Asking Who I Was, a collection of the more poignant and
amusing interviews from the magazine's history. "I try to avoid oral
history," says Greenberger, whose interview questions put a premium on
reaction rather than reflection, tending to run along the lines of "Why do
people spit?," "What do you think George Washington's voice sounded like?,"
and "What is embarrassment?" Intent on eroding our societal fear of aging,
Greenberger -- who, now that the Duplex is closed, is interviewing nursing
home residents in the Boston area and upstate New York -- is making cult
heroes of his magazine's recurring characters. "I'm trying to recast them,"
he says, "as individuals."

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