Douglas Kenney
Douglas C. Kenney (
December 10,
1947 â€"
August 27,
1980) was an
American writer and co-founded
National Lampoon magazine in
1970. Kenney edited the magazine and wrote much of its early material. [
1]
Childhood
Douglas C. Kenney was born on December 10th, 1947 in
Chagrin Falls,
Ohio. Kenney's older brother Daniel died of
kidney disease while Kenney was still in high school. Kenney was never expected to live up to his brother, and spent the rest of his childhood in his dead brother's shadow. Kenney proved his critics wrong when after finishing high school, he was accepted to the highly selective
Harvard University.
Harvard
While at Harvard Kenney was president of his fraternity, a member of the
Signet society, and editor of the
Harvard Lampoon. There Kenney was part of the first wave of young newcomers who infused new life into the then stagnant college
humour magazine. Kenney graduated in
1968. Soon after, he met up with fellow Harvard alumni
Henry Beard and
Robert Hoffman, and they began work on
National Lampoon.
National Lampoon
Kenney was one of the originating forces of what was to become known during the 1970's as the "new wave" of comedy, a dark, irreverent style of humor Kenney used as the basis for his magazine. Kenney was Editor-in-Chief from
1970 to
1972, Senior Editor
1973 to
1974, and editor from
1975 to
1976. Kenney wrote much of the early material, such as "Mrs. Agnew's Diary", a regular column written as the diary of
Spiro Agnew (or "Spiggy")'s wife, chronicling her life among
Richard Nixon (or "Dick") and other famous politicians. Kenney had a 5 year buyout contract with the Lampoon's publisher, 21st Century Communications. Kenney, Beard, and Hoffman took advantage of this, dividing a sum of 7 million dollars among them. Kenney remained on staff until
1977. He quit to co-author the screenplay to
National Lampoon's Animal House, along with
Chris Miller and
Harold Ramis.
Animal House
Kenney had a small but key role in
Animal House as the frat brother called "Stork".
National Lampoon's Animal House was the most successful comedy film to date, making Kenney one of the most sought-after writers in Hollywood. Unfortunately, the sense of self-satisfaction and happiness that Kenney felt following the premiere of
Animal House faded in direct proportion to the attention and praise he received. He longed to be doing what he considered to be serious work—writing the great American novel or the movie-of-movies—and increasingly thought of himself as a failure.
Caddyshack
Kenney co-wrote
Caddyshack with
Brian Doyle-Murray and Harold Ramis. When it opened to negative reviews in July, 1980 (Ramis joked that the film was "a six-million-dollar scholarship to film school"), Kenney became extremely depressed. At a press conference, he verbally abused reporters and then fell into a drunken stupor. Concerned friends began asking Kenney to seek professional help, but by that time he was spinning out of control, joking about previous suicide attempts, driving recklessly, and using increasing amounts of cocaine.
Death
After the incident at the
Caddyshack press conference, it became very clear that was not well. Kenney's close friend
Chevy Chase tried taking him to
Kauai,
Hawaii, hoping the relaxing evironment would help him, but had to leave to get back to work. After Chase left, Kenney's girlfriend,
Kathryn Walker, came to keep him company, but she also had to leave to get back to work. Kenney had called Chase and invited him to come back out, and Chase was getting ready to leave when he got a call that his friend was missing. Kenney died on August 27, 1980, after falling from a thirty-foot cliff. Police found his abandoned vehicle the following day, but it wasn't until three days later that Kenney's body was discovered. Found in Kenney's hotel room were notes for projects he had been planning, jokes, and an outline for a new movie. "We also found," Chevy Chase told Rolling Stone magazine, "written on the back of a hotel receipt, a bunch of random thoughts that included the reasons why he loved Kathryn, and a gag line: 'These last few days are among the happiest I've ever ignored.'"
New Times, August 21, 1978
People, September 1, 1980
Esquire, October, 1981
*
Doug Kenney at IMDB*
Cult classic, an homage to Doug Kenney, ESPN/Golf Digest, April 2004
