let them know it would only be a hoax. The point was that he couldn't get work and his work was his life so he might as well be dead. And if people regretted that they hadn't helped him, well, now they could have a second chance because he was still alive. The obituary evoked inquiries from newspapers, wire
services, foreign publications, radio and TV.
“What's the meaning of it?” one editor asked me.
“There's a lot of excitement at the city desk.” “That /s the meaning of it.”
A few years later, without my permission, Jules Siegel, the editor of a short-lived magazine, Cheetah, published a fake obituary of me. | thought it was funny. An Associated Press
reporter called, and | explained that it was a hoax. “Are you sure?” he asked. “Of course. | would tell you if | was dead.”
Siegel started writing for Cava/ier. His first assignment was a profile of Sterling Hayden, an actor best known in Dr Stranglove or How | Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_024377