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'Douglas C. Kenney' (December 10, 1947 – August 27, 1980) was an American writer who co-founded ''National Lampoon'' magazine in 1970. Kenney edited the magazine and wrote much of its early material (see [1]).

Contents

Biography

Childhood

Harvard

National Lampoon

Animal House

Caddyshack

Death

References

Biography

External links

Biography

Childhood

Douglas C. Kenney was born on December 10 1947 in West Palm Springs, Florida. Kenney attended Gilmour Academy, near Cleveland, Ohio, for high school.
His older brother, Daniel, was incredibly well liked, particularly by Kenney's parents, which made Kenney feel somewhat inferior. Still Kenney admired his older brother, and Daniel's death at 29 years old had a profound effect on him.
Kenney was also an outstanding student in high school. The degree of tolerance he got from his teachers varied on whether they appreciated Kenney's somewhat sophomoric sense of humour.

Harvard

While at Harvard Kenney was a member of the Signet society and editor of the ''Harvard Lampoon''. There Kenney was part of the first group of young newcomers who restyled the college humor magazine. Another one of these writers was Henry Beard, with whom Kenney frequently collaborated, and who became a lifelong friend. Together with Beard, he wrote ''Bored of the Rings'', which was published during 1969. Another one of Kenney's friends while at Harvard was musician Peter Ivers. Kenney graduated in 1968. Soon after, he and Beard met up with fellow Harvard alumni 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 and other famous politicians. The feature was an Americanized version of ''Private Eye's long-running column "Mrs. Wilson's Diary," written from the viewpoint of Prime Minister Harold Wilson's wife.
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 important role in ''Animal House'' as the fraternity brother called "Stork," whose most memorable line of dialogue was the combative "Well, whut the hell we ''s'posed'' to do, yuh mo-ron?" Produced quickly on a small budget, ''National Lampoon's Animal House'' was the most profitable comedy film in Hollywood history, 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'' decreased in proportion to the attention and praise he received. He longed to be doing what he considered to be serious work-- writing a novel or producing a movie-- and he increasingly thought of himself as a failure. A comic novel, ''Teenage Commies from Outer Space'', was never completed. Kenney, in fact, threw the entire manuscript away after a negative review from Beard.

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 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 apparent that all was not well. Kenney's close friend Chevy Chase tried taking him to Kauai, Hawaii, hoping the relaxing environment 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 telephone call that his friend was missing.
Kenney died on August 27 1980, aged 32, after falling from a thirty-foot cliff called the Hanapepe Lookout. Police found his abandoned vehicle the following day, but it wasn't until three days later that Kenney's body was discovered. About Kenney's death, Harold Ramis famously quipped "Doug probably fell while he was looking for a place to jump."
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.'"

References

★ ''New Times'', August 21, 1978

★ ''People'', September 1, 1980

★ ''Esquire'', October, 1981

Biography

★ Josh Karp. ''A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever'' ISBN 1-55652-602-4 (2006)

External links

★

★ Cult classic, an homage to Doug Kenney, ''ESPN/Golf Digest'', April 2004