My grandmother Anna got the house and property at 1548 Crater Lane in Beverly Glen—a canyon area between Coldwater on the Valley side, and Sunset Boulevard on the other side—through a subscription to a magazine. The house was an additional gift if one subscribed to that particular publication. Eventually, she just signed the house over to my mom, because Wallace refused to have anything in his name. The only legitimate card he had with his name on it, just because he couldn’t get around it, was his driver’s license—but beyond that, nothing. My dad tried to remain invisible. One would think he was on the run from the law, but I don’t believe that was the case.
Wallace did not like to participate in the world unless he chose to. He never voted, either; his politics were more left than anything else, but I think if he hadn’t been killed, he would have become a social libertarian. In a work Wallace once made, he wrote “FUCK NATIONALISM.” That pretty much expressed his genuine political desire. Wallace was a man not happy to be contained by either borders or laws. I was never encouraged to participate in society, because he himself had no interest in it. Wallace craved anonymity like it was air. If he could have disappeared at will, he would have done so. My dad always had an enduring respect for someone like Houdini, the “escape artist,” who fled from chains and jail cells. As a child, he saw Houdini newsreels and I’m sure they had a strong hold on him. And though I wasn’t aware of it as a child, Wallace made the role of being an artist into a performance of some sort.
I was born on Wednesday, August 25, 1954, around 12:10 a.m. It was a hot, stinky, sweaty night, the type of weather I hate with an intense passion. My mother must have hated it even more. I read somewhere that giving birth is painful, but afterward one forgets about the pain. The world my parents provided for me was not too bad at all. From the moment I was born until now, I’ve lived the life of a pampered prince. I share my date of birth with Elvis Costello, who I like to imagine was born at the exact same time I was. I often examine his image on the Internet to compare my aging to his. I also share my birthday with Sean Connery, British novelist Martin Amis, Richard Greene (who starred in the British TV show The Adventures of Robin Hood [1955–59], a show of great importance to me in childhood), Tim Burton, Ivan the Terrible (who I only know through the Eisenstein film), Van Johnson, Ruby Keeler (of 42nd Street [1933]), Leonard Bernstein (whose West Side Story [1961] had a profound effect on me), Yasuzo Masumura (who’s my favorite Japanese film director), and Ludwig II (who had great taste in interior design).
To be born is genuinely an amazing thing, even though birth happens constantly. I’ve always felt honored to be a member of the Berman/Morand family, if not the larger collective known as the human race. I learned all my social skills from my parents. I didn’t have that many close childhood friends. I did play games with others, but I never felt close to my fellow tots. I am an only child, and I am very comfortable in my skin, as well as being by myself. The only intimate friends I had were objects, which have a great importance for me. I remember as a baby being more interested in the packaging of the toy than the toy itself. My mother has told me that she and Wallace would buy gifts for me, and I would always spend more time with the box the gift came in than the gift itself. I got bored with objects that were manufactured specifically for one thing. So a box or even gift wrapping became more appealing to me. A box, for instance, could be a secret hideout or an additional room in the house. I always liked the world under the table, the chair, or in the box, because I am highly sensitive to a restricted space. It is something that pleases me greatly, as well as being incredibly scary under certain circumstances. As a baby or small child, the restricted area gave me a certain amount of comfort.
The name “Tosh” is from “Antosha.” It’s a Russian male name. Wallace, during his brief stint in the Navy, met an Antosha, my only knowledge of whom is that he was a huge jazz fan or music collector. He had a record shop in the San Francisco Bay Area that just focused on jazz. I’ve asked my mom about him. She never met him, but her understanding is that Wallace felt very close to him. I’m not sure if my dad met him in the Navy proper, or if Antosha was in the hospital Wallace was sent to after having a nervous breakdown. This breakdown was caused by the daily naval exercise of blowing up schools of dolphins. It seems dolphins read on the radar as possible enemy submarines, so when in doubt, blow them up. Wallace couldn’t handle this daily slaughter. I was named after Antosha, but my legal name as it appears on my birth certificate is simply Tosh.•
Excerpted from “Tosh/Chapter Four” of Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman’s World. Copyright © 2018 by Tosh Berman. Reprinted with the permission of City Lights Books. citylights.com
Join us on January 15 at 5 p.m. Pacific time, when Tosh Berman will sit down with a special guest and host John Freeman to discuss Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman’s World. Register for the Zoom conversation here.
TOSH: GROWING UP IN WALLACE BERMAN'S WORLD, BY TOSH BERMAN
