Just Like Oscar: Jim Morrison in Paris

In Reading gaol by Reading town 

There is a pit of shame. 

And in it lies a wretched man 

Eaten by teeth of flame, 

In a burning winding-sheet he lies. 

And his grave has got no name. 

[The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde] (1) 

Did you know freedom exists 

in a school book 

Did you know madmen are 

running our prison 

w/in a jail, w/in a gaol, 

w/in a white free protestant 

Maelstrom? 

[An American Prayer, Jim Morrison] (2)

[composite image of Oscar Wilde, aged 28, and Jim Morrison, aged 25] (3)

 I 

In his poem 'An American Prayer', Jim Morrison juxtaposes two versions of the word jail; - "gaol" and "jail". The former being the archaic spelling, and associated of course with Oscar Wilde's heart wrenching poem, 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', referred to above.  'Gaol' is thought to derive from Norman French, and was originally pronounced as 'gahwl', although it had become assimilated to the same pronunciation as 'jail' by Wilde's time. 

And yet, when he reads his poem, Morrison pronounces "gaol" as 'gahwl', differentiating 'jail' and 'gaol' as the words follow in his poem. (4) This therefore is a clear and emphatic allusion to Wilde's ballad by Morrison, who certainly had 'gaol' on his mind in 1970 as he too was facing jailtime. Whereas Oscar Wilde served his sentence - and was broken by it, Morrison sought to evade his, moving to Paris whilst on appeal and dying there. Indeed, both men would die in Paris as exiles from their respective native lands. 

In my view it is clear that Morrison's allusions to Oscar Wilde went beyond influence or identification, and were actually statements of intent in and of themselves.

II 

Steel doors lock in prisoner’s screams 

& muzak, AM, rocks their dreams 

No black men’s pride to hoist the beams 

while mocking angels sift what seems 

To be a collage of magazine dust 

Scratched on foreheads of walls of trust 

This is just jail for those who must  

[from An American Prayer] (5) 

Each narrow cell in which we dwell 

Is a foul and dark latrine, 

And the fetid breath of living Death 

Chokes up each grated screen, 

And all, but Lust, is turned to dust 

In Humanity's machine. 

[from The Ballad of Reading Gaol] (6) 

The parallels between the two men are striking, as they are at times apposite, and at other times, opposite. Just as Wilde was the product of the upper echelons of the old world, so was Morrison of the new world. And while Wilde didn't publish his first collection of poems until he was 27 years old, Morrison had died by that age, publishing his songs from the age of 22 with the rock group, the Doors. Wilde would live on for another 19 years, producing plays and essays, before experiencing the incarceration and subsequent humiliation that Morrison avoided. And yet Wilde would live another three years in that Parisian exile, Morrison would perish in only four months. 

Both were leading figures of exciting cultural and artistic movements which were simultaneously popular and yet condemned widely by the establishment of their times. They were similarly hounded to their graves because they dared to offend and to innovate, while laughing to scorn at the 'straight' world. Their graves were both in Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, as they accordingly found that city a refuge from the "white free protestant maelstrom" of the Anglo-Saxon world, whether it be Victorian England or Nixonian America. And - as Wilde was his forerunner - we can expect that Morrison's following in Wilde's footsteps was therefore both deliberate and emphatic. Indeed, given that Morrison acquired the grave plot in Pere Lachaise before he died, and that - most telling of all - he stayed in the same hotels that Oscar Wilde was arrested in and died in, we can only assume that when he went to Paris in March 1971 he intended to die in Paris that coming summer, 'just like Oscar'.

III 

Jail 

The walls screamed poetry disease & sex 

an inner whine like a mad machine – 

dropped in a cave 

 of roaches 

 or rodents 

[from Wilderness, by Jim Morrison] (7) 

At six o'clock we cleaned our cells, 

At seven all was still, 

But the sough and swing of a mighty wing 

The prison seemed to fill. 

For the Lord of Death with icy breath 

Had entered in to kill. 

[from The Ballad of Reading Gaol] (8) 

Wilde's ill-advised private prosecution of 1895 against the Marquis of Queensbury [the father of his 'Muse', Bosie, the nicknmae Lord Alfred Douglas] which he lost, incurred huge costs, and led swiftly to him being charged with gross indecency, resulting from the evidence that had emerged in his own libel action. He had been repeatedly advised to leave London, and seek refuge in Paris, but he hesitated, and was arrested, somewhat hoist by his own petard, however unfairly he was treated. 

Likewise, Morrison - who had given a drunken, chaotic, profane and sexually suggestive performance at Miami in 1969, had unwittingly played into the hands of the political 'Campaign for Decency', applauded by President Nixon. He found himself arrested and charged with those very things he had done on the stage as an artistic performance. 

 Morrison echoed Wilde's defence when he said it was really a "lifestyle that was on trial." But that was to be no defence in the eyes of a puritanical establishment which regarded the lifestyles of Wilde and Morrison as criminal in themselves. Like Wilde, Morrison was found guilty, and also sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour. 

[contemporary coverage of the Wilde and Morrison trials] (3)

 IV 

The barns are stormed 

The windows kept 

& only one of all the rest 

To dance & save us 

With the divine mockery of words 

[from An American Prayer] (9) 

Like two doomed ships that pass in storm 

We had crossed each other's way: 

But we made no sign, we said no word. 

We had no word to say 

[from The Ballad of Reading Gaol] (10) 

Despite having a house nearby, Wilde liked to take rooms at the Cadogan Hotel in London, just as Morrison liked to room at a motel near to where he lived in Los Angeles. Wilde was staying at the Cadogan Hotel when he was arrested. At that point he had secured bail of £5, 000, and had a window of opportunity to flee the country for France. Despite the urging of his friends, he decided to stay put, and take on the establishment. 

A thump, and a murmur of voices — 

(”Oh why must they make such a din?”) 

As the door of the bedroom swung open 

And TWO PLAIN CLOTHES POLICEMEN came in: 

“Mr. Woilde, we ‘ave come for tew take yew 

Where felons and criminals dwell: 

We must ask yew tew leave with us quoietly 

For this is the Cadogan Hotel.” 

[The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel, Sir John Betjeman] (11) 

Morrison was not to make this mistake. On a bond of $50, 000 and appealing his sentence, in March 1971 he slipped quietly over to Paris before the FBI could confiscate his passport. His girlfriend and Muse, Pamela Courson, had gone on ahead a month before to arrange accommodation for them. 

Can it be a coincidence that a few months later, Morrison's close French-American friend, Alain Claude Ronay, had reserved a room at the Cadogan Hotel, where Wilde was arrested, in London for them, after Morrison had fled to France? The reason for this stay in London is not known, and Morrison would return to Paris shortly afterwards. 

If it was only a short break, it was certainly symbolic and further underlines the parity Morrison felt with the life of Wilde. In a later brief article of 1991, the usually reticent Ronay tries to play down the connection between Morrison's movements in Europe, and Wilde's, and yet he mentions Wilde repeatedly. (12)  Some have speculated that Morrison had tried to conceal a gay relationship between himself and Ronay. 

Ensconced in Paris, Morrison, would never go back to the USA to serve the jail stretch waiting there for him. But Wilde had left it too late, and only relocated to Paris after serving his backbreaking two year sentence in Reading Gaol - but neither of them would avoid the final tragedy.

V 

"I can write, but have lost the joy of writing" 

[Letter to his publisher, Wilde, Paris, 1897] (13) 

The joy of performing has ended. 

[As I Look Back, JDM, Paris, 1971] (14) 

Through her contacts in Paris, Pamela Courson was able to rent for the summer an up-market flat on the Right Bank in Paris, and would move in there March 1971. Using this as their base, they would make tourist trips around the Mediterranean. At one time though, in early May, the apartment was not ready for them on their return to Paris, and they chose to stay at another hotel, this time on the Left Bank. 

Morrison's biographer takes up the tale: 

"Their flat was unavailable for a few nights so they moved into L'Hotel, an exclusive Left Bank hostelry whose twenty-five extravagantly appointed rooms were becoming much in demand among visiting rock stars, who were attracted to the one-time residence of Oscar Wilde. Soon after, there were stories of another of Jim's binges and the accompanying fall from one of L'Hotel's second storey windows. He apparently landed on top of a car, bounced once, and dusted himself off as if nothing had happened, walked up the street for a drink." (15) 

[graphic showing the outside of L'Hotel, 13 rue Beaux-Arts - Morrison's stay included his falling out a window!] 

Wilde stayed on the second floor too - in room 14. It is said that Morrison himself stayed in that very same room. Like Wilde, Morrison too toured the flesh pots of that locale: 

"Living on the Left Bank, in St Germain, in a way put Jim back on Santa Monica Boulevards, for here were all the famous bars...." [...] "To the au courant French crowd, the hippest 'underground' clubs were the newly opened Le Bulle, and Jim's favourite, a series of basement caves called the Rock 'n' Roll Circus." [ib.] 

While Wilde died on his death bed in room 14 of L'Hotel, surrounded by friends and a priest, Morrison's death was mysterious and lonely. The death certificate said he died of 'natural causes'. But many reject this view: 

"The Parisians hold out for heroin as the cause of death. Jim had been a regular at the Rock 'n' Roll Circus, the French night spot then known as a haven for the local heroin underground..." (16) 

"Some say he went to the Rock 'n' Roll Circus, so steeped in depression that he bought some heroin and O.D.'d in the club lavatory, only to be carried out the back door and dumped at his flat, in the bathtub." (17)

VI 

But Morrison didn't die like Oscar, at L'Hotel. By the time of his death, Morrison had returned to his Right Bank Apartment at 17 rue Beautreillis - and to a very different neighbourhood. Here he had peace to write and live a life away from the temptations of booze and 'rock n roll'. 

Living at rue Beautreillis throughout June with Alain Ronay who vouched for Morrison's reserved and sober life-style there, it was on Saturday July 3 1971 that Morrison died in the bathtub of this apartment. Therefore I don't think he could have died of a drug overdose in the Left Bank's Rock 'n' Roll Circus as I believe he only frequented that place when he lived nearby, on the rue Beaux-Arts. While he could've been "carried" home from the Circus to the rue Beaux Arts quite easily, it would be impossible for the same to be done from the Circus to rue Beautreillis which was on the other side of the Seine and much further away, as the map below shows. 

[Map showing the proximity of L'Hotel on rue Beax Arts [B] to the Rock n Roll Circus [C]. While at the same time showing the distance from both of 17 rue Beautreillis] (3)

Not only that, while a hotel would be easy to get someone back into and up to their room, the flat at 17 rue Beautreillis presented other obstacles, not just distance. Once into the apartment block there is a large and wide hallway. At the opposite end of this are the stairs to the upper floors. These stairs are by the open courtyard and overlooked by the other flats. Anyone entering carrying a body would be seen, and after going up three flights of stairs, there are other apartments on the same landing as number 17. Once entering that apartment, there is another lobby and another corridor. See pictures below of 17 rue Beautreillis. 

[Features of 17 rue Beautreillis showing the building provides scant cover and lacks ease of access] (3)

[floor plan of a similar apartment to that of 17 rue Beautreillis] 

 As can be seen from the above floor plan, the bathroom is at the opposite end of the floor from the entrance. All in all, secretly carrying a body back from the Left Bank Circus and into the genteel Right Bank neighbourhood of rue Beautreillis, and then negotiating the taxing route to the apartment's bathroom, would seem fairly difficult and fraught with the danger of being observed and discovered.

VII 

He who lives more lives than one 

More deaths than one must die. 

[The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Wilde] (18) 

Which of my cellves will be remember’d 

Good-bye America I loved you 

[As I Look Back, Morrison] (19) 

It was on the third day of July, that Jim Morrison died in the bathtub of 17 rue Beautreillis. His body was not seen by his family. Of his close friends, only his girlfriend Pamela saw him die. The medics and policemen who responded to the calls of an ailing man did not recognise him as being the 'rock star' Jim Morrison. 

Just as Wilde became Sebastien Melmouth when he came to Paris, so was Morrison renamed as James Douglas, an unknown poet with a private fortune. The authorities in Paris did not realise they were to pronounce dead and have buried an unknown "cellve" of the rock star. 

Morrison was buried quickly and quietly while his family, colleagues and public were unaware. Unlike Oscar, he didn't even have a grave stone, but was buried in an unmarked grave. 

Wilde's first resting place was described as a pauper's grave, but in a few short years his friends and colleagues collected the funds for him to be buried in Pere Lachaise beneath a splendid and mighty monument by the sculptor Jacob Epstein. 

No such dignity was allowed Morrison, whose unmarked grave and environs started to be sullied with junk and graffiti by fans of the singer. A bust of Morrison, again provided by a fan ten years after his death, was similarly defaced and eventually stolen. Only 20 years after his passing, did his parents provide a fitting headstone and then visit the grave. 

[The graves of Morrison and Wilde] (3) 

A final comparison between Wilde and Morrison in death shows that Wilde's friends did all they could to get him the respect he deserved, while Morrison's were tardy and grudging. His tiny gravesite hardly merits the attention of the hordes of rock music fans who descend upon it; while Wilde's is an impressive monument to the great man of letters. And Wilde's tomb gets most visits, but with Morrison's grave not far behind. 

This is in itself is fitting though, as Morrison still follows in the footsteps of Oscar.

NOTES 

1) Wilde, 1910 p 37. Originally, in the first edition of 1898, the author was only named as C33. C33 was Wilde's cell number when he was imprisoned in Reading Gaol. By 1900, the author's name was also printed on the title page. The poem narrates the execution of a fellow prisoner. 

2) Morrison, Penguin 1990 p. 7. An American Prayer was first published in summer 1970 as a private pocket book, by Western Lithographers, Los Angeles, and numbered approximately 250 copies. A full mainstream publication of An American Prayer can be found in 2021's release of The Collected Works Of Jim Morrison. 

3) montages by Bill Boethius Osborn 

4) Morrison, Elektra Records, 1978 - track 5 

5) Morrison, Pengun, 1990 p 8 

6) Wilde, 1910 p 33 

7) Morrison, Viking, 1988 p 83 

8) Wilde 1910 p 23 

 9) Morrison, 1990 p 5 

10) Wilde 1910 p 15 

11) first published in 1937, in Murray, 1970, p 18 

12) see Ronay's refs to Wilde in his article 'Jim and I', [and cf. Bosie's memoir similarly titled 'Oscar Wilde and Myself']. Another coindence is that Bosie's surname 'Douglas', was also Jim Morrison's middle name. The substance of Ronay's article can be found in Albert Goldman,' Interviews withAlain Ronay and Agnes Varda', in Rocco, Schirmer Books 1997 

13) Ellmann, 1988, p 52 

14) Harpers 2021 p 558 

15) Plexus 1980 p 356 

16) ib. 

17) ib., p 395 

18) Wilde 1910 p 25 

19) Harpers p 563 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde, Duffield & Co. 1910 

John Betjeman's Collected Poems, John Murray, 1970 

No One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins/Sugerman, Plexus 1980 

Oscar Wilde, Richard Ellmann, Knopf 1988 

Wilderness, Jim Morrison, Viking, 1988 

The American Night, Jim Morrison, Penguin 1990 

The Doors Companion, ed. John Rocco, Schirmer Books 1997 

The Collected Works of Jim Morrison, Harpers 2021