Arthur Kane - New York Doll

I saw the Documentary on Arthur Kane, "New York Doll". It was bittersweet, but I do recommend seeing it. I met Arthur Kane around 1985 when his wife, Barbara worked at Pet Depo. My Mother was shopping there and stuck up a conversation with his bleached blonde wife and told her that her son was in a band. Barbara said, "My husband was in the New York Dolls." When my Mother told me, I asked her if she heard this lady correctly. "THE NEW YORK DOLLS!!" When I was convinced I had her drive me to the Pet Co right away to meet her. I told her I had a rehersal space and shortly thereafter Arthur and I ended up jaming. My bandmate Ed, from across the alley joined in too. Arthur just wanted to play and didn't have an ego about his past. We got together quite a bit during that time and kept in contact over the years. When his wife left him, he tried to kill himself and it took a year for him to fully recover. When I started my Merchandising Company, I got in contact with Arthur again and made some New York Dolls shirts. Once I sold the company and started doing photography full time, Arthur sent me an email and said he had found my website and really liked it. I met with him one more time and he was in good spirits, but always talking about the New York Dolls and it was clear he resented David Johansen's success. Especially since he was having such a tough time just surviving. I was happy to see in this movie he had one last shining moment before he passed away. The last email I got from him was about six Months before he died and he told me things were looking up and he was very optimistic about the future. I will miss Arthur. He was a kind & sensitive guy and he taught me a lot about the music industry and life.