There was a good stretch about a year or so ago that lasted for — well, about a year or so — where my friend Peter would pull out these YouTube videos of L.A.’s very own Royce Reed and Marilyn Hoggatt whenever we’d get together for dinner or drinks. With all these repeat viewings, Royce and Marilyn are two women who have become as indelible to my impression of L.A.’s spirit as James Dean and Zsa Zsa Gabor. In all this time I’ve never actually dug deeper into these two women’s life stories, but in prepping this post I came to realize they’re pretty much bona fide super stars at this point. The Kings Of All Things Offbeat (i.e. the editors of Boing Boing) put together a profile of these two classy bitches roughly two years ago:
It’s hard to believe that this jaw-dropping series of videos of Royce Reed and Marilyn Hoggatt isn’t a massive YouTube sensation… but it will be. Take one (huge) part “Grey Gardens” and add a hefty dollop of Peter and Raymond from “Shut Up Little Man!” and you kind of get into the Royce and Marilyn territory. But not quite, it’s as unique as either and yes, it totally deserves to be spoken of in such esteemed context with these aforementioned FREAKS. Royce and Marilyn are two elderly ladies from “another era” and these videos document their lives in a SRO hotel in Los Angeles’s downtown “skid row” area (where they share a bed). One of them is happy-go-lucky and content with her life, the other is totally haughty with delusions of grandeur and an ever present glass of bubbly. It’s one of the most tweaked things I’ve seen in some time. Werner Herzog will plotz when he sees this! These videos are the best thing since medical marijuana.
And you can thank me later by sending me the finest bottle of Dom Perignon because the videos below are about to lead you down a path of hilarity that you will very likely be returning to for years and years to come. This shit never gets old (P.S. there’s a whole lot more from Royce and Marilyn than just these two videos. Simply open up the first one for a sidebar link to many more videos and countless hours of fun). Be sure to also check out the feature profile of these two ravishing beauties at LA Weekly.
