their time have become a pop culturencliche? Is it because Orbison’s persona,ndespite the rock trappings, was uncharismatic?nOr is it because Ellis Amburn,nwho previously collaborated on booksnwith Shelley Winters and PriscillanPresley, lacks the capacity to be surprisednby his subject?nOne rule of thumb in these cases is:nwhen in doubt, blame the writer.nThere is no sense in Dark Star that itsnauthor views Roy Orbison, who died ofna heart attack in 1988 at the peak of annamazing comeback, as anything butnconvenient and timely book fodder.nMuch of Dark Star is biography asnitinerary (“Roy . . . made the day-longntrip to Fort Worth . . . Roy flew tonCanada in October . . . After Texas,nRoy was off to Santa Ana, California”).nThere is no attempt to explore, muchnless understand, the complexities thatnaccompany a creative personality.nSome of Orbison’s friends describenhim as gentle, gracious, shy, modest,nand even-tempered; others call himnegomaniacal, vengeful, spoiled, vain,nenvious, and self-pitying. These contradictionsnsimply sit there on the page,nas the author moves on to yet anothernlist of cities for yet another of Orbison’sntours.nLikewise, the only worthwhile insightsninto the mysteries and pleasuresnof a natural vocal gift like Orbison’sncome not from the author but from thensinger himself: “It was sort of a wonder.nIt was a great feeling, and it didn’tnhurt anybody, and it made me feelngood, and some people even said,n’Roy, that’s nice.’ I’ve always been innlove with my voice. It was fascinating, Inliked the sound of it, I liked making itnsing, making a voice ring, and I justnkept doing it.”nIn fact, were it not for Orbison’snown words (most of them culled fromnpreviously published interviews). DarknStar would lack any vividness at all. Innan insufficient yet repetitive chapter onnRoy Orbison’s unhappy adolescence asna misfit in Wink, Texas (a chapter innwhich I entertained myself by keepingna list of the colorful names of Orbison’snfamily and friends, names like OrbienLee, Coyt, Clois, Hezzie, Double O,nPooky, Freako, Slob, and one femalenJake), the time, the place, and the manncome together sharply only when Amburnnquotes Orbison’s comments tonRolling Stone: “[I]t was macho guysnworking in the oil field, and football,nand oil and grease and sand and beingna stud and being cool. I got out of therenas quick as I could. … It was tough asncould be, but no illusions. No mysteriesnin Wink.”nBut the real problem with Dark Starnis that it contains the kind of red-flagnerrors that raise questions about thencredibility of everything that surroundsnthem. For the record Janis Ian wasn’t an”rock singer,” she was a folk singer;nJerry Lee Lewis’s “first single” releasenfor Sun Records wasn’t “Whole LottanShakin’ Coin’ On,” it was “CrazynArms,” and Elvis Presley’s birthplace,nas even non-fans are aware, was Tupelo,nMississippi, not Memphis. (Furthermore,nit is preposterous to comparenRoy Orbison to Jimmy Durante, evennif Ellis Amburn does believe, for somenstrange reason, that “each was a phenomenonnwho escaped being madeninto a joke … by a hair’s breadth.”)nIn question here is the credibility ofnAmburn’s thesis, which is that RoynOrbison was “as dangerous as a loosencannon,” a man destroyed by the “poison”nof success. As proof, he offersnexamples of Orbison’s disregard for hisnhealth, as if fastidious health habitsnwould mean anything to a man definednfrom boyhood by an obsession withnfame, wealth, and popular acceptance.nLIBERAL ARTSnHe writes darkly of Orbison’s compulsionnto work, suggesting it was somensort of curse, but it’s obvious thatnOrbison’s achievement of his own desires—nto succeed in the 60’s, survivenfailure in the 70’s, and renew his careernin the 80’s — would have been impossiblenwithout his determined work ethic.nAnd some ideas are so overwroughtnas to be unfathomable. Of Orbison’snhabit of watching several movies in anrow before starting a recording sessionn(“It freshens my mind,” he said), Amburnnwrites that it “smacked of idiosyncrasyn[sic] bordering on insanity.”nRoy Orbison was a poor, insecure,nand unhandsome country boy whonused his talent to make real his dreamsnof fame, fast cars, and pretty women.nEllis Amburn contends melodramaticallynthat the realization of Orbison’sndreams was in fact a tragedy. But DarknStar offers no evidence that Orbisonnhimself regretted the life he created.nAnd why should he have regretted it?nFor a man who considered himselfnboth physically ugly and musicallyn”fascinating,” which would be hardernto accept: rock and roll stardom, or jobsnchopping weeds and playing honkytonksnin west Texas?n]anet Scott Barlow covers popularnculture from Cincinnati.nLOTTERIES, LOVE, AND LITIGATIONnThe number of cases of former couples fighting over claimsnto lottery winnings are increasing, and lawyers have hit thenjackpot. Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia havenlotteries, and lawsuits similar to the two that occurred innFlorida earlier this year are bound to become more common.nFlorida’s latest lottery lawsuit came in late May, whennJune Shaner, a Port St. Lucie waitress, sued her ex-fiance fornone-quarter of a $16 million New York jackpot won in 1987.nAccording to Ms. Shaner, he bought the winning ticket withnmoney earned at the plumbing business she owned but failednto give her any of the proceeds when they moved to Floridanand split up last December.nShaner’s charge followed a dispute in Stuart, Florida,nwhere a jury awarded Lewis Snipes one-quarter of hisnex-wife’s $31.5 million Florida jackpot. The jury argued thatnSnipes was entitled to a share of the prize, since he boughtnthe winning ticket only to see his ex-wife sign it and split thenmoney with her sister. Snipes, however, said he may rejectnthe award and seek half of the jackpot.nnnDECEMBER 1990/39n