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Life, August 1987
Перевод на
русский язык
By Susan Peters
ONE BIG HIPPY FAMILY
River Phoenix and company move into Hollywood
They are not your average show biz folk. Just
four months ago, after collecting paychecks for four roles in three
summer movies, the Phoenix family rented a vacant school near Los
Angeles for $1,500 a month. They set out Havahart traps (releasing
the rodents in the desert), bought six water beds and took up residence
in their 40th home in 20 years.
Yet no matter how antic their lifestyle, John and Arlyn Phoenix
(who took their surname from the mythic bird) are raising a brat
pack of successful actors. Son River, at 16 the eldest of the five
children (and best known since his roles in Stand By Me
and The Mosquito Coast), appears this month in Jimmy
Reardon. Rainbow, 14, makes her feature film debut in July’s
Maid to Order. Leaf, 12, is a Key West child who discovers
a shipwrecked Soviet sailor in Russkies, an August release.
Leaf’s sister in that movie is played by his sibling Summer, 9,
who beat out Liberty, 11, for the role. "They are talented
kids," says Richard Benjamin, who met the gang while he was
directing River’s forth-coming Little Nikita. "And
their parents have instilled in them a sense of morality."
The glitzy on-camera life contrasts sharply with the scene played
out in the industrial kitchen of the Phoenix home. There Arlyn,
42, pages through The Cookbook for People Who Love Animals.
"Tofu cheesecake, please," squeals Liberty. "I get
to lick the bowl," shouts Summer. Leaf and Rainbow imitate
chef Julia Child. River juices wheat grass. The family mutts, Justice
and Sundance, wait for leftovers. They and their owners are "vegans,"
who do not eat animal products. "Peace doesn’t apply just to
human beings," explains Arlyn.
Later, the clan sits down to whole wheat spaghetti and salad. New
Age stage father John, 40, declares, "We are very thankful.
"River adds a coda to grace: "Bless the cook." The
family's River. "But when I think of my parents and their different
worlds and how they met and had kids-there has to be something up
there."
Arlyn Dunetz was a Manhattan secretary married to a computer operator
when, in 1968, she tired of her life. "I quit my job, left
my husband and went to California," she says. John (who refuses
to divulge his surname because he doesn’t like it) was a high school
dropout refinishing furniture for a living when he picked Arlyn
up hitchhiking in Los Angeles. Both "seekers" they decided
to travel together. River was born in Madras, Oreg., at home, naturally,
with family friends at the delivery. "He came out to this roar
of applause," says Arlyn. After moving around the West, they
joined a Christian commune based in Pikes Peak, Colo., gave up psychedelic
drugs and traveled as Children of God missionaries to, among other
places, Crockett, Tex., where Rain was born.
Rainbow (she decided at 11 that "Rain was kind of dreary")
remembers debuting as a performer in South American plazas: "We
used to sing and hand out pamphlets." But after two years in
Venezuela, the family wanted out of the cult group. "The guy
running it got crazy. He sought to attract rich disciples through
sex," says Arlyn. "No way." A priest arranged their
passage to Florida on a freighter.
By that time there were more children. Libertad Mariposa, who had
been born in Caracas on the fifth of July, was translated into Liberty
Butterfly. At four, Puerto Rico-born Joaquin asked, "Can I
change my name to one like everyone else?" Arlyn said, "
Ask your father." John, who was raking leaves, said, "Pick
another name." The boy picked Leaf.
When Arlyn was nursing three-month-old Summer, John injured his
back. He had been working as a gardener, and the couple didn't know
how to make ends meet. "We'd had the vision that our kids could
captivate the world," says Arlyn. They chose the name Phoenix
to symbolize new hope. The two oldest (then nine and seven) began
to sing in talent contests. A friend mailed an article about the
children to Penny Marshall, then on the TV series Laverne &
Shirley. A Paramount employee wrote that the family should
drop by if they were ever in Los Angeles. They left Florida and
drove cross-country in a nine-year-old station wagon with a nonfunctional
back window. "I said to myself, 'What a crazy person you are,'
" remembers John. "But the stars were so bright. I just
felt that it was right. "
"I figured I'd play guitar and sing with my sister, and we
would be on television the next day," says River. "We
were really naive.' Arlyn worked as a secretary at NBC, where a
coworker recommended an agent. At 11, River was cast in CBS's Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers. "It seems like repetitive crap
now, but then a series was big," says River, who nowadays makes
$350,000 a role. The others went with the flow. Liberty and Summer
did the TV movie Kate's Secret, Rainbow a guest spot on Family Ties,
Leaf got SpaceCamp.
"We know that people think stage parents are bummers,"
says John, who tries to keep his charges prompt and professional.
"The kids started growing so much that the biggest thing I
can do now is to help them do whatever they want. I'm learning to
butt out." But the children still stick close. As River puts
it, "I've got a good battery charger here-I get back into the
family and plug in. I'll always want to spend a lot of time at Camp
Phoenix."
© 1987 Life.
Thanks to My
River Phoenix Collection for this text.
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