The Lance Loud I Knew - America's First Reality Show Super Star. By Geniusofdespair

It is a slow news day, so time for a story from my past.

I got a job for the Rock Magazine "Circus," working under the Publisher Gerry Rothenberg, managing the classified page and doing anything else that no one else would do.

It was the mid 70's, "Blondie" and Alice Cooper were white hot, and Arnold Schwartzennegger was just about to sizzle (his dad wrote the mag a letter asking that we write about him) -- all were featured in Circus Magazine during my tenure. I remember a 1975 Edgar Winter cover and the writers Michael Gross and Steven Rosen working at the magazine.

Those were also the days of Lance Loud, who was a year or two off his TV Show "The American Family" the first reality hit show. It was suppose to be about a "typical" family but they instead imploded before the eyes of millions of viewers. The parents divorced and Lance came-out on the show and became a cult phenomena. Lance Loud also worked for Circus Magazine while I was there, and became my best friend at the magazine, mainly because everyone else wasn't friendly.
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At one point I was put on the task of tallying up a few thousand votes that came in for best new artist. I did it manually by the method of 4 strokes and one diagonal. At the time, Lance liked Brian Eno who was up for best artist. Whenever I wasn't looking he would fill in my tally with strokes and slashes. He was intent on Eno winning. I think Brian Eno might have won, thanks to his help. I was fairly ethical, I erased some of Lance's votes but not all.

Lance and I would talk through a window we shared between offices. He was actually in the reception area. We didn't talk about his friend Andy Warhol or his show. Instead we shared the mundane. When I asked why he had a bottle of nail polish remover on his desk he told me it was the best way to treat herpes. Ouch! I never figured out what he did at the magazine although I was told by Rothenberg to edit one of Lance's articles, the only one I remember. It was poorly written but his language was hip. Pretty sure I ruined the edginess in his writing with all my grammatical corrections. Oddly, I was also put in charge of writing some of the responses to letters to the editors. Teenage boys often wrote in hoping for a recipe on how to become a rock star. I gave them advice on how to proceed, having never played an instrument in my life. Bored, I soon left the magazine but I always thought of Lance. I remember him as a classic "Boy Toy." He was so cute, engaging, willing to please but oh so naive.

The always flamboyant Lance Loud died in 2001, at age 50. His friend, musician Rufus Wainwright said about him:

Lance was a real example of the best things to do and the worst things to do.

Rest in peace Lance...you were a good soul.