DAN FARSON

Dan Farson’s obituary was published on 28 November 1997. It was subtitled “Television interviewer, writer and photographer who turned into a monstrous drunk in his beloved Soho”. The following is take from this obituary.

Daniel Negley Farson was born in 1927 in Chicago. His father, Negley Farson, was a American journalist with the Chicago Daily News and a writer of some stature. In the 1940’s Dan’s prep school was evacuated out to Canada and eventually in 1942, Dan sailed back to wartime England and was sent to Wellington.

He landed a job at the Central Press Agency where he was a lobby correspondent at Westminster. He served in the American army and was sent to Germany where he discovered the possibilities of photography in the ruins of Munich. He then went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge, aged 21 and took a degree.

A short period was spent with an advertising agency and then in 1951 he joined Picture Post as a staff photographer. It was in the 1950’s that Francis Bacon took to Farson. (they were to remain life-long friends) Farson’s next bright idea was to join the merchant navy and he joined the crew of the 30,000 ton Orcades and sailed 50,000 miles around the world, crossing the equator four times. He next found work on the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail. He became a skilled interviewer and often persuaded those he interviewed to speak unguardedly resulting in damaging and infuriating dialogue.

Farson was also ideal for television of that period, as he was quick thinking and handsome, very beguiling. He often caused outrage especially with a programme called “Living for Kicks” about coffee bar teenagers. He produced a series, “Farson’s Guide to the British” which included his famous piece on Jack the Ripper. Another series, “Out of Step”, dealt with oddities from witchcraft to nudism. But he failed too and in 1962 he purchased a pub in the East End of London, which failed miserably. He often made a great deal of money and lost it just as quickly. His days in television were numbered and Farson thought he had gone stale and moved to his parents home in Devon from where he continued to make an income from journalism and writing books among them a biography of Francis Bacon and Gilbert and George.

Farson’s last book, his autobiography Never a Normal Man, was written when he knew he was dying of cancer. It was published just after his 70th birthday. At the same time, he held an exhibition of his photographs at a Mayfair gallery and went on Radio 4 Midweek with such a hangover that his voice sounded as if it came from inside a wardrobe.

Farson’s photographs of his “beloved Soho” are a remarkable record of the time produced by a remarkable man.