Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

Back to America 185During the I~~OS, when Dali came to New York for the firsttime, he met several millionaires, whom he adored. At this time,the entire country was in a state of shock over the Lindbergh kidnapping,but when one of Dali's conquests invited him to a costumeparty, Gala arrived on his arm, dressed as the Lindbergh baby, herface, neck, and shoulders dripping with fake blood. The scandal wasunprecedented; Lindbergh was a sacred cow, and the kidnapping wasnot exactly a subject for satire. Read the riot act by his agent, Daliretreated, and in his best hermetico-psychoanalytic jargon he explainedto the journalists that Gala's costume was a purely Freudianrepresentation of the infamous X complex. . . . When he returnedto Paris, however, he had to face trial, for his error had been seriousthepublic retraction of a surrealist act. Breton reported to me thatduring the meeting Dali fell to his knees, clasped his hands, and,his eyes filled with tears, swore that the press had lied, that he'dnever denied the fact that the disguise was well and truly the Lindberghbaby.Another revealing anecdote about Dali occurred many years later,when he lived in New York during the 1960s. One day, threeMexicans who were making a film came to see him. Carlos Fuenteshad written the scenario, and Juan Ibafiez was directing. The Mexicansasked Dali to authorize their filming him entering the bar atthe St. Regis with a baby panther on a golden chain. Dali sent themto Gala, who, he said, "took care of that sort of thing."When the men had sat down and repeated their request, Galareplied: "Do you like steak? Good steak? Cut thick? Very tender?"Speechless, but thinking they were being invited to lunch, allthree nodded."Well," Gala went on impassively, "soidoes Dali. Do you knowwhat a good steak costs?"Apparently, she demanded ten thousand dollars for Dali's services,and the three men left in a hurry, speechless and emptyhanded.Like Lorca, Dali had an enormous fear of pain and death, yet heonce wrote about how titillated he'd been at the sight of a third-class