Hunter S. Thompson never lived an ordinary life, and his special spin on the holiday season does not disappoint. Thompson’s notorious Owl Farm cabin in Colorado was ground central for a special post-Christmas ritual. His secretary, Deborah Fuller, knew damn well that the annual tree should not be tossed into the dumpster after its job was done. Instead, Thompson preferred to set the tree on fire. In 1990, things got a little too firey after Thompson got “lit” with too much alcohol beforehand.
This was also the year when Sam Allis of TIME magazine visited Owl Farm to interview Thompson, who was uncooperative while smashing a camera in his “dime-store wig.” Thompson wanted to stop talking about himself and get down to tradition: “Let’s give the journalist a memorable experience to write about.” Hunter’s logic was that Allis desperately needed to “learn to burn the creosote out of a chimney.” This is an all important step in avoiding chimney fires, but of course, Thompson got carried away.
The Hunter S. Thompson Films website details how Allis began to fear for his life as a drunk Thompson emptied cans of fire starter on the tree (which was too big to fit in the fireplace). A crate of bullets sat precariously nearby, which only added to the chaos caught on film. Here’s what happened:
Before he put the tree in the fireplace, there was a small fire burning already. The mass of the tree almost snuffed out the first fire when he jammed it in, so Hunter threatened to splash lighter fluid on it. In the original video, you can barely hear Deborah and [Allis] screaming, “NO, HUNTER DON’T DO IT” above the Cowboy Junkies playing “Misguided Angel” at maximum volume over the array of living-room speakers.
Hunter gets a bit of lighter fluid onto the tree, and then throws a match after it, creating the conflagration you see in the film and then in the aftermath below. The flames were coming out of the top of the chimney in a 4-foot cone of fire, like the exhaust of a jet engine. Hunter, Deborah and Allen retreated to the front porch where Hunter taped the inferno with pride. No one remembered to carry out the manuscript of the latest book in progress, which was laying on the living-room table.
This is sheer madness and nothing less than what we’d expect from Hunter S. Thompson during the holidays. Would you like to see video proof of what happened? Thompson reportedly re-entered his home and watched this footage (on repeat) all night long.
(Via Hunter S. Thompson Films)