Johnny o’keefe

[ronPrice]

When someone who is or was a celebrity has or had bipolar disorder I take a special interest in their life-narrative. Having had to deal with this mental health issue for seven decades now, I find the many manifestations of it in people’s lives make a heuristic comparison and contrast with my own experience. So it was when Johnny O’Keefe: The Wild One was televised on ABC1[SUP]1[/SUP] I took note.-Ron Price with thanks to ABC1, 12:20-1:30 a.m. on 25/7/’11 and also televised at other times in the last several years here in Tasmania Australia.

You went to the USA in October ‘59
the same month and year I became
a Baha’i. I knew nothing of you back
then, nor very little even after your
24 hits and all your work leading to
the establishment of the Australian
recording industry. All those nervous
breakdowns as they called your BPD[SUP]1[/SUP]
episodes awakened my interest. You
were in a psych-ward in August 1962
in Sydney as I started pioneering for
the Canadian Baha’i community. What
a long story, Johnny: thank God I found
lithium and did not get into drugs & OH
or I might have also had an early demise.

[SUP]1 [/SUP]BPD=bipolar disorder was the name given to manic depression in 1980 after O’Keefe died(1978). Biographies of O’Keefe: The Wild One: The Life and Times of Johnny O’Keefe, Damian Johnstone, 2001; and The Official Johnny O’Keefe Story, John Bryden-Brown, 1982, as well as the mini-series The Johnny O’Keefe Story in 1986 all gave publicity to both O’Keefe and his BPD.

Ron Price
25 July 2011

[winasd12]

Thank you for sharing.

[TraceNspace]

Thanks for posting and sharing. Bipolar seems to be more common than people think. It can be devastating but is manageable if you take care of yourself.

[ronPrice]

Indeed, [B]TraceNspace, it is manageable through a variety of processes. My story can be googled at: Ron Price BPD or go to my website at: http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/[/B]

[SteveO]

Thank you Ron !!! interesting read ...I believe Jeff Buckley sufferd from bi polar disease ???? apparently he just walked into a river and drowned ...very tragic like Johnny O'Keefe .

Indeed, [B]TraceNspace, it is manageable through a variety of processes. My story can be googled at: Ron Price BPD or go to my website at: http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/[/B]

[ronPrice]

Thanks, SteveO. Wikipedia informs me that: While awaiting the arrival of his band from New York, he drowned during a spontaneous evening swim — fully clothed — in the Wolf River. He was caught in the wake of a passing boat. His body was found on June 4, 1997.
Initial speculation was that he'd committed suicide, but the autopsy confirmed that he had no illegal drugs in his system, and his estate insists it was simply a tragic accident. When Jeff had read his father's obituaries in 1975, he'd been devastated to see no mention of himself. Little did he know that, after just six years of fame, his own tributes would far outshine those of his dad. Mourning the lost of a huge talent, U2's Bono stated, "Jeff was a pure drop in an ocean of noise."For more on Jeff and Tim Buckley, read Dream Brother by David Browne, HarperCollins. [h=4][/h]

[SteveO]

Again Ron, thank you for your interesting information !!!!!

Thanks, SteveO. Wikipedia informs me that: While awaiting the arrival of his band from New York, he drowned during a spontaneous evening swim — fully clothed — in the Wolf River. He was caught in the wake of a passing boat. His body was found on June 4, 1997.
Initial speculation was that he'd committed suicide, but the autopsy confirmed that he had no illegal drugs in his system, and his estate insists it was simply a tragic accident. When Jeff had read his father's obituaries in 1975, he'd been devastated to see no mention of himself. Little did he know that, after just six years of fame, his own tributes would far outshine those of his dad. Mourning the lost of a huge talent, U2's Bono stated, "Jeff was a pure drop in an ocean of noise."For more on Jeff and Tim Buckley, read Dream Brother by David Browne, HarperCollins.