Rosemary's Baby's True Father is Dead

Ira Levin

August 27, 1929 - November 12, 2007

RIP

I read the book before I saw the movie. I was twelve or thirteen and had already read Poe when I heard about Ira Levin's novel ROSEMARY'S BABY. On one of our Sunday family drives we wound up in the west end of the valley. My father's search for the perfect fish and chips restaurant led us to a small mom and pop on Ventura Boulevard. I think the owner-operators were actually from England. After some routine fried food, we all went next door into the chain bookstore. My mom flipped through the magazines. Dad looked for anything new on WWII. I was searching for the newest Ray Bradbury when I found Ira's BABY.

At first, my father didn't want to let me buy it. "It's a novel about a woman who has sex with the devil," he said increduously. I didn't bother to respond to his implications of impropriety, and said, "All I know is, this is a horror novel and I read horror novels." Then my father remembered I was a bookworm and had read Poe. A few years later, he didn't object at all when I brought home PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT or THE GODFATHER. By then, he knew my literary choices weren't limited to horror novels.

The movie version seemed flawless and perfect, even to a teenage bookworm. It introduced me to John Cassavetes a few years before HUSBANDS showed me how filmmaking could be personal. When my high school drama class did THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, we used my ROSEMARY'S BABY soundtrack album for the play. This worked remarkably well.

I saw DEATHTRAP on Broadway in the summer of 1979 and was genuinely suprised by the turn of events at the first act curtain. When I saw the movie version, the lack of surprise didn't diminish the narrative's engaging qualities.

He won two Edgar Awards. Ira will be missed.

Ira Levin - wiki

Rosemary's Baby (novel) - wiki

Rosemary's Baby (film) - wiki