So what is Mason Reese up to these days? Five feet, to be exact. Naturally, he has long been the brunt of short jokes. “I try to have a good sense of humor about it, but I’m a sensitive and emotional person,” he says. “I even cry at commercials.”
Mason, 18, has good reason to be saddened by commercials—he is no longer in any of them. Although he has grand plans for returning to television someday as the star of a regular variety show, he slipped into the anonymous life of a full-time student six years ago. No longer in demand as an endearing media cherub, he ballooned to 165 pounds. In 1981 he entered a fat farm in North Carolina for six months to get down to his current weight of 125. Throughout his childhood Mason was unable to participate in most group sports because of fragile bones. Not long after he returned from North Carolina, he was laid up in a body cast for three months after tripping on the street in New York and breaking his femur. “Fortunately my health is very good now,” says Mason. “Knock on Formica.”
Before the accident, Mason played hooky from school quite frequently, hanging out in music stores in New York City. When he was 13 he was given a Gretsch drum set by Mel Lewis, the legendary jazz drummer and a tenant in the Reeses’ apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. By the time Mason graduated from Professional Children’s School in 1982, music had become his passion.
Now Mason wants to be a rock star. At the Underground, a New York nightclub where no one seems to have heard the news that disco is dead, he took to the dance floor briefly last Thanksgiving night with a buxom red-haired girl who was a full head taller than he is. “I don’t know who she was, but I like redheads,” says Mason, who claims he does not have a steady girlfriend. Then, at about 1:30 a.m., the strobe lights stopped pulsing and the real show began as Mason, sporting his trademark Prince Valiant haircut, climbed onto a small bandstand with his new rock group, Dry Ice. Hidden behind an impressive array of drums and cymbals, he led the group through such crowd-pleasers as Billy Idol’s Dancing With Myself and Duran Duran’s Hungry Like the Wolf. Although the audience was small—about 200—Mason’s father was beaming after the show. “The band is making progress,” said Bill Reese, 51.
The kid clearly had some issues. I remember seeing video of him freaking out on the Mike Douglas show because he didn’t like a song that was being performed by another guest. Child stardom is a curse. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
This is some seriously sick fucking bullshit. It is so indicative of the depraved sick fucking state of american society in 1977 and thereafter; a sitcom about a precocious, circus side show freak of a midget
14 Comments
Mason Reese posted this to Youtube himself. Here’s what he had to say about it.
The golden age of pedophilia humor.
The 70s were awesome.
Jogging with Andy Warhol and Grace Jones.
From People Magazine 1984:
Read more:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20086811,00.html
The kid clearly had some issues. I remember seeing video of him freaking out on the Mike Douglas show because he didn’t like a song that was being performed by another guest. Child stardom is a curse. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
Behind the scenes with Mason:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OlWgHgqMMU
I found the Mike Douglas footage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzp5cRq3A_M
Mark, I will pay you $100 if you one day wear a suit like the one Nimoy is wearing in that clip.
I was hoping to see you at the Eclectablog party last night! That Nimoy suit would have been awesome to wear to it.
Um, guys? He hasn’t aged well:
http://www.thisboardrocks.com/forum/f30/mason-reese-171421/
OMG he’s going to be in a movie! We can all cram into my basement and watch it if it ever comes out.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3600272/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1
I couldn’t got to the Eclectablog party. I was too busy with my Mason Reese research.
(Actually, I had previous May Day commitments on Water Street.)
And I love Nimoy’s suit, if not the banter between he and Reese.
The banter was painful. The suit was delightful!
This is some seriously sick fucking bullshit. It is so indicative of the depraved sick fucking state of american society in 1977 and thereafter; a sitcom about a precocious, circus side show freak of a midget