Echoes from the past

Hopper and Brooke Hayward divorced in April 1969, three months before the release of “Easy Rider,” the landmark movie directed by Hopper. He and Peter Fonda starred in it as two disaffected bikers adrift in America.

Brooke Hayward, now 84, is well-represented in Rozzo's book through her words and memories and those of her children and friends. Hopper, though, died in 2010, making his side of the story more challenging to tell.

But Hopper gave many more interviews during his life than Brooke Hayward, and Rozzo says he tapped deep troves for rare material, such as a small collection of radio interviews done by arts journalist Molly Saltman in the late '60s.

“Those blew me away because they were recorded in the living room at 1712, and it's at the time of my book's setting,” Rozzo says. “I would listen to these over and over and trip out on the fact that I was hearing Dennis' voice bouncing around the walls that I was seeing in the pictures I was poring over.

“He was talking about the art collection and what it meant, and this collaborative relationship that he had with Brooke and all the antiques she was getting. I just couldn't believe it.”

The drinking and drugs and erratic behavior that contributed to Hopper's divorce from Hayward derailed his career for more than a decade despite the success of “Easy Rider.” She eventually sold the 1712 home and moved back to New York City.

The art collection they built together was sold decades ago for a pittance compared with the multimillion-dollar prices the same or similar works have fetched in recent years.

“I think that the decade of the '60s continues to throw out these reverberations,” he says. “And by getting into Dennis and Brooke, I was hoping to tell that story in a new way, with a new palette, and be able to tell it with some emotional resonance.”

In a way, their relationship mirrored the shape of that decade, Rozzo says.

“It did kind of amaze me,” he says. “It went from this sort of youthful idealism to this colorful plateau, and then toward this darker, turbulent unraveling toward the end.”

At one point in his reporting, the 1712 house sold, and Rozzo was able to visit it while it was completely empty for renovations. Empty, except for one thing.

“The only thing on the wall was that wonderful picture that Dennis took in '65, where Brooke's standing on the steps of the house and it's a beautiful sunny day,” he says.

“Standing there, it's like you could sense the echoes of that colorful past, and you can barely believe it all actually happened.”