Armistead Maupin remembers early 1980s interview with Joan Rivers, shares rare 1966 video

Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin has posted this item about Joan Rivers who remains on life support in a New York City hospital:

I interviewed Joan Rivers for Interview Magazine back in the early eighties. She was already known for being heavily airbrushed in her press photos, so I asked if I could bring along the artist Don Bachardy to draw her. There were stacks of fat biographies next to her bed at the Riviera in Vegas, and she was hugely impressed when she realized that was sitting for Christopher Isherwood’s longtime partner. When Don showed her the finished product, Joan nodded and said “I look like my aunt.” Don grinned demurely and said: “Then I must have succeeded.” I found her to be a woman of great intelligence and warmth — and not just because she fixed me up with her handsome ginger hairdresser that night. (His name, by the way, was not Mr. Phyllis). There’s a definite family resemblance in this lovely clip from 1966. She looks like her daughter Melissa. Count me among the people who are rooting for this pioneer to stick around a good while longer.