In 2002, two dudes at a tattoo expo began exchanging lines from the Coen brothers’ film The Big Lebowski, which at the time had not quite reached the cult, dorm-room poster status it has since achieved. Since then, Lebowski Fest has been held in cities across America, and in the UK, and a documentary has been made on Lebowski’s fandom.
Lebowski Fest Founder Will Russell runs two t-shirt store/roadside attractions, both called “Why Louisville,” in Louisville, Kentucky. When I spoke with him he said he was waiting for AAA to jump the battery of a bus he had fashioned into a vehicle for selling t-shirts. He ended most of his anecdotes with extremely apt references to The Big Lebowski.
Russell told me the First Annual Lebowski Fest was held in Fellowship Lanes, a Baptist-run bowling alley that did not allow cursing or drinking—thus, they could not show the film itself, which is riddled with poetic uses of the “F” word. Nor could they play the soundtrack, which features dialogue from the film. The attendees were also unable to drink White Russians, the protagonist’s drink of choice, “but we achieved anyway,” Russell said, making reference to the “Little Lebowski Urban Achievers” organization in the film. It maybe speaks to the overall positive attitude of the Lebowski fan base that the Lebowski Fest’s website speaks of the event purely in a tone of amusement: “Yes, there was actually a big sign when you walked in with the words “NO CUSSING” scrolled ominously by the door. The irony was irresistible…”
Spin wrote about the event, and James G. Hoosier, who played a minor but memorable character in the film, appeared at the Las Vegas Lebowski Fest: “He was a total rock star,” Russell says. Jeff Dowd, on whom the Coen brothers modeled Jeff Bridges’ iconic aging Los Angeles hippie character The Dude, has made several appearances. Like The Dude, Dowd was a member of the Seattle Seven in the early '70s and loves White Russians.
But Russell’s favorite memory of any Lebowski Fest is from 2005, when Bridges himself appeared and performed songs. According to Russell, Bridges wore The Dude’s signature jelly shoes, and asked if Russell wanted to try them on. “He threw one of the jellies across the room and insisted I take my sock off and put it on. It was kinda warm and moist, but I felt the spirit of The Dude and I was instantly relaxed. I was like, ‘Wow, far out, man.’” I suggested it was sort of a Cinderella story, and Russell agreed.
Many of Russell’s most fascinating stories involve the Fest’s costumes, which range from main characters to details in the film’s surreal musical dream sequence to interpretations of individual lines of dialogue. Two attendees came as Moses and Sandy Koufax in honor of a single line from the film in which John Goodman’s character, Walter, defends Jewish tradition. Two women came as The Dude’s car, with Creedence Clearwater Revival, a band referenced numerous times in the film, playing out of the stereo. The Dude’s and Walter’s colorful expressions have been expressed literally through costume numerous times, according to Russell: “Does the Pope s---- in the woods?”, with a real tree and a toilet and a newspaper bearing the title, “Vatican Times,” for instance. Other lines of dialogue interpreted as costumes, in which the figurative language the characters use became literal aspects of the outfit, included “New s---- has come to light,” and a famous line repeated throughout the movie, the one preceded by the phrase, “You see what happens, Larry?”
