Maggie Cogan is a New York City resident who became a small celebrity in the early 1960s when she became the first mare and train driver in Central Park, working for the Plaza Hotel. He appeared on a 1967 Universal News with his horse and carriage, and in 1968, also appeared on the What My Line quiz show, with the contestants trying to guess his work.
After leaving his career briefly in the 1960s, he continued in 1970, befriending Lisa Ryan, the daughter of actor Robert Ryan, who also became a horse-drawn carriage driver. At this point, he has had two failed marriages and two sons, both surrendering when his life began to unravel. In 1977, while living with Ryan, Cogan started showing signs of mental illness and he was finally committed to a mental hospital by his parents.
Eventually, he becomes homeless when he leaves his career for good. Director Michel Negroponte found his life in Central Park and made a documentary about Jupiter's wife about him.
Video Maggie Cogan
Early life and career
Cogan grew up in a town near New York City, and in high school, he was an active student, participating in cheerleading and dance clubs. After graduation, he attended several colleges but never completed a bachelor's degree. At 19, he started his career with the Palace Hotel, becoming the first female racer of Central Park. In 1968, when the city announced that a horse-drawn carriage had to carry a meter like a taxi, Cogan was quoted in a related story in the New York Times, saying "Meters! This is ridiculous.In this country, they almost want to gauge the mind.It will be like Coney Island. Tawdry. "
Maps Maggie Cogan
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In the late 1960s, Cogan's life began to unravel. He has two failed marriages, one of which produces two children. After showing signs of increasingly incapable of overcoming a failed relationship, he left his two children with his parents and moved to Texas for 4 years. Upon returning, he can not recover his children.
Cogan began to show signs of increased mental instability in the 1970s, while living with Ryan. He developed madness with Ryan's father (actor Robert Ryan) and began sending him strange gifts, like voodoo dolls attached to a love note. In 1977, he developed an additional madness with serial killer David Berkowitz and in the same year was robbed on the street, with his assailant cutting his face. According to Ryan, "For the rest of the summer he barricades himself in his bedroom and will not come out."
At the end of the summer, Ryan and Cogan are scheduled to move out of their shared apartments. Cogan's parents arrived, moved him out, and handed him to a mental hospital.
Homeless
After losing his job as a train driver, Cogan became homeless, living most of the next 15 years at Central Park. To help him face reality, he fabricated a clear story about himself, claiming that SHE is actually the daughter of Robert Ryan. He also claimed to have an Extra Sensory Perception. However, his charm and his intelligence helped him make friends who helped feed and dress him during this period. He also developed a deep love for animals, adopted several dogs and lived with them.
Jupiter's wife, getting housing
In 1989, Michel Negroponte tried to make a documentary about his childhood in Central Park when he met Cogan and decided to make a film, Jupiter's Wife, about himself instead. He filmed Cogan from 1989 until the end of 1991, showing him with his dogs, with his friends, traveling around Central Park, attending a gym class taught by one of his friends, etc.
At the end of the film, a small maintenance shack he left living with his dogs during the winter has been raided and destroyed by police and sanitation workers. However, after being able to receive public assistance because of his mental condition, he can move into an apartment. The film won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
After October 1995
In 1995, Cogan, along with his pet, was evicted from his apartment in Long Island City. She moved with friend Sara Whalen, founder and operator of the Pet shelter in Wallkill, NY. The New York Times reported that the arrangement was short because Cogan returned to Central Park five weeks later.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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