#danielblr

The Life of Daniel from 1952 - 1985

1952

December 11: Daniel Molloy is born in California¹

1971

May: Daniel finishes high school

September: starts college or gets a gig at a radio station

1972

May: if in college, finishes freshman year

the Vietnam can effect him² along with all the young men of that generation, so he starts “roaming the bars of the world with his tape recorder”³

September: is supposed to start his sophomore year, but does not

1973

September 7⁴: meets Louis at a bar called Pink Baby⁵. Daniel interviews him the entire night, at Louis’ house on 503⁶ Divisadero Street, San Francisco.

September 8 - 17 , for 10 days: Daniel drives from San Francisco to New Orleans, transcribing the tapes and sending them to a publisher in New York⁷

September 17, New Orleans: searches public records for Lestat

September 18, New Orleans: finds Lestat’s house in the Garden District, plays the tapes until early in the morning

September 18-21: Daniel is taken by Armand and locked in a dark basement for 3 nights, then Armand tells him to run “I want to see what you do, I want to know what you are”

September 22, morning after: flies from New Orleans to Lisbon, lands roughly at midnight in Lisbon if direct flight

September 23, Lisbon: spends one night, flies to Madrid the day after

September 25, 2 nights after, Madrid: sees “Armand seated on a city bus beside him no more than inches away”

October 2, a week later, Vienna: in a cafe, sees Armand watching him from the street

November: Berlin: Armand slips into a taxi beside him, and sits there staring at him, until finally Daniel jumps out and runs away

1974*

“within months” Armand starts talking to him “these shattering silent confrontations had given way to more vigorous assaults”

April, Prague: while in a hotel room, “finds Armand standing over him, crazed, violent. "Talk to me now! I demand it. Wake up. I want you to walk with me, show me things in this city. Why did you come to this particular place?"

November, Switzerland: on a train, Daniel looks up suddenly to see “Armand directly opposite watching him over the upturned cover of his fur-lined coat”⁸. Armand snatches the book out of his hand and insists that he explain what it was, why he read it, what did the picture on the cover mean?

1975**

“Finally, after a year and a half of this madness(from when they met in New Orleans), Daniel began to question Armand.” 

February, Paris: Armand pursues him nightly through streets and alleyways, questioning him on the places he went, the things he did. Daniel spends at least a week there, maybe more, tries to find the places Louis described. Armand is not being helpful. “Armand was remarkably unresponsive,” unless -“What was it like in Paris? Ask me if it rained on the night of  Saturday, June 5, 1793. Perhaps I could tell you that."

February, Venice: Daniel looks out of his room at (hotel) Danieli, sees Armand staring from a window across the way. Daniel is coincidentally there for the Carnevale.⁹ “Yet at other moments, he spoke in rapid bursts of the things around him…” "But the Venice of your time, tell me. . . ." "What? That it was dirty? That it was beautiful?...”

weeks¹⁰ pass without a visitation, hence why I think A Line Was Crossed in Venice that made Armand pull away briefly. 

around May: he finishes everything there is to do for the Interview’s publication, and Advanced Reader Copies are sent out¹¹

this possibly gets the Talamasca’s attention already, before the book is out¹²

1976

May: Daniel returns to the States in time for the Interview to be released.¹³

May 5: Interview with the Vampire is published under a pseudonym ¹⁴ “Book One: Interview with the Vampire, published in 1976, was a true story."

June 22: New York: Armand waits for him when he lands at JFK. Flies to Boston the next day

June 23, Boston, the night after: at the Copley¹⁵, Armand joins for a dinner where he orders him everything on the menu. Daniel’s “oh shit he’s attractive” moment

“The meetings grew longer and longer. Conversations, sparring matches, and downright fights became the rule”

September, New Orleans: Armand wakes him up, demands "That telephone, I want you to dial Paris.”

“More and more they argued philosophy at these meetings”

October, Rome: Armand pulls Daniel, drunk and exhausted and who was sleeping, out of a theater to talk about death. Tells him what he fears is “That it's chaos after you die, that it's a dream from which you can't wake.”

November, Port-Au-Prince: Armand wants to talk about war. “The point was, Armand didn't know what men felt. He never had. Oh, of course he'd known the pleasures of the flesh, that was par for the course. But of true aggression he knew little”. Daniel does his best to answer

December, Frankfurt: Armand wants to talk about the nature of history

1977

April, England: in country inn, Armand warns him to get out before a fire starts 

May, New York: Armand bails him out of jail (drunkenness and vagrancy), takes him to the Carlyle, gives him a suitcase full of clothes and a wallet full of money. Daniel’s money ran out by then, if he was arrested for vagrancy.

June - September: Pompeii: Daniel spends the summer alone, “during which he had not seen his demon familiar even once”¹⁶

September 12, 10pm¹⁷: Armand comes back, and he shared the Blood with Daniel for the first time after they break into the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii "I love you. If I hadn't grown to love you, I would have killed you before now, of course." and "You are mine, beautiful boy." and “You'll sleep when the sun rises, if you wish, but the nights are mine."

September 12: overnight train to Rome

September 13, morning after: wakes up in the Excelsior¹⁸ hotel in Rome, flies with Armand from Rome to London in the evening

1978

September - December,London: Daniel and Armand go to symphonies and operas, then the cinema, “to hundreds upon hundreds of films that Armand dragged him to see”¹⁹

September - December, London: “Then there were the endless parties, the cluttered noisy gatherings from Chelsea to Mayfair where Armand argued politics and philosophy with students, or women of fashion, or anyone who would give him the slightest chance.”

September - December, London: Armand starts buying his own clothes, instead of taking them off victims.“Clothes of all kinds fascinated him”

September - December, London : “It seemed that he and Daniel were always walking up four unlighted flights of stairs to visit some painter, sculptor, or photographer, or to see some special never-released yet revolutionary film.”

September - December, London: “They spent hours in the cold-water flats of dark-eyed young women who played rock music and made herbal tea which Armand never drank.”

1979

January - June, London: Daniel starts sleeping with other people while Armand watches “if Armand could possibly arrange it, while he watches from a chair nearby” but even though he is “aroused by the dual purpose of every intimate gesture … he lays empty afterwards, staring at Armand, resentful, cold.”

July²⁰: move from London to New York

July: Armand finds that jazz band he likes that will come back the following year in the Village. They watch Baryshnikov.

August: Armand starts waiting for Daniel to wake up, coffee in tow. “Often Armand had been in the room some time before Daniel awakened. The coffee would be perking, the music going… ready for Daniel to get up.”

September, New York: “they went tearing to museum openings, cafes, bars” Ties in with Daniel sleeping with people, but this time he wouldn’t be up for it anymore, and he and Armand were “sleeping” together at this point without the need of a third.

1980

January - May, New York: “adopted a young dancer, paying all his bills through school.”²¹ This gives them the idea to enroll in classes themselves later on.

New York: “They sat on the stoops in SoHo and Greenwich Village whiling the hours away with anybody who would stop to join them.”

1981

January - December, New York: “They went to night classes in literature, philosophy, art history, and politics. They studied biology, bought microscopes, collected specimens. They studied books on astronomy..”²² 

September - December, New York: they moved around all the time, living “for a few days or a month at most” in each new place

New York: “They went to boxing matches, rock concerts, Broadway shows.” That jazz band in the Village again

New York: Armand begins to be obsessed with technological inventions, “one after the other”: first kitchen blenders, then microwaves, then garbage disposals, then the telephone.

1982

January - June, New York: “finally television caught him up utterly, so that the flat was full of blaring speakers and flickering screens.” Armand is obsessed with films for 6 months, watching things like Blade Runner and Time Bandits on repeat.

June, New York: Armand becomes obsessed with “video cameras and must make his own films” He drags Daniela all over New York to interview people on the street. Records himself reciting poetry in Italian and Latin, or standing still. Makes a tape of himself in the coffin during the day. ”Daniel found this impossible to look at”

New York: Armand becomes obsessed with computers, word processors and video game machines. Rents extra apartments in Manhattan to house them

New York: “finally he turned to planes”, “a concentrated exploration”, “they must spend the entire night in the air”

New York: fly to Boston, then Washington, then Chicago, then back to New York

New York: they try longer flights to: Port-Au-Price, San Francisco, Rome, Lisbon, Madrid

September, New York: “Daniel had not seen high noon in 5 years”

Armand is ready to “enter this century in earnest”. Daniel is skeptical about that

Jamaica: Armand finds sunken Spanish galleon with treasure

Gulf of Mexico: Armand finds two more sunken ships

Mexico: Armand finds priceless Olmec figurines

South America: Armand finds a long forgotten emerald mine

1983

Florida: they purchase a mansion, yachts, speedboats, a jet plane. Armand starts choosing what clothes Daniel wears.

Monte Carlo

Florida: Armand works on acquiring more wealth, Daniel starts to “feel his mortality more keenly than ever before… he was desperate to possess all of this forever. With hatred and love he watched Armand….Would Armand really let him die?”

Florida: Armand recovers stolen paintings, jewelry, precious stones, takes everything from drug dealers off the Miami coast - he and Daniel then sells them at auctions.

Florida: Armand orders Daniel to “make purchases without counsel or hesitation”. Daniel buys a fleet of cruise ships, a chain of restaurants and hotels. They have 4 private planes. Armand has 8 phones.

Florida: Armand personally creates Night Island “He drew the pictures for the architects he'd chosen. He gave them endless lists of the materials he wanted, the fabrics, the sculptures for the fountains, even the flowers, the potted trees.”

Miami, Florida: Night Island opens. It is legally all Daniel’s and it’s open only during the night. There is a 5 story mall, with theaters, restaurants, cinemas and shops. Connected and adjacent to it, there is Armand and Daniel’s private house, the Villa, named after the Villa of the Mysteries, a 3 story mansion. “"This is your home, Daniel." And so it had been and Daniel had loved it, he had to admit that, and what he had loved even more was the freedom, the power, and the luxury that attended him everywhere that he went.”

1984

early in the year, New Orleans: Lestat wakes up

Central America: Armand and Daniel see the Mayan ruins

Annapurna: gone up the flank to glimpse the distant summit under the light of the moon

Tokyo: wander the crowded streets together

Bangkok: travel together

Cairo: travel together

Damascus: travel together

Lima: travel together

Rio: travel together

Kathmandu: travel together

May: at some point, Armand gives Daniel the blood amulet, in order to be protected from other vampires in case he runs into them

Night Island, Miami: “more bitterness”, ugly fights. Daniels wants to be turned, Armand can’t do it.

later in the year, Night Island, Miami: Daniel stars wandering and running away, Armand only gets him back at the last moment possible

1985

New Orleans: Lestat is in New Orleans writing his autobiography/recording his album

April: Daniel leaves Night Island for the last time in his desperate wanderings

New York: Daniel runs away

Chicago: Daniel runs away

New Orleans: Daniel runs away

September 5, New Orleans: Lestat gets threatening phone calls from vampires

September 5, San Francisco: Lestat moves the band to Carmel Valley in San Francisco. Drives through Monterey and San Francisco

September 12, a week after, New Orleans: The Vampire Lestat is published, Lestat releases the tapes²³

September, end of it, Vienna: Daniel is in Vienna, where a IWTV royalty check catches up with him

“a month ago”(from when that graffiti was made) word went out on the Vampire Connection that Lestat is back

October: Daniel is somewhere else after Vienna and before Stockholm

October 9, “before that”: Daniel is in Stockholm

October 18: Daniel is in Edinburgh

October 21: Marius reads the graffiti about Lestat, plays the tapes in the shrine. Akasha wakes up. Marius is buried under ice.

October 28: Daniel is in Paris

October 30, 5pm-8pm, Michigan Avenue, Chicago: Daniel gets his copy of TVL stolen from a park bench, Armand finds Daniel later in the evening, they drive to the airport

October 31, early morning: Armand turns Daniel on a plane from Chicago to San Francisco 

October 31, evening: The Vampire Lestat plays at the Cows Palace, San Francisco, audience 15000 ( “The Vampire Lestat”, “Children of Darkness”, “Those Who Must Be Kept”, “Viaticum for the Marquise”… “Age of Innocence”) (+ other 7 unnamed songs)²⁴

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1. He was 32 in 1985, putting his birthday between November 1952 - September 1953. I’m personally choosing December 11, 1952, which is the day Anne Rice died. I chose California because why not, he wouldn’t have gone too far away for college (and it would have been cheaper), hence the desire to travel.

2. This bit of meta explains it better than I can, and it gives the explanation that he is expecting to be drafted, hence why he’s doing his journalistic side gig instead of his second year of college, explanation that I quite personally like, depending on what kind of fic I’m writing, but your mileage may vary. In my headcanon the interview happens in September, not in February, giving him a bit more time going around interviewing people and somehow landing a publisher contact in New York. Again, feel free to ignore if that’s not your thing. He might as well not have gone to college at all, or decided to drop out and just got his foot in the door already because hey, it was the 70s and you did not actually need a degree. Whatever works for you!

3. Also in the original short story, he works at a radio station in San Francisco

4. After some discussion with others, I’m picking September as the Interview date, for two reasons: first, in IWTV, Louis says he parted with Armand “late string this year”, implying some time has already passed. Second, the “wild roses” are everywhere when Daniel gets to Lestat’s house in New Orleans, meaning it could have been summer/end of summer. You can of course ignore both of these, first one because the following paragraphs are Louis describing a meeting with Lestat that never took place, and the second one because roses bloom all the way round in a Louisiana climate, so could have been anytime of year.

5. The bar Louis and Daniel meet at is named “Pink Baby” in the original IWTV short story, and is either on Chestnut or Union Street, meaning that was at least a 30 min walk to Louis’ place on Divisadero.

6. This house.  

7. I like to think Daniel also got $12,000 advance for IWTV, which is how much Anne Rice received in real life (wiki), and plenty to have him travel around Europe for a few years.

8. Why I think this happens later in the year.

9. Purely fanfic territory, but Armand meets him at a masked ball party, maybe. Also Daniel did not have THAT much money, it strikes me as weird he would have checked in into one of the most expensive hotels in Venice, unless he got a cheap flight there not realizing it was Carnival season and most places were booked out. Disregard all of this if in your hc he’s there during another month though!

10. Armand might have wanted to return sooner, but Talamasca got in the way once they found out about the book, and Armand had to keep them away from Daniel. It could be this was the first time he had to deal with them personally, or the first time he finds out (and cares) what they collected about him over the years.

11. As a new author, Daniel’s book would have needed to wait in a queue before it hit the shelves and after everything was finalized, and that took roughly a year. Thanks Elisa for that info.

11. "The book isn't fiction," David explained simply. "Yet the purpose of creating it is unclear. And the act of publishing it, even as a novel, has us rather alarmed." It would also make sense for Armand to be away for so long, if he was dealing with them. That conversation happens in the summer of 1981. At Lestat’s concert, Daniel has no idea what “Talamasca” is, but Armand is annoyed at their presence.

13. As good as any reason why he’s suddenly back in the States. Maybe he did want to meet his editor.

14. May 5th, 1976, the actual release date of Interview.

15. Read more about that in this beautiful post by @apoptoses

16. “Maybe four years had passed since the game had begun.” Another reason why I picked beginning of fall 1973 for the Interview to take place, so it matches this.

17. September 12, the release date of Queen of the Damned, because why not. 10pm is canon, but Pompeii would have been closed by 5/6pm, so Daniel had already broken in himself, or just stayed after opening hours and managed not to get himself kicked out. 

18. The Excelsior Hotel is like a 3 min drive from Roma Termini, the main train station.

19. UK film releases between September 1978 - July 1979 include: Grease, Foul Play, The Silent Partner, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, Convoy, Midnight Express, The Wild Geese, The Legacy, Must Wear Tights, The Driver, Heaven Can Wait, Death On the Nile, The Cat from Outer Space, Power Play, Herzog Blaubarts Burg, The Man Who Loved Women, Force 10 From Navarone, Piranha, Superman (what Louis actually watches in the cinema at the end of the IWTV film), Watership Down, Jaws 2, Capricorn One, California Suite, Halloween, Damien: Omen II, Every Which Way But Loose, National Lampoons Animal House, The Deer Hunter, The Shape of Things to Come, Escape to Athena,  Days of Heaven,The Wiz, Battlestar Galactica, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Warriors, The Muppet Movie, The Lord of the Rings(Ralph Baksi), Moonraker, The Champ, The Spaceman and King Arthur, Queen of the Blues.

20. "Come, lover, we're going to the ballet tonight. I want to see Baryshnikov. And after that, down to the Village. You remember that jazz band I loved last summer, well, they've come back.” From wiki: “On October 12, 1979, Baryshnikov danced the role of the Poet in Balanchine's ballet La Sonnambula with the City Ballet at the Kennedy Center. This was his last performance with New York City Ballet due to tendinitis and other injuries.” Baryshnikov danced in New York only from 1978 to 1979.

21. I assume this means dance school, so Armand would have sent him to Juilliard? Or a small private dance studio.

22. They went to Columbia, more precisely Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, only because this is the extent of how much I’m willing to google (it lists all of those courses), and of course Armand would send them to a good school. That or NYU, since it’s bigger, or maybe a year/semester at each. I also think he would have wanted Daniel to finish school, since the Interview prevented him from doing so, or maybe that dancer was in his last year and that made Daniel think of his own education. Daniel would have found it super interesting to see Armand posing as a student though.

23. September 12, 1985, the actual release date of The Vampire Lestat.

24. There were 12 songs in total on the CHS Marius buys, but a VHS couldn’t hold 3 hours of material, so he must have played other songs except for those 12, or talked in-between, lol.

*Between 1974-1977 you can spread the events out as you like, the only “canon” dates are Daniel starting to ask questions in return, 1 ½ after,  the publication of the book (but even that is meta information) and Pompeii, 4 years after.There is also a lot of time to cover for other places Daniel might have visited!