Rodney Bingenheimer - Personal Life

Personal Life

In Mayor of the Sunset Strip, director Hickenlooper examined Bingenheimer's life in a documentary format. According to one account, Bingenheimer was described as "intensely private" and was nervous about the documentary project to film his life; filming took place over a six-year period. According to this report, Bingenheimer found it was sometimes difficult to answer questions about his parents and love life. He was never married but apparently still holds on to the possibility that he'll find a woman who has the "ideal 1960s vision in plastic miniskirt, Mary Quant lashes and ropes of bullion fringe." In one scene in the documentary, Bingenheimer and a younger woman he was dating are talking on the camera, and it's only at the end of the scene that it's revealed that they're only friends; "by the time the scene is over, you feel devastated for him: his face says, I was jilted at the prom.", according to Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris in 2004. The movie suggested that Bingenheimer had had sex with "scores of women" during his earlier days but those relationships didn't form into lasting attachments with any particular woman. The movie "is a portrait of a man who has always needed celebrities to validate him," according to David Edelstein in Slate. He's been compared to the character in the Woody Allen film Zelig in which the character keeps appearing in disparate places. He dines regularly at a Hollywood Denny's restaurant, arriving at 1pm each day, according to one report. He owns a "classic blue Pontiac GTO". He wears "trademark snug black suits".