NEWPORT BEACH – Some remember his off-tune versions of classic rock songs, or his high-fives to restaurant servers after they finished a long shift.
Others remember him as a nuisance who fell asleep on their front lawns or was sometimes a little too aggressive in asking them for money.
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Mark David Allen was a fixture in Newport Beach. He grew up there, went to local schools and made the streets his home – all the while battling alcohol addiction so severe he eventually destroyed his short-term memory and spent hundreds of hours in the hospital nursing head injuries.
He was arrested more than 500 times for being drunk in public and suffered from a traumatic brain injury and seizure disorder – medical problems tied to his alcoholism.
The one constant in his life, other than his craving for alcohol, was his relationship with a jailer whose efforts to help turned into a documentary that explored the stark reality of alcohol addiction.
But even that friendship wasn't enough. A Newport Beach police officer found Allen's body at 43rd Street and Seashore Drive – not far from his usual haunts – on Feb. 1. He died at age 50, a cautionary tale about the dangers of alcohol.
His death was not a surprise to those who knew him. What was unexpected was how much his death, and even more so his life, had left an impact.
"If he even helped one person, his life was not lost," said his uncle, Brad Elligood. "Of course it's sad. There was nothing anybody could do."
Newport Beach police custody officer David J. Sperling tried.
After seeing Allen in his jail for nearly the 100th time, Sperling wondered why no one was doing anything for this disoriented, disheveled man.
With his background in psychology and fascination for filmmaking, Sperling decided to find his own solution to Allen's problems.
He asked Allen if he could film him and show him the footage in an attempt to help him clean up.
Allen said yes.
For Sperling, helping Allen became almost an addiction of its own but one with an altruistic motive. He followed Allen for more than a decade and once even flew to Hawaii to find Allen after he was reported missing.
The effort became "Drunk in Public," an entry in the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2006 that has been updated several times. The film has been shown to those battling addiction across the country and internationally.
After Sperling updated his website with news of Allen's death, condolences poured in. He said he's received thousands of emails and messages from people about how Allen's story impacted their lives.
"I was surprised how people responded. ... People really feel connected to him," Sperling said. "People feel bummed out about it because they feel like they know him. ... That's a testament to him."
A FAMILIAR FACE
Allen grew up surfing and with a love for music, especially anything by Queen, Bob Marley, or the Rolling Stones. He attended Newport Harbor High School but never graduated.
Alcohol was a strong presence in Allen's life. He mentioned his childhood experience with the disease often in the years he battled his own addiction.
His step-father was an alcoholic who died from the disease, according to Allen's family.
Allen started drinking at a young age. His mother eventually moved away and remarried after years of dealing with his rebellion.
As a teen, he lived with his grandmother. But she talks in Sperling's film about how difficult it was to keep him in line.
In the mid-80s, he and two friends were in an accident after returning from a trip to Mexico. They had all been drinking and the driver went off a cliff on Pacific Coast Highway.
Allen was the only survivor. He suffered a traumatic brain injury that eventually prompted a seizure disorder that, ironically, was quieted by alcohol, Sperling said.
He moved around Newport to find places to sleep, often in a local park. He hung out by the pier, outside of the Laundromat on 30th Street and the parking lot of Jack in the Box and Circle K on Superior Avenue.
People brought him coffee or breakfast and sometimes walked with him, Sperling recalled.
Angel Holm, a waitress at Mutt Lynch's, remembers Allen singing outside the popular beachfront bar.
"Mark was, for the most part, the most gentle and kind homeless man that I have seen in Newport," she said. "He would approach people very nicely and sing to them or try to talk to them, almost as if to offer them that in return of money."
Mutt's put up a goodbye sign on their marquee after Allen's death.
Holm said a woman came in the bar with tears in her eyes, asking if Allen had passed. The woman was worried someone had hurt him.
"He clearly touched so many people in different ways," she said.
LESSONS LEARNED
Allen was 33 at the start of Sperling's film.
He deteriorated before the camera's lens.
The documentary starts with a man who is obviously drunk but looks relatively healthy. His hair is sun-kissed and his skin tanned.
Over the years his skin turned rough, broken, and raw. He became bloated and was often found bleeding from the head because he had fallen.
His short term memory disintegrated, partly because of the numerous head injuries he suffered and partly because of the constant alcohol haze he kept himself in.
Allen could remember every word to Depeche Mode's "People Are People" but he couldn't remember what day it was.
"He cannot capture a song that came out after (he suffered a head injury)," Sperling said. "They're all stuck there in time."
Allen cheated death several times. In 20 years, he had 200 visits to the emergency room.
He had been hit by cars. He had a seizure in the ocean and his heart stopped but he was resuscitated. He was declared medically brain dead at one point before sitting up in his hospital bed and saying he wanted to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He jumped off the Bay Bridge in an apparent suicide attempt, but survived.
Sperling said it was almost as if Allen continued to live to tell his cautionary tale.
"He had this total aura about him," he said. "There is something about him that is memorable."
He always wanted to stop drinking. He said as much in Sperling's film dozens of time and he was sure he had the strength to do it.
"I have a way, God," he said to the camera.
Over the years, Sperling would find him on the streets in Newport and talk or walk with him. He would feed him and bring him new clothes. He drove him to a rehabilitation center in 2010 when, for a short time, Allen attempted sobriety.
Even in his worst state, Allen would smile and sometimes sing when he saw his jailer and documentarian.
"He's the only person that every time I see him, he's been happy to see me," Sperling said.
Frustration set in over the years as Sperling made several attempts to get Allen help.
Hospital and rehab officials declared Allen was able to take care of himself and released him back into the streets, Sperling said. Sperling estimates more than $500,000 was spent processing Allen over the years.
"They would say, 'he's not bad enough yet'," Sperling said. "He was the ultimate slips-through-the-cracks person."
Sperling last saw Allen on Jan. 5 in the jail.
"It is a little weird thinking he won't be coming in anymore," Sperling said. "I don't think it's quite hit yet."
Sperling said he hopes Allen's story will continue to inspire those affected by addiction for years to come.
"I still feel this film is an 18-year failure to reach my goal," Sperling said. "But I really had to step back. It wasn't about success or failure, it was about significance. This project had become significant."
Contact the writer: 714-796-7953 or jfletcher@ocregister.com
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