1
00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:05,320
Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime is a production of My Heart Radio. Hey Elizabeth, Yes,

2
00:00:05,680 --> 00:00:09,200
Speaker 1: you know what's ridiculous. I'll tell you it's ridiculous. The

3
00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:17,480
Speaker 1: crying laughing emoji? Why is that ridiculous? Ridiculously stupid because

4
00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:20,720
Speaker 1: people use it. I have a lot of strong opinions

5
00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:24,159
Speaker 1: about a lot of things. Fun of them is the

6
00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:28,240
Speaker 1: crying laughing emoji because people use it on stuff that's

7
00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:30,120
Speaker 1: not really that funny. It's kind of you know how

8
00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:32,400
Speaker 1: l O L right laugh out loud? And people aren't

9
00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:34,760
Speaker 1: laughing out loud about that? Wait a minute, they do.

10
00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:37,120
Speaker 1: Like you're telling me that when people write l O

11
00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:38,880
Speaker 1: L to me they did not really laugh out loud,

12
00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:41,440
Speaker 1: Because I did I l O L. I hate. I

13
00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:45,360
Speaker 1: hate to break it to you. Oh my god. I

14
00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,800
Speaker 1: let that harsh reality sink in for a second. But

15
00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:53,280
Speaker 1: when people put l O L, they're doing like the

16
00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:58,960
Speaker 1: close mouth smirk maybe, and then crying laughing is not

17
00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:01,680
Speaker 1: even an l O not even then. Absolutely, they're not

18
00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,160
Speaker 1: making a noise and they're certainly not weeping with laughing. Now,

19
00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:08,640
Speaker 1: where do you place lm AO laughing my ass off?

20
00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:13,280
Speaker 1: Where do they may they may have done the close

21
00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:17,440
Speaker 1: mouth chuckle, what do you think people send if they

22
00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,800
Speaker 1: actually did laugh out loud, they do what I do

23
00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:25,440
Speaker 1: with the H H J J H h h h.

24
00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:27,640
Speaker 1: And then it depends on how many Like if you

25
00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:31,560
Speaker 1: really cracking up running a line or two I looked,

26
00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:34,440
Speaker 1: which is go from H H A to J J

27
00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:38,560
Speaker 1: A J like you made me laughing Spanish, yeah, or

28
00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:44,240
Speaker 1: like T no, well that's that's good. That is fully ridiculous,

29
00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:47,520
Speaker 1: thank you. Now, how about a hinge of history? Okay, okay, Now,

30
00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:49,040
Speaker 1: when I was a hingee history, this is like when

31
00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:51,760
Speaker 1: a door was swinging, not quite to swing shut or

32
00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:54,639
Speaker 1: swing open, it's just swinging, right. But this hinge of history,

33
00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,440
Speaker 1: it was the moment in San Francisco when the spirit

34
00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:00,520
Speaker 1: of the times we switched from the beats to the hippies.

35
00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:02,680
Speaker 1: And how all that came about because of a fight

36
00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:06,680
Speaker 1: between the SFPD and a mime troop. A mime troop, yeah,

37
00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,080
Speaker 1: you know, like don't say anything where funny makeup mime troop.

38
00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:12,440
Speaker 1: So one of the results of their battle was that

39
00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:15,320
Speaker 1: Bill Graham, you know Bill Graham, he learned how to

40
00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:17,400
Speaker 1: promote the bands who were making music in the Bay

41
00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:20,040
Speaker 1: at that time. And you know these bands as the

42
00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,400
Speaker 1: grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, big brother in the Holding Company.

43
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,680
Speaker 1: All of this gets kicked off because of well, now,

44
00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:28,320
Speaker 1: when I say all of this, I mean the Summer

45
00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:31,160
Speaker 1: of Love, the Hippies, the takeover San Francisco by the

46
00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:34,639
Speaker 1: Love Generation, all of the starts because the SFPD got

47
00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:57,720
Speaker 1: in a fight with a mime troop. Wow, this is

48
00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:02,280
Speaker 1: ridiculous crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists

49
00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:07,760
Speaker 1: and cons. It's always murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.

50
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:14,280
Speaker 1: I'm Zan Burnette and you are Elizabeth Dutton. Right now

51
00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,120
Speaker 1: you ready for a story? Miss Elizabeth Dutton? Always Okay,

52
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,600
Speaker 1: before we get deep into this story, you are a

53
00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:27,920
Speaker 1: bay Area native resident, local, fifth generation damn. So you

54
00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:31,040
Speaker 1: are like steeped in the Bay Area sink of it.

55
00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:36,680
Speaker 1: What do you think? Stop stop laughing at the areas

56
00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:39,480
Speaker 1: creative history? Is this is something you're proud of, something

57
00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:41,880
Speaker 1: you'd take for granted. What's your take on it? I'm

58
00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:45,880
Speaker 1: incredibly proud of it. I think that you know create

59
00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,800
Speaker 1: we've produced. And I say we because I had a

60
00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:51,560
Speaker 1: part in it. Yea, all the way back hundreds of years,

61
00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:56,920
Speaker 1: the Bay Area has produced incredible art, literature, music, and

62
00:03:56,960 --> 00:03:58,880
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it is my theory about

63
00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:02,880
Speaker 1: the people who came here and basically booted everybody all

64
00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:07,200
Speaker 1: found um, But the pioneers who came had to be

65
00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:10,600
Speaker 1: kind of nuts, right, pick up steaks and cross the continent,

66
00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:13,960
Speaker 1: across an ocean, across an ocean, across the continent, what

67
00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:17,479
Speaker 1: have you? You gotta be a little nuts. That runs

68
00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,679
Speaker 1: in families. And as someone who comes from a really

69
00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:26,120
Speaker 1: bohemian eccentric family, you know there's a long lineage and

70
00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:28,080
Speaker 1: so you come I I take it all back to

71
00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:30,960
Speaker 1: the bonkers folks who showed up here. So there's a

72
00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,599
Speaker 1: spirit of the place. Yeah, and I think the best,

73
00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:38,279
Speaker 1: most creative, interesting people are nuts. I totally agree. So

74
00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:41,680
Speaker 1: speaking of that will get right into the creative history.

75
00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:43,919
Speaker 1: You also taught English. I think I can ask you

76
00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:47,560
Speaker 1: about this. Alan Ginsburg had a very famous poem, how

77
00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:50,120
Speaker 1: do you did you ever teach that? You know anything

78
00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:53,120
Speaker 1: about it? I've taught it. I also that was one

79
00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:54,719
Speaker 1: of the books when I went off to college. My

80
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:58,840
Speaker 1: grandmother gave me howl and other poems. Oh dope, and

81
00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:02,200
Speaker 1: this is Yeah, she's a badass. Um. This is an

82
00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:04,360
Speaker 1: important piece of literature for you. To have and it's

83
00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:08,520
Speaker 1: actually I really love how but I also it contains

84
00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:11,599
Speaker 1: one of my other one of my favorite poems, back

85
00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:16,080
Speaker 1: of the Real. Yeah, that's a great Ginsburg poem. So

86
00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:19,440
Speaker 1: you're a you're a Gainsburg fan then sure? Yeah, and

87
00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:22,359
Speaker 1: not as using as my normal Yeah, sure, whatever you

88
00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,120
Speaker 1: really are. Okay, So now with how it has as

89
00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:28,480
Speaker 1: you kind of point out the anti authority legacy, do

90
00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:33,720
Speaker 1: you remember the fight over how Oh yeah, the obscenity charges. Yeah, completely,

91
00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:37,279
Speaker 1: and Lawrence ferling Getty gets involved as the publisher, and like,

92
00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:39,760
Speaker 1: do you think of Lawrence Ferlengetti is like, you know,

93
00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:42,359
Speaker 1: as a writer and as an English like professor, do

94
00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:45,159
Speaker 1: you think of it him as like really like a

95
00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:47,080
Speaker 1: high point in American history? Or yeah, where do you

96
00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:50,320
Speaker 1: place Lawrence Spurlengetti and like what he did to protect literature? Oh?

97
00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:52,960
Speaker 1: I think he's absolutely essential in that history that not

98
00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,440
Speaker 1: only for his own works as a poet, but more

99
00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:59,960
Speaker 1: importantly as a champion for for other writers and poets,

100
00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:02,159
Speaker 1: and not just in the Bay Area but all over

101
00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:07,200
Speaker 1: the world marginalized voices or voices that wouldn't normally get

102
00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:09,840
Speaker 1: the megaphone. He handed it over. It was willing to

103
00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:11,680
Speaker 1: put himself on the line for it. I've got good

104
00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:15,159
Speaker 1: news for you. He features in this story. Now, I

105
00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:19,760
Speaker 1: got one last question for you, the Beats. Do you

106
00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:21,400
Speaker 1: are you a fan of the Beats? Yes? Okay? And

107
00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:23,320
Speaker 1: the Hippies? You fan of the hippies? Sure? Do you

108
00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:26,360
Speaker 1: think of them as spiritual cousins? Yeah? Well yeah, I

109
00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:28,760
Speaker 1: think there's ah, I see a connection. I see three

110
00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:31,440
Speaker 1: line that it's this notion of with the Beats, you

111
00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:34,960
Speaker 1: had this disillusionment coming out of World War Two and

112
00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:39,200
Speaker 1: a feeling of not connecting with society at large, and

113
00:06:39,320 --> 00:06:42,800
Speaker 1: also wanting to dare and express oneself in ways that

114
00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:45,560
Speaker 1: felt really natural to the self but not to the society.

115
00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:50,440
Speaker 1: And so thank you and hippies kind of the same thing,

116
00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:54,000
Speaker 1: looking around at this this culture and society that we're

117
00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:57,000
Speaker 1: born into the framework and saying that doesn't really hit

118
00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:00,760
Speaker 1: with how I feel at my core and might be instincts,

119
00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:04,080
Speaker 1: and so I'm going to lean into you know how

120
00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:08,520
Speaker 1: I answering my own call and then growing up and

121
00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:10,320
Speaker 1: rejecting it in the eighties and doing a lot of

122
00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:15,080
Speaker 1: coke and then being a day trader exactly yuppies Hippies

123
00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:18,360
Speaker 1: to YUPPI. Yeah, no, that that's even that's more beautiful

124
00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:19,880
Speaker 1: than I would have put it. I basically just kind

125
00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:22,040
Speaker 1: of focused on the fact that their their goals were

126
00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:26,280
Speaker 1: similar freedom and natural existence and being unshackled from authority,

127
00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:28,800
Speaker 1: and then the constrictions of society and the expectations of

128
00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:31,400
Speaker 1: generations prior to them, whose worlds no longer apply. All

129
00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:34,080
Speaker 1: the stuff that you know, you see, which being regenerated

130
00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:37,680
Speaker 1: generation after generation after generation, the constant fight in cool

131
00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:40,120
Speaker 1: clothes and cool clothes and and kind of smelling a

132
00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:44,080
Speaker 1: little funny, the beats and the hippies. Right between them

133
00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:47,120
Speaker 1: was a couple of major conflagrations, if you will, of culture.

134
00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:49,960
Speaker 1: There was Lenny Bruce getting arrested at the Jazz Workshop

135
00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:54,160
Speaker 1: for obscene language. Do you're a fan of Lenny Bruce? Now?

136
00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:58,400
Speaker 1: After Lenny Bruce, there was the aforementioned San Francisco min

137
00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:03,080
Speaker 1: troupe who fought the CFPD. But before we get into that,

138
00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:06,680
Speaker 1: lets stick with Lenny Bruce for one second. Now, Lenny Bruce,

139
00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:09,360
Speaker 1: Britney even like you know, who was unfamiliar? Are you

140
00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:11,400
Speaker 1: for someone who's unfamiliar with Lenny Bruce? Are you someone

141
00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:13,840
Speaker 1: just familiar? I'm familiar with Lenny. Okay, did you ever

142
00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:17,160
Speaker 1: watch the Bob Fossey movie about him, where Dustin Hoffman

143
00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:19,720
Speaker 1: plays Lenny Bruce. No? I did not. It's amazing. That's

144
00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:21,880
Speaker 1: I think is the best version of Lenny Bruce, even

145
00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:27,920
Speaker 1: better than the real life version. Still, he's really good

146
00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:32,240
Speaker 1: at anyway. You know, I'm not a big Dustin Hoffman fan.

147
00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:37,439
Speaker 1: Oh and it all boils down to years ago. They

148
00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:39,559
Speaker 1: had like an a f I Top one hundred films

149
00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:42,360
Speaker 1: until he was mentioned in that it was like a

150
00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:45,400
Speaker 1: TV special about it, and he was talking about how

151
00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:49,199
Speaker 1: he was really moved by playing Tutsi because TITSI like

152
00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:53,440
Speaker 1: the woman that he was portraying, you know whatever, that

153
00:08:53,559 --> 00:08:57,160
Speaker 1: character it wasn't very attractive. And he looked back at

154
00:08:57,200 --> 00:08:59,520
Speaker 1: his life and thought he was started crying talking about

155
00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:04,200
Speaker 1: all these attractive women that he never gave a shot, right,

156
00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:08,120
Speaker 1: And I was like, you know what, dude. And now

157
00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:11,480
Speaker 1: every time I see him like oh this, oh you

158
00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:15,160
Speaker 1: you Greek god, you Adonis. Jeez, I had never heard

159
00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:18,640
Speaker 1: that one. Well, I may have dreamt it. You do

160
00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:22,800
Speaker 1: have very convincing dreams. So well, setting aside Lenny Bruce

161
00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,199
Speaker 1: and Dustin Hoffman, Now my dude was Lord Buckley, you

162
00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:29,000
Speaker 1: know Lord Buckley, Not really okay, Lord Buckley was this

163
00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:30,800
Speaker 1: dude in like right around that time, but a little

164
00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:33,240
Speaker 1: bit before Lendy Bruce. He wasn't from San Francisco. He

165
00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:36,000
Speaker 1: would wear tucks and tails, and he was like the

166
00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:39,720
Speaker 1: mid century alternative comic. He was my dude. This dude

167
00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:43,600
Speaker 1: was like smoking pot taking lsd way before Timothy Larry.

168
00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:46,040
Speaker 1: He hung out with jazz musicians. He was down with

169
00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:49,720
Speaker 1: Cab Callaway. He was hung out with gold comedians like

170
00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:53,439
Speaker 1: Red Fox, Minnie Pearl. He was the kind of dude like, okay,

171
00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:55,480
Speaker 1: he wouldn't take high culture and low culture and mix

172
00:09:55,559 --> 00:09:57,640
Speaker 1: them way before this was ever cool, and he that

173
00:09:57,679 --> 00:10:00,000
Speaker 1: was just his approach. So if he wanted to reference

174
00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:03,800
Speaker 1: Shakespeare's Mark Anthony line, he'd be like, you know, I'm

175
00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:06,080
Speaker 1: gonna jazz this up. So instead of it being like

176
00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:08,880
Speaker 1: friends romans, countrymen, let me your ears, it's like Himster's

177
00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:11,400
Speaker 1: flips toes and finger pop and Daddy's knocked me your

178
00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:14,440
Speaker 1: lobes right like you know that. You have to remember

179
00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:16,160
Speaker 1: he's the first one to like do some of the

180
00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:19,000
Speaker 1: stuff outside of like the jazz cats in the backstage,

181
00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:20,240
Speaker 1: like He's the first person to go up on the

182
00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:22,319
Speaker 1: stage in front of people and be like, hey, I'm

183
00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:25,080
Speaker 1: gonna do this bit. And he was very earnest about it.

184
00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:26,839
Speaker 1: He was kind of like the eminem of comedy where

185
00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:29,120
Speaker 1: he he had grown up with these people. This is

186
00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:31,360
Speaker 1: not like him like putting on an act. He's like, ah,

187
00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:34,400
Speaker 1: this is my bit, this is my situation, right, But

188
00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:38,440
Speaker 1: the whole time he's anti authority, right. And basically my

189
00:10:38,520 --> 00:10:42,360
Speaker 1: point is is that he inspired Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan

190
00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:44,600
Speaker 1: got really into him and he was like, oh man.

191
00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:47,280
Speaker 1: He even recorded one of Bob Dylan's bits called Black

192
00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:49,960
Speaker 1: Cross because like Lord Buckley was always making front of Jesus,

193
00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:51,600
Speaker 1: I was like one of his big targets, as I said,

194
00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:54,400
Speaker 1: anti authority. And this is in the fifties with sanctimonious right.

195
00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:59,080
Speaker 1: So Arlo Guthrie, another big sixties figure. His his bit

196
00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:03,800
Speaker 1: Houses Restaurant is basically directly inspired. The way he did

197
00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:06,640
Speaker 1: it was inspired by Lord Buckley. So there's a connection

198
00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:09,959
Speaker 1: between Lord Buckley and the antecedents of this hippie generation,

199
00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:13,320
Speaker 1: Harlow Guthrie, Bob Dylan, right. And so my whole point

200
00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:16,320
Speaker 1: is is there was a feeling in the air in

201
00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:19,520
Speaker 1: these places. Lord Buckley was doing it all across the country,

202
00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:22,640
Speaker 1: but in San Francisco in particular, kind of like crystallizes.

203
00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:26,080
Speaker 1: You get these waves, the beats Lenny Bruce and then

204
00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:31,120
Speaker 1: the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Why don't minds make me laugh?

205
00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:34,080
Speaker 1: Just like the idea? Well, they're intent that, that's their

206
00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:35,839
Speaker 1: whole point. But then I don't think you're really laughing

207
00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:39,160
Speaker 1: with them. Now, that's kind of laughing at them. Yeah,

208
00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:42,280
Speaker 1: well you just have to understand. Without them, there be

209
00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:47,440
Speaker 1: no hippies very likely right now. This San Francisco Mime Troupe,

210
00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:50,240
Speaker 1: it was founded in ninety nine by R. G. Davis

211
00:11:50,360 --> 00:11:52,480
Speaker 1: or as we'll be calling him, Ronnie Davis. And now,

212
00:11:52,559 --> 00:11:54,640
Speaker 1: for the first few years they were just doing standard

213
00:11:54,679 --> 00:11:59,200
Speaker 1: mind fair you know, white makeup, either the carnivalesque mass

214
00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:02,760
Speaker 1: or whatever. They had a standard issue Sunday night slot

215
00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:04,600
Speaker 1: at an indoor theater where they do their mind bit.

216
00:12:04,679 --> 00:12:07,080
Speaker 1: But they were so body they were the last act,

217
00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:09,400
Speaker 1: so everyone else got to do their nightclub bits and

218
00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:11,240
Speaker 1: then they're like, bring out the mimes and then we'll

219
00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:14,959
Speaker 1: clear out to place. Right now. R G. Davis, Ronnie

220
00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:18,199
Speaker 1: he liked real broad style comedia del art a kind

221
00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:20,160
Speaker 1: of like, you know, let's make far jokes. It's two

222
00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:22,960
Speaker 1: big facial expressions, the whole bit. And also he mixed

223
00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:25,320
Speaker 1: in political satire because, as I pointed out, that was

224
00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:27,000
Speaker 1: the spirit of the time if you wanted to be

225
00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:31,600
Speaker 1: truly hip, right. So the deal that he got in

226
00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:35,360
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two was with the SF Rex and Parks Department,

227
00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:38,640
Speaker 1: which allowed the mimes to put on performances in San

228
00:12:38,679 --> 00:12:42,040
Speaker 1: Francisco's parks and public spaces. Now you have to remember,

229
00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:45,160
Speaker 1: this is a very different San Francisco. This is, like

230
00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:47,120
Speaker 1: I said, pre hippie. So you have to imagine like

231
00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:50,360
Speaker 1: families in these parks and like a lot of really

232
00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:52,679
Speaker 1: staunched Catholic families in these parks. This was not the

233
00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:54,840
Speaker 1: vibe of like, yeah, let it all hang out. So

234
00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,800
Speaker 1: the deal was the Troop could perform in Washington Square

235
00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:00,200
Speaker 1: Park in North Beach, which is, as you know, right

236
00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:02,880
Speaker 1: across the street from Peter and Paul's Cathedral, which is

237
00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:06,200
Speaker 1: one of the oldest cathedrals in San Francisco. It's in

238
00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:09,280
Speaker 1: the Italian neighborhood. Yeah, exactly, And it is like the

239
00:13:09,320 --> 00:13:12,120
Speaker 1: real like wealthy Catholic Church. It's like you go there

240
00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:14,199
Speaker 1: to act proper and like, oh, well they still they

241
00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:18,240
Speaker 1: do a Latin Mass or something. There's only once a month.

242
00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:19,719
Speaker 1: They don't just do it on Sundays at eleven or

243
00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:22,880
Speaker 1: used to be the High Mass. But yeah, anyway to

244
00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:24,960
Speaker 1: make sure that these mines didn't run a foul of

245
00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:28,240
Speaker 1: like these good Catholics, the that's a wreck in Parks

246
00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:30,040
Speaker 1: Department and be like, hey, can we see what you're

247
00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:32,560
Speaker 1: putting on before? And they're like, oh, of course. And

248
00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:34,800
Speaker 1: so the deal was they chilled in the script. They're like,

249
00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:37,400
Speaker 1: oh now sometimes the wreck in Parks depart maybe like, oh,

250
00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:40,280
Speaker 1: we have a couple of notes, and the mimes were like,

251
00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:44,120
Speaker 1: no notes. But the minds that generally just ignore the notes.

252
00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:47,840
Speaker 1: And this was fine, right until in nineteen sixty five,

253
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,720
Speaker 1: the mind decided to put on a play by the

254
00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:54,959
Speaker 1: Italian philosopher Giordarno Bruno. Do you know Giordano Bruno? Is

255
00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:58,920
Speaker 1: that somebody who comes up the Catholic school, okay, Catholics

256
00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:00,600
Speaker 1: girls school, Like I'm not sure came up. He came

257
00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:04,000
Speaker 1: up in Catholic boys school because he was a heretic. Okay,

258
00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:05,640
Speaker 1: so this dude like, if you don't know, he's a

259
00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:08,920
Speaker 1: sixteenth century Dominican friar. But the dude is like, you know,

260
00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:11,839
Speaker 1: fight against the Church, like straight up Martin Luther style.

261
00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:15,280
Speaker 1: He basically says, like, to the Church, I believe what

262
00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,080
Speaker 1: I believe, which is, I believe in reincarnation, I believe

263
00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:20,960
Speaker 1: in the occult, I believe in alchemy. I'm a mathematician.

264
00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:24,640
Speaker 1: I'm down with cosmological theories that are Copernicus is putting out, which,

265
00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:27,800
Speaker 1: if you know, that's like heretical. So he actually even

266
00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:29,840
Speaker 1: put out the idea that the universe has no center,

267
00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:32,560
Speaker 1: which is what we presently believe. The dude was on it, right.

268
00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:35,440
Speaker 1: So Judanno Brunner is like, look, I don't believe the

269
00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:39,640
Speaker 1: damnation of souls or the Holy Trinity, the idea of transubstantiation,

270
00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:41,800
Speaker 1: which is, you know, is a good Catholic as the

271
00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:43,800
Speaker 1: technical term for we can take the blood and body

272
00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:45,960
Speaker 1: of Christ turn it into bread and wine. He's like,

273
00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:49,320
Speaker 1: that's nonsense, right. So this dude writes a play the

274
00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:52,120
Speaker 1: San Francisco Mime Troops, like that's the one we're gonna

275
00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:54,640
Speaker 1: put on, and that's what we're gonna do to really

276
00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:58,800
Speaker 1: send in the spirit of now, we'll be back after

277
00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:02,160
Speaker 1: these messages and I'll let you know how this chaos ensues.

278
00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:27,000
Speaker 1: I'm loving this. Okay, So your appetite wedded. You wanted

279
00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:34,800
Speaker 1: to learn more about mimes versus cops. It's damp the selling.

280
00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:37,920
Speaker 1: Do you know that in German the word for damp

281
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:40,760
Speaker 1: or moist, which is pretty much the worst word moist

282
00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:43,600
Speaker 1: is almost as bad to the ear in German as

283
00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:49,840
Speaker 1: it is in English. Yeah, it sounds like you're you know, yeah,

284
00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:53,440
Speaker 1: it means moist. Yeah. My German friend his mother used

285
00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:55,480
Speaker 1: like German around the house. I had no all these

286
00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:58,880
Speaker 1: weird expressions and people just ran around yelling moist, no, no,

287
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:00,560
Speaker 1: but that word jumped out. I was like, what is

288
00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:03,520
Speaker 1: that word saying? Because she talked about this would be

289
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:05,480
Speaker 1: like if she picked up socks or whatever from the bathroom,

290
00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:08,800
Speaker 1: She's like, Derek, these are fled and I was like,

291
00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:14,280
Speaker 1: what does that mean? So anyway, remember Mantua, which was like,

292
00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,960
Speaker 1: one doesn't do this very joy, doesn't leave one's moist

293
00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:20,960
Speaker 1: clothing around the house. Not no, not with her, not

294
00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:25,440
Speaker 1: with anybody. Okay, so let's get into the SF mime troupe.

295
00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:29,000
Speaker 1: About to put on a play written by Giadorno Bruno,

296
00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:31,680
Speaker 1: a heretic who gets burned at the stake by the

297
00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:34,880
Speaker 1: Catholic Church. Now keep in mind, at this time the

298
00:16:34,880 --> 00:16:38,800
Speaker 1: majority of the sfp D were Irish Catholics, and it's

299
00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:42,560
Speaker 1: some Italian Catholics as well, So they're gonna just you know,

300
00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:44,720
Speaker 1: let that bubble in your mind as you're hearing what

301
00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:47,600
Speaker 1: I'm about to drop. Okay. So the play that the

302
00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:51,080
Speaker 1: mimes picked was called Il Candeleo, and that means the

303
00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:54,800
Speaker 1: Candlemaker in Italian. Okay. The story was setting Naples. It

304
00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:59,320
Speaker 1: tells the story of this candlemaker and the the real theme,

305
00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:01,720
Speaker 1: though it doesn't mattered the plot. This theme is about

306
00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:04,440
Speaker 1: the power of money to corrupt society, which is, as

307
00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:06,800
Speaker 1: you know, a timeless tale of course, always evergreen. So

308
00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:10,280
Speaker 1: rar Gie Davis, Ronnie Davis, he decides he'll update this

309
00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:12,760
Speaker 1: story for San Francisco in the context of his day.

310
00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:15,280
Speaker 1: So the mime troup decides what's adapt this to the The

311
00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:17,359
Speaker 1: The main characters are rewritten as a gay man and

312
00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:21,320
Speaker 1: a bisexual man who are challenging the idea of courtly love. Right,

313
00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:24,879
Speaker 1: so he says, there's no, no, there's historical precedence for this.

314
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:27,560
Speaker 1: It's not just that I'm doing this because candlemakers and

315
00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:31,560
Speaker 1: an old Italian euphemism for a sodomite. So he's like,

316
00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,520
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, person enjoys butt stuff. So he's like, yeah,

317
00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:36,960
Speaker 1: I think we get that. I mean not like it

318
00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:39,199
Speaker 1: wasn't like, oh sodom and go Morris, sodomite like the

319
00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:42,439
Speaker 1: other kind of sodomite. So anyway, So they make this

320
00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:45,720
Speaker 1: Renaissance era play about this love struck couple. They put

321
00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,240
Speaker 1: on three performances, right, and they're using them. They have

322
00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:52,000
Speaker 1: like these candles to get described as being very phallic.

323
00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:53,720
Speaker 1: I don't really know because I haven't been able to

324
00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:55,199
Speaker 1: find a picture. I don't know if they were like

325
00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:57,200
Speaker 1: melting away or if they just work aver tubular and

326
00:17:57,200 --> 00:17:59,800
Speaker 1: people like, oh it looks like anyway, So they are

327
00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:02,240
Speaker 1: a sensive in the park, a bunch of moms rinning

328
00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:05,679
Speaker 1: around with penis shaped candles, talking about like you know,

329
00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:10,800
Speaker 1: courtly love in a new tradition. And when I say offensive,

330
00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:12,920
Speaker 1: I mean to the Catholics who are sitting in these

331
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:16,200
Speaker 1: parks and trying to be reserve family members. And when

332
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:18,000
Speaker 1: these parks going on, they're like, what's going on with

333
00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:21,520
Speaker 1: the mimes over there. So some complaints come into the

334
00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:23,920
Speaker 1: SF Rexham Park Department and they decided to hold an

335
00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:26,600
Speaker 1: emergency meeting. Right, something has to be done about this

336
00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:31,240
Speaker 1: mime troup corrupting the kids. So the mimes, they have

337
00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:34,159
Speaker 1: nine performances left on their schedule. They were signed up

338
00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:37,399
Speaker 1: for twelve performances, they've done three, and the complaints are

339
00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:39,760
Speaker 1: off the hook. Right, A really quick question, go ahead,

340
00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:43,679
Speaker 1: laid on me their minds. So they're not talking about

341
00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:46,800
Speaker 1: how do you they're they're miming this place. I should

342
00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:50,720
Speaker 1: probably be a little bit forthcoming about this. Apparently these

343
00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:55,760
Speaker 1: mimes talk, oh, because it's the mime tradition that is

344
00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:58,840
Speaker 1: not purely Marcel Marceau the silent mime. It's more of

345
00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:02,119
Speaker 1: the harlequin mime, which is occasionally they can talk, but

346
00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:04,679
Speaker 1: usually it's going to be minimized, so like one character

347
00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:06,520
Speaker 1: the narrated will be talking someone that then they'll be

348
00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:09,800
Speaker 1: miming out stuff. So there is verbage to the play.

349
00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:12,040
Speaker 1: A lot of it is being done silently, but not

350
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:15,760
Speaker 1: just like all stuck in boxes and it's not like yeah,

351
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:18,080
Speaker 1: exactly like trying to break out of glass boxes, hands

352
00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:22,600
Speaker 1: in the air, no okay, because I mean that was well.

353
00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:24,200
Speaker 1: I mean you know that I have all those really

354
00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:29,440
Speaker 1: great celebrity impressions. Yes, yeah, and my Marcel Marceau depression.

355
00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:33,159
Speaker 1: I'll do it right now. It's amazing. How did you

356
00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:36,760
Speaker 1: do that hold on the back? I was like, whoa, Marcel,

357
00:19:37,119 --> 00:19:41,080
Speaker 1: My mome impression is so good, flawless. So yeah. So

358
00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:43,040
Speaker 1: these mimes are sitting in these parks and they're saying

359
00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:45,520
Speaker 1: lines and they're talking, and they're talking about like you know,

360
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:49,520
Speaker 1: love and courtly love and candle making, and the families

361
00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:52,439
Speaker 1: are reacting. So the Rex and Park Department goes, okay,

362
00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:55,960
Speaker 1: emergency meeting. The general manager is this dude named James Lang.

363
00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:59,280
Speaker 1: So James Lang decides that he's going to cancel the

364
00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:02,240
Speaker 1: mime troops amid if he can prove that they're obscene.

365
00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:05,000
Speaker 1: And he says that, you know, he's a little biased.

366
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:09,119
Speaker 1: He says, quoted, the mimes are a vulgar di travesty,

367
00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:12,040
Speaker 1: offensive to adults, and incompatible with the minds of youth

368
00:20:12,119 --> 00:20:14,640
Speaker 1: and children. Now he says all this having seen none

369
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,359
Speaker 1: of their performances. Of course, right, he just knew in

370
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:19,280
Speaker 1: his heart of hearts these mimes are a threat to

371
00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:22,360
Speaker 1: the fabric of society. So the you know, four old

372
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:24,760
Speaker 1: James Lyne is like, but I will have the emergency meeting.

373
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:27,159
Speaker 1: So he goes through the formality of it. So they

374
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:29,720
Speaker 1: have these people come in, the mimes come in. Everyone's

375
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:32,680
Speaker 1: packed in the boardroom like a city council meeting. So

376
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,480
Speaker 1: you know, just planned chaos. Which city council meetings, any

377
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:39,679
Speaker 1: kind of municipal meeting really calls out the best in

378
00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:43,359
Speaker 1: public comments. So you sat through a few of those.

379
00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:49,360
Speaker 1: Yeahs is a speaker. Oh, longtime listener and every time completely.

380
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:52,200
Speaker 1: I used to work in local government and we would

381
00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:54,640
Speaker 1: have these like Tuesday meetings. You put the squad box

382
00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:56,639
Speaker 1: on and listen to people come up with some pretty

383
00:20:56,640 --> 00:21:01,600
Speaker 1: outlandish comments, some interesting theories. Yeah. So Ronnie Davis, the

384
00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:04,240
Speaker 1: mime true founder. He's the one who basically speaks with

385
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:09,119
Speaker 1: the mimes and in a very solemn voice. Right, he

386
00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:11,160
Speaker 1: warned the commissioners of the s F Parks and Rec

387
00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:13,960
Speaker 1: Department rex In Park Department. I don't know why they

388
00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:16,320
Speaker 1: call it rex in Park as opposed to Parks and Rec.

389
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:18,040
Speaker 1: I mean, the TV show got it right. Why are

390
00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:21,480
Speaker 1: you not getting to write it? It's hard to say

391
00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,160
Speaker 1: the mouth is like, I reject because they don't want

392
00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:25,960
Speaker 1: you to just gloss over it. They want you to

393
00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:30,000
Speaker 1: stop and consider what the recreations. The recreation comes first.

394
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:32,440
Speaker 1: You're rushing to get to parks. What about the recreations?

395
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:36,360
Speaker 1: Just about what are you doing? Parks? You recreate anyway.

396
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:38,600
Speaker 1: So Ronnie Davis, he's like, he gets up in his

397
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,960
Speaker 1: solemn voice and he warns the commissioners of the Rex

398
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:44,679
Speaker 1: and Park Department. He says, what you are doing is

399
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:47,840
Speaker 1: a is an attack on mimes First Amendments rights, a

400
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:51,600
Speaker 1: free speech. Now, like, who is anybody to silence minds?

401
00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:55,080
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just my right. Mime's all right, silence,

402
00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:58,800
Speaker 1: don't don't get in our business. Man, my mom my silence.

403
00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:01,360
Speaker 1: Dare you ask me to be silent? I am a mime, sir.

404
00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:05,520
Speaker 1: So this tough argument that Ronnie Davis puts for the

405
00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:10,119
Speaker 1: commissioners are like, bro, really, mimes free speech. You may

406
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:12,560
Speaker 1: want to revisit this one. So they decide we're going

407
00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:14,760
Speaker 1: to revoke the permit just out of hand. They're like, nope,

408
00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:17,520
Speaker 1: it's out. So they banned not only just revoked the

409
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,520
Speaker 1: permit for the remaining nine performances. They banned the s

410
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:22,959
Speaker 1: f mime true from all cities, parks and public spaces.

411
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:24,679
Speaker 1: They're like, if we see you, guys, were sending the

412
00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:28,479
Speaker 1: cops on you, straining order. The mime treue rises up

413
00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:30,680
Speaker 1: out of their seats and protests, and the mimes begin

414
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:34,480
Speaker 1: to sing in one clear voice, we shall overcome. And

415
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:37,920
Speaker 1: they walk out of the boardroom accompanied by flute music.

416
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:46,879
Speaker 1: Because it's you with your minds looking rough. So I

417
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:49,119
Speaker 1: don't know why the moms at the unofficial anthem of

418
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,240
Speaker 1: the Civil Rights would be like their songs, but they

419
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:56,240
Speaker 1: went for They went for a brook, rights took a knee,

420
00:22:56,359 --> 00:23:00,360
Speaker 1: and there can take cloth. So okay. So now we're

421
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:03,399
Speaker 1: for two years before the Summer of Love, right and

422
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:07,080
Speaker 1: the mime troops nobody knows this, you know, but they

423
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:11,000
Speaker 1: are basically hurdling the culture towards this. And it's just

424
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:15,199
Speaker 1: a runaway train headed towards the Summer of love. Right now,

425
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:17,200
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you how we get there. These

426
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:21,240
Speaker 1: mimes as they become street performers, outlaw street performers. Meanwhile,

427
00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:24,080
Speaker 1: across the Bay, we have the free speech movement going

428
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:27,480
Speaker 1: on to UC Berkeley, a real movement, real stuff. Not

429
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:30,439
Speaker 1: it's just a bunch of randy folk in the like

430
00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:32,400
Speaker 1: they won't let us put with our candles, poking each

431
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,679
Speaker 1: other with candles. So your mother went to UC Berkeley.

432
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:39,280
Speaker 1: She's there roughly at this time, so she could have

433
00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 1: been on campus. Did she ever talk to you about

434
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:44,640
Speaker 1: the free speech she was cracking mime schools? She did,

435
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: she was, she was there, she graduated and I was

436
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,720
Speaker 1: sixty seven, I guess, so she clearly is there. Yeah.

437
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:52,080
Speaker 1: So did you ever talk about the free speech movement

438
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:54,159
Speaker 1: and like, you know, like, oh, it's amazing seeing like

439
00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:58,560
Speaker 1: you know whatever. Mario Savio, Yeah, yeah, she has, she'll

440
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:01,240
Speaker 1: she'll she'll tell you all about that stuff. She also

441
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:03,320
Speaker 1: will tell you how she I think she threw a

442
00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:05,879
Speaker 1: brick through the window of Bank of America. One. Yes,

443
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:09,399
Speaker 1: I like this, respecting your mom's yeah. Always. So you

444
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:11,679
Speaker 1: mentioned Mario Savio. He's a personal hero of mine. He

445
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:15,240
Speaker 1: has one of the best speeches ever involved in American

446
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:18,280
Speaker 1: you know, movements or political movement, social movements, however you

447
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 1: want to look at it. It was on December two, uh,

448
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:23,800
Speaker 1: right front a Sprout Hall, you know, Sprout Hall on campus. Yeah,

449
00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 1: it's like the kind of center point and Sprout plazas

450
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:30,640
Speaker 1: where all the speakers would be and on the steps

451
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:33,440
Speaker 1: where all the punks would hang out. My day, yea.

452
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:37,520
Speaker 1: So it's right there in the center. And uh, he

453
00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:40,920
Speaker 1: basically gives this speech, and it's a great speech, so

454
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:44,119
Speaker 1: I'll just quote it. There is a time when the

455
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:47,960
Speaker 1: operation of the machine becomes so odious makes you so

456
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 1: sick at heart that you can't take part, you can't

457
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:53,000
Speaker 1: even passively take part. And you've got to put your

458
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,400
Speaker 1: bodies upon the gears, upon the wheels, upon the levers,

459
00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 1: upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop,

460
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:01,960
Speaker 1: and you've got to indicate to the people who run it,

461
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: to the people who own it, that unless you are free,

462
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:10,400
Speaker 1: the machine will be prevented from working at all. Mario Savio,

463
00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:13,000
Speaker 1: it's beautiful. Right after that, he and eight hundred people

464
00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 1: were arrested. They didn't saying we shall overcome and walk

465
00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:19,439
Speaker 1: out of him world. Anyway, you get the idea they

466
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: were about it. That's what the SF Mime Troop was

467
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:24,800
Speaker 1: kind of hoping to convey, was that level of a

468
00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 1: real spiritus Moondy, a real spiritus of liberation and freedom

469
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 1: and like the human whatever you want to call it

470
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:34,040
Speaker 1: that genes qua about what makes us try and makes

471
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:36,200
Speaker 1: us want to be more that spirit. Right. I don't

472
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:37,919
Speaker 1: like to use liberty and freedom because they've been so

473
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 1: co opted, but that's what we're talking about, and that's

474
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 1: what Mario Savia speaking to, and that's what the mimes

475
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 1: are hoping to, you know, get to. Well. I think

476
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:46,800
Speaker 1: that's part of his thing where he talks about the

477
00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:49,639
Speaker 1: machine versus the people, that we have to appeal to

478
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,639
Speaker 1: our absolute humanity and our needs as human beings and

479
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:55,159
Speaker 1: sacrifice are most valuable thing. Our body is the expression

480
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,879
Speaker 1: of that freedom. Now, the mom since they don't have

481
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,800
Speaker 1: Mario Savio, what they do have on their end is

482
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 1: a secret weapon. Campbell's Billy Graham. Billy Graham. Yeah, not

483
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 1: Billy Graham. I'm sorry, Bill Graham, I said, Billy Graham.

484
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:16,119
Speaker 1: Bill Graham. Right, Let's pretend it was Billy Graham. That

485
00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:18,440
Speaker 1: would be even better him and or all Roberts and

486
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:23,080
Speaker 1: like a tag team helping the mind's out to Oklahoma.

487
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,200
Speaker 1: And then you could say that this is their origin

488
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:27,440
Speaker 1: story that I know they all they began doing their

489
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 1: thing before then, but they were so out of control,

490
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,120
Speaker 1: loose livin and then like you know, something went wrong

491
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 1: and they felt bad. Yeah, yeah, no, now okay that

492
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:43,080
Speaker 1: you've caught my misspeak. Uh. Not Billy Graham the preacher,

493
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:46,679
Speaker 1: but Bill Graham the promoter. Do you you have recollections

494
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:48,639
Speaker 1: of Bill Graham? He's like a bay Air imagined What

495
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:50,119
Speaker 1: do you think of when you first think of Bill Graham?

496
00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 1: Bill Graham presents all the contents. They did Dawn the

497
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 1: Green at the policy, they got the yeah, totally big

498
00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:00,600
Speaker 1: amphitheater down. So out there here they shore line, the

499
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:03,760
Speaker 1: renamed the Bill Graham Amphitheater. Did they shore line to

500
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 1: me forever? Yeh know, it's still called shore line. But

501
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: it's like I don't I don't leave the house and

502
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:09,879
Speaker 1: I don't talk to anyone outside of my I have

503
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: no idea what goes on out there in the world.

504
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: I like that about you. So and for those who

505
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:17,359
Speaker 1: don't know Bill Graham, he was a rock and roll promoter,

506
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:21,200
Speaker 1: and in this case he isn't just like a rock

507
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:23,119
Speaker 1: and roll promoter, Like this is a dude who was

508
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 1: a survivor. He escaped the Nazis in Europe as a child.

509
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 1: He was ten years old. He walked across France. Makes

510
00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 1: it to a boat. It takes a boat to America.

511
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:34,480
Speaker 1: Then in America he's like, I'm going to become famous.

512
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:36,280
Speaker 1: He tries to become an actor. He works in New York,

513
00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:38,520
Speaker 1: he works in l A. None of that works for him.

514
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:40,960
Speaker 1: He ends up in San Francisco, where he ends up

515
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 1: taking a job managing a theater company for mimes. Quite

516
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:49,160
Speaker 1: the life. So when these mimes get in trouble, it's

517
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 1: Bill Graham who comes and says, I got a way

518
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:53,199
Speaker 1: to beat the squares. Oh yeah, and he was a

519
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 1: tough one exactly. This is dude's a survivor. So that

520
00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:57,920
Speaker 1: these mimes were out there singing we shall overcome. In

521
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 1: board meetings, have a real fighter who's gonna show them,

522
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 1: like how to get stuff done. So he's like, you

523
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,560
Speaker 1: know what, we can use the press or advantage, because look,

524
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:10,000
Speaker 1: we got a good story mimes versus cops. Everyone's gonna

525
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 1: be on our side. But we need to make this

526
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 1: more dramatic. We need to go and up the stakes.

527
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 1: So he's like, I'm gonna work the newspaper men. We're

528
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:18,400
Speaker 1: gonna give him a story. We're gonna tell them there's

529
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 1: a big fight coming. So he does what he does

530
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:24,320
Speaker 1: best he starts the hype machine going. He starts papering

531
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:27,520
Speaker 1: the town and leaflets talking about this big event that's

532
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 1: gonna be coming in Lafayette Park and the Pacific Heights.

533
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:33,399
Speaker 1: And then everybody's all primed. So they're going from the

534
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: Italian neighborhood to the fancy neighboroo exactly, the wealthy neighborhood.

535
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:38,280
Speaker 1: And they go, Okay, not only we're gonna show up

536
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 1: there for in a park illegally as outlaw mimes. We're

537
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 1: telling everybody we're coming, so let the cops know we'll

538
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:50,080
Speaker 1: be in the park. He just said high noon exactly.

539
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 1: So after a very short break, I will be back

540
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 1: with the confrontation mimes versus cops, as Bill Grahams present

541
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:24,120
Speaker 1: the tension. Okay, Elizabeth, Now normally I'd say this to

542
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 1: you much earlier, but in this story, I needed to

543
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,400
Speaker 1: set the stage before I got to these magic words.

544
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 1: I want you to picture it. Yes, it's August seven

545
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. You're in a public park. They are

546
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 1: roughly a thousand people there with you. The police are

547
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:46,480
Speaker 1: there too, The commissioner of the SF Wrexham Parks Department

548
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:49,400
Speaker 1: are there, and a few city Luminaries. In fact, there's

549
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 1: Lawrence Ferlingetti, the owner City Lights Bookstore. Now the Beats.

550
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:58,200
Speaker 1: That spirit is there in Lawrence Ferrelengetti. But we're way

551
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,200
Speaker 1: past that now. This is a different type of abandoned

552
00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 1: and a different type of rejection of the norms. Right.

553
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:08,520
Speaker 1: So you're sitting there in this park with the spirit

554
00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 1: of Lenny Bruce in the air, the spirit of the Beats.

555
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:15,320
Speaker 1: It's around two p m. The crowd grows tense with anticipation.

556
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 1: You can feel the shift come as the SF mind

557
00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:22,000
Speaker 1: troop enters the park in direct violation of the STF

558
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 1: Wrexham Park Department's band of them. The cops are there

559
00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:28,520
Speaker 1: to enforce it. The gathered crowd falls to a hush

560
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:30,720
Speaker 1: because their minds. I don't know why, but I'm in

561
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 1: the crowd. Yeah, I did the uncomfortable while everyone's quiet.

562
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. And then I turned and I whispered to

563
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:41,680
Speaker 1: someone like, what what's going on? Here? Are those mimes?

564
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:45,920
Speaker 1: What's the lady stuff? No, No, just a quick question. Mint.

565
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 1: So Ronnie Davis, founder of the Mime Troupe, he is

566
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 1: taking the place of the lead actor because that guy

567
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:54,720
Speaker 1: has some arrest issues. He's like, look, I can't do this, man.

568
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 1: So he's like, yeah, no, he literally does. So he's like,

569
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,400
Speaker 1: I cannot get arrested again. So Ronnie's like, I got you. Boom.

570
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 1: So he pulls on his comed the adult art mask,

571
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:09,840
Speaker 1: and then he addresses the crowd in a grand voice, Senor, Senora,

572
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:17,560
Speaker 1: Senor monsieur, mademoiselle, Ladies and gentlemen, I tropo di memo

573
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:24,120
Speaker 1: de San Francisco presents for your appreciation today, and arrest

574
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:27,840
Speaker 1: and then he leaps, does a pirouette in mid air

575
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,320
Speaker 1: and he lands in the arms of a waiting cop.

576
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 1: The cop immediately arrests him. Now this is like the

577
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 1: end of the I don't know, just the leaping, and

578
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 1: that makes me think of that bott to Get short story.

579
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 1: Harrison Burger. Oh, I don't know that one read it.

580
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 1: But I'm also thinking if I'm in the crowd and

581
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 1: he leaps up and everyone's like all gasping, I'm just

582
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 1: gonna corny. The crowd was a little nicer. They just

583
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:02,280
Speaker 1: begin to boo and gee. The cops they're like, this

584
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 1: is nonsense. The cops take Ronnie Davis, they throw him

585
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 1: in a car. Meanwhile, Lawrence ferling Getty, elegant has always

586
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 1: steps out of the crowd and begins to read the

587
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:14,080
Speaker 1: rest of the production of Il Candelario. So he reads

588
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:17,040
Speaker 1: the Candlemaker Allowed, and the crowds like, oh, this is great.

589
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 1: So just like Bill Graham planned it. The newspaper men

590
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 1: there love it. The mind versus cop fight. They got

591
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:25,760
Speaker 1: Lawrence ferling Getti coming out to read a dirty play.

592
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:30,160
Speaker 1: It's awesome, right, so it's got it all. It's cut mine.

593
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:34,800
Speaker 1: The novelist Herb Gold, I don't know if you know him.

594
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:37,280
Speaker 1: He's a San Francisco native. He was there that day

595
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 1: and he recalled of the cops that quote. At the time,

596
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 1: the police in San Francisco were almost entirely conservative Catholic

597
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 1: iration with a few Italians. There was a lot of

598
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:48,240
Speaker 1: feelings in the old Catholic community that San Francisco was

599
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 1: going to hell because of immoral actions. And the mime

600
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:54,480
Speaker 1: troupe was always radical. For them to take the stage

601
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 1: in a San Francisco park where nice little children could

602
00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:03,200
Speaker 1: run with their nice little dogs offended the establishment. So

603
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 1: the squares have no idea what these mimes have just

604
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:07,800
Speaker 1: about are just about to unleash on them like they

605
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 1: think mimes are bad. Oh brother. So the time the

606
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,600
Speaker 1: mimes business manager Bill Graham, he successfully turns this fight

607
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:18,280
Speaker 1: into a much bigger story. So now they have to

608
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 1: have chronicles writing about it. The community is supporting the mimes.

609
00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:24,479
Speaker 1: People are turning it into a we need to protect

610
00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: the creative arts. This is the First Amendment fight. This

611
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:30,320
Speaker 1: is the government trying to squelch our ability to be

612
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:33,760
Speaker 1: who we are. And Bill grahams like, this is awesome,

613
00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:35,560
Speaker 1: this is perfect. Now we just need to keep this going.

614
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:37,840
Speaker 1: So he's like, let's come up with some money for

615
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:39,800
Speaker 1: your legal fight. We're gonna definitely need a lot of

616
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:41,320
Speaker 1: money to keep this fight going. So he's like a

617
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,480
Speaker 1: benefit show. So he's like, we're gonna do it. So

618
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:45,280
Speaker 1: he's like, this will be the perfect kind of cash

619
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:47,400
Speaker 1: to take care of it. So he's like, we'll just

620
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,320
Speaker 1: get some of these local musicians to uh, you know,

621
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:53,239
Speaker 1: put on a show, charge the kids come in. And

622
00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 1: this is how Bill Graham found Rock and roll. Bill

623
00:33:56,240 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 1: Graham presents Troops, right, yeah, exactly. I had no idea, no,

624
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: I dude, honestly, I was just about to tell you this.

625
00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:06,640
Speaker 1: Do you know who also was a San Francisco local

626
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:10,640
Speaker 1: and a mome Robin Williams, Oh that's right, yeah, right,

627
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:13,919
Speaker 1: spenders and everything. Did you ever see Shakes the Clown? Yes?

628
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 1: Do you remember the mimes versus clowns fight? That's right? Yeah,

629
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:20,320
Speaker 1: Like it's like they're all really anti mime. Yeah. I

630
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:22,760
Speaker 1: was gonna bring that up earlier, but it's just anyway,

631
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 1: like that movie Shakes the Clown. So now back to

632
00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,160
Speaker 1: the Mimes where the city of San Francisco. So, after

633
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:31,719
Speaker 1: their mime Trooper arrest, Bill Graham goes to work to

634
00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:34,160
Speaker 1: raise the money for the legal fight. He's like, okay,

635
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:36,279
Speaker 1: I need to do a benefit show. He's like, I

636
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 1: already got everyone paying attention. So he puts out leaflets

637
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:40,840
Speaker 1: and he's like, okay, I just need to get some ax.

638
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:42,400
Speaker 1: So he goes and he finds a band that just

639
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: started and basically formed three months earlier, and he's like,

640
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:46,719
Speaker 1: will you guys play? And they're like yeah, sure. It's like,

641
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 1: what should I put on the poster? They're like, Jefferson Airplane? WHOA?

642
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 1: So Jefferson Airplane plays the show one of their first shows, right, yeah,

643
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:55,959
Speaker 1: And this is all the support of Mime Troop versus

644
00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 1: the SFPD, so crowd comes, history is made. The benefit

645
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 1: show is not just a success, it is a wild success.

646
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,360
Speaker 1: They make thirty five thousand dollars in today's money, it

647
00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:10,680
Speaker 1: was like three thousand dollars, right, So then Bill Graham's like, oh,

648
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:14,080
Speaker 1: we got something baby, So he then buys a musical venue.

649
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 1: It's like, let's put on a new show. So the

650
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:18,799
Speaker 1: musical venuees have been called the Film War. A lot

651
00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:21,759
Speaker 1: of music history gets made there. So he then puts

652
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:24,400
Speaker 1: on the second benefit show. This one was dubbed the

653
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:27,919
Speaker 1: Appeal for Continued Freedom of the Arts. This time two

654
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 1: thousand people show up. The bands that perform are The

655
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:34,960
Speaker 1: Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother in the Holding Company. Wow,

656
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:38,160
Speaker 1: it's Janie Choplin. R Jannis Choplin. Thank you. Did you

657
00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:42,360
Speaker 1: know that my ancestors built the house that Janis Choplin

658
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:44,359
Speaker 1: eventually lived. I did know that. In fact, I used

659
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:45,920
Speaker 1: to try to tell you that you wouldn't listen. Now

660
00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:50,480
Speaker 1: I was just just resistance. No y crooked builders. No.

661
00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:53,440
Speaker 1: I love that about your family, the stories of them

662
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:56,120
Speaker 1: in the Bay Area just always well on the film?

663
00:35:56,160 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 1: Are you mentioned the film? Are right? My brother Travis,

664
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:02,200
Speaker 1: he played the film more when he was like the

665
00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:05,440
Speaker 1: fourteen or fifteen the band that he was in at

666
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:07,720
Speaker 1: the time they opened for I think it was Rancid.

667
00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:11,239
Speaker 1: And so we walk in and my mom was all

668
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:13,160
Speaker 1: stoked to go. We're like going to sit up in

669
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:15,720
Speaker 1: like the backstage area, and she walks in. She looks around,

670
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:19,439
Speaker 1: She's like, I haven't been here since. Wow. I don't

671
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 1: know when it was, but the last time, when I

672
00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:24,800
Speaker 1: was in my early twenties, I was thrown out of

673
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:28,960
Speaker 1: here for punching a lady. And now, if you know

674
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:33,120
Speaker 1: my mom, she's like, yeah, she's just like this little

675
00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 1: like guru, peaceful, loving compassion. I don't know what someone

676
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:40,880
Speaker 1: did to tick her off, but must not have been

677
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 1: acting right, that's what I hear. Story straighten him right out.

678
00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:45,279
Speaker 1: But yeah, she was like, the last time I was here,

679
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:47,200
Speaker 1: I got thrown out, and now I get to see

680
00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:52,799
Speaker 1: my little baby boy playing circle circle. So yeah, there

681
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 1: you go. The film more that all that history starts

682
00:36:56,239 --> 00:36:59,440
Speaker 1: because of the success of these early Bill Graham presents.

683
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:03,080
Speaker 1: So now I know this is not exactly the Stonewall Riot,

684
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 1: but this is like something right. So this this mime

685
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:07,840
Speaker 1: troup kicks off this like spirit of a fight in

686
00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 1: San Francisco to protect the creative arts. They get the

687
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,080
Speaker 1: all these bands starting to play together, and Bill Graham

688
00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:17,520
Speaker 1: gets like the Summer of Love to start to take

689
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: the stage one year before it actually takes over the

690
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 1: whole city. Well it's like you see that, Well we

691
00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:27,359
Speaker 1: say it's no stonewall riot. It's it's an uprising, not

692
00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:30,160
Speaker 1: just for the First Amendment, but you see that to

693
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:34,040
Speaker 1: kind of what's going against the culture in the city

694
00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:39,040
Speaker 1: at the time, is that conservatism and the religious Yeah,

695
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:42,919
Speaker 1: And as much as I like to goof on how

696
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:48,120
Speaker 1: silly they must have looked, they're they're including people, you know,

697
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:52,759
Speaker 1: and different sexuality. You know that including them into this

698
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:57,240
Speaker 1: public space and public performance. You know, they tell their stories.

699
00:37:57,480 --> 00:37:59,640
Speaker 1: You know, they exist, So how about they get to

700
00:37:59,680 --> 00:38:01,920
Speaker 1: be a part of these stories and make it loosen

701
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 1: it up a bit. And so it's it is, it's

702
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:08,719
Speaker 1: an important thing. Silly, ridiculous is all, you know, But

703
00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:12,000
Speaker 1: it's about that. It's important that human freedom. So October,

704
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 1: Ronnie Davis goes on trial for the obscene actions of

705
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:18,799
Speaker 1: his mind trip. Right. Trial last four days, which means

706
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:22,480
Speaker 1: it concludes on Halloween. That's amazing, perfect, Right, did they

707
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:25,959
Speaker 1: come in costume? Oh no, unfortunately, actually did respect the court?

708
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 1: Did the jury come in costumes? That would be amazing

709
00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:31,680
Speaker 1: in respect for solidary. I always like in offices where

710
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:34,120
Speaker 1: there's like one or two people who commit and come

711
00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:36,880
Speaker 1: in costume on Halloween and other people aren't dressed up.

712
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's my other favorite hot like that. Yeah,

713
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:43,239
Speaker 1: there's like a lady as a late dressed as a ladybug,

714
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:46,000
Speaker 1: and everyone else is just normal clothes. But I like

715
00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,239
Speaker 1: on Halloween when you see someone who's not in the

716
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:52,279
Speaker 1: costume and you tell me, like their costume and they

717
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:54,360
Speaker 1: just have that moment of death. Oh I'm not, but

718
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:58,399
Speaker 1: I'm what must I look like? Yeah? Good stuff. So

719
00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:00,880
Speaker 1: the judge is this dude fits Gerald aims right, and

720
00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:03,840
Speaker 1: he decides this is some nonsense. This whole mimes versus

721
00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:06,879
Speaker 1: SFPD and the SF Rexham Parks Department. So he's like, look,

722
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,600
Speaker 1: the issue comes down to did the SF Rexham Parks

723
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:12,440
Speaker 1: Parks Department have the right to cancel this? And then

724
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:15,000
Speaker 1: they're like, well, actually no, I said yes or no,

725
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 1: And so he basically limits everybody to this one question,

726
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 1: and once that comes down to it, it's like, well,

727
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:23,839
Speaker 1: easy case. Ronnie Davis gets popped for a one year

728
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:27,960
Speaker 1: probation in sixty days suspended sentence. He's immediately convicted because

729
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:30,600
Speaker 1: you know, guiltiest charge in the eyes of Judge James

730
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:35,720
Speaker 1: is not easy easily. It's their right, it's there, it's legal.

731
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:38,799
Speaker 1: Then they across the line they did it boom. So

732
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:43,080
Speaker 1: in response, Ronnie Davis never wont to miss the drama,

733
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,840
Speaker 1: he gets somebody shouts, I don't think the issue of

734
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 1: free speech was considered for my mime fight. This is

735
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 1: like an Iron curtain country because you know, it's the

736
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:55,280
Speaker 1: mid sixties, so they're watching the Soviet Union spread across Europe.

737
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 1: So that's what he compares it to. It's like these

738
00:39:57,239 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: days and people are like, this is the Holocaust. I'm

739
00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:03,279
Speaker 1: not allowed at our bees, you know, so okay. In

740
00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:05,440
Speaker 1: the coverage of the trials and the events leading up

741
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:08,479
Speaker 1: to it, the SF media, so you got like jazz

742
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:10,839
Speaker 1: journalist Richard Gleeson who rights for the Chronicle. They're all

743
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 1: covering this and they're doing such a respectable job that

744
00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:16,960
Speaker 1: the a c l U gets involved because they're connecting

745
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:19,400
Speaker 1: it to the beats. They're connecting to Lenny Bruce's fights.

746
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:21,840
Speaker 1: They see this as one continuous fight A c l

747
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:23,600
Speaker 1: He was like, all right, we pop in there. So

748
00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 1: the Defenders of freedom roll up, we got we got

749
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:27,759
Speaker 1: a lawsuits son. They dropped that, and now all of

750
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:30,520
Speaker 1: a sudden, the City of San Francisco is like, oh no,

751
00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,720
Speaker 1: the a c l U. So the S. F Rexham

752
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:37,560
Speaker 1: part Department they're like, well, we're gonna stone wall them,

753
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:39,120
Speaker 1: and they basically try to like fight the A c

754
00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:42,879
Speaker 1: l U. So the lawsuit drags on. Meanwhile, Old James Lang,

755
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:45,800
Speaker 1: the manager of the Breck S f Rexham Parks Department,

756
00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:47,920
Speaker 1: what does he do to like help things along. He

757
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:51,279
Speaker 1: approves a permit to the American Nazi Party to have

758
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:53,600
Speaker 1: like a rally in a park. So he's did nothing

759
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:57,279
Speaker 1: let mimes gather, but he'll let Nazis gather. And he's like,

760
00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 1: well they have, you know, the rights. He just as

761
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:03,480
Speaker 1: cards on the table exactly. So never a good look

762
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:05,840
Speaker 1: when you're banning minds and allowing Nazis. That's you know,

763
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:09,239
Speaker 1: just on the rule book. There you go. Anyway, the

764
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:11,600
Speaker 1: a c l U keeps pushing. In the nineteen sixty

765
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,359
Speaker 1: six the mimes when their court case against the city

766
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 1: would certainly hope right, yeah, exactly, So they actually makes

767
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,960
Speaker 1: it all way up to California Superior Court. This judge,

768
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:23,399
Speaker 1: Judge Koresh, rules that the S. S. F. Wrexham Parks

769
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:27,520
Speaker 1: Department Commission was not legally allowed to censor the performances

770
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:30,400
Speaker 1: or to determine the content of their performance. So the

771
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:36,400
Speaker 1: mind Troup wins out ultimately on free speech of expression.

772
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,800
Speaker 1: So the ruling leads to d a changing the city's

773
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:43,360
Speaker 1: rules about the use of cities, parks and public spaces,

774
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:46,600
Speaker 1: and which happens to coincide in nineteen sixty six, one

775
00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:49,480
Speaker 1: year before hippies descend and take over the entire city

776
00:41:49,719 --> 00:41:52,480
Speaker 1: and no one has legal apparatus to stop them. So

777
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 1: the mimes fight allows the city to not only have

778
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,080
Speaker 1: a spirit going into the summer love, but actually a

779
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:01,840
Speaker 1: physical legal presence the two fronts. They win, and the

780
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:05,920
Speaker 1: novelist Gold recalled that this was quote it was one

781
00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:08,240
Speaker 1: of the things that opened the door of artistic freedom

782
00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. You could see the mime troops actions

783
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,120
Speaker 1: that day as a hyphen between the beats and the hippies.

784
00:42:14,719 --> 00:42:17,960
Speaker 1: Well said her Gold, that's fantastic. So basically, you know,

785
00:42:18,040 --> 00:42:20,480
Speaker 1: to put a fine point on it. In this grand

786
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:23,239
Speaker 1: fight for human freedom, these mimes took on the SFPD

787
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:25,800
Speaker 1: and set the stage both legally and and in physical

788
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:27,879
Speaker 1: space for the A c l U to help them

789
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:29,840
Speaker 1: clear the way for the Summer of Love to occur.

790
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 1: It's incredible, right, So what's our ridiculous takeaway with this one?

791
00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:41,400
Speaker 1: I think that sometimes things will look ridiculous on the surface.

792
00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:46,839
Speaker 1: Mimes is what I'm talking about. I'm talking mimes basically ridiculous.

793
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:48,759
Speaker 1: I don't want to insult mimes, but I'm going to

794
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 1: insult mins their feature. It's not for everybody memory, you know,

795
00:42:56,080 --> 00:42:58,360
Speaker 1: we have like a classical notion of like that that

796
00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:02,200
Speaker 1: cotton a box rope, right, and like the white face

797
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:05,160
Speaker 1: paint and that kind of stuff, And so that looks

798
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:08,680
Speaker 1: ridiculous on the surface, but the actual mission of it

799
00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:11,640
Speaker 1: to say you have a right to express yourself and

800
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:14,320
Speaker 1: as long as you're not like the performance isn't slitting

801
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:18,960
Speaker 1: the throats of innocence, you know, And all theater ultimately

802
00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:21,560
Speaker 1: is about reifying the human condition and saying that we

803
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:25,040
Speaker 1: matter our lives and what you know, all the stuff

804
00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:26,800
Speaker 1: that the little things, the big things that is the

805
00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:30,719
Speaker 1: human beings. We have a value that is intrinsic and

806
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,239
Speaker 1: it isn't not because of who, what you do, or

807
00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:36,520
Speaker 1: how much you have, but you and your interests are important.

808
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:40,320
Speaker 1: You've you've presented a story here today that is multifaceted

809
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:43,280
Speaker 1: in its use of the word ridiculous. So it's ridiculous, silly,

810
00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 1: it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous, Like this is ridiculous, how incredible

811
00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:49,560
Speaker 1: like this? But a historical thing? Is it sort of

812
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:52,760
Speaker 1: ridiculous that this isn't known by a lot of people?

813
00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:57,280
Speaker 1: Straight up? Your Yeah, it's ridiculous. So my ridiculous takeaway

814
00:43:57,280 --> 00:43:59,600
Speaker 1: for this one is, never go against a mime in

815
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:04,359
Speaker 1: a fight for dignity. The mine will always win. And

816
00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:08,000
Speaker 1: because their idea of dignity is lower than yours, they're

817
00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:15,040
Speaker 1: a mime. I'm sorry mimes. Honestly, I liked my or mimeces,

818
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:16,800
Speaker 1: my maorie, whatever you call it. I don't know. I

819
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:18,920
Speaker 1: would totally do that stuff. I was a clown for you,

820
00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:23,120
Speaker 1: for like, we had a Nutcracker performance with my hometown.

821
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:26,279
Speaker 1: I was a clown. Happily I was a clown in

822
00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 1: the Nutcracker, which you're like, wait a minute, there's no

823
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:31,319
Speaker 1: clowns and the Nutcracker performance there in my hometown, and

824
00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:34,440
Speaker 1: I killed it in for you, Yes exactly, I was.

825
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:40,800
Speaker 1: That's ridiculousous. Well, thanks for joining us. I'm Elizabeth Dutton

826
00:44:41,040 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 1: and little on Me I'm Szaron Burnett. You can find

827
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:47,240
Speaker 1: us online at Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter and Instagram.

828
00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:49,000
Speaker 1: You've got a tip for us about a ridiculous crime

829
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:50,759
Speaker 1: that you'd like to hear about. Do you want to

830
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:53,680
Speaker 1: confess to a ridiculous crime? Hit us up, Email us

831
00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:57,640
Speaker 1: a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Well, thanks for

832
00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:00,000
Speaker 1: having us, and we'll be back next time with another

833
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:04,439
Speaker 1: a ridiculous crime. I'm just miming right now. That's very good.

834
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:13,239
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnett,

835
00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:16,160
Speaker 1: produced and edited by Dave Meet Me Into Jazz Workshop

836
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: Kustin researches by Marissa Brown and The Holding Company. The

837
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:23,960
Speaker 1: theme song is by Thomas Combia, Lee and Travis del Art. Dutton.

838
00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:27,160
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Ben Mime, to See It Bolden and

839
00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:34,920
Speaker 1: No I Didn't Say Nothing Brown. Ridiculous Crime is a

840
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:37,400
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts to my

841
00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:40,480
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the iHeart radio, app, Apple podcasts, or

842
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:42,280
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.