Contactees Unite

To give you an idea of all the stuff swirling about at Williams College, this monograph on Gordon pretty much describes it.

"Gordon, Contactee"

But THIS!  The photo by George Adamski through his 6 inch telescope

That's why Dr. Hopkins selected the Adamski model as his nightly beacon, you see.  AND he had ALL the other FAMOUS contactees come up to Williams College for symposia, and bigger events at the sister building, the Claremont Hotel.

And there's another coinkydink, as I told Dr. Hopkins when I first encountered him (1964) and then again when I moved in and was first introduced to him by name (1969) that I came from .... Claremont.  But he didn't so much as bat an eyelash.

Heidi, who moved in to Sandy Archer's old place, she was okay because she came from the San Diego region (where Adamski first was contacted), and she could talk about going to the Elfin Forest (where the Units of Understanding would occasionally meet for great conferences in the San Diego region) even though she went there on hikes as a kid.  It didn't matter.  So it was ok for HER to take over Sandy Archer's residence.  It's all very very simple if you get an understanding of Dr. John W. Hopkins.

The Berkeley Unit of Understanding was still in operation so I went to those meetings (as did all of the renters on the estate) and so we were part of the unit and also some of us were described by Dr. Hopkins to the city fathers as "students" of Williams College (to get around rental matters ... especially after the complaints from Margaret Bontham, high up if not actually President of Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco and leader if not President of the San Antonio Road Homeowners Association.  She was the one excited about the feathers.  Dr. Hippocrates actually took classes from Dr. Hopkins, and once wrote a prescription for painkillers for him when he was sick and because Dr. Hip was Dr. Timothy Leary's personal physician, I understand Gene was soon questioned by authorities about this particular script.

Los Olivos

While Peter Coyote Cohon still mouths off as the spokesman for all things counterculture and because of his bloated ego which has just grown larger over the years and because of the way the media has fallen in love with him he is likely regarded as the originator and leader of all things doing to Mime Troupe ...

Well, he ain't ... and I am here to tell you that ain't so. 

Darryl Henriques was the instigator for the selection of the first play for El Teatro Campasino ... and Darryl got that from a little ad I had cut out from the Claremont Courier that was for the play "Los Olivos".  Darryl went to the play at Padua Hills and spoke with every one there and developed the first information.

That it grew from there, I will not deny.  But I'm proud to say that I had a small hand in the creation of that famous part of the REAL HIDDEN AND NOW OBSCURED HISTORY of the early origins of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.  They'll never hear anything about this in San Francisco, I'll wager.

GRAPE STRIKE PUPPET SHOW (LOS OLIVOS)

For the grape strike puppet show, the little puppet on the right held a big coin while the puppet on the left watched and rubbed his head ... Then the puppet on the right bobbed down and popped right back up holding a small hand of thompson seedless grapes.

At first, the puppet on the left would rub his tummy in a circular motio (yum might taste good!) but then!  the moment of awareness!  The puppet on the left would draw back in horror, and hold his hands to his head and fall over in disbelief, then turn to the crowd and rub his hands together like "Mickey Moose!  (very bad!!)

During Larry Leon's time as owner of what always was known as the Springfield estate (which during my time of residence there, as students, we always referred to as "Williams College"), during his improvement phase decided to tear down the rickety old "Gymnasium".  Which had a wall of mirrors for the dancers, old wall hung coat racks that would hold mufflers, umbrellas, and canes, and a large and exquisite wood floor that was always waxed with a special wax so as not to harm the dancers' feet.  I lived for several years (1969-1971?) in the basement room under what was then the ballet studio.  I took this photo in 1970.

Peter tended to handle narratives to the crowds because he was naturally endowed with a good speaking voice that drew people in to the story.  (And he liked hearing the sound of his own voice.)  He was naturally charismatic.  He had a good appearance.  The people would see him standing up front in performances talking to them, and as he was up front talking to THEM, he seemed like the star of the show (and this was the result of the way media had trained people, they'd tune in on the lead singer, the public speaker, the starring actor on the screen, the one who was paid the most was the one to be paid attention to, and they'd kind of gloss over the supporting cast or be unable to recognize this was an ensemble piece they were enjoying so much and all the actors and all the scripts went into the mix.  And in responding to that public trend, movie and tv scripts were written to show and point people to the star, who generally uttered platitudes, to my way of thinking.  The audience many times, because of their own shaping by their response to media, was just not overall sophisticated enough to really understand the puppet shows, but because of the way they were presented, just as they had been to the common peasants of the 14th century who were similarly "unlettered", people understood and responded to them just as the crowds did six centuries prior.  You see, commedia dell arte was still valid as an artform, and may be for quite some time into the future, as well.

CENSORSHIP PUPPET SHOW

At various points during the CENSORSHIP puppet show, these things happened:

The puppet on the left would move his small arms and

1. put his hands over his ears
2. put his hands over his eyes
3. put his hands over his mouth

While the puppet on the right would act out various portions of 14th century commedia del arte complete with small props

With the EYES, the puppet on the right had a small commedia del arte mask held on a stick in front of his face, while another hand came up behind the puppet's hand to stick a small stick into the puppets hand (held with a light tan velcro sewed as the puppets "paw" ... and on that stick would be a huge horn that commedia del arte actors had used to suggest a large penis, a sight that outraged the bourgeoisie and they'd go into legal battle and suppression of those troupes, too, to drive them out of existence.

The puppet on the left would pull back in shock, turn and ball up, and shiver, then rise up again in outrage.

 
When the point was made about CENSORSHIP, which was at the end,
another puppet would come up in the middle

the puppets would all move into position to imitate the three monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) which was a way of empowering the audience to remind them how to behave, as well.

I'd see the guerilla portion of the theater here and there at major demonstrations I happened to swirl within.  That's why I can tell you of the evolution of the soldier's mechanical arm, as the years of performances stretched out.

But .... first Sandy was gone, then (oh and in between I was kicked off the stairs and I was a nobody) then Ronnie, then Darryl .... well nobody was left really who was in the initial groove.  So I would follow Darryl's spin off the East Bay Sharks, his crankies, and his shows for Chinese people in parks at the edge of San Francisco Chinatown (when the doors of China were about to be pried apart).

All that darting around across the country to race ahead of Dow Chemical recruiters, that was Ronnie and Sandy, I felt.  And Peter was merely another horse in the harness pulling.

Although Peter did go to speak with Dalton Trumbo after word came up from Los Angeles that he was writing the script from the new English translation (1968), the script and movie were based on Dalton's imagination, a fictional portion, as it turned out, something that had never happened, and so not mentioned in the book ... he took artistic liberty with that, probably because the real story was so difficult to wrap your head around) ... I mean, I'd already read that excerpt and had discussed it with my friends, and I was already wearing my French prisoner's denim shirt everywhere I went in Berkeley at the time .. and even to performances of the Mime Troupe, because it just seemed suitable somehow.  I didn't have time to go off on these events because I was studying at the university, which was very important to me, and I needed to save my juice for that.  That plus working any and all odd jobs to get by ... usually manual labor, like weeding and raking, cleaning and painting places, trimming rose bushes (very badly I might add).  Not too many of those jobs were for actual homeowners who lived in their homes, but rather landlords (who seemed exceptionally wealthy to me, to buy Berkeley properties on investment to rent to students and so make even more money).  In 1968, I maintained an interest in community activities, and walked in to the Berkeley Co-op on University to see if I could lend a hand on the board, and at the board meeting I was the only person who'd showed up!  They were all busy elsewhere.  And I realize now, I could have effectively taken that place over, but all I wanted was a j-o-b.