New York in the 60's?

Anyone in New York in the 60s? I'm going to be in HAiR, and I'd like to know as much as possible. thanks.

 

I love that musical! Congratulations, I imagine that will be fun~!


And there's the full frontal nudity, too! Whoo Hoo!

 

I wasn't around back then (I'm only sixteen, haha), but I was in a production of HAiR two years ago. I can help you, if you'd like. My screen name is GASPEDtherockett. Drop me a line sometime.

 

Yep. I'm totally stoked. thanks spider, I don't have AOL, but I'll send you a note or something. do you have any good links or books I should read?

 

i was born and raised in greenwich village and went to school there in the 50's and 60's. since you're going to be in "hair"..here's an interesting story that happened to me when i was walking home from school in 1965. i had waist length hair that was very incredibly wild and basically formed it's own country in humid weather. this was way before afros. people used to just stare at my hair as this was the time of ironing your hair straight (using a real iron not the hair iron you think of now) to get it to look like all the english models who were big at the time....jean shrimpton..etc. some guy walked up to me and asked me if i wanted to be a stage prop in a new musical he was doing at the public theater on lafayette street. i thought he was insane of course and tried to ignore him completely. he wanted me to stand in the middle of the stage and do nothing but be onstage for the whole show. he followed me for blocks until i told him i was only 14 (i was already 5' 10'' so he had assumed i was older). i forgot totally about the incident until "hair" opened. then i realized that the guy was michael butler and i had blown my chance to be in the show. of course my parents never would have let me do this at that age... but i was upset i had missed the opportunity anyway.

no one believed this story for years. then once online i found a site that talked about michael butler and how he used to walk around nyc before the show opened and approach people who he thought had amazing hair....

shoulda woulda coulda....at least i got to see the original production 5 times and then 3 more times when it went to broadway (at the wintergarden i think).

have fun doing the show!

 

Wow! :afro:would you mind if I showed your story to my director?

 

not at all. i just got a new scanner (my old one broke) and when i get it hooked up i'll scan a few pages of the original broadway program i've saved for all these years if you want. of course i'll have to find it first. not n easy task in my closets filled with old memorabilia.

 

Wow Thanks! You are a jewel!

 

i forgot to ask you what part you'll be playing in the show. of course whether it's a big or small part, it's such a fun show that you'll have a blast!

i couldn't find the original free broadway playbill easily, but i did find the full color one that i got after the show had been running a few years. here's a page from that one with some of the original broadway cast.according to this program, the show was at the biltmore not the wintergarden.




since it's hard to read here, some of the original actors are L to r:
shelley plimpton, melba moore, steve curry, gerome ragni (co-creator), lynn kellog, lorri davis.

 

That's really cool! it must have been some experience seeing it live around that time. I think it holds just as much relavence today as it did then though. What do you think?

 

it was BEYOND GROUND-BREAKING back then. my mom started taking me to broadway shows when i was a very young kid. i saw the original "my fair lady" with rex harrison, "west side story" (which was also very ground breaking for it's time),"camelot" and shows like that. if you know the music to those shows and then listen to what "hair" sounds like...well it just wasn't done at that time to have basically rock music used on broadway. it was the first time a broadway show featured music that teenagers would buy...and teenagers/people close to our age in the cast! you have to know that even the main parts in "west side story" were played by people in their 20's or older back then. and of course the show itself (forget even the nudity part) was just revolutionary because it wasn't done in a linear way the way most shows were done at the time. the funny thing (or actually really sad part) here is that all these years later we have an another moronic president who has put us into another needless war. the big difference is that back then we were part of a youth movement that had already started to protest the war. this show was there saying to us "you're right...get out there and take a stand". and sadly today i just don't see that same group (people your age) taking the initiative and trying to accomplish this. so yea..i find it totally relevant. as long as there is war/hate/ignorance this show wil be relevant. sadly i don't think this world will ever be free of those things. but we BELIEVED it was possible back then and fought hard for it.

 

Maybe that's the difference between then and now. people belived that it was possible to make change. Although, IMO you DID make a change, people no longer see it that way. they say "It won't make any difference weather I go and picket, or just sit here and watch TV." they make excuses to do just that. I don't know if that's why no one seems to be doing anything, or if they are just scared. I am personally sick of it. peace marces and be-ins were new then, and that's why they were at least somewhat effective. now if someone organises a peacemarch, passerby and news distributors just ignore them. We need to find something that will open people's eyes and piss them off enough to care. we are just way to comfortable.

sorry. I needed to rant.

 

haven't been online in a week or more..but you are 100% right. i have no clue what it will take to get people mad enough to do something. it obviously took a lot less back in the 60's because it amazes me the crap that people today seem to be putting up with from our supposed government.
so RANT on...we need more young people like yourself to get upset and mad enough to organize.

 

Oh deezee, you must be proud of your story! Huh.. Butler was asking you to play in "Hair".That's very cool! Doesn't metter you have played or not. The fact itself is amazing!

I wish I had the original broadway cast show, but I can't find it on torrents. I know "Hair" only from Milosh Forman's movie.

 

I remember going to the 1964/65 Worlds Fair in Flushing, NY.


The fair set a tone of optimism, inclusion and hope that carried through to the rest of The City and beyond. It was an idealistic time

There were a lot of implied promises at The Worlds Fair, many of them materialistic. We were promised by The President that we would have a moon landing and everyone was like Wow!

The Fair gave a boost to modern art and sculpture, also commercialism.

New York City was a much smaller, older and poorer place back then. The skyscraper boom was just starting.

Relics of The Worlds Fairs of 1964 and of 1939 are still there in Flushing, Queens.

Achivement of some of the promises made has lessened interest in public affairs. Today, we are cynical and jaded. We need fresh promises to build enthusiam.



:grouphug:

 

In 1965, the end of World War Two was only 20 years past.


Today, the end of Vietnam War is a little over 30 years ago.

New York in the sixties was about the G I Generation.

 

What do you mean?

 

Meaning that the experience of WWII was close to adults of the time

relative to the Vietnam experience today.

 

oh. ok.

 

I loved the Village.
I moved there in 69 spent the summer of Woodstock hanging in the streets, and stayed till 78 when it was time for a change.
It was an intensive for me, and I grew up fast. My first Lsd tab was there, but I had smoked before. Two of my buddies still live in NYC, one stayed in the Village all that time, and we talk on the phone a few times a year. We talked a lot about the old days but now we talk more about instruments, and of course relationships. It has taken me all that time to know these individuals more deeply, because now we talk from experience, and I guess we examine things more. Anyone living in NY knows that the city makes you feel like you are taking a ride always, and can't stop to smell the smog.