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15 of 15 persons found the following review helpful.
An Absolute “Must Read” for any Woodstock fan
By Roger P. Orcutt
This is a fantastically amusive and true story of the life of THE Father of Woodstock, Elliot Tiber. It is also unfeigned that, “Success has a thousand Fathers, while Failure is an Orphan”. There is more than one self-proclaimed “Father of Woodstock” out there, but Elliot Tiber is the real deal. Elliot is not ONLY the one who introduced Woodstock Venture’s Mike Lang to Max Yasgur in the 11th hour to provide the site, after the original web site had to be abandoned, but evenly critical to the Festival, he also provided the permit for same! This is why he is also referred to as the Woodstock Messiah.
The timing could not have been better as Elliot was keeping his parent’s engaged in a struggle tourist hotel together with “bubble gum and rubber bands” so to speak, when Mike Lang literally, not figuratively, descended from the sky in a helicopter to save the day with bags of John Robert’s money, again, in a literal sense not figuratively. A fairy tale come true.
My only caution would be chapter 3, which could be considered optional as it describes perchance a little more than we actually need to know when it comes to his “coming of age” as a gay man. However, for uninhibited humans like myself, with no hangups when it comes to dissimilar strokes for dissimilar folks, it was evenly entertaining. In chapter 5, Elliot describes how he was likewise present for another piece of history, the widely known and esteemed Stonewall Rebellion that gave birth to the Gay Liberation Movement in June of 1969.
You will have a hard time putting this book down once you commence to read it, so get started out when you have a great deal of time to spend enjoying this hilarious, unfeigned story of how the Woodstock Festival, that “defined a generation”, came to be. This is the most agreeably diverting AND informative book I have ever read on any subject. Roger P. Orcutt, Ph.D. (Microbiology).
12 of 12 persons found the following review helpful.
“It takes a village …” and a half million persons …
By Bob Lind
The above would be an suitable subtitle for this heartfelt but energetic and witty coming-of-age autobiography/memoir by Elliot Tiber, whose main assert to fame is that he fought the petty politics and narrow-mindedness of his little town of Bethel, NY, in order to make possible the Woodstock Festival in 1969.
The author (born Eliyahu Teichberg) grew up in the richly ethnic neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in an emotionally-starved but hardworking family with his Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. His father worked as a roofer, while his mother ran a housewares store in which they all helped out. Elliot finished college and begun a moderately successful career in art design, mainly starting out dressing store windows and painting murals for rich Manhattanites. A trip to the Catskills resulted in the family buying a run-down motel right off Highway 17B at White Lake, in the town of Bethel NY, and Elliot found himself splitting his time, working weekdays in NYC and spending weekends doing whatsoever had to be done to keep the motel operational and hardly financially afloat.
At the same time, Elliot came to the realization that he was gay, and – for whatsoever reason – favored the underground S&M flavored scene that existed in NYC in the mid 1960′s. He met and partied with Robert Mapplethorpe, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and even encountered Rock Hudson at one point. Of course, coming out to his conservative parents wasn’t an option for him at the time, but his “secret life” for the duration of the week more or less served to make bearable the weekends at the motel, scrubbing toilets and dealing with client complaints (The Teichbergs cut a few corners in client service. For example, they had phones in each room, but they weren’t connected to anything. The TV was an empty box, as was the air conditioner sleeve beneath the window. Need soap and a towel? It’ll cost ya extra, but you’re lucky you made it in today, since Dad has hosed off your sheets – the only cleaning they ever got – just yesterday.)
In early 1969, Elliot read with interest the news accounts that the promoters of the planned Woodstock Music and Art Festival had been refused a permit by the town of Walkill, their planned location. As president (nobody else wanted the job) of Bethel’s Chamber of Commerce, he had the authority to issue festival permits, and contacted the promoters when it comes to the possibleness of moving the festival to Bethel, and offered the meadow of a friend, dairy farmer Max Yasgur, as the perfective venue. Much of the book details the whirlwind events that followed, as the festival took on a life of it is own, at long last attracting around 500,000 humans to the little town, resulting in threats by locals, payoffs to those who opposed it, nudity, drugs, gangsters, persons bathing in the lake, shortages of feed and water, but – in spite of it all – the most historic event in music and counterculture history, after which not one thing would ever be the same again for Elliot and his family.
The author has a gift in telling a story, even one as evidently self-centered as this one is, for the most part. Witty and engaging, sure to fetch back memories of that era. Looking forward to the movie based on the book. A full 5 blacklight-glowing stars out of 5!
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
A outstanding read – can’t wait to see the movie!
By Anthony E. Pomes
This new paperback edition of Elliot Tiber’s “stranger than fiction” essay has a new Dedication in the front and features a good deal of very cool “Things I Kinda Remember from 1969″ factoids (care of the author) in the French-folds of the front and back cover. I’m actually excessively affected emotionally to see the film that Ang Lee made from this film, and I’m going to read this book again before I go see the movie in August. Woodstock Nation, our Freak Flags are again waving – hang ‘em high so everyone may see us!!!
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