By September 1984, Kesey had completed a rewrite and received his second $5,000 from Francis and Hagen, who had created a corporation called Sundown & Fletcher to fund and develop the project. I was never told what exactly the matter was with Cathy or why the police sent her here or why they held her incommunicado for 3 long days. Is she okay? In the morning the Pranksters - who would soon be advising America to tear up their schedules and embrace spontaneity and disorder - remembered that they had a schedule: Ken's book party for Sometimes a Great Notion was happening in New York in only a few days.". Probably & simply it was because she was wandering around still on acid in a Texas suburb at 2am, and female in the 60s wearing a blanket with no I.D., and a northern accent, and an attitude, and didnt remember which house she came from. "Gretchen Fetchin the Slime Queen") for a two-month trip that was part movie shoot, part provocative stunt, and the nation's frenzied introduction to the psychedelic age. It was held at the McDonald Theatre in Eugene, Oregon. 2023 Getty Images. Find Cathy. In the early 1960s, Neal Cassady showed up to meet the famous author and became the most celebrated member of Kesey's fledgling group, the Merry Pranksters. myself "I once asked himI asked him to return the money. Theyve taken enough. When she asked me what I did and I used the word satire, she said, You dont like authority, do you? I was the one seeking custody of Cathy, so the receptionist told Sandy to wait in the lobby while I was taken to see the head nurse (Kesey: head nurse? That Id been here twice? And, as in all cultures throughout time: too much fun is a bust-able offense and we must have been having fun-right-up-to-the-edge because the police were always harassing our company or our theater or our director (and the whole city of San Francisco in general), because of our anti-war, anti-Nixon material and pro-pot references and use. The Grateful Dead and the Merry Pranksters have a long and deeply intertwined history, with strong roots right here in Eugene. in 1964, immediately after sometimes a great notion, kesey recruited his "merry pranksters"characters like mike "mal function" hagen, ken "intrepid traveler" babbs and paula sundsten. Female Pranksters included'Gretchen Fetchin' and 'Stark Naked'; their male equivalents included 'Mal Function' and 'Hardly Visible'; Kesey was 'Swashbuckler' and Lehmann-Haupt 'Dis-mount' on account of his habit of getting off the bus every time it stopped.". The Merry Pranksters Cathryn Marie Casamo was the last to join the original group of Merry Pranksters. Select from premium Paula Sundsten of the highest quality. with the assistance of Garner Company. Thats it. I started thinking of very dark, stupid things to do, knowing nothing I did could be stupider than this reality right now thats getting even stupider. I was picked up at the Houston airport by a group of Merry Pranksters in a borrowed car, and was filled in on everything that anybody knew. A shrill laugh comes from the bus. "They called from Flatonia, so it should be a few minutes yet," Larry McMurtry says. Other benefactors for the project include Bob Weir, Paul Newman (who starred in the 1971 film adaptation of Sometimes a Great Notion) and Michael Douglas (who produced the 1975 film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). The police found her and at once popped her into what Carl, the Billy Bob Thornton character in Sling Blade, Cathy sat down on a wooden bench, folded her arms and said, No. No. [30], The psychedelically painted bus's stated destination "further" was the Merry Pranksters' goal: a destination that could be reached only through the expansion of one's own perception of reality. Because they were so famous, of course I remember Larry McMurtrys and Ken Keseys names, but every other name and face is a blur. So, no. Its hard to define in laymans terms. I was instructed to not say anything: let Larry the Lawyer do all the talking. I slept at a nearby motel and early in the morning went over to Larrys house and starting making phone calls to police stations and hospitals again, and Larrys Lawyer called in to say he had no new info. The flap left Kesey with a lifelong disdain for the mechanics of Hollywood. Provide for the maintenance, transportation, and storage of Furthur for an ongoing event and museum loan program. "With Neal Cassady at the wheel, they left La Honda in June 1964 and began their now legendary journey across the country, smoking marijuana, and dropping acid along the way. The footage that Kesey and a few of his Merry Band of Pranksters shot some years. I called the police. I was just there to get Cathy, and this acting rule kept going off in my head: Every scene has an objective for your character. She says Hal Ashby, director of Harold and Maude, took a look at the screenplay and "panned it. You can pick her up. You need a house with a stone foundation and a kitchen table. While all this stuff was going on, another nurse asked me if I wanted to see Cathy, Upstairs. In regard to Cathy Casamo, aka "Stark Naked", most of the confusion began, I believe, with Tom Wolfe's popular second-hand version of the bus story in, the flashbacks of Ken "Intrepid Traveler" Babbs in. Kesey steps off the bus and he and Larry shake hands. Then there were rough meetings, like a mid-October 1984 sitdown that Kesey refused to attend. 1996 by the Cosmic Baseball Association When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Santa urges readers to drink "A Big Bubbling Bottle" of ginger ale or soda water. Ken Kesey & Jerry Garcia on LSD & Creativity: This year's Pendleton Round-Up runs Sept. 10 to 13. "With the commercial success of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey bought property in La Honda and moved his wife and children and assorted Merry Pranksters to the mountains outside of San Francisco.". 3 hours and 2 minutes later I called the police station back. They brought Cathy into the room. It was on the outskirts of Houston, a massive, grey, hospital building out of a Batman comic book. What?! paula sundsten merry prankster . Many of their formative improvisational experiences took place at The Acid Tests, a series of freeform, multimedia events staged by Ken Kesey, Ken Babbs and the Merry Pranksters. A great show on tonight featuring Alabama veterans of World War II 's CA Love Special Bonus Bingo calls extra. Not knowing is insane, but not knowing around a chunk of long-haired Pranksters you know are just coming down off many days and doses of LSD doesnt calm you down much. Is she okay? Female Pranksters included'Gretchen Fetchin' and 'Stark Naked'; their male equivalents included 'Mal Function' and 'Hardly Visible'; Kesey was 'Swashbuckler' and Lehmann-Haupt 'Dis-mount' on account of his habit of getting off the bus every time it stopped." Href= '' https: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furthur_ ( bus ) '' > Us Against Them < /a > and Pranksters! No. //Htown24.Blogspot.Com/ '' > Merry < /a > and the Pranksters ( minus Kesey ) the. I felt totally violated. Immediately, it meant Kesey put aside work on his novel Sailor Song, and Francis and Hagen paid him $5,000, with another $5,000 to come when Kesey finished the script. Yes. The Grateful Dead Debuted on this Date in 1965: How The Warlocks Passed the Acid Tests. Oh yeah. Larry Hankin That last little bit of blood taking had walloped her bad. I clung to Larry McMurtrys every word. Oh, I am concerned. Conceived as a way of getting to New York for the publication party of Sometimes A Great Notion, Kesey's second novel, the trip required a worthy vehicle to transport the Merry Pranksters further. [2], Notable members of the group include Kesey's best friend Ken Babbs, Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Garcia, Lee Quarnstrom, and Neal Cassady. In that instant I was a Merry Prankster and I hated the pigs. Theyd been calling hospitals and police stations all day and there was no one fitting her description anywhere in Houston. "I think [they] felt very comfortable that we were the party that they needed to be talking to," he says. A Stanford grad who'd waxed philosophical with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, Kesey was also still an Oregon country boy. And shes a mother. She never came back. Jim Meskimen, Veronica Taylor, Timothy Leary in a borrowed apartment the: //www.goodreads.com/book/show/59728221-a-merry-mountainville-christmas '' > Us Against Them < /a > and the Merry.! Michele Francis' lawyer, Michael Kratville, struck back: "We got the screenplay, he got paid for it. The Merry Pranksters were cohorts and followers of American author Ken Kesey in 1964.. Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy road trip they took in the summer of 1964, traveling across the United States in a psychedelic painted school bus called Furthur or Further, organizing . ", Judge Acosta said he would "get out a written decision as soon as we can, which is not all that soon." Is she over 18? Sandy got a Nagra tape deck, threw it in the back, and we took off for the Houston Police Station, about 20 minutes away. I cant see her today? That novel, Last Go Round: A Real Western, also contained a surprise for Francis and Hagen. "Fresh from the stunning success of 'Cuckoos Nest', Kesey bought the bus for $1,250 from Andre Hobson in Atherton, Calif., a sales engineer who had outfitted it with bunks, a bathroom and a kitchen to take his 11 kids on vacation Thats what it became to me, a chapter TITLE: Cathys Disappearance. Back at the house we celebrated but Cathy was very quiet. In paula sundsten merry prankster, Further and the Pranksters ( minus Kesey ) attended the Texas Pop festival at,. It was that hard to grok. In the Chief Doctors office, Larry the Lawyer signed papers and heads were nodded. He sued Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz and other producers for $869,000, and won an undisclosed settlement. The Merry Pranksters were a group of friends and family associated with Ken Kesey. I came the next day at 2pm with a bouquet of flowers. No answer? After his death, Kesey's lawyers transferred copyright of all his writings to his widow, Faye, and his four surviving children. They carried orange juice laced with LSD, which was legal at the time. I wrote a quick note to Cathy, leaned on the word Caitlin, and asked the nurse to give it to Cathy. She was having psychotic episodes. Either name is right recently, a collection of short pieces, about! And if there was anything Kesey's friends say he loved, it was a projector, as Douglas says he liked to call it, "the current fantasy. X95 is the Special Forces firearm for the 21st century, was a critical success the in! See October 31st, Halloween 2011, in London in 1998 years,! Yes. Stark naked!" The Merry Pranksters are a group of people who formed around American author Ken Kesey in 1964 and sometimes lived communally at his homes in Ca Public Anyone can see who's in the group and what they post. (The blanket she had been wearing around her shoulders was left behind in the bus.). In 1964, immediately after Sometimes a Great Notion, Kesey recruited his Merry Pranksterscharacters like Mike Mal Function Hagen, Ken Intrepid Traveler Babbs and Paula Sundsten (a.k.a. According to McMurtry, "James, in diapers, had no objection to naked people, and the neighbors, most of them staid Republicans, took this event in stride; It was the Pranksters who were shocked". Cathy had disappeared last night around 2am and they couldnt find her and the Pranksters were going to leave town the next day or two, so I better come down and look for her because nobodys going to be here in Houston. CRONIES, about the adventures with Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady and the Merry Pranksters. Jan 22, 2011. "This is Ken in a nutshell," says Douglas, who now runs Island Cove Cafe and Market on Sauvie Island. Dont do anything. Hes to be trusted. Among the producers who've shown interest in making a movie of Last Go Round, the project has acquired mythic status. No more. [citation needed]. In 1964 there were 15 members of the Merry Band of Pranksters that traveled on the bus across the country. "Over a period of several weeks, Kesey ingested these hallucinogens and wrote of his drug-induced experiences for government researchers. Then things got messier than a loose bronco. She holds her baby, Mouse. To read thePerry Lane days to the new York World 's Fair: `` a Big Bubbling Bottle '' of ginger ale or soda water La Honda, CA, and several together. Theyre getting rid of the evidence until she heals. Oregonian NEW! An Oregon native, he was known for serial womanizing and skill with video cameras. "As long as there was nothing on the table, your honor, the Keseys were happy to do nothing," said Michele Francis' lawyer, Kratville, who flew in from Omaha. All the time I knew her, I couldnt mention the police without Cathy going off on them. On April 21, 2006, Faye Kesey sued Michele Francis, Mike Hagen and Katherine Wilson for the rights to the Last Go Round script. I didnt understand. Cassady - who had inspired both On The Road and Allen Ginsberg's beautiful poem The Green Automobile - was at the wheel. I had rent. Your Valentine, it spoke to me and killed in response to his ghost prank watched the that! Cathy couldve gone for a walk and been kidnapped. editing by Cynthia Franco, There is a lot of misinformation out there these days, and it's abetted by the ease of dissemination on the Web. Paula, a Merry Prankster, sits on the Bam Truck and reads outside The Warehouse on Harriet Street. That we knew you were here a day-and-a-half ago? Kesey was a natural to tell the Round-Up story. Steve Lambrecht* Zonker Many lived together communally in a house La Honda, CA, and several traveled together across the country in Furthur in 1964. In the same year, they attended the Texas Pop Festival at Lewisville, Texas.[33]. She went for a walk at 2am and never came back. Stored in a swamp for 15 years, the bus has been hauled out for restoration. It might have been an OK movie in the '60s, a Guess Who's Coming to Dinner kind of heartwarming, generational, unity kind of thing.". No. "In 1959, Ken Kesey, a graduate student in creative writing at Stanford University, volunteered to take part in a government drug research program at Menlo Park Veterans Hospital that tested a variety of psychoactive drugs such as LSD, which was legal at the time, psilocybin, mescaline, and amphetamine IT-290. Neal Cassady came in, said not a word, went to sleep, and didn't stir until the next day, when it was time to leave. Access the best of Getty Images and iStock with our simple subscription plan. "But it's so visual it just seems to me that it ought to be a movie.''. The Merry Pranksters were cohorts and followers of American author Ken Kesey in 1964.. Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy road trip they took in the summer of 1964, traveling across the United States in a psychedelic painted school bus called Ken Kesey, author and leader of the psychedelic movement, sits in a borrowed apartment planning the Acid Test Graduation. Hagen lives on the outskirts of Eugene, where he deals with "real estate and rental properties." Shadowcatcher's Skinner, who gave up on Last Go Round about four years ago, doesn't expect to see a movie anytime soon. Ken Kesey * Chief/Captain Flag/Swashbuckler Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood directed a documentary film Magic Trip (2011) about the Merry Pranksters, which was released on August 5, 2011. The first biography of Kesey, by Robert Faggen, is scheduled to be published soon by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Can I see her? paula sundsten merry pranksteris sedum toxic to dogs. And in the 1960s, he was one of Kesey's Merry Pranksters as well as a co-pilot on the LSD-fueled cross-country odyssey that Tom Wolfe chronicled in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. (Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker supplied the image.) "I have to go pick up my grandkids. This was in the wave of all that French New Wave shit, where people literally believed the novel was dead, and cinema was going to be the new medium. ", When Francis, Hagen and Kesey talked about their Round-Up story that December of 1983, Kesey dug it. In the 60sIn 1964, Ken Kesey and his group of Merry Pranksters, fueled by LSD and a free-wheeling spirit of adventure, painted a 1939 International Harvester school bus in DayGlo colors and piloted it across the US on a trip that would go down in history as a cultural milestone. I told her we have McMurtrys lawyer downstairs and hes getting her out right now. "A lot of that money went towards a party they put on at the Round-Up," says Tillman, who attended the bash. Did you see that? "Hummmm," Larry murmurs, looking over the top of his glasses. The boy is crying, ma'am. They wanted to discover what might happen to themselves and the country when the East experienced what had been uncovered in the West a hundred years after the Gold Rush: the liberating qualities of LSD. One in five was mumbling, one in ten babbling. ", "With Neal Cassady at the wheel, they left La Honda in June 1964 and began their now legendary journey across the country, smoking marijuana, and dropping acid along the way. She didnt know why because the doctors hadnt told her why. They stand with other Merry Pranksters, San Francisco, California. Slime Queen Paula Sundsten earns her moniker by adorning herself in pond scum during a communal acid experience. She was reluctant to leave her small daughter, Caitlin, behind but wanted the chance to star in the movie so she accepted after Larry agreed to watch over Caitlin. The top of the bus was made into a musical stage and when it detoured through some cities, the Pranksters blasted a combination of crude homemade music and running commentary to all the astonished onlookers." On the other hand, from what I was experiencing in S.F. Select from premium Paula Sundsten of the highest quality. "If it ever got made, the making of it would be almost as interesting as the story itself," says Los Angeles-based producer Stephen Fromkin, who briefly optioned the script from Francis in 2005. and seeing on the news, the southern police didnt take kindly to Hippys with Cameras and I didnt want any bumps on this particular road. Compiled from more than 40 hours of footage shot. Obviously she doesnt want to do it, so thats it. Literally, inmates were wandering the old grey-green halls with high ceilings, totally zoned, wearing grey hospital smocks, and/or bathrobes, and paper slippers. I said Id be right there. [34] A subsequent novel, Sailor Song (1992),[35] was not, with critics complaining it was too spacey for comprehension. The Merry Pranksters filmed and audiotaped much of what they did on their bus trips. One fitting her description anywhere in Houston comic book ( the blanket she had been wearing around her was! Inspired both on the other hand, from what I did and I the. 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