Seasongood Pavilion, Eden Park
April 1969
One of the citizens most feared by the US Government during the Vietnam War.
Jerry Rubin
Radical turned Capitalist
From above “Rubin
showed himself to be a master organizer and publicist capable of transforming
conventional protests into media happenings. In 1967 he was made project
director of a flagging effort to demonstrate against the military in
Washington. The novelist Norman Mailer later wrote that, "to call on Rubin
was in effect to call upon the most militant, unpredictable, creative—therefore
dangerous—hippie-oriented leader available to the New Left." What resulted
was the celebrated March on the Pentagon, when some 75,000 protesters including
Mailer, the poet Robert Lowell, critic Dwight Macdonald, Dr. Spock, Noam
Chomsky, and many others rallied and railed against the war. “
“Even in his wildest
days he had never been as radical or crazy as he used to seem, Rubin said over
and over again, which anyone seeing the new, clean-cut, boyishly earnest Rubin
of the post-revolutionary era could well believe. This was confirmed when he
took up a new career as a stockbroker in 1980 with the brokerage firm of John
Muir & Co., having discovered that capitalism was nicer than he had
previously supposed. “
“In November, 1994,
Rubin was hit by a car while jaywalking in Hollywood. He died 14 days later in
a UCLA hospital bed. In a biography printed in the Los Angeles Times after Rubin's
death, fellow Chicago Seven member and friend Tom Hayden stated: "Rubin
was a great life force, full of spunk, courage, and wit. I think his willingness
to defy authority for constructive purposes will be missed. Up to the end, he
was defying authority."
Some Reference;
U.C. News Record about the event
More photos from that day
The photographer was young in April 1969.
He could drive but not vote then.
Part of this era was known as "Free Love"
This photographer was not gregarious but did once, during a gathering at Eden Park, such as the Jerry Rubin "Happening"...while flying his kite... noticed that his kite had lost its tail.
He went up to someone and asked her if she could "spare some tail" (The pictured woman above was not this woman)....the woman who looked sort of like the one above decided she could, would and did :)...it was an interesting time to be very young.
