Article: Meatballs, the Pope, and Lenny Bruce

[Ernieman]

by Ernie Carpenter
WaccoBB.net

Recently, I met up with my friend, famous local en plein aire artist Bill Wheeler, at the Union Hotel in Occidental. It was Community Night which features spaghetti and a meatball as big as your head for under five bucks. It was time for some catching up and local political talk.

Bill was already into a brewski and after a couple more the conversation got lively. Nick Gravanites, the great Southside Chicago blues artist who has lived in Occidental for years showed up. The conversation got more lively interspersed by comments on the meatballs as they arrived up for the various customers. “Geez that meatball is as big as Mt. Jackson”. “Big as a cannon ball”. Yes, “Big as your head.” “No woman can eat a meatball that big!”

The backdrop for the evening had a hockey game, basketball game and selection of the new Pope on one of the three televisions going behind the bar.

we were waiting for the white smoke. How could one not quip about priestly issues, meatballs, locals at the tables, and nuns? How Lenny Bruce got into the conversation is another story. Of course, three gentlemen of a certain age have similar experience, so meatballs, the Pope and Lenny Bruce fit right into the repartee.

Soon Bill, Nick and I were at the same table. Some background, Bill Wheeler was referred to as ‘King of the Hippies’ when he had a commune, Wheeler Ranch, on the ridge back in the early sixties. Communal living was just not accepted by the local farmers and some conflict occurred. Bill’s response was to find friends to buy adjacent land and hence communal living in Bodega Pastures, Star Mountain started by the late Moses Moon, and Morningstar by the late Lou Gottlieb. There were other communes in West Sonoma County. During the sixties one could see hundreds of lively colored, hairy men and women on the rural roads. A rebellious generation determined to change the world. Communal voters probably tipped the local Fifth District electoral balance in 1975.

Nick who played with Janis Joplin and about every blues band in our era noted that The Committee was having a reunion soon in San Francisco, a private party. The Committee started on Broadway in S.F as an improve company in and spun off many actors and theatre companies. The Warlocks even played there. The Committee appeared at civil rights and anti-war demonstrations. When the first wave of music hit San Francisco you could hear The Dead, Loving Spoonful, Jefferson Airplane, The Charlatans, and Captain Beefheart play on the street and in small halls. The Committee was a part of this movement. Add Lenny Bruce and later poet Brautigan to the mix and it was an era.

Recollections led to the story of Lenny Bruce falling out of the window of the Swiss American Hotel on Broadway in San Francisco right down the street from The Committee in the same year they opened, 1963. Not so notable that he was loaded on heroin, put in a strait jacket, and his mouth taped by the cops for profanity but perhaps because he was naked in broad daylight. Lenny Bruce was the most rebellious of the rebellious and was arrested numerous times for profanity during the fifties and sixties. He was also arrested for impersonating a priest and collecting money for lepers in Africa. Once he was arrested in LA for appearing on stage in only socks and shoes. He is championed by standup comics, is the genius father of standup, sick, ad lib political humor and reviled by establishments.

So Bill Wheeler was staying at the Swiss American that night in 1963 and was attracted by all the commotion the next day. He saw Lenny being carted away. I only saw Lenny at the hungry I. That led Nick to tell of Lenny getting arrested in Chicago at the Gate of Horn club in 1962. Nick was playing in Chicago at the time. The club was owned by Moses Moon later of Star Mountain fame. The two were carted off to jail. Lenny had done a bit on The Pope and Nuns and as usual fornication and sexual strangeness were involved. So, they spent the night in jail with Moses telling Lenny that he couldn't do Pope and nun bits in Catholic Chicago and would he knock off this bit. Don’t know what Lenny said. But next night, same thing, and arrested again. This time Moses in jail holding his head says, “Lenny you’re killing me and you’re killing the club.” Lenny died of a morphine overdose in 1966 sitting on a toilet in LA.

So maybe Lenny Bruce helped drive Moses out of Chicago to start a commune in Sonoma County. This then helped change the political balance and made the Fifth the most liberal district in the County. There are still remnants of this era. When Lou Gottlieb of Limelighter fame died, Morningstar went with him. There is still discussion about Morningstar becoming a Hippie museum but that probably will not happen. Probably most old timers know that “Hippie” was a word coined by the great Chronicle columnist Herb Caen as a derivative of hipster. Well, Bill Wheeler is still King. His paintings capture nature and rebellion. Nick is still playing some mean rebellious Blues licks around. Right here in Sonoma County folks.

This conversation led to a tale. It is a tale derived from a community night at the Union Hotel. Yet there is enough fact to know the election in 1975 was carried by 386 votes which lead to the first progressive majority on the Board of Supervisors and the current land use and environmental policies we have today. Lenny was important because even with his foibles and drug addiction he gained for us the ability to express ourselves freely and legally. His humor at times was over the edge. So, yes, maybe Lenny Bruce even helped shift the political balance in Sonoma County. We have a new Pope whose life is patterned after St. Francis, a good thing. One other thing for sure, get over to the Union and get a meatball. You never know when things will change.

Ernie Carpenter has lived in Sonoma County since 1969. He has an MSW (LCSW) from UC Berkeley. He has served on the Sonoma County Planning Commission, the Board of Supervisors (16-years) and the Civil Service Commission. He has been involved in environmental, social justice, social work, planning, waste and recycling issue. He lives in the Graton area and has grown children, Currently employed as a waste consultant.

[mamaj]

Thankyou Ernie for sharing this awesome story with us all who can laugh with it and appreciate it Lenny Bruce was before my time , but I am good friends with every one else. I did appreciate this history of their lives being brought to light and hopefully never forgotten, for those with open hearts and open minds(,not necessarily from drug and alcohol abuse). I had 2 brothers in Viet Namm then, and a older sister who worked and was p.r. person for the Grateful Dead. Happy B-day Jerry Garcia ! Yesterday I gave my daughter some money to buy us desert for after dinner. She came back with Cherry Garcia Ice cream and snicker candy bars !! It made me laugh so much ,first the ice cream,but Snickers was Jerrys' favorite candy bar,she never knew this,a great way to celebrate his memory! The 1960's -1970's were interesting times in Sonoma County ,as well as the bay area. I remember my first concert at the Avalon Ballroom with Family Dog productions-I was only 12 yrs.old ,I don't think my Mother knew where my sister was taking me when she invited me to stay with her in "Frisco" for that weekend,and it was so much FUN! Those days you never had to worry about being shot and every one had love in their hearts. I still have a souvineer from the Avalon, which says on it:" May the baby Jesus shut your mouth and open your minds"My parents were into big band and country music ,but also loved the Grateful Dead-later on they also helped the Sonoma County Red Cross with MANY donations -

by Ernie Carpenter
WaccoBB.net[/FONT][/B][/SIZE]

Recently, I met up with my friend, famous local en plein aire artist Bill Wheeler, at the Union Hotel in Occidental. It was Community Night ...

[Gail Raborn]

Thank you, Ernie, for this delightful bit of history showing how all things connect...and how history triggers change and growth...I was very influenced by Lenny Bruce when i was a teen; he helped shock open my very conservative (then)mind to look at the world in a different way...I had several of his albums, and loved them...and I was a hippie in several Mendocino communes in the early Seventies...great to hear more historical background on the hippie movement; I consider myself still a hippie, of course. The real hippies values were so true and
wise, and have led to the environmental movement, the alternative healing movement, natural foods and planted incredible spiritual seeds that are still sprouting among the young.

You wrote a great story! I love it. I'm going to have to go to Community Night at the Union Hotel!
I'm moving to the Sebastopol area as soon as I can find a house to rent; Mendocino has lost it's luster for me (that's where I live); it's great that in Sonoma county, Bill Wheeler is still King and that Nick is still playing the blues...and that magic is still alive...
Many thanks - Gail Raborn

[ronliskey]

The Slightly Fabulous Dr. Gottlieb
Louis Gottlieb and his Era

https://www.darkendeavors.com/boulder_lout/36.asp