Wavy Gravy
Wavy Gravy | |
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Born | Hugh Nanton Romney Jr. May 15, 1936[1][2] East Greenbush, New York, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Occupations | |
Spouse | |
Children | 1 |
Website | wavygravy |
Signature | |
Hugh Nanton Romney Jr. (born May 15, 1936), known as Wavy Gravy, is an American entertainer and peace activist best known for his role at Woodstock, as well as for his hippie persona and countercultural beliefs.
Romney has founded or co-founded several organizations, including the activist commune the Hog Farm, and later, as Wavy Gravy, Camp Winnarainbow and the Seva Foundation. He founded the Phurst Church of Phun in the 1960s,[3] a secret society of comics and clowns that aimed to support ending of the Vietnam War through political theater, and has adopted a clown persona in support of his political activism, and more generally as a form of entertainment work,[not verified in body] including as the official clown of the Grateful Dead.
As Wavy Gravy, he has had two radio shows on
Early life and education
Hugh Nanton Romney Jr. was born in East Greenbush, New York, on May 15, 1936.[5][1][6] His father, Hugh Romney Sr., was an architect.[7] Romney was raised in early life in Princeton, New Jersey, and by middle school age his family moved to West Hartford, Connecticut.[8][9] He attended William Hall High School, graduating in 1954.[9] After high school graduation, he volunteered for the United States Army, serving as a sign painter, to take advantage of the G.I. Bill.[7][10] He was honorably discharged after 22 months.[citation needed]
Romney entered
In 1958, he began reading poetry regularly at The Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village in New York City, where he eventually became the cafe's entertainment director, befriending musicians such as Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, and Dave Van Ronk.[12][8] He lived with Bob Dylan upstairs at 116 MacDougal Street.[8]
Career
His early career was managed by
The Hog Farm
The
After moving to
Throughout the mid-1960s, both Romney and his wife, Bonnie Beecher, were employed in Los Angeles. He worked for Columbia Pictures teaching improvisation skills to actors.[citation needed] Beecher was a successful television actress, appearing in episodes of The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, Star Trek, and The Fugitive.[citation needed]
By 1966, the Hog Farm had coalesced into an entertainment organization providing light shows at the
The Hog Farm relocated to the Black Oak Ranch in
Woodstock Festival
At the first
Romney called his group the "Please Force," a reference to their non-intrusive tactics at keeping order, e.g., "Please don't do that, please do this instead". When asked by the press—who were the first to inform him that he and the rest of the Hog Farm were handling security—what kind of tools he intended to use to maintain order at the event, his response was "Cream pies and
Romney made announcements from the concert stage throughout the festival. He later wrote in his memoir that "the reason that I got to do all those stage announcements was because of my relationship with Chip Monk [sic]. Chip built the stage at Woodstock."[20]
At the
Romney, as Wavy Gravy after the first Woodstock, has been the
Wavy Gravy name origin
At the 1969
Phurst Church of Phun and clowning
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This section of a poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. )Find sources: "Wavy Gravy" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2019) |
After frequent arrests at demonstrations, Wavy Gravy decided that his arrest would be less likely if he dressed as a clown. Romney therefore co-founded the Phurst Church of Phun,[when?] a secret society of comics and clowns dedicated to ending the Vietnam War through the use of political theater. Romney also performs more generally as a clown, including entertaining children, work that includes such traditional clown activities as joke-telling and magic tricks. As Wavy Gravy, he has served as an official clown of the Grateful Dead.[when?][25]
Art
Wavy Gravy has also been recognized for his work as a collage artist, with work presented at a solo exhibition in April 1999 at the Firehouse Gallery in New York under gallery owner Eric Gibbons.[26] He had an exhibition, Wavy Gravy Retrospective (1996) at the Firehouse Gallery of Bordentown, New Jersey.
He began exploring collage in the early '60s, and his first works were created in the period where he lived above the Gaslight in Greenwich Village; he has stated that he was inspired by a Max Ernst collage he saw at the Bitter End, when he opened for Peter, Paul and Mary.[when?][citation needed] His collage work includes larger pieces done for celebrities in the San Francisco Bay Area.[citation needed]
Neo-pagan appearances
Wavy Gravy's first appearance at an event in the
Ventures
Seva Foundation
Wavy Gravy co-founded the Seva Foundation in 1978, along with spiritual leader Ram Dass and public health expert Dr. Larry Brilliant.[29][30][31] Based in Berkeley, California, Seva Foundation is an international health organization working to build sustainable sight restoration programs in many of the globe's most under-served communities.[29][32] Gravy is famous for throwing all-star benefit concerts regularly featuring members of the Grateful Dead, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Ani DiFranco, Ben Harper, Elvis Costello, and many other musicians.[29]
Camp Winnarainbow
Gravy co-founded, with his wife, the circus and performing arts camp Camp Winnarainbow, now located in Laytonville, California near the Hog Farm.[when?][32][33] He co-ran the camp alongside Txi Whizz (also known as Barbara Hanna), his "right-hand woman".[34]
"Tornado of Talent"
In September 1981 there was an anti-nuclear protest, which included trespassing, blockade, occupation, and civil disobedience action at Diablo Canyon Power Plant, organized by the Abalone Alliance.[35] Approximately 640 protesters were arrested, and Wavy Gravy and Jackson Browne were in attendance.[35]
Browne was able to have an acoustic guitar and performed in the gymnasium at Cuesta College; where the male incarcerated were being held.[35] Gravy organized and acted as MC for a variety show there that he called the, "Tornado of Talent". Wavy arrived at the holding facility dressed in a pair of bright green coveralls. After settling into his "bunk" (a thin mattress on the gym floor) he removed the coveralls to reveal a Santa Claus suit.
Nobody for President and Nobody's Business
"Wavy Gravy nominated Nobody for president at the "Yippie National Convention" outside the Republican National Convention in Kansas City in 1976. It was the second time the Hog Farm had nominated a candidate for the Presidency, following the nomination of the hog, Pigasus, eight years prior.[36]"
Wavy Gravy ran a "
Gravy established the store Nobody's Business across the road from the Hog Farm.[when?][41] reminiscent of his "Nobody for President" campaign.
Personal life
He was briefly married to a "Frenchwoman" in the early 1960s; the marriage ended in divorce.[7]
In 1965, Wavy Gravy married the actress Bonnie Jean Beecher, who later adopted the name Jahanara Romney.[42] They have a son, born in 1971 as Howdy Do-Good Gravy Tomahawk Truckstop Romney, who has since become known as Jordan Romney.[42]
Radio programs
This section needs expansion with: further details about this substantive career activity. You can help by adding to it. (August 2019) |
As Wavy Gravy, he has had two radio shows on
- Gravy in Your Ear: Gravy's radio show airing on the 15th of each month (including his birthday on the 15th of May) on Sirius Satellite Radio, with several re-broadcasts.[43]
- The Wavy Files: a series of individual commentary segments by Gravy placed randomly throughout the Jam On programming on Sirius Satellite Radio.[43]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Type | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1963 | The Fat Black Pussycat | Assistant Detective (as Hugh Romney) | Film | Detective film |
1970 | Woodstock | Himself | Film | Documentary film |
1972 | Cisco Pike | Reed (as Hugh Romney) | Film | [33][44] |
1994 | Flashing on the Sixties: A Tribal Document | Himself | Television | |
1995 | The History of Rock 'N' Roll, Vol. 6 | Himself | Television | |
1997 | Timothy Leary's Last Trip | Himself | Film | Film takes place at the "Pig-Nic" at the Hog Farm.[45] |
1999 | The '60s | Film | ||
2000 | My Generation | Himself | Film | |
2001 | The End of the Road | Himself | Film | |
2001 | Ram Dass, Fierce Grace | Himself | Film | |
2005 | The Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose | Film | ||
2006 | Breaking the Rules | Himself | Film | |
2008 | Battleground Earth | Himself | Television | episode "Ludacris vs. Tommy Lee" |
2008 | Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo | Himself | Film | Mockumentary film.[46] |
2009 | Saint Misbehavin': The Wavy Gravy Movie | Himself | Film | Documentary film, directed by Michelle Esrick and released by Ripple Effect Films.[42][47][48][49] |
2009 | Woodstock: Now & Then | Himself | Film | |
2019 | Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation | Himself | Film | Documentary film by director Barak Goodman.[50][51] |
2021 | "Saint Stupid The Movie recut" | Himself | Film by Bishop Joey | https://vimeo.com/547299331?ref=em-share |
Books
- Gravy, Wavy (1974). The Hog Farm and Friends. Foreword by ISBN 0-8256-3014-2.
- Gravy, Wavy (1992). Something Good for a Change: Random Notes on Peace Thru Living. New York City, New York: St Martins Press. ISBN 0-312-07838-2.
Recordings
- Beat Generation Jazz Poetry, Folk Lyrics, John Brent, Len Chandler and Hugh Romney at the Gaslight, Greenwich Village (LP). New York City, New York: Musitron Records. 1960.[52]
- Third Stream Humor (as Hugh Romney), World Pacific (1962)
- Old Feathers, New Bird: The 80s Are the 60s Twenty Years Later, Wavy Gravy, Relix (1988)
- Bear's Sonic Journals: Sing Out!, various artists, recorded April 25, 1981 at the Berkeley Community Theater, released February 23, 2024 by the Owsley Stanley Foundation
Recognition
Ben & Jerry's Wavy Gravy ice cream flavor is named for Romney. Until 2001, Ben & Jerry's produced an ice cream named "Wavy Gravy" (caramel-cashew-Brazil nut base with a chocolate hazelnut fudge swirl and roasted almonds) which helped drive a scholarship fund for underprivileged kids to attend his Camp Winnarainbow.[53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][excessive citations]
See also
References
- ^ OCLC 911054461.
- ^ "Wavy Gravy's 80th Birthday Celebration (with Wavy in attendance), John Kadlecik & The Terrapin All-Stars, feat. Grahame Lesh & many more - The Ardmore Music Hall - Ardmore, PA - June 11th, 2016". Ticketfly. June 11, 2016. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
- ISBN 0312078382.
- OCLC 426388468.
- ^ Eng, Monica (May 19, 1998). "'60S ICON REFLECTS ON HIS LONG, STRANGE TRIP". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- S2CID 145011564.
- ^ a b c d e f Witt, Linda (June 12, 1986). "Wavy Gravy". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ a b c Murray, Nick (October 17, 2014). "Wavy Gravy Recounts His Bizarre, Star-Crossed Hippie Journey". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ a b c Rand, Slade (August 15, 2019). "50 years later, West Hartford's Wavy Gravy and other Connecticut festival-goers recall the power of Woodstock". Hartford Courant news. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
Twenty years before Woodstock, a young Gravy, then Hugh Romney, moved to West Hartford with his mother and step-father, where he attended middle school. He eventually graduated from Hall High School in 1954 and discovered a love of art at the Wadsworth Atheneum. As a musical theater student at Boston University in the late 1950s, he'd round up musicians and poets who weren't doing anything on Mondays and drive into Hartford to put on poetry and jazz shows at the Golden Lion.
- ^ "Pre-Wavy Gravy: Selected Stops Along Hugh Romney's Road". Relix Media. July 7, 2011. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
My stepfather was an aide to [General] Omar Bradley and he suggested, "Don't volunteer for anything but typing and sign making!" So I went into a new company for basic training at Fort Dix [NJ] and, lucky me, they wanted sign painters.
- ^ "The Depths Of A Clown". The Sun Magazine. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ Van Laarhoven, Kaspar (December 28, 2016). "The Story of The Gaslight Cafe, Where Dylan Premiered 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall'". Bedford+Bowery. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
- ^ Kelley, Robin D.G. Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original Simon & Schuster 2009 p.320
- ^ Zekley, Mickey (1995). "The Hog Farm Blues". The Adventures Of A Street Musician – Part One.
- ^ Wavy Gravy (1992), p. 229.
- ^ "Black Oak Ranch History". Kate Wolf Music Festival. Archived from the original on May 27, 2019. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
- ^ Doran, Bob. "For the Earth Goddess". North Coast Journal. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ OCLC 947606.
- ISBN 9780912873008.
- OCLC 25367907.
- ^ "The Psychedelic Era". The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Archived from the original on September 5, 2007.
- ^ Young, Michael E.; Appleton, Roy (August 30, 2009). "Texas International Pop Festival Was Full of Surprises for Artists, Fans, Onlookers". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on October 3, 2009. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
- ^ Interview [who?] on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 26 May 2011.
- ^ "About - Wavy Gravy". wavygravy.net. Archived from the original on June 2, 2017. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
- ^ "Arts Days". The Kennedy Center Arts Edge. Archived from the original on April 1, 2007. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
- ^ "On the Towns; Going Out". The New York Times. April 4, 1999. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
- ^ "Expanding The Frontiers Of Your Consideration". Archived from the original on September 28, 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Posted by Michael Limnios Blues Network on January 12, 2012 at 2:00pm; Blog, View. "The activist clown & hippie-icon, Wavy Gravy talks about the Seva Foundation, Woodstock, Grateful Dead, Buddha & Nikos Kazatzakis". blues.gr.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c "Mickey Hart, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt perform at Seva Foundation fundraiser". The Mercury News. January 8, 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ a b "Wavy Gravy goes hog wild in Petaluma". Petaluma Argus Courier. June 21, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ a b Schwartz, Vinny (2015). "Seeing is Believing - The Story of Wavy Gravy and SEVA Foundation". Sonoma County Gazette. Archived from the original on October 1, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ Bender, Kristen (July 6, 2004). "Adults learn wacky life lessons". East Bay Times. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
- ^ The San Francisco Examiner. pp. 1, 20. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
- ^ "Nobody for President '84 Bumper Sticker". Black Oak Ranch.
- ^ "Nobody for President, 2020 [Official Pages]". www.nobodyforpresident.org. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
- ^ "Nobody For President". HeadCount.org. October 12, 1976.[full citation needed]
- ^ "Anarchists Push Cause of 'None of the above'". The New York Times. November 5, 1980.[full citation needed]
- ^ Gravy, Wavy (Winter 1988). "20th Anniversary Rendezvous—Wavy Gravy". WholeEarth.com. Whole Earth Review. Archived from the original on July 20, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2018.[third-party source needed]
- ^ Brown, Jonathan (October 25, 2007). "Still hippy after all these years". The Independent. London, England.[full citation needed]
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
In 1965 Mr. Romney married Bonnie Jean Beecher, who later became Jahanara Romney and has been his wife for 45 years. We meet his cheerful son, Howdy Do-Good Gravy Tomahawk Truckstop Romney, later changed to Jordan, who was born on the seat of a Greyhound bus.
- ^ a b c Deitz, Corey (June 19, 2018). "Sirius XM Satellite Radio Personalities". Lifewire. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
- ^ "Cisco Pike". TVGuide.com. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ "Timothy Leary's Last Trip". Film. March 29, 2002. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ Meline, Gabe (January 2, 2008). "Les Claypool's 'Electric Apricot'". www.metroactive.com. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ Gandy, Meredith (October 3, 2011). "The true story of a cultural phenomenon: The Wavy Gravy Movie: Saint Misbehavin' on KQED's Truly CA". KQED's Pressroom. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ Hartlaub, Peter (December 3, 2010). "'Saint Misbehavin': The Wavy Gravy Movie' review". SFGATE. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
- ^ Rickman, Gregg (December 8, 2010). "Wavy Gravy Portrait Keeps Up the Clown's Disguise". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
- ^ Rotter, Joshua (May 29, 2019). "Call the 'Please Force': Wavy Gravy revisits Woodstock in new doc". 48 hills. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ "Woodstock | American Experience". PBS. 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ^ "Village voices". lpcoverlover.com. July 12, 2008. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
- ^ Miserandino, Dominick A. "Wavy Gravy 1960's icon and activist". TheCelebrityCafe.com. Archived from the original on January 1, 2006. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
- ^ Pener, Degen (May 24, 1992). "EGOS & IDS; Tie-Dye With Gravy Strains". The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
- ^ Ben & Jerry's. "RIP: Ice Cream Mourners Pay their Respects at Ben & Jerry's Flavor Graveyard". prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved March 27, 2022.
- ^ Hubbard, Thomas. "Company Background: Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc". Econ 174. Kellogg School of Management. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
- ^ Desborough, Jenny (October 12, 2021). "All the Ben & Jerry's Ice cream flavors that have been discontinued". Newsweek. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
- ^ "What It's Like to Be a Ben & Jerry's Flavor Guru". Thrillist. January 19, 2015. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
...Peter Lind lives it every day. Lind is one of five Ben & Jerry's Flavor Gurus whose days are filled with ice cream development and tasting.
- ^ "Rainforest Crunch". Ben & Jerry’s. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
- ^ "Final resting place of Ben & Jerry's Wavy Gravy ice cream". Ben & Jerry's. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
- ^ "What Happened to Wavy Gravy?". Ben & Jerry’s. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
- ^ "Ben & Jerry's embarrassed by scoop over nuts". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
Several months later, Ben & Jerry's began quietly removing the claims from its Rainforest Crunch labels. "It would be misleading at this time to imply that 100 percent of the profits from 100 percent of the nuts would be used to help Xapuri," Mr. Cohen admitted in a recent interview.
- ^ benandjerrys. "Ben & Jerry's on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
How many of you remember Wavy Gravy? This nutty flavor is one of only a very few to ever be resurrected from the Flavor Graveyard. Get the full story here >> t.co/KiALQVOCeH #peaceloveicecream t.co/Tq4Kj3j7n4
- ^ Calta, Marialisa (March 21, 1993). "OUT THERE: WATERBURY, VT.; The Ice-Cream Sorcerer". The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2022.