102-736: Abbot Howard Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven . He was also a leading proponent of the Flower Power movement. As a member of the Chicago Seven, Hoffman was charged with and tried for activities during the 1968 Democratic National Convention , for conspiring to use interstate commerce with intent to incite
204-633: A Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator in 2015 for his work on Ken Burns ' s documentary miniseries The Roosevelts: An Intimate History . Coyote was one of the founders of the Diggers , an anarchist improv group active in Haight-Ashbury during the mid-1960s, including the Summer of Love . Coyote was born Robert Peter Cohon on October 10, 1941, in New York City ,
306-566: A January 2007 article in the Los Angeles Times : We needed a name to signify the radicalization of hippies, and I came up with Yippie as a label for a phenomenon that already existed, an organic coalition of psychedelic hippies and political activists. In the process of cross-fertilization at antiwar demonstrations, we had come to share an awareness that there was a linear connection between putting kids in prison for smoking pot in this country and burning them to death with napalm on
408-492: A black background with a red five pointed star in the center and a green marijuana leaf superimposed over it (same as the YIP flag). The Chicago History Museum shows a different flag for the new nation. It is not the marijuana leaf. It has the word NOW under what looks like the all-seeing eye on a pyramid seen on the back of a dollar bill. The Yippies often paid tribute to rock 'n' roll and irreverent pop-culture figures such as
510-457: A book with this knowledge. Doing so was considered a violation by the Diggers. Diggers co-founder Peter Coyote explained: Abbie, who was a friend of mine, was always a media junky. We explained everything to those guys, and they violated everything we taught them. Abbie went back, and the first thing he did was publish a book, with his picture on it, that blew the hustle of every poor person on
612-416: A camera change and was not captured on film. The audio of this incident, however, can be heard on The Who's box set Thirty Years of Maximum R&B (Disc 2, Track 20, "Abbie Hoffman Incident"). In 1971, Hoffman published Steal This Book , which advised readers on how to live for free. (Many readers followed his advice and stole the book, leading many bookstores to refuse to carry it.) The book contained
714-534: A celebration of the counterculture and a protest against the state of the nation. This was supposed to counter the "Convention of Death." This promised to be "the blending of pot and politics into a political grass leaves movement – a cross-fertilization of the hippie and New Left philosophies." Yippies' sensational statements before the convention were part of the theatrics, including a tongue-in-cheek threat to put LSD in Chicago's water supply. "We will fuck on
816-666: A dedicated practitioner of American Zen Buddhism, moving into the San Francisco Zen Center . He was later ordained a lay priest in the Sōtō tradition and was ordained as a Zen Priest in 2015. Coyote performed audiobook recordings of Shunryu Suzuki 's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and Paul Reps 's Zen Flesh, Zen Bones as well as narrating the documentary Inquiry into the Great Matter: A History of Zen Buddhism . In 1978, Coyote began acting again ("to shake
918-469: A drug addict, then a prostitute, had her children stolen, and continued to spiral downhill until she turned her life around. This story was published in Zyzzyva , and awarded the 1993–1994 Pushcart Prize . He also states he was a close friend of singer Janis Joplin . Coyote has a website, which features the titles of all his movies and extended samples of much of his writing. He is a member at RedRoom.com,
1020-586: A fugitive in 1973, although they were not formally divorced until 1980. While underground, Hoffman's companion was Johanna Lawrenson. His personal life drew a great deal of scrutiny from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), whose file on him was 13,262 pages long. His brother Jack died of COVID-19 on June 2, 2020. Hoffman was found dead in his apartment in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania , on April 12, 1989, age 52. The cause of death
1122-494: A gold medal in the 2024 Independent Publisher Book Awards (aka IPPY) Competition [Category #91]. Coyote's left-wing politics are evident in his articles for Mother Jones magazine, some of which he wrote as a delegate to the 1996 Democratic National Convention ; in his disagreements with David Horowitz ; and in his autobiography Sleeping Where I Fall . In 2006, Coyote developed a political television show for Link TV called "The Active Opposition" and in 2007 created Outside
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#17327836728651224-786: A group known as the Free Family, which established chains of communes around the Pacific Northwest and Southwest . Coyote was the best known resident of the Black Bear Ranch commune in Siskiyou County, California . Coyote had first discovered Zen in his teens via the works of Jack Kerouac , Gary Snyder , and other Beats . Coyote met Snyder with the Diggers and was impressed with Snyder's "gravitas and elegance, his care and deliberation". In 1975, Coyote undertook meditation practice and eventually became
1326-411: A human being." Peter considered what he had been saying for several months, and then changed his last name to Coyote, the first step toward understanding its significance. The immediate, unanticipated consequence, was that no one, not even Peter knew who Peter Coyote was, and he was liberated from his personal history. From that point on, he never knew "where the rabbit would break from the brush". After
1428-401: A job. But it is not easy to see how in 1969 a HUAC blacklist could terrorize an SDS activist. Witnesses like Jerry Rubin have openly boasted of their contempt for American institutions. A subpoena from HUAC would be unlikely to scandalize Abbie Hoffman or his friends. Yippie theatrics culminated at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. YIP planned a six-day Festival of Life –
1530-509: A mockery of the proceedings: Rubin came to one session dressed as an American Revolutionary War soldier, and passed out copies of the United States Declaration of Independence to people in attendance. On another occasion, police stopped Hoffman at the building entrance and arrested him for wearing an American flag . Hoffman quipped for the press, "I regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country", paraphrasing
1632-541: A paper declaring that, "God could not possibly exist, for if he did, there wouldn't be any suffering in the world." The irate teacher ripped up the paper and called him "a Communist punk." Hoffman jumped on the teacher and started fighting him until he was restrained and removed from the school. On June 3, 1954, 17-year-old Hoffman was arrested for the first time, for driving without a license. After his expulsion, he attended Worcester Academy , graduating in 1955. Hoffman engaged in many behaviors typical of rebellious teenagers in
1734-538: A poetry magazine, and recognized its logo as the same paw-prints he had seen during his peyote experience. After meeting Rolling Thunder (John Pope), a purported Paiute-Shoshone shaman , who informed him that there were two ways to regard what he had experienced. "You could consider it a hallucination", he said, "and you'll just remain a white man and be ok. Or, you could consider that the Universe opened itself to you, and if you consider it deeply enough, you might become
1836-877: A radicalized hippie culture would spread until they supplanted the existing system. Many of these ideas/practices came from other (overlapping and intermingling) counter-cultural groups such as the Diggers , the San Francisco Mime Troupe , the Merry Pranksters / Deadheads , the Hog Farm , the Rainbow Family , the Esalen Institute , the Peace and Freedom Party , the White Panther Party and The Farm . There
1938-482: A riot and crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot under the anti-riot provisions of Title X of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 . Five of the Chicago Seven defendants, including Hoffman, were convicted of crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot; all of the convictions were vacated after an appeal and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to pursue another trial. Hoffman, along with all of
2040-405: A section called "Free Communication," in which Hoffman encourages his readership to take to the stage at rock concerts to use the pre-assembled audience and PA system to get their message out. However, he mentions that "interrupting the concert is frowned upon since it is only spitting in the faces of people you are trying to reach." In Woodstock Nation , Hoffman mentions the incident and says he
2142-473: A self-proclaimed communist whose heroes included Castro, Chairman Mao , and Ho Chi Minh . It's not that the yippies swallowed pop culture uncritically. (Hoffman kept a sign attached to the bottom of his TV that said "bullshit.") It's that they saw the mass media's dream-world as another terrain to fight in. At demonstrations and parades, Yippies often wore face paint or colorful bandannas to keep from being identified in photographs. Other Yippies reveled in
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#17327836728652244-598: A short apprenticeship at the San Francisco Actor's Workshop , he joined the San Francisco Mime Troupe , a radical political street theater whose members were arrested for performing in parks without permits. Coyote acted, wrote scripts, and directed in the Mime Troupe. Coyote directed the first cross-country tour of The Minstrel Show, Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel, a controversial play closed by authorities in several cities. From 1967 to 1975, Coyote
2346-881: A shout for joy (with an exclamation mark to express exhilaration). "What does Yippie! mean?" Abbie Hoffman wrote. "Energy – fun – fierceness – exclamation point!" The Yippies held their first press conference in New York at the Americana Hotel March 17, 1968, five months before the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Judy Collins sang at the press conference. The Chicago Sun-Times reported it with an article titled: "Yipes! The Yippies Are Coming!" Active Defunct Publications Works Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary The Yippie "New Nation" concept called for
2448-405: A target. In 1998, Peter Coyote stated: The FBI couldn't infiltrate us. We did everything anonymously, and we did everything for nothing because we wanted our actions to be authentic. It's the mistake that Abbie Hoffman made. He came out, he studied with us, we taught him everything, and then he went back and wrote a book called Free, and he put his name on it! He set himself up to be a leader of
2550-586: A tour of the New York Stock Exchange , where they threw fistfuls of real and fake US$ from the balcony of the visitors' gallery down to the traders below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab the money as fast as they could. The visitors' gallery was closed until a glass barrier could be installed, to prevent similar incidents. On the 40th anniversary of the NYSE event, CNN Money editor James Ledbetter described
2652-617: A violent clash with police that Don McNeill of The Village Voice called a "pointless confrontation in a box canyon ". A month later, Yippies organized a "Yip-Out," a be-in style event in Central Park that went off peacefully and drew 20,000 people. In his book A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Media in America , author David Armstrong points out that the Yippie hybrid of performance art , Guerilla theater and political irreverence
2754-423: A website for authors. In April 2015, his memoir The Rainman's Third Cure: An Irregular Education was released, where he "provides portraits of mentors that shaped him—including his violent, intimidating father, a bass player, a Mafia Consiglieri, and beat poet Gary Snyder, who introduced him to the practice of Zen." In September 2021, Four Way Books released a collection of Coyote's poetry entitled Tongue of
2856-442: Is featured in interviews and archival news footage in the following documentaries: Youth International Party The Youth International Party ( YIP ), whose members were commonly called Yippies , was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded on December 31, 1967. They employed theatrical gestures to mock
2958-526: Is that it is boring, and one of the reasons that the peace movement has not grown into a mass movement is that the peace movement—its literature and its events—is a bore. Good theatre is needed to communicate revolutionary content." The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) subpoenaed Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman of the Yippies in 1967, and again in the aftermath of the 1968 Democratic National Convention . The Yippies used media attention to make
3060-405: Is the destruction of life, the accumulation of profit." The goal was a decentralized, collective, anarchistic nation rooted in the borderless hippie counterculture and its communal ethos. Abbie Hoffman wrote: We shall not defeat Amerika by organizing a political party. We shall do it by building a new nation—a nation as rugged as the marijuana leaf. The flag for the "new nation" consisted of
3162-602: The Central Intelligence Agency 's recruitment on the UMass campus. Since the university's policy limited campus recruitment to law-abiding organizations, the defense argued that the CIA engaged in illegal activities. The federal district court judge permitted expert witnesses, including former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and a former CIA agent who testified that the CIA carried on an illegal Contra war against
Abbie Hoffman - Misplaced Pages Continue
3264-690: The Democratic convention , Chicago police repeatedly clashed with protesters, as many millions of viewers watched the extensive TV coverage of the events. On the evening of August 28 the police attacked the protesters in front of the Conrad Hilton hotel as the demonstrators chanted " The whole world is watching ". This was a "police riot," concluded the US National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence , stating: "On
3366-614: The Marx Brothers , James Dean and Lenny Bruce . Many Yippies used nicknames which contained Baby Boomer television or pop references, such as Pogo or Gumby . (Pogo was notable for creating the famous slogan: " We have met the enemy and he is us "—first used on a 1970 Earth Day poster.) The Yippies' love of pop-culture was one way to differentiate the Old and New Left, as Jesse Walker writes in Reason magazine: Forty years ago,
3468-541: The Old Left . According to ABC News , "The group was known for street theater pranks and was once referred to as the ' Groucho Marxists '." The Yippies had no formal membership or hierarchy . The organization was founded by Abbie and Anita Hoffman , Jerry Rubin , Nancy Kurshan , and Paul Krassner , at a meeting in the Hoffmans' New York apartment on December 31, 1967. According to his own account, Krassner coined
3570-589: The Sandinista government in Nicaragua in violation of the Boland Amendment . In three days of testimony, more than a dozen defense witnesses, including Daniel Ellsberg , and former Contra leader Édgar Chamorro , described the CIA's role in more than two decades of covert, illegal, and often violent activities. In his closing argument, Hoffman, acting as his own attorney, placed his actions within
3672-574: The War on Drugs and suggested ways to circumvent its most intrusive measures. Although Hoffman's satiric humor was on display throughout the book, Publishers Weekly wrote that "the extensive, in-depth research and a barrage of facts and figures ... make this the definitive guide to the current drug-testing environment." Stone's Born on the Fourth of July was released on December 20, 1989, just eight months after Hoffman's suicide on April 12, 1989. At
3774-611: The War on Terror . He also narrated the 12-hour Ken Burns series on the National Parks , and 15 episodes for the National Geographic Explorer series. In 2010 he narrated the documentary Solitary Confinement on the effect of long-term isolation, with footage taken from Colorado State Penitentiary where all prisoners are held this way. In 2014, he appeared in the TNT television series Perception , as
3876-558: The West Coast , despite having been accepted at the Iowa Writers' Workshop , and commenced working toward a master's degree in creative writing at San Francisco State University . While still at Grinnell, Coyote ingested peyote and had a profound experience with something he recognized as an animal spirit. At the next dawn he came to in a cornfield dotted with paw-prints. A few years later, he came across Coyote's Journal ,
3978-529: The 1950s, such as riding motorcycles, wearing leather jackets , and sporting a ducktail haircut. Upon graduating, he enrolled at nearby Brandeis University , where he studied under professors such as noted psychologist Abraham Maslow , often considered the father of humanistic psychology . He was also a student of Marxist theorist Herbert Marcuse , who Hoffman said had a profound effect on his political outlook. Hoffman would later cite Marcuse's influence during his activism and his theories on revolution. He
4080-553: The Box with Peter Coyote starting on Link TV's special, Special: The End of Oil – Part 2 . Many of Coyote's stories from the 1967 to 1975 counter-culture period are included in his memoir, Sleeping Where I Fall, published by Counterpoint Press in April 1998. One of the stories incorporated into his book is "Carla's Story," about a 16-year-old mother who lived communally with Coyote, and who, after learning of her husband's murder, became
4182-590: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Cross Creek (1983), Jagged Edge (1985), Bitter Moon (1992), Kika (1993), Patch Adams (1998), Erin Brockovich (2000), A Walk to Remember (2002), and Femme Fatale (2002). His voice work includes his narration for the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics . He narrated the PBS series The Pacific Century (1992), winning an Emmy . He won
Abbie Hoffman - Misplaced Pages Continue
4284-997: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). He was seriously considered for the role of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and auditioned for the part. Coyote's first starring role was in the science fiction adventure Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982). He also starred in Jagged Edge (1985) and Outrageous Fortune (1987). Since then, he has made more than 120 films for theaters and television and has played starring roles for many directors, including Roman Polanski ( Bitter Moon ), Pedro Almodóvar ( Kika ), Martin Ritt ( Cross Creek ), Jean-Paul Rappeneau ( Bon Voyage ), Diane Kurys ( A Man in Love ), and Walter Salles ( Exposure ). For his 1990 guest appearance on
4386-519: The Lower East Side by describing every free scam then current in New York, which were then sucked dry by disaffected kids from Scarsdale . One of Hoffman's well-known stunts was on August 24, 1967, when he led members of the movement to the gallery of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The protesters threw fistfuls of real and fake dollar bills down to the traders below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab
4488-606: The October, 1967 March on the Pentagon , and a mass protest/mock levitation at the building organized by Rubin, Hoffman and company at the event, helped to set the tone for Yippie when it was established a couple of months later. Another famous prank just before the term "Yippie" was coined was a guerrilla theater event in New York City on August 24, 1967. Abbie Hoffman and a group of future Yippies managed to get into
4590-480: The United States federal government with conspiracy, crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot, and other charges related to anti- Vietnam War and countercultural protests in Chicago, Illinois during the 1968 Democratic National Convention . Presided over by Judge Julius Hoffman (no relation to Hoffman, about which he joked throughout the trial), Abbie Hoffman's courtroom antics frequently grabbed
4692-508: The Who 's performance to attempt to speak against the jailing of John Sinclair of the White Panther Party . He grabbed a microphone and yelled, "I think this is a pile of shit while John Sinclair rots in prison ..." Pete Townshend was adjusting his amplifier between songs and turned to look at Hoffman over his left shoulder. Townshend shouted "Fuck off! Fuck off my fucking stage!" and reportedly ran at Hoffman with his guitar and hit Hoffman in
4794-521: The attention of a wide-ranging American readership for the first time. In 1960, Hoffman married Sheila Karklin, and had two children, Andrew (born 1960) and Amy (1962–2007), who later went by the name Ilya. Hoffman and Karklin divorced in 1966. In 1967, he married Anita Kushner in Manhattan's Central Park . They had one son whom they named america Hoffman, deliberately using a lowercase "a". He and Kushner were effectively separated when Hoffman became
4896-418: The back, although Townshend later denied attacking Hoffman. Townshend later said that while he actually agreed with Hoffman on Sinclair's imprisonment , he would have knocked him offstage regardless of the content of his message, given that Hoffman had violated the "sanctity of the stage," i.e., the right of the band to perform uninterrupted by distractions not relevant to the show. The incident took place during
4998-683: The beaches! ... We demand the Politics of Ecstasy! ... Abandon the Creeping Meatball! ... And all the time 'Yippie! Chicago – August 25–30.'" First on a list of Yippie demands: "An immediate end to the war in Vietnam." Yippie organizers hoped that well-known musicians would participate in the Festival of Life and draw a crowd of tens if not hundreds of thousands from across the country. The city of Chicago refused to issue any permits for
5100-498: The best tradition of American civil disobedience . He quoted from Thomas Paine , "the most outspoken and farsighted of the leaders of the American Revolution : 'Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. Man has no property in man, neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow.'" Hoffman concluded: "Thomas Paine
5202-568: The counterculture, and he was undone by that. Big mistake. Hoffman lived under the name Barry Freed in Fineview, New York , near Thousand Island Park , a private resort on the St. Lawrence River . He helped coordinate an environmental campaign to preserve the St. Lawrence River. Hoffman also was the travel columnist for Crawdaddy! magazine. On September 4, 1980, he surrendered to authorities, and he appeared
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#17327836728655304-406: The creation of alternative, counterculture institutions: food co-ops ; underground newspapers and zines ; free clinics and support groups ; artist collectives ; potlatches , "swap-meets" and free stores ; organic farming / permaculture ; pirate radio , bootleg recording and public-access television ; squatting ; free schools ; etc. Yippies believed these cooperative institutions and
5406-552: The defendants and their attorneys were also convicted and sentenced for contempt of court by the judge; these convictions were also vacated after an appeal. Hoffman continued his activism into the 1970s and remains an icon of the anti-Vietnam war movement and the counterculture era . He died by suicide with a phenobarbital overdose in 1989 at age 52. Abbot Howard Hoffman was born November 30, 1936, in Worcester, Massachusetts , to Florence (née Schanberg) and John Hoffman. Hoffman
5508-591: The documentary film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and the National Geographic -produced PBS documentary based on Jared Diamond 's Guns, Germs, and Steel . He also narrated an episode of the series Lost in April 2006. In 2008, he narrated Torturing Democracy , a documentary produced by PBS which details the George W. Bush administration 's use of " enhanced interrogation techniques " in
5610-456: The environment." This flag is also mentioned in Hoffman's Steal This Book . Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin became the most famous Yippies—and bestselling authors—in part due to publicity surrounding the five-month Chicago Seven Conspiracy trial of 1969. They both used the phrase "ideology is a brain disease" to separate the Yippies from mainstream political parties that played the game by
5712-729: The event was reported around the world. After that incident, the stock exchange spent $ 20,000 (approximately equivalent to $ 183,000 in 2023) to enclose the gallery with bulletproof glass. In October 1967, David Dellinger of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam asked Jerry Rubin to help mobilize and direct a march on the Pentagon . The protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial as Dellinger and Dr. Benjamin Spock gave speeches to
5814-454: The father of the main character, Dr. Daniel Pierce, and narrated Burns' The Roosevelts: An Intimate History ; the latter saw him win his first Primetime Emmy Award . In 2019, he narrated Burns' PBS documentary Country Music . Most recently he has provided narration for a number of commercials produced by The Lincoln Project . and narrated the audiobook, Trilogy - Three True Stories of Scoundrels and Schemers by Peggy Adler , which won
5916-507: The festival and most musicians withdrew from the project. Of the rock bands who had agreed to perform, only the MC5 came to Chicago to play and their set was cut short by a clash between the audience of a couple thousand and police. Phil Ochs and several other singer-songwriters also performed during the festival. In response to the Festival of Life and other anti-war demonstrations during
6018-475: The gentiles]. You would have served Hitler better." He later added that "your idea of justice is the only obscenity in the room." Both Davis and Rubin told the judge, "This court is bullshit." When Hoffman was asked in what state he resided, he replied the "state of mind of my brothers and sisters." Other celebrities were called as "cultural witnesses" including Allen Ginsberg , Phil Ochs , Arlo Guthrie , Judy Collins , Norman Mailer and others. Hoffman closed
6120-455: The ground before guards began removing the group from the building, but news photos had been taken and the Stock Exchange "happening" quickly slid into iconic status. Once outside, the activists formed a circle, holding hands and chanting "Free! Free!" At one point, Hoffman stood in the center of the circle and lit the edge of a $ 5 bill while grinning madly, but an NYSE runner grabbed it from him, stamped on it, and said: "You're disgusting." If
6222-444: The group into the White House , the first time protesters had ever been so recognized, and they met for several hours with McGeorge Bundy . The group received wide press coverage. They mimeographed the resulting headlines and sent them to every college in the United States. He was also in a band called the Kittatinny Mountain Boys. Upon graduation from Grinnell with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature in 1964, he moved to
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#17327836728656324-413: The headlines; one day, defendants Hoffman and Rubin appeared in court dressed in judicial robes, while on another day, Hoffman was sworn in as a witness with his hand giving the finger . Judge Hoffman became the favorite courtroom target of the Chicago Seven defendants, who frequently would insult the judge to his face. Abbie Hoffman told Judge Hoffman "you are a shande fur de goyim [disgrace in front of
6426-415: The judge try LSD and offered to set him up with "a dealer he knew in Florida." (The judge was known to be headed to Florida for a post-trial vacation.) Each of the five was sentenced to five years in prison and given a $ 5,000 fine (equivalent to $ 39,000 in 2023). However, all convictions were subsequently overturned by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals . At Woodstock in 1969, Hoffman interrupted
6528-441: The last words of revolutionary patriot Nathan Hale ; meanwhile Rubin, who was wearing a matching Viet Cong flag, shouted that the police were Communists for not arresting him also. According to The Harvard Crimson : In the fifties, the most effective sanction was terror. Almost any publicity from HUAC meant the ' blacklist .' Without a chance to clear his name, a witness would suddenly find himself without friends and without
6630-426: The mass of people. From there, the group marched towards the Pentagon. As the protesters neared the Pentagon, they were met by soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division who formed a human barricade blocking the Pentagon steps. Not to be dissuaded, Hoffman vowed to levitate the Pentagon claiming he would attempt to use psychic energy to levitate the Pentagon until it would turn orange and begin to vibrate, at which time
6732-411: The money as fast as they could. Accounts of the amount of money that Hoffman and the group tossed was said to be as little as $ 30 to $ 300. Hoffman claimed to be pointing out that, metaphorically , that's what NYSE traders "were already doing." "We didn't call the press," wrote Hoffman, "At that time we really had no notion of anything called a media event ." Yet the press was quick to react and by evening
6834-405: The movie, waving a flag on the ramparts of an administration building during a campus protest that was being teargassed and crushed by state troopers. In 1987 Hoffman summed up his views: You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in
6936-855: The name. "If the press had created ' hippie ,' could not we five hatch the 'yippie'?" Abbie Hoffman wrote. Other activists associated with the Yippies include Stew Albert , Judy Gumbo , Ed Sanders , Robin Morgan , Phil Ochs , Robert M. Ockene , William Kunstler , Jonah Raskin , Wavy Gravy , Steve Conliff , Jerome Washington, John Sinclair , Jim Retherford, Dana Beal , Betty (Zaria) Andrew, Joanee Freedom, Danny Boyle, Ben Masel , Tom Forcade , Paul Watson , David Peel , Bill Weinberg, Aron Kay, Tuli Kupferberg , Jill Johnston , Daisy Deadhead, Leatrice Urbanowicz, Bob Fass , Mayer Vishner , Alice Torbush, Patrick K. Kroupa , Judy Lampe, Steve DeAngelo , Dean Tuckerman, Dennis Peron , Jim Fouratt , Steve Wessing, John Penley, Pete Wagner and Brenton Lengel. A Yippie flag
7038-402: The notion of private property, consumerism, and identification with one's work. They fed nearly 600 people a day for "free", asking only that people pass through a six-foot by six-foot square known as The Free Frame of Reference. They ran a Free Store, (where not only the goods, but the management roles were free), a Free Medical Clinic, and even a short-lived Free Bank. The Diggers evolved into
7140-437: The now-famous incident: [The] group of pranksters began throwing handfuls of one-dollar bills over the railing, laughing the entire time. (The exact number of bills is a matter of dispute; Hoffman later wrote that it was 300, while others said no more than 30 or 40 were thrown.) Some of the brokers, clerks and stock runners below laughed and waved; others jeered angrily and shook their fists. The bills barely had time to land on
7242-422: The other side of the planet. Anita Hoffman liked the word, but felt that The New York Times and other "strait-laced types" needed a more formal name to take the movement seriously. That same night she came up with Youth International Party, because it symbolized the movement and made for a good play on words. Along with the name Youth International Party, the organization was also simply called Yippie!, as in
7344-519: The part of the police there was enough wild club swinging, enough cries of hatred, enough gratuitous beating to make the conclusion inescapable that individual policemen, and lots of them, committed violent acts far in excess of the requisite force for crowd dispersal or arrest." Peter Coyote Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon ; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter , author, and narrator of films, theater, television, and audiobooks . He worked on films, such as E.T.
7446-417: The prank accomplished nothing else, it helped cement Hoffman's reputation as one of America's most outlandish and creative protestors ... the "Yippie" movement quickly became a prominent part of America's counterculture. There was a clash with police on March 22, 1968, where a large group of countercultural youths led by the Yippies descended into Grand Central Station for a "Yip-In". The night erupted into
7548-408: The richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a CIA that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home. Later that same year, Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers wrote Steal This Urine Test (published October 5, 1987), which exposed the internal contradictions of
7650-454: The rules. Hoffman and Rubin were arguably the most colorful of the seven defendants accused of criminal conspiracy and inciting to riot at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention . Hoffman and Rubin used the trial as a platform for Yippie antics—at one point, they showed up in court attired in judicial robes. The term Yippie was invented by Krassner, as well Abbie and Anita Hoffman, on New Year's Eve 1967. Paul Krassner wrote in
7752-454: The rust out") appearing in plays at San Francisco's award-winning Magic Theatre . While he was playing the lead in the world premiere of Sam Shepard 's True West , a Hollywood agent approached him, and his film career began with Die Laughing (1980). He gave supporting performances in Tell Me a Riddle (1980), Southern Comfort (1981), and as the mysterious scientist "Keys" in E.T.
7854-464: The same day on a pre-taped edition of ABC's 20/20 in an interview with Barbara Walters . Hoffman received a one-year sentence but was released after four months. In November 1986, Hoffman was arrested along with 14 others, including Amy Carter , the daughter of former President Jimmy Carter , for trespassing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst . The charges stemmed from a protest against
7956-549: The social status quo , such as advancing a pig called " Pigasus the Immortal " as a candidate for President of the United States in 1968. They have been described as a highly theatrical, anti-authoritarian , and anarchist youth movement of "symbolic politics". Since they were well known for street theater , protesting against the criminalization of cannabis in the United States with smoke-ins , and politically themed pranks , they were either ignored or denounced by many of
8058-814: The son of Ruth ( née Fidler) and Morris Cohon, an investment banker. His father was of Sephardic Jewish descent and his mother came from a working-class Ashkenazi Jewish family. Her father, trained as a rabbi in Russia, escaped being drafted into the Imperial Russian Army , and eventually ran a small candy store in the Bronx . Coyote "was raised in a highly intellectual, cultural but unreligious family", involved in left-wing politics. He grew up in Englewood, New Jersey , and graduated from Dwight Morrow High School there in 1960. Coyote later said that he
8160-444: The spotlight, allowing their stealthier comrades the anonymity they needed for their pranks. One cultural intervention that misfired was at Woodstock , with Abbie Hoffman interrupting a performance by The Who , trying to speak against the incarceration of John Sinclair , sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1969 after giving two joints to an undercover narcotics officer. Guitarist Pete Townshend used his guitar to bat Hoffman off
8262-680: The stage. The Yippies were the first on the New Left to make a point of exploiting mass media. Colorful, theatrical Yippie actions were tailored to attract media coverage and also to provide a stage where people could express the "repressed" Yippie inside them. "We believe every nonyippie is a repressed yippie," Jerry Rubin wrote in Do it! "We try to bring out the yippie in everybody." Yippies were famous for their sense of humor. Many direct actions were often satirical and elaborate pranks or put-ons. An application to levitate The Pentagon during
8364-747: The styles of Andy Warhol and Fidel Castro . Jerry Rubin dedicated Do it! not just to his girlfriend but to "Dope, Color TV, and Violent Revolution." Even when praising a form of mass culture that had earned some grudging respect from the late-'60s left— rock 'n' roll —Rubin's list of musicians who "gave us the life/beat and set us free" included not just raucous originals like Jerry Lee Lewis and Bo Diddley but Fabian and Frankie Avalon , commercial confections that most lefty rock intellectuals disdained as insufficiently authentic. In one chapter, Rubin complained that if "the white ideological left" took over, "Rock dancing would be taboo, and miniskirts , Hollywood movies and comic books would be illegal." All this from
8466-440: The suicide thing" and said that Hoffman had "numerous plans for the future." However, the coroner stood by the ruling, saying, "There is no way to take that amount of phenobarbital without intent. It was intentional and self-inflicted." His memorial service was held a week later in Worcester, Massachusetts , at Temple Emanuel , the synagogue that he attended as a child, with 1,000 friends and family members in attendance. Hoffman
8568-460: The television series Road to Avonlea , he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In addition to his movie work in more recent films such as Sphere , A Walk to Remember , and Erin Brockovich , Coyote has also appeared in many made-for-television movies and miniseries, and he does commercial voice-overs. Coyote was cast in lead roles on several television series: The 4400 in 2004 and The Inside in 2005. After The Inside
8670-405: The time of his death, Hoffman was at the height of a renewed public visibility, one of the few 1960s radicals who still commanded the attention of the media. He regularly lectured about the CIA's covert activities, including assassinations disguised as suicides. His Playboy article (October 1988) outlining the connections that constitute the " October Surprise ", brought that alleged conspiracy to
8772-451: The trial with a speech in which he quoted Abraham Lincoln , making the claim that the president himself, were he alive today, would also have been arrested in Chicago's Lincoln Park. On February 18, 1970, Hoffman and four of the other defendants (Rubin, Dellinger, Davis, and Hayden) were found guilty of intent to incite a riot while crossing state lines. All seven defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy. At sentencing, Hoffman suggested
8874-486: The war in Vietnam would end. Allen Ginsberg led Tibetan chants to assist Hoffman. Hoffman was a member of a group of defendants that became known as the Chicago Seven (originally known as the Chicago Eight), which included fellow Yippie Jerry Rubin , David Dellinger , Rennie Davis , John Froines , Lee Weiner , Tom Hayden , and Bobby Seale (before his trial was severed from the others), who were charged by
8976-483: The yippies seemed unusual because they fused the political radicalism of the New Left with the long-haired, grass-smoking lifestyle of the counterculture. Today that combination is so familiar that many people don't even realize that the protesters and the hippies initially distrusted each other. What seems most curious about the yippies today is the way they mixed hard left politics with a deep appreciation for pop culture. Abbie Hoffman announced that he wanted to combine
9078-517: Was "half black and half white inside" due to the strong influence of Susie Nelson, his family's African-American housekeeper. Coyote is the maternal uncle of librarian Jessamyn West . While a student at Grinnell College , Iowa, in 1961, Coyote was one of the organizers of a group of twelve students who traveled to Washington, D.C. during the Cuban Missile Crisis supporting President John F. Kennedy 's "peace race". Kennedy invited
9180-517: Was a prominent member of the San Francisco Haight-Ashbury counterculture community and a founding member, along with Emmett Grogan , Peter Berg , Judy Goldhaft, Kent Minault, Nina Blasenheim, David Simpson, Jane Lapiner, and Billy Murcott, of the Diggers , an anarchist group known for operating anonymously and without money. They created provocative "theater" events designed to heighten awareness of problems associated with
9282-500: Was also the author of several other books, including Vote! co-written with Rubin and Ed Sanders . Hoffman was arrested on August 28, 1973, for intent to sell and distribute cocaine. He always maintained that undercover police agents entrapped him into a drug deal and planted suitcases of cocaine in his office. In the spring of 1974, Hoffman skipped bail, underwent cosmetic surgery to alter his appearance, and hid from authorities for several years. Some believed that Hoffman made himself
9384-491: Was also unhappy about reaching middle age , combined with the fact that the liberal upheaval of the 1960s had produced a conservative backlash in the 1980s. In 1984, he had expressed dismay that the current generation of young people were not as interested in protesting and social activism as the youth had been during the 1960s. His death was officially ruled a suicide. Hoffman's fellow Chicago Seven defendant David Dellinger disputed this; he said, "I don't believe for one moment
9486-575: Was canceled, Coyote returned to The 4400 as a special guest star for their two-part season finale, then joined the cast of ABC 's series Commander in Chief as the Vice President of the United States , and the next year did a four-episode turn as Sally Field 's disreputable boyfriend in Brothers & Sisters . In 2005, Coyote served as the narrator for several prominent projects including
9588-619: Was involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and organized Liberty House, which sold items to support the civil rights movement in the southern United States. During the Vietnam War , Hoffman was an anti-war activist, using deliberately comical and theatrical tactics. In late 1966, Hoffman met with a radical community-action group called the Diggers and studied their ideology. He later returned to New York and published
9690-442: Was much overlap, social interaction and cross-pollination within these groups and the Yippies, so there was much crossover membership, as well as similar influences and intentions. "We are a people. We are a new nation," YIP's New Nation Statement said of the burgeoning hippie movement. "We want everyone to control their own life and to care for one another ... We cannot tolerate attitudes, institutions, and machines whose purpose
9792-472: Was often in direct conflict with the sensibility of the 60s American Left/peace movement: The Yippies' unorthodox approach to revolution, which emphasized spontaneity over structure, and media blitz over community organizing, put them almost as much at odds with the rest of the left as with mainstream culture. Wrote (Jerry) Rubin in the Berkeley Barb , "The worst thing you can say about a demonstration
9894-448: Was often seen at anti-war demonstrations. The flag had a black background with a five-pointed red star in the center, and a green cannabis leaf superimposed over it. When asked about the Yippie flag, an anonymous Yippie identified only as "Jung" told The New York Times that "The black is for anarchy. The red star is for our five point program . And the leaf is for marijuana, which is for getting ecologically stoned without polluting
9996-479: Was on a bad LSD trip at the time. Joe Shea , then a reporter for the Times Herald-Record , a local newspaper that covered the event on-site, said he saw the incident. He recalled that Hoffman was actually hit in the back of the head by Townshend's guitar and toppled directly into the pit in front of the stage. He does not recall any "shove" from Townshend, and discounts both men's accounts. Hoffman
10098-569: Was on the Brandeis tennis team, which was coached by journalist Bud Collins . Hoffman graduated with a B.A. in psychology in 1959. That fall, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley , where he completed coursework toward a master's degree in psychology. Soon after, he married his girlfriend Sheila Karklin in May 1960. Before his days as a leading member of the Yippie movement, Hoffman
10200-463: Was raised in a middle-class Jewish household and had two younger siblings. He was Jewish. During his school days, he became known as a troublemaker who started fights, played pranks, vandalized school property, and referred to teachers by their first names. In his second year, Hoffman was expelled from Classical High School , a now-closed public high school in Worcester. As an atheist, Hoffman wrote
10302-403: Was suicide by overdose from 150 phenobarbital tablets and liquor. Two hundred pages of handwritten notes were nearby, many detailing his moods. He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1980. He had recently changed treatment medications and was reportedly depressed when his 83-year-old mother was diagnosed with cancer (she died in 1996 at age 90). Some who were close to him claimed that he
10404-505: Was talking about this Spring day in this courtroom. A verdict of not guilty will say, 'When our country is right, keep it right; but when it is wrong, right those wrongs.'" On April 15, 1987, the jury found Hoffman and the other defendants not guilty. After his acquittal, Hoffman acted in a cameo appearance in Oliver Stone 's later-released anti- Vietnam War film, Born on the Fourth of July (1989). He essentially played himself in
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