For nearly a hundred years, Chicago had been a rallying site for Chelsea denizens--for the 1886 Haymarket Riots, the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and now the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Here, Abbie, Jerry Rubin, Ginsberg Ed Sanders, and others declared, Yippies would "take over America" and "bring the war home."
Abbie and Jerry Rubin began planning a "celebration of life" for Chicago, as an alternative to Democrats' "celebration of death." After a meeting with them in his Chelsea Hotel room, Country Joe MacDonald agreed to sing his "Vietnam Rag" there without pay--but, like many other musicians and social activists, he started to back out when Chicago started to look like a potential bloodbath.
Despite the potential for violence, Chelsea alumni, friends and residents moved almost en masse to Chicago that August. Abbie, Terry Southern, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Ed Sanders, Phil Ochs, Arthur Miller, and dozens more lesser lights led thousands of young protesters to Chicago. In a way,
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was there, too since, on her instructions, following her death in 1964 her ashes had been interred near the graves of the Haymarket martyrs whose Chicago executions had radicalized Chelsea resident William Dean Howells nearly a century before.
In the end, the celebration of life failed to prevent Mayor Daley from unleashing his police on the demonstrators. As Arthur Miller wrote, "Chicago, 1968, buried the Democratic Party and the nearly forty years of what was euphemistically called its philosophy." Humphrey might as well have read his concession speech to Richard Nixon then. Chelsea alumnus Phil Ochs expressed the general Chelsea Hotel sentiment on the cover of his 1969 album, "Rehearsals for Retirement." It portrayed a tombstone with the words, "Phil Ochs (American), Born: El Paso Texas, 1940, Died: Chicago, Illinois, 1968."
Abbie Hoffman and seven others were charged under the new Interstate Riot Act with crossing state lines with the intention of inciting a riot, but the Chicago courtroom became Abbie's greatest stage. In fact the trial was later adapted for stage and film, with William Burroughs playing the judge in one production. Country Joe MacDonald's description at the trial of his meeting with Abbie at the Chelsea provided some great entertainment as well.
By 1970, the Yippies had branches in at least 70 cities, all dedicated to cultural disruption. Abbie, in his long-time role as caretaker to the outsider community in New York, regularly referred people in need of shelter to the Chelsea Hotel--such as the artist Vali Myers--and after 1972 often stayed there himself with his wife and their son, america.
Law enforcement never stopped pursuing Abbie, though, and the Rockefeller Drug Laws finally got him. Two weeks before they went into effect, he'd been involved in a lawsuit that forced the NYC Police Department to destroy intelligence files on a million people. The evening that the new drug laws went into effect, Abbie was charged with intent to sell and distribute cocaine--a charge that now carried a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life. After six weeks in the Tombs, he was released on bail, and spent a quiet, happy Christmas Eve at the Chelsea. A few weeks later, he skipped bail and went underground, where he would stay for the next six years.
Back at the Chelsea, Abbie's family waited, supported by a sympathetic Stanley Bard. Even while
underground, Abbie continued to agitate on behalf of the environment and other social issues whenever he could. But in 1989, depression overtook him. He died from a massive dose of phenobarbitol and alcohol and was found, alone in bed, his hands tightly clasped around his face. He was 52 years old. -- Sherill Tippins
Recent Comments