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Collection of 3 broadsides, a promotional card, and a pamphlet manifesto published variously by the San Francisco Mime Troup and by the Diggers' Communications Company.

Title: Collection of 3 broadsides, a promotional card, and a pamphlet manifesto published variously by the San Francisco Mime Troup and by the Diggers' Communications Company.
Publication: [San Francisco : 1966-1967]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Not available - In use until 2024-01-26 - Please for assistance.	Text	Permit needed	Berg Coll m.b. Counterculture S26 1966	Schwarzman Building - Berg Collection Room 320

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Additional Authors

Description

3 broadsides, 1 card, 1 pamphlet : ill.; 15.5x11 - 28 x 22 cm

Subjects

Note

Pamphlet comprises [8] pages.
The San Francisco Mime Troupe “was founded in 1959 by R. G. Davis as a medium of expression of his divergent theatrical concepts. […] by 1961, the group transitioned to the Commedia dell'Arte format to more thoroughly comment on perceived political repression in the United States of America, the growing American Civil Rights Movement and military and covert intervention abroad. In the mid-1960s the group started to rely less on the direct Commedia dell'Arte format and transitioned into a more rambunctious, satirical style. […] The group gained significant notoriety for its free performances in Golden Gate Park and numerous altercations with law enforcement. By the early 1970s, the Troupe had earned a reputation for opposing capitalism, sexism, and war.”—From Wikipedia. Mime Troupe members, notably Emmett Grogan, Peter Coyote, and Peter Berg (later director of Planet Drum), established the counterculture, radical community action group called the Diggers.
The Communications Company (“Com/ c o”), the publishing arm of the Diggers, Haight-Ashbury’s renowned counterculture, street-theatre activists, issued broadsides alerting the Haight-Ashbery “hippy” community to events and free services, as well as providing them with information about avoiding the police, drug use, the Vietnam War, anti-draft efforts, and the fight against racism in the Haight. These broadsides were distributed free on Haight Street from January to June 1967.

Access (note)

Restricted access

Contents

“Dick Gregory (in person) Presents San Francisco Mime Troupe in A Minstrel Show or: Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel / Thursday, October 20, 1966 8:00 P.M. / Place: Town Hall […],” with pen-and ink cartoon by Victor Moscoso depicting Gregory at table, with cup of coffee, seated beside young white man in black face holding slice of watermelon; printed on cream card stock 1(10.8 x 5.5 cm.); directed by Peter Cohone (Coyote), the show was part of a cross-country tour, during which three performers were arrested in Denver for “simulated acts of perversion” and other crimes; illustrated in The San Francisco Mime Troupe: The First Ten Years, p.47.
“San Francisco poets benefit for the Diggers, January 12 8:00”; to be held at Deno & Carlo, a small bar on Vallejo Street in North Beach, San Francisco; broadside printed in black on twiltone pink stock (28x21.5cm.); designed by Richard Brautigan, and featuring illustrations of cartoon flowers and a central image of an all-seeing eye encircled by the words “!Free! We love you ! Free! We love you!,” and scattered around it the names of some of the poets, including Lew Welch, Gary Snyder, David Meltzer, Lenore Kandel, and Brautigan, who first suggested the event to the bar’s owner, Lou Marcelli, before enlisting the help of Emmett Grogan; unlisted, but one of the evening’s main attractions, was Allen Ginsberg, in town for the Human Be-In.
“Bedrock One / Music / Steve Miller Blues Band […] / Ceremonies / The radha Krishna Temple / Poetry / Richard Brautigan & / The caped Crusaders […] Produced for The Communications / Company By The Experimental / Theatre Co-Op […] / Sunday, March 5 [1967] / Minors Welcome […] / Lights / […] / Happenings / The S.F. Mime Troupe / Alan Dienstag & The Pack / The S. F. League For Sexual Freedom […] / Hosts / Warren Hinckle III / (Editor Of Ramparts) / Mary Comfort / California Hall […]”; broadside printed in black on pale green paper (28 x 21.5cm.) designed by Robert Crumb; this printing has the name “The Diggers” partially erased, in an attempt to meet their objections to being listed as supporters; event organized by Chester Anderson, co-founder of ComCo.
“Free Spring Mobilization […] Digger Poetry ReadingDigger Digger Digger / digger free poetry reading for the spring mobilization for peace / Poets: Lawrence Ferlinghtetti / Lenore Kandel / Lew Welch / Richard Brautigan / Andrew Hoyem / […] / Date: / Thursday / April 6, 1967 […] / Place: / Glide Church […] / Gestetnered by the / Communications Company UPS/ Drawing By Seurat”; with drawing of nude man with animal-like head, and with lemur-like creature draped across his back; part of the Spring Mobilization for Peace, held at the Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco on April 6, 1967. 28x21.5cm. Lists the twelve poets who read, including Richard Brautigan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lew Welch, Lenore Kandel, Andrew Hoyem, Bill Fritsch, and Ron Loewinson (sic). Illustrated with a drawing by Seurat of a naked man carrying a sheep over his shoulders.
[Peter Berg]. Trip Without A Ticket. [San Francisco: Com/co, June 1967]; comprising two, unbound, thin, blue, card sheets printed in black, each folded centrally to make an 8-page pamphlet; figures from Hieronymous Bosch paintings reproduced in black on front wrapper and accompanying text; a key Digger manifesto (“Not street-theater, the street is theater”), written anonymously by Peter Berg, and described by Digger co-founder, Emmett Grogan, as “an intelligent, perspicacious manifesto, which was […] distributed freely throughout the city. It was also mailed to different parts of the country, giving the Hun a reputation among the Tulane Drama Review Set as one of the brighter, more ingenious, radical minds involved with ‘liberating theater’ in America. The perceptive article was also an attempt at correcting the underground’s concept of the Diggers as a ‘hip Salvation Army’”; from Grogan’s Ringolevio (Little, Brown, 1972), p.300.

Call Number

Berg Coll m.b. Counterculture S26 1966

OCLC

949907230

Title

Collection of 3 broadsides, a promotional card, and a pamphlet manifesto published variously by the San Francisco Mime Troup and by the Diggers' Communications Company.

Imprint

[San Francisco : 1966-1967]

Local Note

Berg Collection copy of Trip Without A Ticket contains eleven corrections of typographic errors, in blue pen, by Digger co-founder Emmett Grogan; see Notes From A Revolution (Foggy Notion Books, 2012), p.126-127, for this copy illustrated.

Access

Restricted access: request permission in holding division.

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Added Author

Berg, Peter, 1937-2011. Author

Brautigan, Richard, 1935- Designer

Brautigan, Richard, 1935- Performer

Coyote, Peter. Director

Crumb, R. Artist

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. Performer

Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997. Performer

Gregory, Dick. Performer

Hoyem, Andrew. Performer

Hinckle, Warren. Performer

Kandel, Lenore. Performer

Meltzer, David, 1937- Performer

Moscoso, Victor. Artist

Snyder, Gary, 1930- Performer

Steve Miller Band. Performer

Welch, Lew.

Grogan, Emmett. Annotator

Grogan, Emmett. Former owner

Research Call Number

Berg Coll m.b. Counterculture S26 1966

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