BE-IN - 1967 - Central Park, New York - The Lost Ektachrome Footage - Easter Sunday

Prelude to the Summer of Love. NYC happening in Sheep Meadow. Original unedited raw camera footage. Kodak Ektachrome 80 ∆O S•aftey Film (1966 Rochester) Music, sound effects and ambient vocals added by T.S. "Zak" Brown.
Do you remember? Did you see beyond the horizon? Did you taste that great experiment, that anticipation of transcendence? Were you in the park with thousands of new friends? Did you feel the wonder, the kinship, the possibility of endless love? Who were these freaks - what became of them? No one could forget opening the door to passion, purpose and aimless hope. This happened moments before the summer of love - in fact, it opened the door. It was a kick in the pants, a feathered tickle, a contrast to conformity, and and unexpected doorway. It touched something at the edge of conscious being, like a beckoning to become something wild and free. If you were there, you old boomer you, and can make a video response, I'd love to cut it into an expanded version. Send it in, let me know - for it seems the world is on a different (bad craziness) timeline, and it is high time, yes, high time, we switched it back to what it would, could and should be.
From Wikipedia: The Easter 1967 be-in was organized by Jim Fouratt an actor, Paul Williams editor of Crawdaddy! magazine, Susan Hartnett head of the Experiments in Art and Technology organization and Chilean poet and playwright Claudio Badal. With a budget of $250 they printed 3,000 posters and 40,000 small notices designed by Peter Max and distributed them around the city. The Police and Parks Departments quietly and unofficially cooperated with the organizers. An estimated 10,065 people participated in the event at the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. The majority of participants were hippies. They were joined by families who had attended the Easter Parade and members of the Spanish community who were notified of the event by Spanish language posters. The New York Times described them as “poets from the Bronx, dropouts from the East Village, interior decorators from the East Side, teachers from the West Side and teeny boppers from Long Island” and said that “they wore carnation petals and paper stars and tiny mirrors on foreheads, paint around the mouth and cheeks, flowering bedsheets, buttons and tights”. The event was guarded by small number of police. At 6:45 a.m. the first police car arrived. The car was covered with flowers while the crowd chanted of “daffodil power” at which point the police quickly retreated. While police held their distance most of the day, 5 officers did approach two nude participants, at which point the officers were surrounded while the crowd chanted “We love cops/"Turn on cops”. The situation was defused when the crowd at the urging of other participants backed off. At 7:30 at night the police beamed lights on the group and used bullhorns to tell participants to disperse. Again the police were rushed by participants. Following a brief period of tension the police decided to let the event continue. Black and white film footage from this event appears in the 1972 film Ciao! Manhattan.
Digital transfer, color timing, garage band music, SFX, and ambient sounds added by T.S. "Zak" Brown / eidolonmedia.com
Footage salvaged at garage sale in 1999, Chicago, Ill. Developer's imprint on leader: Nestingen, 30 Mar 1967

[@arthurg8]

I was being trained to go to Viet Nam back then. When I returned in 1969, I had a lot of good times in that park. The people were friendly, not a bunch of snubs. They were people from all walks of life who came together to have some fun.

[@robertwilkens8218]

I was there and recorded 55 mins.of excellent high quality audio that was used as the sound track for the Easter Sunday Be - In Film Festival presented by Michael Weiner in NYC....April & May 1967.....are any of the original " film makers " still around ?..Bill Lenahan...Donovan Thesenga....John Kelly...Howard Everngam and of course Michael Weiner.....Thanks.....RW

[@horofhay]

It was an extraordinary moment to come of age in NYC.

[@wildbill3638]

I'm in this video,minute 9.57 for about 3 seconds.Here we are almost 53 years later...quite a capture in time.

[@EidolonMedia]

This is exactly why I posted this video. Thanks for being there.

[@duran007fan5]

Are you the one in the red and black jacket?

[@wildbill3638]

@@duran007fan5 I was the kid with the black glasses at 09:56 back of my head then turned side profile. I was 13 years old.

[@wildbill3638]

@@duran007fan5 Blue pea coat,red turtle neck,scarf and black glasses.

[@capt.rickenbacker6539]

I was there. Was hoping to see someone/anyone I recognized in this but that didn't happen.

[@drynerson]

I was there, aged 11!

[@EidolonMedia]

I wasn't. I was five, spooning up Quisp.

[@wildbill3638]

I was there...

[@wyatt_kincaid]

This event took place 50 years ago today (March 26, 1967)

[@TheRhNegative]

Wow...intense. Looks just like yesterday!!! Love the footwear fashions of the day, too. What is really cool about this is: The beautiful young ladies are not displaying their behinds and their boob jobs and their nose jobs, false eyelashes, claw-like fingernails, overdone-makeup and sporting designer bags. Everyone is "au naturel". And its beautiful!

[@ACooke108]

Wow. I should have gone. A short train ride from Stamford, CT. Age 15 at the time.

[@drelio7697]

This is really the first earth day.

[@richardweingarten3924]

I would like to have been there.

[@WhiteCamry]

Any idea whose camera this was?

[@alexcastro7339]

Never realized NYC was 100% white back then.. 😆

[@EidolonMedia]

All the rest had figured this out already. Also, a steam of people arrived from the Easter Parade, and who would those folks be? Kind of explains some of the bafflements burst that day.

[@alexcastro7339]

@@EidolonMedia Couldn't be because the chasm between black and white culture was the size of the grand canyon back then, could it? 🙂

[@EidolonMedia]

@@alexcastro7339 LSD is a white crystal, but with a similar destination to the native ganja. Squares wanted doses on Easter Sunday. Is that not amusing enough?

[@alexcastro7339]

@@EidolonMedia no

[@alexolivo4565]

Was this film taken after Groovy and Linda were beaten to death in a East Village basement? I did a five year bid after stabbing to death some asshole in Sheep's Meadow, 1993.

[@acerkrt]

Alex Olivo 93 the meadow 93 .The year of the Skeloton blotters.

[@factenter6787]

Alex Olivo No that happened in October. This film was made in March.

[@denimcowboy501]

A Generation Lost in Space. What a mess.

[@wildbill3638]

Speak for yourself Hoss...I never had a lost moment in my life.