Lysergic acid diethylamide...LSDIt’s time to get Psychedelicized…1967This isn’t a show about the 60’s. It’s a real life culture experience made in the time it existed as such.But if you weren’t around at that time…Welcome to the land of Green Tamborine’s. Often, this set on MGM’s backlot 2 is a police precinct. After this picture, it went from a public library in Soylent Green. It would change next into the 56th Precinct in a TV series MGM made called Popi.56th Precinct…PopiThis depicts our young society back then… Tune in, turn on, and get out of Vietnam.Girlstown, Boystown, MGM High-School,Reform School, call it what you wish…we lived the Love-In lifestyle here too.“Hey…. this is better than the Universal Tour!”“Hi-LSD tram”Before drugs…James MacArthur takes a walk through the Formal GardensAfter drugs look…Formal Gardens. This overgrown path takes you from the Colonial Mansion to the Bewitching Pool. In the Twilight Zone episode-A Thing About Machines- Bartlett Finchley gets chased to his death by his Rolls Royce.Checkmate...These chess pieces won’t stop laughing…Susan Oliver gracing the stage. Esther Williams pool is located where the hut is in this photo.The Magic Bus…“I’m feeling it…it’s fantastic Dr. Barnett“Go ask Alice- before she’s ten feet tall. This White Rabbit is leading another trip down the rabbit hole. “There’s 12 of me,,,enjoy”“Is the Mad Hatter -Jimi Hendrix?”This area in front of Boystown is as big as a football field and doubles as any park U.S.AIn 1969, Elvis completed passes here in The Trouble with GirlsThis was my balcony seat when filming was taking place on this street.Another view from upstairs.– A coupleDozen Twilight Zones used this Brownstone street. Try to name them… A picture of a dressed set on the TV series Popi. I had a great adventure on the set of this short lived series starring Hector Elizondo– Hole in the FenceBook Two.Picture taken from window featured in story.My camera, a Minolta SRT 102, had a long and heavy telephoto lens on it. This enabled me to zoom in on guards or movie stars and all things in between. The size was a hindrance, bulky and awkward. So when I got chased, I cradled it in my right arm like a football, with my left arm free to straight arm any resistance. This was a major boost in my picture taking in these studios.This picture is taken from window our tripster sets flight from.Reopening of the 3rd Eye- it’s cultivated by the power of drugs like Peyote, Mushrooms and LSD. All part of this belief system. It’s still a popular method to connect to everything, both seen and unseen. San Francisco is the city of hippie origin – “How about a little Eric Burdon and the Animals about now.”“I can fly baby-this brown windowpane gave me wings”This has always been the social district.Drugs didn’t kill him…the fall did !The last ever picture of this window and building. It’s being pushed down by two bulldozers, seconds later a large cloud of dust would cover me…September 1980.
Amongst Rainbows and butterflies…
Having grown up in the 60’s, I lived this vibe. Compared to today, this was heaven. But in the the decade this film was made, Vietnam was a war our 18 year olds wanted nothing to do with. Down withWar was the catch phrase. The counter drug culture developed and Make Love-Not War protests would become common place.
16 and 17 years olds commonly had long hair. At 18, you better be in college, As Creedence Clearwater put it, your either a Fortunate Son, or you have a Bad Moon Rising. But the song that fits this time zone narrative and that put Jefferson Airplane into the stratosphere was-White Rabbit.
It was released the same time this film was made-1967. The Summer of Love. This song was an invitation to feed your head. The psychedelic generation made this song their anthem.
Grace Slick, the band’s founder, says it this way…
“In all those children’s stories, you take some kind of chemical that leads you to a great adventure.”
The Lewis Carroll story- Alice in Wonderland, was way ahead of it’s time.
Grace continues” Alice in Wonderland is blatant. “Eat Me!” She gets so high she’s too big for the room. “Drink Me!” The caterpillar is sitting on a psychedelic mushroom smoking opium!”
Grace continues “This song was about the importance of education.” “Feed your head” the climax to White Rabbit, “was meant to liberate your brain and your senses.”
The 70’s culture retained much of this color, music and passion. Cocaine became prevalent, and all these drugs could easily be found in public school. Everything Jefferson Airplane sings about and more, carried over in another very colorful decade. On the MGM backlot-The sixties and seventies blended together. Sargeant Pepper would be made in 1977. Based off the Beatles album of the Sixties. The color, pageantry, and drugs continued like some Yellow Submarine trip.
This film-The Love-Ins was made by Columbia Pictures on the MGM backlot. Why they didn’t use their own backlot confuses me. They easily have backgrounds and a fancy park at The Columbia Ranch. What’s cool- is they didn’t.
Drugs and backlot adventures go together, hand in hand. It’s a wonderland weather Alice greets you or not. I have wonderful story called White Rabbit in part 2 of Hole in the Fence, second edition, coming later this year. It involves Magic Mushrooms and a chase by MGM security, the funny thing is-I was bare foot. It started in Tarzan’s Lake and I was doing my best Tom Sawyer impression. One of my fellow trespasser friends ended up in jail as everything that could go wrong-DID!
This backlot was so fun-drugs weren’t needed. MGM is a drug. But enhancement of the senses can manifest any illusion you can imagine. It’s as if these studio backlots were intelligently designed for just this reason.
You may see a White Rabbit or two, trying to lead you down a rabbit hole. You too can experience all this enchantment, simply by following me through my…Hole in the Fence!
They called me the "phantom of the backlot." Join me on my adventures through the historic and celebrated MGM studios, in Culver City, during the height of its glory.
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Phantom of the Backlots 