48 Fun Facts About Hippie

From which older slang word did the term "hippie" derive?

Hippie derived from hipster, 1940s jive slang for someone hip and in the know; by 1965 San Francisco journalists were applying the diminutive to the city's young bohemians.

Which San Francisco district became the centre of hippie culture?

Haight-Ashbury, with its cheap Victorian flats near Golden Gate Park, housed around 15,000 hippies by June 1966.

Whose September 1965 San Francisco Examiner article was the first West Coast use of "hippie" in print?

Michael Fallon, writing in the San Francisco Examiner in September 1965, used 'hippie' for the young bohemians around the Blue Unicorn coffeehouse.

Which earlier movement did the hippies inherit their tradition of cultural dissent from?

The Beat Generation of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs supplied the hippies' tradition of dissent; Ginsberg himself crossed over to become a fixture of hippie and anti-war gatherings.

Which gathering in Golden Gate Park on January 14, 1967, drew 20,000 to 30,000 hippies?

The Human Be-In on January 14, 1967 filled the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park with 20,000 to 30,000 people, with Allen Ginsberg chanting mantras and Jefferson Airplane among the bands.

What name was given to the 1967 season when 100,000 young people descended on San Francisco?

The Summer of Love brought as many as 100,000 young people to San Francisco in 1967; local groups formed the Council for the Summer of Love to feed and house them.

Whose hit song urged listeners heading to San Francisco to wear flowers in their hair?

Scott McKenzie's 'San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)', written by John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas, reached No. 4 in the US and No. 1 in the UK in 1967.

Which June 1967 festival introduced the rock festival format to a wide audience?

Monterey International Pop, held June 16-18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, showcased Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the Who to tens of thousands and set the template for rock festivals.

Which novelist led the Merry Pranksters on their bus trips?

Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, led the Merry Pranksters from his La Honda, California base and staged the Acid Tests of 1965-66.

What was the name of the Merry Pranksters' famous school bus?

Furthur, a 1939 International Harvester school bus painted in Day-Glo colours, carried the Pranksters from California to New York in 1964 with Neal Cassady driving.

Which Tom Wolfe book chronicled Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters?

It remains one of the enduring literary artefacts of the era.

Which band, first billed as the Warlocks, played the Acid Tests as high as the audience?

The Grateful Dead, who had gigged as the Warlocks in 1965, served as the Acid Tests' house band and released their debut album in 1967.

Which Nevada mining-town venue hosted the 1965 'Red Dog Experience' with the Charlatans and Big Brother?

The Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada, hosted the summer-1965 'Red Dog Experience', where the Charlatans played in Old West dress and Bill Ham staged his first primitive light shows.

Which chemist supplied much of the LSD behind the early San Francisco scene?

He lived in Berkeley in 1965 and helped organise the Trips Festival.

On what date did California make LSD illegal, prompting the Love Pageant Rally?

October 6, 1966 was the day California's LSD ban took effect; the Love Pageant Rally in the Panhandle that afternoon was staged to show users were neither criminals nor mentally ill.

Which street-theatre group ran free stores and declared the 'death of the hippie' in 1967?

They named themselves after the 17th-century English Diggers led by Gerrard Winstanley.

Which promoter turned the Family Dog into Family Dog Productions and ran the Avalon Ballroom?

Chet Helms ran Family Dog Productions at the Avalon Ballroom from 1966, promoting its dances with psychedelic poster art, while Bill Graham ran the rival Fillmore.

Which 1966 Los Angeles clashes over a 10 p.m. loitering law inspired 'For What It's Worth'?

The Sunset Strip curfew riots of November 1966, centred on the Pandora's Box club, prompted Stephen Stills to write Buffalo Springfield's 'For What It's Worth'; Peter Fonda was among those detained.

Which magazine's July 7, 1967 cover story was titled "The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture"?

Time magazine's July 7, 1967 cover story ran under the headline 'The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture' and quoted a hippie code beginning 'Do your own thing'.

Which Beatle visited the Haight, found it 'a haven for dropouts' and gave up LSD?

George Harrison walked through the district in August 1967 expecting enlightened artists but found, in his words, 'a haven for dropouts'; he gave up LSD soon after.

Which political offshoot, led by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, nominated a pig for president in 1968?

The Yippies (Youth International Party), founded by Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Paul Krassner, ran a pig named Pigasus for president outside the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.

Which Berkeley plot, planted by hippies in 1969, was ordered destroyed by Governor Reagan?

People's Park, built by activists on a vacant university-owned lot in April 1969, was fenced off on Reagan's orders; after 'Bloody Thursday' the National Guard occupied Berkeley for two weeks.

Which commune, led by Wavy Gravy, provided security at Woodstock?

The Hog Farm, the commune led by Hugh 'Wavy Gravy' Romney, ran Woodstock's 'Please Force' security and a free kitchen serving granola to the crowd.

Which December 1969 festival, 'Woodstock West', ended in a fatal stabbing by Hells Angels?

The Altamont Free Concert at a speedway east of San Francisco on December 6, 1969 ended with Hells Angel Alan Passaro stabbing 18-year-old Meredith Hunter during the Rolling Stones' set.

Roughly what share of the US population were 'core visible hippies' in 1968?

The subculture dwindled by the mid-1970s even as its style went mainstream.

Which Beatles song is cited as expressing the gentle hippie ideology of peace and personal freedom?

'All You Need Is Love', premiered on the Our World global TV broadcast on June 25, 1967 and a No. 1 hit that summer, is the song most often cited for the hippie creed of peace and personal freedom.

Which German youth movement of the 1890s-1900s is regarded as a 'proto-hippie' precursor?

Der Wandervogel ('wandering bird'), founded in Berlin's Steglitz district in 1896, rejected industrial city life for folk song, hiking and loose dress; some members emigrated to California and opened early health-food stores.

Which 1948 Nat King Cole hit was inspired by a group of California back-to-the-land bohemians?

'Nature Boy', a No. 1 hit for Nat King Cole in 1948, was written by eden ahbez, himself one of the long-haired Southern California 'Nature Boys' who lived on raw food.

Which psychologist founded the League for Spiritual Discovery, declaring LSD its sacrament?

Timothy Leary, the Harvard psychologist dismissed in 1963, founded the League for Spiritual Discovery in 1966, hoping a freedom-of-religion defence would keep LSD legal for members; it failed.

Which Beatles song was inspired by the 1964 manual The Psychedelic Experience?

'Tomorrow Never Knows', which closes Revolver (1966), opens with Lennon's line 'Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream', lifted from the book's adaptation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Which San Francisco State professor's 'Monday Night Class' led to The Farm commune?

Stephen Gaskin's Monday Night Class, begun at San Francisco State in 1967, grew to over a thousand listeners; in 1971 he led a bus caravan to Tennessee to found The Farm near Summertown.

Which two Indian destinations drew the biggest hippie crowds at the end of the overland Hippie trail?

Goa and Kovalam, beach destinations on India's west and south-west coasts, were where overland travellers from Europe ended up in the late 1960s and 1970s, Goa's Anjuna beach becoming a hippie colony.

What is the name of the Kathmandu hangout, near Durbar Square, where hippies congregated?

Freak Street, Jhochhen Tole in Nepal Bhasa, runs south from Kathmandu's Durbar Square and filled with cheap lodges and government-licensed hashish shops for overland travellers in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The peace symbol adopted by hippies was originally designed as a logo for which British organisation?

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament adopted Gerald Holtom's 1958 design, which sets the semaphore letters N and D inside a circle, for the first Aldermaston march.

Which underground comic anthology launched the work of Robert Crumb and others?

Zap Comix, first issued by Robert Crumb in San Francisco in 1968 and hawked from a baby carriage on the street, launched underground comix; later issues added S. Clay Wilson, Rick Griffin and Victor Moscoso.

Which art styles inspired the San Francisco psychedelic posters of Rick Griffin and Wes Wilson?

Art Nouveau, Victoriana, Dada and pop art fed the posters: Wes Wilson's melting lettering drew on Vienna Secession type, and the style flourished from about 1966 to 1972.

What ingredients did light-show artists put between convex lenses on overhead projectors?

Oil and dye in an emulsion, squeezed between convex lenses on overhead projectors, produced the bubbling blobs of liquid light shows that pulsed to the music alongside slides and film loops.

Which musical about the hippie counterculture premiered off-Broadway in 1967?

Hair, the 'American tribal love-rock musical', opened at Joseph Papp's Public Theater in October 1967 and moved to Broadway in April 1968, where it ran for 1,750 performances.

Which 1968 presidential candidate persuaded young supporters to shave and dress neatly?

Eugene McCarthy's anti-war campaign asked student volunteers to go 'Clean for Gene', shaving beards and cutting hair before canvassing New Hampshire, where he nearly beat Lyndon Johnson in March 1968.

Which Australian town hosted the 1973 Aquarius Festival and the MardiGrass cannabis rally?

Nimbin, in the hills of northern New South Wales, hosted the Aquarius Festival in May 1973; many attendees stayed on, making it Australia's counterculture capital, and MardiGrass began there in 1993.

Which 1990s term described hippies who embraced New Age beliefs, tech and electronic music?

Zippie was popularised by a May 1994 Wired cover story, 'Here Come the Zippies!', about British ravers who fused New Age spirituality with computers and techno.

Which festival, begun at a 1986 San Francisco beach party, grew into a Nevada desert city?

Burning Man began when Larry Harvey and Jerry James burned a wooden figure on San Francisco's Baker Beach in June 1986; from 1990 it moved to Nevada's Black Rock Desert as the temporary Black Rock City.

Which two authors argue that the personal computer and the internet have roots in the hippie ethos?

Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, and John Markoff, author of What the Dormouse Said (2005), both trace the personal computer and the internet to the counterculture around Stanford and Berkeley.

Which Coen Brothers character inspired the mock-serious 'Dudeist' philosophy?

Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski, the bathrobe-wearing slacker Jeff Bridges plays in The Big Lebowski (1998), inspired Dudeism, founded in 2005 by Oliver Benjamin as the Church of the Latter-Day Dude.

Which Norman Mailer piece in The Village Voice used the word 'hippies' as early as April 1961?

Mailer's 'An Open Letter to JFK and Fidel Castro', printed in The Village Voice in April 1961, used 'hippies' for the hip young; Malcolm X's autobiography says the word described a kind of white man in 1940s Harlem.

Which LA boutique owner has been called 'perhaps the first hippie anywhere'?

His 'freakers' danced at Sunset Strip clubs and toured with the Byrds in 1965.

What were Mexican hippies known as, forming a movement called La Onda?

Jipitecas, Mexico's hippies, gathered in huge numbers at the Avándaro rock festival of September 1971, the high point of the La Onda ('the Wave') counterculture.

Which couple first organized the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in 1963, around which a hippie lifestyle grew?

Phyllis and Ron Patterson staged the first Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Los Angeles in 1963 as a fundraiser for listener-supported radio station KPFK; craftspeople and performers then travelled between its southern and northern California sites.