
The Beat's Holy Grail: The Letter That Inspired 'On the Road' - pseudolus
https://lithub.com/the-beats-holy-grail-the-letter/
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ArtWomb
Somewhat related. But I recently discovered a documentary short from 1961.
It's about a bunch of beats and folkies protesting the right to sing in
Washington Square Park. Could have been shot yesterday, except people were
much more formally dressed back then (suits and ties abound) ;)

Apparently restored by director Martin Scorsese himself. It has a great
narrative quality in the edit. Nostalgic scenes of bygone NYC and its
denizens. With a genuine feeling of suspense as events unfold.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEvKe2WLumI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEvKe2WLumI)

~~~
rmason
That is an amazing film, it takes me right back to 1961. Not that much
different than the Detroit that I knew as a kid. Detroit before the fall.

Can you imagine a fight over folk music in a public park? In a few short years
the Beatles would change fashion and the Vietnam war would forever change for
my generation the innocence of those simpler times.

~~~
pseudolus
Greenwich Village has a radical history that stretches back many decades prior
to when when the folkies took up residence. At one time some artists decided
to secede from the USA and declared Greenwich Village to be “The Free and
Independent Republic of Washington Square” [0]. Apparently there's a staircase
inside the arch in Washington Square and you can climb to the top but I've
never seen it opened to the public as opposed to the Soldiers' and Sailors'
arch in Grand Army Plaza (Brooklyn) which is occasionally open to the public
(usually during the annual Open House New York).

[0] [https://ny.curbed.com/2017/1/24/14372316/greenwich-
village-w...](https://ny.curbed.com/2017/1/24/14372316/greenwich-village-
washington-square-arch-secession)

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UncleEntity
I always thought that Aristide Bruant's _Dans la Rue_ sounded suspiciously
familiar enough to have been an influence on Kerouac ever since I took this
class on Picasso but who knows, nobody's looked into it methinks?

...now I need to go figure out where my old beat up copy of _On the Road_
that's been to 47 US states, ten (edit: make that 14) countries and three
continents with a bunch of random things stuffed between the pages got off to.

