Hippies - Part 2

Bob Fitch

Bob Fitch (1939-2016) was not a hippie.  He was a photographer best known for covering the civil rights movement.  Above, he is perched in a telephone pole at the Mississippi Meredith March Against Fear in 1966.  But he also photographed the hippie movement.  Today's photos of hippies are all by Bob Fitch.

Fitch produced a 1967 photo book called "Hippie is Necessary."  Each photo had a title beginning with "Hippie is."  This one is called "Hippie is a Fillmore Auditorium Celebration."  The location, known as The Fillmore, is a historic auditorium in San Francisco.

Another photo also called "Hippie is a Fillmore Auditorium Celebration."

This is a different hippie celebration of some kind on Mount Tamalpais, just north of San Francisco, in 1969-1970.

This is Morningstar Commune in 1969-1970.  The hippie commune was founded in 1967 by Louis Gottlieb, in the center of the circle, on his ranch in Sonoma County, California.

Following a Time magazine story about the commune, its population swelled to 150, and a neighbor complained about open nudity and sex on the property as well as health hazards (the hippies were peeing in the creek that ran onto the neighbor's property and using the outdoors as a toilet).

The county ordered Gottlieb to disband the commune.  When he didn't, he was held in contempt of court and fined.  In a ploy to avoid the fines, Gottlieb went to the county clerk's office and deeded the property to God.  A judge ruled that God was not proven to be a person, place or thing, and therefore couldn’t take possession.  The county sent in bulldozers to level the hippies' structures, and by 1973 the commune ceased to exist.

When Morningstar Commune started running into trouble, Gottlieb's friend Bill Wheeler offered for the hippies to come to his ranch, which became another Sonoma County hippie commune.  This photo is called "Building a cabin," 1969-1970.  I cropped the photo to show detail.

This photo at the Wheeler's Ranch commune is captioned "David, an inveterate climber, on tree lookout."  But having a lookout couldn't stop Wheeler's Ranch from running into the same legal problems as Morningstar Commune after neighbors complained, and by 1973 it suffered the same fate.

In July 1973 a large group of hippies calling themselves the Rainbow Family of Living Light held a gathering in the Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming.  Bob Fitch photographed the event.  The guys on horseback are local cowboys, who are no doubt wondering what these naked people are doing.  But their initially hostile attitude changed when they found the hippies to be peaceful and friendly.

A hippie at the Rainbow Family gathering provides some flute music.

A Rainbow Family couple embrace.

Some Rainbow Family hippies engage in a group hug.  

Since then, other Rainbow Gatherings have been held in different places around the world up to the present day.  I will cover those later in my series on Events.