General Hershy Bar

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General Hershy Bar (aka Calypso Joe), was the name William "Bill" Matons used as a satirical character of the Vietnam War-era Anti-War protest movement, in parody of U.S. General Lewis B. Hershey, then Director of the Selective Service.

File:General Hershey Bar on Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grumman's Chinese Theater 1979-81.jpg
General Hershy Bar on Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grumman's Chinese Theater 1979-81

Born Wiliam Arthur Matons Sept 1906 and died October 13, 1993 (dates not verified).[1] Calypso Joe was a stage name created when he was a Calypso dancer in the 40s and 50s. Initially he used Calypso Kid.[2] Later in the 1960s he adopted General Hershy Bar. He kept the name the rest of his life, and most of the time in public he stayed 'in character' as part of his street-theater.

He was adopted and raised by Lithuanian parents who encouraged his ab-lib performing talents. He was a modern dancer and choreographer in New York in the 1930s. During the Great Depression, the NY modern dance world was influenced by the politics of the left as covered in Ellen Graf's book, Stepping Left Dance and Politics in New York City 1928-1942. Bill Matons appears on the cover of this book in the center.[3]

William, or Bill Matons danced with the Humphrey-Weidman company in New York, from 1933 to 1936 and again in 1940. He appeared in the Charles Weidman works, Ringside, Studies in Conflict, Candide (1933), Traditions (1935), and American Saga (1936) [4] as well as Americana, As Thousands Cheer, and Everywhere I Roam. He was director of the experimental unit of the New Dance League, which evolved from the Workers Dance League between 1931-1935. On July 25, 1936 at Bennington Vermont the New Dance League presented performances by Anna Sokolow, Bill Matons, Fara Lynn, and Eva Desca. [3] April 25, 1937 New Dance League presents Dances of Today at St. James Theater. Included at this show were, Songs of Protest - Lay Down Late and Sistern and Brethern, Song for Soviet Youth Day, Under the Swastika: Germans Think with Your Blood, Though we be flogged. Bill Matons appeared in 'Letter to a Policeman in Kansas City'. [3]

He was choreographer for the Lenin Peace Pageant at Madison Square Garden in 1937. Performed with Ailes Gilmour in "Adelante," a Works Progress Administration sponsored Broadway musical in 1939.[5] Adelante, a work with a Spanich theme, opened April 4, 1939 at Daly’s Theater and had 16 performances and Matins created the leading role and danced it.[5] The show included Helen Tamiris among others. Tamiris was important in the WPA Federal Dance Project and believed strongly in using dance to explore social themes.

Matons led the Experimental Dance Group in the late 1930s. His dancers included a young Rebecca Lepkoff. He choreographed for the 1939 Worlds Fair in New York, creating the dance for Railroads on Parade - Drama of Transport. The music for this was written by Kurt Weil. Weil had started the score in spring 1938. It was writen as a Circus Opera using the elements of theater music from opera to circus. Matons hired Lepkoff for the Fair show and as he could pay a decent wage, and Lepkoff used this money to buy her first camera, therby starting her photography career.[6] In 1939 Matons was still working with Doris Humphrey in the Humphrey-Weidman company. [7]

In the 40s and 50s he was performing to Calypso Singers and operating a night club in NY where he used the name Calypso Kid and then Calypso Joe. He operated a calypso night club in Honolulu in the 1950s. By 1957 he had a calypso night club act in Las Vegas.[8][9][10]

In Los Angeles he self-published several monographs and booklets using the publishing company he created, Handicap Publications. The PeaceNut cartoons were published by Handicap, showing a location of 5420 Carlton Way, Hollywood, CA.[11] Handicap Pictures was established for producing short films in “true bloody color”, as he said. Titles included, ‘President Johnson the Defoliate President’, and ‘Damn the constitution-undeclared wars-full speed ahead’ with the theme song ‘your lyin’ cheat in’ heart’ and he mentions his saying ‘give war no quarter because it ain’t worth a dime’ in one. He published his book, "kiss don't kill" in 1967 (Handicap Publications).[12] Another publicaton was "Get off your apathy!: a biography of Florence Beaumont, who burned herself instead of others! —like phony politicians", by Thomas Michael Dunphy ( aka General Wastemoreland), Handicap Publications 1968. This work also contains sections written by General Hershy Bar.[13]

The Afton Arms Apartments, 6141 Afton Place, Los Angeles CA (aka Malaga Castle

In 1972 he became the manager of an apartment building in Hollywood, CA. The 42-unit Afton Arms Apartments were built in 1924 at 6141 Place and El Centro by architect Leland Bryant. The building was the site of many important dissident activities, The Hollywood Ten and Art Kunkin's LA Free Press both used the Grand Ball room. Later in 1987, Hillel Slovak of the Red Hot Chili Peppers was found dead in his apartment there. The General renamed the building "The Happy Malaga Castle" in 1972[14]

In 1978 he was one of the participants at the first DooDah Parade, an irreverent alternative to the traditional formality of the Rose Parade in Pasadena.[15] Through the late 1970s to early 1980s he lived on Harvard Blvd in Hollywood, CA. In Hollywood he would 'perform' his anti-war guerrilla street theater for tourists to Grumman's Chinese Theater and other Hollywood Boulevard locations, including the RTD bus he got around on. He finally passed away October 13, 1993. He was usually seen partnered with General Waste More Land (aka Tom Dunphy), a parody of General William Westmoreland. The characters were common at street theater performances and demonstrations against U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. Tom Dunphy (aka General Waste More Land ) still lives in Berkeley Ca (see video below). He would great all the people on the street he met as "General" and salute often as well, which was saying that we are all Generals and so complicit in war.

File:General Hershy Bar on Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood CA 1979-81.jpg
General Hershy Bar on Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood CA 1979-81

Appearances

  • In 1969 General Hershy Bar showed up at the Altamont free concert in California where performers included the Rolling Stones. Although he was apparently a self-invited guest, the movie made of the concert shows him in full regalia, making a gesture he satirically called a navel salute, which involved placing a horizontal hand on his navel then moving his arm out horizontally. It is likely that he actually did not appear in the movie. There was a case brought by General Hershy Bar regarding the use of his image in the Altamont concert movie by the Rolling Stones. In that case he says it was not him, but General Waste More Land that appears in the movie. Details of this case are at the link below.[16]
  • He made a cameo appearance in Terry Gilliam's 1998 production of Hunter Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," in which he is shown at an outdoor festival at the point where Dr. Thompson is reciting his famous "wave" speech.
  • He also made a cameo appearance in a low-budget movie made for public access, entitled Broadcast From The Future, in which he appeared as Doctor Everest Word. (Bluemonkey Films by Martin Cohen, also starring Evonne Pizzoni, aired in 1991).
  • The characters of General Hershy Bar and General Waste More Land were made into a 1967 underground comic book called Those Lovable Peace-Nuts by William Stout.[17]
  • Photographer Richard Friedman wrote of encountering General Hershy Bar at a so-called War Is Over march in the late 1960s:

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The rally started in Washington Square and went up Fifth Avenue.... At the rally I found Phil Ochs, Paul Krassner and Abbie Hoffman. Also General Hersheybar.

  • He appeared in a music video by the LA punk band, X
  • He appeared in the 1967 movie, Something's Happening, chronicling the youth movement on the Sunset Strip in LA and in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  14. ↑ LA times article, LA times.
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  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links


List of choreographers

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