Beat Generation: Glory Days in Greenwich Village

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           GloryDays inGreenwichVillage
                THE BEAT GENERATION Fred W. McDarrah
                              S   I   G   N   E   D     O   R   I   G   I   N   A   L     P H O T O G R A P H S
                                                                Photographs ©2007 Fred W. McDarrah / Courtesy Great Modern Pictures, New York

Allen Ginsberg at Vietnam Peace Rally, Fifth Avenue, NYC, March 26, 1966

"McDarrah present, his camera flashing thru 1950s nascent subterranean counterculture, the mind-altering youth culture of the 1960s, Government blockades, psychic disillusionments of the 70s, desperate upwardly mobile graspings for personal safety in 1980s, and return to sane tragic earth beginning 1990s. McDarrah's photographs present a classic spectrum of themes parallel to alteration of U.S. consciousness."

Allen Ginsberg

1 Allen Ginsberg at Vietnam Peace Rally, 5th Ave. NYC, March 26, 1966
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All photographs in this exhibition available for purchase Order online or by telephone
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Fred W. McDarrah SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Each photograph is an original museum-quality archival silver gelatin print on fiber-based paper, created using
the finest traditional processes and materials.

Hand-printed to your order from his original negative under the direct supervision of Fred W. McDarrah.

n Hand-Signed Signed, titled and dated in ink by Fred W.
McDarrah in photograph margin just below image.
Signature, title and date visible when matted. signed example

n Limited Issue Only a small number of prints issued, each
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Glory Days in GreenwichVillage

This sample does not include signature and inscriptions

Jack Kerouac, 1958

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Fred W. McDarrah SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

BORN IN 1926, chief photographer for the Village Voice during its 1950s-70s halcyon years, Fred W. McDarrah took landmark photographs of the Beats, New York School of artists, 60s counterculture, Andy Warhol's Factory, New York politics, architecture, streetlife...the list goes on. If it happened in New York on his watch (that is, if it was happening) McDarrah was there.

McDarrah's photographs constitute our premier visual record of the New York Beat milieu. Why? First, the unparalleled number of subjects: studios to streets to bars, readings, parties, poets, jazzmen, artists. Second, McDarrah has the gift for freezing the presiding spirit of ephemeral scenes uniquely possessed by the world's elite photojournalists. Each image manages to evoke the whole Beat ethos with great veracity--and tenderness. You can't help getting nostalgic. As Cornell Capa put it: "McDarrah makes me feel that I missed something; something he lived while soaking in its flavor."
A number of individual McDarrah photographs
have already achieved icon status. As we continue to look back at the American Century and its images the importance of his work, in the broadest sense, should become increasingly evident.

GREAT MODERN PICTURES

2 Jack Kerouac Reading a Passage from "On The Road" February 15, 1959.
     A reading at the Artist's Studio. Kerouac, on ladder, arms outstretched like a Christ figure.
     Below, left to right: poets Ted Joans, Jose Garcia Villa, Allen Ginsberg, Edward Marshall,
     Gregory Corso, LeRoi Jones.

    11x14 $3,500.   16x20 $5,000.    framing available      To Order


                                Glory Days in Greenwich Village

All photographs in this exhibition available for purchase Order online or by telephone
Photographs ©2007 Fred W. McDarrah / Courtesy Great Modern Pictures, New York. Unauthorized use strictly prohibited.

Fred W. McDarrah remembers
the Beat Generation
"IT'S HARD TO remember how outrageous the Beats were when the movement was new. Jack Kerouac and his work were almost universally derided by literary critics and the public at large. Besides small groups of like-minded souls in a few enclaves in major cities-- primarily New York's Greenwich Village--there were few people who would admit to being "Beat".

"Even among
the Beats themselves there were arguments about what the term meant. It was a radical statement to proclaim yourself a member of this fraternity; at a time in American life when radicals were universally shunned.

Glory Days in Greenwich Village

Cynthia Robinson sold Fortune Cookies in the Lobby of the Living Theatre, November 28, 1960
3 Cynthia Robinson sold Beat & Hipster Fortune Cookies in the Lobby of the Living Theatre, November 28, 1960

11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order

Fred W. McDarrah
SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Dick Woods, MacDougal Street, August 2, 1959

"The public believed that a Beatnik was anybody who looked scruffy, carried a sheaf of crumpled pages and read a kooky poem that included some four-letter words. The typical Beatnik portrayed in the media never washed, slept in his clothes on the floor on a dirty mattress, begged for money--akin to a Bowery hobo.

"When the so-called "private lives" of the Beats were exposed the public was startled and outraged. Fearing these wild creatures had been turned loose to undermine and destroy public morality, the media, especially Time and Life magazines, launched an unprecedented blitz against the Beat Generation. Each week the public was alerted to the menace.

4 Dick Woods, MacDougal Street, August 2, 1959

11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order

"Here is a typical outburst from Time magazine:

'The bearded, sandaled beat likes to be with his own kind, to riffle through his quarterlies, write craggy poetry, paint crusty pictures and pursue his never-ending quest for the ultimate in sex and protest. When deterred from such pleasures by the goggle-eyed from Squaresville, the beatnik packs his pot [marijuana], shorts and bongo drums, grabs his black-hosed pony-tailed beatchick and cuts out.'

Fred W. McDarrah
SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Glory Days in Greenwich Village

5 Ronald Van Ehmsen in his Beatnik Pad, May 12, 1960

11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order


6 Allen Ginsberg and his Siamese Cat, January 9, 1960 11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500. framing available To Order	7 LeRoi Jones and Diane di Prima, Cedar Tavern, April 5, 1960 11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500. framing available To Order	8 Vincent Warren, Allen Ginsberg and Frank O'Hara, Living Theatre, Nov. 13, 1959 11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500. framing available To Order

Glory Days in
Greenwich Village

Fred W. McDarrah
SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

9 Beatnik Party, May 24, 1959
Left to right: Walter Bowe, Ahmad Abdul-Malik, Ken Davern,
Ephram Resnick, Danny Barker.

11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order

"The public never took the Beat Generation seriously, but the Beats were in fact the harbingers of great changes in the United States. They paved the way for the New Journalism of Tom Wolfe, Pete Hamill, Jack Newfield, Hunter Thompson and Gloria Steinem. The Beats' love of jazz introduced this music to mainstream America;
their interest in Eastern philosophy would encourage an entire generation to look beyond traditional American Puritanism. African-Americans, women and homosexuals were all prominent members of the Beat movement and were treated as equals.

GREAT MODERN PICTURES

Photographs ©2007 Fred W. McDarrah / Courtesy Great Modern Pictures, New York. Unauthorized use strictly prohibited.


10 Art Blakey and His Jazz Messengers The Jazz Gallery, February 6, 1960 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order	11 Allen Ginsberg Howling, the Artist's Club New Year's Eve, 1958 11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500. framing available To Order	12 Charlie Mingus, Five Spot Cafe August 22, 1962 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order

Miss Beatnik of 1959 Poses On MacDougal Street

"The Beats represented the most forward-thinking members of the community. Their attitudes, clothing, lifestyles, words and images are now part of our national consciousness. I was fortunate to be there at the beginning--and fortunate to be interested in documenting the scene.

In the late 1950's there weren't strict divisions between writers, dancers, poets and musicians. Those in the avant-garde (or anyway those who thought themselves avant-garde!) grouped together, living in the same neighborhoods, supporting each other's work by attending concerts, openings, readings and hanging out together.

13 "Miss Beatnik of 1959" Poses On MacDougal Street

11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order


14 William Morris Reading Poetry at the Caravan Cafe, May 24, 1959 11x14 $1,100. 16x20 $2,200. framing available To Order	15 Poet Denise Levertov at the Living Theatre, November 13, 1959 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order	16 Artist Ann Winter and Friends at the Caravan Cafe, 102 W. 3rd Street, NYC 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order

17 Allen Ginsberg, Lafcadio and
Peter Orlovsky, Jan. 9, 1960

11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500.
framing available To Order

  18 Charles Mingus and Kenneth Patchen,
Living Theatre, March 16, 1959

              11x14 $1,100.   16x20 $2,200.
     framing available      To Order

  19 Hugh Romney Poses in front of
William Morris Painting, May 24, 1959

                11x14 $800.   16x20 $1,400.
     framing available      To Order

"One reason that artists and writers were attracted to Greenwich Village was that rents were cheap. I lived at 304 West 14th Street and paid $46.68 a month. In 1960 Gloria and I moved to 64 Thompson Street, between Spring and Broome, in what is now Soho. We paid $55.57 per month for five rooms and a bath. I sometimes earned about $50. per week, but we could eat out for $2.00. A glass of beer at the Cedar Tavern was only 25 cents.

                                                                   Fred W. McDarrah
                                                                       SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS



                  Glory Days in Greenwich Village

   20 Margaret Randall on East 10th Street,
        September 13, 1959

        11x14 $800.   16x20 $1,400.    framing available     To Order

All photographs in this exhibition available for purchase Order online or by telephone McDarrah photographs: technical and edition data

"Another attraction
was that Greenwich Village was truly a 'village,' a small town within the larger city of New York. On weekends all of Greenwich Village congregated in Washington Square Park. Everybody knew everybody and it was like a family getting together. Painting, poetry, music, dance and off-Broadway theater were in full swing; abstract painters threw globs of paint at canvases; poets

Glory Days in Greenwich Village

Washington Square Park, September 2, 1950
21 Washington Sq. Park, September 2, 1950

11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400.
framing available To Order

shouted Beat words at enthralled crowds Everybody was 'creating' something, and no one deliberately set out to attract media attention. In those years the park was positively quaint, with the Shanty Boys playing their homemade instruments--and people folk-danced around the arch.

GREAT MODERN PICTURES

"Not that everyone thought Washington Square the ideal place for outdoor happenings. It's hard to believe but in the 1950's it was against the law to read poetry or play a folksong in the park. I guess the police didn't like to see large crowds of "undesirables." Poet William Morris was thrown into jail for daring to break this rule in 1959 when he gave an impromptu reading.

22 William Morris Reading Poetry at
      Washington Sq. Park, August 26, 1959

        11x14 $1,500.   16x20 $2,500.     framing available      To Order


             Glory Days in Greenwich Village


23 Anais Nin and Daisy Aldan, La Maison Francaise, Washington Mews, Oct. 11, 1960 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order	24 Poet Barbara Guest Waiting on a Train at the old Penn Station, October 16, 1959 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order	25 Young Women Dressed in Black at 'Rent-a-Beatnik' Party given by Stockbroker, April 1, 1960 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order


26 Art Critic James Schuyler and artist Joan Mitchell, Adolph Gottlieb Exhibition Opening Reception, R.T. French Gallery January 6, 1960 11x14 $1,100. 16x20 $2,200. framing available To Order	27 Lawrence Ferlinghetti Reading from his Poetry Book A Coney Island of the Mind Living Theatre, October 5, 1959 11x14 $1,100. 16x20 $2,200. framing available To Order	28 Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, Columbia University, April 17, 1975 11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500. framing available To Order

Photographs ©2007 Fred W. McDarrah / Courtesy Great Modern Pictures, New York. Unauthorized use strictly prohibited.

I was an intellectuals groupie at heart. In the early 1950's I went regularly to the Poetry Center of the YMHA on 92nd Street and heard all the writers and poets. When the Beat Generation arrived I was prepared! I admired their work, collected it, read it. I went everywhere taking candid snapshots along the way with an ancient Rolleicord, and later with a well-used 35mm. Nikon S2. My camera was my diary, my ticket of admission.

Fred W. McDarrah
SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Glory Days in Greenwich Village

29 Diane di Prima Reading at the Gaslight Cafe, June 18, 1959

11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500. framing available To Order

Cafe Bizarre, 106 W. 3rd Street, June 7, 1959

GREAT MODERN PICTURES

"What set me apart from the others was that I had a daytime job at the Village Voice, a recently started alternative weekly newspaper that thumbed its nose at the establishment and told its small readership all about the radical, crazy Beat Generation. In the Voice's early days of the 1950's each issue ran about twelve pages, with articles discussing art, poetry, music, film, dance and the avant-garde. I became the paper's space salesman, selling one-inch ads to small local shops and restaurants. At night and on weekends I turned into a demon Beat with a camera, eventually publishing my photographs in
the paper. Later, editor Dan Wolf, whom I had known since 1949, made me staff photographer.

30 Cafe Bizarre, 106 W. 3rd Street, June 7,1959

11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500. framing available To Order

Glory Days in Greenwich Village

31 Audience at a Greenwich Village Poetry
Reading, February 22, 1959

11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400.
framing available To Order

32 Bartender John Bodner at the Cedar Tavern,
24 University Place, May 16, 1959

11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400.
framing available To Order

33 Herbert Huncke Watches as Allen Ginsberg
Fiddles with the TV Set, January 9, 1960

11x14 $1,100. 16x20 $2,200.
framing available To Order

"Here is an entry from my journal for March 16, 1959: 'Met Gloria at Dody Muller's exhibit at the Hansa Gallery. Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso, Frank, Amram, everybody was there. It was an exciting opening and I took two rolls of pictures. Spoke to Robert Frank about showing his Kerouac film, Pull my Daisy, at the Artists' Club. Later Gloria and I had a sandwich at my house, then we went to the Living Theatre to hear Kenneth Patchen read to the jazz of Charlie Mingus. A nice crowd showed up and I took pictures as usual. From there we went to the Cedar Street Tavern and sat in a booth with Ted Joans, Lenny Horowitz, Jack Micheline and William Morris. We drank beer and goofed until 3 A.M. and then we went home.'

34 Cedar Street Tavern, 24 University Place
      October 2, 1959

        11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500.
        framing available      To Order

Glory Days in
Greenwich Village

Fred W. McDarrah
SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS


35 Frank O'Hara Reading, Living Theatre, November 2, 1959. With Ray Bremser, Ted Joans, Allen Ginsberg. 11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500. framing available To Order	36 City Lights Books, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, June 1, 1960 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order	37 Frank O'Hara Poses in front of Rodin's Sculpture St. John the Baptist Preaching Museum of Modern Art, January 20, 1960 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order


38 Jack Kerouac Composing a Poem at Fred and Gloria McDarrah's Apartment at 304 West 14 Street, December 10, 1959 11x14 $1,800. 16x20 $2,800. framing availa ble To Order	39 Allen Ginsberg Reading, Five Spot Cafe, Feb. 22, 1964 Joel Oppenheimer [in doorway], Gregory Corso and LeRoi Jones look on 11x14 $1,500. 16x20 $2,500. framing available To Order To Order	40 Ambrose Hollingworth, his vest held together with a safety pin with his friend Louise, MacDougal Street, June 21, 1959 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order To Order

GREAT MODERN PICTURES

"As the months rolled by I had enough material for a book. I had met Jack Kerouac at the 1958 New Year's Eve party held at the Artist's Club--where I took my now-famous picture of him holding a small doll. Kerouac was happy to help with my Beat anthology, contributing a spontaneous poem that he wrote in my 14th Street tenement flat. Other Beats sent poems and I included these along with my photographs of the scene. The Beat Scene was published in 1960 by Ted Wilentz of the Eighth Street Bookshop.

                                                                                     Fred W. McDarrah
                                                                                              SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

41 Jack Kerouac, Artist's Club, New Year's Eve, 1958
       11x14 $3,000.   16x20 $4,500.    framing available      To Order

               Glory Days in Greenwich Village

"In New York City the Beat movement lasted only a few years. By the mid-1960s Village cafes began to feature folk singers and the bars were jammed with tourists searching
for Beatniks.   Many writers and poets moved to the West Coast; some went toschool, a few went to prison,
others gave up the fight and disappeared.

                                                                         Fred W. McDarrah
                                                                                              SIGNED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Glory Days in Greenwich Village

William Morris' Beat Pad, 212 Sullivan Street, May 24, 1959

42 William Morris' Beatnik Pad, 212 Sullivan Street, May 24, 1959

11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order


43 The 21-year-old Cassius Clay [a/k/a Muhammad Ali] on His Way to a Poetry Reading at the Bitter End, 147 Bleecker Street, March 12, 1963 11x14 $1,800. 16x20 $2,800. framing available To Order	44 Ted Joans in front of His Self-Portrait Announcing a Poetry Reading at the Cafe Bizarre, 106 West 3rd Street, Aug. 25, 1959 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing avail able To Order	45 Painter Willem de Kooning and Sculptor John Chamberlain at the Cedar Tavern, 24 University Place September 15, 1959 11x14 $1,800. 16x20 $2,800. framing available To Order

46 Larry Rivers Playing Jazz Saxophone with fellow painter Howard Kanovitz at the
Piano, Jazz Gallery, April 24, 1960

11x14 $1,100.   16x20 $2,200.
framing available      To Order

47 Poet Brigid Murnaghan carrying her
daughter Annie into the Kettle of Fish,
114 MacDougal Street, May 10, 1959

11x14 $800.   16x20 $1,400.
framing available      To Order

48 Jazz Poet Jim Lyons with Malcolm Soule
at the Gaslight Cafe,September 21, 1959

11x14 $800.   16x20 $1,400.
framing available      To Order

                11x14 ED 100 $80

McDarrah photographs: technical and edition data

John Kerouac at a Poetry Reading, Surrounded by Fans, February 15, 1959
49 Jack Kerouac [center] during a break at a Poetry Reading,
Surrounded by Fans, February 15, 1959

11x14 $1,800. 16x20 $2,800. framing available To Order

The scene changed. The Artist's Club closed and the Cedar Tavern burned down. I began to photograph the hippies and peace demonstrations, rock stars and Andy Warhol's Factory scene. I opened up a bank account and even bought insurance. Gloria and I married, raised two sons, put them through college, became grandparents, produced a dozen books and bought a cottage in the country..we're part of the establishment now, but I'll never admit it!"

Excerpted from Beat Generation: Glory Days in
Greenwich Village by Fred W. McDarrah and
Gloria S. McDarrah, Schirmer Books, 1996

Glory Days in Greenwich Village

"I saw a white horse standing

In an abandoned store front

I knew the mystery of the east

I heard that dog barking behind the mangy door

He was guarding the door nobody wanted..."

--From a poem written by Jack Kerouac, Albert Saijo, Lew Welch
at Fred & Gloria McDarrah's West 14th Street apartment,
December 10, 1959

GREAT MODERN PICTURES

Party Guests Sit under Graffiti 'Le Sang des Poetes,' July 25, 1959

50 Party Guests Sit under Graffiti "Le Sang des Poetes"
      scrawled on the wall by Nicoll Welsh, July 25, 1959

        11x14 $800.   16x20 $1,400.
        framing available      To Order


51 Bob Dylan, Sheridan Square Park, January 22, 1965. This classic Dylan photograph was first published in an article entitled "Brecht of the Juke Box, Poet of the Electric Guitar" in the Village Voice. 11x14 $3,000. 16x20 $4,500. framing available To Order	52 Bob Lubin and William Morris in front of 22 Greenwich Ave, the first Village Voice office, August 21, 1959. The cobblestones are now covered with asphalt. 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order	53 The White Horse Tavern, 567 Hudson Street, Oct. 16, 1960. An important literary site, the White Horse achieved international status as Dylan Thomas's bar. 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order To Order


54 William S. Burroughs at a Grove Press Book Party, December 22, 1964 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order	55 Allen Ginsberg's Refrigerator with pictures of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire, 170 East 2nd Street, Jan. 9, 1960 11x14 $800. 16x20 $1,400. framing available To Order	56 The Beat Poetry Book Rack, Paperback Book Gallery, 90 West 3rd Street, November 19, 1960 11x14 $800. 16x20 1,400. framing available To Order

GREAT MODERN PICTURES
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Muhammad Ali, 1963

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