The Death of Hope

[Ron Bulman]

2 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Ron,

     The scenery in the San Juan mountains around Silverton and Durango is the best of Colorado, IMO, and Silverton reminds me of the way ski towns like Aspen and Crested Butte looked back in the 60s.  (Although, I haven't been to Silverton for several years.  It has probably grown.)

I'd have to agree with you on the San Juan's W.  But I'd stretch the area east into the Rio Grande Forest, north to Ouray - "the Switzerland of America" and west to Telluride.  After the drive up from Durango to Silverton (or train ride, which I've never done) then from it down the million dollar highway (with a local in a f-150 dually ridding your ass) to Ouray, Silverton to me was kind of anticlimactic.  Pagosa Springs is nice but the springs stink, literally.  The drive from South Fork through Creede, including the Batchelor loop, the Rio Grande headwaters, on to Lake City and the Alpine loop is different but till outstanding in it's own right.  It's hard to choose a favorite area of Colorado.  From RMNP, to the Summit County area, the drive up the Colorado river from west of Pueblo to Salida, to Aspen and more.  I'm kicking myself right now for not making the trip Yet this year.  But I digress.

[W. Niederhut]

Ron,

        On the subject of Aspen and Telluride-- with apologies to the forum for straying from the subject of Bobby Kennedy III's new film-- one reason why both towns, ultimately, became jet set resorts is that they built airports-- with two of the hairiest landing strips in the world. 

Aspen Airport

 

Telluride Airport

 

 

  

  

Edited August 23, 2021 by W. Niederhut

[Ron Bulman]

On 8/23/2021 at 6:41 PM, W. Niederhut said:

Ron,

        On the subject of Aspen and Telluride-- with apologies to the forum for straying from the subject of Bobby Kennedy III's new film-- one reason why both towns, ultimately, became jet set resorts is that they built airports-- with two of the hairiest landing strips in the world. 

Aspen Airport

 

Telluride Airport

 

 

  

  

This kind of takes me back to the thread topic regarding the letter about the death of hope and the first use of fear and loathing.  From Woody Creek Colorado on 11/22/63.  Why was he there?  He said he was 22 at the time.  Not a nationally renowned or known writer at the time, raised in Kentucky, Airforce, Florida sportswriter.

What attracted him? 

Aspen/Woody Creek wasn't that accessible without a small(er) plane.  I-70 was a work in progress, the Eisenhower tunnel didn't open until 1973.  Until then it was over Loveland Pass, something I still shudder to think of in a RV much less an 18 wheeler.  The private gravel runway in Aspen opened in 1946.  The county paved one in 1956, expanded to 6000 feet in 1963.  Still, limited access for a upcoming 22 year old writer of limited funds to fly in 1963.

"no one in 500 miles I can talk to" . . . about the Death of Hope, or his Fear and Loathing".

After spending a year with them in 1965-66 in Frisco and hanging out with them, and a beatdown, he wrote Hell's Angels.  With 2/3 of the initial $15,000 from that he put down a deposit in Woody Creek on what he called Owl Farm in 1967.   An early settler among modern celebrities, who actually lived there, and hosted even Dylan.

Edited August 25, 2021 by Ron Bulman

[Ron Bulman]

This book came in Tuesday.  The first 140 pages have been outstanding, his perspective and descriptions, the sarcasm, the time.  RFK has been mentioned, importantly, in some detail but not dwelled upon.  Maybe a few quotes later. 

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72: Thompson, Hunter S.: 9781451691573: Amazon.com: Books

I found this one representative.

"I have been through three presidential elections, now, but it has been twelve years since I could look at a ballot and see a name I wanted to vote FOR.  In 1964 I refused to vote at all, and in 68' I spent half a morning in the courthouse getting an absentee ballot so I could vote, out of spite, for Dick Gregory."

I never knew, at one point George McGovern's campaign manager was Gary Hart.

 

[Ron Bulman]

I guess I'm way off topic here regarding the origin of fear and loathing but I stumbled across this totally by accident, as it popped up based on my recent browsing history.  I laughed more than once and felt the need to share it.  I think I'll watch The Rum Diaries soon.

 

[Ron Bulman]

"My next job - after getting my brother elected President of the United States - will be the political destruction of Hubert Humphrey."  RFK after the West Virginia primary in 1960.

This book, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972, in addition to Thompson's wit is fascinating not only for the political/campaign insight but historically.

I never knew Gary Hart worked on the RFK campaign in 1968, nor that he was George McGovern's national campaign manager in 1972.

"And my own head was so scrambled at the hour that I can't be sure of anything except that I had just come back from a pre dawn breakfast at the Omaha Toddle House with Jack Nicholson, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Warren Beatty and Gary Hart, McGovern's national campaign manager who had just picked up a check for roughly $40,000 gross from another one of Beatty's fund-raising spectacles."

 

[Ron Bulman]

Just getting back to this book.  Interesting for anyone coming of age at the time or already so living through it.  

I remember the George Wallace assassination attempt in the news and thinking of RFK, MLK and JFK.  That "it" was still going on in 1972.

I haven't read about Wallace in years but this brings up suspicions and questions I'd forgotten about.  Something about Bremer's apartment, his motivation.  JFK eliminated after beating Nixon.  RFK while running against him in 1968.  Then Wallace in 72.

Were "they" worried about Wallace getting too much of the far right vote as a Democrat?

Or was Bremer just another lone nut? 

Edited September 7, 2021 by Ron Bulman

[Ron Bulman]

What I remembered was a Seymour Hersh story about Nixon sending Hunt to put McGovern propaganda into Bremmer's apartment.  But the FBI was already there.  No documentation found.  But reputedly Nixon urged spreading the rumor Bremer was a McGovern supporter.

Wallace was eliminated.  Any conservative southern votes went to Nixon.

[Joseph McBride]

I liked the acerbic section of Thompson's book on my hometown, Milwaukee. Not as

funny or scathing as Lenny Bruce's chapter in his autobiography on playing Milwaukee,

but the part about Thompson getting picked up for jaywalking outside

his hotel downtown in the wee hours is indelible in capturing the deadness of that burg. Back then,

they rolled up the sidewalks on the main drag, Wisconsin Avenue, at 9 p.m. As for Bremer,

look up the footnote in ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN by Bernstein and Woodward (as they

were billed in those days) about how they investigated the possibility that the Wallace

shooting was the "ultimate [Nixon] dirty trick." They should have kept digging into what that was

about. If Wallace had stayed in the race, the odds are it would have gone into the House

of Representatives, and Nixon would have won that way anyway. But before that, he was worried

that Wallace was siphoning off a lot of his "Southern strategy" racist support.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Joseph McBride

[Ron Bulman]

Well darn it.  I read All The President's Men many years ago out of a library.  So I don't have access to the footnotes but this is interesting.  The "ultimate [Nixon] dirty trick".  I thought that happened in 1968, on his behalf by his benefactors with RFK.  Wallace did win Florida hands down in the 1972 primary though he faltered afterwards in the North.  Did he provoke a preemptive strike by a lone nut?