Mariposa 63

Mariposa '63 - Beats, Booze, Biz!

In 1963 I was working in Toronto and spent a great deal of time at the village Corner and the Yorkville folk scene. I was hanging out with ken Danby at the new Gate of Cleve when he did the Mariposa Folk Festival Poster. In this milieu I met Ed Cowan and Jack Wall and ended up as Assistant Food Manager at the 63 Mariposa Festival in Orillia.

I worked with Wally cowan Ed's brother and we put together and suppled the several food booths that served the festival. I was staying at the crew motel as we set up the week before, and in the next room was the coolest guy I had ever met. he was from New York and did the lighting. We had a few beers together everyday. Chip had little round blue sunglasses and a young hippie wife with a baby and he knew everybody and was just cool. So the day befor the show he is looking real sad and I ask why. he says he is leaving. he broke his most important light and it cost $150.00 and he didn't have enough to pay for it. I asked if he could get it in Orillia he said yes. So we went and bought it and I charged it to the Festival. So the show went on and saved his business. That cool guy was Chip Monck one of the principle founders of the Woodstock Festival.

One of our big sponsors was Canada Dry  and their reps were great quick to buy dinners and drinks and I was friend with a couple of them for years. the week before I had a van and set up freezer space for tons of Frozen pizzas hamburger patties hotdogs etc. organizing carpenters etc.

Somewhere in this I manged to back into the TR3 of lord Athol Layton the wrestler with our rented van. He did pull up in my blind spot( it took him about 5 years to find me to sign off the insurance)

I also partied most nights, eventually making a bed in the Van. I found a neat girlfriend to share it with. the only problem was the baker delivered the fresh rolls to the van at 4 in the morning. the festival itself was a zoo.

 I remember the mayor of Orillia's introduction. Last year I said the Town is Yours. This year we would like it back!

The money rolled in from the booths so fast we ended up using my volkswagan bug as a vault. Wally and I had keys and would pick up handfuls of cash and stuff it in the back of the car under a blanket.

 I  once went into the festival office to get some change and found Irving the accountant sitting at a desk counting by stacks of money. I surprised him and he pulled a gun on me. when he saw it was me he apologized and put it away.

When it was over I helped clean up and got half my pay and was told I would get a cheque for the rest. after no cheque for a couple of weeks and getting the runaround from Wally I went to fith peg to see Jack Wall. he pleaded poor and offered me a week of free dinners and shows at the 5th Peg.

 So I had a week of having dinner with John lee hooker as he performed to a very small crowd. As it turned out Jack ripped off everybody he paid nobody. he didn't pay most performers, suppliers. I don't know how he did it, the fith peg closed and he dropped out of sight.