Photographer Greg Mancuso captured the Suicide Club in a massive food fight that took place in a house rented by Pierre Barral in the Glen Park District of S.F. The house was to be torn down later that week; the opportunity to completely trash a house, Three Stooges style, was simply too great for the Suicide Club to pass up.
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This event took place in April 1977 – led by Ron Unger
The Kennedy Hotel was an abandoned hotel in downtown SF
( ed. note: I helped make that ladder! – Bob )
Photo: John testing the ladder at Dave Warren’s apartment building.
John Law recalls:
The first event I organized. Dave remembered some storm tunnels he had explored as a kid. Dave, Gary and I scoped these tunnels one afternoon. We entered upstream at Mills College (all girl) in one of the tunnel inflows that Dave remembered from 35 years before. We went downstream trying to find a good place to bring a group in to the tunnels for an upstream walk culminating at the fenced in and pastoral Mills Campus. Several sections of the waterway further downstream were fenced in troughs running through residential backyards, industrial areas, and school grounds. These stretches would, after a few hundred feet or yards revert back to underground tunnel. A few spots seemed tactically possible for a group entry. We kept pushing for the bay in order to do a complete survey and perhaps find a better entry point. The closer we got to the bay the deeper the dense silt buildup along the tunnel floor became. We found ourselves in an uncovered section along the freeway, close to sea-level. Dave was 50 feet ahead of us and having a harder go of things due to his gimp leg and the necessity of walking with his cane. Leaning heavily on the cane he turned to look at Gary and me. The cane, with Dave’s full weight bearing down on it started sinking in the silt. We watched as, in slow motion Dave sank, sideways up to his armpit in mud. Gary and I were laughing so hard we were unable, for several minutes to help extricate Dave’s 240lb frame from its deep berth in the mud.
We picked an entry point in a fenced section fully enclosed inside a grade school ballpark/playground near East 14th St and 62nd St in Oakland’s most dangerous black ghetto. The tunnel went underground almost directly under the home plate. The fifty or so explorers parked their motley pack of vehicles along a tree-lined section of the ball diamond on a Saturday night. The neighborhood rarely entertained one white face, much less fifty at once. We were acutely aware of how much we stood out and some of the potential dangers we might encounter before slipping into the safety of the sewers. We drew the attention of a couple of kids as we furtively shuffled into a dark corner alongside the playing field. We were quite worried that the kids would inadvertantly expose us to their older, no doubt armed brothers. I told them exactly what we were doing. “We’re all going into the sewer and walking for miles underground”. I figured their interest in such a bizarre plan might keep them from rushing to find their friends and give us enough time to get underground before further detection. They were very interested in going with us underground. I kept putting them off as we climbed laboriously, one at a time over a fence, down rebar steps into the ankle deep water and into the safety underground. Our entry point was between and very close to two houses directly behind the ball diamond. The possibility of arousing an armed householder was quite real and we were sweating pretty badly. Gary, Bob and I were helping folks climb over the fence. The kids were going to try and come with us into the sewer. I told the kids that they could come with us if they went and got their parents permission “because of the alligators”. One kid said “there ain’t no alligators in there”. I explained about people flushing gators down the toilets and how they grew in the ideal climate of the sewers, eating rats, etc. I told them they could actually help us fend off the gators (once they had got back from getting parental OK) if they would bring back some big branches or posts to use as clubs. By then we had almost everyone in the trough and were assembling at the tunnel mouth. The kids ran off to get their clubs. We ditched them by speeding the group up into the quiet and enveloping safety of the sewer.
John Law recalls:
“I think the same day as naked cable car we did the Union Square Stunt. We parked on the bottom level of the parking lot (4th level?) in 2 or 3 funky vehicles (Dave’s beanbag seat Ford Galaxy 500, a hippy type van-Bob C’s?) There are 3 elevators. The scenes I recall were: 1). Candlelit dinner. Nicely dressed couple, red checked table cloth, Bob Shlesinger? In top hat & tails playing violin. 2). Man (who?) in easy chair attended by a boot black, a manicurist and a barber. 3). Shower scene. I was behind the shower curtain (taped across half the elevator car. Jeri Pupos (Phoenix writer), Ron Del aquila and a third person were in line waiting to shower. We were all wearing only towels. I had a shower cap on, soap on a rope and a tape recorder playing running water. Two well dressed elderly women heading for Macy’s got on the car without looking. I peaked over the shower curtain and, as they realized they were surrounded by near naked people, I told them they would have to take their clothes off and get in line if they wanted a shower. They laughed. 4). A car filled with balloons. 5). Three people bound & gagged and held at gun point by a Gorilla. 6). Flammo LeGrande with the beautiful Maureen Rowland (I think) doing the “Fountain of Flame) out the elevator doors at each level. This one got the cops called and we frantically packed everything up downstairs. We were just pulling out as the police arrived.”
Scariest thing I ever did. Many of us spent the night at Nancy Prussia’s apt. (I was dating her at the time-2 mos+/-) We got on the very 1st (6AM?) car at the Cable Car Barn. 6-8 blocks later we stripped of all clothing and the grip and brakemen on the cable car just stopped in the intersection until we were done with our photo shoot (2 photogs were waiting for us at the intersection). One carman was a small, older white guy who was shaking his head, obviously annoyed at our interrupting the even flow of his cars early morning operation. The grip was a portly, good natured black guy who, to the chagrin of his brittle partner refused to engage the cable and leave until he had had his fill of oogling the bare breasts and asses he was surrounded by. My stomach was tied in knots from the fear of embarrassment and disapproval that public nakedness would no doubt cause. Quite to the contrary, I felt as though a weight had been lifted of me along with my raincoat. I was exhilarated by the experience and came to realize that no one gave much of shit about me being naked. My petty bourgeois fear was conquered.
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John Law recalls:
“A screening of the movie starring Chuck McCann. Strange flick- one of Gary’s favorite. Ron Unger and I dressed up like McCann (white T-shirts w/smokes in sleeve, black pegged pants, greased hair. We picketed the showing at Circus of the Soul (signs, chanting, etc.) and turned away patrons saying the movie misrepresented union projectionists. Gary considered it an experiment to see if people actually tried to find out what pickets were about or simply had a knee-jerk reaction to them. Ron & I realized we were actually turning people away- they wouldn’t expend the energy to find out what it was all about. We felt bad & slacked of on the picket. This is a good example of Gary’s aesthetic directly clashing with his business efficiency!!”
John Law recalls:
“Roseanne Reynolds (Queens handmaiden at Ren-Faire) had brought a big birthday cake which read: “Happy Birthday Queen Elizabeth!” We rowed and I proceeded to climb up the outside of the the ship. We were spotted almost immediately by an ancient security guard. He called the cops. They came (several cars as I recall) and drove out onto the piers on both sides shining very bright lights at us. We paddled over to the largest bunch of cops (who seemed pretty irate) and told them we were celebrating the Queen’s B-Day. They obviously thought this was bunk until Gary and Roseanne showed them the cake. They thought that was pretty funny and let us go. ”
March 11, 1977
Baby Beautiful Contest
Here is the announcement in the first SC nooseletter in Feb 1977
John Law recalls:
Entered shill baby: Sweet Pea Sheffield: Ron & Shirley as folks, borrowed a real baby from someone. Dave W. Covered in pink Calamine lotion, paper mache head, big lolli-pop. Gary kept laughing so hard he was almost entirely useless. Adrienne, Bob C., I & others helped Dave (who was almost entirely blinded by his fake head). He tottered out onto the main stage at the War Memorial as Sweet Pee was announced by the elderly gal who was Mc-ing. He came up from behind her and everyone (mostly families) in the audience saw Dave but not the MC. I almost peed I was laughing so hard. Dave toddled past the MC (who’s hands fell to her side and jaw went slack as she comprehended Dave/Sweet Pee. Dave stumbled upstage, bumped into the table with the trophies on it almost knocking it over (a couple actually fell over but not, fortunately to the ground). It looked like he was going to fall off the stage (a drop of 4 feet at least) so we retrieved him and hightailed it out to the lobby where we shot the photos.
photos by Bob Campbell:
John Law recalls:
“We had refrigerator boxes which we cut up and used as sleds to go down the letters.”
“This event was the capper of an incredibly arduous and mind bending, adventure weekend. Big fun. This night Gary & Ron showed North by North-West at Circus of the Soul. I experienced an extreme example of a type of synesthesia while watching this film, Hitch’s “final word on the chase film”. Lying on the floor of the bookstore, stuffed into pillows and entertwined with the equally exhausted bodies of my Suicide Club comrades I realized that I was IN the movie we were watching. We had moved in one unified and non-stop comet’s arch from the incredible vistas of the GGB through the pre-parade rush of China Town, onto the colossal concrete letters of S.S.F. and straight onto the precarious crevases of Mt. Rushmore with Martin Landau trying to kick us to our death. Wheww! That night and after I felt these people where my family; it was as though I had known them forever. I was already hooked by the Suicide Club but this was the clincher.”
Rick Lasky recalls:
“I was jogging in the Richmond District near where I lived when I had a flash of inspiration. Wouldn’t it be cool to organize a treasure hunt around the city? I knew just who to take this idea to: Gary Warne. So I went to Gary’s bookstore “Circus of the Soul” and told him my idea. He said, “Rick, I’ve had the very same fantasy. Let’s do it!”
It was Gary’s crazy idea to hold it the night of the Chinese New Year’s parade in the North Beach/Chinatown area. We agreed to split the writing of the clues. Gary did the first half, I did the second half. It is amazing to me now how much cooperation we got from the businesses then. I asked the folks working at Uncle Gaylord’s ice cream parlor if they would help the week before. I gave the three clues in baggies and explained that next Saturday there would be three different teams from a treasure hunt who would ask for a banana split. They were to put a Baggie with a clue at the bottom of each banana split. To my amazement this came off without a hitch in the treasure hunt a week later. Amazing. Would never happen now.”
John Law recalls:
Small groups with different colored armbands as teams. I remember people in the crowds getting more than a little pissed at us for pushing past them to race across the parade route.
Later at pie fight: Chaotic as hell. Shirley Sheffield talking to a babyfaced MP from her hometown in South Carolina talks him into pieing her. I was watching this encounter and the chief officer (a lieutenant I believe) was, at that time standing atop a jeep/pick-up? Surveying the 50 or so pie covered nuts. He was trying to organize all into groups in some order so he could get everyone’s I.D. We were trying to be cooperative but were stupid-ineffective and silly. When he saw the young jarhead pie Shirley he literally threw his hands up in the air and a few seconds later started shouting over his bullhorn something like: Alright ALL OF YOU: get your stuff and GET OUT OF HERE. Please leave the Presidio…. Take your stuff and GO!!
The Golden Gate Bridge Dinner was created by Catherine Baker and became one of signature events that was repeated each year, the other being the Treasure Hunt
Announcement in the very first nooseletter in Feb 1977
Here is the announcement a year later for the 2nd annual dinner:
In Feb 1977, an event appeared in the first Nooseletter:
Later, this led to an multi-day actual infiltration of a Moonie encampment.
‘Moonies’ were followers of Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church, which was a well known religious cult of the 1970’s.
WHY I JOINED THE SAN FRANCISCO SUICIDE CLUB –David T. Warren
As the years slip by and I try to align each day with the passing of my life, I find myself on tenuous ground. After forty years of living, dreaming, and working to build the kind of community that I would like to live in, I find myself faced with the reality of how little I’ve done to accomplish this task. I haven’t tried. I am accompanied into the future with the lessons learned by my daily attendance in the school of hard sox. Though reality has popped my balloon I arrive at this point in time with the buoyancy to find a better way to live the remainder of my life than the way I’ve been doing it. Apparently life offers no stable, secure rounded fulfillment. Life at best is for me an untidy mess of unfinished business, broken achievements, personal failures, half-successes, short-lived triumphs, belated insights, noble desires and shameful deeds. Hopefully through the years I have accumulated a little wisdom; but for me life is incomplete and much potential remains;
it eludes my mortal grasp. Life as an ongoing state has controlled me more than I it. Like most people I’ve had my moments of breathtaking perfection, but no permanent achievement seems possible.
This may be because as a human being I am only part of any evolutionary process whose task it is to till the soil, learn the rules, build the technology and make ready for the people of the future, where necessity will require that basic human needs and wants be provided for by the collective of the community and individuals will be set free from hampering emotions of jealousy, fear, and rivalry. The fact that people will also lose their ability to hate, love, have hope, or be generous will have little effect on the world of the future that will operate with ant like
perfection into the millennia. Provided of course, that we don’t blow ourselves off the face of the earth or drown in the slime of increased pollution in the interim. For me, these alternatives are grim and bleak and leave so much to be desired that I’ve decided to become a charter member in the San Francisco Suicide Club. The only requirements are that I put my affairs in order, stop looking for satisfaction on a tomorrow that may never come, and live each day as though it were my last. With this commitment, I bequeath half of my worldly belongings to the club’s trinary garage sale, these
funds go to support the club’s bizarre activities. Going places I’ve never been and doing things I’ve never done. Maybe I’ll see you there!!
This paper is an attempt at describing the succession of stunts, parodies, and put ons that have gathered so much attention for Communiversity and,
at the same time, present the ridiculous concept of organizing principles for creating chaos, anarchy and high times. Towards this end it may also be referred to as ROBERTS RULES OF DISORDER. IT is shared
equally and for free to all comers in the hopes that you find the lost spirit of THE FEAST OF FOOLS and ALL HALLOWS EVE. When Communiversity was still at S.F. State in Sept. 1974, several of us got the idea to do a practical jokes class. This event was to signal a new era for Communiversity, the Free University Movement and many of us individually. As soon as it hit the streets we were told it (the class) was “Not educational, in poor taste and probably illegal from the sound of it.” Preliminary discussions went on among the top brass at State about withdrawing our pay checks until threats and coercion failed. At the end of the year we withdrew the school from State forming a non-profit. A hundred people signed up for the practical jokes class,making it the most popular class in the history of the school (so far).
See Class #1 on THE FRONT PAGE We filled a room with hundreds of large balloons,
covered the floor with mattresses and pillows, covered the ceiling with a parachute and waited…. Two doormen greeted the registrants, asked them to remove their shoes, picked them up, and threw them thru the door into the room. This went on for three hours- a balloon and pillow fight culminating in a whipped cream and feather fight separated the wheat from the chaff so to speak. People left hurt, pissed, creamed & feathered, and limping. The thirty people that stayed journeyed to North Beach in a Salvation Army bus and pulled five stunts. First the women put balloons in their blouses and tried to apply for jobs as topless waitresses. They wouldn’t let them in. We practiced carrying imaginary plate glass windows up the street sideways- it worked, people actually walked around us! Then we tried pan-handling the same people as they walked down the length of a block – thirty people asking for spare change-all acting as if they didn’t know each other. Then we tried giving money away- which didn’t work either. Finally we tried to buy a banana split and couldn’t come up with the money between us (30 of us that is). This one really didn’t work because we weren’t very good actors, the intersection of Columbus & Broadway was so choked with people the waiter couldn’t concentrate on us or even see clearly that we were together and the idea sounded much funnier in the room than it was in action.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. 1
DIVEST YOURSELF OF EXPECTATIONS
Make sure the people you’re doing something with can dish it out as well as take it. If it isn’t funny when it happens to them then you’ve got sadists instead of pranksters. Initiate them to be sure they have a sense of humor about themselves. Never preconceive what the reaction to an event will be like, you are sure to be disappointed. Ergo.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. II
YOU WILL NEVER BE TOTALLY IN CONTROL
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. III
BE A FOOL N OT A SADIST. YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO TAKE IT AS WELL AS DISH IT OUT.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. IV
ALLOW PEOPLE THE VALIDITY OF THEIR OWN EMOTIONS (HUMOR IS A VERY SERIOUS THING)
When you are doing what you really want to do, maybe for the first time, allow people the reality of their own emotions and the sincerity of their own responses. Don’t be shocked or bummed out if you are ignored, slugged in the mouth or arrested. People can not be expected to think your jokes are funny. Their reactions are no less valid then your own.
NATIONAL CLOWN WEEK Aug 9, 1974
Twelve clowns went into the B of A at Powell & Market singing “We’re in the money.” And tried to deposit fish, flowers, juggling balls, and comics at the tellers’ windows. The guards came and they were really MAD, they were definitely going to beat up the ring leader. I was dressed as a Keystone Cop with a giant silver badge, British Bobby Hat, cane and long blue trench coat. I ran up, blew my whistle, arrested the lead clown, and dragged him away,
rabid as he was, and this was a very scary moment- the other clowns had already run for the door- burst out laughing. We ran. It was scary but it was their territory, their values and their job- accept what ever response is- it’s real. The fact that the group broke ranks was really terrifying.
Again remember Principle #III.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. V
SOLIDARITY IS A NECESSITY
(SEE FRONT PAGE)
Every time we changed locations in the course of the evening’s bizarity we lost people. This became a stead-fast rule of entropy in future stunts. This is not good. The people need each other for energy and support, plus it is relatively dangerous to go out as a group to do stunts – anything can happen. If you’re going to start something- finish it. Corollary- Nothing’s Ever Over When You Think It Is.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. VI
PLAY IT OUT TO THE END
(ANYTHING GOES (See page One)
A disaster- it fulfilled it’s title but the people couldn’t trust one another because of the things each of them brought and did for and to each other with out knowing one another- A common purpose or focus decided beforehand is the best- even if people still can’t go through with it- it will be an inner failing rather than paranoia. Other than initiations and despite Principle #2, Agree beforehand on what you want to do.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. VII
THE MORE EXTREME THE ACT, THE MOVE EXTREME AND VARIED THE RESPONSE WILL BE.
VOYAGE TO ANOTHER PLANET (SEE FRONT PAGE)
We broke down into three groups and talked about how we imagined life on other planets. Then we blindfolded twenty-five people and took them to two unusual environments- one natural and one synthetic. We told them that when we took off their blindfolds they could not use proper nouns, names or earthly references for the sights they would witness. They had to decide what they were, why they were, what they did, as if they had never
seen them before. Confused? For example, if we took them to a street and unblindfolded them they couldn’t use the word “concrete”, “street”, “Pavement”, “road”, etc.
We took them to the Judah street tunnel under the Great Highway and took off the blindfolds in the dark. They had to walk out the seaward side as if they were just landing on another planet and “decide” what the ocean was. The descriptions, fantasies and hallucinations were utterly incredible. I will never think of the oceans in the same way ever again! Then we reblindfolded them and took them into the belly of the monster. Alcoa plaza at midnight – to Ripple’s. A bar surely from the 21st century. TV sets two feet apart all the way down to the bar with curtains on either side of them like windows- all showing the ocean beating on the shoreline (?). Eight foot motion picture screens broadcasting a band playing while people danced- the band wasn’t there though. Women taking off their clothes in view screens over the urinals – women could enter accompanied by men but men
couldn’t see what was going on in the women’s bathroom. This place was so way out on a Saturday night that no one could come up with anything farther out. JOKE CLASSES ARE LISTED ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE FRONT PAGE We ran joke classes every catalog for two years until our “DEATHSKOOL” catalog when people got too confused and we stopped for awhile. Someone had registered for every joke class we have ever run no matter how outrageous it was written. When the HARIKARI class asked them to kill themselves they politely asked if it was real or not. For DEMONIC POSSESSION we were asked in a whisper if we “had connections.” When we ranPARANOIA AS A STATE OF HIGHTENED AWARENESS we had to re-evaluate the whole concept of joke classes- a device as far as we know- that no other alternative university has used. SIXTEEN people signed up for Paranoia. These were the ones either cowardly or fun loving registrars let sign up. Many more were turned away by other registrars. Some people didn’t want ANY other class but that one and as you can imagine HATED filling out the skills exchange (a program we run in which participants signing up for the school offer their skills for barter.) If you re-read the description a couple of time I think you might agree that it’s pretty horrible. But people wanted it. People in on the joke wanted it to happen but the BIG QUESTION MARK was what kind of people had signed up for it? The joke became too real- everyone who wanted to see what the registrants were like were also afraid to offer their homes to find out! The joke became very real. Eight months later someone was moving out of their house and offered to have the class the night before they gave the keys back to the landlord. We wrote and called people, had the class and had a very intense and fantastic evening of sharingwhat we were afraid of. Our first joke had become real. An incredible reversal.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. VIII HUMOUR IS AS RELATIVE AS ANYTHING ELSE
NIGHT OF ADVENTURES DEATHSKOOL
CATALOG- SPRING 75
Description: Bring your ready to live adventures. Leave your pride at home if we think they’re either too dangerous or too boring. Must be in the borders of S.F. Twenty five people signed up for this class and three came with adventures. After we talked for awhile people started thinking up practical jokes but I was never sure if they were fantasizing them THEN or they had brought them. There was a practical jokes class in that catalog listed without a teacher but no one signed up for it (because everyone was afraid to sign up first because then they had to offer THEIR house). We planned two of the three adventures for the first night and the third would be put together later. The first-mine-was to walk through the JUDAH STREET CAR TUNNEL from Duboce Park to Cole & Carl. Half of the group went home and never came back right then. Other people didn’t want to go through the tunnel and didn’t want to go home either so they waited for us at the other end.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. IX
FEAR IS A STATE OF MIND: THE FEAR/RISK RATIO IS NOT PROPORTIONAL
Since most fears are about things that have NOT happened to us or that we haven’t experienced but have only witnessed thru media representatives or in our fantasy states- we usually don’t know what an experience is like and our fears keep us from finding out.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. X
WE HAVE MANY THINGS TO RISK BESIDES OUR LIVES
It is also possible, I won’t posit a principle here- that our adventures and fantasies are a Combination of excitement and fear and other people’s adventures are more frightening than our own because THEY have the excitement/ motivation and we don’t so we are only left with the fear. To support this I offer up that one of the people who waited outside of the tunnel was the one who organized the FUR SALE demonstration, which
terrified me and which didn’t phase him.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. XI
WE SUBCONSCIOUSLY BELIEVE WE HAVE EXPERIENCED THINGS WHEN WE HAVE ONLY WATCHED THEM. WE HAVE NOT.
CHAOTIC PRINCIPLE No. XII
WHEN WE TEST OUR FANTASIES OF OURSELVES WE FALL SHORT- SO WE DO NOT.
