Wavy Gravy

Hugh Nanton Romney Jr.(born May 15, 1936), known asWavy Gravy, is an American entertainer and peaceactivistbest known for his role atWoodstock, as well as for hishippiepersona andcounterculturalbeliefs.
Romney has founded or co-founded several organizations, including the activistcommunetheHog Farm, and later, as Wavy Gravy,Camp Winnarainbowand theSeva Foundation. He founded thePhurst Church of Phunin the 1960s,a secret society of comics and clowns that aimed to support ending of theVietnam Warthrough political theater, and has adopted aclownpersona in support of his political activism, and more generally as a form of entertainment work,including as the officialclownof theGrateful Dead.
As Wavy Gravy, he has had two radio shows onSirius Satellite Radio'sJam Onstation.  A documentary film based on his life,Saint Misbehavin': The Wavy Gravy Movie, was released in late 2010 to generally positive reviews. Romney was awarded the Kate Wolf Memorial Award by theWorld Folk Music Associationin 1992.
Hugh Nanton Romney Jr. was born inEast Greenbush, New York, on May 15, 1936.His father, Hugh Romney Sr., was an architect.Romney was raised in early life inPrinceton,New Jersey, and by middle school age his family moved toWest Hartford,Connecticut.He attendedWilliam Hall High School, graduating in 1954.After high school graduation, he volunteered for theUnited States Army, serving as asign painter, to take advantage of theG.I. Bill.He was honorably discharged after 22 months.
Romney enteredBoston UniversityTheater Department in the late 1950s under theG.I. Bill,and then attended theNeighborhood Playhousefor the Theater inNew York City.
In 1958, he began reading poetry regularly atThe Gaslight CafeinGreenwich VillageinNew York City, where he eventually became the cafe's entertainment director, befriending musicians such asBob Dylan,Tom Paxton, andDave Van Ronk.He lived with Bob Dylan upstairs at 116 MacDougal Street.
His early career was managed byLenny Brucewho brought Romney to California in 1962 where he did a live recording ofHugh Romney,Third StreamHumoras the opening act forThelonious Monkat Club Renaissance in Los Angeles.
TheHog Farmcollective was established through a chain of events beginning withKen Babbshijacking theMerry Pranksters' bus,Furthur, to Mexico, which stranded theMerry Prankstersin Los Angeles.First Romney assembled a collective inNorth Hollywood, visited by musicians such asRavi ShankarandTiny Tim(whom he managed).
After moving toSunland, a suburb in theSan Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles, Romney was evicted from his one-bedroom cabin after the landlord discovered that a large group of assorted pranksters and musicians were staying there. Two hours later, a neighbor informed Romney that a nearby hog farm needed caretakers after the farmer had suffered a stroke, and Romney accepted an offer to work at the farm in exchange for rent.Local people, musicians, artists, and members of other communes began staying at the mountain-top farm.In his bookSomething Good for a Change, Gravy described this early period as a "bizarrecommunal experiment" where the "people began to outnumber the pigs".
Throughout the mid-1960s, both Romney and his wife,Bonnie Beecher, were employed in Los Angeles. He worked forColumbia Picturesteaching improvisation skills to actors.Beecher was a successful television actress, appearing in episodes ofThe Twilight Zone,Gunsmoke,Star Trek, andThe Fugitive.
By 1966, the Hog Farm had coalesced into an entertainment organization providing light shows at theShrine Exposition Hallin Los Angeles for music artists such as theGrateful Dead,Cream, andJimi Hendrix.Beginning in 1967, the collective began traveling across the country in converted school buses purchased with  money earned asextrasinOtto Preminger's feature filmSkidoo(1968).
The Hog Farm relocated to the Black Oak Ranch inLaytonville,Mendocino County, inNorthern Californiain the early 1990s.
At the firstWoodstock Festival, Romney and the Hog Farm collective accepted festival executive Stan Goldstein's offer to help with preparations.
Romney called his group the "Please Force," a reference to their non-intrusive tactics at keeping order, e.g., "Please don't do that, please do this instead". When asked by the press—who were the first to inform him that he and the rest of the Hog Farm were handling security—what kind of tools he intended to use to maintain order at the event, his response was "Cream pies andseltzer bottles"(both being traditional clown props). In Gravy's words: "They all wrote it down and I thought, 'the power of manipulating the media', ah ha!"
Romney made announcements from the concert stage throughout the festival. He later wrote in his memoir that "the reason that I got to do all those stage announcements was because of my relationship withChip Monk[sic]. Chip built the stage at Woodstock."
At theRock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's psychedelic tribute to the 1960s "I Want To Take You Higher",Romney's sleeping bag and tie-dyed false teeth were displayed. He andPaul Krassnerappeared there on the last day of the exhibit on February 28, 1998.
Romney, as Wavy Gravy after the first Woodstock, has been theMaster of Ceremoniesof, and the only person to appear on the bill of all three Woodstock festivals: the original festival in 1969, the 25thanniversaryWoodstock '94festival in 1994, and the 30thanniversaryWoodstock '99festival in 1999. On the morning of the 20th Anniversary of the Woodstock Festival, he and authorKen Keseywere interviewed onGood Morning America, live from the Bethel concert site, where he discussed his experience as the MC of the event.
At the 1969Texas International Pop Festival, two weeks after Woodstock, Romney was lying onstage, exhausted after spending hours trying to get festival-goers to put their clothes back on.  He later explained, "They had these conga drummers on the stage, and I said, 'Don't dance on the wavy gravy'. Then someone announced thatB.B. Kingwas there, and he was going to play for free. I started to get up, and I felt this hand on my shoulder and it was B.B. King. And he said, 'Are you Wavy Gravy?' and I just said, 'Yes, sir,' and he said, 'Wavy Gravy, I can work around you.' And he stood me up next to his amplifier, andJohnny Wintercomes from the other side, and they played all night long."Romney said he considered this a mystical event, and assumed Wavy Gravy as his legal name.
After frequent arrests at demonstrations, Wavy Gravy decided that his arrest would be less likely if he dressed as a clown. Romney therefore co-founded the Phurst Church of Phun,a secret society of comics and clowns dedicated to ending the Vietnam War through the use of political theater. Romney also performs more generally as a clown, including entertaining children, work that includes such traditional clown activities as joke-telling and magic tricks. As Wavy Gravy, he has served as an officialclownof theGrateful Dead.
Wavy Gravy has also been recognized for his work as acollageartist, with work presented at a solo exhibition in April 1999 at the Firehouse Gallery in New York under gallery owner Eric Gibbons.He had an exhibition, entitledWavy Gravy Retrospective(1996), at the Firehouse Gallery of Bordentown, New Jersey.
He began exploring collage in the early 1960s, and his first works were created in the period where he lived above the Gaslight in Greenwich Village; he has stated that he was inspired by aMax Ernstcollage he saw at the Bitter End, when he opened forPeter, Paul and Mary.His collage work includes larger pieces done for celebrities in theSan FranciscoBay Area.
Wavy Gravy's first appearance at an event in theNeo-Pagancommunity was at the WinterStar Symposium in 1998 withPaul Krassner.He appeared there again in 2000 withPhyllis Curott, where he joined Rev.Ivan Stangin a joint ritual of theChurch of the SubGeniusand his Church of the Cosmic Giggle.
Wavy Gravy co-founded theSeva Foundationin 1978, along with spiritual leaderRam Dassand public health expertDr. Larry Brilliant.Based inBerkeley, California, Seva Foundation is an international health organization working to build sustainable sight restoration programs in many of the globe's most under-served communities.Gravy is famous for throwing all-starbenefit concertsregularly featuring members of theGrateful Dead,Bonnie Raitt,Jackson Browne,David Crosby,Graham Nash,Ani DiFranco,Ben Harper,Elvis Costello, and many other musicians.
Gravy co-founded, with his wife, the circus and performing arts campCamp Winnarainbow, now located inLaytonville, Californianear the Hog Farm.He co-ran the camp alongside Txi Whizz (also known as Barbara Hanna), his "right-hand woman".
In September 1981 there was ananti-nuclear protest, which included trespassing, blockade, occupation, andcivil disobedienceaction atDiablo Canyon Power Plant, organized by theAbalone Alliance.Approximately 640 protesters were arrested, and Wavy Gravy andJackson Brownewere in attendance.
Browne was able to have an acoustic guitar and performed in the gymnasium atCuesta College; where the male incarcerated were being held.Gravy organized and acted as MC for a variety show there that he called the, "Tornado of Talent". Wavy arrived at the holding facility dressed in a pair of bright green coveralls. After settling into his "bunk" (a thin mattress on the gym floor) he removed the coveralls to reveal a Santa Claus suit.
Wavy Gravy ran a "Nobody for President" campaign that held a rally across from theWhite Houseon November 4, 1980, which includedYippiesand a fewanarchiststo promote the option of "none of the above"  choice on the ballot—as in, "Nobody's Perfect", "Nobody Keeps All Promises", "Nobody Should Have That Much Power", and "Who's in Washington right now working to make the world a safer place? Nobody!".After criticizingJimmy Carter,Ronald ReaganandJohn B. Anderson, the committee offered the "perfect" candidate: Nobody. "Nobody makes apple pie better than Mom. And Nobody will love you when you're down and out," Gravy told a crowd of 50 onlookers at the rally.The allusion had been used previously, in the 1932 short filmBetty Boop for President.
Gravy established the store Nobody's Business across the road from the Hog Farm.reminiscent of his "Nobody for President" campaign.
He was briefly married to a "Frenchwoman" in the early 1960s; the marriage ended in divorce.
In 1965, Wavy Gravy married the actressBonnie Jean Beecher, who later adopted the name Jahanara Romney.They have a son, born in 1971 as Howdy Do-Good Gravy Tomahawk Truckstop Romney, who has since become known as Jordan Romney.
As Wavy Gravy, he has had two radio shows onSirius Satellite Radio'sJam Onstation.
Ben & Jerry'sWavy Gravyice cream flavor is named for Romney. Until 2001,Ben & Jerry'sproduced an ice cream named "Wavy Gravy" (caramel-cashew-Brazil nutbase with a chocolate hazelnut fudge swirl and roasted almonds) which helped drive a scholarship fund for underprivileged kids to attend hisCamp Winnarainbow.