Tripping in Hollywood Hills

email this story
read comments (32)
post a comment

There's a fascinating article in the August Vanity Fair (i.e., the Angelina Jolie cover) about the early days of professionally-supervised LSD therapy among the Hollywood elite, with samplers including Cary Grant, Sidney Lumet, Esther Williams and Betsy Drake, beginning in 1958.

This was two or three years before the Harvard University LSD experiments with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, and seven years before various rock stars (including the Beatles) first began to drop, and nine or ten years before LSD began to catch on with adventurous middle-class youths in the cities and well-to-do suburbs.

It's a carefully sculpted, touchingly written piece (particularly with quotes from the first-timers' experiences, which in some cases were quite illuminating and even profound). The article doesn't appear to be an excerpt from a book. The authors are Carl Beauchamp and Judy Balaban. Consider the opening four paragraphs:

"Our story is set in the years before Mad Men, when Eisenhower was in the White House and America had only 48 states. Our stage is Beverly Hills, still a small town in 1958, where movie stars and other entertainment-industry figures led active but traditional, even somewhat constrained social lives.

"There was a zone of privacy in that time and place we can't begin to imagine today. Money, emotional traumas, and personal doubts were simply not discussed, even by the closest of friends. Appearances were accepted as reality, so people kept very busy making sure every aspect of their lives looked correct.

"That didn't mean having the most lavish house, the heftiest jewels, or the largest private plane, as it came to in later decades. It did mean dressing, behaving and speaking appropriately; appearing to be happily married, in love, or looking for love en route to marriage; not complaining about one's career or annual income; and being enormously ambitious without evidencing any ambition whatsover.

"Evenings were just as circumspect. Dinners were small A-list gatherings at Chasen's, Romanoff's, Don the Beachcomber, or poolside barbecues at private homes. The most visible scandals arose when dancing partners who were married -- but not to each other -- indulged in excessive caresses or when someone (almost always a man) drank too much, though boozy belligerence and even outright drunkenness were rare to invisible.

"Almost everyone smoked carton-loads of regular cigarettes, but a 'joint' was a body part of a lower-class dive. If people were 'doing lines,' you'd have guessed they were writing screenplay dialogue or song lyrics. And if you mentioned 'acid,' you'd mean citrus juice or a stomach problem.

"Nobody in Hollywood -- or almost anywhere else in the United States -- had ever heard of LSD, or lysergic acid diathylamide. Timothy Leary wouldn't even pop his first mushroom until 1960. So it was very out of character that against this background a group of more than 100 Hollywood-establishment types began ingesting little azure pills that resembled cake decorations as an adjunct to psychotherapy."

Dog Yummies<< previous | next >>"Some Place I've Never Been"

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 2, 2010 at 9:04 AM

comment #1

Travis Crabtree says ...

"Now you listen to me, I'm an advertising man, not a red herring.... and I can hear colors."

Posted by Travis Crabtree at July 2, 2010 9:58 AM

comment #2

Jeffrey Wells says ...

That's funny.

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at July 2, 2010 10:15 AM

comment #3

George Prager says ...

I'm going to have to buy this magazine now and I HATE Vanity Fair. There's always some endless story about some Italian shoe heiress who thinks the Girls Gone Wild guy is "misunderstood".

And then there is this excellent book::

Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
http://www.amazon.com/Storming-Heaven-LSD-American-Dream/dp/0802135870/

Posted by George Prager at July 2, 2010 10:29 AM

comment #4

Jeffrey Wells says ...

I've read "Storming Heaven" -- it's really quite a thorough history, passionately written, the whole cultural journey chapter-and-verse -- and have recommended it to many people.

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at July 2, 2010 10:33 AM

comment #5

lazarus says ...

"No. No, Mother, I have not been drinking. No. No. These two men, they put a tab of LSD on my tongue. No, they didn't give me a glowstick."

Posted by lazarus at July 2, 2010 10:34 AM

comment #6

lazarus says ...

"That's funny, that man's seein' dragons where there ain't no dragons."

I could do this all day.

Posted by lazarus at July 2, 2010 10:35 AM

comment #7

Travis Crabtree says ...

lazarus for the win!

Posted by Travis Crabtree at July 2, 2010 10:40 AM

comment #8

Travis Crabtree says ...

(for the dragon one)

Posted by Travis Crabtree at July 2, 2010 10:41 AM

comment #9

Hip Hop Homey says ...

I got dosed at a party years ago. My one and only "trip." Walking home that night, I saw a monster floating down the middle of the street with fire coming out of every pour. I didn't realize until later that it was a sandworm and that I had tried to climb and ride the beast.

True story.

Posted by Hip Hop Homey at July 2, 2010 11:00 AM

comment #10

lazarus says ...

On that note:

"How goes a girl like you get to be a gigantic praying mantis?"

I should probably have quit while I was ahead on Crabtree's ledger.

Posted by lazarus at July 2, 2010 11:13 AM

comment #11

MilkMan says ...

Sleep deprivation is nature's acid.

One time I drove from New York to Los Angeles. I stopped along the way in Nashville, Chicago, Boise, and Vancouver. By the time I got to the Bay Area I hadn't slept in four days. I was on the 5, and I looked in my rearview mirror and there was Jesus Christ on a Schwin. He was pedaling hard. I must have been doing 85 mph and Jesus passed me like I was doing 35 mph. His Schwin was red and as he passed me he waved. That's when I decided to pull over and get a room.

Posted by MilkMan at July 2, 2010 11:19 AM

comment #12

lazarus says ...

"If you fellows can't whip the RamDass's of this world without asking girls like her to turn on with them and probably never come back, perhaps you should lose a few cold wars!"

Posted by lazarus at July 2, 2010 11:24 AM

comment #13

Hip Hop Homey says ...

My uncle tells a story about being in Vietnam (he was a doctor) and he had to stay up for 3 days without food or much to drink. Anyway, coming back to safety, he walked right past himself.

Posted by Hip Hop Homey at July 2, 2010 12:06 PM

comment #14

A Facebook User says ...

As someone who used to buy LSD for $5 in high school in the late 80s, I'd say taking psychedelics as a neurotic adult is much more meaningful and useful than doing it when I was 18 at a Grateful Dead show. Post 30 drug use has also improved my creative process immensely as I have answers to the problems in my subscious. I have taken shrooms 3 times recently and MDMA like 20 times in the last 3 years. Sitting at home in a relaxed setting with people you trust is the proper way to engage in this activity.

Posted by A Facebook User at July 2, 2010 12:13 PM

comment #15

Gaydos says ...

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Reese Bobby: [walks into the classroom] Excuse me, darling. I'm Reese Bobby. I'm here for career day with my son, Ricky.
10-year-old Ricky: Dad!
Reese Bobby: Hey there, boy! Man, you got big. How long's it been? Three, four months?
10-year-old Ricky: Ten years.
Reese Bobby: Ten years? Man, I gotta lay off the peyote.

Posted by Gaydos at July 2, 2010 2:23 PM

comment #16

berg says ...

John Lilly ... cogitate

Posted by berg at July 2, 2010 8:45 PM

comment #17

MAGGA says ...

You have no ideas how revelant this thread is

Posted by MAGGA at July 2, 2010 10:15 PM

comment #18

pudge72 says ...

Good call, Crabtree. The LA Weekly story from '98 is absolutely top-notch. Here's the link:
http://www.laweekly.com/1998-07-09/news/the-trip/

Posted by pudge72 at July 3, 2010 11:36 AM

comment #19

parca tl says ...

thankx
parca tl
msn show
kart borcu odeme
msn show

Posted by parca tl at July 3, 2010 4:42 PM

comment #20

frankbooth says ...

They say LSD therapy is making a comeback.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=return-of-a-problem-child

Hey, you know how it takes like, two hours to get your shit together to go outside, especially if you have two or three people to coordinate? You finally agree to walk the block to the convenience store, and then figure out how much cash to bring. ("How much are corn chips? Think a hundred dollars is enough?") You remember Robby, who's been deeply engaged with the bathroom mirror for the last half-hour, and you drag him out. You put on your lucky socks. Gotta get the right one on the right foot.

Then you make it out the front door and two BICYCLE COPS ride by and you run screaming back inside and up the stairs.

Fuckers. You can't even hear 'em coming.

Posted by frankbooth at July 3, 2010 7:18 PM

comment #21

Greg Ingerson says ...

Was the LSD therapy so common ? Looks like I need to grab this copy, at least this one, because Vanity Fair being labelled as resourceful is something hard for me to digest, too many ads on women stuffs..but hey!... the site got me so occupied I forgot that vanity is a women thing. I'm into health and muscles but LSD interests me so hope the stores or stands have it.
Torrance real estate

Posted by Greg Ingerson at September 26, 2010 1:25 AM

comment #22

louisemo says ...

It is so interesting. There are something interesting for u .
beats by dr dre
monster headphones
beats headphones
dr dre headphones

Posted by louisemo at December 19, 2011 4:40 PM

comment #23

benduoruru says ...

Thank you for sharing this, we have something interesting mulberry bags
mulberry outlet
mulberry handbags
mulberry alexa
mulberry sale
mulberry uk

Posted by benduoruru at December 19, 2011 4:55 PM

comment #24

louisemo says ...

It's so luck to enjoy this article ,so nice.Thanks for sharing. There are something interesting for u .
hermes bags
hermes handbags
hermes shop
hermes outlet
hermes sale

Posted by louisemo at December 19, 2011 5:36 PM

comment #25