Elliot Tiber
Elliot Tiber | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Eliyahu Teichberg April 15, 1935 |
| Died | August 3, 2016 (aged 81) |
| Alma mater | Brooklyn College Hunter College(BFA) Pratt Institute(MFA) |
Elliot Michael Tiber(bornEliyahu Teichberg;April 15, 1935 – August 3, 2016)[1][2]was an artist, professor, and screenwriter who wrote a memoir about theWoodstock Festivalheld inBethel, New Yorkin 1969. He claimed responsibility for the relocation of the festival after a permit for it was withdrawn by the zoning board of a nearby town.
Tiber's 2007 memoirTaking Woodstock,written with Tom Monte, was adapted into afilm of the same namebyAng Lee.The film opened in the United States in August 2009. In the film, Tiber is portrayed by comedianDemetri Martin.
Early and personal life
[edit]Tiber was born as Eliyahu Teichberg, inBensonhurst,Brooklyn, New York.[3]His family moved toWhite LakeinBethelin 1955 where they acquired a rooming house that they expanded into a motel, called the El Monaco Motel, at the intersection ofNew York Route 17BandNew York Route 55near the southeast shore of White Lake. He was Jewish. He changed his name before enrolling in college.
Tiber graduated fromMidwood High Schoolin Brooklyn,[4]and attendedBrooklyn Collegeand received aBFAfromHunter College.He was in theMFAprogram atPratt Institute.
Tiber died at the age of 81 inBoca Raton, Floridafrom complications of a stroke.[5]
Taking Woodstock
[edit]In his bookTaking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life,Tiber says he was present at theStonewall Riotson June 28, 1969, and that he had a part in bringing theWoodstock FestivaltoBethel, New Yorkon August 15–17, 1969.[6]
Tiber said he led aclosetedlife in Bethel in the early 1960s as he spent time managing his parents' El Monaco Motel, serving as president of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce, and, at the same time, participating in the gay scene in New York, where he lived.
According toTaking Woodstock,Tiber read thatWallkill, Orange County, New Yorkhad on July 15, 1969–30 days before the music festival was to start—pulled the plug on the planned Woodstock Festival at the Mills Industrial Park northeast ofMiddletown, New York.
Tiber says in the book that he had a permit for the White Lake Music and Arts Festival, a plannedchamber musicevent at his motel. He contactedMichael Langon or about July 18 and pitched the idea of having the festival on 15 acres (61,000 m2) along the edge of White Lake by the motel.
According toTaking Woodstock,when Lang said the motel property was too small, Tiber introduced the Woodstock festival producers to dairy farmerMax Yasgur,and helped facilitate the deal.[6]
Lang, however, says that Tiber referred him to a local real estate salesman, and that the salesman drove Lang, without Tiber, to Yasgur's farm. Sam Yasgur, son of Max Yasgur, agrees with Lang's version, and said that his mother, who is still alive, said that Max did not know Tiber.Artie Kornfeld,a Woodstock organizer, has said he found out about Yasgur’s farm from his own sources.[7][8]
The motel later became an Italian restaurant before being torn down in 2004. It is now marked by a clock tower welcoming people to White Lake.[9]
Tiber left Bethel shortly after Woodstock and soon moved toLos Angeles,where he became a movie set designer.
Screenwriter
[edit]His 1970s book,Rue Haute,was made into aFrench-language filmdirected by his domestic partner,André Ernotte.It was Belgium'sentry for the 49th Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Filmin 1977. The book was released in English in the United States in 1977 under the nameHigh Street.
Teaching career
[edit]He taught creative writing atNew School University,fine art atHunter College,and art design history at theNew York Institute of Technology.[10]
Books
[edit]- High Street,Avon (1977)
- Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life(with Tom Monte),Square One Publishers(June 15, 2007),ISBN0-7570-0293-5.
- Palm Trees on the Hudson(2010)
- After Woodstock,Square One Publishers(March 2, 2015),ISBN0-7570-0392-3.
References
[edit]- ^"Review of Taking Woodstock".Foreword Reviews.8 August 2007.Retrieved30 October2018.
- ^Grimes, William, "Elliot Tiber, Who With a Permit Unleashed Woodstock and Himself, Dies at 81,The New York Times,August 8, 2016, page A20
- ^Limnios, Michael (2012-04-18)."Elliot Tiber: Be yourself, love your life".blues.gr.Retrieved2012-10-19.
- ^Grimes, William (2016-08-08)."Elliot Tiber, Who with a Permit Brought Forth Woodstock, Dies at 81".The New York Times.
- ^Grimes, William (2016-08-07)."Elliot Tiber, Who With a Permit Brought Forth Woodstock, Dies at 81".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved2019-08-13.
- ^abTiber, Elliot;Tom Monte (2007).Taking Woodstock.SquareOne Publishers.
- ^Bleyer, Bill (2009-08-08)."The road to Woodstock runs through Sunken Meadow State Park".Newsday.Retrieved2009-08-25.
- ^Bloom, Nate (2009-08-27)."Revisiting Woodstock, Other flicks, His son, the rabbi".Jweekly.Retrieved2009-08-27.
- ^"The ElMonaco Motel".Archived fromthe originalon 2008-10-11.Retrieved2008-10-26.
- ^Elliot Tiber Resume - Retrieved October 25, 2008
Further reading
[edit]- Knock on Woodstock: The Uproarious, Uncensored Story of the Woodstock Festival, the Gay Man Who Made It Happen, and How He Earned His Ticket to Freedom,Joel Friedlander (1994),ISBN0-9641806-1-8.
External links
[edit]
- 1935 births
- 2016 deaths
- American male screenwriters
- Jewish American academics
- Jewish American memoirists
- Jewish American screenwriters
- Brooklyn College alumni
- American gay writers
- Hunter College alumni
- Gay Jews
- Midwood High School alumni
- People from Bethel, New York
- People from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
- People from Sullivan County, New York
- Pratt Institute alumni
- 21st-century American Jews
- New York Institute of Technology faculty