Vito Paulekas

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Vito Paulekas dancing in LA

Vitautus Alphonsus "Vito" Paulekas (born May 20, 1913 in Lowell , Massachusetts , † October 25, 1992 in Cotati , California ) was an American artist and bon vivant who played a leading role in the California freak scene in the 1960s and Influenced musicians like The Byrds , Love and Frank Zappa .

biography

Paulekas was born the son of Lithuanian immigrants. As a teenager he spent some time in a reformatory and learned the craft of a wood sculptor . In the 1930s he won dance marathon competitions. In 1938 he was convicted of armed robbery, but was released in 1942 and joined the US Merchant Navy . He moved to Los Angeles around 1946 and lived on Beverley Boulevard in the early 1960s. Here he had a studio where he gave pottery and dance lessons. His wife Szou (born Sueanne Shaffer in 1943) ran one of the first boutiques to sell hippie fashion.

Around 1963 Paulekas, his wife Szou and their boyfriend Carl Franzoni (born in 1934 in Cincinnati , Ohio ), also known as "Captain Fuck", began performing in clubs as dancers with a growing group of "freaks". They lived in commune- like conditions, practiced free love and a free form of dance. In 1964 Paulekas offered the Byrds his premises for rehearsals. The following year he accompanied the band on their US tour with his freak dancers. Arthur Lee and his band Love Paulekas' house later used to rehearse.

In some clubs, Paulekas' dance troupe, which also included members of the later bands GTOs and Fraternity of Man , was at least as popular as the stage program. They resided in Laurel Canyon in a wooden house where Tom Mix and later Frank Zappa lived. Under the name "Vito and the Hands" Paulekas recorded the single Where It's At in 1966 , supported by some of the Mothers of Invention and produced by Kim Fowley . Paulekas is said to have been the first to use the terms "freak" and "freak-out" to describe the scene. Paulekas, Franzoni and other freaks were involved in the recording of Frank Zappa's album Freak Out! involved. Paulekas has appeared in several documentaries, including Mondo Hollywood (1967) and You Are What You Eat (1968).

After Richard Nixon became US President in 1968 , Paulekas moved to Haiti and later Jamaica before returning to California and settling in Cotati. Here he founded the freestore clothing store with Franzoni and built a bandstand for the place.

Paulekas and Szou divorced in the mid-1970s. They had four children, at least one of whom, Godo, died as a child. Paulekas died in Cotati in 1992 at the age of 79.

literature

  • Barry Miles : Hippies , 2003 (German 2005)
  • Michael Walker: Laurel Canyon , 2006 (German 2007)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vito Pauleka's biography on United Mutations (English)
  2. ↑ David McGowan: Inside The LC: The Strange but Mostly True Story of Laurel Canyon and the Birth of the Hippie Generation Part 5 ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . InformationFarm, June 6, 2008 (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / informationfarm.blogspot.de
  3. ↑ Barry Miles: Hippies , p. 60
  4. ↑ a b c Michael Walker: Laurel Canyon , pages 58ff
  5. ↑ In the Sixties . Cotati, California website
personal data
SURNAME Paulekas, Vito
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Paulekas, Vitautus Alphonsus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American artist and bon vivant
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Lowell , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1992
Place of death Cotati , California