Elliot Michael Tiber (born Eliyahu Teichberg; April 15, 1935 – August 3, 2016) was an artist, professor, and screenwriter who wrote a memoir about the
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
held in
Bethel, New York :''This is the article about the Sullivan County, New York town. For the Dutchess County, New York hamlet, see Bethel, Pine Plains''
Bethel is a town in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was estimated at 4,255 in 2010. T ...
in 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 He claimed responsibility for the relocation of the festival after a permit for it was withdrawn by the zoning board of a nearby town.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 memoir ''
Taking Woodstock
''Taking Woodstock'' is a 2009 American comedy-drama film about the Woodstock Festival of 1969, directed by Ang Lee. The screenplay by James Schamus is based on the memoir '' Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life'' by Ell ...
'', written with Tom Monte, was adapted into a
film of the same name by
Ang Lee
Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popula ...
. The film opened in the United States in August 2009. In the film, Tiber is portrayed by comedian
Demetri Martin
Demetri Evan Martin ( el, Δημήτριος Ευάγγελος Μάρτιν, ''Dimitrios Evangelos Martin''; born May 25, 1973) is an American comedian, actor, writer, director, cartoonist and musician. He was a contributor on ''The Daily Show'' ...
.
Early and personal life
Tiber was born as Eliyahu Teichberg, in
Bensonhurst
Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22nd ...
,
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. His family moved to
White Lake in
Bethel
Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanct ...
in 1955 where they acquired a rooming house that they expanded into a motel, called the El Monaco Motel, at the intersection of
New York Route 17B and
New York Route 55 near the southeast shore of White Lake. He was Jewish. He changed his name before enrolling in college.
Tiber graduated from
Midwood High School
Midwood High School is a high school located at 2839 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, administered by the New York City Department of Education. It has an enrollment of 3,938 students. Its H-shaped building, with six Ionic order, Ionic co ...
in Brooklyn, and attended
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus.
Being New York City's first publ ...
and received a
BFA from
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
. He was in the
MFA program at
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...
.
Tiber died at the age of 81 in
Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...
from complications of a stroke.
''Taking Woodstock''
In his book ''
Taking Woodstock
''Taking Woodstock'' is a 2009 American comedy-drama film about the Woodstock Festival of 1969, directed by Ang Lee. The screenplay by James Schamus is based on the memoir '' Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life'' by Ell ...
'', Tiber says he was present at the
Stonewall Riots
The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...
on June 28, 1969, and that he had a part in bringing the
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
to
Bethel, New York :''This is the article about the Sullivan County, New York town. For the Dutchess County, New York hamlet, see Bethel, Pine Plains''
Bethel is a town in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was estimated at 4,255 in 2010. T ...
on August 15–17, 1969.
Tiber said he led a
closeted
''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and other (LGBTQ+) people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and human ...
life 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 to ''Taking Woodstock'', Tiber read that
Wallkill, Orange County, New York
Wallkill is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 30,486 at the 2020 census. It is centrally located in the county. Interstate 84 crosses New York State Route 17 in the southern part of the town. U.S. Route 6 and ...
had 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 of
Middletown, New York.
Tiber says in the book that he had a permit for the White Lake Music and Arts Festival, a planned
chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
event at his motel. He contacted
Michael Lang on or about July 18 and pitched the idea of having the festival on along the edge of White Lake by the motel.
According to ''Taking Woodstock'', when Lang said the motel property was too small, Tiber introduced the Woodstock festival producers to dairy farmer
Max Yasgur
Max B. Yasgur (December 15, 1919 – February 9, 1973) was an American farmer who was the owner of a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, where the 1969 Woodstock musical festival was held from August 15–18, 1969. He sold his farm in 1971 and ...
, and helped facilitate the deal.
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
Arthur Lawrence Kornfeld (born 1942) is an American musician, record producer, and music executive. He is best known as the music promoter for the Woodstock Festival held in 1969. Kornfeld is also known for his collaborations with Artie Kaplan. ...
, a Woodstock organizer, has said he found out about Yasgur’s farm from his own sources.
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.
Tiber left Bethel shortly after Woodstock and soon moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, where he became a movie set designer.
Screenwriter
His 1970s book, ''Rue Haute'', was made into a
French-language film directed by his domestic partner,
André Ernotte
André Ernotte (3 June 1943 – 8 March 1999) was a Belgian film director and screenwriter.
Filmography
References
External links
*
1943 births
1999 deaths
Belgian film directors
Belgian screenwriters
Film people from Liège
20t ...
. It was Belgium's
entry for the 49th Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film in 1977. The book was released in English in the United States in 1977 under the name ''High Street''.
Teaching career
He taught creative writing at
New School University
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
, fine art at
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
, and art design history at the
New York Institute of Technology
The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT or New York Tech) is a private research university founded in 1955. It has two main campuses in New York—one in Old Westbury, on Long Island, and one in Manhattan. Additionally, it has a cybersecu ...
.
Elliot Tiber Resume - Retrieved October 25, 2008
/ref>
Books
* ''High Street'', Avon (1977)
* ''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), .
* ''Taking Woodstock
''Taking Woodstock'' is a 2009 American comedy-drama film about the Woodstock Festival of 1969, directed by Ang Lee. The screenplay by James Schamus is based on the memoir '' Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life'' by Ell ...
'' (with Tom Monte), Square One Publishers
Square One Publishers is a publishing company, founded in 2000 by Rubin "Rudy" Shur, a former Avery Publishing president. Rudy Shur serves as the Chief Executive Officer. Their offices are located in Garden City, New York, home to other publisher' ...
(June 15, 2007), .
* ''Palm Trees on the Hudson'' (2010)
* '' After Woodstock'' , Square One Publishers
Square One Publishers is a publishing company, founded in 2000 by Rubin "Rudy" Shur, a former Avery Publishing president. Rudy Shur serves as the Chief Executive Officer. Their offices are located in Garden City, New York, home to other publisher' ...
(March 2, 2015), .
See also
* ''Taking Woodstock'' (book)
References
External links
Elliot Tiber website
Palm Trees on the Hudson website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiber, Elliot
1935 births
2016 deaths
Jewish American writers
Brooklyn College alumni
American gay writers
Hunter College alumni
LGBT 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