''The San Diego Door'', (in former versions: ''Good Morning Teaspoon'', ''Teaspoon Door'', ''Door to Liberation'', and ''Free Door'') was an

underground newspaper The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific rec ...

that thrived from January 1968 to August 1974 in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

and

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. Alongside the ''San Diego Street Journal'' (formerly ''

San Diego Free Press ''The San Diego Free Press'' was an underground newspaper founded by philosophy students of Herbert Marcuse at the University of California, San Diego in November 1968, and published under that title biweekly until December 1969, when it became th ...

'') and the

OB Rag The ''OB Rag'' (originally the ''OB People's Rag'') was an underground newspaper published between 1970 and 1975 in the Neighborhood of Ocean Beach, San Diego, California, United States. The O in the title is also a peace symbol. Other San Die ...

, it dominated the underground genre. They all contained

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

and

anti-establishment An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine ''New Statesman'' ...

articles on business interests in San Diego during the 1960s. The newspapers encompassed

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...

issues, and the birth of the

Chicano Movement The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento, was a social and political movement in the United States inspired by prior acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent, especially of Pachucos in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Black ...

and second-wave women's movement within San Diego.

History

Founded by publisher Dale Herschler in January 1968 and published on a biweekly schedule, ''The San Diego Door'' was initially based in La Mesa and loosely connected to campus activism at nearby

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

. ''Good Morning, Teaspoon'', began as a local underground which first published in October 1966, and was edited by Don Monkerud, Jim Willems, and Jon Gulledge. The new editor, Jim Milligan, published a citywide paper in February 1968. In the summer of 1968, ''Good Morning Teaspoon'' merged with and began being published under the titles ''Teaspoon and Door'' and ''Teaspoon Door'' for a few issues, before reverting to ''The San Diego Door''. In 1969 the paper became ''Door to Liberation'', and after switching to free distribution in local drop boxes, with a 10,000 copy run, it became the ''Free Door to Liberation''. In May 1970, after 53 issues, The Door was rebooted with a staff shake-up. Dale Herschler left and the remaining staff adopted a gentler, more laid-back and

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

-ish look and feel for the paper. A few months later the ''

'' was launched by students at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

as a more strongly New Left politically oriented newspaper in the local underground press.

Music journalism references

Reference to the long defunct underground San Diego Door newspaper was made in the 2000 film ''

Almost Famous ''Almost Famous'' is a 2000 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe, and starring Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, and Patrick Fugit. It tells the story of a teenage journalist writing for ''Rolling Stone'' ...

'' by

Cameron Crowe Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American journalist, author, writer, producer, director, actor, lyricist, and playwright. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, for wh ...

. The film is a semi-autobiographical story of Crowe’s early years writing for ''The Door'' and ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' magazine. Crowe was something of a young literary phenom writing for popular music industry magazines such as ''

Creem ''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is a monthly American music magazine, based in Detroit, whose main print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. Influential criti ...

'' and ''Rolling Stone'' at a very young age. However, before that he was a contributor to The San Diego Door, where a clip that he wrote caught the attention of

Ben Fong Torres Benjamin Fong-Torres ( 方振豪; Cantonese: Fong Chan Ho; born January 7, 1945) is an American rock journalist best known for his association with ''Rolling Stone'' magazine (until 1981) and the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' (from around 1982). B ...

at ''Rolling Stone''. Music critic and journalist

Lester Bangs Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 14, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist, critic, author, and musician. He wrote for ''Creem'' and ''Rolling Stone'' magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock music c ...

, who then lived in

El Cajon El Cajon ( , ; Spanish: El Cajón, meaning "the box") is a city in San Diego County, California, United States, east of downtown San Diego. The city takes its name from Rancho El Cajón, which was in turn named for the box-like shape of the va ...

, also had a connection to the newspaper before he became a freelance writer at ''Rolling Stone'' and ''

'' magazines.

Other local underground newspapers

Other San Diego underground newspapers that dealt with related issues included: the '' OB People's Rag'' (food cooperatives and housing); ''State College Railroad'' (academic freedom and anti-war); ''Carpetbagger Express'' (regarding the 1972 Republican Convention in Miami); ''San Diego Wildcat'' (labor issues); ''Inside the Beast'' (third world-oriented articles); and ''Sunrise and Goodbye to All That'' (feminist issues). ;Archives ''The San Diego Door'' and others are part of a group of newspapers preserved in the San Diego Historical Society’s Archives. The archives contain a series of "underground press" newspapers from the late 1960s and early 1970s. An almost complete online archive of ''The Door'' can be found at revealdigital.org.

References

External links

*
Archive.org: ''Teaspoon Door'', October 25, 1968 issue
— ''online scanned images''.
''The Door'', Online Archive 4 June 1970 - 1 August 1974 (92 issues)
— ''online scanned images''. {{DEFAULTSORT:San Diego Door Defunct newspapers published in California Newspapers published in San Diego Alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States History of San Diego La Mesa, California San Diego State University Publications established in 1968 Publications disestablished in 1970 1968 establishments in California 1970 disestablishments in California

History

Music journalism references

Other local underground newspapers

See also

References

External links