Elliot Tiber, 81; wrote permit that paved way for Woodstock . By
William Grimes New York Times . NEW YORK - In July 1969, the town of
Wallkill, N.Y., dealt a potentially mortal blow to Woodstock Ventures,
a group of rookie promoters hoping to organize a grand festival of rock
music in rural New York. Fearing hordes of unbathed tripping hippies
and wild-eyed radicals, the town's zoning board reversed a previous
decision to allow the event. This, it seemed, was the end of the road
for the three days of peace, love, and music that the organizers
envisioned. Enter Elliot Tiber, one of the unlikeliest heroes of the
1960s counterculture. A former yeshiva student from Brooklyn who did
not even smoke marijuana, he spent his weekends helping his parents
operate the shabby, money-losing El Monaco Motel in nearby Bethel.
During the week, he worked as an interior decorator in Manhattan and
frequented the city's gay bars, a routine that had recently plunged him
into the Stonewall uprising. As luck would have it, Mr. Tiber, in his
capacity as president of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce - an absurd
post, he later said, "because there was no commerce" - held an official
permit, written by himself to himself, to hold a music and arts
festival. This was the golden key that unlocked the door that opened
onto one of the defining events of the era. With a fateful phone call,
Mr. Tiber offered the permit, for $1, to Woodstock Ventures, along with
the dubious charms of the El Monaco Motel as a headquarters for the
festival and lodging for the stars. In a matter of days, the Woodstock
Music and Arts Festival was back on track, and Mr. Tiber, as its
principal ticket agent and hotelier, embarked on six weeks of glory
that clung to him, like a shimmering cloud, for the rest of his days.
It provided most of the material for two memoirs, "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" (1994) and
"Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life"
(2007), written with Tom Monte. The director Ang Lee used "Taking
Woodstock" as the basis for his 2009 film of the same name, which
starred the comedian Demetri Martin as Mr. Tiber. Mr. Tiber died Aug. 3
in Boca Raton, Fla., from complications of a stroke, Elisa Ball, his
art agent, said. He was 81. "Those six weeks? he recalled in an
interview with the Miami Herald in 2008. "Wow. These people were so
enriching to my life. They opened up whole new worlds to me. I didn't
feel fat, I didn't feel ugly. It enabled me to meet all kinds of
people, to enjoy myself. I got used to that. Mr. Tiber was born Eliyahu
Teichberg on April 15, 1935, in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of
Brooklyn. His father, Jack, was a roofer who had emigrated from
Austria. His mother, Sonia, from Russia, ran a housewares shop. In
1955, seeking to improve their fortunes, the Teichbergs bought the El
Monaco Motel and moved to Bethel. After graduating from Midwood High
School, Mr. Tiber changed his name, adding the middle name Michael as a
flourish. He enrolled in Brooklyn College, where he studied art, and
earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Hunter College. He later
attended Pratt Institute. A career as an abstract artist failed to
materialize. Instead, he worked as a decorator for the W. & J. Sloane
department store on Fifth Avenue and developed a successful practice
decorating private homes and apartments. His design career ended in
spectacular fashion, as he recounted in "Palm Trees on the Hudson: A
True Story of the Mob, Judy Garland, & Interior Decorating" (2011).
Approached by a nightclub owner to do the decorations for a cruise-ship
party, he pulled out all the stops. "I was given 'carte blanche,' " he
told Publishers Weekly in 2011, "so I conjured up a heady mix of
Arabian Nights décor; a bevy of muscle boys covered in gold body paint
and stationed as servers throughout the boat; and at least a hundred
rented palm trees. During the cruise, a fight broke out at the bar,
then spread to the dining room and beyond. Mr. Tiber cowered behind an
overturned table with Judy Garland, an idol of his since childhood. The
palm trees ended up in the river. Left holding the bill, Mr. Tiber
retreated to Bethel. Key details about the origin of the Woodstock
festival and Mr. Tiber's role remain unclear. Mr. Tiber said he
introduced Michael Lang, one of the festival's main organizers, to Max
Yasgur, the farmer who rented his land for the festival, after the 75
acres next to the El Monaco Motel were deemed unsuitable. Lang said
that Mr. Tiber introduced him and his partners to a local real estate
agent, who brought them to Yasgur. At a screening of Michael Wadleigh's
documentary film "Woodstock" in Beverly Hills in 2006, Mr. Tiber and
several of the concert organizers gathered for a discussion of the
event. No one could agree on anything. "If it wasn't for me, you
wouldn't be here," Mr. Tiber said. "I had the permit for a festival for
10 years in stinking Nazi-controlled Bethel-White Lake. When Lang and
others offered different recollections, Mr. Tiber cut them off. "You
were all on drugs," he said. "I was the only one there that didn't do
drugs. In an e-mail, Lang wrote: "Elliot was part of the magic of
Woodstock. Without his phone call bringing me to Bethel, Woodstock
might never have happened, and for that I am eternally grateful.
