Occupy LA's Protesters Have A Long Way to Go to Catch Up With Those from Downtown's Past
L.A. TImes (Aug. 1, 1979)
An L.A. Times profile of colorful picketers from 1979 includes Eileen Anderson (center) and General Hershy Bar (right).
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Several thousand people are expected to descend on Downtown this morning for the start of Occupy Los Angeles, a protest "occupation" in support of ongoing demonstrations in New York City.
They'll need some serious dedication if they want to catch up with some of L.A.'s protesters of past decades. The Civic Center has long been a scene for protest, and one that has spawned plenty of colorful characters like Jeremiah Pro Per and General Hershy Bar.
Perhaps the most colorful was Eileen Anderson, who spent decades at the corner of Temple and Main dancing and advocating for numerous political causes, mostly while wearing a green bikini.
Anderson was born to Irish and British parents, and was crowned Miss Liverpool in 1954. She made her way to Los Angeles later in the decade and took up modeling and acting. Her protests seem to have started in 1962, when she represented herself in a court case filed to get damages from being struck by a car several years earlier. She shocked jurors by dropping her robe to reveal what the L.A. Times reported as a "nearly backless, bright red bathing suit." Anderson pointed out scars she had suffered, then slipped back into her robe.
She won her case.
It was a decade later that Anderson took to the street corner, after having been seized by Secret Service agents for disrupting a 1972 campaign stop for Hubert Humphrey.
As time went by and Anderson continued to dance on her corner from 5 to 6:45pm every weekday, her message became less important than the protest itself. "Because I'm really hoping to become the first moving landmark in history," Anderson told the L.A. Times for the 1979 profile pictured above.
Over the years Anderson would run for Mayor 17 times. A 1993 obituary noted that her campaign that year had been based on using lottery funds to hire more police officers.
Anderson retired from her corner in 1988.
Could the current political climate encourage some new protesters to show Anderson's resolve? Downtowners who like colorful characters can only hope.
William Crandell on October 02, 2011, at 10:35AM – #1
The story about General Hershey Bar is far more interesting, and is yet to be deciphered in depth. Hershey was wit personified, in the most understated manner imaginable.
The last time that I saw him was in the winter of '79. I was walking along Hollywood Boulevard not too many blocks west of Barnsdall headed for an electronics store. An RTD bus pulled over to the curb right in front of me. A flock of pigeons took flight as the general stepped off his ride.
One often saw him all over Hollywood and he never missed a No Nukes Concert at the bowl. If he had ever missed one, it would have been like the pope taking a hike on Easter Sunday. He had an acolyte in latter years. I wonder what Hershey Bar Jr. is doing nowadays. Perhaps he went schizophrenic and joined the Tea Party circuit.
BobbyD on January 06, 2012, at 07:20PM – #2
To me,the "General" was nutty only in one way- he would talk to anybody at anytime. See him sitting at a bus bench talk with him. You may not agree with on 99% of what he said but you had a great time. Like football players knock each other silly fot the whole game and wind up as great friends!