The Split/Apple experienced some significant growing pains
during the spring of 1995. Gone were the days of an idealistic non-profit that
fosters the growth and development of the emerging artist and in its place had
become this unique and groovy underground hippy dungeon kind of venue for
various rock and roll bands and under-age suburban kids. The roommate situation
had gone from simply Mark and I to include Kelly, Mark’s high school friend
Atom Space along with a stranger named Alfredo from Columbia College. There
were also several other random people who crashed or sofa surfed through our
friendly confines all year long. I gradually grew both more manic and more
impatient in dealing with Mark and his group of people. They were resisting my
lead, probably sensing my increasingly BiPolar behaviors and they seemed to
struggle with me for power and control of the organization. They did not have a
chance, however, I was already thinking four steps ahead of them, I controlled
both the lease and the purse strings and I was almost 20 years older than any
one of them. I was done with listening, I was finished with leading by
consensus, I became to flex my intellect, power and financial muscle in a more
aggressive, assertive and arrogantly twisted iron tightfisted way. No more
pussy-footing around, kids, this was the real deal and either get on the
fucking bus or get run over as I steered the organization towards new, more
profitable grounds. I made a deal that if the event went sour and flopped, I'd
respectfully resign and relinquish the organization to Mark. However, if I was
proved right, there would be no more discussion about who is in charge and who
calls the shots at The Split/Apple. If the event was a success, d’Philip
Chalmers was the one and only in charge, end of discussions. The proposal was a
really big event to coincide with The Grateful Dead’s performances at Soldier’s
Field on July 8th and 9th, two shows that ended their summer tour. It was their
very last two shows ever (Garcia died the following month). The project was a
three day perpetual event called “Deadheads On Parade” and it was a way to both
capture that home-grown audience/market I was part of as well as generate a
great deal of income.
We used “old school” methods to promote the event directly
to the audiences by passing our trippy looking flyer/newsletter at the four
shows before Chicago. Kelly and I even traveled to Deer Creek in Noblesville,
Indiana for a couple of shows to pass out flyers. The first show in Indiana,
however, since we didn't have tickets, we stayed in the parking lot talking up
our event when there was a violent gate crashing incident. The next night, the
show we had tickets to attend, however, was canceled by The Grateful Dead. The
next set of shows, in St. Louis, we sent some friends to pass out flyers but
like Indiana, that set of shows was also marred with a tragic accident at some
place where a lot of Deadheads were staying. Several kids were killed when a
porch collapsed on them. I had tickets for the 2nd Chicago show but I was so
paranoid about The Split/Apple becoming over whelmed by the fans and we'd
become the third tragic event on this long, strange trip of a tour. I wrote a
frantic letter to my friend inside The Grateful Dead organization, their
historian and PR dude, Dennis McNally pleading for advice or perhaps help. I
got it to him on the 1st night with the help of a couple of cool roadies I was
friendly with but I decided to not attend the 2nd show because I needed to hang
back to make sure everything was going to be alright. Kelly also gave up her
ticket too, but most regrettably, she never got the chance to see The Grateful
Dead.
The idea was to open the doors to The Split/Apple on the
Friday before the shows (July 7th), at about sunset. We charged people a
$5/person admission fee and invited them to pull up some space on our 4,000
square foot floor to stay the night. Understanding that Deadheads (people like
me who followed The Grateful Dead around the country) needed a place to stay in
Chicago, a city where hotel rooms near the venue started at about $250/night
and limited the capacity to only 4 people per room. The Split/Apple, located a
short 6 block walk due East to Soldier’s Field, was an ideal place to
accommodate my hippie friends. There is no camping in the city but we had two
safe, large parking lots which were fenced in and protected. We charged
$20/vehicle per day for parking/camping. We stocked our merchandise inventory
with cases of bottled water, soda and ice. We bought 50 pounds of trail mix in
bulk and then re-packaged it baggies to look like ounces of weed and had a ton
of raw veggies, a few cases of ramen noodles with free hot water and if someone
wanted to cook their own food, we provide that too. In the mornings we chopped
up 50 good sized watermelons and sold them in little 4 ounce plastic cups and
we sold about 50 pounds of bananas too. We had two large catering sized coffee
makers, we had a special “security room” for valuables and 24 hours service
during the entire three day event. The only things we didn’t sell ourselves was
alcohol, drugs or sex, but there was a lot of that going around anyway.
On Friday, as people trickled into town, we had an open
drumming and jam session. Many of the first to arrive were Shakedown Street
vendors and artists, so we encouraged them to sell their wares and we created a
very easy, friendly and casual environment for our first 250 or so Deadhead
friends. The vibe was low key and easy, I had the opportunity to mix and
mingle, playing the ever friendly host of the event, welcoming these people
from my tribe into this that was my home. I was told many times during the
evening that our guests were impressed and they couldn’t wait to tell their
friends about this place. It was exciting, it was fun and that first Friday
night, before the shows, it was a mellow and peaceful scene that did my soul a
wonder of good. My Split/Apple partners were impressed too, they were amazed at
how manageable the scene was, they were happy with the sales we were making but
most of all, they really seemed to like these Deadheads! The evening eventually
mellowed into collective slumber and Mark stayed up on the al night look-out.
We had only three campers on the first night so the lot was no problem to look
out for and as the morning came, people started to rise and shine. The check
out process was to either leave with your stuff and come back after 3pm and pay
another $5 or, if you were planning to stay, you could buy a “Terrapin Station”
pass for $25, leave you stuff, claim you space and come and go as much as you
wanted for 24 hours. We sold a ton of those passes!
Saturday, the day of the first show, people started flowing
in faster. Word had spread about our groovy scene and before sundown we already
had over 500 guests; I started to get freaked out, however, because of the vibe
I was getting when I went to pass out flyers at the parking lot. At Deercreek,
there was the gate crashers, then the next shows in St. Louis some Deadhead kids
had died at some place they were staying and since bad things happen in three,
I thought for certain we were next! I panicked and wrote this urgent letter
pleading for help from one of my friends in the Grateful Dead organization,
Dennis McNally, who I had known for years, was with the band. I went to the
venue, talked to a few people who knew people I knew and they got the letter to
McNally, but truthfully, what could I expect him to do? Have The Grateful Dead
make an announcement to NOT come to our venue?
After the Grateful Dead show we featured a hippie band jam
called “Ralph's Kind” and already had more than 500 paid guests but another 300
or so people showed up with no place to stay. We turned nobody away, even those
with no money, like this one kid who literally gave me the t-shirt off his
back, along with a gel cap of some very powerful LSD. Outside it was insane, both
of our parking lots were full and we made a deal with our neighbors for the
empty lot next to their build, so there were maybe another 150 people camping
around The Split/Apple but coming in and out of it as the night progressed.
After our hippie band friends in “Ralph’s Kind” played for almost four hours,
before we drew the attention of Johnny Law because it was still a bit rowdy, I
walked around to thank everyone in person as much as I could. I felt so happy,
so pleased that this went off so well and more than anything I felt like, for
one amazing time, I had the entire Deadhead community over to my house for a
while!
On Sunday, we again sold a ton of passes, but our
entertainment for the last night was a simple and mellow “Hippie Film
Festival”. The Sunday show, the last Grateful Dead show that ever happened, but
I wasn’t there, at the stadium. I heard it was a good show, but a lot of people
just seemed really tired and burned out some, kind of like The Grateful Dead
said one girl who came back afterward. We expected to host about 200 paid
visitors at The Split/Apple over night, but more than half of them didn’t stay
the night, everyone was hitting the road home early. We ended up with about 80
people who slept over, many of them leaving early in the morning and only a few
staying around the rest of the day. One couple stayed for a few extra days,
they were from Virginia and they were glass blowers who wanted to stay the week
for The Pearl Jam shows the next week. They paid us $300 in cash and we agreed
they could stay and for a few days it was cool. Then, one afternoon, while
nobody was at The Split/Apple and these kids from Virginia had to suddenly
split town, they busted down our front door because their glass and stuff was
inside. Then they left, not even closing the doors, but luckily, nothing other
than that happened. The front door was secured before the end of the day and we
said good riddance with a bitter but somehow justified feeling. The weekend went
exactly as I planned, we over the course of the weekend we hosted close to 1,000
Deadheads and made a profit close to $10k!
Naturally, because I had footed
the bill to make the event happen and because I had invested close to $2,000 in
materials and supplies, I made that back plus cleared another $5,000 which was
owed to me but it still left The Split/Apple with the largest bank balance it
ever had. Although Mark and his group offered to relocate from the premises, I
allowed them to stay as long as they paid their rent and shut the fuck up about
ANYTHING I wanted to do with the organization and venue. So be it, once the
event was over and everybody had gone home, when the loft was reasonably clean
and put back together again, late one afternoon, a Tuesday, 7/11, at some time
just before sunset, Kelly and I wrote this cryptic note. We said we were running away together and
planning on starting our own cult. We left the note where everybody would see
it, jumped into my little red convertible and hit the road heading west into
the setting sun!
 |
| www.dphilipchalmers.net |
This is an extended, expanded (unedited) excerpt from my
book “My BiPolar Reality; How Life
Goes On…” and I’ve decided to share it this week because of a few related
topics I’ve been coming across with regards to next summer’s big “Fare Thee
Well…” event in Chicago to “commemorate” the 20th anniversary of the
last Grateful Dead show and “celebrate” the 50th anniversary of The
Grateful Dead’s establishment and continual involvement in this counter culture
community. I’ve been reading about the petition to get Mayor Rahm to allow
camping in the parks, which would be groovy cool because Chicago has some
amazingly beautiful parks, but it’s doubt that would happen. If the city were
to allow it once, it would have to allow it again and that would be a nightmare
for the Parks; perhaps in the parking lot, but again, there’s a huge liability
for the city and again, if you let the hippies sleep there, the next thing is
you’ll have the Cheeseheads sleeping there before a Green Bay game! That won’t
happen. But ask anyone who knows me, they’ll tell you I’m far from the “Debby
Downer” type, I’m the kind of person who doesn’t see problems very often, only
multiple solutions. That’s what this article is about, multiple potential
solutions to the same situation I once encountered 20 years ago, the last time
The Grateful Dead played in Chicago.
Unfortunately, if you were to visit 1720 South Michigan
Avenue today, there would be no three floor warehouse built in 1909, but
instead a 20 story glass and steel condo building! They would not take kindly
to us regrouping there for another “Deadheads on Parade”, I can assure you,
that’s not an option. In further exploring the entire South Loop area where The
Split/Apple was located, in fact, and you’d be hard pressed to find any sort of
commercial space large enough, affordable and with the ability to accommodate me
and about 1,000 hippie friends. This makes me think of two potential
alternatives in terms of location to the venue; either the nearby Chinatown
area or the massive McCormick place complex.
Chinatown, which is roughly at 22nd (Cermack) street and about 8-12 blocks further away than the original Split/Apple is not my
first choice. There are some potentially usable, affordable and available
spaces, the people are friendly (as long as you got money) and it’s not a bad
walk to Soldier’s Field. Chinatown also better fits with our collective
cultural history…I can think of one set of shows over Chinese New Year in ’87 that
were particularly awesome (HJK, March 1-3)! Besides, the food is good, they’re
open late and it’s a rather visually colorful neighborhood! However, there is
some rough neighborhoods very close by, it’s easy to get lost from Chinatown to
Soldier’s Field and the largest space we might find would still require a month’s
rent and it’s not set up to host people, so there’d be a ton of “prep work”
needed to get the “Deadheads On Parade” event set-up.
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The other option is a bit more costly and may not even be
possible because once again, it would involve working with the city to secure
the venue, but in my humble opinion, it’s very much the best available
solution. Built and opened in 1960, then burned to the ground in 1968 only to
be resurrected to become the largest convention facility in the United States, McCormick
Place is this huge convention center (four buildings with about a total of 6.5
million square feet) and it’s located right on the lake directly south of
Soldier’s Field! Yes, literally, it shares a parking lot and is right across
the way, less than a mile walk!
The McCormick Place complex is massive, it
bridges over Lake Shore Drive (LSD), it has great views of the sunrise, the
city skyline and is relatively very safe because of the increased patrol and “private”
access to the venue.
The original part of this convention center complex is on
the east side of LSD, The Lakeside Center and it is the closest building to the
venue. There are three floors of this building, including the infamous “Arie
Crown Theater” but only the top two floors are available, but they provide 580,000
square feet of space! There are many restrooms, a food court, an underground
taxi/bus stop and it has a huge outdoor smoking area that’s easily accessible. 
Keep
in mind, The Split/Apple was only about 5,000 square feet and we had about 800
people sleeping and staying there; a place like McCormick Place could house AT
LEAST ten times that amount and probably more because The Split/Apple’s space
was compromised by the stage, the freight elevator and office. If we were to
secure The McCormick Place venue the opportunities are many for all, it’s a
complete win-win situation for everyone involved.
So here’s the gist of my article and this little tale…I
formally put forth the notion that instead of petitioning the city for outdoor
camping in the city parks/parking lot, we rally together and pull our
collective resources to secure this McCormick Place facility during the “Fare
Thee Well” event. In fact I’ve already checked with McCormick Place and The
Lakeside Building is indeed available during that entire July weekend! If we
could come together to form a group that rents the hall and sets up the deal
with the city; we enlist local Chicagoland Deadheads to help as volunteer hosts
at The Lakeside Building, we couple perhaps entice a performer or two to play
The Arie Crown Theater (maybe the other guys in Phish can enlist John Kadlecik)
during the weekend as well, we create the whole experience as both a final
tribute to our own community as well as donate ALL THE PROFITS to perhaps The
Rex Foundation (The Grateful Dead’s non-profit organization) or another local
(Chicago-based) organization (could be helpful in getting the deal for the
space), we could re-create the entire “Deadheads On Parade” event in a way that
would rival the main event itself!
So, that’s the “Big Picture” version of this vision, I can
elaborate in greater detail if anyone is truly interested in trying to make
this happen, but before I start sharing all my knowledge and putting my
energies into making this happen, if it were to happen at all, I need you all
to understand this: I don’t bother thinking or planning anything that I won’t
see to it’s completion. I can’t, I’m too old to waste time dreaming and I’m
much happier when I’m doing, so if this is going to happen, I need help in first
forming a “core mastermind group” of people to start the movement, then we’ll
need massive help from the entire community (including Grateful Dead
Productions, The City of Chicago Parks & Recs Department and maybe even a
cool corporate sponsor) and then, after promoting the event and selling advance
tickets, we’ll need a small army of volunteers to help operate the multi-day,
perpetual event. I do know people who can help in some of the organizations we’ll
need support from but I know if we pull together quickly, I can easily draft a
formal proposal and since I live in the San Francisco vicinity, I could easily
get this idea to people a GD Productions. Furthermore, I still have strong ties
in Chicago, I have people there who help do some of the basic foot work and I
know a lot of you guys too (Deadhead around the world), so I’ll gladly step
into the leadership role if you’d like, even though I have no plans presently
to go back to Chicago next summer. I just moved from there last summer and as
much as I love my Second City, it’s still my 2nd choice for life and
I’ve moved to my 1st choice now, I’m back home in California. But I’d
go back there if I’m needed, making this happen could be something worthwhile
for me and my family to do next summer because otherwise, I truly have NO
INTEREST at all being at “the shows”.
Okay, well at the risk of both running out of time and
blowing my whole wad in one blog article, here’s what I suggest we do next;
Spread The Word! Talk this issue up among your friends both on and off line,
post and re-share this article as well as perhaps create your own article about
the issue. I’m going to create & propagate the hashtag #splitapple2015 and
run this up the proverbial flag pole for the next couple of weeks to gauge what
kind of interest there might be in creating this event. I can see it, I KNOW it
can be done but as much I know and understand that I cannot do it by myself. In
fact, I wouldn’t want to do it alone because as an artist, for me, most of the
fun in creating things is done with others and this is no different. If this is
going to happen, after we see how it flies over the next couple of weeks, we’re
going to need to jump into action pretty quickly. Like everyone, I have a life
too which is all about promoting this book these days but I can find some time
to put this together if I have some others to work with and share the tasks. Coincidentally,
as it happens, I’ll have space in my schedule during the entire month of July
(because my wife & I are celebrating our 20th anniversary on
July 16th)! That’s what I have to say about this matter, I hope you
all consider it seriously because it could truly work for everyone involved
(even the city), so spread the word: #splitapple2015
Thanks for reading and have a groovy good week!
#splitapple2015
#gratefuldead50
#faretheewell
