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Abbie Hoffman Makes Gefilte Fish: Christmas Eve, Chelsea Hotel 1973

On Christmas Eve in the Chelsea Hotel, social and political activist Abbie Hoffman prepares homemade gefilte fish.  He recounts the story of an awkward dinner hosted by Dr. Benjamin Spock to which Hoffman brought gefilte fish. The filmmaker initiated the idea to tape Hoffman for posterity in anticipation that he might disappear for evading drug charges.  The video was exhibited as a component of The Fun House (1974), an installation at the New York Avant-Garde Festival produced by Charlotte Moorman at Shea Stadium.  By this time Hoffman had gone underground.


Abbie Making Gefilte Fish (4 min., excerpt, 1973) is a video produced by early video artists Laura Kronenberg (Cavestani), David Schweitzer, and Frank Cavestani.  This video is included in "Food for Thought: A Video Art Sampler," now showing at The Jewish Museum, 1109 5th Ave., at 92nd Street, New York, NY

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4 responses to “Abbie Hoffman Makes Gefilte Fish: Christmas Eve, Chelsea Hotel 1973”

  1. Countess Cherry 'Gefiltebitch' Ramone Avatar
    Countess Cherry ‘Gefiltebitch’ Ramone

    LSD is good for you. Really….

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  2. bluehour Avatar
    bluehour

    When Abbie was hiding out in the Thousand Islands he used to call CNN on weekends and talk to us on the assignment desk about politics. It was the Reagan era and he was pretty depressed about the way the country was going, and pretty lonely too I think. He was a nice guy.

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  3. toni Avatar
    toni

    My friend has had AH’s old apartment on St Marks pl for many years, there are still holes in the cieling from where the government planted bugs.

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  4. Louis Proyect Avatar
    Louis Proyect

    Thanks for this. Frank Cavestani and Laura Cavestani are old friends. Nowadays Frank is involved with teaching acting on the Internet:
    http://www.actingontheweb.com

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