November 19, 1975: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Premieres

November 19, 1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest premieres, directed by Miloš Forman, and based on the 1962 novel by Ken Kesey. Kesey himself hated the film.

Maybe the film's star, Jack Nicholson, had something to do with it. After all, in 1980, Stanley Kubrick directed a film version of Stephen King's The Shining, and cast Nicholson as the lead, and King hated it.

Shortly after its publication, the novel had been produced on Broadway, starring Kirk Douglas. Gene Wilder, not yet a star, played Billy Bibbitt. Ed Ames, already a star, 6-foot-3, and, despite being Jewish, dark-skinned enough to have played Native Americans before and after, played Chief Bromden.

Douglas held the film rights to it, but it remained stuck in "development hell." He allowed his son, actor Michael Douglas, to produce the film. Michael hired Hal Ashby to direct, but Ashby decided that Kirk was now too old to play the lead, and Michael backed him up on this. When Forman, Kirk's first choice to direct but stuck in Communist Czechoslovakia, escaped to America, Ashby gracefully stepped aside, but Forman also maintained that Kirk was too old. (He was just short of turning 59 when the film was released.)

Oddly, Michael Douglas would have been about the right age (31 when the film was released), but things were already strained between him and his father, so he stepped aside, and served as producer only. Gene Hackman (45) and Marlon Brando (51) were also too old for the role, but were offered it, anyway. So were James Caan and Burt Reynolds, who were age-appropriate (35 and 39, respectively). All 4 turned it down. Nicholson (38) accepted.

The title comes from a nursery rhyme read to Chief Bromden as a child by his grandmother, mentioned in the book:

Vintery, mintery, cutery corn,

Apple seed and apple thorn,

Wire, briar, limber lock,

Three geese in a flock.

One flew East, one flew West,

And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

It was filmed in the exact same place that the book takes place, the Oregon State Hospital, in the State capital of Salem, although the building where most of the action takes place has since been torn down. (Kesey lived most of his life in Oregon, and had worked as an orderly in that hospital.) Since it's a psychiatric hospital, the patients are "cuckoo," hence, "cuckoo's nest."

The film takes place in 1963, a year after the novel was published. We know it's 1963 because, when Randle Patrick McMurphy, played by Nicholson, asks the other inmates to imagine they're watching the World Series on television, he says that Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers is pitching against the New York Yankees.

McMurphy is 38, and has been arrested for assault many times. This time, he is convicted of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl. The film makes no effort to suggest that he was innocent. Let me make that clear: McMurphy is not the hero of the film, or any kind of hero.

He is sentenced to a State work farm, but wants to avoid hard labor. He pretends to be insane -- which, of course, is what Nicholson spent much of the 1970s and 1980s doing for a living, pretending to be insane -- so that he can be transferred to a psychiatric institution, and avoid hard labor. He would have been better off leaving well enough alone, and serving his sentence and doing the labor. Let me make this clear, as well: McMurphy was not as smart as he thought he was.

Louise Fletcher plays Mildred Ratched, the "Big Nurse" (big in power, not in physical size -- she's not especially tall, and not fat) who runs the ward. Like the character of Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on the TV show M*A*S*H, she was an Army nurse. Unlike Margaret, she let her wartime experience turn her into a cold, passive-aggressive tyrant. She maintains her World War II-era hairstyle, as Kesey pointed out in the book that "life had stopped for her a long time ago." (In real life, years later, he ran into the woman on whom he modeled the character, recalling, "She was much smaller than I remembered, and a whole lot more human.")

She holds near-absolute power over the patients' access to medications, privileges, and basic necessities such as food and toiletries. She capriciously revokes these privileges whenever a patient displeases her. She maintains order, keeping the patients from acting out, either through antipsychotic and anticonvulsant drugs, or her own brand of psychotherapy, which consists mostly of humiliating patients into doing her bidding. They are terrified of her, and, since the doctors and the hospital administrators value order, they let her get away with it all. Let's make one more thing clear: The 1960s were not a golden age for the treatment of mental health.

Among the actors playing patients are Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd, not yet stars, and later reunited in the cast of the TV sitcom Taxi. Will Sampson, a 6-foot-7 member of the Muscogee Nation, plays Chief Bromden, a very tall Native American who acts as though he is deaf and mute. Brad Dourif, later to be the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise, plays Billy Bibbitt.

McMurphy quickly realizes that some of the patients don't really belong there, and wouldn't be if people had just taken more care with them, especially Billy. McMurphy and Ratched begin a war of wills, which leads to her decision to have him given electroconvulsive therapy. It doesn't work, and only makes him more defiant. That inspires the other inmates.

But they're still too scared to stand up to Ratched. Murphy says he'll pick up the hydrotherapy console and throw it out the window, breaking it, and allowing the inmates to escape. He can't, as it's too heavy. He tells them, "At least I tried!"

Bromden reveals to McMurphy that he can hear and speak. They plan to escape. But first, McMurphy gets a hold of the ward's phone, and makes arrangements for what he calls "a Christmas party." He brings a pair of prostitutes over, with bottles of booze.

The next morning, Ratched sees the ward is a mess, and sees Billy and a prostitute named Candy sleeping naked together. She verbally abuses Billy, as always. This time, he stands up to her, and even loses his stutter. But she has one more "fear card to play": She threatens to tell his mother. He goes back to fear and stuttering, and is taken to the office. Billy breaks some glass, and slits his throat with it, killing himself. Upon learning this, McMurphy blames Ratched, and lunges at her, and tries to strangle her to death, before the orderlies can pull him off her.

Time passes without McMurphy being seen, and rumor spreads that he has escaped -- leaving Bromden behind, breaking his promise that they would do it together. But McMurphy is brought back to his bed. He has been lobotomized, and is now "a vegetable." Ratched appears to have won the war.

But Ratched has suffered the consequences of the attack: She is wearing a neck brace, and her voice is only a whisper. And McMurphy has kept his promise to Bromden, although not in the way he had hoped. Bromden carries out a "mercy killing," smothering McMurphy with a pillow, and ending his suffering. Bromden is strong enough to lift the hydrotherapy machine, and to throw it through the window. He escapes. Ratched and the orderlies can't stop him. The other inmates cheer -- but don't follow him. 

Bromden is the hero of the film. But, since neither the book nor the film have ever had an authorized sequel, we have no idea of what will happen to him afterward: Maybe he'll truly escape, maybe he'll get caught; maybe he can now "make it" in the outside world, maybe he can't. Given this, and given what happened to every inmate but Bromden, it's arguable that Ratched is still "the winner." The "bad guy" wins -- barely.

Bromden narrates the book, which, unlike the film, details his background: He became a paranoid schizophrenic due to his World War II experiences, and his white mother committed him to embarrass his Native father.

Another big difference from the book: McMurphy is considerably less violent in the film, which treats him as more of a con man than a serious threat. And the fishing trip isn't McMurphy hijacking a hospital bus on a whim, taking the patients with him, doing the fishing, and then taking them back rather than making it a permanent escape. In the book, it's planned by the doctors, but Ratched attempts to sabotage it.

The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, and swept the 5 major "Oscars": Best Picture for producer Michael Douglas, Best Director for Forman, Best Actor for Nicholson, Best Actress for Fletcher, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Laurence Hauben and Bo Goldman. The only other films to do that have been It Happened One Night in 1934 and The Silence of the Lambs in 1991.

Michael Douglas would later win Best Actor in 1988, for Wall Street. His 2nd wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, would win Best Supporting Actress in 2003, for Chicago. Kirk Douglas was nominated for Best Actor 3 times, but never won an Oscar, in any capacity. Jack Nicholson has 12 acting nominations (only Meryl Streep, who's won 3 times out of 21 nominations, has more), and 3 wins: Along with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he won Best Supporting Actor in 1983, for Terms of Endearment; and a 2nd Best Actor in 1997, for As Good As It Gets.

Laurence Hauben died in 1985, Will Sampson in 1987, Kirk Douglas in 2016 (at the age of 103), Miloš Forman in 2018, and Louise Fletcher earlier in 2022. As of November 19, 2022, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Brad Dourif, Bo Goldman and Michael Douglas are still alive. (UPDATE: Goldman died in 2023.)

*

November 19, 1975 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Kansas City Kings, 113-103 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Golden State Warriors, 104-98 in overtime at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 120-114 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets, 118-110 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has been converted into the "Central Campus" of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Phoenix Suns, 96-94 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Chicago Bulls, 97-87 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets lost to the Virginia Squires, 110-100 at The Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Spirts of St. Louis, 119-106 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Kentucky Colonels, 113-106 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* And the Indiana Pacers beat the Utah Stars, 130-110 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.

There were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Kansas City Scouts, 6-4 at Madison Square Garden. The Scouts played 2 seasons before moving, and won exactly 7 away games. This was the 6th. The Rangers had indeed fallen on hard times.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Washington Capitals, 5-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 3-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-0 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

And there were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The Cleveland Crusaders beat the Minnesota Fighting Saints, 4-3 in overtime at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. And the Indianapolis Racers beat the New England Whalers, 3-1 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

June 17, 1964: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Begins

June 17, 1964: On a bus named "FURTHUR" (a variation on "Further"), Ken Kesey begins the trip that will be chronicled in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

Wolfe chronicles the adventures of Kesey, who had published his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 2 years earlier, and his group of followers. Throughout the work, Kesey is portrayed as seeking to create a new religion.

Kesey gathered a group of followers based on the allure of transcendence achievable through drugs, as well as his ability to preach and captivate listeners. The group was labelled as the "Merry Pranksters," and participated in a drug-fueled lifestyle. The "Acid Tests" -- parties centered around LSD-laced Kool-Aid, and carried out with lights and noise intended to enhance the psychedelic experience -- started at Kesey's house in the woods of La Honda, California, 40 miles down the Peninsula from San Francisco.

The Pranksters eventually left the confines of Kesey's estate, and traveled across the country in Furthur, a 1939 International Harvester school bus. The bus was driven by Neal Cassady, the inspiration for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel On the Road, and no stranger to mind-altering drug use and other weirdness. Which, on top of the alcoholism that would kill him 4 years later, made him an incredibly risky choice to drive people.

Ken Kesey (left) and Neal Cassady

Throughout the journey, the individuals on the bus took acid frequently. As the Merry Pranksters gained popularity, Kesey's reputation developed as well. Toward the middle of the book, Kesey was idolized as the hero of a growing counterculture. Alongside this, Kesey formed friendships with groups like the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, and crossed paths with Cassady's fellow icons of the Beat Generation, including poet Allen Ginsberg.

His growing popularity provided Kesey and the Pranksters opportunities to meet other significant members of the growing counterculture, including the San Francisco rock band The Grateful Dead (who became the house band for the Acid Tests), and, upon reaching his Millbrook, New York estate, attempt to meet with the high priest of LSD advocates, psychologist Timothy Leary.

Leary turned out to be unavailable, and this marked a greater failure to unite the counterculture from East to West coasts. This became one of the turning points in the book, indicating that the new generation of "Hippies" had officially outpaced the old Beat Generation in style and philosophy.

(Up until this point, the word "hippie" usually meant a variant of "hipster," usually meaning a jazz musician, or at least a jazz fan, as heard in "South Street," a 1963 hit by the Philadelphia vocal group The Orlons.)

In an effort to broadcast their lifestyle, the Pranksters publicized their acid experiences, giving rise to the term "Acid Test." They described the goal of these parties as the pursuit of "intersubjectivity," a state beyond an individual's ego. As the Acid Tests caught on culturally, Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana. In an effort to avoid jail, he fled to Mexico, and was joined by the Pranksters. The Pranksters struggled in Mexico, and were unable to obtain the same results from their acid trips.

Kesey and some of the Pranksters returned to the United States. At this point, Kesey became a full-blown pop culture icon as he appeared on TV and radio shows, despite being wanted by the FBI. Eventually, he was located and arrested.

He was conditionally released as he convinced the judge that the next step of his movement was an "Acid Test Graduation," an event in which the Pranksters and other followers would attempt to achieve intersubjectivity without the use of mind-altering drugs.

The graduation was not effective enough to clear the charges from Kesey's name: He was given two sentences for two separate offenses. He was designated to a work camp to fulfill his sentence. He moved his wife and children to Oregon, and, as the book ends in January 1966, begins serving his 6-month sentence in the forests of California. On October 6, 1966, LSD was outlawed.

Wolfe published the book in August 1968, right before the riotous Democratic Convention in Chicago, and 6 months after Cassady's death. Wolfe and Dr. Hunter S. Thompson were hailed as the exemplars of "gonzo journalism," a new way of reporting on events.

Tom Wolfe, around the time of the book's publication,

already having started wearing the white suits

The original bus's last journey was a trip to the Woodstock Festival in 1969. After its historic trips, the bus was gutted and used around the Keseys' farm in Oregon until at least 1983. It was eventually parked in the swamp on Kesey's Farm and gradually returned to the elements, until it was dragged out of the swamp with a tractor and stored in a farm warehouse.

A similar bus, a 1949 International Harvester named Further (correctly spelled), was purchased, decorated in the same way as Furthur, and has been loaned out to Hollywood feature films either set in, or in tribute to, the Hippie movement.

Kesey had cheated on his wife with Merry Prankster Carolyn Adams. Cassady had introduced her to Kesey. While Kesey was in jail, still only 19 years old, she gave birth to their daughter, whom she named Sunshine. She then married another Prankster, George Walker. The marriage lasted 12 years. In 1981, she married Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia, and became known as Carolyn Garcia. 

As I said, Cassady, a.k.a. Sir Speed Limit, died in 1968. Cathy Casamo, a.k.a. Stark Naked because she would sit naked at the back of the bus, died in 1992. Steve Lambrecht, a.k.a. Zonker, the inspiration for the Doonesbury character of that name, died in 1998. Kesey, a.k.a. The Chief, died in 2001. So did Sandy Lehmann-Haupt, a.k.a. Dis-Mount. John Babbs, a.k.a. Sometimes Missing, died in 2012. Wolfe died in 2018. So did Allen Terk, a.k.a. Gut, a Hell's Angel who designed The Grateful Dead's famous lightning-bolt-on-a-skull logo.

As of June 17, 2022, the following Merry Pranksters are still alive, with their assigned nicknames: Chuck Kesey, Brother Charlie, Ken Kesey's literal brother; Stephanie Kesey, Lips, Ken Kesey's sister; Dale Kesey, Highly Charged, Ken Kesey's cousin; Ken Babbs, Intrepid Traveler, Ken Kesey's best friend and brother of John Babbs; Simon Babbs, Lightning, another brother of Ken and John Babbs; Paula Sundsten, Gretchen Fetchin the Slime Queen, Ken Babbs' girlfriend at the time; Carolyn Garcia, Mountain Girl; Gordon Adams, Dass, Carolyn's brother.

Also, not connected to Kesey by blood or affair: Hugh Romney, Wavy Gravy, noted San Francisco-based promoter and provocateur; Mike Hagen, Mal Function; Ron Bevirt, Hassler; Jane Burton, Generally Famished; George Walker, Hardly Visible; and Linda Breen, Anonymous.

*

June 17, 1964 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. Russ Nixon singled Lee Thomas home with the winning run in the top of the 12th inning, making a losing pitcher of Ralph Terry in relief of Al Downing. Dick Radatz, despite earlier blowing a save by giving up a home run to Mickey Mantle, won it in relief of Earl Wilson, who hit a home run in his own cause. Rookie Tony Conigliaro also hit a home run. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-5.

* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente did not play, but Willie Stargell hit a home run.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Washington Senators, 5-3 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.)

* The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 and 5-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-5 in the opener, but only appeared as a pinch-hitter in the nightcap, and was hit with a pitch. In that 2nd game, Pedro Ramos pitched a 7-hit shutout.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Athletics, 3-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Dick McAuliffe singled Billy Bruton home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Al Kaline did not play.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Billy Williams hit 2 home runs, and Ernie Banks went 3-for-5.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Houston Colt .45s, 2-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. The Colts became the Houston Astros the next season.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Sandy Koufax pitched a 3-hit shutout. Hank Aaron went 0-for-4.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays and Willie McCovey each hit a home run. McCovey's homer won it in the bottom of the 9th, giving the Giants a come-from-behind win over Joe Nuxhall. Twenty years earlier, he became the youngest player in baseball history. In this game, fate was both kind and cruel to him, as he had hit a home run in his own cause earlier.