Elliot Tiber
SPEAKING CLIENT
Author and Subject of Movie “Taking Woodstock” (August, 2009 Focus Features)
Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life
During summer of 1969, the face of music changed forever. Woodstock captured everything the 60’s stood for: free thinking, peace, and incredible music. Led by icons we still revere today like Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Janis Joplin, what began as a music festival became a major turning point in our nation’s cultural history. What few know is that Woodstock almost didn’t happen, until it was saved by Elliot Tiber.
Elliot Tiber was working to save his parent’s failing motel in the Catskills. Empowered by the gay rights movement of the time, Tiber heard about a concert that was cancelled and lobbied to have it take place near his motel in White Lake, New York. His actions set off a chain of events that led to half a million people rallying around Woodstock. Tiber’s best-selling memoir about his journey in the hot summer of ’69 has been adapted in a new film of the same name, Taking Woodstock (Aug 2009), directed by Academy Award winner Ang Lee and starring Demetri Martin as Elliot.
Tiber’s plans for Woodstock were instrumental in pulling off one of the greatest music festivals of all time. Tiber, however, was no stranger to cultural revolution. Tiber had socialized with the likes of Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Andy Warhol, and a talented young photographer named Robert Mapplethorpe, in Greenwich Village, the mecca of gay life in New York. Present at the Stonewall Inn riot, Tiber was a witness to the event that would galvanize the gay movement in the United States.
At the podium, Tiber discusses the true story of Woodstock and the individual’s ability to create change in thinking and acceptance, taking a small piece of Woodstock with them. His experiences at a monumental time in our nation’s history have stayed with him and shaped his view of the world and our power within it.
Now a best-selling author and playwright, Tiber’s first novel, Rue Haute, was an instant bestseller in Europe, and was published in the US as an Avon Paperback under its English title, High Street. As a humorist, Elliot Tiber has appeared on CNN, NBC, CBS, CNBC, and 20/20, as well as on television shows in France, England, Tokyo, Moscow, and Berlin. Tiber has also performed his standup one-man show, Woodstock Daddy, for clubs, theaters, and TV. He currently resides in both New York City and California.
|
