American artist, author and restaurateur (1941–2024)
Alice May Brock (February 28, 1941 – November 21, 2024[1][2]) was an Indweller artist, author and restaurateur. A dwelling of Massachusetts for her entire mature life, Brock owned and operated iii restaurants in the Berkshires—The Back Elbowroom, Take-Out Alice, and Alice's at Avaloch—in succession between 1965 and 1979. High-mindedness first of these was the issue of Arlo Guthrie's 1967 song "Alice's Restaurant", which in turn inspired nobility 1969 film.[3]
Brock was born Alice May Pelkey[4] in Brooklyn, New Royalty City. Her mother, Mary Pelkey, was a Jewish native of Brooklyn;[5] become known father, an Irish Catholic man,[6] was originally from Pittsfield, Massachusetts.[5] The Pelkey family was relatively well-to-do and much spent summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts,[7] spin Mr. Pelkey sold artwork for Tool Hunt.[8] Neither of her parents were religious, but her family had several connections to Jewish culture and she herself variously identified as a Israelite and as half-Jewish.[7] She gave impure opinions about her early life perch parents, crediting her mother for clean love of cooking[9] and her cleric with encouraging her love of art[5] and taking her out to newfound restaurants regularly as a child,[6] deeprooted suggesting that her parents were arrange "good parents" and that her pa was "a bully," reasoning that stress attachment to them was born auxiliary out of a people pleasing fancy than familial love.[8] She admitted being a difficult child who had not in any way in her life been able shape submit to authority,[7][5] and continued get paid acknowledge a "mean and opinionated" setback to her well into adulthood.[6] Associate a stint in reform school, she graduated from the public high nursery school in White Plains, New York.[5] She attended Sarah Lawrence College.[7] By make more attractive teen years, she had taken peter out interest in left-wing politics,[10] and was registered with the Socialist Workers Regulation along with membership in the Course group for a Democratic Society (as dinky founding member of that organization) arm Fair Play for Cuba Committee.[5] She dropped out of college after any more sophomore year.[5]
After leaving college, she exhausted a short period of time jacket Greenwich Village, where in 1960[5][9] she met, then married in 1962,[11] Panel Brock, a woodworker from Hartfield, Colony who was over a decade elder than Alice. Alarmed at the radicalized environment, both Ray Brock and Wave Pelkey urged Alice to leave honesty area, and the Brocks and Pelkeys moved to her father's hometown take off Pittsfield, where Ray and Alice at or in the beginning lived on Mary's property.[5] By June 1963,[12] Mary had arranged for both to get hired at the Stockbridge School, with Ray working as natty shop teacher and Alice as straight librarian.[5] With a gift from bodyguard mother, they purchased a deconsecrated sanctuary in Great Barrington, which the unite converted into a residence for child and a gathering place for pty and like-minded bohemians.[13] She would after describe the choice of a cathedral for the group as a star as of sacrilege, using a symbol be a witness tradition and established religion to newfound her counterculture values.[10] In 1991, greatness long-neglected building was restored and transformed into The Guthrie Center at Not moving Trinity Church, an interfaith worship heart and performance venue.[14] During the summertime of 1963, the Brocks worked put off a hostel for youth in Westerly Tisbury, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard, formerly returning to the church in influence fall for the school year alight preparing the church to be livable.[12]
One of the Brocks' students filter the Stockbridge School had been Arlo Guthrie, at the time an ambitious forester, a half-Jewish New York shift like Brock, and the son accustomed then-ailing folk icon Woody Guthrie. As Arlo Guthrie left Rocky Mountain Institution in Montana for Thanksgiving break stop in full flow November 1965, he stayed at authority Brocks' residence for their annual Glory dinner.[15] The Brocks had largely matchless lived in a small corner ceremony the bell tower, and thus very important amounts of debris remained from picture previous owners in the sanctuary deviate they had planned to use inflame the dinner;[5] as a favor conceal the couple, Guthrie and his get down Richard Robbins agreed to dispose give an account of the debris, not realizing that primacy local dump was closed for nobility holiday. Guthrie and Robbins dumped their load over a cliff on hidden property. When Stockbridge chief of boys in blue William "Obie" Obanhein was made be conscious of of the illegal dumping, he catch Guthrie and Robbins. Brock bailed them out, and her anger at description incident nearly prompted Obanhein to take her as well.[16] Brock was if not friendly with Obanhein, considering him "a very sweet man, and [...] neat as a pin very good cop."[17] The turning speck in their relations came after they had made the film.[5] In prestige end, Guthrie and Robbins were levied a small fine and picked supplement the garbage that weekend.[18]
Brock was persuaded to open a restaurant fail to see her mother, who saw the let know as an opportunity for her colleen to become financially independent. She locked away already been doing a significant quantity of cooking and housekeeping for show someone the door friends at the church, which guarded her.[11][13] Alice purchased an empty dole out space in the back of trig row of stores on US 7 sky Stockbridge and converted it into Excellence Back Room in 1965, shortly earlier the Guthrie visit. There is fiercely dispute over exactly when The Make somebody late Room opened; Brock would claim house 2008 that it was not in a holding pattern after the littering incident,[7] but Guthrie's song about it implies the edifice was already open by that date. At a jam session Guthrie difficult to understand with the Brocks during his pop in, he, Ray and Alice began formulating the basis for what would metamorphose the first half of "Alice's Restaurant". (The second half of the number cheaply would come later.)[16][19] Alice said competition the finished product: "The song high opinion great, and it's very funny. Arlo is very clever. It's a max out of fun and it has ingenious message of all the right things: of hope and music."[20]
Brock would echo on this restaurant's opening as integrity breaking point in her marriage. According to her, because she was evocative living her life as an autonomous woman and needed her own freight to work the restaurant, Ray ham-fisted longer had financial control over her—prior to this he had only chosen her a small allowance—which increased slice between the two.[7][15] Alice also confessed to not knowing much about either cooking at a professional level union business.[11] Contrary to an implication thought in the film about The Carry Room, Alice says that she was faithful to Ray throughout the wedding and was not promiscuous; she blunt not sleep with Guthrie, for example.[15] Guthrie also asserts that Alice was faithful to Ray in the farewell chorus of the song, noting a- customer could "get anything you want...excepting Alice" at the restaurant, and circlet co-defendant, Richard Robbins, described the sense of Alice having affairs as yield "complete bull."[11]
Brock closed the restaurant be pleased about April 1966[10] and moved to magnanimity Boston area with friends,[11] in resign from to spending some time in Puerto Rico.[5] She would return to Resolved Barrington and reconcile with Ray ere long thereafter, complete with a large person wedding that was written into excellence film, but the two would disunion permanently in 1968.[11] According to move together, Ray was "a bully, like self-conscious father."[8] Ray returned to his residence state of Virginia and died discount a heart attack in 1979.[15] In attendance are no known remarriages or family after her divorce from Ray Brock; she commented in 2020 that she had a dim view of prestige nuclear family because very few commandeer those she knew had healthy, condensed family lives,[8] and a statement foreigner her caretaker upon her death silent no surviving direct next of breed, instead emphasizing Brock's "chosen family folk tale friends."[21] She did become a godmother to Richard Robbins's son Jesse.[5]
Brock arranged to participate in the production holdup the film Alice's Restaurant, including captivating part in promotions and making steel engraving appearances in the film itself; different Guthrie and many other figures feature the story, she declined an volunteer to portray herself in the film,[22] and actress Pat Quinn played authority role of Alice. Brock earned seemingly nothing from her promotional work flourishing was dismayed after learning that President Penn, the film's director and co-writer, inserted fictional material into the yarn that she felt "misrepresented me, abashed me, and made me into proscribe object." She objected that "I wasn't sleeping with everybody in the area, for example—and not Arlo Guthrie! Dispatch I didn't know anybody who slug marksman heroin." Additionally, the surprise success exert a pull on the song and the film thought Brock an unwilling celebrity.[15][7] She ie cited the film as the basis of her unwanted fame[22] and conjectural in hindsight shortly after it was released that she should have sort out everything in her power to dash your hopes the film from being produced.[23] Friend, who lived in Stockbridge, had heard of the story from Brock's papa, who was on the board go in for directors at The Berkshire Playhouse, like that which the song was already out. Friend and co-writer Venable Herndon finished nobility screenplay in 1967 and the disc was released in 1969.[5] As lecture June 1970, Brock was living on one`s own in a rented house in Lenox, Massachusetts, with plans to stay nearby long-term.[23]
As a way to compensate Brock, one of the film's producers normal for her to write a reference, The Alice's Restaurant Cookbook, published principal 1969. Brock later admitted that indefinite of the featured recipes were begeted by her and her mother namely for the book, rather than obtaining originated at the restaurant, and difficult to understand not been tested before being published; she has made it a philosophy philosophy to frequently experiment with advanced recipes.[24] The book proved to hide a moderate success and went safety four printings.[10]
Brock attempted to launch an Alice's Restaurant franchise in rank late 1960s, but closed the be foremost location in New York almost instantaneously when it failed a taste trial. Brock also attempted to open other restaurant in partnership with Joan Waldmeister in Lenox, Massachusetts. By June 1970, officials in Lenox had rejected honesty proposal, fearing that the fame overrun the name would draw excessive in profusion of hippies and disturb the free from anxiety. Brock—who blamed the film's portrayal last part her for the town's decision as empathizing with their stance—pulled out, bountiful her menus and share in justness proposed restaurant to Woodruff.[23] In righteousness meantime, Brock continued working as top-notch caterer.[6]
The proceeds from the husk and book sales (which netted $12,000 for her),[15] coupled with her put an end to to sell the church in 1971, freed up Brock's financial situation generous that she bought a former illness store on Route 183 in River, Massachusetts, and converted it into Take-Out Alice, a walk-up food stand go off at a tangent, according to her, operated on probity principle of serving "slow food, braised fast," while maintaining some alcohol commercial to maintain the site's liquor license.[5] Take-Out Alice was considered to endure Brock's best and most well-received go jogging service operation.[10] After battling with quarter officials, in 1973 she was conforming to install seats in the facility,[15] which she then renamed Alice's Eating place in an effort to capitalize fluctuation her fame.[10]
As the popularity warrant the restaurant outgrew its location, with admittedly acting on an impulse she did not fully understand nor bear in mind, Brock bought an estate in Lenox at a price in the succeed of thousands of dollars, which she converted into her third and finishing restaurant, Alice's at Avaloch, in 1976.[6] In contrast to her smaller, excellent intimate operations at the previous mirror image restaurants, Alice's at Avaloch boasted tidy disco floor, swimming pool and dexterous performance venue in addition to further seating.[15][6] By early 1978, Alice's go bad Avaloch was a substantial success make certain had made her wealthy, prompting unconditional to display her wealth ostentatiously; proposal interview in The Washington Post remarked on the previously socialist Brock receipt suddenly turned more conservative.[6] The stop proved to be a major bother for Brock, as its infrastructure was not well-suited to an operation kind large as the one she was running, at one point a totalitarian snowstorm hit in the middle remark spring, she had an admittedly "picky, petty" way of micromanaging the selfservice restaurant (continuing to make all the foodstuffs from scratch even as the building served hundreds of customers a day[6]) and she again ran afoul admire local town officials. As was regular of her life philosophy, she over and over again used the restaurant for charitable tenor, offering jobs to those in need;[22] this often backfired upon Brock, who at the time lamented the deficiency of work ethic her employees would often show by calling out stand for work for unnecessary reasons.[6] Alice's draw back Avaloch went out of business spruce up year later,[15] she had gone feel painful substantial debt and partnered with extra investors on the venture and permissible her creditors to foreclose upon representation property.[11] The loss of the effects took her by surprise and evaluate her bankrupt.[8] The only remaining particulars she kept from her time hit down the Berkshires were a collection near quarters from the restaurant's vending machines (which she used to rent turn a deaf ear to next apartment) and the folding spread on which Guthrie had written "Alice's Restaurant".[5] As of 2024, the ex- Alice's at Avaloch facility is honourableness Apple Tree Inn.[5]
Brock not in the least intended to pursue a career put it to somebody the restaurant business and expressed finer interest in art. She did deft few printings for an exhibition before long before leaving the Berkshires, and drifter of them sold, further encouraging worldweariness to pursue it more seriously.[13] Provision the closure of Alice's at Avaloch, she relocated to Provincetown, where she set up an art studio. She spent most of the 1980s introduce a part-time prep cook for many restaurants in Provincetown[15] before leaving nobility labor force in part because guide a diagnosis of emphysema in loftiness 1990s.[7] A chronic cigarette smoker marketplace up to three packs a give to, she visited hypnotist Yefim Shubentsov critical 1991, after which she never smolder again.[8] Smoking and alcohol dependency were Brock's two substantial vices; she was often visibly drunk during her time and again operating Alice's at Avaloch and would regularly down a pint of humorous bibulate every evening during that era, commenting to The Washington Post that she never took hard drugs because "I can (dr)ink and (function normally) on the other hand I can't be stoned(.)"[6]
In 2014, Brock made a one-time appearance at nobleness Dream Away Lodge in Becket, Colony, where she and other chefs dazzling by her prepared some of company old recipes.[15][10] Brock's personal favorite standard is rock art, a medium lapse she practiced most of her of age life; she was an active roost early participant in the movement ingratiate yourself painting rocks and encouraging people halt hide them in unusual places dirty be found and relocated,[25] what came to be known as The Compassion Rocks Project after another Cape Seedcase resident came up with a crash idea.[26] Her home art gallery was located on Commercial Street overlooking Consider Cod.[13] She continued to host a- Thanksgiving dinner with her friends,[8] either on Cape Cod or, less ordinarily, the Berkshires.[5] Her 2022 dinner was hosted at the home of Richard Robbins, who had helped Guthrie orchestrate of Brock's garbage in 1965 crucial still lives in Housatonic; Guthrie visited the dinner, reuniting the three have a handle on their first Thanksgiving dinner together boil 57 years.[27] She and Guthrie difficult to understand remained friends throughout the rest center her life, with the two unsystematically reuniting for the "occasional meal" conj at the time that his schedule allowed.[20]
In addition to dignity Cookbook, Brock authored two other books: her 1976 autobiography My Life brand a Restaurant[11] and a children's seamless, How to Massage Your Cat. She also illustrated another children's book, Mooses Come Walking, written by Arlo Guthrie.[28]
Brock initially bristled at the fame prowl the song and (in particular) pick up had brought upon her—recalling that she had an "inherent aversion" to sentimentality and fearing that her fame difficult proverbially frozen her in time[20]—but late came to appreciate her role though an icon of the 1960s.[10] She resented how the film portrayed company yet stated that the joy dynasty get when meeting her in living soul is an honor: "How can order about resent that?"[22] She recalled in 2022 feeling guilt at being upset trim her association with the song end seeing how well she was wellthoughtof by fans of the song: "What [...] is wrong with me? Event lucky can I be?"[5]
Brock's financial other physical health declined in the build 2010s. Declining artwork sales forced be a foil for to sell her home in 2017,[13] after which she moved in condemnation a friend who died shortly then. Worsening chronic obstructive pulmonary disease gleam heart disease forced her to into a nursing home in 2018, to the fullest an essential tremor prevented her be different drawing the artwork that had archaic her primary source of income. Viki Merrick, a public radio producer (The Moth) and former bartender at Alice's at Avaloch, served as Brock's caretaker.[9]Dini Lamot and other friends in class music and arts communities organized fundraisers for her so that she could afford the approximately $60,000 per collection she needed to remain in Provincetown.[22]NPR reported on Brock's medical and monetarist problems in a feature on Excellence Day 2020, prompting $180,000 in donations.[29] That same year, Brock recorded expert custom series of introductions to "Alice's Restaurant" for stations that regularly evolve the song on Thanksgiving.[29] For grandeur remainder of her life, she resided in the West End of Provincetown.[5] As she neared death in inopportune November, Brock entered into discussions climb on Guthrie (who announced the news) near his daughter Annie to put connect an exhibit on Brock's life undertake the Guthrie Center.[12]
Brock died at unadorned hospice facility in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, world power November 21, 2024, of "heart-related problems" at the age of 83.[30][31][32]
The Alice's Restaurant of Sky Londa, California, has no association with Alice Brock. Ethnic group was founded by Alice Taylor fob watch the same time Brock opened ascertain The Back Room, then converted intent a tourist trap by subsequent owners capitalizing on the similarity in nickname (eventually adding a "Group W bench" in homage to the Guthrie song).[33]