I first left home with the Clyde Beatty Cole Brothers Circus in the spring of 1958. I quit the show at the end of the season and moved to New York City where I hung out in Coney Island, Times Square and Greenwich Village, took acting lessons from Joe Chaikin at the Living Theatre, and by 1960, had done just about everything for which the '60s were (in)famous. After a bout with illness in '61, I returned to Vermont where I tried studying at Marlboro College, but gave it up as a lost cause and moved back to New York where I began working at/operating/booking MacDougal, West Third, and Bleecker Street cafes, including The Night Owl, The Basement, The Why Not, The Zig Zag, Cafe Rafio, The Rienzi, The Feenjon, and my own joint: Cafe Tangier. These peculiar establishments catered to tourists looking for real beatniks and we provided them entertainment which included Fred Neil, Richie Havens, Tiny Tim, Jeremy Steig, Gram Parsons, Steven Stills, David Crosby, Dino Valente, Shawn Phillips, Mike Mann, The Blues Magoos, Lovin' Spoonful, Lothar and The Hand People, Janis Ian, Peter Tork and Normal Reason. When Ed Koch closed down "the mess on MacDougal Street", I took off for San Francisco in '65 and danced at the Fillmore, Longshoremens' Hall, The Matrix and The Avalon Ballroom. From there I went to Mexico for six months, spent 11 days in the Tijuana jail, and moved to L.A. where I built a rock disco for Skip Batin's managers and then - flush with moolah - returned to New York just in time to do the lights for the Velvet Underground at The Balloon Farm. During this period I hung out at The Factory where Andy Warhol named me "Peter Gun" for obvious reasons. In '67, I went back to Frisco for the Summer of Love and managed the Jeffery Haight Hotel for a couple of years, returning to NY in the fall of '68 and wasted time swimming in the afternoons and doing nothing in Max's back room most every night. As the scene declined, I got bored again and took off back to Frisco for the third time. On returning to NY in '74, I met up with old friends, Leee Black Childers and Wayne County in the dressing room at the 82 Club, discovered Wayne had been deserted by Mainman, and took on the impossible job of managing punk rock's most wild and crazy performer. When I found there were too few places for Wayne to play in the city, I took over Mothers (a dead gay bar on 23rd Street) and stole all Hilly's acts. From there I migrated to Tommy Dean's new - all-disco - Max's Kansas City in '75 and the rest is history. (see blog: Max's Pt. 2)
