General Hershey Bar was a Hollywood local, he frequented the 180 and 181 RTD bus lines in the Los Angeles area during the time I was in Hollywood from 1976 to 1983. The General greeted everyone he saw with a hearty, “Good Morning, General!” Having searched the Internet for quite a while for as much info as I could find, this is the only known color photograph of the good General.
An Anti-Vietnam War Protester who was often seen with his partner in the Selective Service System, General Wastemoreland, General Hershey Bar was seen frequently at anti war rallies all along the West Coast from San Diego to San Francisco and Haight Ashbury. The limited info on him says that his “real” name is “Calypso Joe” and General Wastemoreland was identified as Tom Dunphy.
I can’t count the number of times I spoke with General Hershey Bar, or just how long our conversations were. But I can tell you, it was always enlightening and (if you don’t mind me saying so) GENERALLY speaking, lots of fun! It was during one of those conversations that I told him the story of how my mom was depressed hearing the news that her Uncle was passing away and she would now be the older generation in the family. The idea for the collection of celebrity pictures came to me as a means of cheering her up. The General was happy to participate.
See the General at 00:49
in X’s Los Angeles video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fo74OnQbhr4
OMG, I remember first meeting the General at the Downtown Courthouse in the 1960′s. The last time that I saw him was in 1986 when I was teaching traffic violator school at Gower and Sunset. He came walking by and I said hello and asked him to speak to my class. The General said he was busy, but made me a FIVE STAR GENERAL FOR PEACE and told me to talk to the class on his behalf about peace. Only in Hollywood.
Very cool to see video of the good General. It was an almost impossible task to find out his “real” name is/was Calypso Joe. I still can’t get any more than that. But not being in the area any more, I sure do miss seeing him all the time.
Hi,
General Hershey Bar’s adapted performer name was Calypso Joe. It was a name he created when he was a Calypso dancer in the 40′s and 50′s. His true-to-life real name (given at birth) was William Matons (something that most of those closest to him didn’t even know).
If the good General was still alive, he’d be dancing with the ripe old age of 102 (come September, 2008). Sadly, he passed away on October 13, 1993. He was a wonderful mentor and his image and character will live on for generations to come.
I salute the General with highest prestige and I know he salutes us all back from that wonderful land of street theatre up in the sky.
Carry on General!
i knew the general back in those daze…i was working with green power doing the griffith park love-ins at the merry-go-round..do you have any pix of him or the love-ins..please reply via pieman420@gmail.com
I remember the General. I would never have known that he was a calypso dancer. I am ballroom dancer migrating to Argentine Tango.
He was active on the UCLA campu in the late 60s.
I remember The General quite well.
I was an RTD Bus Operator in L.A. from 1982-1986, and The General would ride with me several times a week. And when not on MY bus, I’d often see him, mostly on Hill St., interacting with the folks on the street. I even used to collect the flyers he used to make up and pass out. He’d always leave me with a half dozen or so of his latest, lol. I used to have them posted on my apartment wall in Hollywood. I enjoyed talking with him on many occasions. He would always be singing that Mexican song… “Aye yi yi yi”, lol. He was a well known friend to all the bus drivers.
I’m sorry to be learning of his passing though, but The General had a very colorful life and touched many people; including myself. May he be resting peacefully. At ease, General!
It’s a long story, but I knew him before he died, and I miss him.
Wow! How wonderful to find this page. I rode on several busses with the gentleman in question back in the early 1970s and was able to chat with him only very briefly. Received many of his flyers, and have often thought about him over the years. Last time I looked for info about him online was probably 3 years ago and found nothing. I’ve often thought he was a character who deserved to be immortalized in a book, movie, play, SOMETHING.I’d love to hear any stories.
I remember the General very fondly from my days in LA.
I used to have printing done at Charlie Chan at Gower Gulch, and the General and I crossed paths often when he had his flyers printed at the shop.
Most memorable conversation, circa 1980 : General HB pulled out a quarter and asked me to read the legend on the obverse beneath George Washington’s chin. “This is the only country in the world where they print ‘In God We Trust’ on the money. We’re the laughing stock of the world”.
WOW–we knew the “GENERAL” as “Calypso Joe” back in 1971, when he was the manager of our very first apartment at the Malaga Castle over 38 years ago! The picture that you have of him provides us with an excellent refresher to our fond memories of him! He was a character to say the least, indeed. At the time we rented the apartment, we were both 17 years old and, since we had the cash for the apartment, I don’t think we were ever asked to fill out a rental application and we moved in right away! We lived on the 3rd floor of the east wing and had a wonderful balcony (as Calypso Joe described it to us and it was actually just the fire escape landing:) but his description was much better). We also remember the time when the aged-white tile in our kitchen started coming up and we mentioned this to Calypso. He said no problem and the next day as we came home, he proudly reported that the problem had been fixed. Eager to see things repaired we’ll never forget our reactions when we went into the kitchen and found a bright red tile that was installed right in the middle of the kitchen! It was a great place for us to start our lives together (we still are together by the way) and we always referred to the Malaga Castle as the “Noah’s Ark of Hollywood” because there were at least 2 of everything weird that Hollywood had to offer at that time–Hells Angels, Black Panthers, Gays, Lesbians and everything else!
Here is a shot of the General I took at a Green Peace
“Show” at the Hollywood Bowl summer of 1978.
Just a teen ager at the time, my Uncle introduced me
to the General…
Click on my name to see the Photo….
Awesome photo. Here’s one I found on the Corbis historical photo website. Here’s the good General and his prótege.
http://www.corbis.co.in/zoom.php?imageuid={0ac475cb-b0dd-43bb-a663-493fe51c63b2}
Looks like only part of the link saved. To get to the pic you’ll actually need to copy and paste the entire link into the browser. Don’t know why it did that. Hmmmm.
The General was a regular visitor on the UCLA campus during the late 70s, early 80s often walking the aisles of Royce Hall and the ballroom in Ackerman and before lectures and special events.
UCLA and the Country has lost a great American.
Thanks for keeping his memory alive.
i used to work w/green power focalizing the love-ins at griffith park. hershey bar was a welcome treat at all the events
Someone mentioned a description of him on another website, and I knew right away it was the good General. I used to see him around the rallies in LA. I’ve noticed in recent years that he appears walking straight up the middle of an away-from-the-stage shot at Altamont in the film Gimme Shelter.
HAHA, this is a true blast from the past. I had lunch w/ General HB @ the Treehouse on the UCLA campus once. Then there was an article in the Times about him. The article said that he had been a business man and a workaholic. Then his wife died and he regretted not spending more time with her on vacations and such. So, then he decided to bring joy to others… Is that not true? What a character!
would like to find John Buzzell. He use to hang with General Hershey Bar he was the five star general. remember me as slack
Sandi … are you the same Sandy as the other half of Don? Bob’s Big Boy, etc… ?? You can write to me at JVC516@yahoo.com. Would love to hear from you. Lots of updates to share.
please
Oops, forgot to comfirm … Sandy = Yvonne?
The General was a regular at a store I worked at in the early 80s by Melrose and Vine. Loved to hear him rant about President Ray-gun. The General was always ahead of his time!
This is not the general hershey bar I knew. He was younger did hang out in L.A. and Berkley. Was on the Joe Pine show a couple of times. I lived with his sister for a few years. lots of stories
Excuse me i am thinking of general wastemorland. who was comrads of general hershey bar both were on joe pine’s tv show.
Wow, the General…
When I was 12, I used to go to meetings of the American Atheists on Wilshire Blvd in West LA. The General was always there, must’ve been ’77-’78. In your picture, he’s wearing an American Atheist patch on his left shoulder, the blue one on top. I may still have one of his flyers somewhere…
Awesome to hear that so many have memories of him.
I don’t remember the 180 & 181 bus lines back then. It’s possible those were numbers that replaced the original numbers in Hollywood or were simply bus numbers in parts of downtown/outer Los Angeles that I never used. Back then I remember the following RTD buses: The 85 was the Crenshaw/La Brea Bus. The 91W travelled Hollywood Blvd. between downtown LA and Century City. The 91S travelled Hollywood Blvd. from Hollywood & Vermont and then down Sunset to somewhere around Fairfax or so. The 31 was the Glendale/Pasadena bus (which later became the 436). The 81 came from the valley somewhere and stopped at Hollywood and Vine while the 81V continued out to Burbank. The 42 was the Sunset Blvd. line. 93 and 94 travelled between downtown LA and down Santa Monica Blvd. The 93 turned north on Highland Ave. while the 94 went all the way down Santa Monica Blvd. The 83 was the Wilshire Blvd line which went from downtown LA all the way out to UCLA. I can’t remember the numbers the of the buses that went down Western or Vermont Avenues as I rarely used them. I know I’d remember them to hear them (the earlier numbers used during 1976-1981) but I’m drawing a blank at this time. Bus those were fun times.
John, the 436 line became the 180/181 in the early ’80s (and amazingly hasn’t changed since). I was in my teens at the time and rode it almost daily. I saw the General on board more times than I can count.
I moved to LA from Northern California in 1976. General Hershey Bar was just one of the many people and things that made LA magic for me. I had an apartment in Silverlake and frequently took the RTD bus to Hollywood. Many times I saw the general when he boarded the bus along Hollywood Blvd. I still have a few of the many anti-war flyers that he would hand out.
(P.S. I once picked up Wild Man Fischer hitchhiking at the corner of Wilshire & Westwood in the summer of 1976. Another bit of LA/Hollywood magic that I doubt could ever be duplicated today)
Scott Osborn
Burbank
strapon lady…
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Hey, I remember the General. I used to see him on Fairfax Ave., around Canters. I still have one of his fliers from 1977
[...] 1972, a man named General Hershey Bar (I’m not making this up!) took over the management of the Afton Arms and renamed the place “The [...]