Around New England

Berkshire Eagle Publishes Original Arlo Guthrie Story That Led To ‘Alice’s Restaurant’

November 23, 2018

The Berkshire Eagle has republished the original November 29, 1965 news story about two teen-agers illegally dumping rubbish on private property in Stockbridge that led to Arlo Guthrie’s signature song “Alice’s Restaurant.”

The lede:

“Because they couldn’t find a dump open in Great Barrington, two youths threw a load of refuse down a Stockbridge hillside on Thanksgiving Day.”

Guthrie and a friend offered to take rubbish to the dump, but the dump was closed on Thanksgiving Day, so they ended up tossing it on private property.

Stockbridge Police Chief William J. Obanhein (1924-1994) (who later appeared in the 1969 movie inspired by the song) spent what he called “a very disagreeable two hours” sifting through the junk before he found a clue that led him to the culprits, according to the Berkshire Eagle story.

According to the story:  “The junk included a divan, plus nearly enough bottles, garbage, paper and boxes to fill their Volkswagen bus.”

A judge fined each lad $25 and ordered them to remove the rubbish, which they did.

The chief is paraphrased in the story as saying “the youths found dragging the junk up the hillside much harder than throwing it down.”

Guthrie, now 71, later wrote a folk song about the incident, and its effect on his later life, that appeared on his 1967 debut album and is still his most famous song.