11-08-2011, 10:22 PM
POST SAYS:
Before there was a Summer of Love, before the phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out" became a counterculture rallying cry, before Easy Rider and the Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey set out on a journey to free America from a society he believed had grown intolerant and fearful. The success of his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, whose anti-hero Randle McMurphy rebelled against conformity, gave Kesey the financial freedom to test his theories in public.
Back 73 I met Kesey in N.Dak. at a writer's conference and he told me this story. He said he made money off of the book but not a nickel off of the film, Cuckoo's Nest. He didn't see the small print in the contract that said if he was ever caught with as much as a marijuana seed he would forfeit all royalties to the film. He was stopped for a routine traffic stop and a seed was found in his ash tray that he hadn't used. Producer Michael Douglas is the one Kesey blamed for this scam.
Before there was a Summer of Love, before the phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out" became a counterculture rallying cry, before Easy Rider and the Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey set out on a journey to free America from a society he believed had grown intolerant and fearful. The success of his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, whose anti-hero Randle McMurphy rebelled against conformity, gave Kesey the financial freedom to test his theories in public.
Back 73 I met Kesey in N.Dak. at a writer's conference and he told me this story. He said he made money off of the book but not a nickel off of the film, Cuckoo's Nest. He didn't see the small print in the contract that said if he was ever caught with as much as a marijuana seed he would forfeit all royalties to the film. He was stopped for a routine traffic stop and a seed was found in his ash tray that he hadn't used. Producer Michael Douglas is the one Kesey blamed for this scam.