Sunday Cinema | Grateful Dead 1967 – The Hippie Temptation

Back in 1967 the “Summer Of Love” blossomed in San Francisco. The establishment and mainstream America were freaked out by the hippies and their free loving way of life. Nothing displays this irrational fear more than a 1967 CBS News feature called The Hippie Temptation hosted by legendary news man Harry Reasoner, which profiled life in the Haight-Asbury section of San Francisco. The Hippie Temptation aired on August 22, 1967.

The Grateful Dead were featured in part of the documentary, which includes interviews with Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh. Reasoner does his best to feed into the fear of hippies by discussing “bummer trips,” their dependence on hallucinogenics and how they are corrupting youth. There are segments on the temptation of danger of LSD, The Haight as main colony for the hippies, hippies clashing with cops, how these “degenerates” earn money and radical community-action group The Diggers.

We also get to see footage of the Dead performing “Dancing In The Streets” on April 20, 1967 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. While it’s too bad we have to listen to Reasoner spewing propaganda while the band plays, we found a clip without the news man harshing our buzz.

Watch the CBS News feature The Hippie Temptation from 1967…

Skip to the part about the Grateful Dead:

Here’s footage of the Dead performing “Dancing In The Streets” at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in 1967, with audio from an earlier show: