Los Angeles Free Press
Encyclopedia
The Los Angeles Free Press (1964–1978; new series 2005–ongoing), also called “the Freep”, was among the most widely distributed underground newspapers
of the 1960s. It is often cited as the first such newspaper. The Free Press was edited and published weekly, for most of its existence, by Art Kunkin
, who, at the time of its founding, was a 36-year-old unemployed tool-and-die worker and former organizer for the Socialist Workers Party
, where he had served as business manager of the SWP paper, The Militant
.
Renaissance Pleasure Faire and May Market, a fund-raising event for listener-sponsored KPFK
radio. This first issue was entitled The Faire Free Press, with the logo "Los Angeles Free Press" appearing on an inside page, and a coupon soliciting subscribers. Five thousand copies were printed, of which 1200 sold at a price of 25 cents. While the outside pages were a spoof of the fair's Renaissance theme featuring cute stories like one about a "ban the crossbow" demonstration, the inside contained legitimate underground community news and reviews. After the fair was over Kunkin circulated a brochure to potential investors and found enough backing to start putting out the paper on a regular weekly basis in July 1964.
The Free Press was produced mostly by unpaid volunteers. In the beginning many of them were the same people who volunteered at KPFK
, where Kunkin had his own political commentary radio show. It operated for its first two years out of free office space in the basement of a Sunset Boulevard
coffeehouse called The Fifth Estate, which was an informal headquarters for the teenybopper
s who gathered and rioted
on the Sunset Strip
in the mid-1960s. Harlan Ellison
and Lawrence Lipton
were the first regular columnists, articles by the former collected in The Glass Teat
. The paper grew slowly at first and in Oct. 1966 Kunkin informed a reporter for the Los Angeles Times
that the paper had 9000 readers and was operating on a shoestring. "I wanted to do a weekly in Los Angeles that would be like the Village Voice in New York," Kunkin told the Times.
This newspaper was notable for its radical politics when such views rarely saw print. This was a new kind of journalism at that time. People were tired of “The Big Lie” and the way ‘news’ was being brought to them, edited so as to tell the story of how well our government was working in their behalf.
The Free Press saw itself as an advocate of personal freedom as well as a vehicle to aid in the anti-Vietnam war
movement. With its readership, particularly readers ready to sit, march, and sing, The Los Angeles Free Press is given degrees of credit for the ending of the Vietnam War
, because of its coverage and how it became a touchstone for the activists, both everyday people and celebrities. It grew with the movement, and at its peak was selling over 100,000 copies, with national distribution.
The Free Press wrote about and was often directly involved in the major historic issues and people of the 60's & 70's such as the Chicago 7 Trial, Timothy Leary
, Allen Ginsberg
and Abbie Hoffman
. Both the famous and the infamous would open up to the Los Angeles Free Press from Bob Dylan
, to the Black Panthers, to Jim Morrison
to Iceberg Slim
.
People were willing to pay twenty-five cents for the Free Press, even though readers could get mainstream dailies such as the Los Angeles Times
for ten cents back then. The cry at the corner was "Don’t be a Creep, Buy a Freep!" The scene was so unique to Los Angeles, that in the movie I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
, Peter Sellers
(when he "sees the light" and converts from lawyer to hippie) is hawking them, as well.
; and Gilbert Shelton
's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
started appearing as a regular feature in 1970. The Free Press was a founding member of the Underground Press Syndicate
. It was the impetus for a network of 600 community, student and alternative newspapers throughout the United States.
Author Charles Bukowski
's Open City column "Notes of a Dirty Old Man
" was taken on by the Los Angeles Free Press beginning in 1969, when Open City
folded.
The cartoonist
Ron Cobb
created an ecology symbol and published on November 7, 1969, in the Los Angeles Free Press and then placed it in the public domain
. The symbol was a combination of the letters "E" and "O" taken from the words "Environment" and "Organism", respectively. Look
magazine incorporated the symbol into a flag in their April 21, 1970 issue. The flag was patterned after the flag of the United States
, and had thirteen stripes alternating green and white. Its canton
was green with the ecology symbol where the stars would be in the United States flag.
The split in the staff began a downward spiral for the Free Press. The paper had begun to rely more and more heavily on sex ads for its revenues, and fell into debt after Kunkin bought two expensive Mergenthaler printing presses. Kunkin borrowed $60,000, putting up the paper as collateral. The note was cosigned by Marvin Miller, a major Southern California sex industry publisher who both advertised in the paper and allowed Kunkin to use his presses after he lost his original printers. In 1971 Kunkin defaulted and the loan was foreclosed, and Marvin Miller became the new owner of the paper. Kunkin stayed on as editor for about two years and then left. After that the paper became little more than a wraparound for sex ads. It survived until the late 1970s when it was purchased by Larry Flynt
, who found it unprofitable and soon shut it down. The last issue was dated April 3, 1978.
The Free Press maintains an independent view. It covers politics
, health
(including natural
and/or holistic), spirituality
, literature
, media
, food
, and community issues. The paper has taken a stand against the Iraq War. Most recently The Los Angeles Free Press gave Tom Hayden
a lifetime achievement award for his efforts as an activist both in his private life and during his 18 years in politics.
Los Angeles Free Press was being published as a catalyst for social change
. The mission statement of Los Angeles Free Press is to be "a true alternative to "Corporate-Controlled Media". The basis of the paper is that names and the locations have changed, but the issues concerning personal rights and the action of an unjust war, are the same as during the Vietnam War
era .
The print version was being published in the original five-column format with the “screamer” headlines of old includes both current and vintage content in both the articles and ads. The look of the paper was true to its original format.
Steven M. Finger became the publisher of the Los Angeles Free Press in Late 2006/Early 2007.
Finger also owns and manages AP&G, the marketing arm of the Los Angeles Free Press.
The Los Angeles Free Press is active and has current editions. The slogan is "We're Back. The True alternative to the corporate controlled media." Archives of past editions are available to view online for historical reference and/or research.
Art Kunkin is now a regular columnist for the two local newspapers, the American Free Journal Weekly and the Desert Valley Star Weekly.
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
of the 1960s. It is often cited as the first such newspaper. The Free Press was edited and published weekly, for most of its existence, by Art Kunkin
Art Kunkin
Art Kunkin is an American journalist, political organizer, machinist and New Age esotericist best known as the founding publisher and editor of the Los Angeles Free Press...
, who, at the time of its founding, was a 36-year-old unemployed tool-and-die worker and former organizer for the Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
, where he had served as business manager of the SWP paper, The Militant
The Militant
The Militant is an international Socialist newsweekly connected to the Socialist Workers Party and the Pathfinder Tendency. It is published in the United States and distributed in other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Sweden, Iceland, and New...
.
History
The Free Press initially appeared as a one-shot 8-page tabloid, dated May 23, 1964, sold at the annual Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
Renaissance Pleasure Faire and May Market, a fund-raising event for listener-sponsored KPFK
KPFK
KPFK is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves the Greater Los Angeles Area, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet...
radio. This first issue was entitled The Faire Free Press, with the logo "Los Angeles Free Press" appearing on an inside page, and a coupon soliciting subscribers. Five thousand copies were printed, of which 1200 sold at a price of 25 cents. While the outside pages were a spoof of the fair's Renaissance theme featuring cute stories like one about a "ban the crossbow" demonstration, the inside contained legitimate underground community news and reviews. After the fair was over Kunkin circulated a brochure to potential investors and found enough backing to start putting out the paper on a regular weekly basis in July 1964.
The Free Press was produced mostly by unpaid volunteers. In the beginning many of them were the same people who volunteered at KPFK
KPFK
KPFK is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves the Greater Los Angeles Area, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet...
, where Kunkin had his own political commentary radio show. It operated for its first two years out of free office space in the basement of a Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
coffeehouse called The Fifth Estate, which was an informal headquarters for the teenybopper
Teenybopper
The term teenybopper was invented by marketing professionals and psychologists, later becoming a subculture of its own. The term describes a young teenager, particularly a girl, who follows adolescent trends in music, fashion and culture. The term was introduced in the 1950s to refer to teenagers...
s who gathered and rioted
Sunset Strip curfew riots
The Sunset Strip curfew riots, also known as the "hippie riots," were a series of clashes that took place between police and young people on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, California, beginning in the mid-1960s and continuing through the early 1970s....
on the Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
in the mid-1960s. Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
and Lawrence Lipton
Lawrence Lipton
Lawrence Lipton was an American journalist, writer, and beat poet, as well as the father of James Lipton.Lipton was born in Lodz, Poland, the son of Rose and Abraham Lipton. He was brought to the United States in 1903 and settled in Chicago, Illinois...
were the first regular columnists, articles by the former collected in The Glass Teat
The Glass Teat
The Glass Teat: Essays of Opinion on Television is a compilation of television reviews and essays written by Harlan Ellison as a regular weekly column for the Los Angeles Free Press from late 1968 into early 1970, discussing the effects of television upon society. The title implies that TV...
. The paper grew slowly at first and in Oct. 1966 Kunkin informed a reporter for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
that the paper had 9000 readers and was operating on a shoestring. "I wanted to do a weekly in Los Angeles that would be like the Village Voice in New York," Kunkin told the Times.
This newspaper was notable for its radical politics when such views rarely saw print. This was a new kind of journalism at that time. People were tired of “The Big Lie” and the way ‘news’ was being brought to them, edited so as to tell the story of how well our government was working in their behalf.
The Free Press saw itself as an advocate of personal freedom as well as a vehicle to aid in the anti-Vietnam war
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
movement. With its readership, particularly readers ready to sit, march, and sing, The Los Angeles Free Press is given degrees of credit for the ending of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, because of its coverage and how it became a touchstone for the activists, both everyday people and celebrities. It grew with the movement, and at its peak was selling over 100,000 copies, with national distribution.
The Free Press wrote about and was often directly involved in the major historic issues and people of the 60's & 70's such as the Chicago 7 Trial, Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ....
. Both the famous and the infamous would open up to the Los Angeles Free Press from Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, to the Black Panthers, to Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...
to Iceberg Slim
Iceberg Slim
Iceberg Slim aka Robert Beck was a reformed pimp and American author of urban fiction.-Early life:Born Robert Lee Maupin, in Chicago on August 4, 1918, he spent his childhood in Milwaukee and Rockford, Illinois until he returned to Chicago...
.
Distribution
Because of free speech rules, newspaper publishers could buy vending machines, mount them on street corners chained to posts, and sell their issues direct to the public. Don Campbell, a Free Press editor, bought three vending machines for $125 and stocked them with papers. With the proceeds, he bought 3 more machines. Pat Woolley, later to operate Sawyer Press and the syndicate that handled Ron Cobb, took the papers round to her head shop clients, and sold them by hand to drivers cruising Sunset Strip.People were willing to pay twenty-five cents for the Free Press, even though readers could get mainstream dailies such as the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
for ten cents back then. The cry at the corner was "Don’t be a Creep, Buy a Freep!" The scene was so unique to Los Angeles, that in the movie I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas is a 1968 comedy film starring Peter Sellers, directed by Hy Averback and featuring music by Harpers Bizarre. The film is set in the counterculture of the 1960s. The addition cast includes David Arkin, Jo Van Fleet, Leigh Taylor-Young, in her film debut, and a cameo by...
, Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
(when he "sees the light" and converts from lawyer to hippie) is hawking them, as well.
Underground comix
The paper also pioneered the emerging field of underground comics by publishing the “underground” political cartoons of Ron CobbRon Cobb
Ron Cobb is an American cartoonist, artist, writer, film designer, and film director.By the age of 18, with no formal training in graphic illustration, Cobb was working as an animation "inbetweener" artist for Disney Studios in Burbank, California. He progressed to becoming a breakdown artist on...
; and Gilbert Shelton
Gilbert Shelton
Gilbert Shelton is an American cartoonist and underground comix artist. He is the creator of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat, Wonder Wart-Hog, Philbert Desanex, Not Quite Dead, and the cover art to The Grateful Dead's 1978 album Shakedown Street.He graduated from Lamar High...
's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers are a trio of underground comic strip characters created by the U.S. artist Gilbert Shelton. The Freak Brothers first appeared in The Rag, an underground newspaper published in Austin, Texas, beginning in May 1968; and were regularly reprinted in underground papers...
started appearing as a regular feature in 1970. The Free Press was a founding member of the Underground Press Syndicate
Underground Press Syndicate
The Underground Press Syndicate, commonly known as UPS, and later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate or APS, was a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines formed in mid-1966 by the publishers of five early underground papers: the East Village Other, the Los Angeles Free Press, the...
. It was the impetus for a network of 600 community, student and alternative newspapers throughout the United States.
Author Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
's Open City column "Notes of a Dirty Old Man
Notes of a Dirty Old Man
Notes of a Dirty Old Man is a collection of underground newspaper articles written by Charles Bukowski that were retrieved and published from Essex House in the Open City newspapers and into the paperback series Notes of a Dirty Old Man. His short series was written with a crude humor yet truthful...
" was taken on by the Los Angeles Free Press beginning in 1969, when Open City
Open City (newspaper)
Open City was a weekly underground newspaper published in Los Angeles by avant-garde journalist John Bryan from May 6, 1967 to April 1969. It was noted for its coverage of radical politics, rock music, psychedelic culture and the "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" column by Charles Bukowski.-Founder:John...
folded.
The cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
Ron Cobb
Ron Cobb
Ron Cobb is an American cartoonist, artist, writer, film designer, and film director.By the age of 18, with no formal training in graphic illustration, Cobb was working as an animation "inbetweener" artist for Disney Studios in Burbank, California. He progressed to becoming a breakdown artist on...
created an ecology symbol and published on November 7, 1969, in the Los Angeles Free Press and then placed it in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
. The symbol was a combination of the letters "E" and "O" taken from the words "Environment" and "Organism", respectively. Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
magazine incorporated the symbol into a flag in their April 21, 1970 issue. The flag was patterned after the flag of the United States
Flag of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
, and had thirteen stripes alternating green and white. Its canton
Flag terminology
Flag terminology is a jargon used in vexillology, the study of flags, to describe precisely the parts, patterns, and other attributes of flags and their display.-Description of standard flag parts and terms:...
was green with the ecology symbol where the stars would be in the United States flag.
Devolution
In 1970, much of the newspaper's staff and then editor Brian Kirby left the paper due to financial and editorial differences. The team began a competing newspaper, The Staff. By this time the paper was at its zenith, with Kunkin controlling a small publishing empire including three Free Press bookstores in Los Angeles, a typesetting plant, a printing company, and a book publishing firm, in addition to the weekly paper. There were 150 employees and annual revenues of two million dollars. In spite of this, the business was awash in red ink and nearing collapse.The split in the staff began a downward spiral for the Free Press. The paper had begun to rely more and more heavily on sex ads for its revenues, and fell into debt after Kunkin bought two expensive Mergenthaler printing presses. Kunkin borrowed $60,000, putting up the paper as collateral. The note was cosigned by Marvin Miller, a major Southern California sex industry publisher who both advertised in the paper and allowed Kunkin to use his presses after he lost his original printers. In 1971 Kunkin defaulted and the loan was foreclosed, and Marvin Miller became the new owner of the paper. Kunkin stayed on as editor for about two years and then left. After that the paper became little more than a wraparound for sex ads. It survived until the late 1970s when it was purchased by Larry Flynt
Larry Flynt
Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications . In 2003, Arena magazine listed him as the number one on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list....
, who found it unprofitable and soon shut it down. The last issue was dated April 3, 1978.
Rebirth (2005 to current)
On 13 September 2005, the premier issue of a revived Los Angeles Free Press was distributed. It embodied many of the same ideals and beliefs and was again spearheaded by Art Kunkin, albeït with an entirely new staff.The Free Press maintains an independent view. It covers politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
(including natural
Natural
Natural is an adjective that refers to Nature.Natural may refer too:In science and mathematics:* Natural transformation, category theory in mathematics* Natural foods...
and/or holistic), spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
, and community issues. The paper has taken a stand against the Iraq War. Most recently The Los Angeles Free Press gave Tom Hayden
Tom Hayden
Thomas Emmet "Tom" Hayden is an American social and political activist and politician, known for his involvement in the animal rights, and the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. He is the former husband of actress Jane Fonda and the father of actor Troy Garity.-Life and...
a lifetime achievement award for his efforts as an activist both in his private life and during his 18 years in politics.
Los Angeles Free Press was being published as a catalyst for social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
. The mission statement of Los Angeles Free Press is to be "a true alternative to "Corporate-Controlled Media". The basis of the paper is that names and the locations have changed, but the issues concerning personal rights and the action of an unjust war, are the same as during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
era .
The print version was being published in the original five-column format with the “screamer” headlines of old includes both current and vintage content in both the articles and ads. The look of the paper was true to its original format.
Steven M. Finger became the publisher of the Los Angeles Free Press in Late 2006/Early 2007.
Finger also owns and manages AP&G, the marketing arm of the Los Angeles Free Press.
The Los Angeles Free Press is active and has current editions. The slogan is "We're Back. The True alternative to the corporate controlled media." Archives of past editions are available to view online for historical reference and/or research.
Art Kunkin is now a regular columnist for the two local newspapers, the American Free Journal Weekly and the Desert Valley Star Weekly.