(first posted 5/12/2012) Here’s Eugene’s most famous bus, Further. It’s not the original 1939 Further, the prototype of all hippie buses and the one that Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters drove to NYC in 1964. That was one of the seminal events of the sixties, and the basis of Tom Wolfe’s “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test“. The original is in terrible shape and awaiting restoration at the Kesey farm nearby. But in the eighties, Kesey bought this one to replace it, and it’s not an unfamiliar sight around town. On this occasion, it was outside the MacDonald Theater, where the premiere of the movie “Magic Trip” was about to take place, made from the many hours of film footage shot during that 1964 cross-country trip. Couldn’t miss that; when in Eugene, do as the Eugenians.
Local boy Ken Kesey was the celebrated author of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and other books, and was a volunteer subject of numerous LSD experiments at Stanford University in the fifties. He apparently took a shine to it, and his rural place in the hills above Palo Alto became the cradle of the counter-culture.
In 1964, he bought the 1939 International school bus for a trip to New York City for the publication of his latest book, “Sometimes A Great Notion” as well as dropping in to the 1964 World’s Fair. The bus got a wild paint job, beat-legend and speed-freak Neal Cassady signed on to “drive”, and the rest is history. Although it was originally named Further, and the new bus is named Further, at times it sported the alternative name Furthur. Got to keep it fluid; either name is right.
Hundreds of hours of 16mm film was shot of the original trip, but nobody was up to the task to go through it all and edit it until Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney and Allison Ellwood took it on and created the documentary “The Magic Trip” Here’s the trailer. It’s a glimpse into a moment of history that had an out-sized cultural impact.
The original Further made a few more trips, but was retired after returning from Woodstock in 1969, and was left to rot in a swamp on the Kesey farm outside Eugene. The Smithsonian wanted Further, but the Keseys didn’t want to give up the icon.
Recently, efforts are underway to raise the $100k needed to restore it, and it was pulled out of the swamp. It’s going to take a lot of acid to get it cleaned up again.
Kesey passed away in 2001 (bio here), but his son Zane is keeping the legacy alive.
Update: In 2015, Zane Kesey (Ken’s son) took the bus on a 15,000 mile trip round the country, capitalizing on its fame, and made a documentary “Going Furthur”.
Aging hippies ride and neo-hippies and just folks looking for a bit of fun around in it (and on it), trying to recapture some of the old magic.
Here’s a statue of Ken reading from one of his books in downtown Eugene’s “Kesey Square”, a misnomer if ever there was one. And appropriately enough, an old VW bus is behind him, although not sporting a psychedelic paint job. Eugene: love it or leave it.
Or in Kesey’s words: You’re either on the bus or off.
A subject near and very dear to my heart, Mr. Niedermeyer!
Love Further–the stories that bus could tell, God knows the rest of those guys can’t remember them!
‘Recently, efforts are underway to raise the $100k needed to restore it, and it was pulled out of the swamp. It’s going to take a lot of acid to get it cleaned up again.’
brillant.
Something is wierdly wrong with the idea of raising $100K in corporate donations to refurbish an icon of counterculture. That, and the fact that Kesey probably picked it up for a song in 1964, so it was probably never very nice to begin with. So now, someone will drop the amount of a small starter home into it to make it much nicer than it ever was. Maybe it costs extra to restore it first, then to age or distress it from 1939 condition to 1964 cast-off condition. Or am I just grouchy today?
Gee, sounds like you’re not going to step up an donate 🙂
FWIW, someone approached the Keseys back in 2006 about raising the money, but never quite followed through. Kesye’s wife, was against it, but she lost out. Who knows if and when it will happen, but there are a number of rich “hippies” out there.
Kesey paid either $1250 or $1500 in 1964, from a guy who had converted it to a camper for his family. That’s some $10k in today’s money, more than I might have expected. He probably made good money from his books back then.
Upon further reflection, I would guess that most of the money would be for artists to replicate the unique paint job, rather than on the bus itself. And at that price in 1964, he was halfway to a decent new car, so it was probably pretty nice at the time.
I can only imagine how punishing that old bus would be to drive from coast to coast, particularly with non-stop partying in the back. But I guess the term “designated driver” had not yet been coined, so there was likely some “chemical assistance” to help make the drive a little easier.
Actually, the original Further’s paint job was a perpetual work in progress; every picture of it looks different. That would probably be the easiest part.
The bus is badly rusted out, throughout. It would require a very serious restoration to make it road-worthy.
Neal Cassady drove endlessly (and talked mile-a-minute incessantly) thanks to regular strong doses of “speed” (amphetamines). His endurance and exploits behind the wheel of Further are the stuff of legends. His “habit” was ultimately responsible for his early demise.
One more detail to keep in mind: LSD was legal back then. It wasn’t banned until 1968, as a result of its growing popularity. You can’t exactly sleep when under its influence.
“One more detail to keep in mind: LSD was legal back then. It wasn’t banned until 1968, as a result of its growing popularity. You can’t exactly sleep when under its influence.”
Tell me about it. Acid was the drug of choice for the serious cycling crowd (and especially those who raced) in Erie, PA in the early 70’s. I still have vivid memories biking from my dorm room to MacGovern HQ the night of the Pennsylvania primary, having spent the day poll-watching under a couple of hits of something, and then taking one more as I was starting to level off before the polls closed and the retuns started coming in.
He was spraying money around back then….. that place at LaHonda was totally supported by his Cuckoo’s nest $$$– that and the 20+ hangers-on all basically lived there..
.
The computer revolution and a fair fraction of Silicon Valley sprung from the sixties “counterculture”. Much of it right there in Kesey’s Palo Alto. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were phone phreaks before they started Apple. The personal computer, with mouse, windows, ethernet and laser printer, emerged from Alan Kay and a bunch of other longhairs at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in that era. Etc. Probably a trillion dollars of wealth creation all told.
The “counterculture” was fundamentally innovative. Like most innovations, most of its ideas were wrong or just didn’t work out. The ones that were right changed the world.
You’re just grouchy today, maybe since you didn’t drive a Packard to work this morning.
Further!
“You’re just grouchy today, maybe since you didn’t drive a Packard to work this morning.”
I think that you have diagnosed my issues correctly. I feel much better now! 🙂
Lots of Packards out there Jim! Some nice enough looking runners are down around used car money. If I was a doctor I’d write you a prescription.
Mike: The sixties counterculture is not the same as the hacker counter culture. Not all hackers were anti-war drug-addled spiritualist losers, and a lot of work came out of IBM in New York and the Univ of Utah. Silicon Valley basically sprang out of Stanford and Berkeley, with copious US Defence grants. I don’t know what a `longhair’ is but Alan Kay was definitely not what I think you mean. Please don’t lump Silicon Valley with the hippie phenomenon.
I agree, it’s kinda like the fact that on the new bus you gotta shell out at least two hundred dollars for your “ticket to ride”
Get off my lawn.
I notice that the wheels on the 1939 bus are a lot more heavy-duty than the wheels on the 1947 bus. Any information on that?
Also, I notice the front bumper has “PLUNK THE TWANGER”; here’s the reference-
The 1939 bus is a longer bus, and was built on a heavier-duty chassis.
In that last photo, some wayward reflection of sunlight causes the back of the bus to seem to be shining a light onto the street. In the first photo there’s a CLOSED sign in the windshield but the bus door is open.
I read Wolfe’s Electric Kool-aid Acid Trip back in the day, and then read most of Kesey’s stuff – the last book of his, a collection of short pieces, not that long ago.
I can’t imagine the restoration of the original bus ever getting off the ground, to coin a phrase…the later version does seem an admirable attempt to carry on. But you can’t ever go back….
I’m too young for this stuff! And my parents were a little too old.
When they met, Dad drove a ’69 Fury convertible, 383-4v, and Mom had a ’67 Bug. She was behind on the payments. After getting married in ’70, the Fury went away so Dad could pay off the VW…
My favorite counterculture types tend to come from the other side of the pond…
All aboard the magic bus I havent seen pictures of that in a long time is it really worth restoring as it sounds like a full body rebuild is in order. The new bus is cool though less of a pharmaceutical paradise I guess( thank you fun police).
“Alright, you can have the Magic Bus, for one hundred, English pounds.”
“No, it’s too much!”
Easy to see where the idea came from
Do not take the brown acid!!!
I would love to go back in time and be on this bus during that trip. Too bad I was just about to be born. After that bus ride I’d leave a note telling myself to buy stock in Apple and Microsoft.
(Listening to The Acid Test #1 right now, it’s a bit umm…chaotic)
I have this as well —purchased from the Keseys shortly before Ken’s death… I have to confess I can’t make it thru the first CD. chaotic is putting it mildly.
Where’s a Slayer fan when you need him (in Eugene)? I might have to go myself. Does UofOr have a medical college?
I believe it was actually called Furthur. That book the trip is a great read.
The first bus was briefly called “Furthur”, and that is what Wolf used in “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test”. But it’s was always intended to be Further, and that’s what its sign said later,as well as the second bus.
Ah, well that is indeed where I got that notion. The trip is the Dutch title of the book, I’ll find a US version of it asap. A lot was probably lost in translation. I have a Pranksters cd of the acid tests (vol1 1965/66) and it is a pretty good experience late at night. Thanks for the update.
edit grammar
wot a brilliant piece thank you paul ..i must have been an incredable time back then a real time of change such possabillitys..WOT THE FUCK HAPPENED thease free thinkers with better practical organizeation showed us how the world could have been..when are we going to see free thinking people again becouse its the free thinkers and so called longhair freaks that change things ..the general puplic do not ,never have ,never will,there content to sit watching x factor ,american idol binging on consumerisum all the while the world goes to hell in a handbasket….where are you longhair freaks we need you,..dxxxxx
love is understanding dont you know that this is true..love is understanding its in everything we do…in this generation..in this lovein time..in this generation we will make the world shine..we were born 2 love one another..this is something we all need..we were born to love one another..and we must be wot were going 2 be and wot we have 2 be is free…………[for petes sake,peter tork]..come back davy[rip] peter,mickey and mike..we need you,lol,lol dxx
Aren’t we all Bozos on this bus?
I think the restoration project is more of a time capsulation than trying to relive the past. My grand father in law was friends with ken and his wife and even allowed the movie on flew over the cookoo’s nest to be filmed at his hospital in Salem OR. He also had a part in the move, he was the psychiatrist that admitted Jack Nicholson in the film. In a way I think ken would of like to know that the bus came from the earth and that in that swamp one day it would return to the earth. I am behind the restoration of the bus. Cost is an issue and I see people have different opinions on the dollar figure to fix some thing so old and decrepit. In the same breath would you think the preservation of the Mona Lisa or the Sistine chapel or any number of the relics of the past should have money allocated to maintain. This is history, all be it losing the meaning or being replaced with time and space, but history non the less.
Looking at the more recent pictures of Further hurt my heart. I loved everything about that bus. But, staring at the picture while thinking I had the realization that it was supposed to end up that way. Seeing Ken Kesey as an old man with Further standing behind him looking the same it only seems right. Further was as much a living being as the rest of the Pranksters and just like every living thing it ages and eventually dies. The dreams and hopes that were carried on Further will never die but the bus did. I don’t think the bus should be restored. I think it should stay on his property where they left it to burn out. It is better to burn out than to fade away. Restoring it will only let the memories that bus holds fade away.
the bus was full of acid head pedafiles yall missed that story but i was there.what a joke
I’ve heard of Further, and I’ve seen pictures of the famous bus, with its psychedelic colours. But I’m too young to remember the 60s, psychedelic or otherwise. Usually, when I think of Further, the bus, I think of the 1938 bus with the swept back grille.
The Mural Mice are currently painting a mural about Route 66 in Flagstaff Arizona. They are including the original Further. Out of respect for proper grammar, they will be spelling it Further and not furthur. Artist R.E. Wall has been studying every vantage point of the original Further pictures and is attempting to paint the vehicle in its original paint job. No easy task. Its mostly made up of squigglies and crude paisleys. I wonder if the original artist Roy Sebern is still alive to repaint her. Best of luck raising that kind of dough.
Between that and the bus from the Partridge Family. That’s a tough choice….
Someone on this site’s gonna say it, so: Hasn’t it got just the right amount of patina right now?
No doubt that Further helped inspire the Muppet Bus that sticks out from my childhood.