In this age of freely flowing words–often too many of them–it’s hard to imagine a day when conversation actually had to be nurtured. During the Vietnam War, anti-war activists had far fewer avenues of discussion available than today: no Twitter, blogs, YouTube, or social media. Self-publication was largely confined to mimeographed newspapers. Vietnam anti-war activism tended to happen in-person, with actual people and actual words.
From the late 1960s to 1974, so-called “GI coffeehouses” sprang up near military bases to act as general purpose interfaces between anti-war pacifism and military personnel. Usually established by non-local activists, these coffeehouses acted as everything from sounding boards for just-returned G.I.’s and comforting waystations to proselytizing drug-infested dens of dirty, long-haired hippies, as David L. Parsons details in Dangerous Grounds: Antiwar Coffeehouses and Military Dissent in the Vietnam Era.
One such G.I. coffeehouse and the first of its kind was located at 1732 Main Street, Columbia, South Carolina, near Fort Jackson. On January 13, 1970, the coffeehouse was shut down by local law enforcement on the basis of being a public nuisance. UFO Coffeehouse was run by the husband-and-wife couple Duane Ferre and Merle Ferre, Leonard Cohen, William Balk, and Christopher Hannafan. All except for Hannafan (who fled to New York) were charged with operating a public nuisance and fined $10,000 each, plus each was given a 6 year jail term. The jail terms were later substantially reduced.
The verse in the Bible, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things,” must not have registered on this group of people living in San Francisco in the 19th century.
U.S. newspapers in 1875 reported on a group of people in San Francisco that called themselves “Child Christians” who governed their actions by the Biblical text that reads: “Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven,” Matthew 18:3.
The adults would imitate children, trying to “appear as guileless and innocent as possible” and they would “play, laugh, and talk like children.” Even the elderly would wear checked aprons, pantalettes (frilly undergarments), and little jackets. They would play marbles, eat gingerbread, and play leap-frog.
As if we needed another example of how technology is creeping into our brains, how about this one: YouTube’s Video Discovery System? It’s one thing for Google and YouTube to follow closely behind your interests; we’re all accustomed to that. But now they want to match you step-for-step and even go ahead of you, predicting your future interests.
In one sense, YouTube has long done this. If you look for a a video under the keyword “painting a bathroom,” you’ll get a choice of videos and you watch one. But then YouTube tries to push you out to further interests that are roughly related but not ranging too far outward. In the bathroom painting case, YouTube will push you to other home-related videos.
But the YouTube Discovery System is creepier because it creates a sense of interest where there is no interest. And it shows in your general Google search results. How’s this for trivial:
I search for Virginia Gregg, an actress born in 1916, died in 1986, and mainly active in the 1940s to 1960s.
I see that her mother’s name was Mrs. Dewey Alphaleta. Unusual name, so I click on it.
Voila, in the results I see an entire YouTube channel devoted to Dewey Alphaleta. Thinking that it must be tied to my Google account, I search again, using Incognito Mode. Same results.
Dewey Alphaleta’s YouTube Channel: zero subscribers, but I could be the first one!
This English Tudor house, located at 201 Clent Road, Great Neck, New York, may not look like much of a love nest. But in 1948, its chief female resident, Mrs. Dorothea Matthews turned this house into something approaching the Playboy Mansion, East. It wasn’t until Mrs. Matthews’ divorce proceedings from her husband Mark Matthews in 1948 that we began to see that wanton sexual escapades did not begin in the groovy Sixties. According to court documents, Mrs. Matthews racked up a large number of sexual partners.
As a slim, shapely 28 year-old woman with plenty of time on her hands, Dorothea had many sexual options beyond her husband Mark, and she took advantage of so many of them. Mrs. Matthews was a very forthright individual; or, to put it in the words of the New York Daily News , she was “socially minded.” Mrs. Matthews managed to bed down a good number of men and women in Great Neck, Upstate New York, trains in transit to Florida, Manhattan, and probably lots of other places.
Yet her taste in sexual partners was not indiscriminate. A doctor, art historian, student, actor, secretary, and her husband, who was a Ping-Pong champion and owned a messenger service, filled her sexual roster, and those are only the ones we know about. And of course, a murderer would be one of her conquests. But let’s start with her husband.
The Ping-Pong Champion and Husband: Mark Matthews
Born Marcus Schussheim, Mark Matthews married Dorothea on September 16, 1936 in Yonkers. Mark Matthews owned a couple of Grand Central Station area messenger services and made quite a bit of money from them. Obviously, this would prove to be a turbulent marriage. Mark was apparently more tolerant of Dorothea’s sexual hungers than most husbands would be.
Mark Matthews was also a world-class ping pong champion. According to a press clipping about Mark and his ping pong prowess, he liked to sleep nude and tended to drink lemonade before going to sleep and after. At age two, according to Mark, he fell three stories out of a window and directly into a garbage can. A scar over his left eye remained with him.
Mark clearly viewed Dorothea through his penis; he did not make her his wife for practical purposes. According to a 1950 newspaper account, “Dorothea…couldn’t cook or keep house, and she wasn’t interested in learning.”
The Hatseller: Doris Lee
Doris Lee had a hat business in Great Neck. New York. Because Doris had a brick-and-mortar location, she received some of the love letters that men sent to Dorothea Matthews. At least on one occasion, Dorothea and Mark had a foursome with Doris Lee and actor John Meredith.
The Actor: John Meredith
Other than this photo from IMDB (John Meredith identified as the actor in the middle), I haven’t found out anything about him.
The Doctor: Fernand Vistreich
Dr. Fernand Vistreich, 1948
Dr. Vistreich was a Great Neck doctor who consulted with Mrs. Matthews in bed. According to Mrs. Matthews’ cook Claude Stewart, one morning he served coffee to Dr. Vistreich and Mrs. Matthews in bed. “That’s absurd!” retorted Dr. Vistreich in courter, “I’ll bring charges against anyone who says that! I have a family!” He pointed at Mrs. Matthews, called her a baboon, a reference which the judge ordered struck from court records.
Dr. Visteich’s wife of the time put up a good show, above, accompanying him to court. But the affair and perhaps other events incinerated the marriage. In 1964 Dr. Vistreich married schoolteacher Roslyn Vistreich (d. 1999).
The One-Night-Stand Physician: Doctor Spear
In 1941, while on a train to Florida, Mrs. Matthews met a stranger, Dr. Spear, for a one night stand. She insisted that they only got together to see Seminole Indians for a day tour.
The Art Historian: Winston Weisman
Then there was the free-spirited Winston Weisman (February 2, 1909 – October 9, 1997), who first hit the minor headlines in 1937 when the freighter he was travelling in, West Mahwah, hit a sandbar 35 miles south of San Francisco, near Pesadero. Weisman and his companion 23 year-old Karola Preer were the only two passengers on this freighter, along with 45 crewmen. When Weisman next hit the headlines, it was as Mrs. Matthews’ sexual partner.
The Murderer: Herbert Gehr
Gehr was an amiable enough guy, so it’s only for dramatic purposes that he’s called the killer. Yet the fact does remain: he did kill. Gehr killed his wife, Andrea Goldschmidt Gehr, point-blank. Gehr and his wife, after 8 years of marriage, had come to hate each other intensely. A friend of the couple relates that they become physically ill when they were in each other’s presence. Herbert Gehr would take care of that problem before long, though.
Herbert Gehr’s Brewster New York Cottage
It happened in Brewster, New York, a small village 30 miles north of White Plains. Herbert was shacked up with Dorothea Matthews in a cottage in or around Brewster, when Andrea showed up at 2:30 am, four detectives in tow. Herbert had apparently been expecting trouble, because he had booby-trapped the yard. The traps didn’t do their job, because the party was able to reach the house, Germanic bulldog Andrea leading the way. Gehr shot through the screen door with a .22, killing his wife.
Andrea Goldschmidt Gehr
Cast of Characters
Dorothea Matthews: Great Neck, NY housewife and mother
Mark Matthews (Marcus Schussheim): First husband of Dorothea Matthews and Ping Pong champion
Joseph Matthews: Brother of Mark
Winston Weisman: Art historian and one of Dorothea’s affairs
Herbert Gehr: One of Dorothea’s affairs
Andrea Goldschmidt Gehr: Herbert Gehr’s first wife, killed by Herbert
Kiki Richter: Herbert Gehr’s second wife
Dr. Fernand Vistreich: Great Neck, NY doctor and one of Dorothea’s affairs
James Lonergan: Student and one of Dorothea’s affairs in 1941
John Meredith: Described as an MGM actor, still photographer, and one of Dorothea’s affairs
Doris Lee: Milliner in Great Neck, friend of Dorothea
Timeline
1920: Dorothea Matthews born (possibly November 4?)
September 16, 1936: Mark Matthews and Dorothea Matthews wed in Yonkers
July 10, 1950: Herbert Gehr shooting
November 13, 1950: Dorothea Matthews obtains divorce in Huntsville, Alabama
January 16, 1951: Putnam County (NY) jury finds Herbert Gehr not guilty of shooting wife.
December 28, 1952: Herbert Gehr and Kiki Richter marry
The Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, California, site of the November 7, 2018 shooting of 12 people, has been around for a long time in various iterations. In Thousand Oaks, a bedroom community 40 miles from Los Angeles, where everything is torn down and rebuilt on a regular basis, it is virtually unheard of for a restaurant or the building it is housed in to continue for decades. Yet Borderline Bar & Grill’s building, with its exterior look and interior dimensions, are the same as it had been three decades ago in the form of a restaurant called Charley Brown’s.
Charley Brown’s: Dark Steakhouse
The Charley Brown’s Restaurant, located at 99 Rolling Oaks Drive in Thousand Oaks, was a vast, single-room hall with a high open ceiling. Like the other Southern California Charley Brown’s Restaurants, it was a dimly lit steakhouse that revolved around a ponderous Olde English theme, heavy on the wood and brass. At one end of every Charley Brown’s, in large letters: “Work is the curse of the drinking classes,” a quote attributed to Oscar Wilde.
Charley Brown’s MenuCharley Brown’s Menu 1976
Food was equally heavy. A May 6, 1976 article describes
langostinos marina, $4.95, and the filet tips Stroganoff, $5.25. They were gourmet all the way, prepared to individual order in the spotless exhibition kitchen. The langostinos were tiny baby lobster tails prepared with butter, onions, fresh mushroom slices and green peppers, tipped with rich bearnaise sauce.
In a 1996 article about the closing of the Woodland Hills Charley Brown’s, restaurant industry analyst Janet Lowder said, “They’ve been on a downhill course for quite some time. They’re a dark steakhouse. They didn’t change with the times.”
Charley Brown’s AdvertisementFormer Charley Brown’s, Motto at End Once Said, “Work Is the Curse of the Drinking Classes”Charley Brown’s Restaurant, Marina Del Rey 1960s
One of the earliest Charley Brown’s (above) located in Marina Del Rey gives a good indication of the “vast hall” style of these restaurants’ architecture.
