“All Good Hippies went to Berkeley”
This Hollywood shortcut is near and dear to my heart, since I went to Berkeley and all. You see, other than having someone wear tie dyed articles of clothing, the best way to let an audience know that someone is a free spirit or a hippy is to let everyone know that they attended, taught at or just lived in Berkeley.
This shortcut was used in the comedy classic Grumpy Old Men; as you might remember if you’ve seen the movie, we are told that Ann-Margret’s character has retired from a professorship at Berkeley. This doesn’t surprise her neighbors, since she is portrayed as a free spirit who we see doing a lot of things that could be described as being kooky. While the things that she does (hot tubbing, bizarre artwork, etc.) show us how strange she is, the fact that she once worked at Berkeley seals the deal. (Although the writers could have been lazier and simply made mention of her ties to Berkeley without providing any examples….)
This shortcut was used heavily in the 1980’s when Hollywood was enamored with stories about “hippies” turning into “yuppies”. Typically, the revelation of someone having gone to Berkeley would be matched with a poorly doctored picture of the actor wearing a tie dyed shirt and sporting an Afro. (Yes, even if the person in question wasn’t African American.) Sometimes they would be pictured with a known activist like Joan Baez, Jane Fonda or Tom Hayden.
So, even though the Berkeley campus is decades removed from any sort of activism, the legend lives on in Hollywood- because all good hippies still go to Berkeley.
