May 3, 2013

"John Williamson, a pioneer of the 1960s sexual revolution as co-founder of Topanga Canyon's Sandstone Retreat..."

"... where nudity and free love once took place with abandon, has died at age 80."
[At Sandstone Retreat] as many as 500 people would gather on weekends to frolic in the nude, swap spouses and engage in group sex...

"We actually had open sexuality and nudity, but it was optional. Everything was optional," Barbara Williamson told The Associated Press on Thursday. "We provided a wonderful, wonderful environment in a natural setting, and that natural setting just sort of gave people permission."...

It was reading Ayn Rand's book "Atlas Shrugged" that John Williamson said prompted him to quit a defense-industry job in electronics and move to California in the early 1960s. The book portrays a society in which people, fed up with government and industry controlling their lives, walk away from their jobs.

14 comments:

Robert J. said...

As poets of old have sung,
Death takes the innocent young,
The rolling-in-money,
The screamingly funny,
And those who are very well hung.

edutcher said...

Funny they didn't mention the pandemics of venereal disease that came with it.

Icepick said...

The California he moved to just doesn't exist anymore.

Matt said...

Ayn Rand, sexual revolution. That's an interesting combo.

ricpic said...

Anything less than swapping spouses is "sexually backward," to use Althouse's soigne throwaway phrase. Only tiresome people, such drags they are, disagree.

dbp said...

The story would be more interesting and blog-worthy if Mr. Williamson had been killed by one of the large cats the couple has been sheltering. Instead he succumbed to boring cancer.

Dramatic death fail.

SteveR said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Patrick said...

That must have been where Shouting Thomas was hanging out, back in the day.

cubanbob said...

I must be an old-school mossback. Back in the day swapping girlfriends was one thing but swapping a wife?

William said...

If it weren't for men such as this, there would be no onstage bj's during rap concerts. We are all in his debt......It's easier to be faithfully married than to be a successful libertine. Still, it's probably worth a try.

Methadras said...

It was reading Ayn Rand's book "Atlas Shrugged" that John Williamson said prompted him to quit a defense-industry job in electronics and move to California in the early 1960s. The book portrays a society in which people, fed up with government and industry controlling their lives, walk away from their jobs.

Jerry Brown waves his hand curiously in an odd gesture, "This isn't the California you are looking. It's in Texas now. Although, I have this really nice train."

kentuckyliz said...

Funny, I didn't see that cameo on the California commercial with Betty White and Tom Cruise and the Governator.

kentuckyliz said...

How did he monetize this? Charge huge retreat fees, food, lodging, gurus, premium services?

n.n said...

The so-called "sexual revolution" was a key reason for normalizing elective abortion (i.e. premeditated murder) to ensure that women remained available for sex and exploitation.