I need a favor from a NYC hotshot ( no money or clothes )

My friend Mike Klenfner died last July. Were real close in High School at Lincoln HS on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn.

See posts 235 and 236 here for a much fuller description.

There is a memorial to Mike K. on a lamp post at the NW corner of 6th and 2nd Ave. in the city. It's got a piece of Pete Townshend's guitar and some memories of Mike and a past era. The Fillmore East is now an Emigrant Savings Bank.

I contacted Mike's daughter to make my amend and I did it

But she lives in Brooklyn. I would really love a picture of the lamp post memorial to Mike.

Could anyone get by there and take a cell phone picture or something. Then it could be Emailed to me or posted if you choose.

It would make me feel young and evoke the Woodstock era and the Fillmore East. Nobody seems to give a shit but if anyone does, I could tell the stories ( that involved me, and of those that are now sadly dead like Mike, from that era ).

BTW: I do have 2 agents in Manhattan. But one abandoned the old hood and moved from the LES to the UWS. The other is truly a great guy. But between work, raising a great family and buying shoes, he won't have the time.

PM me if you want.

Are you old enough to remember the "Fillmore East" era?

I'd love to send you a special memento.

Wow, Wow, Wow

Thanks, R

I was at that show and I saw Cocker many times. Mike K. and Billy Graham would have known him very well.

You didn't let me know if you have any interest in the era. I won't part with any of my Hendrix, Dylan, or Doors stuff ( along with much else from that era ). But I have something from an iconic female person of that era that I think you would get a hoot out of.

PM me a mailing address and I'll send it to you. And Thanks again for the photos.


Sort of like it was in 1969 except a little cleaner and the hookers look better. I think there were more drugs on the LES back then ( though I wouldn't know of course )


She looks like a "working girl" to me. It's guys like you that are going to make me take my next "vacation" in NYC rather than Reynosa!


Yup, some things have changed in 40 years and some things have not.


True doctrinaire Conservatives would hit anything Did you get my Emails and PMs. Remember the rule. No comments on living people and my friend is very much alive.


I drove a cab in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a summer job. It could actually be done back then. Is the Bellmore Cafeteria still there? It was featured in the movie "Taxi Driver", but I and my friends used to go there way before the movie. I seem to recall lots of working girls around the Bellmore ( again, not that I would have any interest )

About 1972 a friend of Mike K. and myself ( from Lincoln HS ) was murdered in his taxicab in NYC. It was a big story back then but I can't even find it on Google. His name was Morris Rotter. If someone is interested ( and has better search skills than my rudimentary skills, I'll give them something very interesting from the Woodstock era ). That is, if they can find the story and post it here.

As I remember, he was driving in Manhattan and picked up a fare on the LES and was taking the fare to Harlem. He was shot and murdered at the end of the trip. It happened about 1971 to 1973 I think. It easily could have been me! Think of the tragedy for SF. If I can find it, I'll post my Hack License from that era.

The Who played Fillmore East prior to the band's Tommy breakthrough, and after: April 5-6th, 1968 and May 16-18, June 5-6, and October 20-25th, 1969. The May 16, 1969 show was particularly memorable: a fire broke out next door that ultimately gutted a five-story apartment building and a supermarket. During the Who's set, a plainclothes policeman jumped onstage and attempted to grab a microphone; Pete Townshend kicked him in the bollocks, as the British say. (Talk about yelling fire! in a crowded theatre.) The cops wanted to charge Pete with assault, but he wound up paying a fine. A few months later, Pete similarly ejected activist Abbie Hoffman from the stage at Woodstock, NY when he interrupted the Who's set.

Needless to say, Townshend was quite a character.

I used to see Abbie Hoffman on 8th St. ( St. Marks Pl. ) all the time.

He was a tight bastard and wouldn't share his weed. That wasn't in the spirit of the times!

But he did have a semi-famous book, "Steal This Book" and he would gladly autograph it ( it didn't cost him anything and it was no big deal back then ).

Anyone know if St. Marks Pl. between 2nd and 3rd is a decent street these days?