Ken Kesey, author of ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’, the original Merry Prankster, and driving force behind the LSD ‘Acid Tests’ and the epic cross-country bus trip to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York in the original hippie bus “Further” (or “Furthur”) is an icon of the counter-culture movement that swept the nation starting with that 1964 bus trip. What’s often not known about Ken is that he grew up in Springfield, Oregon (across the river from Eugene), was a champion high school wrestler, was married until his death to the same woman, and could never quite shake his all-American roots and love for all things Americana. That obviously applied to his choice of car.
I used to see Ken occasionally tooling around town in this Buick Roadmaster Estate wearing his trademark tie-die shirts; the first time, I had a momentary mental hiccup, followed by an Aha! moment. Of course; it makes perfect sense. And I suddenly couldn’t see him in anything else.
I regretted not getting a shot of him in it before he died in 2001, but here is his former car. Or at least I have every reason to assume it is; it’s the same as I remember it, and its license plate ‘KEZ-Y 1’ strongly supports that, as well as the guy who lives in the house behind it, who looks very much like an aged Merry Prankster. Of course, it could just be a prank, but then that would be appropriate too.
I did an article on Further II (sometimes spelled ‘Furthur’) here a while back. This 1947 International is something of a reproduction of the original, and makes local appearances.
Here’s Ken with the original Further, where it sat for decades in the woods on the Kesey farm outside Eugene. it’s been pulled out of the swamp, but is still awaiting funds ($300k) for a complete restoration.
I had assumed this old Roadmaster wagon was long gone, but someone has obviously decided it was worth hanging on to. Well, it’s not too hard to keep one of these going for a while; ask CC COALer jerseyfred, who wrote up his (positive) experiences with his ’93 here.
I don’t know if this was added later or not. And I was kind of hoping this car was originally bought at Springfield Buick, one of the oldest and last stand-alone Buick dealers in the country. Maybe Ken liked to buy used.
The Buick’s Vista roof over the second seat bulges up, and creates a neat little fairing for the luggage rack.
Of course I couldn’t help notice the Mercedes 300TD W124 wagon in the driveway. In fact, I can’t ever not notice these, as I’m still utterly in love with them. If i had bought a wagon instead of a sedan back in 1985, I’d probably still be driving it. Or its replacement. This one has had a nasty encounter.
It’s been sitting here for quite a while now. I wonder if it’s too damaged to fix, but the owner can’t stop thinking about trying. I still can’t believe how good these look for a car that was designed in the early 80s.
Given that this generation Mercedes came out six years before these Buicks, the contrast of its sleek and understated styling to the gaudy and fussy Buick is stark. But there was no way Ken Kesey was going to be seen driving a Mercedes.
He was a loyal American, if a bit irreverent.
Related reading at CC:
CC 1947 International School Bus “Further”: Ken Kesey’s Merry Prankster-Mobile PN
COAL: 1993 Buick Roadmaster – The Not-So-Daily Driver by JerseyFred
Thanks for bringing this aspect of Ken Kesey’s persona out that many of us did not know about. I would have thought that it would have had a flower power paint job like John Lennon’s Rolls Royce or Janis Joplin’s Porsche 356. The Lord never blessed her with a Mercedes Benz. By the time he was driving the Roadmaster, Mr Kesey was older. Even John Lennon’s last car, a W123 diesel wagon, had a factory paint job.
Dittoan interesting read to see how life changes in some ways at least.
Those woods don’t look like a bad resting place for the original bus, seeing as there is a replica. And surely there is a trade training that could restore the bus as part of the students training for a lot less than $300k. I’m sure a concourse finish, or even a professional finish, would be missing the point entirely.
And that point is?
What I meant was, and without wanting to be disparaging, what sort of paint job do you think a bunch of hippies did for the trip to the Fair? I expect it was all hand painted with a brush, with individual, freestyle creativity by each person rather than some elaborate, exacting design. Likewise I would think that bodywork and interior trim was just done (by amateurs), rather than done perfectly.
I would compare it to the large musical scenes in the Blues Brothers movie that people love, versus the same in Blues Brothers 2000 where the choreography is perfectly in sync between a hundred dancers who are supposed to represent a spontaneous street scene. I bet it took at least 10 times as long to shoot and sucked all the fun and joy out of it that came through in the first movie.
In any case it turns out the bus has actually been restored since this post was written so it doesn’t matter now.
I’m with you John. The underlying artifact may still exist, but any attempt at reproduction of the brushstrokes that adorned it will only serve as an approximation of the original.
It’s a pity Lennon’s last car couldn’t have been his green ’72 Chrysler wagon.
Photo #4: Looks a LOT like the bus RP McMurphy commandeered
in “Cuckoo’s Nest”. Just temporarily painted yellow for that
sequence. LOL
I’ve seen pictures of Ken Kesey’s Furthur bus, even though I’ve never seen the bus itself. Didn’t he have more than one International bus? I seem to remember seeing a different front end appearance for each one.
I never read One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, is it as good a book as the movie is as a movie?
Count me as a fan of the Roadmaster wagons! It is cool his car is still around town.
Read it. It gets deep in areas the movie couldn’t. Also, McMurphy was originally a big, tall, red headed Irishman with more of a swagger than Nicholson portrayed.
Yep, it’s a great read, told from Chief’s point-of-view, which makes sense since he was ultimately McMurphy’s closest friend.
“He was a loyal American, if a bit irreverent.” .
.
So was Benjamin Franklin , both were great Americans .
.
I too went to that 1964 World’s Fair in New York City .
.
-Nate
Being a Roadmaster wagon fan and current owner, it is interesting to me how this northwestern car has aged. It clearly hasn’t led a pampered life, as evidenced by the ruined paint on the upper surfaces and the missing rubber bump strips around the beltline. Amazingly, the wood decals look pristine. That is usually something that deteriorates more rapidly than the paint, at least it does in the south and southwest. The edge trim around the wood is peeled, however that’s super delicate stuff and all but the most sheltered cars have that happen. What exotic combination of fickle sun and healing rains destroys paint and preserves woody decals? The leather seats look to be in pretty nice shape, as well. They don’t appear too dried out, perhaps due to the humidity and mild temperatures?
Fascinating. Never read his books but IIRC it was at his acid tests that the Hells Angels met the other counter-culture. Nice spotting Paul.
Cool old Buick, though as far as his books go I always preferred “Sometimes a Great Notion” myself. Oregon roots explains a bit about the book!
Yes, exactly, I agree….having owned several of these I actually preferred the LO5s from a maintenance standpoint. They were much simpler (and cheaper) to keep running.
Also the 91-93 Roadmasters had a better dash (full set of gauges) and in my opinion, more comfortable seats.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say, if I were in the market for one today, I’d look take an LO5 car over an LT1 car because long term maintenance on an LT1 would be more difficult because of the Optispark which may become more difficult and more expensive to acquire over time. Whereas an LO5 is really just a SBC (small block Chevy) where parts availability and cost is much less of an issue.
Interesting – it’s a completely different picture than the one I had of the man; I always assumed he’d be a VW Bug kind of driver in the 60s counter-culture mode.
That Buick wagon looks like it should have been rescued on that Star Trek movie about whales.
For years now I’ve wanted to buy an old bus, paint it up in a similar vein to Furthur, and drive it cross-country, albeit sans LSD.
Interestingly, I own a `92 Custom Cruiser, so I suddenly feel like I am in good good company.
Great post Paul. If anyone wants to see real footage of the big 1964 trip, check out the movie “Magic Trip” which was compiled from the actual footage taken by the Pranksters during the voyage. It came out a few years ago.
Hi,
I am proud to follow in Ken Kesey’s footsteps. I went to Woodstock in 1969 in my 1957 Chevy Bel Air coupe. I remember later photos of the bus. I hope that they restore it. It is great to hear that he drove this 1993 Roadmaster Estate Wagon which is identical to mine. The 5.7 throttle body and the 4 speed with over drive rides (floats) like a Caprice. The rubber side mouldings and the roof racks can be obtained. The wood grain trim has peeled. There is a textured spray grain paint that can be used to restore a similar look to the wood grain trim.
If GM still made these Roadmasters, they would have a following.
Yep, for longevity, durability, parts availability, and ease of maintenance, the LO5 350 TBI is the way to go.
I agree with you about the LO5’s merits. Of course that is a perennial debate in b-body circles. I’ve owned 4 LT1 b-bodies, and no LO5’s, so obviously I’ve always fallen on the side of more power is always better. I’ve never had to replace an optispark (knock on fake wood) or had any other significant problems particular to the LT1, but I can definitely understand the appeal of the more conventional LO5. I’ve always wanted to have a 93 Caprice LTZ, which is basically a 9C1 but with civilian trim and options. 93 is the only year the LO5 was available, plus I like the cutout rear fenders better. I’ve only ever seen one example in person, and it was years ago. Really hard to find one in good condition nowadays, I’m sure.
George Walker original prankster from the 64 trips owns kesey’s old roadmaster. Kesey bought it from that used car dealer over under the ferry st bridge back in the 90’s I can’t remember off hand the name of it but they had high end used sports cars mostly. When george got this car he took the plate cover off from that dealer. I kept that cause when I worked at the auto doc in Goshen we worked on those dealers cars. When george first got it, it had a loud knocking sound, thought it was a rod bearing going. I changed the oil and it went away, stuck lifter. Still running today. I’ll have to look at the license plate protector to remember the name of the used car dealer kesey bought it from.