Page 105 Mickey’s Grandparents and Nudie Suits

Rocking is Not a Chair Thing for Sam & Ethel Tessel

Like whitecaps in a sea of blue, 71-year-old Sam Tessel and his wife, Ethel, stood out as they sat among hundreds of the denim generation who had gathered for the ABC In Concert’ taping late one March evening at Brooklyn’s Bananafish Gardens. There they were — the oldest hippies in the land, as they freely called themselves — attracting no more attention from the audience than the average teenage rock freaks around them. It was soon apparent that the anachronism was only visual, however, for the Tessels are genuine rock enthusiasts. “You know, rock isn’t something you pick up fast,” remarked Mr. Tessel. “It took us a full two years before we got a taste for it.” Hastening the trip, no doubt, was their grandson Mickey Hart, well-known rock drummer who has played with the Dead and the Riders. Hart wrote a song about Grandma Tessel and the cookies she brings to the groups she visits. The Tessels were often in the audience at the Fillmore East and are known throughout the rock world. Seated a few rows behind Grandma Tessel was a long-haired rock fan wearing a t-shirt which read ‘Grandma’s Cookies’, the name of the popular Hart song. Mrs. Tessel waited anxiously to see one of her favorites, Marmaduke (John Dawson), the lead vocalist of the Riders. “There he is!” she said. “They’re respectable, nice boys, looking for love and attention, and we understand them.” She paused and added, “Poor Pigpen, did you know him?” and then remained silent. Ron (Pigpen) McKernan, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, was found dead in his apartment on March 8. He was 27. But her lamentation was soon forgotten as the music of the Riders filled the room, and the ‘In Concert’ taping went on.

— TV Facts

Jon Goodchild and Virginia Clive-Smith, when they were working as designers at Rolling Stone. Jon also designed the original Grateful Dead Family Album.

Some of the band wore Nudie suits for only one gig in 1972, designed and made by Manuel of Nudie’s western outfitters in Hollywood. Nudie had made Elvis Presley’s famous gold lame suit in the ’50s, and by the time Jon McIntire commissioned him to make suits, first for the New Riders and then for the Dead, Nudie had outfitted a generation of Country & Western stars and Hollywood celebrities.

Photo Credits: Tessels – Jerilyn Lee Brandelius, Goodchild et al – Birgitta Bjerke, Nudies – Mark Raizene