Cassady Centennial Weekend

Neal Cassady, 1966 – photo by Herb Green

Neal Cassady at 100! – It’s the Neal Cassady Centennial – his official birthday anniversary is tomorrow but we’re celebrating with a full Neal Cassady weekend.

Zach Kopp speaking on KGNU (Denver radio), interviewed in June of last year:

“There used to be a Neal Cassady birthday bash for more than 20 years at the Mercury Cafe. It was purchased and renamed, and they don’t do that anymore. But there’s a gelato shop opening at 2258 Champa Street, which used to be the site of Zas Barber Shop, where Neal Sr. worked off and on. There may be a birthday bash held on Neal’s 100th birthday, February 8th, 2026, at Cassady’s Gelato Shop. But that’s just a prospect, not a confirmed actuality.”

For more from Mark Bliesener on the history of the annual Neal Cassady Birthday Bash
– see here

Kopp, a Denver resident, has taken on the job of assisting with the Cassady Estate in bringing more attention to the legacy of Cassady:

“I’m inspired to revive the interest in Neal Cassady as a countercultural figure because there doesn’t seem to be a comparable figure in today’s popularity. I’d like to bring back interest in the Beats and interest people in the idea of spontaneity and countercultural freedom, self-liberation..”

“I just got back from a road trip” (he tells his interviewer) “where I saw (his daughter) Jami and her husband, Randy Ratto. They are trying to reclaim some publishing rights and regain lost royalties. They’ve also got revised, expanded editions of all these books that they’re gonna bring out – like Off the Road, the book by Carolyn about Neal’s infidelities and being on the receiving end of his spontaneity, Neal’s Collected Letters, his Grace Beats Karma, letters home from San Quentin, and even The First Third is up for consideration.”

Jami’s death this past January 16 – (she was 75, “caused by respiratory failure, exacerbated by a lingering case of valley fever”), has cast a pall over proceedings (she was scheduled to take part in a Centennial event at the Art House Gallery and Cultural Center in Berkeley the very next day, accompanied by Ratto). She will be greatly missed.

We featured Jami on her father (on her remarkable parents) back in 2023 on The Allen Ginsberg Project – see here
Sam Whiting’s extended obituary notice in the San Francisco Chronicle can be read here
Her brother, John Allen, shortly after getting the news, penned a sweet note
We send out our deepest condolences to Randy (her husband of 51 years! – indeed to all of her friends and family)

Family – that seemed like a worthy focus – starting with the remarkable and long-suffering, Carolyn. Her Off The Road remains a key and essential document of the Beat Generation.

Carolyn on the Allen Ginsberg Project – see here, here, here, and here

Jami and Randy were instrumental in setting up an art show (of Carolyn’s art) last year at The Grand Gallery in Oakland – see a video survey here (note, also, at the very end of the video, the presentation (curious and bizarre) – two little matching jars, one of Carolyn’s and one of Neal’s ashes!)

“Blue Eyes” (acrylic on canvass panel)- Carolyn Cassady’s 1949 portrait of her husband

Cathy, Jami’s older sister has also done much to keep her parents memory alive – you can visit her web-site – here

Back in 2016, she published “My Favorite Playmate – A Daughter’s Loving Tribute to Neal Cassady”

“I am not a Beat scholar. I am not even a fan of the Beat lifestyle, philosophy, or writing. But I am intimately involved with the Beats… I am the daughter of Neal Cassady. My special connection to the icon that is “NEAL CASSADY” is unique and meaningful to me, and I’ve cringed over the years as I’ve witnessed the various incarnations he has acquired via the media: from Saint to Satan. I cannot reconcile the foul-mouthed, sex-crazed druggy about whom I read with the man I knew. I never even heard him swear. At home, he was our loving Dad.”

and with a special appreciation of her mother:

“Throughout Carolyn’s life, she bemoaned that she was never known for herself, She was overshadowed by the Beat guys antics and reputations. Though she is gone, my goal is to rectify that situation, publish as much of her work as possible and tell her story..I am on a quest to have our mother’s accomplishments identified and her incredible body of work honored. She was far more than an appendage to the Beat guys.”

To that end – check out her appearance – here

and more on Cathy on her father – here

John Allen (named after Jack and Allen) was the third and youngest of the Cassady clan – “author, musician, raconteur”, Check out John’s website here – “After working as a computer engineer in Silicon Valley for more than 20 years, John is currently writing a book about his father”. In recent years he’s been an entertaining and informative correspondent to Simon Warner’s Rock and The Beat Generation. Warner interviews him about “family, life, music & Kerouac” – here
SW: How did you see your father when you were growing up?
JAC: I saw my father as a magic man – always funny and entertaining – and smart!

See also John Allen’s recent recollections – here

It should be noted that Neal also fathered two other children (that we know of) – Curtis W Hansen (1950-2014) from his marriage with his third wife, Diane Hansen (whom he married bigamously) – and Robert William Hyatt Jr, an accomplished Denver-based artist and author (the story of his search for his biological father can be read here, and in the self-penned Beat Bastard- An Adoptees Portfolio)

not to mention fabled liaisons with Natalie Jackson, Anne Murphy, (no progeny from those relationships), and a host of others – “Cocksman and Adonis of Denver”, as Allen so definitively described him.

Of course, Cassady’s stature remains extra-literary – the lover, the talker, the driver, the heroic eroticized figure, the muse, but a very strong case could be made – and has been made by none other than Kerouac himself – for Cassady’s singular literary stature. The key document is the long-lost-and-then-found Joan Anderson letter – David Ulin recounts the whole story here