Three months after Woodstock, the hippie scene shifted south.

To the boondocks west of West Palm Beach.

On Thanksgiving weekend, 40 years ago.

See anyone you know in the crowd? (Courtesy Ken Davidoff)

And the local ruling class didn’t like it one bit.

Then-Palm Beach County Sheriff Bill Heidtman vowed to make life miserable for the free-loving, pot-smoking, anti-establishment youngsters who gathered at the Palm Beach Pop Festival. He threatened to herd alligators toward the crowd, gathered at the Palm Beach International Raceway. And he swore he’d have his good ole’ boys dig out fire ant colonies and relocate them at the venue.

Yet, 50,000 people showed up for the three-day event, the only one of its kind ever in this area. And they got to calling Heidtman “Sheriff Eichmann,” after Hitler’s henchman, Adolf Eichmann.

Mick Jagger at the 1969 Palm Beach Pop Festival (Courtesy Ken Davidoff)

The lineup of bands was nearly the same as the earlier New York state rendezvous. Except that Jimi Hendrix couldn’t make it. He was replaced by a little band known as The Rolling Stones. Janis Joplin belted out a few tunes, as did The Byrds, Sly and the Family Stone, Johnny Winter, Grand Funk Railroad, Spirit and Jefferson Airplane.

Florida rocker Tom Petty was there, too, after hitch-hiking south from his hometown of Gainesville.

Palm Beach society shutterbug Ken Davidoff remembers the festival well. At 19, he scored a gig as the event’s official photographer.

Janis Joplin and Johnny Winter at the 1969 festival (Courtesy Ken Davidoff)

“It was rainy and freezing cold and people were ankle deep in mud,” Davidoff said. “There were 50,000 at the beginning, but by the time the Stones got on stage on Sunday, there were maybe 3,000 left. The weather and delays just drove people away.”

Among the delays, Davidoff cited the Stones’ arrival after authorities forced the band to wait on their jet on the tarmac for six hours, sorta, kinda, on purpose.

Davidoff recently built this Web site for the anniversary and stuffed it with some of the 600-plus pictures he took that weekend. He’s also interviewing festival-goers, roadies and promoters for a documentary.

“The festival was definitely a historical event that very few residents knew about,” Davidoff said.

For more photos, click here. And for some of the sounds, click here.

It wasn’t so long ago, Miami resident Cynthia Rodriguez only had to look across the breakfast table for her daily dose of eye candy. She was married to New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez.

The good old days (Courtesy Sports Illustrated)

But then, along came Madonna, and the SoFla lovebirds were divorced. Both A-Rod and C-Rod have moved on. Alex is playing house with starlet Kate Hudson. And Cynthia took out her new main man, whose id is still unknown, for a stroll in Miami Beach the other day. Did she upgrade? Look below to find out and vote, or click (Read more…)

Back in the days: Varga and Mersentes (Palm Beach Post file photo)

Stolen nude pictures of a Palm Beach socialite.

Allegations of spying and stealing against a well-known society butler.

Big money. Conspiracy. Intrigue.

The latest filing in a Palm Beach County circuit court by the new husband of diet guru Robert Atkins‘ 72-year-old widow has it all.

Alexis Mersentes, 72, a serial groom of rich women who married the multi-millionaire Veronica Atkins in 2007, has joined his ex-girlfriend, former Worth Avenue store owner Ildiko Varga, 57, in a $1 million-lawsuit that Varga originally brought against him.

Confused yet?

Don’t be.

In the January lawsuit that the black-tie Palm Beach gala stalwart Varga brought against Mersentes, Varga claimed Mersentes took pictures of her posing nude then distributed them without her consent.

Now this: Mersentes, the defendant, has joined Varga as a plaintiff, claiming that he is as much a victim of the pictures’ distribution as she is.

Dozens of Varga’s nudie shots ended up in the hands of lawyers in an unrelated lawsuit in Miami.

So, how did the pictures end up in the public realm?

The butler did it!

Want more? Look below, or click (Read more…)

(Robert Holland/Special to Page2Live)

What’s a Babar book worth if it was signed by former First Lady Barbara Bush and her son, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush?

Five bucks? Twenty? One hundred?

Make that $850,000!

A resident of Palm Beach County who asked to remain anonymous just contacted organizers of the upcoming celebrity-book charity auction in Stuart, The Little Auction That Could, and bought the signed copy of The Travels of Babar for the equivalent of three Rolls-Royces.

The Jean De Brunhoff work is part of a collection of nearly 100 children’s books John Hancock-ed by world-famous celebrities, including poet Maya Angelou, golfer Tiger Woods, Pres. Barack Obama, singer Jimmy Buffett and astronaut John Glenn. The books will be auctioned at the Lyric Theatre Friday, and proceeds are going the Hibiscus Children’s Center, a Martin County shelter for abused and neglected kids.

But the anonymous caller just couldn’t wait and was adamant he wanted the book signed by momma and sonny Bush.

The sale Thursday morning sent some organizers into a joyous frenzy. With the wire transfer minutes later, they’re guaranteed to raise well above $1 million.

“First thing I said when I got the call is: Are you serious?” said Karla Preissman, who spent two years painstakingly gathering the signed books. “I’m not a professional fund-raiser or anything. I was very humbled by it.”

Jeb Bush’s reaction? “That’s fabulous!!!!’ he e-mailed Preissman.

Schneider

Funnyman Rob Schneider’s interview on the Wild 95.5 morning show last week has put co-hosts Kevin Rolston, Virginia Lang and Jason Pennington in the national limelight.

Schneider cut short the already-infamous live banter fest on West Palm Beach’s station and left in a huff after Lang walked out on the comic, mumbling: “I quit this bitch!”

And after the video of the ill-fated interview spread on the web, the King of All Media himself weighted in on his Sirius show this morning. Howard Stern sided with the diminutive Schneider, saying that the locals behaved like small town amateurs. Stern called Virginia’s colorful co-host, Jason Pennington, a d…head.

“That’s awesome,” Pennington gloated.

See the video here.

Schneider, an alumni of Saturday Night Live who went on to the big screen in flicks like The Animal and Deuce Bigalow, was at the station Friday to hawk his weekend gig at The Improv in West Palm Beach’s CityPlace.

Schneider, however, got ticked off that a previous interview ran long and that he had to wait in the stations’ parking lot.

Kevin, Virginia and Jason (Courtesy Wild 95.5)

At one point, Schneider told Virginia on the air: “I make a lot more money than you. I can buy and sell you, and people like you.” What’s more, the actor kept calling the threesome “a-holes.”

“He was pompous and condescending to the staff even before the show,” Lang said, adding that waiting in the parking lot had been Schneider’s choice. “Then we started going back and forth on the air. I was devastated. That’s not what we do. We don’t fight with people. He was a jerk. I just had to leave the studio.”

One highlight: When Schneider put down his headphones and walked out, Pennington announced: “Elvis has left the building. Uh . . . Make that, little Elvis has left the building!”

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Solomon Hurwitz and and Gertrude Maxwell (Courtesy Palm Beach Daily News)

The 95-year-old man who eloped with 98-year-old Palm Beach socialite Gertrude Maxwell and married her in July is sane, according to members of a committee charged with recommending whether Solomon Hurwitz should be under a guardian’s care.

A psychologist on the three-member panel — which also includes a medical doctor and someone outside the medical field — found Hurwitz unable to take care of himself and conduct simple tasks like counting money, according to court papers.

And counting is at the heart of the battle for control over the multimillionaire’s money.

On one side are his five children, who are based out of state. In their petition to have Hurwitz found incompetent and in need of a guardian, the siblings’ lawyers accused Maxwell of taking advantage of Hurwitz for his cash. She, according to the court documents, blew through $24 million in the past five years and is going broke. Maxwell, who’s best known for finding good homes for abandoned pets, proposed to Hurwitz, an Alzheimer’s sufferer, after one date.

On the other side is Hurwitz himself, who says he’s in love and should do whatever he pleases with the dough he made in his lifetime as a liquor dealership owner. He’s having a ball, he tells friends, and Maxwell has been helping him paint the town red.

“It’s going to come down to a judge’s decision after a trial in January,” said David Garten, a West Palm Beach lawyer randomly appointed by the court to represent Hurwitz in the court proceedings. “Members of the committee don’t seem all to agree.”

For more, look below or click (Read more…)

This picture would be cute, sorta, if the guy on the right weren’t Scott Rothstein, and the guy on the left, Gov. Charlie Crist, weren’t trying to distance himself from his former friend. The photo, courtesy of wedding shutterbug Stephan Maloman, was taken Jan. 28, 2008 inside the old Versace Mansion in Miami Beach, at a reception before Rothstein’s wedding to the lady in the middle, Kim. Scott Rothstein is allegedly responsible for one of the largest financial swindle in SoFla history, after Bernie Madoff. And the guv has been monotone and short in his answers about his relationship with Rothstein.

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It’s that time of year. Millionaires at the helm of mega-yachts pulled into town for their yearly rendez-vous at Rybovich Marina on West Palm Beach’s north side. Three dozen 100-footers will be docked through the weekend, and their owners are paying up to $20,000 to be there. That money is going to the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County. The event includes, among plenty parties, a yacht hop and Saturday’s gala at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, featuring a concert by disco diva Donna Summer. Parts of the event are open to the public. To see who’s there, check out Palm Beach Post lensman Ray Graham’s photos of last night welcome party:

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Coop

– Have you noticed that CNN star anchorman Anderson Cooper looks even more relaxed on the air these days? There may be a good reason for that. The New York media are abuzz that the Silver Fox just returned from a vacation in India. And, according to the New York Post, the 42-year-old son of socialite Gloria Vanderbilt spent most of his time in a $3,200-a-night suite at the famous Rambaugh Palace hotel in Jaipur with — gasp! — a dude! Coop’s friend was id’ed as Ben Maisani, the owner of a gay bar in Manhattan’s East Village. And boy, is Maisani beefed up or what?

Ben Maisani (Courtesy gawker.com)

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– TV actress and self-help book author Suzanne Somers (Three’s Company) was on hand Tuesday to welcome to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale the brand new MSC Poesia, an ocean cruiser from the Italian-owned MSC line.

Romney, tasting the spaghetti sauce

The next presidential election is three years away, but a contender in the race that saw U.S. Sen. John McCain emerge as the Republican’s candidate last year is already working on unseating Pres. Barack Obama. Mitt Romney, a conservative former governor of Massachusetts, was in Boca Raton this weekend for a dinner at the $2 million-home in east Boca of real estate investor Mark Guzzetta. Guzzetta cooked — Italian, of course — and a dozen local swells wrote checks for a total $25,000 to Romney’s political action committee, Free and Strong America. Also in da house: Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater. Check out Page2Live’s gallery:

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Boca businessman Mark Guzzetta with Romney