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…)

(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.

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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Kimberly Roden and Tim Mahoney (Courtesy Stuart News)

– One of several women who caused the spectacular fall of area U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, Martin County operations manager Kimberly Roden, is walking away from her $73,000-a-year gig in a buyout effort by the county. A comely blue-eyed blonde who was credited for getting the U.S. government to pay for hurricane cleanup that it didn’t pay in neighboring counties, Roden was disciplined (sorta!) three days without pay earlier this year for not telling her superiors that she and the very married Mahoney were an item. The Democrat lost his reelection bid to Republican Tom Rooney last year after he admitted to several affairs, including one with an employee. His wife, Terry, filed for divorce within days. Roden took several tax-funded trips to Washington, D.C., while Mahoney was in office. Roden’s departure comes as the county offered to pay longtime employees for up to 16 weeks if they leave. “The program is absolutely voluntary,” said county administrative services boss Gary Gierlicz. “No one is being pushed out.”

Alex Rodriguez

– Major Leaguer Alex Rodriguez, who just won the World Series with the New York Yankees, has discounted his Coral Gables mansion. It was on the market for $14.8 million. Now, it can be yours for $10 million, according to realestalker Web site. Wouldn’t hurt so much if A-Rod didn’t buy the six-bedroomer for $12 million five years ago. The house is also on the auction site billionaireexchange.com. Rodriguez is said to be getting ready to play house on the Left Coast with Hollywood actress Kate Hudson (Fool’s Gold, Almost Famous). Tour A-Rod’s digs by clicking here.

Feathered vultures once hung out on the mayor's roof. Human vultures now have invaded the community.

Tally for one night this week in West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel’s gated community — five cars broken into, one truck stolen!

“I’m going to inquire about this today,” said Frankel, who swears up and down, cross her heart, that crime in the city is down 30 percent since 2007.

Frankel wasn’t a victim in this spree. But one of her neighbors at the Lands of the Presidents particularly hard hit early Monday morning is staunch mayoral critic Anita Mitchell. She’s a lobbyist who’s the mother of WPB Commissioner and possible mayoral hopeful Kimberly Mitchell.

Anita Mitchell

“My husband’s Silverado truck was stolen,” Anita Mitchell said. “He (carpenter Noel Bridgeman) had $5,000 worth of tools in there, too. They also went in my car and took $3 worth of quarters that I kept for parking meters. We have two guarded gates. One of them logged in my husband’s truck exiting at 2:45 a.m.”

“Are we sure crime is going down?”

Mitchell said the cop who responded Monday at dawn said Mitchell’s was among eight homes hit.

Kimberly Mitchell said she does not believe the crime rate is lower in some areas of the city, even if the mayor and Mitchell’s mom live in $600,000-homes near famous residents such as baseball great Hank Aaron.

“Crime isn’t going down if it happens in your home,” Kimberly Mitchell said.

There have been no arrests.

City spokesman Chase Scott said police believe the cars broken into were left unlocked.

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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

Sammy Sosa (left) during his Cubs days, and Sosa at the Latin Grammys last week (AP Photo right; Getty Images left)

– Believe it or not, these are pictures of the same man: retired steroid-injecting slugger Sammy Sosa. Thing is, that’s him as a Chicago Cub circa 2004 on the left, and last week at the Latin Grammys on the right. Is he bleaching his skin? Did he take up moonwalking, too? Que pasa, amigo? A friend of Sosa’s told the Chicago Tribune that the Dominican Republic native, who turns 41 on Thursday and now lives in a $4.4 million penthouse in Aventura, is in the process of undergoing some form of skin rejuvenation. From the looks of it, there must not be much skin left on Sosa’s face. Said Palm Beach dermatologist Layne Nisenbaum: “It looks like he is using a prescription bleach. If it were skin rejuvenation, it’d look better than this. This is terrible.”

Steve Abrams

– It’s good to see that Palm Beach County Commish and attorney Steve Abrams has kept his sense of humor despite resigning from the Fort Lauderdale law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt and Adler as it collapsed last week. Founder Scott Rothstein is believed to have been running a $100 million Ponzi scheme. Abrams, a former mayor of Boca Raton, opened his remarks to a Rotary Club gathering the other day with this: “I’ll get this out of the way immediately. You’ve been reading about it in the papers, and it’s been worrying me, actually keeping me up at night. My Philadelphia Phillies are losing to the New York Yankees.”

Former astronaut John Glenn, the first American in space, sent these books to The Little Auction That Could (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

The list of those who signed their favorite childhood books and shipped then to Stuart for a charity auction reads like a pop culture Top 100: Poet Maya Angelou; The Apprentice’s Donald Trump; golfer Tiger Woods; former First Lady Barbara Bush; her son, former Gov. Jeb Bush; chimp lover Jane Goodall; former Miami Heat star Shaquille O’Neal; Pres. Barack Obama; Nike’s Phil Knight; Hollywood stars Sean Connery, Steve Martin and Robert Wagner; TV news readers Katie Couric and Brian Williams; Palm Beach musician Jimmy Buffett; and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, among others.

In all, a total 60 A-listers contributed. It took time, nearly two years, said organizer Karla Preissman. The first to respond to her requests was Jeb Bush, who shipped her The Travels of Babar. The last? The prez. Obama rush-mailed a pop up book of the White House two weeks ago.

Dubbed The Little Auction That Could (after the children’s book The Little Engine That Could), the event ends Nov. 20 with the auctioning of the books at the Lyric Theatre. Proceeds go to the Hibiscus Children’s Center, a shelter for abused and neglected children. Until then, the books are exhibited at Stuart’s Elliott Museum.

For more info about the auction and the celebs, and what they liked to read, check out this website.

And see Page2Live’s photos by Michele Sandberg of Thursday night’s preview of what’s for sale:

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Bova received the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Leader of the Year award in 2004 (Palm Beach Post archives)

The scandal that engulfed the well-known Fort Lauderdale law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler has spilled into the Boca Raton restaurant biz.

Tony Bova, 58, a Boca resident and the high-profile owner of a string of area restaurants, counts disgraced attorney and political power broker Scott Rothstein among his partners in at least a half-dozen ventures.

And chief among those are Bova Ristorante, Bova’s pride and joy on Boca’s Federal Highway, and the chain Bova Restaurant Group.

Bova Ristorante, where older guys with slicked-back hair loved to hook up with women too young for them, mysteriously closed its doors shortly before Rothstein took off for North Africa last month.

And no one’s talking.

“Tony Bova has no comment at this point,” a spokeswoman said.

Bova’s association with Rothstein, who’s believed to be the principal in a $500 million Ponzi scheme and just returned to Florida to face the music, surprised observers.

“Tony was a very successful restaurant owner in his own right,” said Tom Prakas, a hospitality-business broker. “I don’t know why he needed Scott Rothstein.”

One strange thing regarding Bova and Rothstein is that their businesses last year spent more than $200,000 on political causes, mostly in a heated race across the Palm Beach County line.

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