Fred Hellerman, May 26, 2016. Portrait by Julie O’Connor, as are the photos in the rest of this Gallery.
Although already ailing, Fred graciously agreed to be interviewed over two sessions in May, 2016. His wife Susan joined the second session. Fred died four months later, on September 1.
The family home on Goodhill Road. It was bought with the proceeds Fred earned from his having produced Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 hit album “Alice’s Restaurant.”
Another view of the house and its bucolic setting. The section to the right of the main house was converted into Fred’s music studio.
A mock street sign at the end of the Hellerman driveway near the shed reads “Guitar Player Parking Only.”
A memento of the early days of the Weavers, this unframed photo hangs in Fred’s studio. He bought the Martin “G” guitar in 1950 when “I [finally] had the chance to buy one.” The same model was also played by Lead Belly, one of his idols.
Indicating its importance to his career—musical and emotional--Fred kept the top of the body of that Martin even after it had warped. “I really love this guitar,” Fred once said, “You touch it and it sings at you.”
Demonstrating his sense of humor, Hellerman took the relic outdoors to “play” it for the oral history team.
A poster from The Weavers 36-stop concert tour of Israel in the summer of 1959.
The gold record commemorating the sale of more than a million LP’s of the “Alice’s Restaurant” album, which was recorded in 1967. Fred was also the music director for the subsequent film.
Advertisement for the 1982 documentary film “The Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time!”. Although the original group was blacklisted in 1952 the group reunited for a sold-out concert in Carnegie Hall in 1958.
Another promotional image for the documentary, reprising a pose from an earlier era. [stock photo]
Fred Hellerman and Susan Lardner. Susan was a writer and editor for The New Yorker when they met. They married in Weston in 1970 and would have two sons, Caleb and Simeon.
The extended Lardner family, photographed at the Weston home of Ring Lardner, Jr., Susan’s uncle (second row, center, with glasses). Fred and Susan are in the back row, center.
With Simeon, Fred and Susan’s youngest son, at the Westport-Weston Cooperative Nursery School, November, 1975.
Among the art and memorabilia on display in the Hellerman home is this woodcut of Woody Guthrie by the famed Uruguayan/American artist Antonio Frasconi. It is inscribed “To Fred, Susan and Family. Happy New Year 1973.”
Done by Weston artist and family friend Jean Watts, Hellerman said this was his favorite painting.
The hand that strummed him into the pantheon of American folk artists. Taken in the front yard of his home on June 2, 2016.
Seated with his back to the camera in a contemplative mood, also on June 2, 2016.