Alice Brock, the real-life restaurant owner for which Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 satirical song, “Alice’s Restaurant,” was named, has died a week before Thanksgiving, in November 2024, at age 83. The news of her passing in Provincetown, Mass., where she owned a studio and gallery and lived for over 40 years, was revealed today (Nov. 22) by Guthrie. Her cause of death was not revealed but she had been in failing health for some time.
Guthrie’s song, officially titled “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” was a folk song recorded in the talking blues style. In the recording, spanning more than 18 1/2 minutes, Guthrie tells an exaggerated but largely true story of protesting the Vietnam War draft when he was an 18. While visiting friends in Stockbridge, Mass., Guthrie was arrested—and convicted—for littering. Guthrie had loaded his VW microbus with a half-ton of garbage and driven to the city dump. “Well, we got there,” he says in the song’s lengthy spoken monologue, “and there was a big sign and a chain across the dump saying, ‘Closed on Thanksgiving.'” After driving away, he ultimately left the garbage at the bottom of a cliff and later had “a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat.” The following morning, he received a call from Officer Obie, which led to his arrest.
“I first met Alice in 1962 when she was the school librarian at the Stockbridge School,” Guthrie wrote about Brock in his announcement of her death. In 1965, with his friend, Rick Robbins, he went to visit Alice and her husband, Ray, at their home, a converted church, for Thanksgiving.
“The rest is history. Alice went into the restaurant business and I began my years as an entertainer. We were, both in our own ways, successful. As well as being a restauranteur, Alice also became an author, and an artist. We worked together on various projects. During the next few decades we remained friends while our lives kept us busy. She was a no-nonsense gal, with a great sense of humor.
“This coming Thanksgiving will be the first without her. Alice and I spoke by phone a couple of weeks ago, and she sounded like her old self. We joked around and had a couple of good laughs even though we knew we’d never have another chance to talk together.
Arlo Guthrie with Alice Brock and Rick Robbins, Thanksgiving 2022. (Photo: Marti Guthrie)
“A couple of years ago, Alice, Rick and I met up at the church, and from there went to Rick’s home for a Thanksgiving Dinner. Marti & I, along with a lot of old friends, celebrated 60 years of friendship. Some couldn’t be there, as time has taken its toll. But, the spirit was all that mattered, and we got to celebrate it.
“This year we get to add one more to those whose life we celebrate – An important one. Alice was a lifelong friend.”
Despite its length, “Alice’s Restaurant” was a popular tune on progressive FM radio, and its album eventually reached #17 on the Billboard Top 200. A 1969 Alice’s Restaurant movie starred Guthrie and was directed by Arthur Penn, who made the 1967 hit film Bonnie and Clyde and later Little Big Man.
Related: Musicians and other celebrities we’ve lost in 2024
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