Old Monterey Foundation Lecture Series

Big Sur: The Way It Was” is the first major documentary made about Big Sur, it’s natural beauty, artistic community, encounter culture ways. It includes interviews with writers, artists, and intellectuals, such as Henry Miller, Eric Barker, Emil White, Harry Dick Ross, and Ephraim Donner as well as hippies, musicians, bikers, hitchhikers, tourists, and your everyday rugged individualist who call Big Sur home. It was filmed and produced by Robert Blaisdell, a native filmmaker of the Monterey Peninsula, who shot the footage of Big Sur and its inhabitants throughout the 1960s. The film, narrated by Doug McClure, was nearly lost in time when the film went missing for many years.

Bob Franco is a photographer and cinematographer, who grew up in Del Rey Oaks and currently lives in Pacific Grove. He has worked with Robert Blaisdell to bring this 60-year old film to life.