Fashion and Fun for the Dead at Heart

If the notion of a jolly, gray-bearded, jelly-bellied man first conjures up the image of the late Jerry Garcia in your mind--even in this season--you should have been at the Santa Monica Airport’s Museum of Flying on Thursday.

There, the makers of a new line of Grateful Dead-inspired and authorized neckties and boxer shorts held a lavish “Gathering of the Tribe” to promote their wares.

The tribe is, of course, the Deadheads, the legion of fans for the San Francisco band whose leader died of a heart attack in a drug rehab facility just after turning 52 in August 1995.

A crowd ranging from the tie-dyed to the suit-and-tied (actors Peter Boyle and Howard Hesseman among the latter) mingled among the air museum exhibits. The psychedelic sheets decking the hall inspired some to reminisce about a different kind of flying.

“I first saw the Dead in 1972 in San Francisco,” Boyle said. “Howard took me to that. We went backstage, and I tried every beverage there in hopes of finding something ‘electric,’ but they were all just beer and sodas.”

Hosted by ‘60s jester / icon Wavy Gravy, the evening’s presentation ranged from a distinctly Deadhead-ish communal lighting of the Hanukkah candles to an “executive fashion show” with director Paul Mazursky, sports TV host Roy Firestone, actors David Leisure and Max Gail and several music industry officials showing off the new ties.

Fortunately, the boxer shorts were left to professionals from the L.A. Models agency.

Music was as diverse, starting with mezzo-soprano Eileen Frizzell performing an aria fashioned from Dead songs “Dark Star” and “St. Stephen” and later featuring appearances by Warren Zevon, Woodstock vet and balladeer Richie Havens and Missing Man Formation, a new band fronted by Dead keyboardist Vince Welnick.

“I used to do love-ins, now I do tie-ins,” said Gravy, whose Camp Winnarainbow for homeless children was the beneficiary of the roughly $7,500 raised at the party and a percentage of all sales of the ties, which retail at $29.50.

The ties feature Deadhead iconography such as the trademark dancing bears and skeletons and psychedelic swirls and shapes.

“One of our sales lines is, ‘We want to make everyday life a little more Dead,’ ” said Mulberry Neckwear CEO Henry Jacobson, who started attending Dead concerts in the early ‘70s and hopes to make the ties and boxers the first of a Dead-wear catalog for his San Rafael firm.