$180K Helps ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ Namesake Pay Medical Bills, Rent

SARASOTA, FL — Not long after moving to Provincetown, Massachusetts, musician Dini Lamot met 1960s counterculture icon Alice Brock for the first time. He was hired to work on a landscaping project at her home in 1991 and, like many people, he paused when he learned her name.

“I said, ‘Wait, you’re Alice of ‘Alice’s Restaurant?’ And we just hit it off right away,” he said.

They’ve been good friends ever since.

Brock was reluctantly thrust into the limelight when singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie released the Thanksgiving song “Alice’s Restaurant,” inspired by real-life events, in 1967. Though at its heart the 18-minute-long Vietnam-era song carried a strong anti-war message, Brock played a prominent role in the storyline. Guthrie later starred in a movie of the same name.

Brock owned a restaurant in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, at the time the song was written, and also lived in a deconsecrated church in nearby Great Barrington, a space known as a community gathering spot for the bohemian crowd. Though she never fully embraced the fame that came with being associated with Guthrie, she enjoyed giving back to her community.

Lamot and his partner of 46 years, Windle Davis, were founders of Human Sexual Response, a new wave band based out of Boston in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By the time they met Brock, their band had long broken up. But the couple, who now split their time between Sarasota and Maine, continued to perform, taking the stage with various incarnations of the band — including Lamot’s drag alter ego, Musty Chiffon — forming a puppet troupe and working on theater projects.

“She saw us as show folks,” Lamot said. “We all hit it off very quickly, becoming dinner pals and staying close friends.”

In Provincetown in the early 1990s, Brock ran an art gallery and studio, selling her paintings from a shop in front of her home. It was also at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Lamot said. Brock embraced the gay community flocking to the seaside New England town.

“We met Alice during a time when a lot of people moved to Provincetown to die of AIDS,” he said. “A lot of men were given a death sentence and figured if they were going to die, they should do it in Provincetown, where it’s beautiful and they’re surrounded by like-minded folks.”

Brock organized numerous benefits to assist those in the community affected by AIDS, often asking Lamot and Davis to lend their talents to the cause.

“She’s incredibly generous and sweet and helped everybody out her entire life,” Lamot said.

At 80, Brock remains in Provincetown, where she’s lived for 40 years. Now, she’s battling serious health issues, including COPD and heart disease, and relies on an oxygen tank. And after a recent hospital stay, the medical bills are piling up.

Lamot and Davis organized a GoFundMe campaign to assist their longtime friend. The goal was to help her pay for rent on her small cottage and pay down some of her health-related bills.

Since launching the fundraiser at the end of September, they’ve raised around $180,000 for her, Lamot said. Though the campaign started out slow with about $26,000 raised in the first two months, it picked up speed Thanksgiving Day when National Public Radio and other media outlets did their annual tributes to “Alice’s Restaurant.” Now, they’ve raised enough money to take care of Brock for the next three years.

Their biggest goal was to make sure she could remain in Provincetown, “the town she loves,” Lamot said.

She was embarrassed by the fundraiser at first, he added. Brock didn’t want to ask people for money.

“But we said, ‘Look, Alice, you’ve done so much for so many people all these years. It’s your turn,’” Davis said.

Once the fundraiser ended on Thursday, Brock shared a message of thanks for her supporters on the GoFundMe page.

“To all the very dear kind and generous folks who chipped in to my GoFundMe page. It went over the top and I am overwhelmed by the response. The comments that people wrote are heartwarming and I hope I don't get a swelled head. Everyone has a story and I appreciate you sharing yours with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Peace and love to all,” she wrote.

Lamot added, “She’s such a great person who devoted her life to other people. And she has such a memorable name. ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ – everybody has heard the song.”

When they first met, she told the couple about how people would visit her art gallery and as they looked at her work, say, “Wait a minute. What’s your name?”

She told the couple, “It’s funny. I just say my name and people start smiling.”

Even now, through this fundraiser, she’s still bringing people together and making them smile, Davis added. “We’re in a place where our politics are so all over the place that you can’t talk to your neighbor. With COVID you can’t go out and meet new people. Everyone is separated and so at odds. This one thing, this fundraiser, it just brought so many people together from all over the United States and Europe. It was amazing to be a part of it.”