September 11, 1953 / Geoffrey G. Giuliano is born to Joseph Robert Giuliano and Myrna Oneita Kuney in Rochester, New York. His eccentric mother hid her pregnancy from her husband and the entire family until only days before the baby's birth. Geoffrey is the youngest of five children (three sisters and one brother). They reside at 127 Clinton Street in Albion (rural Orleans County). As a toddler he shows an intense love of music throwing a fit whenever the families wireless is switched off. Geoffrey jumps up and down screaming, “La la, la la" (his word for music).
1953 – 1959 / Geoffrey grows up in Albion where his father is a plumber / heating contractor who loved to play the horses and his mother runs a day care center called the Village Nursery School at 128 Clinton Street. Geoffrey performs for his father and friends at Colona's Barber Shop singing the theme from Disney's Swamp Fox .
Sometime In 1960 / Myrna separates from Joe (though never divorces) and moves to the families wood frame two story cottage in Olcott Beach, New York at 5969 Ontario Street along the rocky shores of Lake Ontario .
February 9, 1964 / The family watches the Beatles first American appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in their Olcott home. Young Geoffrey is enthralled. Joe Jelly (his father's nickname) is significantly less impressed. Days later Giuliano receives a Beatles notebook and sweatshirt from his mother. Geo is seen as "different" by the other kids in the tough, blue collar hamlet. He learns to run very very fast and in later years becomes a minor track star at sschool (fifty yard dash).
Summer 1964 / Giuliano attends Camp Kenan in Barker, New York where he meets senior activities instructor Goose Gray. It will prove to be an important milestone in both their lives in years to come.
Sometime In 1965 / Myrna moves to Tampa, Florida with her children Sheila and Geoffrey. Brother Robert is attending school at the University of Tampa. During this time Giuliano is first exposed to live theatre seeing a show at the school's historic Falk Theatre (staring husband and wife singing duo, Jack & Sally Strickland). He will play the lead in a successful run of Macbeth there several years later in 197_.
1966 – Giuliano becomes seriously interested in popular music. The Beatles are his favorite group but he is also a great fan of top forty AM radio. He begins reading about the lives of great artists such as Picasso, Rembrant and Dali. Geoffrey is also a keen admirer of Benjamin Franklin. He is a generally disinterested student and is considered to be something of a class clown. While attending Madison Junior High Giuliano becomes a correspondent for the school newspaper, the Madison Mustel. Living with his mother and sister Sheila in a small rented two bedroom house on Vasconia Avenue Geoffrey keeps a pet white mouse which he often takes on long bike rides with the small homemade wooden cage taped to the handle bars. His best friend is Frank Thomas Poole who lives just up the street. The two have known each other since the forth grade at Mitchell Elementary School . They will remain close for another ten years.
_________, 1967 / Geoffrey reluctantly takes an acting course at the University of Tampa 's Theatre For Young People taught by Marcel Alexander. His first part is in a play about Mary Todd Lincoln. Giuliano has caught the acting bug. VIEW DIPLOMA.
Sometime in 1967 / Geoffrey takes his first LSD (C16 H16 O2 N2) at a Steppenwolf concert at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa . He takes the “Strawberry Barrel” acid, “freaks out” and leaves when he sees his birthdate inscribed on the dedication plaque on the flagpole in front of the venue. The intellectually curious young man is drawn into the emerging hippie culture from that moment and continues to use various psychedelics on and off until the age of about twenty. The young man loses his virginity to a 32 year old artist / optical delivery runner named Karen Kinnard in a small flat off Kennedy Boulevard .
December 24, 1967 / Giuliano receives the Magical Mystery Tour album for Christmas. Hearing the psychedelic ending of Strawberry Fields for the first time he is sure the record is defective and returns several copies to the store until he finally realizes it is suppose to sound like that! The family is now living in a small concrete two bedroom home at 3707 Dale Avenue.
1967 – 1969 / Geoffrey acts in several productions at the opulent Tampa Community Theater in Drew Park, Tampa. Early shows in which he appears are; Alice In Wonderland, A Streetcar Named Desire and Pal Joey . He receives good reviews in the local paper and appears on a TV show, Barney Bungaluper & Friends promoting Alice . Here he meets two important early role models; British director Francis Goode and actor Doug Vance. Jeffrey decides he wants to become an actor. Giuliano soon discovers that acting in plays attracts the attention of the ladies, an unexpected perk.
February 16,1968 / The Beatles travel to Rishikesh, India to learn Transcendental Meditation from His Holiness The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Geoffrey sees reports on TV and reads various newspaper accounts. The romantic setting and avalanche of new ideas immediately captures the young man's imagination. He buys the book, Richard Hittelman's Guide To Yoga Meditation and reads it cover to cover several times. He is also introduced to vegetarianism around this time (via Hans Holzer's writings), a burning lifelong interest.
November 1968 / Geoffrey begins collecting Beatles memorabilia very casually by buying lps and books about the group. He also hangs around a local Tampa head shop called the Turtle Tree (run by Barb and Trig Fortnier). There he buys his first Indian kirta (shirt) and a small poster of the personification of the Hindu deity Gayatri which he frames and hangs on his bedroom wall. This is his first introduction to Hinduism.
November 22, 1968 / The Beatles White Album is released. Geoffrey first hears it on eight track in a car while hitchhiking on Dale Mabry Boulevard in Tampa . The song is Revolution Number Nine . Giuliano asks the hippie who picked him up, “Is the whole album like this?”
Sometime In 1968 / Geoffrey forms a band, Elephant Blue, with drummer Russell Alexander and two other boys. Giuliano doesn't play an instrument so becomes the lead singer by default. They rehearse several times and then split up without ever playing live. They are especially proficient at the Cream song, Sunshine Of Your Love .
Sometime In 1969 / Now a full fledged hippie and school drop out Geoffrey moves in with a fellow called Peabody in a rented house in Ballast Point, Tampa. There, one evening, he meets James Frederick Brown, a promising college student from a very poor family. The two instantly become best friends. Geoffrey is arrested for possession of marijuana along with several other boys when they go to pick up a small stash on a remote road on Davis Island in Tampa . He spends several hours in jail. The court decides not to prosecute due to his clear record and tender years. His parents are not at all pleased. Geoffrey attends Plant High School for a few months in the 10 th grade before dropping out altogether.
Fall 1969 – Giuliano experiments with several drugs. Hard drugs, however, are in no way satisfying to the young man, he gives them up for good and his spiritual quest intensifies. He religiously attends the free jam sessions at the Men's Garden Club in North Tampa but misses the weekly event on the day Jimi Hendrix shows up unexpectedly, plays in the rain and spends the entire afternoon mixing with the local hippie population. The jams were eventually stopped when there was a drug related shooting at the event. It is pretty much the death knell for the expansive Tampa Bay hippie movement.
Summer 1970 / Geoffrey visits his sister Sheila in Coventry , England for the summer. There he befriends three local hippies; Tom Gerrard, Blackie Kemp and Frank 'The Freak' Astopchuck. Here Giuliano greatly broadens his hippie skills including a taste for black hash, drink and, of course, the trendy English birds. Giuliano also attends a pop festival at the CNE Stadium in Toronto, Canada . There he sees the Doors, Janis Joplin and the Band. He trips on very power acid all weekend. He also meets his first Hare Krsna devotee and buys a book for a quarter entitled, Who Is Crazy and The Reservoir Of Pleasure. It is his introduction to Krsna Consciousness, his lifelong faith. Later that year he shaves his head and moves into the small Tampa ISKCON temple at 207 Woodlawn Avenue and becomes a devout monk for some seven months. The Tampa Tribune runs a story by Jim Deginaro on the eighteen year old entitled, Hare Krsna Religion Takes Hold. SEE THE STORY.
Late 1970 / Geoffrey begins taking Kundalini Yoga classes at the University Of South Florida in Tampa .
Early 1971 / Giuliano meets an Indian yogi from Kerala, South India, Sri Bala Krishna, after attending a yoga demonstration at the Tampa YMCA. Jeffrey begins helping the elderly yoga master organize Hatha Yoga classes in the Tampa area. Geoffrey and younger nephew, Wendell Lee Smith meet John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the Everson Museum Of Art in Syracuse, New York at the opening of Ono's, This Is Not Here exhibit. He also briefly meets Ringo Starr, pop pianist Nicky Hopkins and Andy Warhol transvestite superstar, Candy Darling.
Mid 1971 / Giuliano meets Ernie Williams, a folksy philosophy instructor at Hillsborough Community College (HCC). They become fast friends. Jeffrey is asked to “illustrate” the true meaning of philosophy for a class project. He immediatly whips out a huge joint and lights it saying simply, “there!” Several students (as well as Doctor Williams) walk out of the class in protest. His later day girlfriend Pattie Bartlett joins him for a friendly toke. Geoffrey later becomes a senator in the HCC Student Government, a thinly veiled excuse to party with his friends on the school's money.
Late November, 1971 / While attending college Giuliano meets Brenda Lee Black while building sets for a school production. He also forms close relationships with three instructors; John Barry Sylvano, Marvin Kirshman and Robert Levine. Geoffrey and Brenda begin dating. Giuliano forms his first business, a silk screening tee-shirt concern called Corporation Tee Shirt with his old elementary school friend, artist Frank Poole. This soon expands into making fine art serigraphs. SEE MAN'S SON PRINT. Giuliano begins reading the works of Timothy Leary. Decades later they become friends with Leary penning the introduction to one of his books, The Lost Beatles Interviews. It was the last book to which Leary ever contributed.
June 1971 / Geoffrey and girlfriend Brenda travel to Coventry to stay with Tom Gerrard. The two young men have an argument and the couple leave for London where they met His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada at the ISKCON ( Hare Krsna Temple ) in Bury Place near the British Museum . Prahupada tells Giuliano, “You are a very nice boy you will go back to Godhead.” The young man is greatly inspired.
1972 – 1974 / Geoffrey, now living with Brenda, becomes a well known counter culture figure in Tampa 's artistic circles. He, Brenda and brother Robert become loosely associated with Ernie Williams ambitious social experiment, a commune called, The Farm Family, at Lake Echo outside of Tampa. Here Giuliano is challenged in many ways by the idealistic and committed philosophy teacher. The two butt heads continually, but with great affection over the next three decades.
Mid 1974 / Giuliano is offered the unbootlegged tapes from the Beatles Get Back Sessions in London by a local collector. He contacts Apple Records in Los Angeles speaking to Tony King and attorney Bruce Graykel telling them about the illicit recordings. He is hired by the Beatles firm for $3200.00 to buy the tapes and set the seller up for a bust in conjunction with the FBI. Juliana meets with the FBI and buys the tapes for $500.00 but no arrests are ever made. Remarkably, Apple never even bothers to pick up the tapes which Giuliano kept on reel to reel for years. The tapes are later released on a bootleg known as the Black Album .
November 28, 1974 - Geoffrey and friends aspiring yogi Joe Bell, Frank Poole, Wendell Smith and girlfriend Brenda to see George Harrison in Concert at Atlanta's Omni Stadium. Backstage he meets Harrison briefly before being tossed out by an angry Bill Graham. This is an intense ly spiritual period for Giuliano. He chants the Hare Krsna mantra daily for hours on end and reads only Indian spiritual books.
April 10, 1975 - Giuliano replaces veteran actor Paul Massey in the roll of Macbeth with the Ensomble Theater Company after the British player breaks his leg following a fall from a stage. Althought Geoffrey is rediculously too young to play the fifty something Scotish king he takes the part and his performance is very well reviewed by The Tampa Tribune.
Macbeth
‘Four Stars'
“…Throughout the production, director Larry Smith effectively uses lighting, a lot of it red lighting, along with smoke and incense to shroud the stage and incense the sinuses, and chanting to maintain the awesome sense of nightmare native to this play.
The other defect in this production is the acting, which is weak to the man except in the case of Lord and Lady Macbeth who, played by Geoffrey Giuliano and Miss Mary Ann Bentley, create some very strong dramatic moments and rather strong characters. There are even some very spiritual moments as Giuliano recites the famous monologue wishing for death, and she the great mad scene."
Giuliano Plays A Great Macbeth.
The Oracle – April 10, 1975
Early, 1976 – Geoffrey and Brenda move back to Albion where Juliana enrolls as a theatre major (printmaking minor) at SUNY Brockport outside Rochester. There he meets instructor and former actor Adam Lazarre. Geoffrey stars in several plays there. He also upsets many in the art department (where he is not a student) by winning a one man show at the universities gallery. He also is asked to student teach a course called The History Of Death. During this period he attempts to revitalize his relationship with his now aging father.
June 1976 - After listening to the Who's Pete Townsend's early solo work Jeffrey develops an interest in the teachings of Parsi spiritual master, Meher Baba (Merwan S. Irani). He joins a local Meher Baba group and learns about the Meher Center in Myrtle Beach , ____ Carolina . He makes a visit to the spiritual retreat and develops friendly relationships with many of Baba's early western disciples. He also begins corresponding with Meher Baba's sister Mani, his brother, and chief female disciple, Mehera. VIEW LETTERS. While at the center he is given Pete Townshend's home address in London. He writes the famous musician and is stunned, when, several weeks later, he receives a reply from Townshend inviting him to visit him over the summer. Within days Giuliano is at the front door of Pete's Richmond townhouse on the Embankment and immediately begins informally working as Townshend's assistant. The two young men become friends and spend considerable time together over the next two weeks. For a more in-depth description of this period in Giuliano's life please refer to his book Behind Blue Eyes / The Life of Pete Townshend . The two men correspond irregularly over the next two decades culminating in a warm reunion in the Who's dressing room at the CNE arena in Toronto in 19__. VIEW TOWNSHEND / GIULIANO MISSIVES. Their relationship cooled, however, when Giuliano wrote Behind Blue Eyes in 19__. Despite the ups and downs of their relationship, Geoffrey continues to hold Townshend in the highest possible regard both as an artist and a ma
July 4, 1976 – Sesa Nichole Giuliano is born in Albion 's Arnold Gregory Hospital via forcepts as the doctor is late for a tennis party. It is the young couple's first child of four. Geoffrey and Brenda are perpetually flat broke and living off of friends and family in a tatty three room flat at 128 Clinton Street (the families old home). Here Geoffrey throws himself headlong into both acting and serigraphy. He writes and illustrates his first book, Chocolate Wings at this time, though it remains unpublished in book form to this day.
August, 1976 - Giuliano receives a flurry of local Western New York publicity when he exhibits his early artworks. Several newspapers including the Niagara Falls Gazette and the Rochestor Democrat & Chronicle pickup on both Giuliano's emerging talent and his undeniable pentionent for self promotion.
ArtWheels Program Brings Arts To Schools
By Pat Stepien
Gazette Staff Writer
These piercing sounds sharpened the ears of the 28 eight-graders at Sacred Heart School as they witnessed a Shakespearean “duel”.The scene was as exciting as it if had occurred at dawn during the 16 th century. Instead, it was performed during an afternoon, earlier this week as the modern day Shakespeare, Geoffrey Giuliano, and his partner, Wendell Smith, engaged in combat.Their stint was one of several facets of the fine arts Giuliano demonstrated during the school's second of eight workshops sponsored by the ArtWheels Program of the Niagara Council of the Arts.
Giuliano's workshop concentrated on pantomime and theatrical exercises such as dueling and fencing.Giuliano, 24, a professional actor, graphic artist and pantomimist who works out of New York , is between jobs and decided to spend some time in Niagara County because he likes working with children and performing in his hometown.He's a native of Olcott.The actor will be living in Lockport for the next few weeks because he plans on performing at more area school before returning to New York .“The workshop at Sacred Heart (School) was the first I've done in the area, and I like it,” he said. The performance came about after he asked if he could do a one man show in the Niagara Arts Center .
Orleans Artist Council Will Focus Spotlight of Native Of Albion
Albion – Modern art buffs and music fans will have ample opportunity to rub elbows and revel their favorite form of entertainment for the next month. Thanks to a veritable “Jack of all trades” and the Orleans Council on the Arts.As part of its year-long cultural presentations. The local group will soon focus its spotlight on Geoffrey Giuliano, a young artist who's “universalist” approach to life creates a common theme through his art, writing, interest in theater and taste in music.Giuliano, originally from Albion , has seen a lot of the world in his first 23 years.In Europe at the age of 16 his “wanderings through an early hippy stage” introduced him to several well-known figures in the “progressive” culture including music personalities and masters of eastern religion.
Called New Age Graphics
Both subjects play prominent rolls in his art work, which he calls “New Age” graphics. Working in silk screen and Japanese brush painting, Giuliano's affinity for the Beatles is evident in numerous self-styled representation of the famous foursome from Liverpool , England .Prominent also are sketches of Yoga masters who he feels have left, “an enormous imprint on my mind and work.” “Like every artist,” he explained, “I try to mirror my perceptions and appreciation of reality. In order to do so, an artist must be in touch with himself and yoga provides the perfect medium for me to do just this.”
Taped Zen Master
As part of his eastern orientation, Giuliano has recently produced and finished a video tape an American Zen master. Gregory Lynn Ford, in the performance of a meditational dance called, ‘Tai-Chi”, or an oblation to the five elements.He is currently seeking a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to process the film for theaterical use.Another facet of his talents is reflected in his illustrated book of “Metaphysical Poetry” which will soon be published through another Endowment grant.Called “ Chocolate Wings ,” a take-off on the ill-fated flight to the sun by the mythological character Icarus, Giuliano explains, “Anything I, as an artist, could say or do can only take you part of the way toward your own self fulfillment. The rest of the path must be self accomplished.”Giuliano intends to “round out” his artistic endeavors through the medium of acting. Following an appearance recently in “ Elizabeth The Queen” at Studio Arena Theater in Buffalo , his interest has been stirred to the point where he now plans to move his family to New York in December to broaden his stage experience. The only negative note he expressed about his life in the art world concerned what he called “the humiliation we must endure because some feel we do this because we are adverse to work.”Giuliano added, “a genuine artist works hard and thinks a lot about what he is doing. I feel an artist must be practically obsessed with his work or it is no good.”A collection of his graphics, called “Sightlines,” is now on exhibit in the Albion Federal Savings and Loan building at 48 Main Street , until August 26 th .Sponsored by the Council on the Arts, the collection will also be on display at the Community Center in Holley from August 29 th to September 3 rd and at the Cobblestone Society's church museum in Childs, September 4 th to the 10 th .The artist will speak on his collection and attitudes toward art at both locations September 1 st at 10:30 am and September 10 th at 3 pm .The films will be shown at a summer youth night, held by the Arts Council, on August 29 th at the Fancher Campus of Brockport College on Lynch Road near Holley.
Albion's Restless Artist Displays Works
Paints, draws and wants to act.
By Robert C Kraus
Albion – Energy seems to fly from the gesturing hands of Geoffrey Giuliano as he talks about his art.His restless ambition has led him on to the dramatic stage and to the easel to paint, draw and, in several months, will take him to New York City to continue his career as an actor.The 23-year old Rochester native also has written a book of what he calls “metaphysical poetry,.” Which he hopes someday to publish himself. It's called Chocolate Wings and is based on the must of Icarus.About 20 of Giuliano's paintings, silk screens and graphics are on display through Friday at Albion Federal Savings and Loan at 28 North Main Street ..Giuliano's activities “all feed into the artistic way of life,” he says, and in that way it doesn't matter if he is painting, acting or drawing. “I reckon if you put a tuba in my hands, I could finds something to do with it.”“I think acting is my quickest route to fame and fortune, which is important because I have a family,” said Giuliano, who has lived in Albion for the past two years with his wife and child. He had lived in Albion for about six years earlier before moving to Florida .He dropped out of high school in his junior year, has been to Europe and at one point, was “a very hip hippie” a label he now rejects.He also became a follower of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami and he hopes his work reflects his “love for my spiritual master and innate spirituality.”The exhibition is called “ Sight lines ” and contains works in a variety of styles. He said he became interested in drawing and silk screening seriously only in the last two years.Giuliano, who has acted in dinner and community theaters and now is a member of a professional actors' union, plans to move to New York City at the end of this year.Giuliano once worked as an aide for the Beatle owned Apple Records.He is applying to the National Endowment for the Arts for a grant to produce two videotapes of original scenarios – one called “ Cigargoyle ” and the other “ Wrapture.”
Late, 1976 – Geoffrey is cast in a non speaking roll in a Equity production in Elizabeth The Queen starring Academy Award winners, Kim Hunter, and Westside Stories' George Chakaris. George is kind enough to come to dinner in Juliana's tatty Albion apartment. It is Geoffrey's first close up brush with fame.
August 6, 1977- Geoffrey and Brenda are married at a local Tampa park off of Interstate 75. Brenda's mother, Mo refuses to attend as she is certain her new son-in-law will never amount to anything.
October 15 , 1977 - The Giuliano's second child, a son, Devin Leigh Jyoti Giuliano is born at home in Tampa, Florida. Moments after the baby is born Juliana puts on the Jimi Hendrix song, Voodoo Child but is quickly admonished by the mid-wife to select something more suitable for the occassion.
Fall 1979- Giuliano answers an ad for an actor to portray the Marvelous Magical Burger King performing live shows throughout New England. Geoffrey spends two weeks in Hollywood being trained by famous 1950's magician, Mark Wilson. Thereafter, Geoffrey takes to the road with his manger and a deluxe portable stage doing shows everywhere from amusement parks to parking lots. “ I think this tour was pretty much the last vestiges of vaudeville in the Untied States.” Remembers Giuliano.
Fall 1980-Spring 1981- Leaving Burger King Corp following a silly scheduling disagreement with his handlers Giuliano approaches McDonalds about playing Ronald McDonald. He is informed that Canada needs a Ronald to appear on TV commercials and live venues around northeastern Canad . Geoffrey beats out some four hundred actors for the job and is giving a luxury office on the 22nd floor of Vickers and Benson Advertising Agency in Toronto. He stays with McDonalds for well over a year performing hundreds of live shows. Geoffrey leaves following an argument with his supervisor, account executive, Vic Knox. Before quitting he admits to McDonalds execs he has been a ethical vegetarian for well over a decade. They are predictably horrified.
1981 - Joseph Robert Giuliano passes away after long battle with Parkinson's disease at the Veterans Hospital in Buffalo , New York .
Spring 1981- Geoffrey befriends future rock n' roll superstar photographer, Dimo Safari and begins seriously collecting Beatles memorabilia. He forms his second band, Metro Man, after garnering a flurry of publicity in Toronto when he stops a armed robbery in progress at a small shoe store in downtown TO. The band records an album at Nova Sound Studies in Scarborough produced by legendary 60's record big wig Bob Gallo (father of future film star Vincent Gallo, whom Giuliano is friendly with as a teen). Geoffrey and Bob become great friends spending many evening together discussing spiritual life and writing songs. Gallo is the producer of such classics as, “ It's A Mans World ” (James Brown), “ 96 Tears ”, “ 16 Candles ”, among many other hits. The Metro Mania album and single win regular rotation on several top Toronto radio stations rocketing the band to an appearance on ABC's Good Morning America with Joan Lundon before the bottom drops out and Giuliano is once again soundly out of work. Around this time he also becomes friends with internationally respected bass player, Peter Cardanelli. It is an exciting time for the young artist mixing with so many talented musicians (including Bo Diddly and Ben E. King), learning his way around recording studios and gaining experience in dealing with the media. All lessons which would prove invaluable in later years. Metro Man Pages CLICK HERE.
January 1982- Giuliano is hired by respected by Toronto dee jay David Pritchard and radio producer Alain Lysagt to co-produce a radio special on Jimi Hendrix. He travels to Seattle Washington where he spends several days interviewing Hendrix's father, Al at his humble Renton home. Geoffrey becomes friendly with Jimi's entire extended family; his brother Leon, Aunt Pearl, and 102 year old grandmother, Nora. The radio show is never aired but Giuliano makes good use of the interview tapes in the years to come. Around this time he takes up for a short time with with cellist and Krsna devotee, Laura Banks (Chandravamsi Devi Dasi).
END OF PART ONE