Rare Video of Early Burning Man at Baker Beach

This was posted in 2019 and has received very few views (258 at the time of writing).

The claim is that the footage is from 1986. The number of people around does seem to match the official story of the first burn.

Can anyone identify the people in this video? Larry Harvey, Jerry James, Flash…who else?

The head of the Man being burned in this video looks much like the traditional Burning Man trapezoidal face we see today.

1. Source: YouTube

However, the first Burning Man looked markedly different.

This image we have of the Burning Man on the Summer Solstice sunset 1986 was originally posted on Burning Man Founder “Danger Ranger”‘s Flickr page, with photo credit to Jerry James. The EXIF metadata of this photo has the date as 2008, perhaps when it was digitally scanned.

2. Image: Jerry James
3. Source: YouTube

Although there are some similarities, to me these figures look noticeably different. The first image looks most like the modern day Burning Man, with a triangular head and only 2 “horns”. The second looks like Pan or Baphomet with flared hips and muscular parallel legs, goat head, devil horns, and an occult heptagon central shape. The third has a love heart face, pentagon central shape, boobs, hourglass figure with straightened shoulders and more human-looking hips, angled legs and crown.

Why Are There Multiple Original Burning Man Effigies?

Did they rearrange one statue to get two different images? As above, so below? Or was there a Satanic burn in 1985, followed by a love heart “Burning Woman” in 1986 which they brought a film camera to?

The Horned Devil image was chosen to represent Burning Man in this flyer for the 1987 Summer Solstice (Midsommar) event:

Here is one of the earliest recordings of Larry Harvey’s story of how it all got started. The clip at the start of this post seems to have been taken from here. Note that he says “1985” at 0:57 seconds; at 1:18 he says “ten feet tall”.

According to the official story, the Burning Man effigy has never been 10 feet tall.

The oldest “official” footage from the Burning Man Project’s channel is from 1988. There were quite a few more people around by then, and The Man is much bigger.

The 1988 statue is definitely 30 feet tall

Was it 10 feet taller again in 1989?


The Burning Man origin myth is explored in great detail in Part 4 of my series Silicon Valley’s Secret Weapon – the Shadow History of Burners.

Snake Theater Beelzebub Burn, Sausalito 1979. Image: Bruce Forrester
Timothy O’Neill, aka Elder Mech, held Wicker Man burns on Ocean Beach SF before 1986

“Like Burning Man Gone Wrong”

That’s what Vulture has to say about the trailer for the new movie Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth film in the Mad Max franchise by Australian director George Miller. The series has been a big inspiration behind the costumes, art cars, and overall post-apocalyptic steampunk anarchist vibe of Burning Man.

Vulture:

The New Trailer for Mad Max: Fury Road Is Like Burning Man Gone Wrong

WIRED was effusive in its praise and excitement:

mad-mad-fury-road-comic-con-posterAfter watching this clip we wanted to file this under “Greatest Movie Ever Made” even though it’s probably a little too soon to make that call. That said, we’ve got a feeling, deep in our bones, that this movie will be spectacular. George Miller looks like he’s out for bloody vengeance, seeking to rain down hate on anyone who’s dared make an “action” movie since he left the post-apocalypse behind. The Godfather of the original Mad Max trilogy has had a weirdly touchy feely resume since going beyond the Thunderdome 30 years ago. His last four projects have been:Lorenzo’s Oil, Babe: Pig in the City, and two Happy Feet movies. Apparently, handling such sentimental fare has built a swirling tempest of rage inside Miller, because Fury Road looks like it’s not just here to build on the steampunk hellfire deathrace legacy of the first three Max movies. The new Tom Hardy edition of Earth-gone-wrong wants to double down, take eight shots of Absinthe, and inhale a dozen rails of meth before plunging an adrenaline needle into its own heart. Considering we have computers now and they do everything, Fury Road and its very real explosions don’t even feel possible. Who let this happen? Did Miller film on Mars? How many undisclosed on-set deaths will we hear about 10 years from now? This is horrible to say, but if the feature film is even half as good as these first two trailers, it might be worth whatever price was paid—in blood or treasure—to get it made. The only thing left to do between now and May 15th is build a screen big enough with definition high enough to do it justice. We’ll be waiting.

The future belongs to the mad:

Mad Max Mastermind Miller

Mad Max Mastermind Miller

George Miller went on from Mad Max to make such Hollywood classics as Happy Feet and Babe: Pig In The City.

Burners of a certain age will remember Tina Turner’s epic role in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, part 3 of the series, which was released in 1985 – the year before Burning Man was born. That’s right, when the last Mad Max movie was made, there was no such thing as Burning Man. Will there be any references to the event in this new installment? It seems like the special effects might have improved, and Tina has been upgraded to Charlize Theron, but otherwise, it’s more of the same good stuff that has made the franchise a cult classic, and inspired generations of Burners to go mad in the desert.

Check out a still youthful Mel Gibson:

If you don’t remember the movie, you probably know the song:

Personally, for my post-apocalyptic, cavemen in rags driving dune buggies soundtrack, I prefer 2-Pac and alleged Burning Man mastermind Dr Dre:

Although there’s something to be said for the Zion rave scene in Matrix 2: Reloaded

 

mad max fury road cars

Is that the Mad Max version of Robot Heart?

Art cars galore!

mad_max_4_fury_road_speaker_truck_wtf___2_by_maltian-d5okx0d

Is this the Mad Max version of Robot Heart?

MadMax4set1small

 

Video

You Have Now Entered…the Twilight Zone

Larry Harvey has always insisted that he didn’t get the idea for “The Burning Man” from the classic movie “The Wicker Man”. Perhaps the name they adopted for their Ancient Druidic ritual of an effigy burn may have been inspired by this episode of The Twilight Zone. The show was the X-Files of its day when it debuted in the 1960’s, and was re-introduced again twice. “The Burning Man” aired on November 15, 1985…

Or maybe it came from Storm Thorgeson’s legendary photo from the cover of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here album.

"Burning Man", by Storm Thorgeson

“Burning Man”, by Storm Thorgeson