[Ads-l] head shop (Apr. 1966)

[Ben Zimmer]

The earliest cite in OED3 for "head shop" is from July 1966 as the name of
a shop in the East Village:

---
1966   N.Y. Times Mag. 10 July 32   One may buy intentional LSD art at the
city's first psychedelic bazaar, The Head Shop, in the East Village, where
brightly colored mandala prints cover two walls.
---

This can be slightly antedated now that the East Village Other is available
as part of the Independent Voices open-access digital archive:
https://voices.revealdigital.org/
(Lots of other good stuff from alternative publications in that archive.)

The shop discussed in the NYT Mag article is mentioned in this Apr. '66
item written as a letter from "Betsy" to her mother about the Lower East
Side:

---
https://voices.revealdigital.org/?a=d&d=BFGHCGB19660415.1.9
The East Village Other, Volume 1, Issue 10, Apr. 15-Mar. 1, 1966, p. 9
Soon I’ll open The Head Shop, where beautiful things, many by local
painters and makers, will be sold. Sometimes at night we turn on the
electric jewels and people.
---

"Betsy" is surely Betsy Glick, who opened The Head Shop with her husband
Jeff at 304 E. 9th Street. Here's an image of them back in the day:

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-betsy-and-jeff-glick-in-head-shop-their-store-news-photo/510423841

This article says the Glicks opened The Head Shop in May '66, so that fits
the timeline.

https://sunflowerpipes.com/new-york-smoke-shop-culture/

--bgz

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