Michael truly is a caring and wonderful person and was a giant in the dietary supplement industry. During the years I served on the AHPA Board I experienced his care and concern for plants, nature and of course, people. I enjoyed working and learning from him in those board meetings as well as the many committee meetings over the years. But more than that I treasure the time spent in social situations and small group dinners.

Michael you are missed!

Gordon Walker

Posting for Jerry Van

How I Met Michael:

It all started at the store on Paloma. But to understand that I need to say a few words about the beginning of the Venice Fruit Tramps.

We began by driving a Model A Ford through the Los Angeles Produce Market to get our first load of fruit. We set up shop on Ocean Front Walk, where we did not have to stop cars to make a sale—just rolled up with our Model T truck full of fresh fruit and a few vegetables.

We ended up at the Thorton parking lot, living at Thorton Towers, and selling there from March to October of 1974. We shut down when fruit season ended—and grapes were off-limits due to the UFW boycott.

I was working with the Beach House Properties at the time and still had access to the market truck. One day, after a drug bust in front of the storefront where we had originally started, I went around to the service entrance once the police had cleared. I thought. I opened the back door—and stared straight into the barrel of a shotgun.

“I’m the Fruit Man,” I said. The cop replied, “You’re not done. I’ll be back.”

I walked down the Ocean Front to Old Man Frank’s place and sat on the courtyard steps with Joe. I told him I cleaned out the video studio once the cops cleared out. One of the old ladies came by and gave me hell for closing the truck. “She left,” I said to Joe. “I could take that storefront—but I don’t want to run a store inside” Joe said he was game. I told him to find someone who could drive the truck and work the market. I would front the first load.

That is how I met Michael.

He was the perfect guy—knew how to spot ideal produce and make good on the deals I had built up from working the market since 1964, when I was just sixteen. Michael and Joe carried forward the goodwill we had earned in Venice, especially with the old ladies from the Cadillac Hotel.

I worked with Michael for about two weeks before I left town with my “me too” girlfriend, who had started hanging around the truck—the safest place in Venice for a woman. We traveled to Florida (her home), then visited a veteran friend in D.C. and New York. I eventually came back to haul fruit and live out my Fruit Tramp dream.

Joe had left the store, and I thought Michael was doing fine. When I returned, I found him at One Life in Ocean Park, Santa Monica. By then, Jerry Marshak (now going by Jerome) had taken over the store. We brought the truck back in 1979, but by then the public mood had shifted. People were not happy with the Fruit Tramps anymore.

We still used the same ideal melon logo, but now it read Fruit Tramp Express. At the top of the sign: “It Is the Real Thing – Produce of the Americas.” Folks would ask, “What’s the Fruit Tramp Express?” I would reply, “Anything you want.”

On November 21, 1974, the L.A. Times ran a piece titled “Commerce Venice Style: Priceless Fruit” by Sweet William—Bill. I still keep copies at the Veterans for Peace booth every Sunday on the Venice Boardwalk at Paloma. Michael also wrote about the Fruit Tramps in The Free Venice Beachhead, and I have that article in plastic at the booth too.

Suzanne Thompson called me—exactly 50 years later—to talk about making a documentary about the Venice Fruit Tramps. That same day. It felt like a full-circle moment.

Bill’s editorial, the two pages in his book Venice of America, and the fictional piece about Jerry (Jerome) and me in the August 1979 issue of The Free Venice Beachhead, “Impersonating a Cultural Hero.”

1974 was also the year the TV cameras arrived at the nude beach—forever changing the Ocean Front Walk. There is even an art tile on one of the Ocean Front Walk and Park Avenue benches showing an LAPD officer walking the beach crowds—Butts Up—taken straight from Bill’s book.

From the start, I knew we were on stage—alone.

The song “We’ve Been Asking Questions,” written by John Phillips and sung by Scott McKenzie in 2005, captured that feeling. It was the only track on the DVD that was not from PBS’s The 60s. And John Fogerty’s song, “Déjà vu, all over again”—fit too. No money, but still full of peace, love, and understanding.

In peace, love, and understanding,

Jerry Vann

A Venice Fruit Man

PS: The Army marched on Trump’s birthday to John Fogerty’s Fortunate Son. Go figure. Bookends, Phillip’s “San Francisco” (a flower-power counterculture anthem) to Fogerty’s Déjà Vu (All Over Again) and Fortunate Son — you have a musical arc spanning decades of protest and political commentary. Those songs frame a timeline of American dissent; each tied to a moment of questioning authority.

I really can’t remember when I exactly met Michael. What I do remember is he asked me to help him with a fundraiser for Tom Harkin, a five-term U.S. Senator from Iowa (1985–2015). Harkin was one of Congress’s most vocal supporters of dietary supplements and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

Michael and I both served on the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council elected in June 2004. Michael always connecting people, always building community. Have you seen the beautiful mural at Whole Foods Venice? Well, it might be difficult to view as, once Bezos took over, and the store was remodeled, there are stacks of boxes of products blocking the view of Francisco Letelier’s indoor mural titled “Reflecting the Light.,” his 2008 acrylic-on-canvas work which measures approximately 10 × 40 feet.

At a Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council meeting, one of the executives from Whole Foods was in attendance seeking approval for the proposed Whole Foods store which formerly housed a Big Lots discount store. The Whole Foods store first in Venice, opened in that remodeled space on September 3, 2008. Michael knew the Whole Foods executive and introduced me to him. I asked the executive if Whole Foods would include some murals in the store and he asked me to send him a proposal. Well, the rest is history. Francisco got the commission.

Last year, Michael contacted me and asked if I could get his story about the Venice Fruit Tramps in the Free Venice Beachhead. He told me, “If anyone can get it done, it’s Suzanne Thompson”. Just hearing those words imprinted a tremendous responsibility that I had to do something more.

In November 1974, McGuffin and two fellow “hippies” opened a small, alternative produce store on the boardwalk in Venice. They named it Venice Fruit Tramps, renting the space for $400 per month at 425 Ocean Front Walk, which was at the northwest corner of what is now Fig Tree restaurant. They sold fresh fruits and vegetables and bulk dried herbs, deliberately avoiding packaged goods. Michael’s article, written 50 years later, delves into the store’s ethos of community ownership, inspired by a predecessor named Jerry Van, who insisted the business belonged to the community and shouldn’t be personally owned, a principle they initially upheld. The Free Venice Beachhead published the article in October 2024.

The story moved me so that I felt a film should be made about the Venice Fruit Tramps to document this time of life during the 70’s in Venice Beach. Michael trusted me and gave me his approval. Michael supplied me with photos and names of people to interview which I have started. One of the first persons I contacted was the original Fruit Man, Jerry Van. It just so happened; the day I called Jerry was exactly 50 years to the day he met Michael.

I am continuing with interviews and fundraising. If anyone is interested in supporting the documentary, please contact me. Michael believed in it, and in me. I’ll carry that trust forward.