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Alice's Restaurant Incident
James Jackson, Hulton Archive
On a Thanksgiving Day, 1965, Arlo Guthrie learned an important lesson about littering: It could get you out of the draft.
Then 18, he and a friend attempted to dump trash from Alice's Restaurant in Stockbridge, Ma., but they discovered the landfill was closed due to the holiday. After illegally dumping the trash, they were later arrested by police officer William "Obie" Obanhein. When a nervous Guthrie later appeared before the draft board, he was disqualified because he had a criminal conviction -- for littering.
The story became the subject for Guthrie's talking blues song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" in 1967, which inspired the film "Alice's Restaurant" two years later, starring Guthrie and Obanhein.
The song is a staple of radio stations on Thanksgiving Day.
