This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2019) |
Owsley Stanley | |
---|---|
![]() Stanley in 1967 at his arraignment | |
Born | Augustus Owsley Stanley III January 19, 1935 Kentucky, U.S. |
Died | March 12, 2011 Queensland, Australia | (aged 76)
Nationality | American |
Other names | Bear |
Citizenship | Naturalised Australian |
Occupation | Audio engineer |
Known for | LSD, Wall of Sound |
Title | "Patron of Thought" |
Spouse | Sheilah Stanley |
Children | 4 |
Relatives | Augustus O. Stanley, grandfather |
Website | www |
Part of a series on |
Psychedelia |
---|
Augustus Owsley Stanley III (January 19, 1935 – March 12, 2011) was an American-Australian audio engineer and clandestine chemist. He was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area hippie movement during the 1960s and played a pivotal role in the decade's counterculture. Under the professional name Bear, he was the sound engineer for the Grateful Dead, recording many of the band's live performances. Stanley also developed the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound, one of the largest mobile sound reinforcement systems ever constructed. Stanley also helped Robert Thomas design the band's trademark skull logo.[1]
Called the Acid King by the media,[2][3] Stanley was the first known private individual to manufacture mass quantities of LSD.[4][5][6] By his own account, between 1965 and 1967, Stanley produced at least 500 grams of LSD, amounting to a little more than five million doses.[7]
He died in a car accident in Australia (where he had taken citizenship in 1996) on March 12, 2011.[6][8][9]
Logo
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Sandoz, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, ceased making acid available when it became illegal, but another brand has taken its place, and today Owsley acid is considered the best available. It is so named after the middle name of Augustus Owsley Stanley, a young man in his early thirties who is referred to in the San Francisco papers as the 'Acid King.'
SelvinChronicle
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).