Can we 'let it be?'

By Joyce M. Miles / milesj@gnnewspaper.com
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

July 15, 2006 02:17 am

— When a guy who thrives on controversy says he wants to do something for Lockport, what do you say?
Geoffrey Giuliano hopes you’ll say “bring it on.”
The author/actor/spiritualist who’s caused official Lockport fits of angst and fury over the years has a proposition: put aside the past and let him try to make things right at 735 Market St., the home where he raised a family — and a ruckus — for years.
He says he’d like to create a Beatles museum, a place to showcase a mass of Fab Four memorabilia he’s acquired over the years, and one he thinks would add to Lockport’s tourism cache.
“I’m not sure whether it’ll make money, it just sounds cool,” Giuliano said recently by phone from Bangkok, where he now lives. “It’ll be an international attraction, I guarantee it.”
That loftiness is nothing new from a man who makes his living promoting things. From the tell-all rock star biographies he’s written to the movies he’s had roles in to the Sri Radhe International organization he forged as a paean to things Hindu, it’s clear that Giuliano, previously known as “His Holiness” Jagannatha Dasa Puripada, is an egoistic force to be contended with.
In a series of communications with the Union-Sun & Journal recently, however, Giuliano insists the story isn’t about him, it’s about the Beatles Legend and Sixties Expo — and the promise it holds for revitalizing a neglected landmark and revving the local economy.
Giuliano knows he’s not popular with the local power structure. He’s quick to say that both the house and the Beatles memorabilia collection are SRI’s property, not his, and he’s merely a spokesman for the group. He vows he’ll never come back to the United States, much less Lockport, for more than a visit.
To date, SRI has made no formal overtures to the city about turning a home into a museum. Giuliano says that’s because it’s a waste of time appealing first to bureaucrats who are predisposed to dislike anything he’s involved with. The point of his contact with the US&J, he said, is to make the pitch to ordinary residents first.
“If the people of Lockport don’t want it, fine. But if the politicos want to try and make hay out of their own personal prejudices, they will have a tussle with those forward-thinking enough to see the beauty and economic sense of this highly original project,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Our first offer is to Lockport and we are willing to go to the wall for it if the people want it. If not, we will fold up our tent and move on.”
Just hearing Giuliano’s name and the essence of his pitch, some of those politicos — not to mention a few long-suffering neighbors on Market Street — wish they would. Others say it’s time to ditch the past and give a talented son his due.
Trust is tough to muster
From the street, it’s difficult to look past the weeds that have overtaken 735 Market St., but up close, there’s real beauty in the red brick manse that overlooks the Erie Canal.
According to Giuliano, the 4,000-square-foot house was built shortly after the Civil War and has been on the National Historic Register. It belonged to his wife (Brenda Black) Vrnda Devi’s family until the deed was transferred to SRI in 2001.
The outward state of the property is distressing. An inground pool is barely visible through a thicket of small trees growing between it and a still-new looking pool house. Window frames need painting; brick work, porches and back steps appear to need repair; and lawn has turned to field.
Inside is another story. Past the dust and piles of litter Giuliano says have been left behind by squatters and vandals, it’s easy to see where renovations were made in the not-too-distant past. Floors and walls appear intact and Giuliano said he’s been taking steps to address “minor” issues cited by the city building inspection department.
Neighbors Mike Cassenti, 759 Market St., and Joe Cassenti, 757 Market St., grimace at the idea of a Giuliano-backed museum.
“It’s just another ploy for attention,” Mike Cassenti declared. “It’s a way for him to keep the house and get other people to pay for it.”
SRI narrowly escaped losing the house to foreclosure earlier this year. In March, city records show, payment of $12,411.13 was made on two years of past due city and school taxes. City taxes from 2006, billed to SRI corporate officer Dr. Martin Schiffert in Billings, Mont., are not paid and water and sewer accounts are in arrears.
Giuliano says SRI has been “struggling” to pay the taxes and find reliable maintenance help.
“The house has been a big concern for people, I’m not going to kid you. It’s not fair, it’s not right and I apologize. We’re digging ourselves out of a hole,” he said.
Asked where SRI would get the money to make repairs and set up a museum, Giuliano said a combination of private investment, loans and grants would be needed — along with tax-exempt status for the enterprise.
Charity isn’t a word that comes to Mayor Michael Tucker’s mind when Giuliano and SRI are involved.
“I would welcome almost any kind of museum if the circumstances are right, but I think they’re not right here. I’ve got a lot of concerns with the proprietor,” he said. “There’s been a number of problems over the years. We’ve always had to push the envelope. We’ve had very little cooperation.”
In a well-remembered dispute with officialdom, Giuliano paid restitution after New York State Electric & Gas accused him of skipping out on nearly $22,000 in utility bills at 735 Market. Authorities said the bills accumulated over a seven-year period as the account holder’s name changed at the house whenever NYSEG threatened to shut down service. A Giuliano corporation, Something Fishy Productions, pleaded guilty to a felony larceny charge.
Giuliano also clashed repeatedly with city police over issues involving his two eldest children, as well as community members who didn’t warm to his converted-Hindu ways.
He was no longer living in Lockport by 2003, when police seized two roaming cows from the property, but he grabbed headlines anyway when he threatened to consider self-immolation if the cows weren’t returned home.
There have been other problems since then, the Cassentis said. An in-law claims the inground pool leaked a few years ago and caused a sinkhole that Cassenti family members paid to have filled. A handful of people are still in and out of the house, mainly at night, the in-law said, and police are slow to respond when neighbors call about it.
Police have been hit with trespass and discrimination accusations by SRI principals in the past and tend to tread cautiously when the issues involve 735 Market, according to Chief Neil Merritt.

A different side
For the sake of the museum and the house, Giuliano says, he wants to let bygones be bygones and focus on the possibility: Lockport could be home to the first Beatles museum in the United States.
The pieces in the SRI collection are things he and Vrnda Devi acquired over 30 years, from Beatle clothing, album covers and miscellaneous trinkets to music and notes containing John Lennon’s handwriting, Ms. Devi said. It’s said to be one of the largest collections in the world.
Giuliano, 52, has written roughly 20 books about the Beatles, some with Devi and, this year, “Revolver: The Secret History of the Beatles” with youngest daughter Avalon. Some books have been denounced for use of sordid details and questionable research methods, but he nonetheless is recognized globally as a prolific Beatles chronicler.
He’s also written biographies of Jimi Hendrix, Ginger Baker, Rod Stewart, Pete Townshend and the Grateful Dead, and he imagines changing museum exhibits dedicated to ’60s music generally along with summer music “conventions” consisting of seminars, lectures and ’60s performers.
“Remember, Lockport is eight hours by car from every major city in the northeast,” Giuliano said. “This house is in a part of the city that’s important to tourism.”
Gerry DeFlippo says the idea leaves him “dumbfounded.” A friend of Giuliano’s for years, he’s genuinely fond of him — but doubts the bygones will every be gone for the one who flipped off convention so well and completely.
“It’d be a great idea to get something like that in Lockport, sure. And Geoffrey .... you can’t help but like the guy,” DeFlippo said. “But I think he’d have an awfully hard time getting things going. I don’t think the city fathers will ever forgive and forget.”
Maybe they ought to, others say.
“Geoffrey has always been a character — and I say that with a capital ‘C.’ But people like characters,” attorney George V.C. Muscato said. “I feel sorry for people who roll their eyes at Geoffrey. He’s worth listening to for a while. He’s done a lot of interesting things; he’s had an interesting life. ... Antagonizing (others) is all part of the character. He’s an extremely bright individual. If he sets his mind to something, he can do it.”
Brandon Sticky, a local author who interned with Giuliano as a college student in the 1980s and stays in touch with him, says the politicos are missing the boat if they stay stuck on what was.
“If we looked at the south block and said, ‘Nah, we’ve had too many problems,’ we’d still be looking at a vacant lot downtown,” he said. “If we concentrate not on Geoffrey but on the possibility that this could be a really cool thing, the city could benefit. With the right marketing, it could be an international attraction. ... Stranger things have happened in Lockport.”
Giuliano says the Beatles collection is framed and ready for shipping to the United States, and work to transform the house could begin as early as this winter — if he gets the signs of popular support that tell him it’s worth SRI’s time to pursue the city planning and zoning clearances. Anyone who wants to contact him can send an e-mail to info@milesfar.com SRI or milesfar@hotmail.com.
Contact Joyce Miles at 439-9222, Ext. 6245.

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