Okay, I heard back from Joan Jobe Smith (a poet very active in Long Beach circa 1974 (I'll check that date) to present, founder and co-editor of Pearl magazine). She has a phenomenal memory, and everything she tells me about the good old days checks out. She says Long Beach poet/small press publisher Leo Mailman (a good friend of hers and mine in the 1970s until his death in 1991) told her that Elliot Fried brought Bukowski to read at a small theater in Huntington Beach (the Nifty Theater) in 1969. She's certain that it was Elliot and that it was 1969. Elliot (a Long Beach poet and professor at CSULB) was also a good friend of mine. He was involved in theater at that time. I searched thousands of pages of underground newspapers in L.A. (mostly the L. A. Free Press and Open City), and found many announcements for the Nifty Review in 1969 and 1970, which was a floating review that appeared at various college campuses in Southern California and also at the Nifty Theater. These confirm that Elliot Fried was the leader of the Nifty Review and Nifty Theater, and I found one announcement that mentioned a poet by name as being part of the review, but there was no mention of Bukowski.
As I said above, CSULB poet and professor Gerald Locklin talks about colleagues of his who wanted to get in touch with Bukowski to do a reading at the Nifty Theater, on page 1 of his book Charles Bukowski: A Sure Bet. He doesn't mention Fried by name, and doesn't say if the Nifty Theater reading ever came off, but segues into telling how he found money to bring Bukowski to read at CSULB at a noon time event in 1970. On page 52 of the same book, Gerry say "It was in 1969 I was first asked to contact him for a reading at our university" (CSULB). Again, he doesn't say if that reading came off, and doesn't say who it was that had asked him. I get the impression that Gerry didn't want to give Elliot credit for beating him to arranging a paid reading for Bukowski, or admit that Elliot's event was the first Buk reading arranged by someone at CSULB.
About the venue. It was an old wooden building, originally a barn, that was Methodist church before it became the Nifty Theater. Joan knows the building well but didn't remember it's name until I found that in Gerry's book.
Based on Gerry's statements in Sure Bet, I had only 50% confidence that a 1969 reading at Nifty Theater had actually happened. But given Leo Mailman as Joan's source, my confidence goes up to 95%. Leo was at the center of the lively small press poetry scene in Long Beach in the 70s and 80s, knew everyone and everything, had a crystal clear mind (not a heavy drinker like some of us in those days), and if he said it happened, it damn well happened. I'd like to find documentary evidence, but that may not happen before this forum shuts down, if ever. Gerry Locklin is retired and unavailable for comment (I tried.) Elliot Fried is also retired. I tried getting his contact info, but people associated with the college won't give it out due to confidentially concerns, which I respect.
I don't know if this is enough to add a reading to the official timeline. If I learn more before the curtain goes down, I'll post it here. I hope to find a day & month in 1969 so we'll know if this is his first or second known public reading. The Timeline currently shows the first as being the one at The Bridge bookstore in L.A. on December 11, 1969.
