Everybody Thought We Were Crazy

Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles

By: Mark Rozzo

Narrated by: Jason Culp

The stylish, wild story of the marriage of Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward—a tale of love, art, Hollywood, and heartbreak

“Those years in the sixties when I was married to Dennis were the most wonderful and awful of my life.” —Brooke Hayward

Los Angeles in the 1960s: riots in Watts and on the Sunset Strip, wild weekends in Malibu, late nights at The Daisy discotheque, openings at the Ferus Gallery, and the convergence of pop art, rock and roll, and the New Hollywood. At the center of it all, one inspired, improbable, and highly combustible couple—Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward—lived out the emblematic love story of ’60s L.A.

The home these two glamorous young actors created for themselves and their family at 1712 North Crescent Heights Boulevard in the Hollywood Hills became the era’s unofficial living room, a kaleidoscopic realm—“furnished like an amusement park,” Andy Warhol said—that made an impact on anyone who ever stepped into it. Hopper and Hayward, vanguard collectors of contemporary art, packed the place with pop masterpieces by the likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, and Warhol, and welcomed a who’s who of visitors, from Jane Fonda to Jasper Johns, Joan Didion to Tina Turner, Hells Angels to Black Panthers. In this house, everything that defined the 1960s went down: the fun, the decadence, the radical politics, and, ultimately, the danger and instability that Hopper explored in the project that made his career, became the cinematic symbol of the period, and blew their union apart—Easy Rider.

Everybody Thought We Were Crazy is at once a fascinating account of the Hopper and Hayward union and a deeply researched, panoramic cultural history. It’s the intimate saga of one couple whose own rise and fall—from youthful creative flowering to disorder and chaos—mirrors the very shape of the decade.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Could not stop listening

Excellent, fascinating period told by a highly intelligent author with love but not excessive reverence for the protagonists. JG please do a series - I’d call it 1712

A must for 60s art/music fans!

So good. Such a great concept. I never knew about this marriage, but Brooke Hayward and Dennis Hopper were right there in the middle of all the best of the 60s.

What a groovy book!

Really enjoyed this book. Great story and narration. A wonderful glimpse into 60’s Los Angeles art, movie and rock scene. Recommend.

1960s Creativity in Los Angeles

Listening to this book brought back wonderful memories of living in Hollywood during the 60s! The book talks about so many places I drove by practically every day! And by the way, I stood in line for over an hour, not once but twice in a single week to see Easy Rider when it came out! I knew Dennis Hopper was extremely creative, I had no idea how terrific an artist he actually was!

Stick with it

I almost checked out when the author spent far too much time describing Hopper and Hayward’s respective childhoods, but I’m glad I did because the meat of the book was fantastic.