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The Monterey Jazz Festival is the longest continuously running jazz festival in the world and is the largest jazz festival on the West Coast. I worked on the stage crew at this festival and served as the stage manager of the 2nd largest stage. After 44 years, I retired so I no longer climbed ladders and worked until midnight. I was asked to write about my years at the festival for a book titled “BACKSTAGE Crew” about all of the backstage workers. I decided to describe my long life backstage using Joseph Campbell’s concept of a Hero’s Journey that he describes in his 1949 book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.”

BIO - John Nichols opened the John Nichols Gallery.com in 1984 in downtown Santa Paula. The gallery specializes in vintage, vernacular and contemporary photography. John is one of the founders of the Ag Art Alliance and a board member of the Santa Paula Art Museum. He was a cookie judge at the Ventura County Fair and a stage manager at the Monterey Jazz Festival. His book “St. Francis Dam Disaster” was published in 2002. His collected writings were published in “Essay Man” in 2015. In addition to gallery exhibits he has also designed and curated numerous exhibits for museums around Ventura County. Photographs by John Nichols are in the permanent collection of the Santa Paula Art Museum, Museum of Ventura County, Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, the City of Ventura, and numerous private collections. Selected exhibits include the Museum of Ventura County, Ojai Art Center, Ojai Valley Museum, Annual Santa Paula Art and Photography Show, Carnegie Art Museum, the California Oil Museum and the Santa Paula Art Museum.

First Sunday Plate to Interface Children and Family Services