The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds

Episode 726 – Gavin Arthur – Live in Denver
Date: March 24, 2026
Live Guest: Luke (featured throughout improvisational segments)

Episode Overview

In this live episode of The Dollop, comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds—along with guest Luke—delve into the bizarre, decadent, and wandering life of Gavin Arthur, who began as the privileged grandson of President Chester A. Arthur and wound his way through the 20th century as a dandy, mystic, sexual explorer, commune leader, astrologer, and unlikely early influencer of the 1960s counterculture. True to The Dollop’s tone, the story is both irreverent and insightful, with plenty of comedic digressions, asides, and audience interaction.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Chester Arthur III: Gilded Beginnings & Family Dysfunction

• Start: [10:00]
  • Born in 1901, grandson of President Chester Arthur.
  • Father (Chester Arthur II, aka Allen) was a "spoiled party boy" and trust fund layabout, never holding a real job (Dave: “He looks so jobbed up. But obviously just a rich piece of shit.” [10:45])
  • Mother Mira Townsend, also from money, got deeply into Eastern mysticism.
  • Raised in Colorado Springs on a massive ranch purchased for Allen’s asthma, the family’s wealth fueled a life of global socializing rather than responsibility.

Early Influences: Mysticism, Tantra, and Trust Fund Escapism

• Mystical Upbringing: [13:46]
  • Mira and young Chester are drawn into the era’s upper-crust obsession with spiritualism—a mix of yoga, seances, and nascent New Age beliefs.
  • Both join the Tantric Order of America in the 1920s, founded by one Peter Arnold Bernard (aka the “Omnipotent Oom”), whose movement exoticizes sex, yoga, and spiritual rites mainly for the rich.
  • The Tantric link and America's subsequent cultural backlash against yoga and mysticism is satirized extensively (“America’s like, ‘fuck yoga, right?’ People are fucking crazy.” – Dave [20:09]).

Sexual Awakening, Anarchism, and Irish Republicanism

• Coming-of-Age Abroad: [21:00–31:00]
  • Chester drops out of Columbia after being inspired by the utopian, queer socialist poet Edward Carpenter (“he just dropped out of Columbia. So he read a poem and dropped out of Columbia. The Columbia dream.” – Dave [22:02]).
  • Gets engaged to writer, dancer, and anarchist Charlotte Wilson; they move to Dublin and mingle with political and party elites—faux-rebels hiding behind wealth.
  • The couple become active in the Irish Republican cause, funding weapons, getting arrested, and navigating bohemian circles.
  • Chester’s personal sexual awakening is detailed through dalliances with male poets and, later, sexologist Havelock Ellis, and the episode highlights the fluidity and openness in their sexual and philosophical exploits.

Communal Experiments: The Dunes and Bohemian Utopianism

• California Counterculture Forerunner: [58:26–63:49]
  • Chester (now calling himself Gavin Arthur) moves to the Oceano Dunes of California during the Great Depression to join and help form a proto-communal libertarian society.
  • Inhabitants include a cast of eccentrics: Slim the Aussie, Hugo the Poet, George the Prophet (of loincloth fame), and Irish mystics like Ella Young.
  • Gavin’s rich connections help bring people like Ansel Adams, John Steinbeck, and Upton Sinclair to the dunes for discussions and magazine projects.
  • Attempts to launch “Dune Forum,” a West Coast New Yorker-style magazine, fail after only six months despite frequent champagne celebrations from his mother.

Transformation to Mystic & Counterculture Figurehead

• Betrayed Nepotism, New Age Celebrity: [66:04–77:59]
  • Gavin continually reinvents himself: party boy to supporter of Irish revolution, to failed entrepreneur, to silent film actor, to commune leader, to astrologer and sexologist.
  • Marries (platonically) a lesbian, Esther Murphy; fails up to become California Democratic Party secretary, resigns disillusioned, and drifts through various spiritual and political communities.
  • Publishes The Circle of Sex, correlating sexual archetypes with astrology, which returns him to some prominence amid the 1960s counterculture.
  • Becomes an advisor and spiritual father to the Haight-Ashbury hippie scene, selects the date for the legendary 1967 Human Be-In (the genesis of the Summer of Love).

End of the Line: Legacy, Reflection, and the Arthur Family Extinction

• Final Years: [77:59–end]
  • Gavin, out as bisexual, is described as both seer and social climber.
  • Dies in 1972, outliving (but not outdoing) the shadow of his presidential grandfather.
  • Noted in his NY Times’ obituary as having known luminaries from Hemingway to Eleanor Roosevelt.
  • Arthur family line ends with him.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Nepotism and Irony:
  Dave (mocking a furious letter Chester writes to his father rejecting him):
  “A man granted every blessing—beauty, charm, money, education and a great name—who used these gifts for no one but himself...” [38:47]
  Gareth: “It would be so great for his father to reply with a TL;DR.” [39:57]

• On Sex, Enlightenment, and Tantric Orders
  Dave (on The Tantric Order founder): “He believed the body is divine, Hatha yoga central to sanctification...with postures and proper breathing, his teachings included sex rites, magic, and the worship of the goddess Shakti.” [17:12]

• On America’s Yoga Backlash
  Dave: “Because of the Oom and a couple other guys, America turns pretty hard against yoga. America’s like, fuck yoga, right? People are fucking crazy.” [20:09]
  Gareth (satirically): “You’re flexible and fucking? I don’t think so. Stay rigid. Bang twice a year. Stop it. The flag’s the best.” [20:17]

• On the Dunes Commune’s Poverty vs. Gavin’s Privilege:
  Dave: “Look at the difference. Poor guy, rich guy, poor guy, rich guy, poor guy, rich guy.” [60:05]

• On Artistic/Counterculture Name-dropping:
  Dave: “Ansel Adams, George Cage, John Steinbeck, Upton Sinclair—all at the dunes, sitting at the campfire and discussing ideas.” [61:32]

• Gavin’s Ridiculous Life Resume (parody):
  Gareth (as Gavin, listing odd life experiences in a mock job interview):
  “I spent four years at the Dunes making a zine. We drank champagne, ate clams, and faked murder nude women...I banged a man on needles on a mountain…Learned sex moves from an 80-year-old who had sex with Walt Whitman…” [67:59–69:52]

• On Rising and Failing Upward:
  Gareth: “This feels like the natural progression. Plus, I’m divorced and I’m pissed.” [70:20]

• On the Human Be-In and Hippie Movement:
  Dave: “The event spawned other similar gatherings and set the stage for the Summer of Love and US rock festivals.” [79:20]
  Gareth: “He kind of closed strong because he sort of helped the hippie movement. But at the end of the day, nothing. Even that got squandered.” [81:42]

Significant Timestamps

• [10:00] – Chester Arthur III’s family, privileged beginnings
• [13:46] – Mother Mira and the rise of Eastern mysticism
• [21:00] – Columbia dropout, sexual awakening, anarchist fiancée
• [41:07] – Gavin’s attempt to develop a world-changing grand philosophy
• [58:26] – Gavin moves to the Dunes, starts bohemian commune
• [66:04] – Fails at zine, joins other utopian ventures
• [77:31] – Publishes The Circle of Sex; becomes counterculture astrologer
• [79:27] – Human Be-In, hippie movement catalyst
• [80:24] – Arthur family ends; obituary and legacy

Episode Tone & Running Gags

• The usual Dollop blend of deep-dive storytelling and improvisational riffing is on display; Gareth and Dave continually lampoon the unchecked privilege and hollow revolutionary posturing of the rich while delighting in the spiritual and sexual excesses of their subject’s circles.
• Running jokes and audience interplay, especially with improv segments featuring Luke as various "hermit" and "ghost" characters in the dunes.
• Absurdist interactions ("clam weddings," mystical orgies, and oddball job interview scenarios) drive home the ridiculousness of Gavin’s life.
• Recurring theme: squandering of privilege, the cyclical reinvention of self among the privileged, and the ludicrous and earnest failures of American bohemia.

Final Thoughts

Gavin Arthur’s story, as told by Dave and Gareth (with Luke), traces a life of privilege, searching, almost accidental activism, and endless attempts to matter—from rich dandy, to revolutionary, to sex-mystic, to absurdist, to hippie guru. They skewer his failings, highlight the gaps between intent and impact, and ultimately tag him as a prototype for many who aim to change the world, but mostly just change costumes along the way.

For full source list and more live episodes, visit dolloppodcast.com.