Aron Kay (Photo: Mary Reinholz)
About 50 close friends of Aron Kay gathered in the imperiled Yippie! Museum in Noho yesterday night to celebrate what could be the Yippie Pie Man’s last birthday there.
A Corcoran “For Rent” sign now hangs outside 9 Bleecker. As previously reported, lawyers for David F. Segal, the building’s court appointed receiver, have filed a contempt motion against the building’s owners — who are already fighting foreclosure — over non-payment of rent, seeking $250 a day in fines, eviction of tenants, possible jail time and the auctioning off of possessions belonging to imprisoned yippie Leader Dana Beale on the second floor.
Kay’s daughter Rachel. (Photo: Mary Reinholz)
Yesterday, a New York State Supreme Court judge denied a motion by Beal’s lawyer, Noah Potter, for a temporary restraining order that would stop Segal from removing Beal’s belongings while other court actions are pending. Asked if Segal could remove Beal’s possessions today, Potter told B+B that “in theory, they could do that.” Segal’s lawyer did not return calls at press time.
None of these developments prevented friends and family from gathering yesterday and celebrating Kay’s activism as a leftie prankster over more than four decades. His 31-year-old daughter Rachel, a Brooklyn vegan and animal rights activist, took the mic at one point and said, “Daddy, I will love you forever,” her reminder that the Beatles song about turning 64 wouldn’t apply to her still feisty father.
After regaling the crowd with anecdotes and opinions splattering various U.S. presidents from “The Bushies to the Obomanable snow machine,” the birthday boy, seated in a wheelchair, told B+B that he didn’t considered himself “washed up — a lot of younger people are already washed up.” His memories of protesting the policies of Ronald Reagan dominated his riff. Kay, best known for pieing elected officials in the face, noted proudly that when that POTUS appeared in Little Italy during the 1980s, his young son screamed: “You take food away from little kids, you pig!”
“He was four years old and you could hear him on local television,” said Kay.