Alice May Brock

The "Alice" from the Arlo Guthrie song "Alice's Restaurant". "Alice" was restaurant owner Alice M. Brock, who with husband Ray Brock lived in a former church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where the song's Thanksgiving dinners were actually held. Both worked at a nearby private academy, the music- and art-oriented Stockbridge School, from which Guthrie (then of the Queens, New York City neighborhood of Howard Beach) had graduated. Alice Brock illustrated the 2004 children's book Mooses Come Walking, written by Guthrie.

In 1969, Random House published The Alice's Restaurant Cookbook, which featured recipes and hippie wisdom from Alice Brock, as well as photos of Alice and Guthrie, and publicity stills from the movie. A tear-out record was included in the book with Brock and Guthrie bantering on two tracks, "Italian-Type Meatballs" and "My Granma's Beet Jam".

In 1974, Alice operated Alice's Restaurant on Route 183 in Housatonic, about mid-way between Great Barrington and Stockbridge. By 1976, Alice opened a much larger operation, Alice's at Avaloch, on a 22-acre estate in nearby Lenox. The restaurant seated more than 100 guests, and was patronized by musicians performing at Tanglewood and at Music Inn, including Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne,and Van Morrison. Alice's at Avaloch closed in 1979.