Editing Chet Helms (section)

==Childhood==
Chester Leo Helms was born in [[Santa Maria, California]], the eldest of three sons. His parents were Chester and Novella Helms.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-jun-28-me-helms28-story.html|title=Chet Helms, 62; Concert Promoter in Bay Area During 1967's 'Summer of Love,' Propelled Janis Joplin to Fame|first=Valerie J.|last=Nelson|date=June 28, 2005|access-date=October 24, 2016|work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> Helms' father, a manager at a local [[sugar beet]] [[sugar mill|mill]], died when his oldest child was nine. Chet's mother, Novella, took the boys and their terminally ill father to Texas where her family, the Dearmore family resided. After Chet's father passed away his mother studied to become a school teacher and took the boys to the [[Ozarks]] in southwest Missouri and taught school in a two-room schoolhouse. She taught four grades in one room and the other four grades were taught by another teacher in the other room.

Helms spent the rest of his youth in Missouri and Texas, where he learned to organize events by helping to stage benefits for [[civil-rights]] groups. He enrolled at the [[University of Texas]] and became part of the music scene there, a scene that included a very young and inexperienced [[Janis Joplin]]. Soon he dropped out of school and, inspired by the [[Beat Generation]] writers, [[Jack Kerouac]] and [[Allen Ginsberg]] traveled across America in search of freedom and inspiration. He set off wearing shoulder-length hair, a beard and rimless glasses<ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{cite news
| last = Laing
| first = David
| date = June 27, 2005
| url = https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,,1515225,00.html
| title = Obituary: Chet Helms Promoter of Janis Joplin
| publisher = Guardian Unlimited
| access-date = 2006-05-28
| location=London
}}</ref> hitchhiking across the country. He ended up in San Francisco in 1962.

Later he returned to [[Austin, Texas|Austin]] with his best friend at the time, Peter Haigh, to visit his friend [[Janis Joplin]]. He thought she could make it as a singer in San Francisco. After a week of partying, they persuaded Janis to drop out of school and [[Hitchhiking|hitchhike]] back to San Francisco with them. Later he would bring her to the attention of [[Big Brother and the Holding Company]].<ref>{{cite book
 | last= Amburn
| first= Ellis
 | year=1993
 | title=Pearl: The Obsessions and Passions of Janis Joplin
 | publisher=Warner Books
 | isbn = 0-446-39506-4
}}</ref>