Peter Yarrow

Overview

Peter Yarrow was born on May 31, 1938 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and composer, known for Meet the Parents (2000), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) and Airplane! (1980). He was married to Mary Elizabeth McCarthy. He died on January 7, 2025 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.

In 1982, he received the Allard K. Lowenstein Award (Park River Independent Democrats) for his "remarkable efforts in advancing the causes of human rights, peace and freedom."
Peter of the folk group Peter Paul & Mary.
In 1965, Newsweek published an article claiming that "Puff, the Magic Dragon" was actually a song about drugs, containing secret code words: "Puff" = smoke; "lived by the sea" = C (cocaine); "mist" = smoke; "Hohna Lee" = another name for hashish; "Little Jackie Paper" = used to wrap joints. Yarrow insists to this day that the song was simply about the loss of childhood innocence, and has no drug connections whatsoever.
He co-wrote the Mary MacGregor hit "Torn Between Two Lovers".
Children with Mary Beth; Daughter, Bethany (b. 1971?), a documentary film maker and contemporary folk performer and son, Christopher (b. 1973?), shop owner The Monkey and the Rat at 131 N.W. Second Ave. Portland, OR.

[on the impact of 'The March'] It changed the course of our lives. It gave us not only an internal sense of what we believed in being validated, but it gave us the sense of the community of commitment that was to change America. Not only in terms of African Americans, but to be able to say that ordinary human beings can gather together in large numbers, and if they gather together with heart and strength, they can change the course of history.
[on 'The March on Washington', August 29, 1963] We sang 'If I Had a Hammer'. They knew it and they sang. And the moment was created not by the three of us in a performance but by a quarter of a million people, gathering together and singing with us and saying, This moment belongs to us together. That's what singing together can do...'Joyful' doesn't really describe it for me. It was like the physicalization of love. It was ecstatic perhaps, but it was not giddy and silly or 'let's have a good time'. It was a far deeper kind of joy. It went beyond joy. It was hard to describe, but it was the antithesis of fear, and it propelled us all into another channel in our lives.

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