Elliot Tiber was the owner of the El Monaco Motel in White Lake, New York, and the man whose quick thinking saved the Woodstock festival when it lost its original venue.
When the permit for Woodstock Ventures to hold the festival in Wallkill, NY was rejected on the grounds that portable toilets wouldn't meet town code, the organizers were scrambling. Tiber had already obtained a permit from the White Lake township to hold events on his property, and he reached out to Michael Lang offering the El Monaco's 15 acres.
Lang, anticipating a crowd of 50,000 or more, explained that 15 acres simply wasn't enough. But Tiber, desperate to save the financially struggling El Monaco, quickly suggested that his friend and milkman Max Yasgur might allow the concert to be held on his far larger dairy farm.
This single suggestion — made out of a desire to revitalize a failing motel — changed the course of music history. Tiber connected Lang and Kornfeld with Yasgur, and the deal was struck.
Tiber wrote about his experiences in the memoir "Taking Woodstock," which later became a film by Ang Lee starring Demetri Martin as Tiber and Henry Goodman as Max Yasgur.
The El Monaco Motel became a staging ground for festival workers and organizers in the days leading up to Woodstock, with Tiber playing host to the chaotic preparations that made the festival possible.