Sunday night, 1961. 

Folk singers and their friends crowded into a fifth floor walk up in Greenwich Village for a spaghetti supper. That’s how Island resident Jane Slater knew Bob Dylan: as a dinner guest.

Ms. Slater recounted her memories of living in New York at the time following a private screening Wednesday at Edgartown Cinemas of A Complete Unknown, the 2024 movie depicting the early years of Mr. Dylan’s career.

Ms. Slater, 92, grew up on the Vineyard and moved to Greenwich Village in the early ‘60s along with several other up-Islanders, many of whom were interested in the folk music scene. Since Ms. Slater was employed at a publishing house, she could afford groceries and fed many of her friends and musicians who came through the door.

“The girls and I would go down to the meat market, which was in the Village, and buy beef hearts because they were five cents a piece, and we’d bring them back and chop them up until they were unrecognizable, and then we made spaghetti sauce,” Ms. Slater said to the group after the movie. “And all day Sunday we dished out spaghetti to these folk singers.”

Ms. Slater said actor Timothee Chalamet captured the essence of Mr. Dylan.

Ray Ewing

Ms. Slater said actor Timothee Chalamet captured the essence of Mr. Dylan.

Ray Ewing

Ms. Slater and her friends first saw Mr. Dylan perform at the weekly open mic night at Gerde’s Folk City, a music venue in Greenwich Village. Ms. Slater said she and her friends would each buy one beer and nurse it through the night because no one could afford to buy a second drink.

Ms. Slater said the young musician made a big impression.

“He wore a big hat...a flat top, big hat we hadn’t seen in Greenwich Village. And he had shabby clothes and a harmonica around his neck,” she said. “He started in, and of course, his raspy voice was totally different from anything we’d heard. Everybody goes, oh my god, where did he come from?”

Ms. Slater and Mr. Dylan were never close, she said, but that for a time they moved in a common collection of people. 

Ms. Slater noted that although the movie was not always factually accurate, the film captured the city and Mr. Dylan well. She said watching the fictional Mr. Dylan (played by Timothée Chalamet) perform music on the steps outside reminded her of a music store on MacDougal street, where musicians would play throughout the day like an ongoing concert.

“In the movie, the essence of him is perfect all the way through,” she said. “He was true to character...You know, that business of him dropping his head, I remember that so well because I was sitting right in front of him [when he performed].”