'A Complete Unknown': A look at Bob Dylan's life in Minnesota
(FOX 9) - On Christmas Day, the new Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown" will hit theaters nationwide.
The movie chronicles Dylan's early years in Minnesota and becoming a folk superstar in the 60s in New York, along with the events leading up to the controversial 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Dylan is portrayed by Timothée Chalamet, who has spent quite a bit of time in Minnesota, shooting the film and returning earlier this month for a screening of the movie.
Bob Dylan in Minnesota
The backstory: Bob Dylan was born in Duluth on May 24, 1941, and spent most of his childhood in Hibbing. He moved to the Twin Cities for a brief period in 1959 for college before moving to New York.
Hibbing
Dylan was born in Duluth and his family moved to Hibbing when he was six.
His childhood home at 2425 7th Avenue East in Hibbing has become a tourist spot to take photos. That street was renamed in Dylan's honor back in 2005.
Dylan's first performance came at Hibbing High School when his band played a song at a talent show in 1957. Dylan took guitar lessons at the now-defunct Braman Music on East Howard Street played shows at a barbecue joint on East Fourth Avenue in 1957 and 1958.
Dylan's father, Abe Zimmerman, owned a furniture store on 5th Avenue East.
Fun fact: If you are ever in Hibbing, the city has a walking tour of former Dylan haunts you can visit on its website.
Duluth
In his quasi-autobiographical book "Chronicles: Part One," Dylan talks about spending time in Duluth as a child after his family moved to Hibbing. In the book, Dylan describes spending weekends with his paternal grandmother, Anna Zimmerman, a Jewish woman from Odesa with Turkish roots.
A passage from the memoir recalls Dylan's memories of his grandmother's apartment on Fifth Street. An article from the Duluth News Tribune points to three addresses on the 300 and 400 blocks of Fifth Street where Dylan's grandparents lived.
In the passage, Dylan remembers: "She lived back in Duluth, on the top floor of a duplex on Fifth Street. From a window in the backroom, you could see Lake Superior, ominous and foreboding, iron bulk freighters off in the distance, the sound of fog horns off to my right and left."
Fargo, ND
Before moving to Minneapolis, Dylan spent a summer in Fargo in 1959, performing under an assumed name (Elston Gunn) in Bobby Vee's band.
In Chronicles, he talks about Vee, recalling seeing him again a few years later in New York after Vee earned a hit with "Take Good Care of My Baby." After that, Dylan wouldn't see him again for three decades.
"I always thought of him as a brother," Dylan writes. "Every time I'd see his name somewhere, it was like he was in the room."
Minneapolis
Dylan moved to the Twin Cities in fall 1959 to attend the University of Minnesota. In Minneapolis, he lived above a drug store at the corner of 14th Avenue SE and 4th Street SE.
During his short span in the Twin Cities, before flunking out and moving to the East Coast, Dylan performed at venues including the Purple Onion on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul and the 10 O'Clock Scholar, down the block from his apartment.
Minneapolis was also the place where Robert Zimmerman became Bob Dylan.
In "Chronicles," he recalls searching for a stage name. Performing as Elston Gunn before moving to Minneapolis. He had planned to use his given first and middle name, "Robert Allen," which he said sounded like a "Scottish king." Then, after reading some Dylan Thomas poems, he considered "Robert Dylan" but didn't love it. He didn't want to go by "Bobby" because he felt there were too many other "Bobby" performers at the time (like the aforementioned Vee and Darin). Ultimately, he went with Bob Dylan.
"The first time I was asked my name in the Twin Cities," Dylan explained. "I instinctively and automatically, without thinking, simply said 'Bob Dylan.'"
'A Complete Unknown' release date
What's next?: "A Complete Unknown" hits theaters on Christmas Day. Along with Chalamet, the movie stars Ed Norton as Pete Seeger, Elle Fanning as Dylan's girlfriend Sylvie Russo (who, according to reports, is a fictionalized version of Suze Rotolo), and Monica Barbaro as fellow folk star Joan Baez.
It should be noted, while the film covers Dylan's time in Minnesota, the focus of the film is Dylan's rise in New York.