He is credited with laying the foundation for the acceptance by mainstream America of "alternative" lifestyles incorporating elements such as yoga and health food.

His mother, Mushka, raised Bootzin and his four siblings in a vegetarian household,[2] while also leading the family on hikes in the hills, performing Russian folk dances and feeding the homeless with her home-baked black bread.

In the 1940s, Bootzin, along with ten to fifteen other "tribesmen," lived off the land in Tahquitz Canyon near Palm Springs,[4] slept in caves and trees, and bathed in waterfalls.

[4] Decades ahead of the Hippie movement, Bootzin and his companions had long hair and beards, lived a carefree existence, and were seasonal fruit pickers.

[5] The 1948 Nat King Cole hit "Nature Boy" was inspired by Bootzin and his fellow "tribesmen" and was composed by eden ahbez.

[3] In 1958, Bootzin married Lois Bloemker, a conservative, academic woman from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and settled in the Los Feliz – East Hollywood area (Cumberland Ave).

[3] Bootzin received national exposure in 1955 when he appeared as a contestant on Groucho Marx's network TV show You Bet Your Life (September 30, 1955, Season 5 Episode 3).

When asked by Groucho to demonstrate how he sold figs, he stepped toward the edge of the stage, shouted an attention-getting sales pitch for a few seconds, and then performed a perfect pratfall (the type where one falls sideways after swinging one leg to knock the other one out from underneath).

[11] His wife appeared on the same programme a few years later with a man who worked as an organ grinder with 13 children who had a monkey that looked and walked like Groucho.

[2] He also regularly attended Los Angeles Dodgers, Lakers and Raiders games with spirited cheers, noisemakers and streamers.

Other movie appearances include Mondo Hollywood, A Swingin' Summer, and Confessions of Tom Harris, and he can be seen quite frequently at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.

Bootzin enjoyed mingling with the performers, including Sonny and Cher, The Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Tiny Tim, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Canned Heat, and a dozen other great acts of the day.

Bootzin was warmly remembered by comedian Billy Saluga (whose comic character was named Raymond J. Johnson, Jr.: "You can call me Ray!