PART 2 — SEEING RED
Violence and vandalism at rock concerts were not the only issues the Merriweather administration and owner/developer Howard Research and Development (HRD) were facing as the 1970 summer concert season ended and plans for the 1971 season were being considered. The venue was deeply in the red, as it had been from the start.
Corporate memoranda detailing financial and attendance numbers from James W. Rouse’s papers housed in the Columbia Archives reveal the balancing act venue management walked to book shows that would draw much needed attendance and revenue.
The rock acts and variety shows outperformed every other show type. However, due to the havoc wreaked at the Pavilion at several summer shows, the decision to cancel the remaining rock schedule was made. The tumult led the general manager of Columbia, Richard L. Anderson, to cancel rock shows for the remainder of the 1970 season and likely the 1971 season.
The final hope for future rock concerts seemed to hinge on the John Sebastian benefit concert on August 15. It was held with all eyes on the behavior of the youth who would attend.
The Washington Post reported after the show that throughout the season, in addition to the frenzied mayhem associated with rock concerts throughout the country, Merriweather had to contend with big acts drawing crowd sizes that were beyond Pavilion capacity and concertgoer pushback from ticket prices. High ticket prices, especially for those for the big acts, led to the vandalism, gate-crashing, and stage-rushing by disaffected fans raging against that injustice and of actual and perceived constraints on their freedom. It had not been a good scene.
But the benefit concert was a success. The Post reported that, “it worked beautifully, with a few additional and unexpected benefits.” There were no reserved seats due to flat rate ticket pricing. This resulted in people arriving earlier than normal so there were no bottlenecks at the entrances. There was a congenial rapport between the attendees and the peace marshals stemming likely from the recognized efforts of the Free Communities, represented by the underground newspapers from Baltimore and Washington, to hold the benefit concert.
Looking at the numbers provided in a corporate memorandum, the 1970 season closed with a record-breaking gross of $694,259 and an overall attendance of 175,234. Citing the national trend of unrest among teenage audiences that had forced the cancellation of three shows: Sly & the Family Stone, Led Zeppelin, and Janis Joplin, and the “[c]ompany determination in not permitting Hair, this record could have gone to $1,044,259 (three rock shows @ $50,000 each—four weeks of Hair @ $75,000 each [week].”
The biggest losses were from symphony performances. Significantly lowering ticket prices did not achieve the desired outcome of more ticket sales.
The National Symphony’s financial woes in its ill-fated first two years, followed by their cancelled lease for use of the Pavilion, and then subsequent losses under the HRD-hired staff in the next two years, called for another change.
In January 1971, the New Jersey Record reported that the New York City-based leader in family entertainment, “[t]he prodigious Nederlander Arts Associates...is taking over operation and management of the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md.”
The arrangement with the Nederlanders gave them full operating rights and control of the Pavilion. HRD was responsible for other operating expenses. The lease also gave the entertainment company the right to purchase the Pavilion through December of 1976 for $1,250,000.
In their first year booking acts, there appeared to be no constraints on who could be booked, as several rock and pop acts appeared in the summer lineup.
In a March 1971 advertisement in the Baltimore Sun, Nederlander announced itself to the local community as the new concert promoters for Merriweather, offering both a popular and a classical concert subscription series—firsts for Merriweather. Single night concerts were added as the season approached.
The “Popular Subscription Series” included six-show runs featuring Red Skelton with Lynne Anderson, 1776 (America’s prize-winning musical), Harry Belafonte, Bill Cosby with Ray Charles and his orchestra, Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, Jack Benny with Henry Mancini and orchestra, and Englebert Humperdinck. The first year of the “Classical Subscription Series” offered six Sunday concerts.
New Organizer, Same Issues
Violence broke out at the June 16 Elton John concert, the first single night rock concert. According to the Baltimore Sun, five guards were injured when approximately 300 people tried to crash the venue at the start of the show. The next night, the crowd for the Ike and Tina Turner rock concert was reportedly orderly and without gate-crashers.
There were no reports of violence in July, but there were no rock or pop shows scheduled. The lineup was primarily variety shows and theater performances with two single night concerts: country music singer Merle Haggard and folk music singer Judy Collins.
Stephen Stills kicked off August with a 1:00 pm show with no reported incidents. Likewise, there were no incidents at the August 8 rock concert featuring Leon Russell and Nils Lofgren.
However, at the end of August, the Ten Years After concert was mired in violence. Howard County Police were called when a disturbance broke out involving rock-throwing, arson, and gate-crashing. Police arrested a 15-year-old from Ellicott City for throwing a rock at a security guard, inflaming the situation.
Two golf carts were set on fire, three police cars were damaged by rocks, several officers received minor injuries, two sections of chain link fence were torn down, and the Merriweather administration offices were also set on fire.
Less Violence but Fewer Concertgoers
Overall, there was significantly less violence and destruction at Merriweather during the 1971 summer season due to the lack of big rock acts that drew outsized, excitable crowds.
Nor were there mentions in the mainstream press about venue administrators reaching out to the underground press nor to hippie peacekeepers. And, despite having a nationally regarded event promoter and organizer for the first time that summer, attendance and corresponding profits did not materialize for Merriweather and its HRD owners.
In November 1971, the Baltimore Sun reported that Merriweather “had not yet proven profitable for its owners—Howard Research and Development Corporation—the developer of Columbia.” In the previous three seasons, HRD said it had lost $500,000 operating the pavilion. A corporate memorandum noted that HRD lost less under Nederlander management.
Kevin Leonard contributed to this story.
Angie Latham Kozlowski is a staff writer and member of the Board of Directors for the Laurel History Boys. In addition to her investigative reporting, her articles frequently spotlight Howard County.
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