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| The ghostly Unisphere globe celebrating the New York State Fair Pavilion in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens from the New York World's Fair in 1964, as it appeared on November 13, 2013 |
The Grateful Dead, Outer Boroughs, New York City 1969-75
The Grateful Dead were founded and first became famous in San Francisco, but their next major landfall was Manhattan. Way back when, there was underground buzz about the Dead, so they became an item in Greenwich Village, first at the Cafe Au Go Go and then at the Fillmore East. As the '60s wore on into the '70s, they became an attraction elsewhere in Manhattan, namely Mid-town at the Academy of Music, which became the Palladium, and then at the Felt Forum, and ultimately at Madison Square Garden itself. At the same time, the Dead became huge in the suburbs surrounding New York Metro, in Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticutt. By the 1980s, the Dead were huge throughout the Northeast Corridor--Philadelphia, New England and Upstate New York were conquered territories.
Yet the logic of rock concert touring in the latter part of the 20th century was about following the census. If there were people, bands needed to go there, because there were young rock fans who wanted to see them. So even if a band made its bones in, say, Boston, they had to move on to Chicago, LA, Miami, wherever the kids were, because that's how you made it big. The Grateful Dead certainly followed this model throughout the '70s, expanding their SF/Manhattan anchors to North Carolina, Oregon, St. Louis and wherever there were hippies looking for something different. It would seem, then, that since Manhattan--per the 1990 Census--only had 20% of New York City's population, the Grateful Dead would extend their concerts into the other boroughs. And yet, save for a few brief early forays, no such things happened. The Dead pretty much only played Manhattan, however popular they may have been in Brooklyn and Queens, much less the Bronx or Staten Island.
There are various facets to the history of rock and roll, but they are not always what you think they are. One largely overlooked factor is the history of civic transport. How do people get around in a city, and how do they get to the next city over? There are many facets to this, and one of the best primers for this is Reyner Banham's 1971 book Los Angeles: The Architecture Of Four Ecologies. Banham, a famous English Architecture critic, and faculty at the UCL Bartlett School, SUNY Buffalo and UC Santa Cruz, is not usually noted as a rock and roll archaeologist. But trust me: it's all there.
Banham's essential insight in Four Ecologies was how the railroad defined Los Angeles's cultural geography, even when the railroad itself was no longer dominant. With respect to New York, the City as we know it was defined in 1898, when New York County (Manhattan), Kings County (Brooklyn) and Richmond County (Staten Island). Bronx County became distinct from Manhattan in 1914. Yet the transport system of New York was defined at the turn of the 20th century, and it had defined New York Metro ever since.
New York Public Transit, and particularly the New York Subway, was explicitly designed to bring workers into Manhattan, particularly lower Manhattan (below Central Park, which is around 55th Street). Thus it is easy to get from any of the Boroughs to Mid-town Manhattan or Greenwich Village. It is harder, however, to get from one Borough to another without going through Manhattan. The Theater district in Mid-town (from about 41st up to 53rd St, colloquially referred to as "Broadway") is directly accessible from all Boroughs. Venues like Madison Square Garden (at 32nd St between 7th and 8th Avenue) or Fillmore East (2nd Avenue and 6th Street) had access to the entire city. In that sense, rock was just like other entertainment--the best place for a venue was where it was easiest to get to. The difference between New York and most other cities, however, was that cars were generally a barrier to getting into the city. Thus, instead of a Coliseum with a vast parking lot on the edge of the city, the Garden was at the center of the New York Metropolitan Transit system.
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| New Jersey Transit controls train travel into Manhattan from New Jersey, including the PATH train from Jersey City. Trains use the Hudson Tunnel to go directly from New Jersey to Penn Station. Long Island Railroad (LIRR) trains also go to Penn, and Metro-North trains go into Grand Central. |
The centralizing effect of the Subway for New York entertainment was magnified many times for the suburbs. The "Tri-State Area" that includes Long Island, Westchester County, Northern New Jersey and Southern Connecticut all depends on rail connections into Manhattan. Commuting suburban workers drive to their local train station to go into Penn or Grand Central Stations, and take the subway to their office. Lower Manhattan is an easy commute for suburbs that surround the city for a 50-mile radius. Commuting into the other boroughs, however, runs against the design of the rail system. So major touring rock bands looking to get suburban fans to come into the city needed easy access to those commuter hubs, and that meant Penn Station (34th St and 8th Ave), Grand Central Station (42nd St and Park Ave) or Port Authority Bus Terminal (42nd and 8th Ave). There weren't major rock venues in Borough other than Manhattan because the transit system ensured that venues needed to be in lower Manhattan in order to thrive.
For all that, the Grateful Dead did play a few shows outside of Manhattan. This post will look at these rare occurrences, and consider why each venue rarely booked the Dead or its constituent band members. While this post may seem to be about a touring rock band, it's really about transit and how it affects the history of rock music, but that is a subject well worth examining.
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| A comparatively recent photo of the Paradise Theater at 2413 Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The Grateful Dead did not play there in 1968. More's the pity. |
June 12-13, 1968 Paradise Theater, Bronx, New York, NY: Grateful Dead (Wednesday-Thursday) (cxld)
The Grateful Dead's New York City debut had been a two-week booking in June, 1967 at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village (June 1-11). The band had managed to fit in free concerts as well, immediately making their mark on the local scene. The Dead would return in December to play a few more shows in the Village. In March, 1968, the premier rock booking was Bill Graham's Fillmore East, also in Greenwich Village.
Touring rock bands have to plan at least 90 days in advance, however, and when the Fillmore East opened, the Dead were Bill Graham's competitors. The band was running the Carousel Ballroom in direct conflict with the Fillmore, so they weren't eager to play for Graham in New York. Thus the Dead's next New York Metro gig, while in the Village, was at a dance club called The Electric Circus, on May 7-9, 1968. The show would have booked around March, at the peak of the competition between Graham's Fillmore and the Carousel. There is trace evidence that the Dead also booked a show at the Paradise Theater in The Bronx for two weeknights in June. They must have been planning a weekend gig somewhere else, probably outside New York.
By June of 1968, however, the Dead's operation at the Carousel was falling apart, and they had agreed to a weekend debut at the Fillmore East on June 14 and 15. Thus is was no surprise to see that the prospective booking in the Bronx was canceled. Graham, like any promoter, would have had a contract with the Dead that stipulated no show could be advertised within three weeks and 50 miles of the Fillmore East booking. This would not have precluded a free concert--Graham knew more than anyone how that created buzz--but there was no chance that the Dead would play Wednesday and Thursday in The Bronx. However likely or unlikely the booking at the Paradise Theater had been, the Dead weren't playing it.
The Paradise Theater, at 2413 Grand Concourse in the Bronx, had opened in 1929 as Loew's Paradise Theater. It had 3,885 seats. The theater had a long and storied history as a movie palace in The Bronx, but by the late '60s it was in decline. I have been able to determine that it was used for at least some rock shows in the '60s, but I don't know which bands might have played there or who the promoters might have been. In early '68, the New York Metro rock concert market wasn't settled yet, and no doubt the Paradise in the Bronx could have been a key stop. But the natural transportation gravity favored Greenwich Village, so the Fillmore East became the premier hall for high profile touring '60s rock bands.
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 The Grateful Dead were not noted on the initial poster for the Staten Island Day Top Festival (above, color) in June 1968, but they were mentioned in the Village Voice ad (below, B&W). In the ad, they "replaced" Steve Paul, who was a promoter and not an artist, so his name must have been a placeholder. The Dead did not appear at the Day Top Festival. |
June 16, 1968 Daytop Village, Staten Island, New York, NY: Grateful Dead/others (GD did not play)
On the same weekend as the Dead’s Fillmore East debut, the New York Times had a display ad for an event in Staten Island that included the Grateful Dead. The event appears to have been canceled, or at least the Dead surely did not play--I think there was little chance that the Dead were ever going to play this event. The ad does fit the notion that the Dead were considering different bookings prior to locking in to the Fillmore East, and some hippies had at least some hope that they might show up. Once the Dead were booked for Graham, however, there wasn't going to be an advertised show in Staten Island the Sunday after Fillmore East.
July 11-12, 1969 State Pavilion, Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York, NY: Grateful Dead/Joe Cocker/Tribe (Friday-Saturday)
The Grateful Dead's first live appearance outside of Manhattan was the State Pavilion in Queens, at Flushing Meadows. Flushing Meadows is a park in the center of Queens, and it is the site of Shea Stadium, Citi Field (which replaced Shea), Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, the Singer Bowl and a variety of other attractions. It was also the site of the World's Fair in 1939 and 1964. The "World's Fair" was an International Exposition celebrating the achievements, and sometimes the cultures, of nations around the world. The State Pavilion had been constructed for the Fair in 1962, and it was a showcase for the products from different states. The World's Fair was open in 1964 and '65. In 1969, promoter Howard Stein started to use the State Fair Pavilion for live rock concerts. It had a capacity of about 3000, and excellent subway and bus connections to the location. Rock concerts had been put on at the larger Singer Bowl nearby since at least 1967, but in '69 there were also shows at the State Fair Pavilion.
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| The State Fair Pavilion in Flushing Meadows, Queens, as it appeared in November 2013. The Grateful Dead played two nights on July 11-12, 1969 |
The Grateful Dead have played many long-gone venues throughout the United States. The State Fair Pavilion is somewhat different, however, in that although it has not (to my knowledge) been used since 1969, it is still intact. My photo above is from 2013--I don't think it has materially changed since then. For that matter, I don't think it has changed since 1969. It is an enclosed arena, but with pavilion "overhangs" (if that is the correct word--see above) and a 226-foot tower on one side. Different states had elaborate displays under each pavilion. For rock concerts, I think the configuration was just a stage and an open area, but with the different overhangs providing wanted or unwanted interference.
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| The 226 foot tower rises above the State Fair Pavilion in Flushing Meadows. |
To my knowledge, there was only a few shows at the State Fair Pavilion in Summer '69, and it was never used again. The Grateful Dead seem to have inaugurated the venue on the weekend of July 11-12. The band was also scheduled to play September 26-27, but the last show at the Pavilion was Iron Butterfly on September 19-20. On the weekend of the 25th, the Dead ended up playing the Fillmore East with Country Joe and The Fish. The State Pavilion shows were fairly well attended as far as I know, but I have no idea why the city stopped allowing it to be used as a rock venue. I believe it has been dormant ever since.
Two important relationships came out of the Dead's performances at the State Fair Pavilion. Promoter Howard Stein would book the Grateful Dead in Port Chester in suburban New York starting in March 1970. After that he would book the band at the Academy Of Music, later called The Palladium, throughout the 1970s. More prosaically, a local Queens teenager hired for security at the Pavilion was one Steve Parish, who would meet the Dead's crew backstage. Shortly afterwards Parish came West, and stayed, so Queens had a permanent place in the Grateful Dead universe.
September 26-27, 1969 Stave Pavilion, Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York, NY: Grateful Dead (cxld)
As noted above, the Grateful Dead were advertised in the Village Voice for a weekend at the State Fair Pavilion on September 26-27, but they ended up playing Fillmore East. Whatever was exactly transpiring, the Pavilion shows were canceled early enough for Bill Graham to advertise the Grateful Dead at Fillmore East in the Village Voice prior to the shows. The September 11 Voice (with a publication date of something like September 7) had Country Joe and The Fish with Mountain, but by September 18 the Dead were advertised as opening for Country Joe. So there was an orderly shutdown. Since the venue was never used again, I have to think that there was a permit or safety issue, rather than a purely economic one.
JGMF found a Village Voice mention of the Grateful Dead's prospective appearance at a Brooklyn Be-In. The Voice said "A be-in, called 'Discover the New Worlds,' will take place in The Meadow, Prospect Park, between 1st and 2nd Streets, on Sunday, October 12, beginning around noon. Live music will be featured, with The Grateful Dead, Gypsy, and Dust." Prospect Park is Brooklyn's second biggest park. I don't know if there was a Be-In on that day, but the Grateful Dead surely didn't play if there was.
October 10, 1970 Colden Auditorium, Queens College, Queens, New York, NY: Grateful Dead (Saturday)
By October 1970, the Grateful Dead had some traction, thanks to Workingman's Dead getting regular airplay on FM radio around the country. Still, the band was broke and they were touring as hard as they could to try and get ahead. Oddly enough, the band began their October tour with a Saturday night college gig in Queens. Since this was followed by a night (possibly, but not certainly, two) at a Junior College in New Jersey (Oct 11 and maybe 12), and then shows in Philadelphia (Friday Oct 16), Cleveland (Saturday Oct 17) and double shows in Minneapolis (Sunday Oct 18) on consecutive nights. In between, Garcia seems to have played two nights at the Matrix (Oct 13-14). It doesn't make much sense in retrospect.
My assumption here was that since the Grateful Dead were touring without a sound system--rare for them--but rather depending on their local promoters to provide one, they could fly into shows with just their guitars and a little backline gear, and a small crew. Flying from Philadelphia to Cleveland to Minnesota makes sense if there's very little equipment. Garcia may have been finishing up American Beauty, approving final mixes--perhaps the whole band was--so returning to SF might have been cheaper than hotels.
Queens College had been established in 1937, and by 1970 was part of CUNY (City University of New York). In 1970, the school had also adopted an "Open Admissions" policy, allowing any New York High School graduate to attend regardless of scores and grades. So, no matter what, Queens College was a forward looking place at the time. There were probably about 15,000 undergraduates in 1970. My guess is that since it was a college booking, the fee was somewhat subsidized by more than just ticket sales, and was guaranteed in a way that no hippie rock-n-roll promoter could ensure. That would have made it well worth it for the band to fly out for a Saturday night show. Colden Auditorium had been built on the campus in 1961, and had a capacity of 2,085.
The last serious effort to undermine Manhattan hegemony for rock promotion was the 46th Street Rock Palace in Brooklyn, NY. The 3000-capacity former Loew's 46th Street Theater, first opened in 1927, had been converted into a rock venue, similar to Fillmore East. The venue was located at 46th Street and 11th Avenue in Brooklyn, near Alben Square. The venue booked some of the top touring acts: The Byrds, The Youngbloods, the Dead, Jefferson Airplane and others. The venue was only open for a few weeks.
Organist Tom Constanten had left the Grateful Dead by mutual agreement at the end of January, 1970. By the end of the year, TC was playing in a theater show called Tarot that featured mime Joe McCord backed by a rock music ensemble. Constanten, along with Jerry Garcia, had intermittently backed McCord in the Bay Area when the show was known as Rubber Duck. Now they had a regular gig in Brooklyn, at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music (at 30 Lafayette Avenue). United Artists would sign the backing band (including TC) to record an album called Tarot, under the band name Touchstone. One night in December 1970, Garcia showed up and played pedal steel guitar as part of the band. Few audience members noticed, not there were likely that many. The exact date is uncertain, but it seems to be around December 7.
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| An ad for Howard Stein's weekend shows at Gaelic Park in the Bronx, during the Summer of 1971. The Grateful Dead played Thursday, August 26. |
August 26, 1971 Gaelic Park, Bronx, New York, NY: Grateful Dead (Thursday) Howard Stein Presents
The Grateful Dead had one more venture into an outer borough, although it was a Manhattan-centric booking. Promoter Howard Stein had moved his operation from the State Fair Pavilion in Summer '69 to the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, at the Northern edge of Westchester County. Westchester is the county just North of the Bronx, and Port Chester itself is right next to Connecticut. So the Capitol Theater served Deadheads in the Westchester County and Connecticut suburbs while still being in range for the harder core of New York Metro fans. The location of the Capitol mirrored the development of rock venues around the country, moving to the suburbs nearer to the rock audience, and away from the funky underground bohemian city neighborhoods. The Grateful Dead started playing for Howard Stein at the Capitol in March, 1970, and played numerous legendary gigs at the small, 1800-seat venue.
Gaelic Park is outdoors on the grass with room to dance in the open space or to stretch out on an old blanket. New acoustic artists will entertain at twilight and headliners will carry you into the night, under the stars. The sound, lighting and general production will be provided by the staff of the Capitol Theater.The last paragraph frames the marketplace. It describes the Park as "close to Manhattan" and gives subway directions, for city dwellers, and describes the driving route for suburbanites. I'm sure that Stein was aiming to attract Dead fans from all over New York City, but the nature of transit was that everyone would know how to get to Manhattan, and the directions only describe Manhattan-to-Gaelic Park.
While Gaelic Park can accommodate twenty-five thousand people, we are limiting sales to fifteen thousand. It will be easy, comfortable and unhassled.
Gaelic Park is close to Manhattan in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. It is easily accessible by subway on the IRT Line (7th Ave Broadway #7) and by car on the Major Deegan, Van Cortland Park exit.
In 1972 and '73, Sam Cutler was the exclusive booking agent for the Grateful Dead as well as the New Riders of The Purple Sage. From the point of view of Dead fans around the country, while the Riders didn't rise to the level of the Dead, they were still popular and one of the few ways to get that San Francisco vibe. Even so, the New Riders only played the Outer Boroughs twice in the Cutler era.
Bayside was 222-05 56th Street in Bayside, in Queens. The school had
been founded in 1959, and by 1965 it was part of CUNY. A Saturday night
gig at a Community College followed the Cutler playbook, building fans
one gig at a time, while covering expenses. Tranquility was an English band on Epic Records, and the Riders were on Columbia, both owned by CBS. During this period, CBS liked to have bands on their labels share bills, likely to share promotional expenses. Tranquility was in a sort of Beatles/Badfinger vein, and were supposedly pretty good.
Howard Stein was promoting shows again in Gaelic Park in the Summer of '72, although the Grateful Dead did not return. The Allman Brothers headlined Gaelic Park, however, and rather famously Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir showed up to join the Brothers for "Mountain Jam."
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| The Newsday listing (April 7, 1973) for the New Riders show at Queens College on Monday, April 9 |
April 9, 1973 Colden Auditorium, Queens College, Queens, NY: New Riders of the Purple Sage (Monday) two shows: 7:00 & 9:30pm
Jerry Garcia had started to tour around outside of the Bay Area. Garcia and Merl Saunders had first played the Bottom Line in Manhattan in July 1974, and again for multiple nights in November '74 and April '75. Right before the April Bottom Line shows, Legion Of Mary played a Friday night at Whitman Auditorium in Brooklyn College. Brooklyn College, on Bedford Avenue, is also part of the CUNY system. It currently has 15,000 undergraduates, although I don't know if it had that many in the 1970s. Whitman Auditorium, built in 1955, seats around 2,300.
The Jerry Garcia Band did a lucrative tour of the East Coast in the Fall of '75, with Nicky Hopkins on board. The Grateful Dead had outgrown Colden Auditorium, but Garcia had now risen high enough to headline it himself. The pattern would repeat itself, and Garcia would not appear in the Outer Boroughs again.
After the Garcia Band tour, Kingfish and the Keith & Donna Band did a joint tour on the East Coast. They did not draw as well as Jerry, of course, but Northeastern Deadheads were happy for a taste of what they could get. The tour played Friday night at Whitman Auditorium in Brooklyn. Bob Weir would tour relentlessly around the Northeast for the next two decades, but no member of the Grateful Dead would perform in any other Borough but Manhattan until after 1995.
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