It was my honor to have produced part of the American tour of Ladysmith Black Mambazo in the Southwestern United States during the same timeframe that Nelson Mandela was being released from prison after a 25 year internment.  Every show in every city crackled with world energy given the huge success of Ladysmith’s launch via Paul Simon. 

The African phenomenon of “choirs” is common to dozens of townships and cities throughout South Africa.  One can often find choirs in small parks and gathering places dressed in the same attire and blessed with the same passion for singing.  These groups, singing in a cappella, create a lilting and beautiful sound of hope, joy and playfulness that one may not associate with the region and it’s history.  A cousin to this vibe would be blues in America via the Mississippi Delta area where people are dirt poor but the music is like a primal arrow piercing the heart.  John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters are two of dozens of bluesmen that came out of a social and economic environment not unlike the townships in Africa.

During 2001, I was able to visit South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe to immerse myself in the culture, music and the stunning countryside.  I had, indeed, come full circle to the birthplace of humanity.

Throughout my career, I have been blessed to have been a part of presenting incredibly gifted ethnic artists from around the world including Hugh Masakela (South Africa), Milton Nascimento (Brazil), Toots and the Maytals and Peter Tosh (Jamaica) and dozens more.

The power of music truly is a cultural bridge bringing a wide variety of people together in the harmonious exchange of art at its root - the story of life through the generations.

Every summer, we would drive to Galveston to see our relatives.  That was our big vacation.  it is also where my infinite passion for the ocean became a lifelong presence in my persona.  The Gulf of Mexico took the life of my  great grandfather who was killed in the Great Storm of 1900 along with over 6000 others in what is - to this day - the largest natural disaster in American history.  As a kid, going to Galveston was like going to heaven on earth.  I couldn’t wait to get there to see my cousins and my family.  I had become hooked on the beautiful, fat, sumptuous shrimp and blue crab much diminished by over fishing these days.

There were three main families in my lineage - the Riccobonos, the Bernardonis and the DePasquales.  Sounds like an Italian law firm!  The Riccobonos consisted of four girls Jenny, Josephine and Netty (my grandmother), Mary and two boys-  Johnny and Mitchell.  Johnny Riccobono was beloved in Galveston.  He was the best dressed man in the city largely due to his nature and the fact that he sold Hollywood suits at Levy’s - the Macy’s of Galveston.  People would come from all over Texas and out of state to buy suits from him.  The Maceo family let it be known that they were to spend their money on the island in all cases and with Johnny in particular when it came to dress clothing.  Jenny had a white shock of hair on her head.  She always looked like she had just seen an apparition - awe and wonder.  Josephine was Oleander Queen in her youth which was like being Miss Galveston.  Netty was the 90 pound Bermuda Triangle and a whirling dervish.  God help the groceyrman who over charged her a nickel on a tomato. Mary was the most colorful of the girls.  She had Joan Crawford eyebrows which would move up and down in sync with whatever she was saying.  Mary worked for the Maceos and later at Levy’s. 

But that’s not the actual story of what initially shaped my interest in entertainment.

My mother and father would always steal a night away with his first cousin, Vincent DePasquale and his wife to go to the Balinese Ballroom for dinner, dancing and light casino gambling.  The Balinese room took on mythic proportions.  I heard all these things but I could never go there being a kid.  The Balinese - originally called the Sui Ren which opened around 1927- had a distinctive Polynesian flair.  It was owned and managed by the Maceo family which had a lock on illegal casino gambling on the island and in nearby Dickinson and Kemah.  Slot machines were in grocery stores, laundries - well, most everywhere, right out in broad daylight.  Sam and Rose Maceo - who were immigrants from Italy - plied their profession as barbers in their youth.  They were tapped to move rum around the city to various bars during Prohibition.  Let’s just say the money was better than barbering.  Later, boats from Cuba would come in near the beach where the locals - under the Maceos’ direction - would float wood containers of rum to various clubs.

The Maceos also owned and operated the Turf Athletic Club and the Hollywood Dinner Club.  They had the reputation of running the finest restaurants anywhere.  Houstonians of money were a constant fixture together with the classiest people in America.  But the Balinese was the only venue which actually operated casino style gambling right under the noses of state officials for roughly 30 years.

The Balinese was built on a very long pier from shore out in to the ocean.  You would enter where you had better have a connection with the Maceos.  My Uncle Johnny was a great friend of Sam and Rose which was my parents gold card.  Then, there was a long hallway ultimately leading to the main dining room.  There is still - to this day - a stage with four metal palm trees flanking the performing area.  The wainscoting is all rattan.  All the greatest musical stars that routinely toured the country via trains played there including Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Phil Harris (Bing Crosby’s best friiend), the famous big bands as well as the Marx Brothers.  Still further out towards the ocean is where the small casino operated - craps, roulette and poker.  Now, my father and his cousin were not gamblers per se.  My father would hang himself by his shoelaces if he lost $20.  Still, they loved it and it was the most highly anticipated event of the year for them.  I, unfortunately, stayed with my Aunt Jenny in the famous “no touch anything house”.  Children were like aliens.  I know they loved us though.

In 1957, the Mayor of Galveston had it with the Attorney General of Texas Wil Wilson.  Wil had run on a platform of stopping gambling in Dallas and then Galveston.  Wil was a mission to take Galveston by the neck to shut it down.  Periodically, the Balinese would get raided by Texas Rangers.  However, by the time they hit the front door, the doormen buzzed the pit boss in the casino area and they closed up the games.  I have heard exotic stories of how they disappeared the tables and so on.  I don’t know if that is true.  However, I don’t think they were ever closed down until 1957.  I’m sure people were paid to look the other way.  Also, the Balinese was nationally famous and brought a lot of business to Texas.

The Mayor of Galveston went on television in 1957 and basically said, “Galveston is our country and we will do what we damn well please”.  It wasn’t long after that Wil Wilson lowered the boom on the Balinese and all gambling in Galveston.  The stunning wood slot machines were dumped in the bay.  However, being wood, they floated.  Locals scrambled to capture many which are still, to this day, in peoples homes, garages and God knows where else.  Crap tables, roulette wheels, custom poker chips and more were spirited away by employees and dealers.  I bought 250 “BR” chips myself from an old croupier named Angelo Montelbano who operated Angelo’s Restaurant at the edge of the Houston ship channel (the demise of Galveston as a major port).

Dick Fertita and his family were an integral part of the Maceo operation.  The Fertitas went on to create the legendary Landry’s restaurant chain, purchasing the San Luis Hotel and many other successful operations.  George Mitchell - the wealthy oil man in Houston - was a kid growing up in Galveston.  He invested millions over the last couple of decades to restore and rejuvenate the Strand and numerous Victorian homes throughout the city.  I remember he once told me that Galveston was like a mini version of the “League of Nations” - now the United Nations - due to all the various ethnic cultures in the city.

I began researching and developing a film treatment about this topic entitled “Hurricane Alley” which will feature personas based on the actual reality set in the 1950’s Galveston era.  You can’t make up charachters and stories that good.  Damon Runyon could have had a field day with Galveston in its heyday.

Stay tuned for more.

In his case, there isn’t a big enough word to use as a result of his powerful impact on an entire generation of bands from rock to R&B, soul, rap, hip hop and more. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and countless other world famous musicians have paid tribute to James Brown as a major influence in their life and their music.  Chuck Berry, Little Richard and blues great John Lee Hooker also had similar influence on the music industry.

His dancing style and the way he performed would be mimicked by Michael Jackson, Prince, Mick Jagger and countless others.  But no one had the guts to do the “cape” gag at the end of the show.  After the last song, James, bent over in exhaustion, would be led off the stage as one of the band members put a cloak around him.  Then, James would start dancing, rush back to the mic and let it rip.  He would do this 2-3 times during the finale.  I think it was the coolest thing I had seen as a kid when he was on the Johnny Carson show i.e. that he had given more than his life for his adoring audience but gave a little more - never mind that he left nothing on the table.  Now that’s a showman extraordinaire Jack!

I produced two shows with James Brown in San Antonio and Austin.  From the moment I picked him up with the limo at the airport his persona filled the space around us.  It was like a big rush of the tides coming to shore washing the little people with soul grace.

I noticed he had a standard, brown, nondescript glove on his right hand.  While we were driving in the limo in downtown San Antonio, he asked the driver to stop at a department store.  He went inside and came back out with several boxes of gloves. I asked him about it as it was unusual.  He said, “John, people are dropping like flies in LA”.  He went on further but his point was that he was worried about contracting AIDS which was ravaging the world at that time.

Later, still in the limo, he was talking to me as I was sitting in the front passenger seat.  I moved the rear view mirror to see him.  He said, while rubbing his face, “You feel good to me.  I feel you”.  It was meant as a compliment and I took it as such.  He wasn’t kidding.  That was his way of feeling a connection.

Backstage, I passed his dressing room while he was getting his hair ready in one of those 1950’s bonnet hair driers which was a trip to see. That’s what created the famous “pompadour”.  I noticed his clothes were impeccably arranged - multiple James Brown style suits hung on the clothes rack.  Several pairs of pointy toed, short boots were lined up in a row.  James had a very sleight figure and was incredibly fit.  He maintained that physique until very late in his life. You can learn a lot about a star by seeing the little things that no one else gets to witness.

At about 15 minutes before he was to go on stage, we did the settlement.  I paid him in cash which was a non negotiable part of his contract.  It was a lot of cash.  We were the only ones in a private room near the stage.  He set a gun down on the table and proceeded to county the hundred dollar bills very slowly.  His band was already on stage vamping until he was introduced.  Then, he counted the bills again. The audience could wait while James made sure he wasn’t shorted on his fee thank you so much.

Then, one member of his band started to introduce James.  I have never heard an introduction run on that long.  It went something like this:  “Ladies and Gentlemen.  Are you ready?  The hardest working man in show business. Soul brother number one.  Disco king.  Funk master” and on and on.  The trick worked as the audience - die hard James Brown fans - were whipped in to a frenzy.

Unfortunately, I lost a bundle of money on the two shows that just about gutted me.  Oftentimes, an act will lower their fee partly to help with a large loss if they feel the producer had done everything possible to promote the dates. They need to keep us alive for the next tour.  We were now in Austin the day after that SA gig.  We were driving by Memorial Stadium where the University of Texas football teams plays its home games.  The stadium seats over 80,000 people.  He patted me on the arm in the limo and said, “When I come back, I’ll fill that stadium”.  In other words, you’ll get your money back - eventually.  We didn’t sell more than about 1200 tickets per city.  He wasn’t kidding.  He really believed he could sell out a stadium.

I had taken to calling him “James” from early on in our work.  The last day he said, “I don’t like you calling me James.  You call me Mr. Brown”.  That’s pretty much how we left it.  I never produced him again.

Still, it was another incredible moment in my 35 years as a producer.  James Brown is one of the strangest people I have ever been around off stage.  On stage, he truly was the King of Soul. I wonder that heaven was ready for the likes of him when he hit those pearly gates with “Please, please, please”.  God bless James Brown.

In the early years, the theatre played host to legendary performers including Houdini, Helen Hayes, Enrico Caruso, Sally Rand, the Marx Brothers, Cab Calloway, Sarah Bernhardt to name a few.  In 1930, the theatre was upgraded with air conditioning at the same time that the public’s appetite for motion pictures was reaching a fevered pitch. Little by little, over the next three decades, motion pictures became more and more typical while touring live plays and variety acts began to wane.  The Paramount reached a low point becoming a venue for kung fu films and exploitation product in the late 1960’s and mid 1970’s.  ABC Interstate Theatres – the operator of the theatres all throughout the Southwest – had turned its back on all of its downtown theatres allowing them to deteriorate and to be shuttered or demolished in many cases in favor of more profitable suburban multi screen movie theatres..

During the first phase of the Paramount’s reincarnation (1973-1985), the theatre was a major venue for music and comedy concerts via major touring stars and Broadway shows.  Over 200 big music and comedy headliners were presented covering the disciplines of jazz, reggae, rock and roll, R&B, classic rock, folk and more co-produced with Art Squires and Michael Dunham of the then Southwest Concerts.  Billy Joel made his debut at the Paramount among dozens of other touring acts.  Some of these concerts included Little Feat, B.B. King, Iggy Pop, Al Jarreau, Dave Brubeck, Rush, Al Stewart, Randy Newman, Cheech and Chong, Rodney Dangerfield, Toots and the Maytals, Peter Tosh, the Pointer Sisters and dozens more.

The Paramount began this active concert phase overlapping the famed Armadillo World Headquarters.  Owing to the significant difference in the two venues, there were plenty of acts available that fit the aesthetic of both facilities. Even prior to these music powerhouses, the Vulcan Gas Company was actually Austin’s first rock venue in the psychedelic era in the mid 1960’s featuring Johnny Winter, Steve Miller Band, Jimmy Reed and Big Mama Thornton.

Today, the Paramount continues to hold the torch high along with the Austin City Limits Musical Festival, the Backyard, Stubb’s Barbeque, Austin City Limits television show on PBS, the Music Hall, the Long Center, Bass concert hall on the UT campus and innumerable clubs making Austin, truly, the Music Capital of the World.  The theatre is also a favorite for film premieres including work by Ron Howard, Robert Rodriquez, Richard Linklater and others.

Paramount Theatre link:

http://www.austintheatre.org/site/PageServer?pagename=paramounttheatre_history

Many years ago, I set up a subscription series for a cultural arts presenter in McAllen, Texas. Additionally, I was responsible for booking the artists and all production. One year, a board member said, “We’d like to have Itzhak Perlman”. At the time I thought to myself, it would be easier to get Moses.

McAllen is located in what Texans called the “Valley” which includes Harlingen, Brownsville and South Padre Island. The population of McAllen in those days was around 90,000. Let’s just say the Valley was not on the touring schedule of any name entertainers. Moreover, the chances that Itzhak Perlman would entertain such a date were zero and none.

It is not in my nature to dodge a challenge. I set about writing an impassioned letter to Itzhak’s manager in New York. My basic pitch was this: Itzhak Perlman has sold out every major venue in every major city in the world multiple times. Why not perform someplace totally different wherein it would affect the lives of people there for a very long span of time. I then went in to detail about the Valley, its uniqueness to Texas, the cultural heritage of the Hispanic society there and so on. I gave it both barrels.

To my amazement, Itzhak bit. the only caveat was that we had to provide a private jet from Dallas to McAllen. That was no problem. Many prominent businessmen and banks were on that board of directors. We made the deal of the century in my view. Itzhak Perlman comes to the Valley. I thought I should have received a Grammy for Booker of the Year for that one.

The day finally arrived and off the plane came Itzhak which was a major chore for him. Once I got him settled at his hotel - the La Quinta of lore and then he said, “John, I’m hungry”. I asked him if had ever had Tex Mex. He had never heard of it. The chef of the hotel whipped up a dozen different dishes of Tex Mex - enchiladas, empanadas, tapas, burritos, chilli relenjo, chalupa, flan and more. The hotel really outdid themselves. Itzhak woofed it down and loved every minute of it. It was a bit surreal to be sitting across from Itzhak Perlman in McAllen eating Tex Mex. But it seemed incredibly natural and he was having a ball with this new food group which Texans are addicted to from an early age.

There’s more. Backstage at the International Civic Center in McAllen (2000 seats), he and I are talking about this and that. What most people don’t know about Itzhak is that he is funny as hell and a totally down to earth guy for being a musical legend worldwide. He then picked up his violin from it’s case and said, “Do you know what this is?” I was pretty sure it was a Stradavarius ($1 million even at that time. He had six in a vault in New York). One’s natural inclination in such a situation is to reach for the item. He then said, “Don’t touch it”. He was half playing with me and half serious.

The show was a solo recital - only Itzhak on stage. It was one of the most electrifying and satisfying performances I had seen anywhere in my three decades as a booker and producer. It was the classical version of that famous line in the movie “Field of Dreams” wherein James Earl Jones says “Shoeless Joe Jackson comes to Iowa”. But in our case, it was Itzhak Perlman comes to the Texas Valley.

A Busby Berkeley film was distinctive for several reasons. He auditioned as many as 3000 women for 150 roles in his musical numbers during the Great Depression. His unbridled use of the camera, movement and special effects was legend. And, it is no exaggeration to say that Busby Berkeley literally created the Hollywood musical form.

Busby had been a choreographer/dance director on Broadway for several years when Sam Goldwyn called him to direct the dance sequences of a film entitled “Whoopee”. Not long after Busby came to the notice of Hollywood studios, he was signed to a seven year contract with Warner Brothers where he created fantastical almost surreal musical extravaganzas including “42nd Street”, “Dames”, “Goldiggers” of 1935, 1937 and 1939. These early musicals in the 1930’s and 1940’s were to performance art on film what Cirque du Soleil is to performance art on stage.

Berkeley went on to another seven year contract with MGM producing several movies with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. His work with Gene Kelly and Judy Garland in “For Me and My Gal” showed his development in to more serious work involving more emphasis on story and less emphasis on production numbers. Many of you may remember the outlandish “The Gang’s All Here” starring Carmen Miranda with the infamous dancing bananas scene. He is also the director who created the incredible water movies like “Million Dollar Mermaid” starring world famous swimmer Esther Williams.

John felt that Busby’s unique style made for a perfect vehicle for a Broadway musical. The show is not all fluff though. Busby had a tumultuous life including seven marriages, alcoholism and was charged with second degree murder in the death of an individual when he was driving to Pacific Palisades one night. Warner Brothers paid $100,000 in legal fees to get him acquitted. On the sound stage, Busby was surrounded by a fantasy world where he thrived. Outside the sound stage, he seemed to be a fish out of water.

The reasons the show is entitled “The Berkeley Girl” is due to Busby’s obsession with finding women who “matched like a string of pearls”. He even went so far as to design a mannequin of the perfect Berkeley girl including height, waist size, figure, bust size, hair color, eye color and so on. During auditions, hopeful starlet’s had to stand next to the inanimate mannequin to see how they stacked up.

“The Berkeley Girl” was optioned by Radio City Music Hall to be a permanent addition to its long running shows like The Radio City Christmas Extravaganza”. Due to a purge of some of the producers on staff, the optioned lapsed.

The dye was cast for what would become an odyssey through the foundation of comedy in its many forms - on stage or off. Over the years, in his formative years, John would perform various comedy sketches courtesy of Bill Cosby learning from the master about comic timing, the use of silence to punctuate the punch line and the milking of the gag. He worked in musical comedies as a character actor which was usually the comic foil in the play. Ultimately, his work in comedy lead him to The Improvisation in New York.

The crowning moment in this voyage came together when John created a one man show on the life of legendary comic, Lenny Bruce. Lenny paved the way for comedians like Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, George Carlin and other comics whose stage performances were steeped in colorful language and imagery to put it diplomatically. Lenny Bruce was doing bits in the 1950’s and 1960’s on homosexuality, communism, racism, Jackie Kennedy, the Lone Ranger as a poof in “Thank You Masked Man” and more for which he was arrested 280 times, mostly for language banned by obscenity laws in most cities.

Fast forward to today. The next foray in to unholy ground is in the developmental stages for a wicked new show called:

“The Arc Angel: Kicking ass and taking names for God”. The premise of the character and the show is based on the Arc Angel’s take on life in today’s world on earth covering every topic on the planet. God is pissed at the woeful state of affairs down below and he’s sent his main agent to deliver the message that what’s coming next will make the 10 Commandments look like Snow White if his children don’t change their evil ways.

John is writing the piece and will perform as The Arc Angel in live venues and for possible television sitcom.

Stay tuned for more.

The corporate event for 3400 people will feature Jay Leno and Foreigner who JBPG will produce. However, the primary use of the Pandora’s Box technology will be used during the 90 minute Foreigner set only. The digital projection system offers an infinite variety of special effects including “warping” images to fit any surface – flat or curved. Pandora’s Box also can project 360 degrees on a sphere as well as creating 3D images. And that is just the beginning of the range of its abilities.

Our veteran programmers will create a palette of images featuring Foreigner, the client’s corporate logo and a scintillating cornucopia of images that will blow the audience out of their seats. The system allows for the maximum creative input to customize a show that eclipses hard sets for a Broadway show. The great thing about a digital projection system of this quality is that we can change “the set” anytime we want rather than being tied to a hard set. A hard set ages quickly, requires a great deal of labor to build and move on stage, must be warehoused and touched up and can become obsolete and irrelevant very quickly as a corporate client’s branding changes.

Here’s more information on Pandora’s Box.

TECHNOLOGY

Modern entertainment and communication systems have to integrate and control media distribution, projection, lighting and sound and more.

Furthermore, media integration demands remote control of all involved elements and their interaction with the environment, no matter if it is a moving set tracked by video projection or a visitor in a museum initiating a series of events by proximity sensors as they move about a space.

The Pandora’s Box Media Playback System renders in real-time, so any changes concerning the content, the design or data from external files, applications or controlling systems will be executed immediately and thereby are directly visible.

Watch changes to every effect’s parameter or switch between several sources, clips or effects and do not waste precious time waiting for images to be re-rendered.

Fore more information check out: http://www.coolux.de

At the time, there were a number of newspaper articles and media queries about where the band got the name “Hootie and the Blowfish”. Most fans and the media thought lead singer Darius Rucker was “Hootie”. The band apparently got a big kick out of this and they just let it lie. Finally, the truth came out. “Hootie” turns out to be a friend of the band from Columbus, South Carolina and has nothing to do with the band itself other than friendship.

One of my staff hatched the idea of creating some tee shirts to make a gag of the whole “Who is Hootie” phenomenon.We put a great big blowfish on the back in fabulous colors. On the front of the tee shirt it said, “I’m not Hootie”. Prior to sound check at the show, we handed them out to the band and their crew. It was very cool to see their reaction to what had become an inside, running gag.

FYI – Joe Pesci – who regularly plays the pro am at the Mercedes Invitational - is an avid golfer besides being an incredible actor in films like the “Lethal Weapon” series, “Casino”, “Good Fellas”, “My Cousin Vinnie” and many more. What most people don’t know is that Joe was in the 1950’s band Joey and the Starlighters for many years in his early show business days. We groveled but we couldn’t get him to do a tune. A score of musicians have moved on to become fine actors on Broadway, television and film like Reba McIntyre. Even Jon Bon Jovi did a stint in a television series and was extremely effective.

Whether it’s an entertainment concert touring star, a celebrity, a sports icon, a world renowned speaker and more, we can help you realize your vision with panache and theatrical punch. We challenge all meeting planners, event planners, incentive planners, association planners, sporting event planners and trade show planners to raise the bar with a powerful entertainment package to create a climactic and spine tingling “finis” to your events.

Part and parcel of their world, they belong to the top meeting planner trade associations including Meeting Planners International, American Society of Association Executives, Society of Incentive Travel Executives, Professional Convention Managers Association, Financial and Insurance Conference Planners, the Motivation Show, International Special Events Society, Association of Fund Raising Professionals, the PGA Tour, the Champions Tour, the LPGA Tour, International Association of Association Management Companies, National Association of Exposition Managers, Incentive Travel Managers Exposition, National Trade and Professional Associations, Pharmaceutical Research/Manufacturers.

Everyone at The John Bernardoni Production Group applauds these planners and their trade associations.

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