Conversation 036-016

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Hello.

Oh, I wanted to tell you that...

I really thought that our decision to have these three things was a very good one.

Very good.

You're damn right.

I do.

Did you go to all three?

Yes, sir.

And the only one that got a little fouled up was the middle one, apparently.

Because Sinatra didn't come.

Did he come at all?

No.

Well, he wasn't supposed to.

At one point, they understood he was going to take over for San Francisco.

Anyway, they could have had Roger Williams rather than Vicki Carr for a half hour.

Yeah, that's right.

But she was all right.

The problem was, see, they shuffled them back and forth between that one and the... Yeah, but all in all, that was the only...

But the crowd that was in that hall saw a lot of good entertainment.

Oh, sure they did.

But the point is that... And the main thing they saw was...

But when you really come down to it, the damned...

Although that opera house is the ugliest goddamn room I've ever seen.

Jesus, when you compare it to the Bolshoi or the Philadelphia place, it's something.

But my God, that Armin, he is a showman, isn't he?

And he takes these numbers that...

And I must say, the Grieg was a hell of a good choice.

I did not, I mean, I was mistaken.

I didn't look carefully at what it was.

The Griegs that I remember, you know, the little titillating thing.

But this one was really the best, of course.

And it's the one that everybody wants to play in.

Nobody has ever played it better, and no orchestra can ever... See, that's the thing, that's the reason I have so many records of harmony with soprano, I mean, harmony with piano, because he always... See, most orchestras override piano.

Harmony fits it in.

It was the most graceful, beautiful thing.

I mean, most of those clowns in there didn't know what the hell was going on, but that was one of the great performances.

Yeah, it really was.

And having that L.A. Chorale group and have the little Ballet Forge guys, that was one hell of a thing.

That was a superb concert, but I think having the others was a good concert.

And I must say, the youth concert was great.

Those Australians were great, and I liked those crazy people from Chicago, and

I mean, really, they were funny.

That drummer looked like Manson.

A little weird, but they... No, but they were good.

They were good.

They're for you.

And for that Mike Kerb to get up and say, by God, he's done more for peace, and everybody cheered.

You know, that takes a lot of guts for a guy to say that in the light of all this.

No, not only... And he's proven that he cares about the young people.

Right.

But I don't know.

I really thought...

You compare this to the usual dreary thing at the Constitutional Hall with the National Symphony, and here we had all these people, and they were all out, and they had a hell of a time, and the main thing they see is all.

And I just thought it was great.

I thought it was great.

The only thing I do hope is that, and I should have mentioned this to you before, and, you know, with

just Magruder and others who didn't know what I felt about these celebrities.

I really want the celebrities run down the list so that

so that they, you know, everybody that worked their ass off get to appear, so it isn't just Bob Hope and Vicki Carr.

Both of them appeared at the White House, and Roger Williams have, and there have been scores of others who worked their butts off, and some of them could have been there, but I hope some of them will be at the things tomorrow night, will they?

Yeah, they will.

And, of course, they have all the orchestras.

No, I understand the orchestras, but I mean they'll have singers and that sort of thing, so maybe they'll get a few of them in at that.

They've gotten quite a bunch in, and we're set to pick up on others that we don't have here, too.

Well, we can pick them up and put them on evenings at the White House, but all in all, I don't know what the reaction of the...

audiences but i i think at that last event it had to be really and cliburn by the way he did the greek and the way he did the other it's never been done better they could have recorded that and it'd be a bestseller what do you think yeah they have the the uh harmony told me they have

The Philadelphia Orchestra has done that concerto with Kriber.

They have recorded it.

Yeah.

So they've done that.

But tonight, it was a special thing.

It had a magic to it.

They did record it.

You could see those microphones hanging there, and they had a... We can get a tape of that.

Yeah.

Yeah, he told Steve Bull, he said, I didn't feel I should go down.

It wasn't because of the tenor, it doesn't...

you know, so they didn't want to play, and he said, the hell with you.

But I couldn't go down for them and not do it on the youth and the rest.

And there was no way you could go back and do the Caspar trial.

That was too much by then.

But what was your reaction to the whole thing compared to the thing at Constitutional Hall?

I thought it was, and I've been to Constitutional Hall three different times, I thought it was infinitely better.

I did, too.

Very much so.

And it...

combination, that part of the program was great.

And the Roger Wagner thing, doing America the Beautiful.

What the what?

The chorale, doing America the Beautiful.

And the chorale is from L.A., which is great.

Yep.

And they are good.

They're great.

And Roger Wagner, boy, he screened them all because he didn't want to have anything like that.

Did he screen them?

Oh, yeah.

He was very concerned about anything like the Ray Conniff group did.

But they were great.

200 of them, they just sang like...

They're a wonderful, wonderful group.

I think it's a very uplifting

kind of a program, you know.

It was upbeat, but superb quality.

As I told Jerry Warren, I mean, Ziegler wasn't there.

He really should have been.

Anytime I'm on events that are very important, he should be with me so he can handle them, but that's all right.

I just said, boy, he said, when I saw the press, I said, just say it was an all-American conference with diversity.

I said, I happen to like symphony the best.

Others like something else, but I enjoyed it all, you know.

Yeah.

But...

And this was one hell of a show.

Yeah.

A hell of a show.

It really was.

They did a good job.

And I think it got a lot more people a chance to go.

That's another thing.

And it's one more signal to our new majority and all that it isn't, you know, you're not just doing this.

But you also check to see what the hell's happened to Rizzo.

He's not in any of these things.

And I was a little concerned because, God damn, he put his neck way out there.

Cole may have been so busy, he hasn't really kept in touch with him.

No, he has.

And I saw him on one of the seating things.

What the hell was it?

For tomorrow, I guess.

Well, just be sure that we'll have him somewhere else.

Sure will.

Conley seemed to be in great spirits.

I talked to him afterwards.

How did he feel?

Just he was bubbling over.

I thought it was great.

So appreciative of the good care that was being taken of him and all.

Mm-hmm.

Good.

Well, he ought to be.

That was a hell of a good spot he was in.

Yeah, he was kept, I think, by Mrs. Armony and right next to us.

So...

Of course, you know, we can't do anything for these people.

We just have to wave to them, shake a hand, and that's all.

But the very fact they're close to us in the television, even the public television shoots the picture, and they all know it.

Well, you know, all the press got it when you came in.

The positioning there, that comes through.

No, I think it was a good start for the weekend.

The main thing is we must not, Bob, overlook these people that broke their ass.

The one that we saw at San Clemente, there were about 200 of them.

We've done only three, Vicki Carr and Bob Hope and Roger Williams.

And there must be scores of others.

I mean, like the Carpenters, for example.

And we didn't have any country music, which disturbed me.

I'd like to have had Glen Campbell there.

They had Hank Williams last night, and they had the Osmonds and... Oh, I see.

Oh, I know they tried.

I just, just, okay.

got a damn good show.

Yep.

Well, on Finch, let me say, it's probably just a sickness or something, but I just didn't want it to be some silly thing, which, as you realize, if it is silly, could destroy him.

Yep.

And he doesn't have the balance to know that it could.

Yep.

I mean, did he suggest that he was disturbed by the war or some goddamn thing?

No, not at all.

He was, when I talked to him, was on a completely positive thing.

Well, he was negative on Henry, but only on, you know, on the basis of the... Look, it's only one o'clock.

Why don't you call him in California and say, what the hell's the matter?

Could you do that?

Well, is he out in California?

Yes, he is in California.

Yeah.

That's where the wire came from.

Well, there was a wire, huh?

Yeah.

I'm just concerned.

You know, I have intuitions about it.

Say, you'd like to get Mr. Finch and say, what in the hell isn't he coming for?

I mean, because with Reagan here and him not be there, it would be a hell of a signal.

And we just want to have a damn good excuse.

And it can't be that he's going to go to the El Monte fish market or some damn thing.

Okay.

Well, we've set something new.

They'll never have one symphony concert again, do you think?

You know, I enjoyed all the music.

I don't understand the kid music.

But it's interesting.

I like the Australians even, of the Australians I love, but the Chicagoans are a little nuts.

That drummer looked like this Manson.

I thought he was interesting.

They really are interesting.

But they were terrific.

They've got class.

Don't you think so?

Yeah.

And some of their music is good.

So much of it is so loud, though, that you can't even hear it.

I don't mind the loudness, but the point is, the music was very...

interesting.

It had an exciting quality to it.

All right.

Give Finch a call.

I'm just curious.

Let me know, will you?

Sure.

I'm just working my speech.

All right.

Bye.