8:44-9:21 You might not believe it, but THAT’S a young Cassie Gaines singing there! She was a part of this particular production of Hair. Cassie, along with her brother Steve, became world famous by joining Lynyrd Skynyrd, only to both sadly be among the six (out of a total of twenty-six) people who died on their infamous late-1977 plane crash. Cassie had only been in the band for about a year and a half, whereas Steve had only been in the band for about a year. That’s also Cassie Gaines on the left during 23:51-23:57.
From an article I wrote in 2018 From 2 years ago : Another in a series of hidden Memphis Theater Building, University of Memphis 1970- Let the Sunshine In In the late 60’s few things were more a part of the cultural zeitgeist than the anti cultural zeitgeist. And the play “Hair” captured it all. Hippies. Draft card burning. Smoking grass. Cursing. Interracial love. And the first college to put on a production? UC Berkley? NYU? No and no. It was Memphis State University. Dr Keith Kennedy made a trip to New York to appeal to the producers and writers to “let the sun shine in” and tell them this play is right for MSU. “He was astute politically. He knew the city well and knew that here was a big difference between the theater folks who would welcome this opportunity and friends of the university and financial supporters who would not welcome it, said Craig Leake, retired professor of communications at the University who worked with the cast and crew making a documentary for WMC TV. Kennedy first went to the theater people. He knew there would be no nudity, which appeared in the original, but also knew not to mention the negotiations to President Cecil Humphries either. “By the time the President of the University heard about it Kennedy said to him ‘I think this is going to happen, isn’t it great?” Leake remembers. “He realized it was going to happen and it was too late to stop it without some really bad press.” “I can’t believe this is happening on our campus,” was a reaction Leake heard from students. The college had integrated only 11 years earlier. Women were expected to wear skirt, not pants, up until the mid 1960s. On March 1, the show premiered. Robert Jennings in the Commercial Appeal wrote “It likes drugs, love, sex (hetero and homo), negros, peace, clean air and foul words and not to forget lots of hair. It dislikes: War, patriotism, the draft, white folks, American heroes and anyone who disagrees with it.” “Whether Memphis State is justified in a production with so much enthusiasm and expertise seems a question open to debate. Doubtless the answer depends on one’s definition of education assuming that is still the business the university is supposed to be engaged in.” Square. Things were changing. Protests against the war were held after the Kent State shootings two months later. The name of the University changed to University of Memphis 25 years ago. The theater is still there looks about the same as in 1970, only the red seats are now U of M blue so “big red” is no longer its nickname. Kennedy died in 2008. His thoughts just after the sold out run of the play: “For two weeks in March of 1970, a small group of students made love to eight thousand people in a very beautiful way.” Groovy.
ms that there was a gathering of all the wisest in the world and a reporter was covering it. He noticed that everybody was deferring to one of the gathered group. When he inquired "why?" he was informed that this man was the wisest of the wise and had achieved Nirvana. "How?" the reporter asked. He was informed that the wisest one ate only asparagus. Just then, it started to rain quite heavily and everybody got thoroughly wet except for the wise one who simply sat there without a drop of rain landing on him. The reporter of course asked why and how this was happening. One of the other wise men replied, "Bliss is the awning of the sage of asparagus."
Awesome upload
8:44-9:21 You might not believe it, but THAT’S a young Cassie Gaines singing there! She was a part of this particular production of Hair. Cassie, along with her brother Steve, became world famous by joining Lynyrd Skynyrd, only to both sadly be among the six (out of a total of twenty-six) people who died on their infamous late-1977 plane crash. Cassie had only been in the band for about a year and a half, whereas Steve had only been in the band for about a year.
That’s also Cassie Gaines on the left during 23:51-23:57.
Thanks for the info. I'd never known it
Awesome
I am in this
From an article I wrote in 2018
From 2 years ago :
Another in a series of hidden Memphis
Theater Building, University of Memphis
1970- Let the Sunshine In
In the late 60’s few things were more a part of the cultural zeitgeist than the anti cultural zeitgeist. And the play “Hair” captured it all. Hippies. Draft card burning. Smoking grass. Cursing. Interracial love. And the first college to put on a production? UC Berkley? NYU? No and no. It was Memphis State University.
Dr Keith Kennedy made a trip to New York to appeal to the producers and writers to “let the sun shine in” and tell them this play is right for MSU. “He was astute politically. He knew the city well and knew that here was a big difference between the theater folks who would welcome this opportunity and friends of the university and financial supporters who would not welcome it, said Craig Leake, retired professor of communications at the University who worked with the cast and crew making a
documentary for WMC TV. Kennedy first went to the theater people. He knew there would be no nudity, which appeared in the original, but also knew not to mention the negotiations to President Cecil Humphries either. “By the time the President of the University heard about it Kennedy said to him ‘I think this is going to happen, isn’t it great?” Leake remembers. “He realized it was going to happen and it was too late to stop it without some really bad press.”
“I can’t believe this is happening on our campus,” was a reaction Leake heard from students. The college had integrated only 11 years earlier. Women were expected to wear skirt, not pants, up until the mid 1960s.
On March 1, the show premiered. Robert Jennings in the Commercial Appeal wrote “It likes drugs, love, sex (hetero and homo), negros, peace, clean air and foul words and not to forget lots of hair. It dislikes: War, patriotism, the draft, white folks, American heroes and anyone who disagrees with it.”
“Whether Memphis State is justified in a production with so much enthusiasm and expertise seems a question open to debate. Doubtless the answer depends on one’s definition of education assuming that is still the business the university is supposed to be engaged in.”
Square.
Things were changing. Protests against the war were held after the Kent State shootings two months later. The name of the University changed to University of Memphis 25 years ago. The theater is still there looks about the same as in 1970, only the red seats are now U of M blue so “big red” is no longer
its nickname.
Kennedy died in 2008. His thoughts just after the sold out run of the play: “For two weeks in March of 1970, a small group of students made love to eight thousand people in a very beautiful way.”
Groovy.
Geez, the reviewer could have been lifted right from Fox News. The more things change, the more they stay the same after 50 years.
ms that there was a gathering of all the wisest in the world and a reporter was covering it. He noticed that everybody was deferring to one of the gathered group. When he inquired "why?" he was informed that this man was the wisest of the wise and had achieved Nirvana. "How?" the reporter asked. He was informed that the wisest one ate only asparagus.
Just then, it started to rain quite heavily and everybody got thoroughly wet except for the wise one who simply sat there without a drop of rain landing on him.
The reporter of course asked why and how this was happening.
One of the other wise men replied, "Bliss is the awning of the sage of asparagus."