Central Park

Rheingold/Schaefer Music Festival Central Park, New York Summers 1967-1976

Starting out as The Rheingold Central Park Music Festival in 1966, Schaefer Beer took over the event from 1968-1976. Ron Delsener and Hilly Kristal started this low-cost series of summer concerts that were a fixture for many years.

1967 Jun 30 Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Doors Jul 5 The Young Rascals, The Jimi Hendrix Experience; Len Chandler Jul 7 Phil Ochs, Spanky & Our Gang Jul 14 Ian & Sylvia Jul 21 Judy Collins, Leonard Cohen Jul 22 New Christy Minstrels, Jose Feliciano Jul 28 The Byrds, Garden State Choir Jul 29 Pete Seeger, Bob Davenport Aug 2 Neil Diamond, The Youngbloods Aug 4 The Mitchell Trio, (comics) Hendra & Ullet Aug 9 The Blues Project, John Lee Hooker Aug 11 Theodore Bikel, The Pennywhistles Aug 18 Carlos Montoya Aug 23 Odetta, Jim Kweskin Jug Band Aug 25 Son House, Jesse Fuller, Junior Wells Band Aug 27 Flatt & Scruggs, Doc Watson

1968 Jun 28 The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown Jun 29 Moby Grape; Muddy Waters Jul 1 Mongo Santamaria; Hugh Masakela Jul 3 Mitch Ryder; Spirit Jul 12 Pete Seeger; Len Chandler Jul 20 Phil Ochs Jul 24 Vanilla Fudge; Ultimate Spinach Jul 26 Richie Havens; (Seals & Crofts?) Aug 1 B B King; Fats Domino Aug 3 Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention; Buddy Guy Aug 7 The Who; Mandala Aug 14 Joni Mitchell; Arlo Guthrie Aug 21 Country Joe & The Fish; Eric Anderson

1969 June 27 Tiny Tim; Sweetwater Jun 28 The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Rhinoceros Jul 2 Jerry Lee Lewis; Pacific Gas & Electric Jul 9 Blood, Sweat & Tears; Carolyn Hester Jul 12 The Byrds; Chuck Berry; John Lee Hooker Jul 14 Jeff Beck; Orpheus Jul 16 Ten Years After; Fleetwood Mac, Chicago Transit Authority Jul 18 Buffy Sainte-Marie; Cashman, Pistilli & West Jul 21 Led Zeppelin; B B King Jul 23 Joni Mitchell; Tim Hardin Jul 26 Sly & The Family Stone; Slim Harpo Jul 28 Paul Butterfield Blues Band; Jethro Tull Jul 30 Buddy Rich; Procol Harum Aug 1 The Beach Boys; Neil Young Aug 2 Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention; Buddy Guy Aug 8 Tom Paxton; Gordon Lightfoot Aug 11 Arlo Guthrie; Melanie Aug 15 Al Kooper; James Cotton Aug 22 Tim Buckley; Times Square Aug 23 Sam & Dave; Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles

1970 Jul 10 Tom Rush; Melanie Jul 13 Ike & Tina Turner; The Voices Of East Harlem Jul 18 Little Richard; Wayne Cochran & The CC Riders Jul 20 Van Morrison; The Byrds Jul 22 Arlo Guthrie Jul 24 Great Speckled Bird with Ian & Sylvia; Tom Paxton Jul 29 John Sebastian; The Manhattan Transfer Jul 31 Iron Butterfly Aug 3 Jethro Tull Aug 5 Delaney & Bonnie with Duane Allman; Seals & Crofts Aug 10 Judy Collins Aug 12 The Supremes; The Meters Aug 14 The Everly Brothers; John Denver Aug 15 Sam & Dave; Jam Factory Aug 17 Mountain Aug 21 The Guess Who; Kathy McCord Aug 22 Fleetwood Mac; Bloodrock; Zephyr

1971 Jun 30 The Band; Happy & Artie Traum Jul 9 Ravi Shankar Jul 10 Melanie; Janey & Dennis Jul 16 Poco; Jerry Riopelle Jul 17 The Byrds; J F Murphy & Salt Jul 21 The Allman Brothers Band; Cowboy Jul 26 Mary Travers Aug 2 Judy Collins Aug 4 Delaney & Bonnie; John Hammond Aug 9 Kris Kristofferson; Janis Ian; Chris Gantry Aug 11 Seatrain; Moby Grape Aug 13 Robert Klein; Tom Paxton; Bert Sommer; Tony Joe White; Bobby Gosh; Carol Hall; Jonathan Edwards Aug 16 Procol Harum; Mylon LeFevre Aug 18 Robert Klein; John Denver; Dion; Jackie Lomax; Bonnie Raitt; The Quinaimes Band Aug 20 Paul Butterfield Blues Band; James Cotton Aug 21 The Chambers Brothers; Mandrill Aug 23 Seals & Crofts; Earl Scruggs; Jerry Corbitt; The Charlie Daniels Band Aug 25 David Steinberg; Carly Simon Aug 28 Little Richard; The Orioles; The Harptones; The Jive Five

The shows continued at Central Park, getting a new sponsor (Dr Pepper, 1976-1981) and renamed: The Dr Pepper Central Park Music Festival. In 1981, the shows were moved to the West Side (Pier 84). Soda gave way to beer in 1982, becoming Miller Time Concert On The Pier continuing the shows until 1988.

1859 Free Saturday afternoon concerts in the Ramble

Concerts soon moved to the Mall, where the tradition grew into the 20th century. At the northern end of the Mall, an elaborate cast-iron bandstand once stood (on the present site of the bust of composer Ludwig von Beethoven). Thousands of people would attend open-air performances. To prevent the landscape from being damaged during musical performances, fences that also provided seating for concertgoers were cleverly designed by Calvert Vaux. These Victorian-era benches were recreated for visitors in 1991. The concerts at the Victorian-era bandstand were especially popular with the large and growing German-American community, who thronged the Mall.

Owing to contemporary rules of Sabbath decorum, Sunday events were off limits until 1877, when Park Commissioners began experimenting with evening concerts to allow six-day-a-week workers to enjoy outdoor entertainment. The Parks Department expanded its musical offerings in 1910 when it built a temporary bandstand in the northern end of the park at McGown's Pass. The 1910 Parks Annual Report shows Parks sponsoring an impressive 314 concerts at 29 sites across Manhattan, including out-of-the-way locations like the plaza in front of the Queensboro Bridge.

Concerts continued during the 1910s and into the First World War as the Mall was used for patriotic rallies. Italian opera star Enrico Caruso entertained a Mall crowd estimated at 50,000 by performing a version of "Over There" in both English and French during a concert in 1918; newspaper accounts placed the crowd as one of the largest ever in Central Park.

Repeat Performers Edwin Franko Goldman's Goldman Concert Band began performing on the Mall in 1923, and the ensemble continued performing there after his death in 1956, when his son Richard Franko Goldman took over. The Goldman Memorial Band continued after the death of Richard in 1980, performing at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park and the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx until it disbanded in 2005, following a labor dispute.

During the early 1890s, composer and conductor Victor Herbert led the Twenty-second Regiment Band with free concerts at the Central Park Bandshell. In 1927, he was honored on the Mall with a bronze bust donated by ASCAP, the music publishing company he helped found (along with Irving Berlin and John Philip Sousa) in 1914.

Irivng Berlin's association with Central Park continued throughout his career. A reported 8,000 Girl Scouts sang "Happy Birthday" to Berlin on his 80th birthday in 1968. The singer Kitty Carlisle led the scouts in Sheep Meadow as Berlin looked on. (Berlin's connection with the Scouts stems from his God Bless America Foundation, which gives royalties from his "God Bless America" to the Boy and Girl Scouts of America.)

Barbershop Quartets Quartets take the stage at the Parks Tonsorial Parlor in Central Park on October 1, 1939. Neg. 17414.

The administration of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses sponsored a Citywide Barbershop Quartet Contest from 1934 until the 1960s. Each borough sent a group to the finals, which were held on the Mall in Central Park. The stage for the finals featured an elaborate setup, with a banner hailing the "Parks Tonsorial Parlor."

Classic Comes Alive Leonard Bernstein conducts the Philharmonic on July 26, 1966 to a record-breaking crowd.

When one thinks of concerts in parks, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is a summertime performance by the New York Philharmonic on the Great Lawn. These annual performances began in 1965 at Sheep Meadow and were an immediate success; parkgoers enjoyed a generous free performance by a world-class symphony, and the symphony was exposed to an audience that may never have gone to an indoor event at Lincoln Center. The performances are the largest crowds the Philharmonic gets.

The idea sprang from an outdoor New York Philharmonic concert, sponsored by Schlitz Brewing Company, in Milwaukee in 1964. The concert drew 30,000 people to a Milwaukee park, prompting the Philharmonic to approach the City and suggest similar concerts in Central Park. Then mayor, Robert F. Wagner encouraged the Philharmonic to find a way to perform in all five boroughs, starting the tradition of New York Philharmonic outdoor concerts. Schlitz also sponsored the New York concerts.

Leonard Bernstein conducted the Philharmonic at a concert in 1966 to a then-record crowd of 75,000 who came to hear Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 and Stravinsky's "Rites of Spring." An amazing 110,000 people saw an all-Tchaikovsky performance in August 1973, an attendance that rivals some of the largest football games. Philharmonic concerts in the outer boroughs also get large crowds; a concert at Prospect Park in 1965 conducted by Seiji Ozawa and featuring "King of Swing" Benny Goodman drew 44,000. Few Mets games draw that many fans.

When one thinks of "monuments," the common perception is of a general on a horse, a heroic explorer, or a long list of names delineating those who paid "the supreme sacrifice." But there is another kind of monument, sculptures to creativity, art that honors artists. There are 11 composers commemorated in New York City's parks with monuments, each subject leaving a lasting mark on the musical idioms of the western world, and each was so revered as to inspire a permanent tribute in our urban landscape.

Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), German composers Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) and Karl Maria Friederich Ernst von Weber (1864-1920), and Norwegian composer Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843-1907) are all honored at the Concert Grove in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Beethoven is also depicted on the Mall at Central Park, along with Victor Herbert (1859-1924), the Irish-American cellist, composer, and conductor. American jazz pianist, composer, and orchestra leader Edward "Duke" Kennedy Ellington (1899-1974) is commemorated with a monument at the circle on the northeast corner of Central Park at 110th Street and Fifth Avenue, near the Harlem neighborhood where he was so revered. Another jazz legend, Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), is celebrated in the Corona, Queens neighborhood near where he once lived with a large-scale painted cast-iron and welded steel abstract sculpture.

The American composer, playwright, actor, and producer George M. Cohan (1878-1942) is honored with a statue in Times Square, paying tribute to his famous line "Give my regards to Broadway." Farther up Broadway, the Verdi Monument near 72nd Street pays tribute to Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813-1901), who composed timeless operas such as Aida, La Traviata, Otello, and Rigoletto. Czech composer Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) is depicted in Stuyvesant Square in Manhattan; Dvorak made this neighborhood his home for a time, settling for three years at 327 East 17th Street while serving as the director of the National Conservatory of Music in America. Finally, Central Park's Strawberry Fields, located on the west side of the park near 72nd Street, is a living memorial to the world-famous singer, songwriter, and social activist John Lennon (1940-1980), who found fame in the 1960s with the rock group the Beatles and settled in the 1970s at the landmark Dakota Apartments across the street, where he was tragically killed in 1980 by a gunman.

Rock, Pop, and Jazz Arrive Louis Armstrong, Judy Collins, and Parks Commissioner Heckscher gather at an April 25, 1967 press conference for the launch of the Rheingold Music Festival.

The Schaefer Brewing Company sponsored jazz and rock concerts at Wollman Rink with performances by Willie Bobo, Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton, Benny Goodman, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Judy Collins, Led Zeppelin, and Jimmy Cliff, to name just a few. The annual event began in 1966 as the Rheingold Music Festival, and Schaefer picked up sponsorship in 1968. Dozens of top names performed each summer and ticket prices stayed reasonable, making the festival a huge draw. Dr. Pepper began sponsoring the event in 1977, and the festival moved to Pier 84 on Manhattan's West Side for the 1981 season after renovations were scheduled (and noise complaints increased).

June 17, 1967 Sheep Meadow, Central Park Barbara Streisand

During a break during the filming of "Funny Girl," Barbra Streisand performed a legendary two-hour concert in 1967 at Sheep Meadow, the first of many large-scale concerts there in the 1960s and 1970s. A crowd estimated at 135,000 attended the concert, which was notable in that Streisand received death threats that contributed to her reticence to perform in public. Other concerts during this era included Herb Alpert (1966), Jefferson Starship (1976), and the annual Metropolitan Opera concerts.

The last big concert at Sheep Meadow came in 1979, when James Taylor played to a crowd estimated at 250,000. The concert was partially intended to raise awareness of the need to fix the area; ironically, large-scale concerts were in part responsible for Sheep Meadow's dilapidated state. Concerts and active recreation were restricted after the area was renovated and relocated to other spots in the park, most notably the Great Lawn.

Then-Congressman Ed Koch mingles with audience members at a 1977 James Taylor performance in Sheep Meadow, Central Park. Koch became Mayor of New York City in 1978.

Under Park Commissioner Gordon Davis, the Great Lawn hosted two large concerts in 1980 and 1981—Elton John and Simon & Garfunkel. On June 12, 1982, the No Nukes rally that began at the United Nations ended on the Great Lawn where performers such as Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, and Linda Ronstadt sang to a crowd estimated at hundreds of thousands.

Two disastrous Diana Ross concerts in 1983, one disrupted by severe weather and the other marred by excessive rowdiness, slowed down large events on the Lawn but recent years have seen more events, with considerable financial support to maintain the site, which was recently renovated at great expense. (Diana Ross later contributed $250,000 in funding towards the construction of a playground on the west side of the park.) A return by Paul Simon in 1991, Garth Brooks in 1997, and Dave Matthews in 2003 are three notable Great Lawn concerts.

SummerStage was established in 1986 by the Central Park Conservancy to bring a diverse selection of music to the park in a series of free performances during the summer months. The first concerts were held at the Naumberg Bandshell and featured acts such as the Sun Ra Arkestra (1986) and Ladysmith Black Mambazo (1987). In 1990, SummerStage moved to nearby Rumsey Playfield. Notable concerts over the years included one of Curtis Mayfield's final performances (1990), Sonic Youth (1992), and Patti Smith (1993). The City Parks Foundation— the nonprofit entity established to supplement Parks programming — assumed responsibility for SummerStage in 1994. Over the last 14 seasons, standout performances have included a tribute to Joni Mitchell attended by Mitchell herself (1999), Celia Cruz (2002), and a generator-assisted performance by the Indigo Girls on the evening of the worst blackout in the US in decades, August 14, 2003. Over the years, SummerStage has added film and spoken word events to its busy lineup.