1969 Palm Beach Pop Festival Documentary Trailer A First Look

Jan. 31, 2012 - PRLog -- OldRockPhoto presents the trailer for the Documentary, “The 1969 Palm Beach Pop Festival”.  
    In 2008, Photographer Ken Davidoff, and Producer/Director, Jack Connell , of OldRockPhoto, started bringing to life for the first time the history of Ken’s Rare never seen before photographic archive of classic rock concerts, and festivals. It started by realizing that Ken had the only photographic record of several historic, but forgotten Rock Festivals, The 1968 Miami Pop Festival promoted by Michael Lang,  headlined by Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and Blue Cheer. Miami Pop was the very first festival in Florida and was Michael Lang’s  “Road to Woodstock”. The other major festival was the 1969 Palm Beach Pop Festival; this event was three months after Woodstock and six days before Altamont. Most of the main people that put together festivals in the late sixties including Woodstock, also did Palm Beach. Bill Hanley did the sound and staging, Wavy Gravy and Tom Law were there with the Hog Farm, David Butkovich of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters did the stage production, and Hank Roberts of Miami ran the OD Tent
    After interviewing a few attendees and rock musicians that played at the 1969 Palm Beach Pop Festival, ORP came to the conclusion that it was up to them, nobody else could tell the story because Ken’s photographs were the only ones available from the ‘69 Palm Beach Pop Festival, he and his Father, famous society photographer, Bob Davidoff, of the book “The Kennedy Family Album” were the Official Photographers for the Palm Beach Festival. There were over twenty major acts, among those playing at the festival were The Byrds, Sweetwater, Sly and the Family Stone, Johnny Winter, Janis Joplin, Country Joe and The Fish, Rotary Connection with Minnie Riperton, Grand Funk RR, King Crimson, Jefferson Airplane, Spirit, Vanilla Fudge, Bethlehem Asylum, Steppenwolf, and Rolling Stones as the closing act.        
    The song for the trailer was written by Jack Connell, and Richard Hott, music by Jack Connell. The band members include such notables as Bass player, Mark Andes, of Spirit, Firefall, and Heart, he played at the festival in ’69, Lead guitarist, Chris Leuzinger ,who is on all of Garth Brooks studio recordings, Crystal Gayle band and Dobie Grey, Jack Connell on Vocals and Rhythm Guitar, and Drummer and Percussion's, Steve “Tner” Krawczyn, also from the Dobie Grey band.
    There were so many obstacles; it’s amazing this festival ever took place. The weather was horrendous, driving rain, bone chilling gusty winds, with mud everywhere. All of Palm Beach County Government, the sheriff, the zoning commission, the governor of the state, and maybe even higher up than that, objected. The local churches had a field day, forming a decency committee and speaking at public gatherings. They even paid for out of town officials who had experienced a festival already, to come to zoning commission meetings to testify for their cause. On the other side of the coin, the promoter, who wanted a safe event for all involved, brought in the Reverend Arthur Blessitt, a Hippie Minister from California. Arthur contacted a local minister, and founder of Palm Beach Atlantic College, The Reverend Dr. Jess Moody. Rev. Arthur Blessitt and Dr. Moody convinced the local authorities that the promoter would let Dr. Moody’s church put up a Jesus Tent, and have a Sunday service for the crowd.  Rev Blessitt told the commission, “They are coming”, let’s have a peaceful gathering, instead of trying to stop it with force.
    The purpose of this trailer, besides the obvious telling of the history of the Palm Beach Pop Festival, is to raise funding, and complete this project. It’s hard to believe that Jack and Ken, (Old Rock Photo) have been the sole support of this endeavor.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKK3V9KEF7k


    The footage you see in the trailer with time code on it is from the Wolfson Archive of Miami Dade College. It is enormously expensive, as is the new footage that Old Rock Photo has discovered at the ABC and NBC News Archive. There is footage of The Rolling Stones playing at P.B., and The Stones leaving MSG for their departure to Palm Beach, also Johnny Winter, Janis Joplin, and various other bands. This footage also has crowd shots and various happenings at the festival.Some of the funds raised will be used to purchase this footage
    Some other things need to be addressed also, there are several key people that this doc needs to interview, but are pretty far from the ORP home base. These people have already been contacted and a relationship has taken hold, they have committed to helping ORP by granting interviews, but we would have to travel. Some of those intended for interview and committed to the “Cause”,  are Wavy Gravy and Tom Law of The Hog Farm, David Butkovich from The Merry Pranksters, Barry “The Fish” Melton, of Country Joe fame, and Vinny Martell of Vanilla Fudge, The Fudge jammed with Janis Joplin, Edgar and Johnny Winter at the festival in ‘69. These interviews and a few local ones will wrap up this doc, we hope to finish this project with a bang, the trailer only tells part of the story, help us tell the rest. http://www.oldrockphoto.com/palmbeach.html