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Concert Preparations Require Strong Nerves, Many Plans
When 13,000 people sat in Allen Field House Nov. 7 and listened to Harry Belafonte and his company perform, they were enjoying the fruits of long months of labor for the members of the SUA committee in charge of the concert.
By Susan Hartlev
A twelve member steering committee, the members of the SUA executive board, the activities director of the union, the men of the Buildings and Grounds Dept., and many other students all played a part in bringing the performer to the University.
The concert saw its first moments of life when Mike Rogers, the Special Events Chairman of SUA, received word from Belafonte's booking agency that the folk singer was going on tour. The dates he would be available, the price he would ask, and reports of other concerts telling why Belafonte would be good for a campus concert were also discussed.
ROGERS, HUTCHINSON senior, then had to decide if the students on campus would support a concert by Belafonte. The matter was brought up before the SUA executive board which makes the final decision, and discussed.
"ANOTHER MAJOR problem is meeting the price asked by many performers which is often high." Rogers said. "We have just a certain amount of money which we feel can be spent on the concert and be relatively certain that we will make enough to meet our expenses."
Since our facilities for concerts are limited to Hoch Auditorium which seats about 3,500 and Allen Field House which seats 15,000, we have to decide whether the performer is widely enough known for enough people to attend to make the concert worthwhile.
"We offer tickets to the students at the lowest possible price. It was a definite advantage to the student for us to use Allen Field House for the Belafonte concert," Rogers said, "the more tickets which can be sold, the easier it will be to meet the entertainers guaranteed price, and the less expensive the tickets."
"Once the executive board has taken all these factors into consideration and his decided for sure to bring the entertainer to KU, a steering committee has to be chosen and organized and a budget has to be set up," Rogers said.
THE THREE MAJOR areas covered by the steering committee are arrangements, tickets, and publicity. Sub-committees are set up under these general headings to be responsible for more specific duties. A general chairman is also chosen.
The general chairman for the concert, Jim Gossett, Glendale, Mo., junior, acted mainly as a co-ordinator between the SUA Board, the Special Events Chairman, and the steering committee.
"The only major problem came when Belafonte's producer arrived and we found that he knew nothing of procedural arrangements we had made with the booking agency," Gossett said. "They involved the press conference following the concert and the intermission ceremonies. The producer didn't object to them, he just hadn't been informed of the details."
"NOBODY REALIZED fully the scope of putting on a concert at the Field House," Gossett said. "An awful lot of arrangements had to be made that we hadn't anticipated, but everything ran more smoothly than we had really expected when the time of the concert actually arrived."
"The Arrangements committee's first job was to contact the road manager for Belafonte to find out what kind of stage and seating arrangements he wanted at the Field House, where he wanted the company to stay, and the details of the program such as intermission," Sid Smith, Newton sophomore and chairman of the committee, said.
"We then had to contact the Buildings and Grounds Department and tell them what we needed, and make arrangements for the acquisition of any materials that the University didn't have for our use," Smith said.
"We had to arrange for Pinkerton men to come and take tickets and act as bouncers, for ushers to make sure people got to the seats they had been assigned, and with the Campus Police to supervise the parking," he said.
"WE ALSO ARRANGED a news conference for the members of the press and the SUA board and steering committee," he said. "About 100 students had to be at the Field House all day the day of the concert to help set up and move in the equipment Belafonte brought with him."
The chairman of the Hospitality sub-committee, Pam Bayless, Shawnee Mission sophomore, was responsible for getting the dressing rooms for the entertainers, making sure they were ready for them to move in, and help out as needed during the intermission and the concert.
"Mike Sollenberger, Hutchinson junior, was the House Manager for the committee and handled most of the arrangements with the Field House," Smith said.
The tickets committee had to order all the tickets for the concert, make sure they matched up with the actual seats, and make arrangements for their sales.
"THEM ARE 15,000 seats in the Field House." Bill Frick, Fort Scott junior and Tickets Committee chairman, said, "That makes 15,000 tickets to keep track of and sell."
Next, Mark Kirkpatrick, Nickerson sophomore and Block Tickets chairman, sent letters to the various organized living groups offering the sale of block tickets. Each house can buy as many as they like, of any price ticket they like," he said. "The blocks are allotted on a quota percentage basis." Frick said, "We try to allot the seating areas so that all of the various groups on campus get approximately the same number of good, medium, and fair seats. We try to give everybody a fair shake."
"The campus sales chairmen, Mike McNally, Bartlesville, Okla., sophomore, and Dave Kleier, Oxford sophomore, took over from there." Frick said. "The main problem which arose in this area was the huge amounts of money which were being handled at the information booth the first couple of days of
sales, when $2,000 to $3,000 was taken in per day," Frick said.
"JOANNE EMERICK, Murray Hills, N.J., sophomore, was complimentary tickets and mail order tickets chairman. Often problems came up when people would send in checks for a certain price tickets and we would no longer have them available." Frick said.
Publicity is the final area involved in the preparations for the concert.
"We began by having posters designed by some local students and made up," Bruce Warren, Emporia sophomore and On-campus publicity chairman, said. "These posters came out a week before the tickets went on sale."
"If you didn't see them, don't be surprised, for two days after we put them up, there wasn't a single one still up on campus," Warren said. "We think they were decorating souvenir hunters' rooms."
"LUCKILY, A WEEK later some 200 posters arrived from Belafonte's booking agency," he said. "Although they were as colorful as the ones we had printed up, they were not as eye catching for they stayed up pretty well."
"We also painted a banner which was 21 feet by 7 feet to be displayed on the information booth, and to be carried around the track at the intermission of home football games," Warren said.
"We found that much of our work had been in vain, for the athletic department had banned such advertisements in the stadium," Warren said. "So we had to put the banner up on a fence at the south end of the stadium by the tennis courts."
"I planned to take it down following the Homecoming game, but by the time I got there, it, too, was on its way to decorate someone's room." Warren said. "Actually, the committee itself ended up with very few souvenirs."
"Under the supervision of our Off-Campus Publicity chairman, Doug Miller, Pittsburgh junior, we promoted the concert at other colleges near here, for example Washburn, the University of Missouri, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, the KU Medical Center and Baker University," Warren said.
University Daily Kansan
Junior to Study in Spain
Susan McMillin, KU junior, is participating in one of the largest programs in international education, the "New York University in Spain" program.
There are 199 students involved in the program who represent 119 colleges and come from 37 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Chile, France, Mexico, Panama, and Portugal.
In this program the students study
Spanish language and literature, history and civilization, geography, fine arts and music, which will count as credit toward their bachelor's degree.
The program is sponsored by the NYU's Washington Square College of Arts and Science, Graduate School of Arts and Science, and the University of Madrid, Spain's leading educational institution.
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