Sunday, March 06, 2011

GD19671201-02: December 1-2, 1967, Psychedelic Supermarket, Boston, MA - CXL

update note 20150517: I find it hard to update posts once I make them, too little time and all that. In any case, I think I have learned the following things.

First, the Dead shows advertised for the Psychedelic Supermarket in Boston on December 1-2, 1967 ended up canceled. Is that right?

Second, per commenter Bob E, who ran the show, the GD played Clark University at 2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday, December 9th. This, BTW, is a well-scoring dart for Corry Arnold, who more or less called it at Lost Live Dead, what was lost is found and all that. I hope Bob E. can answer more questions about that gig - was it Atwood Hall? What was the room capacity? How many attended? All that! I assume there is coverage in the campus newspaper, maybe stuff in the University archives.


Grateful Dead
Psychedelic Supermarket
590 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA
Friday, December 1, 1967
Saturday, December 2, 1967
CANCELED

Found a Dead show as above listed in the great Boston After Dark, November 29, 1967, p. 5.

Corry has posted on GD shows at the Psychedelic Supermarket on December 8-9, 1967. Makes sense they'd try to do consecutive weekends if they were out east, and developing a new base in Boston might have been more attractive than building what was probably already a solid base in NYC, the ongoing "Rise of the East Coast Deadhead".

In my original post here, I noted Corry's speculation on a December '67 Dead show at Clark U. possibly on 12/2, which turns out to have happened on 12/9. I have no idea if that still relates to canceled Boston shows on 12/1-2 other than as color following, but that's cool, too.

Let me close with an appeal. The San Francisco Public Library has the amazing combination of true grit American metropolis reality with the finest state-of-the-art digital scanners in the world which make research there a breeze. San Diego Public Library is looking up.

The Boston Public Library is an American gem, as much as the great public libraries across the country, but when I was there in 2011 and made this post, it hosted only one digital microfilm scanner. Some Boston Deadhead ought to patronize the place and buy 'em a bank of digital scanners to get after the Boston After Dark and all the rest of them.

In 2011,  in my original post, I said "Humanity is on the brink of losing untold information that still lives on paper and microfilm" and "I hope someone has it in their plans to digitize the Underground Newspaper microfilm collection." I gather now that a project to digitize and make public that important collection, improved and upgraded (i.e., perhaps freshly scanned?), OCRd, is underway. Hooray!

Hippies who made bundles have a special responsibility not to play to the type of what some colleagues of mine are writing as "The Greediest Generation". Help the BPL out, if you can spare it in these parlous times.

11 comments:

  1. This is a fascinating piece of research, for numerous reasons. It does point towards the Atwood Hall date as before the Dec 8-9 Supermarket show, rather than after. It's also possible that if the band was scheduled for Dec 1-2 and Dec 8-9, they scheduled Atwood Hall on a weeknight. If a University is at end-of-term, they are often willing to scheduled events for students on a weeknight, so maybe Atwood was not on a Friday or Saturday.

    Following this model, maybe the Dead were scheduled for Dec 1-2 and 8-9 at the Supermarket, and Thursday the 7th at Atwood. The first weekend was canceled, but they still played 7-8-9.

    Also, another question: did the Dead have any downtime in Boston? Because if they did, I'll bet they went to see Wes Montgomery at the Jazz Workshop between Dec 4-10 (noted in the entertainment listings).

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  2. If you look at the Sports Listings on the far left, you can see that the Harlem Globetrotters are playing a game at Boston Gardens at 6:45 pm on December 8, prior to the Boston Celtics-Baltimore Bullets game at 9pm. Different times, different times.

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  3. Here is Atwood Hall in its current state. It would have been nice to see the Dead here.

    http://www.clarku.edu/offices/events/facilities/auditoriums.cfm

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  4. They were hired to play December 9 at 2:30pm, a Saturday. I have paper to that effect, having been in charge of the concert.

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    1. Thank you for sharing that, Bob. I'd love to see scans of that paperwork. It's fun to take a snap shot, for example as I have done with a JGB show at the Del Mar in Santa Cruz: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/06/accounting-jgb-october-8-1975.html.

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    2. I will try. I have a poster and a photo of Jerry whispering something to me. Also, I know a friend with a handbill from that concert. We charged $1.50 for tickets.

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    3. Amazing, thank you! I hope that Boston After Dark scan was cool for you to see. There is so much material floating around, too few people with time to track it all down, or even to post memories and put names to things. I'll enter the ticket price and time into my spreadsheets for posterity and all that.

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    4. I assume this was done through the student activities group, or were you promoting the show from the outside? I like all the details, like the company name of the promoter, the guarantee, the GP, the percentage information (what gross triggers it, and what's the percentage number?), all of that. If Garcia was hanging around before the show, or after, I'd love to know it!

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    5. It was done through the student Social Affairs Board at Clark University. It was a flat fee paid to them, as I recall. We only had 800 seats. I will be giving an interview requested by the Grateful Dead Archivist, with more details of that concert and a subsequent one. Jerry was a friend, to all, truly. I spent times after that at Bill Graham's place in NY in the dressing room hanging out with him. Bob

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    6. Wonderful news! Nicholas Meriwether's Documenting the Dead is an amazing resource, and I look forward to learning more!

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    7. And he seems like a very decent and down to earth guy. Thank you for keeping this website going! Best regards, Bob

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