This show (OAITW: June 11, 1973, Temple Festival Theater, Ambler, PA) will end up being important to me, I think, as I write more about OAITW and the summer of 1973. Can’t wait.
For now, I just want to address venue confusion.
**update: it was definitely in an amphitheater, not an enclosed theater – thanks to attendee/commenter Gr8fulD for further confirmation**
The Jerry Site’s data are presently a mess. Here are the two “changes” that have been noted at the Jerry Site’s entry for the show:
- Mar 8, 2010 – [[email protected]] Changed venue based on info from Hank Edenborn, “The venue for the show below was definitely the outdoor concert venue of the Temple University – Ambler Campus. The “Ambler Theater” is an indoor venue where other Dead spin-off bands may perhaps have played, but there is no way that this show was played there. I was finishing up a year at Temple University main campus at the time and it was undoubtedly how I saw the announcement for the show.”
- Sep 10, 2008 – [[email protected]] Changed venue from the Temple Festival Theater to The Ambler Theatre based on info from Harry Angus.
And yet the listing is still traditionally given as Temple Festival Theater.
I have one datum to ad to the mix.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the reference for this. But I do have a copy of the “ad [actually a calendar listing] in June 5th edition of Philadelphia newspaper Drummer” mentioned at TJS, which I believe came from Joey Newlander. And it also says Temple Festival Theater.
Anyway, the ad contradicts the participant/Jerry Site informant’s memory, and I am just not sure how to reconcile. On the one hand, you have an ad for a show which seems to be promoted by professionals (“Electric Factory Concerts presents at Temple Festival Theater”). It seems to have nothing to do with Temple University-Ambler. Yet, Hank Edenborn tells TJS that “The venue for the show below was definitely the outdoor concert venue of the Temple University – Ambler Campus”, he having attended it.
In general, ex ante advertisements, especially drawn ads rather than calendar listings, probably lose out in an evidentiary test to credible eyewitness testimony. I guess I am just wondering what the hell happened between whenever the ad was submitted and June 11th. And where are we talking about? The Ambler Theater, which looks really nice on a street view, seems not to be the place under discussion (i.e., the same as the “Temple Festival Theater” named in the ad)? The only google results on “Temple Festival Theater” that are relevant go back to The Jerry Site and here. So whatever the hell this advertisement is referring to as the venue, it seems to have been lost to memory. WTF?
Here’s a blurb I found from the college’s web site, which might be relevant:
For 13 years, the music played on. In 1968, the Temple University Music Festival and Institute was born at the Ambler Campus with two important goals — to serve as a school for young professional musicians and to provide several summers of world-class music. In its heyday, the Music Festival stage was graced by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington. The amphitheater placed the spotlight on rising stars such as Dionne Warwick, Johnny Mathis, and Temple’s own Bill Cosby. Area residents, and many well beyond, fondly remember the “42 Evenings of Musical Excellence” that summers at Ambler would bring.Though the location of the well-remembered Music Festival now plays host to Temple’s Owls baseball and softball teams …
Anyway, I guess we have to go with the eyewitness and list the venue as the “outdoor concert venue of the Temple University – Ambler Campus”. Maybe, based on the text above, we could just call it “Ampitheater”? Thoughts?
Two final notes.First, I had always thought this was a bluegrass festival. Guess not. Heh heh. Second, if there were hassles with this it’d be really interesting for the narrative that is revealing itself around OAITW and the 1973 bluegrass festival season.
**update2: per commenter Gr8fulD, Doug Sahm opened**
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