Hi Moyssi:
I worked at the theater prior to John and AL coming in to produce concerts. Helped to old guys who worked there with maintenance etc. Since I was the only “young” guy there who knew anything about the physical plant at the theater, John and Al kind of gravitated to me. It had a fire easting dragon of a boiler, and a marquee that I had climbed to the top of to paint. John hired me before the first show and gradually gave me more and more responsibilities, including handling all of his “pre ticketron” hard ticket sales at the 10 “headshop” ticket outlets we had. I would have 3,214 tickets printed for each show from a ticket printer in Newark, then divide them up by outlet and what stayed at the theater box office, then do my rounds of the outlets a day before each show and collect unsold tickets , distribute new tickets and collect cash….lots of cash..lol, which I walked around with in a beat up old briefcase through the streets of Passaic. I was listed in the programs for many years as “Concert Manager”, but after one experience when a total stranger came up to me at a concert and tried to get in using my name…gleened from the program…I decided that having my name in the program might not be a really good idea….lol So I asked John to remove my name, and that is why when you look at the programs, all of a sudden my name comes off the staff list.
Oh there are tons of stories.
The Capitol was not just a building to any of us. It was an experience, it was our family, it was quite simply one of the most memorable experiences in all of our lives. Al Dezon and many others met their wives there (which I photographed along with John’s wedding). We were the tightest, most professional and close knit group of diverse individuals ever to come together. The Capitol functioned at the highest level of the game from your lighting expertise to Mo and Al’s stage command, to Rick, Barry John Hart, Arthur, Harry, Hood, Chris, Kenny, Dick Carrol’s security dedication the the security crew. I can go on and on with names of people who made it all possible there and also physically worked on the building to keep it up and running. This included all of us pulling out, locating and replacing 1,000 seats in 4 days prior to the Bette Midler Concert after the boiler room had been vandalized and the theater flooded from the stage lip back to about row M.
Members of our stafff were regularly plucked from our staff to go off and head security and road crews for major artists. Rick, John and others amond them going off with KISS, PRINCE and others.
Dick Carroll and I built the 2 new fireproof spot light booths up stairs when the existing to spots were found to be inefffective.
I’ll somehow organize all the information and generate it for your site.
A shot I took of Southside Johnny one night at the Capitol after hours when I was working on his album cover for “Reach Up and Touch the Sky" View link
Hi Moyssi:
I worked at the theater prior to John and AL coming in to produce concerts. Helped to old guys who worked there with maintenance etc. Since I was the only “young” guy there who knew anything about the physical plant at the theater, John and Al kind of gravitated to me. It had a fire easting dragon of a boiler, and a marquee that I had climbed to the top of to paint. John hired me before the first show and gradually gave me more and more responsibilities, including handling all of his “pre ticketron” hard ticket sales at the 10 “headshop” ticket outlets we had. I would have 3,214 tickets printed for each show from a ticket printer in Newark, then divide them up by outlet and what stayed at the theater box office, then do my rounds of the outlets a day before each show and collect unsold tickets , distribute new tickets and collect cash….lots of cash..lol, which I walked around with in a beat up old briefcase through the streets of Passaic. I was listed in the programs for many years as “Concert Manager”, but after one experience when a total stranger came up to me at a concert and tried to get in using my name…gleened from the program…I decided that having my name in the program might not be a really good idea….lol So I asked John to remove my name, and that is why when you look at the programs, all of a sudden my name comes off the staff list.
Oh there are tons of stories.
The Capitol was not just a building to any of us. It was an experience, it was our family, it was quite simply one of the most memorable experiences in all of our lives. Al Dezon and many others met their wives there (which I photographed along with John’s wedding). We were the tightest, most professional and close knit group of diverse individuals ever to come together. The Capitol functioned at the highest level of the game from your lighting expertise to Mo and Al’s stage command, to Rick, Barry John Hart, Arthur, Harry, Hood, Chris, Kenny, Dick Carrol’s security dedication the the security crew. I can go on and on with names of people who made it all possible there and also physically worked on the building to keep it up and running. This included all of us pulling out, locating and replacing 1,000 seats in 4 days prior to the Bette Midler Concert after the boiler room had been vandalized and the theater flooded from the stage lip back to about row M.
Members of our stafff were regularly plucked from our staff to go off and head security and road crews for major artists. Rick, John and others amond them going off with KISS, PRINCE and others.
Dick Carroll and I built the 2 new fireproof spot light booths up stairs when the existing to spots were found to be inefffective.
I’ll somehow organize all the information and generate it for your site.
Tom
A shot I took of Southside Johnny one night at the Capitol after hours when I was working on his album cover for “Reach Up and Touch the Sky"
View link
quicker:
View link
Here’s a photo I took of John in 1980 in front of the theater for Performance Magazine.
http://www.contrinophotography.com/capitol/