| The Greatest Marketing Team in Live Show Business. The second photo is a group shot taken during the last performance of Gunther Gebel Williams’ farewell tour in Pictured in the photo are: Front Row: Scott Smith Bill Powell Ken Wachter Joe Gold Allen Bloom Richard Adler Second Row: Mike Franks Gunther Gebel Williams Art Ricker Hope you can get this on the Blog as a tribute to Allen for what he accomplished. I will send the second photo in a separate e mail. Bill Powell Vice President Feld Entertainment Event Marketing and Sales South/Mexico |
Saturday, January 26, 2008
From Bill Powell #2
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2 comments:
Buckles,
Your comment, the best marketing team in live entertainment hit the target "dead center". Ever was, and without fear of contradiciton, ever will be. Now, if you will excuse me, I have something in my eye. And it's not cigar smoke. Thank's so much for the photo's and memories, Bumba
P.S. If you wanted to give that Superstar tag to a Live Entertainment Marketing Leader, I sure wouldn't object.
Just got thru talking with Archie Chan Jr., who played drums on the Ringling Blue unit beginning in 1969, when Allen Bloom was the executive overseeing the bands. Arch (who retired as a Sells-Floto sales director in 1994) said he was unaware of Allen's death but expressed his condolences to the family.
Recently, Archie told me about the first time he met Mr. Bloom at winter quarters in Venice. Archie and his wife, Ana, and their four-month-old son, Archie III, showed up at the gate at Venice to park their trailer in the backyard. The security guard would have nothing to do with it, and told Archie there was a KOA campground some five miles away.
After leaving his wife and infant at KOA, Archie returned to the arena for his first rehearsal under band director Bill Pine. Archie said there was a plate glass window in the office above the rehearsal arena where Allen Bloom, Blue Unit GM Lloyd Morgan and others could watch the goings on.
When Allen came down to the bandstand to welcome his new drummer (who had been hired in a phone call by Irvin Feld), he asked Chan if everything was to his liking. Chan told him about his wife and new baby being stranded off site, so within minutes, Bloom got his answer. "We're going to put you back there," Morgan told him, "but the only space we've got is by the animals."
The location, though it was near the arena back door, "was a little close to the animals, Archie laughs. "Twenty five elephants drew a lot of flies. You get 20 horses, you get more. We got tigers and all those cage animals back there, and we godt still more. The flies were all over us. The big cats made noise early in the morning and late at night, wanting to be fed. But we adjusted to it. My wife and baby went inside where it was air conditioned, and where they had a cafetoria. She made herself at home while I rehearsed with the band. And because there were a lot of Mexicans on the show, they treated her nicely."
Archie and Ana, an 18-year-old Mexican girl, were married in Mexico City on February 14, 1968, in Mexico City, while he was bandleader on a six-week date produced by Howard Suesz's Clyde Bros. Circus. (Let's see, if my arithmetic is correct, Archie and Ana Chan will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary in Las Vegas on Valentine's Day.)
Archie said he and Allen Bloom became good friends. Everytime Archie and Ana added another child to their family, Archie said he would approach Allen seeking more money so he could feed his growing brood. He said Allen always took care of him, and that he always had the greatest respect for Mr. Bloom.
I met Archie and Ana at the Circus Historical Society convention in Las Vegas in October and am preparing a two-part story for a future edition of Bandwagon. What a great guy!
Lane Talburt
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