Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324         Page 225226227228229230231232233234235236237238239240241242243244245246247248249 of 592

pleasure to be back.” He'd keep talking about Moe Foner and Leon David. It became like old home week. And the audience was moving towards him and he was moving to the audience. Someone said you couldn't tell where the audience ended and the show began. It was like reaching over the footlights.

Eleven o'clock came and I said, “Harry,” and he said--they kept calling him back for encores and he went back and back and back, and he went to about a quarter to twelve and everybody stayed. It was absolutely magnificent.

I remember I left the following day on vacation in the Caribbean, and while I was there I called and dictated a letter to be sent to Harry, a thank-you letter. It was a very carefully phrased thank you.

Anyway, so the thing went well, and so we decided, what if we go to him again. So I went to Harry and I said, “Harry, we've got to figure out. You've got to do it. You've got to do it again until you do it right.”

He didn't like that. He says, “Well, you had me,” and it didn't look very promising. He agreed. His manager at that time was a guy named McPherson, a very decent guy, a Canadian, who was a good union guy. I became very friendly with him, and so he was also pushing him to agree to do it. And we had to figure out so his tour wouldn't conflict, and we did it again. Again, the same kind of thing happened, packed place and that kind of thing. So probably the high-water mark was the first Belafonte concert, a fantastic kind of thing.

Then in '81, the tribute to Rosa Parks, where we got Rosa Parks to come and we had Gregory Hines, Debbie Allen, Leon Bibb, and because it was a tribute to Rosa Parks, I got Bella to get Marlo Thomas, who would make the presentation to Rosa Parks, and Gil Noble was the emcee, and Bella was there and it was another big thing.

And then the last thing I did was in '82, was a tribute, it was the fiftieth anniversary of Davis' leadership of 1199. It was a tribute to Leon Davis. What we did for that is we produced, with Johnny Shultz and Vic Teich, we produced a film on Davis' life, using stills, but on film, narrated by Ossie and Ruby. Very, very nice film. I remember Cesar flew in from the coast to speak at it. Van Arsdale--there are a number of people who spoke at it. Already, problems existed in the union at that time, and I know that there was a boycott of that event by Doris. Doris would not come on the platform of that event. Someone said that they saw her in the audience. I'm not even sure she was there. But that was a big affair. The show that night was “One