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By GARY GROSSMAN Pocono Record Reporter LONG POND — The 125,000 tickets sold at $11 each for Saturday's rock music concert at Pocono International Raceway made it perhaps the best money venture of giant rock festivals yet held despite tremendous costs in promo tion and production. Concert 10, a promotion cor poration sponsoring the event from New York City, was headed up by Irving Reiss of Los Angeles,. Bernard Rutten berg, a spokesman for Reiss, said the event would turn a profit despite a $300,000 outlay for talent alone. Production for the affair was handled by “Showco,” a group organized two years ago and now operating out of Dallas, Texas with nine pro ductions going throughout the United States and Europe at the same time. Production coordinator for Showco, David Alley, 26, has been with the group since its inception. He said Showco grossed $85,000 its first year, $408,000 its second and will probably go for $2 million this year. Part of that will come from about $65,000 billed to Concert 10 for Saturday's affair. Still, Alley said the raceway con cert was the most successful he had ever been a part of from a financial standpoint Raceway complimented He complimented the raceway for having a “super organization,’ but gave credit to the promoters’ marketing ability for taking in the money to pay for the giant en terprise with plenty to spare. Alley said his company ar rived at the raceway on July 3 to find a stage partially con structed. ‘‘It was totally inadequate” for the expected needs of the concert. Alley contacted the people who put up the Woodstock stage in New York and then put 12 men together construc ting a similar structure to hold the 14 group and $200,000 worth of lighting and sound equipment needed to get the show to the crowd With 60 full time employes for Showco’s regular staff spread out over nine produc tions, Alley hired labor for the stage, 20 more to set up lighting and sound and 20 to handle talent coordination on the day of the concert. Sprinkled throughout the crowd Saturday were people wearing Showco T-shirts, checking badges, keeping rock enthusiasts from the stage area and off giant television screens erected to protect the show after dark. One problem plaguing the concert earlier in the day was the lack of access to the site. Four helicopters were suppos ed to be available to pro ducers, but only two were read. early Saturday Alley said the mix-up meant problems getting groups to the raceway. Thick fog prevented scheduled landing of flights to the site at first. A medical team flown to the raceway at 7 a.m. concert day had to be picked up in a field adjacent to the General Elec tric plant in Stroud Township. National press took a back seat to the medics and talent, and the first chopper to the track was slow getting off the ground as priorities shuffled and a brief dispute took place between Showco officials and the press corps. Production went smoothly after initial problems, with only one group cancelling due to illness — Black Sabbath. Among the other groups ap pering at the track were Claire Hamill, Mother Night, Groundhogs, Ramazam, Bull Angus, Edgar Winter, Bad finger, Cactus, Humble Pie, Emerson Lake and Palmer, J. Geils Band, Faces and Three Dog Night.
Newspaper Details
Stroudsburg Pocono Record
Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, US
Mon, Jul 10, 1972
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 21 Jan 2026
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