1 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:21,959 MICHAEL WADLEIGH: It was a pretty simple decision. 2 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:23,234 This was the best there was. 3 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:25,038 There was no competitor at all. 4 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:29,557 It had a quick-change lens here, a super ing�nue lens. 5 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:33,918 And of course, I had a favorite, a very short wide-angle lens 6 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,470 that I'd start up here, and in just two or three moves, 7 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:40,836 in two or three seconds, you could quickly get the zoom off, 8 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:43,559 rotate the wide angle around and get on and... 9 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:45,676 Some people's favorite shots at Woodstock 10 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:48,354 -were done with that wide-angle lens. -You'd remove the 5.9. 11 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:51,398 Because you could get right very, very close to the performers, 12 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:54,040 and it gave you a tremendous sense of depth and being there 13 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:55,439 right on the stage with them, 14 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:58,990 and, of course, then you had this magazine back here 15 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:01,036 that came off in a shot, you know. 16 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:05,875 Its liability was if you didn't very carefully get the loop right, it could jam. 17 00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:09,555 And you couldn't really hear it run out effectively. 18 00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:12,518 You lived in fear and dread 19 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:16,115 that actually you'd put the mag on, threaded it up, 20 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:19,556 and you were running, but of course, with Hendrix and all those loud acts, 21 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:22,598 you couldn't possibly hear whether in fact you had a jam. 22 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,675 Unfortunately, it was really not well-balanced. 23 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:30,116 Your shoulder is way back here, so the bulk of the weight was forward. 24 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:33,272 (CHUCKLING) So I used to be fairly strong. 25 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:38,275 But it taxed you like a mother to really hold it that long. 26 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:40,794 But you couldn't get the shots with the tripods. 27 00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:42,836 It was absolutely impossible. 28 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:45,992 It has a footage counter here that never seemed to work, 29 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:47,872 never seemed to be dependable. 30 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:51,839 But this idea that you could very quickly take on and off the mag. 31 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:53,876 And then you see down here at the bottom, 32 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:57,032 this is where either an AC motor or a DC motor attach. 33 00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:59,509 So it's a beautiful modular unit. 34 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:03,070 I mean, you can even say today, this is a great, great beautiful design. 35 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:06,349 BELL: Everybody had to use �clair cameras 36 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,274 so that we had absolutely interchangeable equipment. 37 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:13,318 Everybody had to have 1 10-volt motors. 38 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:16,631 And where do you find, like, a dozen 1 10-volt motors 39 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:20,759 in New York City for �clairs? And you don't. It's almost impossible. 40 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:25,834 We needed 50 different magazines so that we could change film, 41 00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:28,434 raw stock, under the stage. 42 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:31,558 The reason for the electric motor was, 43 00:02:31,640 --> 00:02:34,757 all the cameras had to run in sync or else it would never be editable. 44 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:37,877 We even looked for, I remember one of the last things on my list 45 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:40,190 was to try and find an electronic clock, 46 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:41,918 you know, that spinned it over by seconds. 47 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:46,630 It would be big. And we could ask every camera guy on stage to, 48 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:49,393 at the top of his roll, at least, take a shot of that, 49 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:52,074 so that we'd have some common syncing point. 50 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:55,311 We could not find anything that we could use. 51 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:00,713 So eventually, the whole postproduction became a mess of trying to sync it. 52 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:03,678 Well, then, of course, we had a lot of equipment problems. 53 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,479 Especially when the rain came along. I remember this. 54 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:10,838 The camera, when you put this up on your shoulder, 55 00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:12,797 the motor hits you right in the shoulder. 56 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,474 And we had to wrap towels around the motor 57 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:17,516 because it got so bloody hot. 58 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:20,831 At one point the AC that was being supplied 59 00:03:20,920 --> 00:03:22,273 was nearly twice the voltage, 60 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:25,557 so we thought, "Well, it's gonna melt the damn coils, 61 00:03:25,640 --> 00:03:28,359 "and the cameras will go entirely." 62 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:30,596 -But I remember real pain. -Yeah. And shock. 63 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:32,830 And agony and shocks, of course. 64 00:03:32,920 --> 00:03:35,275 You know, just from the cameras. 65 00:03:46,116 --> 00:03:47,549 BELL: Here it is Tuesday, now. 66 00:03:47,716 --> 00:03:52,631 The music is gonna start on Friday. There is one missing ingredient. 67 00:03:53,036 --> 00:03:54,310 The raw stock. 68 00:03:54,396 --> 00:03:55,749 (LAUGHING) 69 00:03:55,836 --> 00:03:59,067 Michael is on the phone, it's Wednesday, 70 00:03:59,156 --> 00:04:01,431 and he's saying, "Where the hell is the raw stock?" 71 00:04:01,516 --> 00:04:05,794 And I said I called Kodak on Monday. We're buying it. Where was the money? 72 00:04:06,716 --> 00:04:11,312 He had not been paid yet for 30 Days to Survival. 73 00:04:11,396 --> 00:04:13,273 That was the only source of the funds. 74 00:04:13,676 --> 00:04:18,591 Got the $15,000, put it in the bank. We now had $17,000, right? 75 00:04:19,316 --> 00:04:23,548 Just almost enough to buy the raw stock at the time. 76 00:04:23,636 --> 00:04:26,594 So I called him on Monday saying we were going to place a large order 77 00:04:26,676 --> 00:04:30,032 of 7241, 7242 and 7255. 78 00:04:31,356 --> 00:04:33,028 And I didn't know exactly what the quantity was. 79 00:04:33,116 --> 00:04:34,708 I said, "Do you have it all in stock?" 80 00:04:34,796 --> 00:04:38,072 "Yes, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry. We've got it all in stock. 81 00:04:38,756 --> 00:04:40,872 "Come Wednesday morning." 82 00:04:40,956 --> 00:04:44,346 Now I've got the money in the bank. I can actually write a check. 83 00:04:44,436 --> 00:04:47,269 And I called them and I said I want umpteen rolls of this and that 84 00:04:47,356 --> 00:04:48,755 and the other. 85 00:04:48,836 --> 00:04:51,589 And like ten minutes later they call me back and they say, 86 00:04:51,676 --> 00:04:53,906 "All we have are two boxes worth." 87 00:04:53,996 --> 00:04:57,909 We need 25 boxes in order to... 88 00:04:57,996 --> 00:05:00,874 We calculated, if we've got five cameras shooting 89 00:05:00,956 --> 00:05:02,833 and they're shooting for twelve hours a day, 90 00:05:02,916 --> 00:05:06,306 we are going to need a hell of a lot of raw stock. 91 00:05:06,476 --> 00:05:10,913 But I had only access to two boxes in New York. 92 00:05:10,996 --> 00:05:14,909 When you see those helicopters in the movie coming in with 93 00:05:14,996 --> 00:05:16,714 Arlo Guthrie and the performers, 94 00:05:16,956 --> 00:05:21,472 they're carrying our raw stock all they way through on a staggered basis 95 00:05:21,556 --> 00:05:23,353 until Saturday noon. 96 00:05:23,956 --> 00:05:25,833 They were shooting it so fast, 97 00:05:25,916 --> 00:05:28,111 and the helicopters were coming in and everything. 98 00:05:28,196 --> 00:05:32,075 I mean, it was all we could do to get it to the assistants 99 00:05:32,156 --> 00:05:34,795 who were under the stage in the mud. 100 00:05:34,876 --> 00:05:35,991 It was unreal. 101 00:05:51,736 --> 00:05:54,489 BELL: We asked Michael Lang and John Roberts to build a lip 102 00:05:54,576 --> 00:05:56,134 on the front of the stage. 103 00:05:56,216 --> 00:05:58,889 So that Michael and the other guys could, with his right hand, 104 00:05:59,056 --> 00:06:02,890 put an elbow on the stage, stand on the 4x8 plywood 105 00:06:02,976 --> 00:06:06,571 and have an absolutely ideal, perfect angle for this, 106 00:06:06,656 --> 00:06:09,170 and then Ieap on stage if it was necessary. 107 00:06:09,256 --> 00:06:12,248 And the tripod conveyed none of the energy. 108 00:06:12,336 --> 00:06:15,931 The tripod fixed you in a position. 109 00:06:16,016 --> 00:06:20,567 The ability for Michael and the other guys to get up on stage. 110 00:06:20,656 --> 00:06:23,648 I mean, the one... When you see it in the director's cut, 111 00:06:23,736 --> 00:06:27,649 the one sequence with Bob Hite of Canned Heat 112 00:06:27,736 --> 00:06:32,366 is one entire magazine, uncut with the 5.9 lens. 113 00:06:32,456 --> 00:06:37,450 It is just so gorgeous and such an exemplary manifestation 114 00:06:37,736 --> 00:06:40,170 of not only Michael's eye and his agility, 115 00:06:40,336 --> 00:06:43,214 but the camera's ability to register... 116 00:06:43,296 --> 00:06:44,490 I mean, when the guy comes up 117 00:06:44,576 --> 00:06:48,569 and reaches into Bob Hite's package of cigarettes 118 00:06:48,656 --> 00:06:50,692 and takes a cigarette out and puts it back in, 119 00:06:50,776 --> 00:06:53,688 I mean, you know you're right there all the time. 120 00:06:53,776 --> 00:06:55,050 -I mean, it was marvelous. -Yeah. 121 00:06:55,136 --> 00:06:59,926 For filmmaking, the uncut shots are really just fabulous, I think, 122 00:07:00,016 --> 00:07:03,975 because it conveys a sense of linear reality. 123 00:07:04,056 --> 00:07:07,048 And then what Dale is saying, with the wide-angle lens 124 00:07:07,136 --> 00:07:11,766 which increases the impression of how close you are to someone 125 00:07:11,856 --> 00:07:15,485 and what you can see around you, it's really like being there on the stage. 126 00:07:15,576 --> 00:07:20,252 And, of course, now, the cameramen don't really get that kind of intimacy often 127 00:07:20,336 --> 00:07:22,611 or they have to wear black and stay out of the shots. 128 00:07:22,696 --> 00:07:26,735 So, of course, many times you see all of us in the frame. 129 00:07:26,816 --> 00:07:29,410 But that's the spirit of the event. What's the difference? 130 00:07:33,936 --> 00:07:37,167 (SINGING LEAVIN' THIS TOWN) 131 00:08:08,216 --> 00:08:09,365 Yeah! 132 00:08:09,456 --> 00:08:11,412 (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) 133 00:08:11,496 --> 00:08:14,533 MAN: Ladies and gentlemen, Canned Heat! 134 00:08:26,804 --> 00:08:27,919 MICHAEL LANG: The lineup was the lineup. 135 00:08:28,004 --> 00:08:30,996 I think it was pretty much as it happened, 136 00:08:31,084 --> 00:08:32,233 except it happened on steroids. 137 00:08:32,324 --> 00:08:34,963 We wanted everybody we loved, and everybody that we found along the way 138 00:08:35,044 --> 00:08:36,397 that we thought everybody else would love. 139 00:08:39,884 --> 00:08:43,240 (AT THE HOP PLAYING) 140 00:08:47,124 --> 00:08:49,957 JOCKO MARCELLINO: As we were making a little buzz, Hendrix came down to see us. 141 00:08:50,044 --> 00:08:53,275 John Bonham came down to see us and Frank Zappa came down to see us. 142 00:08:53,484 --> 00:08:55,281 Kornfeld and Lang were hanging out, 143 00:08:55,364 --> 00:08:57,161 and they said, "We're doing Woodstock." 144 00:08:57,244 --> 00:08:58,279 And I had been hearing about this. 145 00:08:58,364 --> 00:08:59,592 I knew the lineup was getting big. 146 00:08:59,884 --> 00:09:02,762 Sly was going to be on it. Hendrix was going to be on it. 147 00:09:03,244 --> 00:09:06,395 And I said to the manager, "Yes, go find that guy and tell him yes." 148 00:09:06,484 --> 00:09:08,156 MICHAEL CARABELLO: I think we had played a few colleges 149 00:09:08,244 --> 00:09:09,677 and stuff like that. Outdoor things. 150 00:09:10,244 --> 00:09:11,723 And there was this thing going on in Woodstock. 151 00:09:11,844 --> 00:09:14,995 No big deal to us. It was way too far from San Francisco anyway. 152 00:09:15,124 --> 00:09:17,319 Somebody had called. It might've been Michael Lang, 153 00:09:17,404 --> 00:09:19,713 who was producing the Woodstock thing. 154 00:09:19,804 --> 00:09:20,793 Says, "Hey, we need a favor. 155 00:09:20,884 --> 00:09:22,283 "We need you to get somebody else on the bill. " 156 00:09:22,364 --> 00:09:24,002 And in fact, we weren't actually going to do Woodstock. 157 00:09:24,084 --> 00:09:28,282 We were in the middle of a tour, and the agent said, 158 00:09:28,364 --> 00:09:29,683 "They're doing this festival, 159 00:09:29,764 --> 00:09:32,039 "they're anticipating probably 50,000 people. 160 00:09:33,004 --> 00:09:34,357 "Would you like to do it?" 161 00:09:34,444 --> 00:09:35,718 And when we heard what they were offering, 162 00:09:35,804 --> 00:09:36,793 we turned it down. 163 00:09:36,884 --> 00:09:39,444 But Frank Barcelona, our agent, kept on at us, 164 00:09:39,524 --> 00:09:41,799 'cause he said, "You've got to do it, 'cause they've added Janis, 165 00:09:41,884 --> 00:09:44,114 "they've added Jimi, they've added The Who, 166 00:09:44,204 --> 00:09:46,081 "they've added Airplane." 167 00:09:46,244 --> 00:09:49,122 So, in the end, we did it. Thank God we did. 168 00:09:49,644 --> 00:09:52,795 LANG: We wanted to make sure that nobody was excluded from this event. 169 00:09:53,164 --> 00:09:56,839 It was planned to be an Aquarian exposition 170 00:09:57,004 --> 00:09:59,313 and all that that sort of entails 171 00:09:59,404 --> 00:10:01,964 which includes sort of a new wave dealing with people, 172 00:10:02,044 --> 00:10:04,080 sort of a new openness. 173 00:10:04,724 --> 00:10:05,952 INTERVIEWER: What is it the musicians have 174 00:10:06,044 --> 00:10:07,193 that they can communicate so well to the kids? 175 00:10:07,284 --> 00:10:08,353 LANG: Music! 176 00:10:08,444 --> 00:10:09,638 INTERVIEWER: I mean, they've always had music. 177 00:10:09,724 --> 00:10:12,363 Music has always been a major form of communication, 178 00:10:12,444 --> 00:10:14,036 only now, the lyric and the type of music 179 00:10:14,124 --> 00:10:18,037 is a little bit more involved in society than it was. 180 00:10:18,324 --> 00:10:21,396 LANG: Probably someone I wanted more than anyone was Roy Rogers. 181 00:10:21,924 --> 00:10:23,323 I wanted him to close the show with Happy Trails, 182 00:10:23,404 --> 00:10:27,955 'cause we all grew up with Roy Rogers singing Happy Trails to us at night, 183 00:10:28,324 --> 00:10:29,962 or Saturday mornings, as it were. 184 00:10:31,044 --> 00:10:33,160 But his manager didn't think it was a great idea. 185 00:10:33,964 --> 00:10:35,158 It's about what's happening now, 186 00:10:35,244 --> 00:10:38,202 and if you listen to the lyric and you listen to the rhythm 187 00:10:38,284 --> 00:10:40,354 and what's in the music, 188 00:10:40,444 --> 00:10:42,480 then you'll know what's going on with the culture. 189 00:10:42,844 --> 00:10:45,119 I gotta split on you. 190 00:10:45,324 --> 00:10:46,393 Great, groovy. Thanks. 191 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:02,075 BELL: There was an incident where I was looking over an invoice 192 00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:04,390 that I had received from Technicolor, 193 00:11:04,840 --> 00:11:07,434 who was processing all of the opticals 194 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:10,034 that were coming out of the optical houses. 195 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:11,519 And I noticed this invoice, 196 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:16,310 and it said that they were making two prints of the negative. 197 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:20,078 I called Technicolor with a really dumb, naive question. 198 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:21,991 I said, "Where does the second print go?" 199 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:25,709 "We always send the second print to New York to Warner Bros. 200 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:29,076 "to have them get a look at what we're producing." 201 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:31,958 You know, what we're printing for their client. 202 00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:35,032 I said, "Great. Okay, great." 203 00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:38,197 Next call, "Bob, we got a problem." 204 00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:42,117 We got on the phone with our attorney 205 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:46,034 and we physically, at that point, 206 00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:51,035 shut down our editing for all intents and purposes. 207 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:55,557 We brought all of the negative into our offices 208 00:11:55,640 --> 00:12:00,270 and hired a 24-hour security guard with a gun. 209 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:03,955 And Bob flew to New York to negotiate with these people. 210 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:08,431 Once we got it resolved that Technicolor had absolutely no right, 211 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:10,670 since we were the client of record, 212 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,637 to make another copy or to get it anywhere else, 213 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:16,392 everything smoothed out again, 214 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:19,950 and the negative went back to Ed Richards. 215 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:21,553 Ed Richards, the negative manager. 216 00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:24,871 And we continued to put new material into the optical houses 217 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:26,279 to get it processed. 218 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,272 We were that rigid. 219 00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:34,798 We were that determined to maintain the integrity of this film. 220 00:12:47,772 --> 00:12:51,082 MAN 3: Can those of you in the back hear well? 221 00:12:52,612 --> 00:12:55,206 Raise your hand, please. It's all right? Thank you. 222 00:12:55,532 --> 00:12:57,124 LANG: There were some pretty interesting announcements. 223 00:12:57,252 --> 00:13:01,530 There were lots of "Meet your sister," and "Meet your brother," or 224 00:13:02,052 --> 00:13:03,326 "Get to the hospital, you're having a baby." 225 00:13:03,412 --> 00:13:04,401 Those kinds of things. 226 00:13:04,492 --> 00:13:06,767 CHIP MONCK ON PA: Helen Savage, please call your father 227 00:13:06,852 --> 00:13:09,127 at the Motel Glory in Wood-Ridge. 228 00:13:09,212 --> 00:13:12,568 By the time, I was appointed MC 229 00:13:12,692 --> 00:13:16,651 at 7:00 in the morning by the tap on the shoulder by Mr. Lang, 230 00:13:17,772 --> 00:13:21,526 I had a feeling that it was going to be mammoth. 231 00:13:21,892 --> 00:13:26,841 The Daily News, in rather large headlines, still costing 10 cents, 232 00:13:27,212 --> 00:13:29,885 "Traffic Uptight At Hippiefest." 233 00:13:30,012 --> 00:13:33,288 Well, he was there. He was articulate. 234 00:13:33,932 --> 00:13:36,321 And I had forgotten to book anybody, so... 235 00:13:36,812 --> 00:13:41,124 You could actually hear my knees rattling together. 236 00:13:41,212 --> 00:13:42,884 When I first started on my announcements, 237 00:13:42,972 --> 00:13:45,930 it was a very uncomfortable feeling. 238 00:13:46,092 --> 00:13:49,528 It got smoother and got easier because I was frankly in charge, 239 00:13:49,972 --> 00:13:52,088 and why should I be frightened? 240 00:13:52,172 --> 00:13:54,766 Because I could do anything I needed to. 241 00:13:54,892 --> 00:13:57,929 MONCK ON PA: Wheat Germ, Holly has your bag with your medicine. 242 00:13:58,012 --> 00:14:00,890 Please meet at the information booth as soon as you can, please. 243 00:14:01,092 --> 00:14:05,768 I think one of the doctors came up and said, 244 00:14:05,852 --> 00:14:08,969 "If you can, let's see if we can get rid of this brown acid." 245 00:14:09,612 --> 00:14:13,321 And for his hand to be on my back and just push me downstage, 246 00:14:13,412 --> 00:14:15,368 which meant it was time to do it now. 247 00:14:16,212 --> 00:14:17,327 MONCK: The warning that I've received, 248 00:14:17,412 --> 00:14:20,210 you may take it with however many grains of salt you wish, 249 00:14:20,972 --> 00:14:26,126 that the brown acid that is circulating around us is not specifically too good. 250 00:14:26,732 --> 00:14:28,927 That was a very difficult announcement to make, 251 00:14:29,012 --> 00:14:30,730 because if you really stomped on it, 252 00:14:30,932 --> 00:14:33,400 anybody who had taken it could, in fact, 253 00:14:33,492 --> 00:14:36,643 really end up having a very unpleasant trip. 254 00:14:37,132 --> 00:14:38,406 STALLINGS: Which acid did I take? 255 00:14:38,492 --> 00:14:39,686 (LAUGHING) 256 00:14:39,772 --> 00:14:42,047 The green or the brown? 257 00:14:43,452 --> 00:14:46,012 And that took you to another place 'cause you were tripping. 258 00:14:46,092 --> 00:14:49,402 So you immediately spiral downward 259 00:14:50,652 --> 00:14:52,529 just from the announcements. 260 00:14:52,652 --> 00:14:55,724 (CHUCKLING) I really didn't know how to do it. 261 00:14:56,012 --> 00:14:59,925 That's why there were so many little colloquialisms and stuff stuffed in there, 262 00:15:00,012 --> 00:15:01,843 "grain of salt," "be my guest," 263 00:15:01,932 --> 00:15:04,492 because I really wanted to try and soften it. 264 00:15:05,132 --> 00:15:07,043 MONCK: It's suggested that you do stay away from that. 265 00:15:07,172 --> 00:15:09,288 Of course, it's your own trip, so be my guest, 266 00:15:09,372 --> 00:15:12,364 but please be advised that there is a warning on that one, okay? 267 00:15:13,132 --> 00:15:16,807 I think you save the harsh ones for the time you need it. 268 00:15:17,332 --> 00:15:21,086 So it's probably a good idea to be, certainly not soft and cuddly, 269 00:15:21,172 --> 00:15:24,164 but at least courteous, you know. 270 00:15:24,652 --> 00:15:27,166 Because some people, I suppose, could be easily offended 271 00:15:27,252 --> 00:15:30,244 by a type of language or an approach. 272 00:15:31,372 --> 00:15:33,602 So you have to be sort of careful in that. 273 00:15:33,732 --> 00:15:38,408 I started to actually tune 274 00:15:38,652 --> 00:15:43,726 and refine a skill that I had no idea that I had. 275 00:15:44,332 --> 00:15:46,243 MONCK: Dr. Jack Maitland, please, 276 00:15:46,332 --> 00:15:50,245 with full suturing equipment, your presence is requested. 277 00:15:51,812 --> 00:15:53,450 You've got a delivery to make. 278 00:15:53,732 --> 00:15:56,644 Both Chip and John Morris also did some announcing, 279 00:15:57,292 --> 00:15:59,931 and they both did an amazing job. I mean, it was just... 280 00:16:00,012 --> 00:16:04,164 It was totally, you know, surprising to me. 281 00:16:04,252 --> 00:16:07,562 I had no idea they would be that good, either one of them. 282 00:16:07,652 --> 00:16:08,801 But it's just one of those things, 283 00:16:08,892 --> 00:16:11,281 like a lot of things about Woodstock, that worked out perfectly. 284 00:16:26,353 --> 00:16:29,629 BELL: Warner Bros. had said they're going to open this film 285 00:16:29,713 --> 00:16:34,150 in eight cities at the end of March, March 24 and 25, 286 00:16:34,473 --> 00:16:36,509 and they needed to be able to see it. 287 00:16:36,713 --> 00:16:42,982 We were still mixing the film on March 10, 11 and 12, mind you. 288 00:16:43,633 --> 00:16:45,430 And they said, "We've got to see it, we've got to see it. 289 00:16:45,513 --> 00:16:47,708 "The exhibitors have got to see it. We've got to know how long it is." 290 00:16:48,033 --> 00:16:50,786 We had known all along that the standard length for a movie 291 00:16:50,873 --> 00:16:54,422 is an hour and 50 minutes, 1-5-0. 292 00:16:54,513 --> 00:16:57,664 And here we were, virtually double that length. 293 00:16:57,753 --> 00:17:01,792 What he wanted was almost a four-and-a-half, five hour film. 294 00:17:02,873 --> 00:17:08,345 And, in fact, his first cut was about seven hours or six hours. 295 00:17:08,673 --> 00:17:10,903 They said, "We want a screening. 296 00:17:10,993 --> 00:17:15,384 "Five of us, suits, will sit in the backroom of the projection booth 297 00:17:15,473 --> 00:17:19,352 "over here on the Warner Bros. lot, and we'll take a look at your film." 298 00:17:19,433 --> 00:17:21,867 And we said, "We'll call you back." 299 00:17:21,953 --> 00:17:24,262 (CHUCKLING) We all looked at each other and said, 300 00:17:24,353 --> 00:17:26,913 "Five suits looking at this film? They'll never get it." 301 00:17:27,033 --> 00:17:32,187 The editors at that time were concerned 302 00:17:32,273 --> 00:17:34,548 about "the studio." 303 00:17:34,633 --> 00:17:39,343 Because the studio was doing, you know, big films, 304 00:17:39,433 --> 00:17:41,151 we'd been in the business for years, 305 00:17:41,233 --> 00:17:43,793 but they didn't have the "vision" 306 00:17:43,873 --> 00:17:48,151 that the young hippies of those days had. 307 00:17:48,593 --> 00:17:50,026 BELL: And we argued back and forth, 308 00:17:50,113 --> 00:17:54,504 and finally we said that we had invited several hundred students 309 00:17:54,593 --> 00:17:58,506 from UCLA and USC, other film houses, 310 00:17:58,593 --> 00:18:01,903 to come watch the film with the Warner Bros. suits. 311 00:18:01,993 --> 00:18:03,551 And we then invited them 312 00:18:03,633 --> 00:18:08,502 and showed them the whole film at four hours in length. 313 00:18:08,593 --> 00:18:12,347 They had to hop over people who were lying on the floor, 314 00:18:12,433 --> 00:18:14,901 opening weeds in the back, 315 00:18:14,993 --> 00:18:20,431 and from the first moment, it was rip-roaring, rocking. 316 00:18:20,513 --> 00:18:22,743 The projectionists were absolutely perfect, 317 00:18:22,833 --> 00:18:26,792 the suits were totally, totally overwhelmed. 318 00:18:26,873 --> 00:18:29,831 WADLEIGH: After the screening, we were more confident than ever 319 00:18:29,913 --> 00:18:31,744 that we had a hit on our hands. 320 00:18:31,833 --> 00:18:37,305 We had a meeting the next day in which Warner Bros. said, "It's too long." 321 00:18:38,633 --> 00:18:44,549 I just, you know, couldn't believe it. You know, Dale had to hold me down. 322 00:18:44,633 --> 00:18:47,272 So the next morning we had a meeting. 323 00:18:47,353 --> 00:18:48,991 And there were certain things that they said 324 00:18:49,073 --> 00:18:53,385 that we had kind of thought among ourselves were going to be okay, 325 00:18:53,473 --> 00:18:55,429 that we would have to drop some stuff, 326 00:18:55,513 --> 00:18:57,868 'cause we'd had our own meeting after the screening, 327 00:18:57,953 --> 00:19:00,706 and we'd felt even in putting them into the film 328 00:19:00,833 --> 00:19:03,552 that maybe they weren't really working properly. 329 00:19:03,633 --> 00:19:07,546 But where it came to be the most critical was at the end. 330 00:19:08,353 --> 00:19:11,868 Warner's wanted the Jimi Hendrix sequence 331 00:19:11,953 --> 00:19:13,272 cut down to three minutes 332 00:19:13,353 --> 00:19:16,948 because they thought it was so sour, so dark. 333 00:19:17,033 --> 00:19:20,070 They wanted people going out of the movie cheering, everything else. 334 00:19:20,153 --> 00:19:22,428 And they thought that this whole rendering 335 00:19:22,513 --> 00:19:27,029 of Jimi's Star-Spangled Banner, plus the Purple Haze that we had in there, 336 00:19:27,113 --> 00:19:29,581 and all that garbage picking up and the whatever. 337 00:19:29,673 --> 00:19:31,550 How could you end the movie with that? 338 00:19:31,633 --> 00:19:34,147 WADLEIGH: I personally edited that last section 339 00:19:34,233 --> 00:19:38,465 and felt very strongly that we should end on a disturbing note. 340 00:19:38,553 --> 00:19:40,748 You know, that this looks like post-holocaust, 341 00:19:40,833 --> 00:19:43,552 and you notice I put in the people with the crutches 342 00:19:43,633 --> 00:19:47,546 and the casts on their arms and all the detritus. 343 00:19:47,633 --> 00:19:49,942 It was meant to look like, 344 00:19:50,033 --> 00:19:54,265 wow, you know, will all this good time end very, very badly? 345 00:19:54,353 --> 00:19:57,550 And that's exactly what I wanted people to think about. 346 00:19:57,633 --> 00:19:59,464 With this brilliant guitar playing, 347 00:19:59,553 --> 00:20:04,308 it was really the perfect ending, aesthetically, as a filmmaker, for the film. 348 00:20:04,393 --> 00:20:07,510 So I was ready to, you know, 349 00:20:07,593 --> 00:20:11,108 absolutely go to the mat over that issue. 350 00:20:11,193 --> 00:20:15,823 Of course, Michael and I butted heads in a lot of ways, 351 00:20:17,433 --> 00:20:21,221 but it was always creative. He was really the creative maven. 352 00:20:21,753 --> 00:20:23,823 And I was the guy from the studio. 353 00:20:24,193 --> 00:20:28,311 There were really vicious remarks that were thrown back and forth. 354 00:20:29,113 --> 00:20:32,344 We spent the rest of the day 355 00:20:32,433 --> 00:20:37,791 ensuring that we had possession of the elements that would prevent them 356 00:20:37,873 --> 00:20:40,023 from making a separate cut, 357 00:20:40,113 --> 00:20:43,423 coming up with a two-hour version that the exhibitors wanted, 358 00:20:43,513 --> 00:20:46,027 because they were saying the exhibitors wanna turn this film around. 359 00:20:46,113 --> 00:20:47,228 They wanna sell more popcorn. 360 00:20:47,353 --> 00:20:48,991 WADLEIGH: If they had not agreed with us, 361 00:20:49,073 --> 00:20:52,668 we were prepared to at least threaten going berserk 362 00:20:52,753 --> 00:20:56,985 and destroying everything if they didn't put out our version. 363 00:20:57,313 --> 00:20:59,224 BELL: But what we finally arrived at, 364 00:20:59,313 --> 00:21:01,986 we would cut down the Jimi Hendrix piece, 365 00:21:02,073 --> 00:21:06,032 which I think was running at about 15 or 16 minutes, 366 00:21:06,113 --> 00:21:10,265 down to a version that we felt comfortable with, 367 00:21:10,353 --> 00:21:13,390 which we had to kind of determine would be nine or 10 minutes. 368 00:21:13,473 --> 00:21:14,542 It was a compromise, 369 00:21:14,633 --> 00:21:18,990 but only as to a certain amount of length with it, 370 00:21:19,073 --> 00:21:24,830 which, by the way, now's been put all back into the director's cut. 371 00:21:24,913 --> 00:21:28,542 But by and large, we ended up, I would say, 372 00:21:28,633 --> 00:21:30,908 with basically what we wanted. 373 00:21:31,113 --> 00:21:33,149 It took a while to get there. 374 00:21:33,233 --> 00:21:37,351 But just two or three weeks beforehand, we were still screaming and yelling. 375 00:21:37,433 --> 00:21:40,709 But Michael was brilliant. 376 00:21:40,793 --> 00:21:45,469 I mean, you very seldom get a director who had the vision that he had, 377 00:21:45,913 --> 00:21:48,825 who's able to shoot the film the way he told the people to shoot it. 378 00:21:48,913 --> 00:21:51,188 And he was very instrumental in all that. 379 00:21:51,273 --> 00:21:54,424 And as a filmmaker, I thought, "Wow. There's nothing I wanna change." 380 00:21:54,513 --> 00:21:57,949 I didn't have any second thought, which is really, really nice. 381 00:22:16,341 --> 00:22:19,060 BELL: The summer of 1969, 382 00:22:19,141 --> 00:22:21,416 New York City was abuzz 383 00:22:21,581 --> 00:22:25,415 with this whole idea that there was going to be, somewhere, 384 00:22:25,501 --> 00:22:27,810 at a place yet to be determined, 385 00:22:27,901 --> 00:22:31,576 a huge colossal music festival 386 00:22:31,741 --> 00:22:34,494 called Woodstock Music and Art Fair. 387 00:22:34,581 --> 00:22:40,178 In July of 1969, Michael Wadleigh knew very little about it, 388 00:22:40,261 --> 00:22:44,573 because he was shooting a film with Paul Petzoldt 389 00:22:44,941 --> 00:22:47,660 called 30 Days to Survival, 390 00:22:48,261 --> 00:22:52,334 in which Michael survived and lost 20 pounds. 391 00:22:53,141 --> 00:22:55,052 -True? -Yeah, it was my head... 392 00:22:55,141 --> 00:22:56,699 -Right. -...that was lost. 393 00:22:56,781 --> 00:22:58,419 Took a long time to re-find it. 394 00:22:59,341 --> 00:23:02,094 BELL: As he came back at the end of July, 395 00:23:02,181 --> 00:23:06,618 there was this whole pulsating in New York among the film community 396 00:23:06,701 --> 00:23:08,453 about this festival. 397 00:23:08,541 --> 00:23:12,375 And there was talk that the festival producers 398 00:23:12,501 --> 00:23:17,529 were looking for filmmakers to be able to shoot this festival. 399 00:23:17,621 --> 00:23:21,091 We heard this, and Bob began to sniff around 400 00:23:21,181 --> 00:23:24,776 as to where were the rights to the festival. 401 00:23:24,861 --> 00:23:29,491 At that time, I had just come in with the new Warner Bros. people. 402 00:23:29,861 --> 00:23:34,013 It was Steve Ross and Ted Ashley had just taken over, 403 00:23:34,661 --> 00:23:38,051 and they had brought me in to do the youth market. 404 00:23:38,421 --> 00:23:43,654 Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records really had the music rights 405 00:23:43,741 --> 00:23:47,700 and the film rights, all in a package for $100,000. 406 00:23:47,781 --> 00:23:49,214 But there was no deal with anybody, 407 00:23:49,301 --> 00:23:52,532 not with the producers, not with any of the performers, 408 00:23:52,621 --> 00:23:56,455 certainly not with Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records, nobody. 409 00:23:56,541 --> 00:23:58,418 WEINTRAUB: It was really because of the persuasive efforts 410 00:23:58,501 --> 00:24:01,971 of Artie Kornfeld, who I had known in the Village. 411 00:24:02,061 --> 00:24:06,691 And he, with this great enthusiasm, convinced me, and we went from there. 412 00:24:07,581 --> 00:24:10,937 After they turned me down cold, I went back and said, "I'm Ieaving." 413 00:24:11,021 --> 00:24:15,856 They said, "Okay, Fred, it's only $350,000. Don't worry about it." 414 00:24:16,341 --> 00:24:19,538 (SINGING WON'T YOU TRY) 415 00:24:26,581 --> 00:24:31,097 The Saturday before the Friday when the music began, 416 00:24:31,701 --> 00:24:37,936 Michael and I, and John Binder, and Larry Johnson, and Thelma, 417 00:24:38,021 --> 00:24:40,899 we all went up to the site in about three cars, 418 00:24:40,981 --> 00:24:45,771 and we got to Max Yasgur's farm at about noon. 419 00:24:45,861 --> 00:24:50,651 And there were so much turmoil, but organized chaos going on at the site. 420 00:24:50,741 --> 00:24:55,292 And that was the moment at which we all looked at each other 421 00:24:55,381 --> 00:25:00,296 and said, "We can figure out how to get the people together, 422 00:25:00,381 --> 00:25:02,849 "get the camera people together, get the gear together, 423 00:25:02,941 --> 00:25:05,409 "get the supplies together, 424 00:25:05,501 --> 00:25:09,050 "and get up to that site by Thursday morning 425 00:25:09,181 --> 00:25:13,174 "before the music began on Friday. We can do this." 426 00:25:13,461 --> 00:25:15,417 (SINGING SUMMERTIME BLUES) 427 00:25:44,217 --> 00:25:46,890 JACK CASADY: In the beginning, access roads became so congested 428 00:25:46,977 --> 00:25:49,696 that by the time we actually went in 429 00:25:49,777 --> 00:25:51,972 for what was supposed to be a sound check or whatnot, 430 00:25:52,057 --> 00:25:53,331 once you got in, you didn't Ieave. 431 00:25:53,457 --> 00:25:56,017 It reminded me of a Cecil B. DeMille production movie, 432 00:25:56,097 --> 00:25:59,772 of all the extras portraying the grandest army you ever saw. 433 00:25:59,857 --> 00:26:03,247 We were standing on the curbs watching them come in last night, 434 00:26:03,337 --> 00:26:04,816 all the townspeople. 435 00:26:04,897 --> 00:26:07,650 It was just like an army invading a town. 436 00:26:07,737 --> 00:26:09,090 -INTERVIEWER: Really? -It was hard to believe. 437 00:26:09,177 --> 00:26:12,647 Rows and rows of cars on each side of the dirt access road 438 00:26:12,737 --> 00:26:16,013 didn't leave quite enough room for one vehicle. 439 00:26:16,097 --> 00:26:19,134 I was driving. I took the trim off both sides of the station wagon. 440 00:26:19,217 --> 00:26:21,572 We went through about 200 cars 441 00:26:21,657 --> 00:26:25,286 with the sides of the station wagon scraping the whole way, you know. 442 00:26:25,377 --> 00:26:28,414 And it was... Sorry, folks, whoever owned those cars. 443 00:26:28,497 --> 00:26:32,206 LEO LYONS: Well, we drove up to what was then the Holiday Inn in Liberty. 444 00:26:32,297 --> 00:26:33,969 And in the lobby there and in the coffee shop, 445 00:26:34,057 --> 00:26:36,810 everybody was there. And, I mean, I knew most of the people, 446 00:26:36,897 --> 00:26:39,491 Hendrix and Janis Joplin... 447 00:26:39,577 --> 00:26:41,886 And so I got a bit of an idea what it was like. 448 00:26:41,977 --> 00:26:43,296 MICHAEL CARABELLO: Everybody was outside standing, 449 00:26:43,377 --> 00:26:44,776 going, "What the hell is going on?" 450 00:26:45,137 --> 00:26:46,695 And all of a sudden, we see the National Guard, 451 00:26:46,777 --> 00:26:49,450 and, "Is there a war going on? What's going on?" 452 00:26:49,537 --> 00:26:51,732 The only way to get in there is by helicopter. 453 00:26:51,817 --> 00:26:54,650 LANG: We booked helicopters before the weekend for emergencies. 454 00:26:54,737 --> 00:26:57,205 As the traffic became more and more dense, 455 00:26:57,297 --> 00:27:00,050 we realized that we were gonna have a problem getting performers in, 456 00:27:00,137 --> 00:27:04,210 and so we booked more helicopters and we just kept doing that hourly, 457 00:27:04,297 --> 00:27:05,730 (LAUGHING) adding helicopters. 458 00:27:05,857 --> 00:27:09,566 MONCK ON PA: We apologize for the noise of the choppity-choppity, 459 00:27:09,657 --> 00:27:12,649 but it seems there are a few cars blocking the road, 460 00:27:12,737 --> 00:27:14,329 so we're flying everybody in. 461 00:27:14,417 --> 00:27:16,453 RIC LEE: The helicopter arrived, and we were about to get on it, 462 00:27:16,537 --> 00:27:18,846 and these guys pushed in front of us. 463 00:27:18,937 --> 00:27:22,293 And I was gonna argue the toss with them, as I have a habit of doing. 464 00:27:22,737 --> 00:27:26,810 And it turned out it was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Albert Grossman 465 00:27:26,897 --> 00:27:29,172 going to do a recce of the site. 466 00:27:29,257 --> 00:27:31,407 So we waited for the next helicopter. 467 00:27:31,497 --> 00:27:34,216 So we took a helicopter down to the gig, 468 00:27:34,297 --> 00:27:36,174 maybe three hours before we were due to play. 469 00:27:36,257 --> 00:27:40,091 We could see that it was like some sort of war zone, really. 470 00:27:40,177 --> 00:27:44,534 And it was about a 10-minute flight from there to the Woodstock actual site. 471 00:27:44,617 --> 00:27:48,371 CARABELLO: I got to be in a helicopter with Jerry Garcia and Michael Shrieve. 472 00:27:48,457 --> 00:27:51,176 Got up and got high in the sky and looked down 473 00:27:51,257 --> 00:27:52,770 and saw all these people and just couldn't believe it, 474 00:27:52,857 --> 00:27:55,655 with the door open, mind you. And Jerry just thought it was... 475 00:27:55,737 --> 00:27:58,456 "Can you believe it? Look at all those people down there. " 476 00:27:58,537 --> 00:28:01,574 It was just overwhelming, way, way overwhelming. 477 00:28:10,556 --> 00:28:14,390 MARTIN SCORSESE: Michael Wadleigh and I had an idea to do a concert film 478 00:28:14,516 --> 00:28:16,552 utilizing, of course, 16mm equipment. 479 00:28:17,036 --> 00:28:20,506 I was in the motion picture workshop that summer. 480 00:28:20,756 --> 00:28:22,667 There was this big event that was gonna occur, 481 00:28:22,756 --> 00:28:26,032 some festival, a music festival up in the country somewhere, 482 00:28:26,116 --> 00:28:27,105 a place called Woodstock. 483 00:28:27,516 --> 00:28:31,953 Think of this. There are half a dozen of us working in this office 484 00:28:32,036 --> 00:28:36,712 on 81st Street and Broadway, on the second floor of that building. 485 00:28:38,116 --> 00:28:40,789 There is, in the icebox, 486 00:28:40,876 --> 00:28:44,425 about ten boxes of short ends of raw stock. 487 00:28:44,516 --> 00:28:47,986 There is about $2,000 in the bank. 488 00:28:48,356 --> 00:28:52,269 The festival is going to begin in five days. 489 00:28:52,676 --> 00:28:58,512 We have the chutzpah to think that we can put together this team. 490 00:28:58,596 --> 00:29:01,064 THELMA SCHOONMAKER: Nobody could land the rights to do it. 491 00:29:01,156 --> 00:29:02,874 There was no money being offered up front. 492 00:29:03,036 --> 00:29:05,152 So Wadleigh just took a huge gamble, 493 00:29:05,836 --> 00:29:08,669 and we assembled everybody we knew 494 00:29:08,756 --> 00:29:13,352 (CHUCKLING) and went off into this mad, crazy world. 495 00:29:13,436 --> 00:29:15,506 We had no idea what we were getting into. 496 00:29:15,796 --> 00:29:18,947 I think that all of us felt that there was something happening there 497 00:29:19,036 --> 00:29:21,550 that we would never regret. 498 00:29:21,636 --> 00:29:24,514 Certainly, again, really, 499 00:29:24,596 --> 00:29:27,668 I don't think we had the dollar sign first, 500 00:29:27,756 --> 00:29:30,475 if we had, I know we wouldn't have done it. 501 00:29:30,556 --> 00:29:32,945 I think we wanted the adventure of it, 502 00:29:33,036 --> 00:29:37,666 and for me, I really, really wanted to carry out these experiments. 503 00:29:37,756 --> 00:29:39,428 -And it was salivating to think... -BELL: Right, right. 504 00:29:39,516 --> 00:29:43,031 ...that this collection of rock and roll people was going to be there. 505 00:29:43,196 --> 00:29:46,074 And as a filmmaker... "What the hell! 506 00:29:46,156 --> 00:29:49,068 "Let's just go and film these legendary groups. " 507 00:29:49,556 --> 00:29:53,515 BELL: It's Monday morning. Wads has gone up to the site. 508 00:29:53,596 --> 00:29:58,147 We had discussed the people who we want to work on the project. 509 00:29:58,236 --> 00:30:01,433 And remember, there are no faxes. There are no cell phones. 510 00:30:01,516 --> 00:30:03,632 There are no FedEx. There are no computers. 511 00:30:03,716 --> 00:30:05,911 There's no nothing but payphones. 512 00:30:06,076 --> 00:30:10,706 So, Dick Pearce in Hartford, got him to get on his motorcycle. 513 00:30:10,796 --> 00:30:13,594 Don Lenzer, David Myers, Stan Warnow... 514 00:30:13,676 --> 00:30:16,474 Dale was mentioning the best cameramen on the East Coast. 515 00:30:16,556 --> 00:30:18,786 -You know, we tried... -And on the West Coast. 516 00:30:18,876 --> 00:30:20,355 -And the West Coast, too. -Right. Right. 517 00:30:20,436 --> 00:30:22,825 With David Myers, who had come in on his own. 518 00:30:22,916 --> 00:30:26,431 "David, you're going to get paid $125. It's going to be an adventure. 519 00:30:26,516 --> 00:30:29,553 "Can you put it on your card and maybe we'll pay you when you get here?" 520 00:30:29,636 --> 00:30:32,912 Or maybe we'll pay you after the fact. I mean, that's what it was. 521 00:30:32,996 --> 00:30:34,873 Bob Maurice was scurrying around New York 522 00:30:34,956 --> 00:30:38,266 trying to find out where the rights were and who was going on. 523 00:30:38,356 --> 00:30:40,153 Just constant around the clock with me 524 00:30:40,236 --> 00:30:43,034 and Sonya Polonsky and a couple of other people, 525 00:30:43,116 --> 00:30:47,553 just making phone calls on time zones to coordinate it. 526 00:30:47,636 --> 00:30:49,672 But, you know, I think this is a microcosm 527 00:30:49,756 --> 00:30:52,190 of how the whole festival was pulled off really. 528 00:30:52,276 --> 00:30:55,393 I think, equally, they just pieced it all together 529 00:30:55,476 --> 00:30:58,912 and made that happen and that happen and that happen. 530 00:30:58,996 --> 00:31:03,035 And like we were saying earlier, that's very hard to do today. 531 00:31:09,944 --> 00:31:13,493 WADLEIGH: We had really first-rate, you could call them cameramen-directors, 532 00:31:13,584 --> 00:31:17,736 who were very used to going out, taking an assignment 533 00:31:18,184 --> 00:31:19,663 and bringing back the footage. 534 00:31:19,744 --> 00:31:24,977 We'd have about four, call them "documentary teams," 535 00:31:25,064 --> 00:31:29,774 that would be wandering around, either on motorcycles or on foot, 536 00:31:29,864 --> 00:31:36,497 going out into the non-music portions to try to get representative samples 537 00:31:36,584 --> 00:31:42,216 of what sociological and psychological, and indeed, physical activities 538 00:31:42,304 --> 00:31:44,022 were going on all around the stage. 539 00:31:44,104 --> 00:31:46,618 WADLEIGH: We would send out people and have no idea where they were. 540 00:31:46,704 --> 00:31:49,298 They would send back. We'd hear a request for film, 541 00:31:49,384 --> 00:31:51,978 you know, or a battery, they were out of a battery. 542 00:31:52,064 --> 00:31:56,660 We would try to communicate on a semi-regular basis. 543 00:31:56,744 --> 00:31:59,304 First thing in the morning, we would try to talk, 544 00:31:59,384 --> 00:32:00,578 the documentary team would talk, 545 00:32:00,664 --> 00:32:02,939 I know I would with them and John Binder. 546 00:32:03,024 --> 00:32:05,618 And we would try and find out, "What did you get? 547 00:32:05,704 --> 00:32:07,535 "What have we heard is going to happen? 548 00:32:07,624 --> 00:32:11,094 "It would be really good if you could get up to X by noon. 549 00:32:11,184 --> 00:32:13,618 "Try and get back, send somebody back to us by noon, 550 00:32:13,704 --> 00:32:15,376 "so we know what you've done. 551 00:32:15,464 --> 00:32:19,377 "Because we may have something new for you to do in the afternoon." 552 00:32:20,104 --> 00:32:22,220 (MAN PLAYING TUNE ON KAZOO) 553 00:32:22,464 --> 00:32:25,137 Please walk on the grass. 554 00:32:26,184 --> 00:32:28,220 Please walk on the grass. 555 00:32:29,304 --> 00:32:30,498 Hold it. 556 00:32:31,184 --> 00:32:34,176 Walk on the sides of the road if you're gonna walk through here. 557 00:32:34,264 --> 00:32:37,062 SCHOONMAKER: And one of my jobs was to try and get Chip Monck, 558 00:32:37,144 --> 00:32:40,739 who was lighting the show for the festival, 559 00:32:41,064 --> 00:32:44,101 to please give us some more light at times when there were groups 560 00:32:44,184 --> 00:32:46,140 that Wadleigh would scream to me, 561 00:32:46,224 --> 00:32:49,102 he would be bent over that �clair camera, 562 00:32:49,184 --> 00:32:51,903 "Get me some light, get me some light! I can't see them." 563 00:32:51,984 --> 00:32:54,703 I would go over to Chip and say, "Could we have a little more light?" 564 00:32:54,784 --> 00:32:57,935 And he would say, "I'm lighting for those people out there! 565 00:32:58,024 --> 00:32:59,696 "I'm not lighting for your movie!" 566 00:32:59,784 --> 00:33:02,139 (SINGING WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT) 567 00:33:15,024 --> 00:33:19,142 SCORSESE: The lighting is not taking into consideration the camera. 568 00:33:19,224 --> 00:33:21,374 It's lighting for a show, and that became a problem. 569 00:33:22,024 --> 00:33:25,221 That became a serious problem for the cameramen, Michael and everyone. 570 00:33:25,304 --> 00:33:29,092 She was trying to get Chip to give us more light, 571 00:33:29,184 --> 00:33:30,902 and he was trying to make a show. 572 00:33:30,984 --> 00:33:33,214 We kept asking the groups for their playlists. 573 00:33:33,304 --> 00:33:35,056 And generally, they would give them to us, 574 00:33:35,144 --> 00:33:37,021 "Here's the order and songs." So we'd say, "Oh, great!" 575 00:33:37,104 --> 00:33:39,334 "Well, these are the songs we wanna do." 576 00:33:39,424 --> 00:33:41,733 And then, we wouldn't start, and here would come a song 577 00:33:41,824 --> 00:33:43,815 that we would want to do that was number five, 578 00:33:43,904 --> 00:33:44,893 and they were opening with it. 579 00:33:44,984 --> 00:33:48,340 And this happened time and again, so we'd all scramble, you know. 580 00:33:48,424 --> 00:33:50,460 So after that, we sort of set a rule that 581 00:33:50,544 --> 00:33:53,775 we would start shooting just the first few seconds, 582 00:33:53,864 --> 00:33:57,413 and then I would either wave them off and say, "No, no, no, we're not gonna go," 583 00:33:57,504 --> 00:33:59,096 or we would continue. 584 00:33:59,384 --> 00:34:01,215 (SINGING) 585 00:34:03,984 --> 00:34:06,054 We couldn't afford just to film all the time. 586 00:34:06,144 --> 00:34:09,102 It was simply impossible because the groups never would go off. 587 00:34:09,184 --> 00:34:11,539 Once they came on, they didn't want to leave. 588 00:34:11,624 --> 00:34:14,616 Who had ever played before such a gigantic audience? 589 00:34:14,704 --> 00:34:17,298 So they just kept going and going, and going and going. 590 00:34:21,384 --> 00:34:23,295 Thelma and I and others had talked about 591 00:34:23,384 --> 00:34:25,978 how we would do these elaborate multiple image shoots 592 00:34:26,064 --> 00:34:28,453 and how they'd be coordinated and... 593 00:34:28,544 --> 00:34:30,182 -Wow! -With headsets. 594 00:34:30,264 --> 00:34:31,697 -With headsets. Right. -With headsets, 595 00:34:31,784 --> 00:34:34,537 and we would say, I had this idea that I'd say, 596 00:34:34,624 --> 00:34:38,253 "I'm on wide, go tight, go tight, you know, now pan. Everybody, pan." 597 00:34:38,344 --> 00:34:39,902 And the headsets failed. 598 00:34:39,984 --> 00:34:43,977 Or there'd be just horrible feedback that would just blow your ears out. 599 00:34:44,064 --> 00:34:45,179 Or no one could hear you, 600 00:34:45,264 --> 00:34:48,461 because, of course, these groups were incredibly loud. 601 00:34:48,544 --> 00:34:52,457 We had all these fantastic plans about how coordinated we would be, 602 00:34:52,544 --> 00:34:54,694 as if we were like a TV shoot. 603 00:34:54,784 --> 00:34:57,696 Again, it was more analogous to thinking about being 604 00:34:57,784 --> 00:35:01,618 in Beirut or something, you know, with the bombs going off 605 00:35:01,704 --> 00:35:03,695 and, "Pan left, pan..." "What?" 606 00:35:03,824 --> 00:35:05,780 Everybody was really in a separate silo, 607 00:35:05,864 --> 00:35:09,140 that phrase that we use today, but that's exactly where everybody was. 608 00:35:09,224 --> 00:35:11,135 But they were at least positioned, 609 00:35:11,224 --> 00:35:13,533 and they all had tremendous instinct. 610 00:35:23,260 --> 00:35:26,377 WADLEIGH: Remember, guys and gals out there, 611 00:35:26,460 --> 00:35:28,735 we've got two different physical objects, 612 00:35:28,820 --> 00:35:31,539 one, a soundtrack, and one, film. 613 00:35:31,620 --> 00:35:34,134 Nothing connects them at all. We're free-floating. 614 00:35:34,220 --> 00:35:37,178 So you've got to get them together, because you don't wanna put 615 00:35:37,260 --> 00:35:40,058 Santana's music with Hendrix's image. 616 00:35:40,140 --> 00:35:42,176 SCHOONMAKER: We hired a large group of people 617 00:35:42,260 --> 00:35:46,378 just to sync the dailies for months, by eye. 618 00:35:46,460 --> 00:35:50,169 We weren't able to get slates, we had "beep lights," 619 00:35:50,260 --> 00:35:52,694 but again, things weren't working and... 620 00:35:52,780 --> 00:35:53,769 (LAUGHING) 621 00:35:53,860 --> 00:35:55,088 It was a nightmare. 622 00:35:55,180 --> 00:36:00,208 Since there were no slates, no technical slates and no visual slates, 623 00:36:00,300 --> 00:36:06,250 we would rent a single-headed Moviola, and a soundtrack player. 624 00:36:06,340 --> 00:36:09,013 It did put us in a manic state at a certain point. 625 00:36:09,100 --> 00:36:10,931 We'd be so excited, we'd be running out, "We got it in sync!" 626 00:36:11,020 --> 00:36:12,419 We'd come back in, it was out again. 627 00:36:12,500 --> 00:36:17,813 This is what was going on 24 hours a day with a team of about 40 people 628 00:36:17,900 --> 00:36:20,778 in a space that was 2,400 square feet, 629 00:36:20,860 --> 00:36:23,374 where each editing table was literally touching 630 00:36:23,460 --> 00:36:25,132 another editing table. 631 00:36:25,220 --> 00:36:28,451 Once we got sync on all of... 632 00:36:28,540 --> 00:36:31,816 We only fed them every other day, because of... 633 00:36:31,900 --> 00:36:34,016 -They didn't get too big. -I mean, it was unreal. 634 00:36:34,100 --> 00:36:35,089 It was totally unreal. 635 00:36:35,180 --> 00:36:37,296 You'd get a phone call at 2:00 in the morning 636 00:36:37,380 --> 00:36:40,816 saying, "Where's the reel on Creedence Clearwater?" or whatever. 637 00:36:40,900 --> 00:36:43,733 But systematic labeling, the systematic logging, 638 00:36:43,820 --> 00:36:45,651 all of that were absolutely paramount. 639 00:36:45,820 --> 00:36:50,291 No computers, no Excel sheets, it all had to be done by hand. 640 00:36:50,380 --> 00:36:54,692 The festival was August 15, 16, 17. 641 00:36:54,780 --> 00:36:58,409 The syncing was not completed until 642 00:36:58,500 --> 00:37:01,936 towards the end of September, early October. 643 00:37:09,793 --> 00:37:12,910 PENNY STALLINGS: We kind of knew that if you bring Hendrix, 644 00:37:12,993 --> 00:37:16,827 if you bring Janis Joplin, if you bring The Who, 645 00:37:17,153 --> 00:37:19,792 the entire axis of the planet is going to tilt. 646 00:37:20,313 --> 00:37:22,190 Everyone's gonna try and get there. 647 00:37:22,273 --> 00:37:26,824 MICHAEL LANG: This idea of Woodstock happening because it was a free show, 648 00:37:26,913 --> 00:37:28,392 I think, is a little inaccurate. 649 00:37:28,473 --> 00:37:31,510 I think most people were coming looking for places to buy tickets. 650 00:37:31,913 --> 00:37:34,473 They couldn't buy tickets 'cause they weren't available anywhere. 651 00:37:34,553 --> 00:37:36,350 We never got the ticket booths in place. 652 00:37:36,993 --> 00:37:41,509 MAN: This is one thing that I was gonna wait a while before we talked about, 653 00:37:41,593 --> 00:37:44,426 but maybe we'll talk about it now so you can think about it. 654 00:37:44,513 --> 00:37:46,743 It's a free concert from now on. 655 00:37:50,193 --> 00:37:52,149 SCORSESE: At one point, somebody told me, "Marty, come here, take a look." 656 00:37:52,233 --> 00:37:54,064 So I went up, and I went to the lip of the stage, 657 00:37:54,153 --> 00:37:58,032 and I saw this massive sort of impressionist painting. 658 00:37:58,113 --> 00:38:00,991 I'm a paranoid New Yorker. There were times I got nervous, 659 00:38:01,073 --> 00:38:02,586 "What if something goes wrong?" 660 00:38:02,673 --> 00:38:03,662 (LAUGHS) 661 00:38:03,953 --> 00:38:06,990 Yeah, but the interesting thing about Woodstock 662 00:38:07,073 --> 00:38:09,029 is that it didn't, you see? 663 00:38:09,113 --> 00:38:10,785 That was the beauty of it, I think. 664 00:38:10,873 --> 00:38:15,230 What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000. 665 00:38:18,193 --> 00:38:19,342 JOHNNY WINTER: Started to say wall-to-wall people, 666 00:38:19,433 --> 00:38:20,912 but there weren't any walls. 667 00:38:20,993 --> 00:38:23,029 It was just everywhere, as far as you could see, 668 00:38:23,113 --> 00:38:24,705 -just people. -INTERVIEWER: Yeah. 669 00:38:24,793 --> 00:38:26,909 WINTER: People, mud and rain. 670 00:38:26,993 --> 00:38:29,461 The overall thing which was so big about it is 671 00:38:29,553 --> 00:38:33,068 you had so many people there of all races and colors, 672 00:38:33,353 --> 00:38:35,992 and there was no fights, and everybody got along, 673 00:38:36,073 --> 00:38:37,711 and it got organized somehow. 674 00:38:37,793 --> 00:38:39,306 LEE BLUMER: There have been many events 675 00:38:39,393 --> 00:38:42,351 that have gathered many people, you know, in the last 40 years, 676 00:38:42,433 --> 00:38:45,391 but realistically, they weren't all in the same headspace. 677 00:38:45,473 --> 00:38:48,271 CARABELLO: It was about our generation getting together and showing them 678 00:38:48,353 --> 00:38:50,787 that we didn't have to go to war, we didn't have to have jobs, 679 00:38:50,873 --> 00:38:53,387 we were gonna play music and turn the world around. 680 00:38:59,876 --> 00:39:03,186 MAN: (SHOUTING) No rain! No rain! No rain! 681 00:39:05,996 --> 00:39:08,112 Joe Cocker arrived. Joe went on and played, 682 00:39:08,196 --> 00:39:11,313 and I think we were gonna go on after him, and then, that's when the rain started. 683 00:39:11,916 --> 00:39:14,953 MONCK ON PA: All right, everybody, just sit down, wrap yourself up. 684 00:39:15,036 --> 00:39:17,072 We're gonna have to ride it out. 685 00:39:18,796 --> 00:39:20,548 Hold on to your neighbor, man. 686 00:39:20,636 --> 00:39:22,627 MAN: No rain! No rain! No rain! 687 00:39:22,716 --> 00:39:26,834 -No rain! No rain! No rain! No rain! -No rain! No rain! No rain! No rain! 688 00:39:26,916 --> 00:39:29,476 The next thing I know it was pouring down with rain, 689 00:39:29,556 --> 00:39:31,433 I mean, it's turned into a torrential rain. 690 00:39:36,396 --> 00:39:38,227 I remember 'cause I was freezing cold. 691 00:39:38,316 --> 00:39:41,114 I had just a tank top on, you know, with no sleeves. 692 00:39:41,476 --> 00:39:43,751 And it was very, very cold at first. 693 00:39:43,836 --> 00:39:48,466 And they brought in great, big cardboard boxes of scraps of material. 694 00:39:48,556 --> 00:39:50,194 It was like being on a refugee... 695 00:39:50,276 --> 00:39:52,915 I imagine what a refugee camp was like, you know. 696 00:39:52,996 --> 00:39:54,952 CHURCHILL: To me, it was a mini-tornado. 697 00:39:55,036 --> 00:39:57,231 -It was, yeah. -Yeah, they didn't say it was, 698 00:39:57,316 --> 00:40:00,388 but that was my introduction to tornadoes, of which I've been in two more. 699 00:40:00,476 --> 00:40:02,910 LYONS: They had a VIP area at the side of the stage 700 00:40:02,996 --> 00:40:04,190 where people could watch, 701 00:40:04,276 --> 00:40:06,790 groupies and press and whatever you like could watch the band, 702 00:40:06,876 --> 00:40:08,548 they had to close that down 703 00:40:08,636 --> 00:40:13,027 to take the strain off the stage, because it was slipping down the hill. 704 00:40:13,196 --> 00:40:14,788 And there is a clip in the movie 705 00:40:14,876 --> 00:40:17,470 of this young kid running down towards the camera, and he says, 706 00:40:17,556 --> 00:40:19,353 "This is the American government! They're doing this! 707 00:40:19,436 --> 00:40:20,869 "They've been spraying the clouds, man." 708 00:40:20,956 --> 00:40:21,945 BOY: I've got something to say. 709 00:40:22,036 --> 00:40:24,231 I want to know how come the fascist pigs have been seeding the clouds? 710 00:40:24,316 --> 00:40:25,669 Right, for the last hour and a half. 711 00:40:25,756 --> 00:40:27,269 'Cause I've seen the airplanes going over twice 712 00:40:27,356 --> 00:40:30,393 with all the smoke coming out of them, seeding the clouds, 713 00:40:30,476 --> 00:40:33,434 and I want to know, you know, why that stuff is going down, man, 714 00:40:33,516 --> 00:40:36,952 and why doesn't the media report that stuff to the people, man? 715 00:40:37,356 --> 00:40:39,312 And with current events, you really have to wonder 716 00:40:39,396 --> 00:40:41,466 if that, maybe, was the case. 717 00:40:41,556 --> 00:40:44,832 'Cause I know the FBI and the CIA were very, very nervous... 718 00:40:44,916 --> 00:40:47,430 -It's getting to conspiracy theories. -...of all that many people, you know. 719 00:40:47,516 --> 00:40:49,984 Technically, it was a horror, you know, 720 00:40:50,076 --> 00:40:54,115 (LAUGHING) because it stopped many things from working. 721 00:40:54,396 --> 00:40:56,990 The wiring was flooded. 722 00:40:57,076 --> 00:40:59,112 I remember, when we went on stage, 723 00:40:59,196 --> 00:41:02,472 in between the wires, it was like water. 724 00:41:03,476 --> 00:41:05,353 You can squeeze those two conductors together 725 00:41:05,436 --> 00:41:07,427 and get a monstrous zap. 726 00:41:07,516 --> 00:41:09,188 It goes through your mind, "Well, 727 00:41:09,276 --> 00:41:12,234 "this could be our best and last show here." 728 00:41:19,236 --> 00:41:21,545 There were just people every place, I mean, it just... 729 00:41:21,916 --> 00:41:24,146 Started to say wall-to-wall people, but there weren't any walls. 730 00:41:24,236 --> 00:41:26,670 It was just everywhere, as far as you could see, 731 00:41:26,756 --> 00:41:28,508 -just people. -INTERVIEWER: Yeah. 732 00:41:28,596 --> 00:41:30,314 People, mud and rain. 733 00:41:31,516 --> 00:41:32,790 GRACE SLICK: Some of them were even playing in it. 734 00:41:32,876 --> 00:41:34,355 And I thought, "Well, thank God you're young." 735 00:41:34,676 --> 00:41:36,985 Take off your clothes and play in the mud. 736 00:41:37,916 --> 00:41:39,907 HUGH HEFNER: I was glad I wasn't there, 737 00:41:39,996 --> 00:41:42,988 (LAUGHING) but I don't think I would've enjoyed all the mud. 738 00:41:43,996 --> 00:41:46,669 I'm very glad it happened, in hindsight, 739 00:41:46,756 --> 00:41:49,748 because it was a wonderful settling event, 740 00:41:49,836 --> 00:41:52,908 because you could look around and everybody looked the same. 741 00:41:52,996 --> 00:41:54,793 Drowned rats. 742 00:41:54,876 --> 00:41:56,594 That's really what was amazing about the whole thing, 743 00:41:56,676 --> 00:41:58,951 is that the conditions weren't good at all, 744 00:41:59,036 --> 00:42:01,106 but nobody seemed to care, you know. 745 00:42:12,832 --> 00:42:15,665 KRAMER: When I think back on Woodstock, I just think, 746 00:42:15,752 --> 00:42:17,105 "I'm gonna shut myself up in 747 00:42:17,192 --> 00:42:20,821 (CHUCKLES) "this little eight by eight portion of this tractor trailer, 748 00:42:21,232 --> 00:42:24,304 "and whatever happens, just try to get this stuff 749 00:42:24,392 --> 00:42:26,030 "on tape as best as I can." 750 00:42:26,112 --> 00:42:27,625 He couldn't see anything. 751 00:42:27,712 --> 00:42:30,272 All he could do was to listen and guess, 752 00:42:30,552 --> 00:42:33,305 "I hear something through that mike, it must be here." 753 00:42:33,392 --> 00:42:34,791 KRAMER: As far as the gear was concerned, 754 00:42:34,872 --> 00:42:37,545 literally, it was a 12-channel console 755 00:42:37,632 --> 00:42:39,623 with a couple of Shure mixers stacked on top of it, 756 00:42:39,712 --> 00:42:43,387 and one of the eight-track machines was in an orange crate. 757 00:42:43,472 --> 00:42:47,943 It was hung together with wire and string and chewing gum. 758 00:42:48,032 --> 00:42:52,184 And we were in the back corner of a tractor trailer, 759 00:42:52,272 --> 00:42:56,584 literally, maybe eight foot by eight foot, if that. 760 00:42:57,712 --> 00:42:59,862 And that's where I was stuck for the whole three days. 761 00:43:00,032 --> 00:43:04,344 He did not have 24 tracks that we have today, or 32 or 68. 762 00:43:04,512 --> 00:43:05,786 He had eight tracks, 763 00:43:05,952 --> 00:43:10,264 one of which was devoted, thankfully, to our sync signal. 764 00:43:10,352 --> 00:43:13,344 So, essentially, I'm dealing with seven channels of audio, 765 00:43:13,432 --> 00:43:15,343 which includes the audience 766 00:43:15,432 --> 00:43:18,026 and horns and vocals 767 00:43:18,112 --> 00:43:21,661 and drums and bass and guitars and everything else, so... 768 00:43:23,272 --> 00:43:25,388 (SINGING UNCLE SAM'S BLUES) 769 00:43:36,952 --> 00:43:40,831 After the first number, the first act, 770 00:43:40,912 --> 00:43:43,551 all communication was just in the toilet, 771 00:43:43,632 --> 00:43:46,544 because who knew what was going on after that? 772 00:43:46,632 --> 00:43:52,628 So we had to utilize the first song of each set 773 00:43:52,712 --> 00:43:58,947 as the sort of trial by fire and trial by error. 774 00:43:59,032 --> 00:44:01,785 (LAUGHING) It was complete chaos, but we did it. 775 00:44:01,872 --> 00:44:03,544 I mean, you know, that was the challenge. 776 00:44:12,293 --> 00:44:15,524 MAN 1: Ladies and gentlemen, the Sha Na Na! Harold, turn up the mike. 777 00:44:16,213 --> 00:44:17,965 (SINGING AT THE HOP) 778 00:44:24,253 --> 00:44:26,448 If we hadn't been at Woodstock, 779 00:44:28,213 --> 00:44:30,602 I don't think Sha Na Na would've had any of the success it's had. 780 00:44:30,693 --> 00:44:34,242 They were, I think, completely shocked when I booked them. 781 00:44:34,493 --> 00:44:37,405 I think that they didn't really take it seriously. 782 00:44:37,493 --> 00:44:40,451 I saw them at The Scene, Steve Paul's club, 783 00:44:40,533 --> 00:44:43,923 and I thought, "You know, what a great light moment this would be! " 784 00:44:44,013 --> 00:44:48,131 And you know, kind of a nod to the rock and roll roots that we all had, 785 00:44:48,213 --> 00:44:49,487 so I thought it would be fun for everybody. 786 00:44:49,573 --> 00:44:52,007 I mean, you can't get too heavy all the time, so... 787 00:44:52,093 --> 00:44:55,403 Well, I have to say that the whole Sha Na Na career, 788 00:44:56,053 --> 00:44:57,805 celebrating our 40th, 789 00:44:58,653 --> 00:45:01,167 may not have ever happened. 790 00:45:01,253 --> 00:45:05,326 So we owe a ton to it, I think, more than any other act that was there. 791 00:45:11,013 --> 00:45:14,608 I've seen the world, and I've become very comfortable 792 00:45:14,693 --> 00:45:16,888 and thankful that I had this career, 793 00:45:16,973 --> 00:45:19,726 and it wouldn't have happened without Woodstock. 794 00:45:19,813 --> 00:45:21,963 And there was only one Woodstock. 795 00:45:22,413 --> 00:45:24,244 (SINGING WON'T YOU TRY) 796 00:45:28,893 --> 00:45:30,565 And it did change my life in that sense that 797 00:45:30,653 --> 00:45:32,928 the music also fixed me a certain way, 798 00:45:33,133 --> 00:45:34,361 seeing it performed that way, 799 00:45:34,453 --> 00:45:39,163 being right there with that music, hearing the sound go through you. 800 00:45:39,253 --> 00:45:42,609 I'd always wanted to play music. I love music. 801 00:45:42,693 --> 00:45:46,242 And so it was a major factor 802 00:45:46,333 --> 00:45:49,325 in all my other work and my films and everything else. 803 00:45:49,413 --> 00:45:53,201 That was an extraordinary cathartic situation with that music. 804 00:45:54,293 --> 00:45:58,923 (STAMMERING) A very, very powerful, powerful feeling. 805 00:45:59,213 --> 00:46:01,124 (SINGING) 806 00:46:03,413 --> 00:46:06,803 FRED WEINTRAUB: Steve Ross and Ted Ashley had just taken over Warner Bros. 807 00:46:06,893 --> 00:46:10,363 And they had decided almost in a funny kind of way 808 00:46:10,933 --> 00:46:14,528 that with all the movies that they saw that they had when they took over, 809 00:46:14,733 --> 00:46:17,008 that maybe they were gonna sell the studio. 810 00:46:17,093 --> 00:46:19,971 And Woodstock basically saved the studio, 811 00:46:20,053 --> 00:46:22,806 and became the fact that they made movies 812 00:46:22,893 --> 00:46:25,851 'cause of what happened to the Woodstock film. 813 00:46:25,933 --> 00:46:29,289 Well, several writers wrote that Woodstock saved the studio. 814 00:46:29,373 --> 00:46:32,888 At the time, several, Variety and others, 815 00:46:32,973 --> 00:46:36,886 said that this strange hippie piece and that... 816 00:46:36,973 --> 00:46:38,725 And by the way, I will say, 817 00:46:38,813 --> 00:46:41,452 one good thing was that once it became a hit, 818 00:46:41,533 --> 00:46:43,012 I had a wonderful experience 819 00:46:43,093 --> 00:46:45,402 traveling around the world with the film, 820 00:46:45,493 --> 00:46:48,963 able to speak about its politics and cultural significance. 821 00:46:49,053 --> 00:46:53,444 I didn't think any of the musicians there expected it to be anything. 822 00:46:53,973 --> 00:46:55,406 And they just went along to play. 823 00:46:55,493 --> 00:46:57,927 And stoned as some of them were on one thing or another, 824 00:46:58,013 --> 00:46:59,924 there was no ulterior motive. 825 00:47:00,013 --> 00:47:03,926 And the audience turned up, not expecting anything. 826 00:47:04,013 --> 00:47:06,163 So the whole thing was a spontaneous thing, 827 00:47:06,253 --> 00:47:07,447 and the energy was there, 828 00:47:07,533 --> 00:47:09,205 and when you organize something, 829 00:47:09,293 --> 00:47:13,081 that thing can never be captured, never ever. 830 00:47:13,173 --> 00:47:14,606 That's the difference. 831 00:47:14,693 --> 00:47:16,843 And I think that's why people find it fascinating. 832 00:47:16,933 --> 00:47:21,051 (SINGING WON'T YOU TRY) 833 00:47:32,377 --> 00:47:33,810 LANG: It's been very gratifying, you know. 834 00:47:33,897 --> 00:47:36,855 I'm delighted to have been affiliated with it. 835 00:47:38,497 --> 00:47:43,332 It obviously took the energies of lots of people, 836 00:47:44,257 --> 00:47:48,296 and I'm certainly eternally grateful to all of them. 837 00:47:49,257 --> 00:47:50,246 It was a very special time, 838 00:47:50,337 --> 00:47:52,487 and I was thrilled to be a part of making it happen 839 00:47:52,577 --> 00:47:54,374 and thrilled to be a part of it happening. 840 00:47:54,737 --> 00:47:56,614 So, it's always been gratifying. 841 00:47:56,697 --> 00:47:59,530 I mean, I've spoken to lots of people over the years, 842 00:47:59,617 --> 00:48:02,290 and I can't tell you how many times people tell me 843 00:48:02,377 --> 00:48:04,129 that it changed their lives in a very positive way. 844 00:48:04,217 --> 00:48:05,696 So it's very gratifying. 845 00:48:05,777 --> 00:48:07,733 It's a great, great festival. 846 00:48:08,777 --> 00:48:10,369 One of the best there's ever been. 847 00:48:10,817 --> 00:48:14,207 I think it is the most important rock and roll show in history. 848 00:48:14,537 --> 00:48:20,931 It is the symbolism of Woodstock that is so much alive today 849 00:48:21,737 --> 00:48:23,648 that can be carried forward 850 00:48:23,737 --> 00:48:28,811 and it can be replicated, duplicated, implemented 851 00:48:29,377 --> 00:48:33,928 by every individual, whether they went, whether they saw it, 852 00:48:34,017 --> 00:48:37,214 whether they raise their hand saying they were there and they weren't. 853 00:48:37,297 --> 00:48:42,451 Those people who are encased in the spirit, infused with the spirit 854 00:48:42,537 --> 00:48:45,097 and the essence of what Woodstock represented. 855 00:48:45,257 --> 00:48:47,976 I mean, it did have an impact. It had an impact. 856 00:48:48,057 --> 00:48:50,969 And I think maybe it was because that many people gathered together. 857 00:48:51,057 --> 00:48:55,653 They were all kind of the hippie culture, if you like. 858 00:48:56,457 --> 00:48:58,129 And there wasn't that much trouble. 859 00:48:58,297 --> 00:49:01,175 We think the people of this country should be proud of these kids. 860 00:49:01,257 --> 00:49:04,135 Notwithstanding the way they dress or the way they wear their hair, 861 00:49:04,217 --> 00:49:05,889 that's their own personal business. 862 00:49:05,977 --> 00:49:09,731 But their inner workings, their inner selves, 863 00:49:09,817 --> 00:49:12,889 their self-demeanor cannot be questioned. 864 00:49:13,057 --> 00:49:14,854 I thought, "My God, we were just..." 865 00:49:15,537 --> 00:49:19,496 Everyone was so sweet and nice, and what was so threatening about that? 866 00:49:19,577 --> 00:49:23,013 But you know, people were smoking pot on camera, 867 00:49:23,097 --> 00:49:26,373 and there were people who were undressed in the middle of a meadow 868 00:49:26,457 --> 00:49:30,132 and bathing nude in a lake. But, come on, I mean, really. 869 00:49:30,217 --> 00:49:32,048 Everyone was just having a wonderful time. 870 00:49:32,137 --> 00:49:33,331 Woodstock was unique. 871 00:49:33,417 --> 00:49:38,013 It was a unique place, time, 872 00:49:39,577 --> 00:49:43,172 coming together of all of these various artists. 873 00:49:44,337 --> 00:49:47,568 The fact that economically, socially, 874 00:49:47,657 --> 00:49:52,447 it was a very, very traumatic time. 875 00:49:52,977 --> 00:49:57,129 And look at all these people. Half a million kids, 876 00:49:57,217 --> 00:50:00,926 adults, children coming together in one place at one time, 877 00:50:01,017 --> 00:50:04,612 becoming a huge city virtually overnight. Peaceful. 878 00:50:05,097 --> 00:50:07,657 The Summer of Love and Woodstock were the beginning 879 00:50:07,737 --> 00:50:13,846 of a decade of celebration that was almost Eden-like. 880 00:50:17,737 --> 00:50:20,774 And then we were kicked out of the garden. 881 00:50:22,337 --> 00:50:23,736 Over the years, 882 00:50:26,297 --> 00:50:29,050 there's a real sour grapes attitude 883 00:50:29,137 --> 00:50:33,892 towards Woodstock, towards the time, towards the sensibility. 884 00:50:34,377 --> 00:50:39,770 It's easy to make fun of because it was kind of the last time when 885 00:50:40,777 --> 00:50:45,532 a group so large, a demographic so large could be so sincere 886 00:50:46,097 --> 00:50:49,407 and uncynical about what they were doing. 887 00:50:49,577 --> 00:50:52,614 BLUMER: The legacy of Woodstock is the legacy of possibilities. 888 00:50:52,697 --> 00:50:57,896 What Woodstock proved is that human beings 889 00:50:57,977 --> 00:50:59,251 are capable of so much more 890 00:50:59,337 --> 00:51:01,976 than they ever, ever reach into themselves and do. 891 00:51:02,217 --> 00:51:06,688 I just think in any of these anniversaries, 892 00:51:08,297 --> 00:51:11,209 and I think as you get further away, now at 40, 893 00:51:11,297 --> 00:51:14,812 and you look back at it, it just shows the importance of it. 894 00:51:16,017 --> 00:51:17,006 It's still important. 895 00:51:17,537 --> 00:51:22,213 LANG: I think that they will get a glimpse of a time that was very hopeful, 896 00:51:22,337 --> 00:51:24,771 in a world that was very much like the one we're living in today, 897 00:51:24,937 --> 00:51:26,495 you know, unpopular war, 898 00:51:26,577 --> 00:51:29,614 and the Earth being wounded as it is today. 899 00:51:29,697 --> 00:51:34,248 All the things that the '60s sort of brought to the fore 900 00:51:35,897 --> 00:51:38,855 seem to be coming back to haunt us now, 901 00:51:38,937 --> 00:51:39,926 'cause we didn't listen then. 902 00:51:40,017 --> 00:51:42,736 Yes, it did have a huge impact on the world, I think. 903 00:51:43,617 --> 00:51:49,089 And I think the movie gives an example, a taste of what it was like in that era. 904 00:51:49,537 --> 00:51:50,811 CARABELLO: I think the legacy of Woodstock 905 00:51:50,897 --> 00:51:52,649 was that it was a peaceful event. 906 00:51:52,737 --> 00:51:55,570 That we showed, even though we were revolutionary and stuff, 907 00:51:55,657 --> 00:51:58,649 that we showed that you didn't need guns and you didn't need power. 908 00:51:59,057 --> 00:52:01,810 And all we needed was music and to dance and to love one another. 909 00:52:02,897 --> 00:52:04,569 (LAUGHING) Of course, it's changed nothing. 910 00:52:04,657 --> 00:52:09,572 We've still got world wars going on and poverty and one thing and another. 911 00:52:09,657 --> 00:52:11,852 But we thought we could change the world, yeah. 912 00:52:11,977 --> 00:52:12,966 We hoped we could. 913 00:52:13,057 --> 00:52:16,094 And I think, to a certain extent, we gave a lot of people hope. 914 00:52:31,236 --> 00:52:34,592 (SINGING SEE ME, FEEL ME) 915 00:52:38,876 --> 00:52:41,913 WADLEIGH: We had shot everything with 16mm, 916 00:52:41,996 --> 00:52:45,591 but we knew we wanted to go to the 70mm format, 917 00:52:45,676 --> 00:52:49,430 because we had experienced 70mm sound, 918 00:52:49,516 --> 00:52:52,349 where you had four channels behind the screen 919 00:52:52,436 --> 00:52:53,664 and two in the rear. 920 00:52:53,756 --> 00:52:55,235 So we wanted to take advantage of that. 921 00:52:55,316 --> 00:52:58,228 Well, we worked out with Eastman and other people 922 00:52:58,316 --> 00:53:00,750 how we could go from 16 mm, 923 00:53:00,836 --> 00:53:05,432 blow up to 70 in the most efficient way possible, 924 00:53:05,956 --> 00:53:07,355 which was a miracle in itself. 925 00:53:07,436 --> 00:53:10,712 Imagine! 16mm is just tiny. 926 00:53:10,796 --> 00:53:14,152 And here, we were going for a 70mm release. 927 00:53:14,236 --> 00:53:15,669 The KEMs enabled us to do that, 928 00:53:15,756 --> 00:53:19,829 because, how do you mark where you want an image to go? 929 00:53:20,836 --> 00:53:26,194 Let's say you don't even want a full frame of one of your 16mm images, 930 00:53:26,276 --> 00:53:27,470 let's say the left frame. 931 00:53:27,556 --> 00:53:29,990 But you want to select a portion of that. 932 00:53:30,076 --> 00:53:32,306 Well, we simply figured out an XY grid. 933 00:53:32,396 --> 00:53:35,786 For vertical numbers, we had one through 20, or whatever, 934 00:53:35,876 --> 00:53:36,945 one through 80. 935 00:53:37,036 --> 00:53:39,266 And then, horizontal numbers. 936 00:53:39,356 --> 00:53:42,109 And then, you would simply write, it was a description, 937 00:53:42,196 --> 00:53:44,630 from this point, this sized image. 938 00:53:44,716 --> 00:53:47,628 We then wanted to blow it up to the 70mm 939 00:53:47,716 --> 00:53:49,911 in that quadrant of the 70. 940 00:53:49,996 --> 00:53:52,464 And of course, it was not that precise. 941 00:53:52,556 --> 00:53:57,232 So we would give it to the optical people, they'd give it a try 942 00:53:57,316 --> 00:53:59,784 and then we'd do readjustments from there. 943 00:53:59,876 --> 00:54:01,434 The technicians at the time, 944 00:54:01,516 --> 00:54:05,031 these old guys who were now our age, right? 945 00:54:05,116 --> 00:54:06,435 Seventy years old and so on, 946 00:54:06,516 --> 00:54:09,633 who had been around the movie industry all their lives. 947 00:54:09,716 --> 00:54:12,674 They just loved it, and they were so helpful to us. 948 00:54:12,756 --> 00:54:15,987 They loved the challenge of being able to do, 949 00:54:16,076 --> 00:54:19,955 with rock and roll and these modern young kids, 950 00:54:20,036 --> 00:54:23,187 to take this technical challenge of how to get it to the theater 951 00:54:23,276 --> 00:54:24,550 so that it looks really cool. 952 00:54:24,676 --> 00:54:27,827 But from front to back, it was all an experimentation. 953 00:54:27,916 --> 00:54:31,704 No one had done what we had done with those machines 954 00:54:31,796 --> 00:54:33,787 or with the shooting up until that point. 955 00:54:33,876 --> 00:54:35,548 And of course they then devoted 956 00:54:35,636 --> 00:54:38,833 a whole issue of American Cinematographer to us. 957 00:54:38,916 --> 00:54:41,384 Many other technical journals just describing 958 00:54:41,476 --> 00:54:44,912 how, technologically, Woodstock had come about. 959 00:54:45,276 --> 00:54:49,474 But then, of course, what all of us were going for was an aesthetic. 960 00:54:49,556 --> 00:54:52,787 The technology was a means to producing 961 00:54:52,876 --> 00:54:56,152 what we felt was going to be a real involving experience. 962 00:55:05,873 --> 00:55:09,024 It broke all sorts of new ground, and the critics loved it, 963 00:55:09,113 --> 00:55:14,267 and, you know, we were able to really pioneer multiple image 964 00:55:14,633 --> 00:55:18,706 and a new way that rock and roll and documentaries were shot. 965 00:55:19,273 --> 00:55:21,264 We mentioned that, you know, Roger Ebert said 966 00:55:21,353 --> 00:55:23,264 maybe it was the greatest documentary ever made, 967 00:55:23,353 --> 00:55:24,945 and others did as well. 968 00:55:25,033 --> 00:55:26,466 I thought it was overwhelming. 969 00:55:27,393 --> 00:55:31,068 Yeah, I think one of the things that 970 00:55:32,153 --> 00:55:35,145 is most fortunate, is that 971 00:55:36,433 --> 00:55:38,071 that film exists 972 00:55:38,153 --> 00:55:43,944 that captured the real sense of that remarkable weekend. 973 00:55:45,273 --> 00:55:48,231 And it's a phenomenal documentary. 974 00:55:48,593 --> 00:55:51,710 Pauline Kael was head of the Critics Association, 975 00:55:51,793 --> 00:55:54,102 so she came in to see the movie, 976 00:55:54,193 --> 00:55:56,343 and she was no hippie at all. 977 00:55:56,433 --> 00:56:00,870 And we were all like, "Oh, my goodness, you know, she's a super-critic." 978 00:56:00,953 --> 00:56:05,947 Well, she loved the thing, I mean, just thought it was great filmmaking, 979 00:56:06,033 --> 00:56:10,265 and slow but surely, a number of people came and gave us... 980 00:56:10,353 --> 00:56:14,187 Not that we lacked the confidence, but I have to admit, I was really nervous, 981 00:56:14,273 --> 00:56:16,662 because it's like having a hit on your hands, 982 00:56:16,753 --> 00:56:21,031 and are you gonna blow it, you know, are you just gonna make it worse? 983 00:56:21,153 --> 00:56:23,223 What surprised me was how well they captured it. 984 00:56:23,913 --> 00:56:26,552 That that movie really, in three and a half hours, 985 00:56:26,633 --> 00:56:30,023 gave you a good sense of what that weekend was like for us. 986 00:56:31,553 --> 00:56:34,784 And it wasn't just from sort of a typical documentary point of view, 987 00:56:34,873 --> 00:56:36,909 it really brought you in. 988 00:56:36,993 --> 00:56:40,065 I think once it came and we saw it at the movies, 989 00:56:40,153 --> 00:56:43,270 you know, the opening of it, which we saw in New York, 990 00:56:43,353 --> 00:56:44,627 it was very interesting because 991 00:56:44,713 --> 00:56:46,749 it was the first time that they used three cameras. 992 00:56:46,833 --> 00:56:48,869 It's a damn good documentary, you know. 993 00:56:48,953 --> 00:56:50,625 It's a good piece of reporting. 994 00:56:50,713 --> 00:56:55,582 It's not journalistic, you know, to me, it doesn't appear to have a view, 995 00:56:56,153 --> 00:56:57,472 you know, from the director's point of view. 996 00:56:57,553 --> 00:56:59,669 Many people also talked about point of view, 997 00:56:59,753 --> 00:57:03,905 that it was a revolutionary way to convey filmmaking, 998 00:57:03,993 --> 00:57:08,509 you know, from the documentary and from the musical points of view, 999 00:57:08,593 --> 00:57:12,029 that it gave you a real sense of, not only being there, 1000 00:57:12,113 --> 00:57:14,752 but also making intellectual connections 1001 00:57:14,833 --> 00:57:17,950 and emotional connections between material 1002 00:57:18,033 --> 00:57:20,467 through the use of the multi image. 1003 00:57:20,553 --> 00:57:23,021 Because like, why would 300,000 or 120,000, 60,000, 1004 00:57:23,113 --> 00:57:26,742 70,000 people come to anything just because it's music? 1005 00:57:26,833 --> 00:57:31,145 I mean, was music all that important? I don't really think so. 1006 00:57:31,233 --> 00:57:33,827 People don't know. They don't know how to live, 1007 00:57:33,913 --> 00:57:34,948 and they don't know what to do, 1008 00:57:35,033 --> 00:57:37,627 and they think that if they can come here they can find out, 1009 00:57:37,713 --> 00:57:41,422 you know, what it is, or how to maintain with it. 1010 00:57:41,513 --> 00:57:43,424 It's just like people are very lost, I think. 1011 00:57:43,593 --> 00:57:45,982 I'd been up to the editing lot 1012 00:57:46,073 --> 00:57:47,552 when they were in New York several times 1013 00:57:47,633 --> 00:57:51,387 and watched this unbelievable amount of footage, 1014 00:57:51,473 --> 00:57:53,464 trying to get reduced into 1015 00:57:54,393 --> 00:57:57,305 what ended up being, I think, three and a half hours. 1016 00:57:57,393 --> 00:58:02,421 It was a monumental task, and they did a brilliant job. 1017 00:58:02,513 --> 00:58:05,107 Even though we ran out of film, you know, a bunch of times, 1018 00:58:05,193 --> 00:58:08,390 and had to conserve, not shoot so many acts 1019 00:58:08,473 --> 00:58:12,352 or at least the totality of some of the acts they should've shot, 1020 00:58:12,433 --> 00:58:15,789 but given the circumstance and given what they had to do, 1021 00:58:15,873 --> 00:58:17,465 it was phenomenal. 1022 00:58:17,553 --> 00:58:21,466 I was certainly bent on not just making a music film, 1023 00:58:21,553 --> 00:58:26,422 and as you know, every single song was put in for its lyrical value, 1024 00:58:26,513 --> 00:58:29,232 you know, not just its musical value. 1025 00:58:29,313 --> 00:58:31,269 We didn't select songs that were hits, 1026 00:58:31,353 --> 00:58:35,744 we tried to use the lyrics as poets would to tell a story. 1027 00:58:36,193 --> 00:58:38,423 CHURCHILL: In America, it was a gigantic movie, 1028 00:58:38,513 --> 00:58:40,868 and the theaters were full every night that it was on. 1029 00:58:40,953 --> 00:58:45,549 People started sitting down, but then, as soon as the image came on, 1030 00:58:45,633 --> 00:58:48,306 "Been a long time coming," or Sidney Westerfeld saying... 1031 00:58:48,393 --> 00:58:49,985 My name is Sidney Westerfeld. 1032 00:58:50,073 --> 00:58:54,225 I'm the owner of this antique tavern in Mongaup Valley, New York State. 1033 00:58:54,513 --> 00:58:56,663 The whole theater would get up en masse, 1034 00:58:56,753 --> 00:58:59,108 and they wouldn't sit down for three hours. 1035 00:58:59,193 --> 00:59:02,344 It was amazing. Just amazing. 1036 00:59:02,633 --> 00:59:05,625 Watching the film was really wonderful. 1037 00:59:05,913 --> 00:59:08,825 I was standing in the back, watching people's reactions 1038 00:59:09,193 --> 00:59:11,263 and the sequences, the edited sequences. 1039 00:59:11,353 --> 00:59:12,945 The music is so wonderful. 1040 00:59:13,033 --> 00:59:14,989 And people really reacted strongly. 1041 00:59:15,073 --> 00:59:20,909 It was almost like being at the festival again, in a way, 1042 00:59:21,073 --> 00:59:23,223 but in a more comfortable position. 1043 00:59:23,313 --> 00:59:24,302 (LAUGHS) 1044 00:59:24,393 --> 00:59:27,544 It had become another myth. 1045 00:59:27,633 --> 00:59:33,071 We had our own myth that we communally experienced. 1046 00:59:33,153 --> 00:59:36,111 And then there was the movie, which was magnificent. 1047 00:59:37,153 --> 00:59:40,623 It is the essence of Woodstock, too. 1048 00:59:41,033 --> 00:59:45,311 If another film director had been there, who was strictly interested in the music, 1049 00:59:45,393 --> 00:59:48,271 and who had simply done the hits, 1050 00:59:48,353 --> 00:59:54,826 you know, it really could have been quite a different sort of movie 1051 00:59:54,913 --> 00:59:57,381 that wouldn't have had the kind of outreach, 1052 00:59:57,473 --> 01:00:00,670 but because I was a documentarian and, 1053 01:00:00,753 --> 01:00:02,630 well, I had photographed Martin Luther King 1054 01:00:02,713 --> 01:00:07,548 and Bobby Kennedy and the great movers and shakers of the '60s 1055 01:00:07,633 --> 01:00:09,624 then, all of that kind of resonated, 1056 01:00:09,713 --> 01:00:14,229 and hopefully, showed up in the movie. 1057 01:00:14,553 --> 01:00:17,625 People were dancing in the aisles at this press screening, 1058 01:00:18,673 --> 01:00:21,028 which validated what we were saying. 1059 01:00:21,113 --> 01:00:24,583 And I'll never forget Ted Ashley, the head of Warner Bros., 1060 01:00:24,673 --> 01:00:27,585 came up behind me, and we were at such a war at that point that... 1061 01:00:27,673 --> 01:00:29,345 And he touched me on the shoulder, and I jumped, 1062 01:00:29,433 --> 01:00:31,742 and he said, "You were right." 1063 01:00:31,833 --> 01:00:33,152 Which was great. Yeah. 1064 01:00:33,233 --> 01:00:35,793 And then, of course, the film did become very successful. 1065 01:00:35,873 --> 01:00:40,185 STALLINGS: To look at those people, in their prime, now, 1066 01:00:42,073 --> 01:00:44,746 I certainly do think it holds up. 1067 01:00:45,113 --> 01:00:47,308 It's a wonderful document. 1068 01:01:51,525 --> 01:01:54,164 LISA LAW: The Hog Farm commune were a bunch of misfits 1069 01:01:54,485 --> 01:01:58,364 all living together, helping each other out, experiencing life together. 1070 01:01:58,445 --> 01:02:00,356 It was a beautiful commune. 1071 01:02:00,445 --> 01:02:02,675 WAVY GRAVY: We were approached by Stan Goldstein. 1072 01:02:02,765 --> 01:02:04,323 And Stan, "Well, how would you like to do 1073 01:02:04,405 --> 01:02:07,397 "this music festival in New York state?" 1074 01:02:07,485 --> 01:02:10,682 And we said, "Well, we're gonna be in New Mexico." 1075 01:02:10,765 --> 01:02:14,838 And he said, "That's all right. We'll fly you in an astro-jet." 1076 01:02:14,925 --> 01:02:17,644 And we figured he was like one toke over the line, 1077 01:02:17,725 --> 01:02:18,999 and we thought nothing of it. 1078 01:02:19,085 --> 01:02:21,519 The phone rings, and it's Bonnie Jean Romney 1079 01:02:21,605 --> 01:02:23,516 saying they want us to come with the Hog Farm 1080 01:02:23,605 --> 01:02:26,039 and to work there at Woodstock 1081 01:02:26,125 --> 01:02:28,923 and help with the food and all that stuff they do. 1082 01:02:29,005 --> 01:02:30,324 The Hog Farm, in a way, 1083 01:02:30,405 --> 01:02:33,078 set the vibe for all of these people. 1084 01:02:33,165 --> 01:02:39,161 So everybody kind of had the same easygoing, non-authoritarian attitudes. 1085 01:02:40,645 --> 01:02:43,159 WAVY GRAVY: We set up a free kitchen that we were feeding, 1086 01:02:43,245 --> 01:02:45,634 not the multitudes in any way, 1087 01:02:45,725 --> 01:02:48,717 but we were able to cover the people that were really stuck 1088 01:02:48,805 --> 01:02:50,158 and didn't have anything. 1089 01:02:51,325 --> 01:02:54,044 LAW: I got a truck and I went to the nearby farmers 1090 01:02:54,125 --> 01:02:56,764 and bought their entire farm. 1091 01:02:58,285 --> 01:02:59,718 I said, "Give me that row of cabbage. 1092 01:02:59,805 --> 01:03:01,875 "Give me that row of corn. Give me that row of tomatoes." 1093 01:03:02,205 --> 01:03:04,275 JEAN NICHOLS: After Woodstock got started 1094 01:03:04,365 --> 01:03:06,083 and we realized how many people there were, 1095 01:03:06,165 --> 01:03:10,124 we had to go back and forth to New York and get more food. 1096 01:03:11,325 --> 01:03:13,077 Having come totally unprepared 1097 01:03:13,165 --> 01:03:14,962 and having just turned 16, 1098 01:03:15,245 --> 01:03:18,317 I became hungry and was right there at the free kitchen. 1099 01:03:19,165 --> 01:03:21,554 We were doing maybe 5,000 people a meal 1100 01:03:21,645 --> 01:03:24,205 with bulgur wheat, with salad, stuff like that. 1101 01:03:24,285 --> 01:03:27,357 SIPP: If you were coming to eat, you were also gonna help out. 1102 01:03:27,445 --> 01:03:29,436 And I loved it. I loved being part of that group. 1103 01:03:29,525 --> 01:03:31,197 And they became my family, too. 1104 01:03:31,285 --> 01:03:34,914 The Hog Farm did set up what we called "freak-out centers." 1105 01:03:35,485 --> 01:03:40,001 People who had taken acid for the first time or something like that. 1106 01:03:41,085 --> 01:03:43,645 We already knew in the Hog Farm experience that 1107 01:03:43,725 --> 01:03:45,920 you could always talk somebody down. 1108 01:03:46,205 --> 01:03:49,561 We didn't want them giving the trippers Thorazine, 1109 01:03:50,085 --> 01:03:53,714 because if you give somebody Thorazine, it stops their trip and knocks them out. 1110 01:03:54,285 --> 01:03:55,877 We wanted them to finish their trip. 1111 01:03:56,765 --> 01:04:00,121 SIPP: As soon as somebody was able to be verbal again, 1112 01:04:00,205 --> 01:04:02,355 they would become the doctor for the next person. 1113 01:04:02,445 --> 01:04:05,881 What happened in these freak-out centers, at the free kitchen, 1114 01:04:05,965 --> 01:04:08,684 was that in the same way the early volunteers had come 1115 01:04:08,765 --> 01:04:11,598 and just pitched in and kind of become Hog Farmers, 1116 01:04:11,685 --> 01:04:14,358 the people who got over their demons with LSD 1117 01:04:14,445 --> 01:04:16,117 or came to the kitchen, 1118 01:04:16,205 --> 01:04:17,843 they basically wanted to stay and help. 1119 01:04:17,925 --> 01:04:19,802 And I think that's what happened at Woodstock 1120 01:04:20,605 --> 01:04:22,800 is that everybody respected everybody else. 1121 01:04:23,005 --> 01:04:25,565 Once you're a Hog Farmer, you're always a Hog Farmer. 1122 01:04:25,645 --> 01:04:29,194 Even if you were only a Hog Farmer for a week at Woodstock, 1123 01:04:29,285 --> 01:04:30,843 you're still always a Hog Farmer. 1124 01:04:43,473 --> 01:04:45,350 HEFNER: I came out to California 1125 01:04:46,313 --> 01:04:50,192 and in '68 and '69 did a show called Playboy After Dark. 1126 01:04:50,673 --> 01:04:53,710 It was a syndicated variety show. 1127 01:04:55,353 --> 01:04:58,425 The premise of which was that 1128 01:04:58,513 --> 01:05:01,789 instead of doing a variety show on a stage in front of an audience, 1129 01:05:01,873 --> 01:05:03,989 it appeared to be my apartment. 1130 01:05:04,073 --> 01:05:06,382 It appeared to be a party in my apartment. 1131 01:05:07,273 --> 01:05:11,346 And we devoted one entire show to Woodstock. 1132 01:05:11,873 --> 01:05:15,866 We got a response to the Vietnam War, we got the civil rights movement. 1133 01:05:16,313 --> 01:05:18,588 And all of that came together with the Summer of Love. 1134 01:05:20,833 --> 01:05:22,869 And that gave us Woodstock. 1135 01:05:22,953 --> 01:05:25,467 And Woodstock was a celebration of all of that. 1136 01:05:25,553 --> 01:05:28,192 The flower children, the hippies 1137 01:05:29,873 --> 01:05:33,548 and, you know, the corny 1138 01:05:34,713 --> 01:05:39,912 but still very pertinent notion of "Let's make love, not war." 1139 01:05:39,993 --> 01:05:44,191 And that, in combination with the music, is what Woodstock was all about. 1140 01:05:45,473 --> 01:05:46,588 As you may have overheard, 1141 01:05:46,673 --> 01:05:48,903 we're going to have a kind of a special evening tonight. 1142 01:05:48,993 --> 01:05:51,746 A lot of our people here, our guests, are into the contemporary scene 1143 01:05:51,833 --> 01:05:53,471 and a few of them, well ahead of it. 1144 01:05:53,633 --> 01:05:54,782 But to really top the evening off, 1145 01:05:54,873 --> 01:05:57,671 we're going to have clips from Woodstock, the film. 1146 01:05:57,753 --> 01:06:01,985 In preparation for that show, for Playboy After Dark, 1147 01:06:02,073 --> 01:06:07,431 and knowing that we were going to be devoting a show to Woodstock, 1148 01:06:08,673 --> 01:06:13,144 because I had not seen the movie and I had not been at Woodstock. 1149 01:06:13,233 --> 01:06:16,748 I was going with a young lady who was a regular on the show 1150 01:06:16,833 --> 01:06:18,346 named Barbi Benton, 1151 01:06:18,433 --> 01:06:21,345 a relationship that lasted for about eight years. 1152 01:06:21,433 --> 01:06:25,472 And we went out to a post-midnight show 1153 01:06:27,193 --> 01:06:31,903 and saw it the night before we did the Playboy After Dark show 1154 01:06:31,993 --> 01:06:34,632 so that I would be prepared to do the interview. 1155 01:06:35,193 --> 01:06:36,785 (ALL APPLAUDING) 1156 01:06:41,313 --> 01:06:45,943 All right, that is one brief clip of several we're going to show tonight 1157 01:06:46,033 --> 01:06:48,263 from what I consider to be 1158 01:06:48,353 --> 01:06:51,106 one of the really remarkable documentaries of our time, 1159 01:06:52,033 --> 01:06:56,709 Woodstock, which is a film by Mike Wadleigh, 1160 01:06:56,793 --> 01:06:59,068 who is here with us tonight. 1161 01:06:59,153 --> 01:07:01,144 -And I'm delighted to have you here, Mike. -Thanks a lot. 1162 01:07:01,233 --> 01:07:04,225 And most of you have probably not had a chance to see the film yet. 1163 01:07:04,313 --> 01:07:07,032 Barbi and I went in and saw it a few nights ago. 1164 01:07:07,113 --> 01:07:10,708 And I want to say in front, before we talk about the film, that... 1165 01:07:10,793 --> 01:07:12,112 I think you've all heard about Woodstock. 1166 01:07:12,193 --> 01:07:14,309 Woodstock was, as you know, 1167 01:07:14,393 --> 01:07:17,749 the most spectacular love-and-music festival of our time. 1168 01:07:18,593 --> 01:07:21,949 And the film that Mike and his people have managed to make from it 1169 01:07:22,833 --> 01:07:26,462 is unbelievable and, I think, really sets a new precedent 1170 01:07:26,553 --> 01:07:28,271 for what documentary films ought to be all about, 1171 01:07:28,353 --> 01:07:31,902 because both cinematically and from a sound point of view, 1172 01:07:32,673 --> 01:07:34,186 it's a real experience. 1173 01:07:34,273 --> 01:07:36,184 And it must've been something else trying to do it. 1174 01:07:36,513 --> 01:07:37,628 Well, it was, in a way, 1175 01:07:37,713 --> 01:07:40,352 but the best thing about making films like this 1176 01:07:40,433 --> 01:07:41,786 is that you're participating. 1177 01:07:41,873 --> 01:07:46,742 I mean, it's not a sense of doing a job or making a constructed Hollywood film, 1178 01:07:46,833 --> 01:07:50,223 where you have scripts and makeup people and all that. 1179 01:07:50,553 --> 01:07:52,862 I mean, you just go there, participate and do it. 1180 01:07:52,953 --> 01:07:57,981 And come away with a sense of vitality or a sense of reality of being there. 1181 01:07:58,553 --> 01:08:02,341 And in every way, we were trying to make an experience film, 1182 01:08:02,433 --> 01:08:03,707 the kind of substitute experience 1183 01:08:03,793 --> 01:08:05,863 for those people who were there or who weren't there. 1184 01:08:05,953 --> 01:08:06,942 It didn't matter. 1185 01:08:07,033 --> 01:08:09,149 I don't think anybody knew beforehand, however, 1186 01:08:09,273 --> 01:08:11,070 just how much of an experience it was going to be. 1187 01:08:11,313 --> 01:08:14,828 The whole phenomenon of opposition to the war 1188 01:08:14,953 --> 01:08:18,104 and a celebration of the music and a celebration of love 1189 01:08:20,753 --> 01:08:22,266 was one of a kind. 1190 01:08:22,353 --> 01:08:24,913 I mean, there's never been anything like it before or since. 1191 01:08:26,913 --> 01:08:31,543 And I think that it was a moment in history that is remembered clearly, 1192 01:08:31,873 --> 01:08:35,070 not only then, but now, or we wouldn't be talking about it. 1193 01:08:35,713 --> 01:08:38,432 HEFNER: And you, before the fact, must've had a notion 1194 01:08:38,513 --> 01:08:41,186 it was going to be something special or you wouldn't have been there, but... 1195 01:08:41,273 --> 01:08:45,346 Well, just like you saw in this film clip, I think what attracted most of us there 1196 01:08:45,433 --> 01:08:48,743 was the idea of holding a rock festival on a big farm. 1197 01:08:48,873 --> 01:08:51,785 I mean, it was like going to your uncle's farm on a weekend, okay, 1198 01:08:51,873 --> 01:08:52,862 (ALL LAUGHING) 1199 01:08:52,953 --> 01:08:55,751 and with a big transistor radio in the form of 36 rock groups. 1200 01:08:55,913 --> 01:08:57,869 HEFNER: The farm looked a little different after it was all over. 1201 01:08:57,953 --> 01:09:01,946 What, it was something between 400,000 and 500,000 people 1202 01:09:02,033 --> 01:09:03,591 congregated in the area. 1203 01:09:03,713 --> 01:09:06,989 Well, they say that better than half a million more 1204 01:09:07,073 --> 01:09:08,392 tried to make it there. 1205 01:09:08,473 --> 01:09:11,545 I understand they were blocking the highways 1206 01:09:11,633 --> 01:09:13,464 100 and more miles away 1207 01:09:13,553 --> 01:09:15,066 to stop the people from getting there. 1208 01:09:15,153 --> 01:09:16,427 Exactly. They closed... 1209 01:09:16,513 --> 01:09:18,822 The New York State Thruway is eight lanes wide, 1210 01:09:18,913 --> 01:09:22,189 and they closed it all off and turned them all back in the other direction. 1211 01:09:22,753 --> 01:09:26,268 I have a strong music connection. 1212 01:09:28,353 --> 01:09:30,025 And the show itself featured 1213 01:09:30,113 --> 01:09:32,991 a combination of both jazz and rock and roll. 1214 01:09:34,593 --> 01:09:38,632 And music was key to what the show was all about. 1215 01:09:38,713 --> 01:09:42,023 It was a variety show that had humor and some conversation, 1216 01:09:42,113 --> 01:09:43,387 but music was key. 1217 01:09:43,753 --> 01:09:46,426 One of the most remarkable things about this particular event, 1218 01:09:46,513 --> 01:09:49,346 beyond its just incredible size, 1219 01:09:49,713 --> 01:09:51,510 was also the fact that these kids got together 1220 01:09:51,593 --> 01:09:53,823 under rather incredible circumstances. 1221 01:09:53,913 --> 01:09:56,347 Because of the size of the crowd, 1222 01:09:57,153 --> 01:09:59,872 there was completely inadequate living conditions, 1223 01:09:59,953 --> 01:10:04,947 food, sanitation, and they also ran into bad weather. 1224 01:10:05,233 --> 01:10:06,985 No, I was glad I wasn't there, 1225 01:10:07,073 --> 01:10:11,225 (LAUGHING) but I don't think I would've enjoyed all the mud. 1226 01:10:11,313 --> 01:10:14,623 And the actual circumstances 1227 01:10:14,713 --> 01:10:18,547 of living there for those several days 1228 01:10:20,513 --> 01:10:23,949 was pretty rough and ready, and I'm not an outdoor guy. 1229 01:10:24,033 --> 01:10:28,982 I created the magazine and my life as a celebration of the great indoors. 1230 01:10:29,633 --> 01:10:33,706 But I think that the message, in terms of Woodstock, 1231 01:10:33,793 --> 01:10:35,226 was something I very much believed in. 1232 01:10:35,873 --> 01:10:39,991 And there was a very open and permissive attitude 1233 01:10:40,073 --> 01:10:43,270 towards both drugs and sex during the period they were staying there, 1234 01:10:43,353 --> 01:10:45,583 -and yet there was no violence. -Right. 1235 01:10:45,673 --> 01:10:47,948 -No violence at all. -Well... Excuse me, 1236 01:10:48,033 --> 01:10:50,752 it was like one of the guys says in the film. 1237 01:10:50,833 --> 01:10:53,825 There are a couple of adults arguing and one of them says to the other, 1238 01:10:53,913 --> 01:10:57,223 "Now, can you imagine 50,000 adults getting together 1239 01:10:57,313 --> 01:11:00,111 -"with beer at any place..." -Right. 1240 01:11:00,193 --> 01:11:01,626 (ALL CHUCKLE) 1241 01:11:01,713 --> 01:11:06,582 There was a beautiful interview with a local police officer 1242 01:11:07,393 --> 01:11:10,669 who said he thought the kids were swell and everybody was behaving themselves 1243 01:11:10,753 --> 01:11:12,186 and having a good time. 1244 01:11:12,273 --> 01:11:14,992 And the interviewer said, "Well, isn't that kind of a funny idea 1245 01:11:15,073 --> 01:11:16,552 "or a funny attitude for a cop?" 1246 01:11:16,873 --> 01:11:20,661 And he paused a moment, and he said, "I'm not a cop. I'm a police chief." 1247 01:11:20,753 --> 01:11:21,947 (ALL LAUGHING) 1248 01:11:22,033 --> 01:11:24,991 That got an applause, I must say, at the theater where I was at. 1249 01:11:25,073 --> 01:11:27,223 You know, the kind of things, including the rain 1250 01:11:27,313 --> 01:11:31,704 and the circumstances that they faced out there in the country, 1251 01:11:31,793 --> 01:11:33,863 not only didn't get in their way, it seemed to add to the fun. 1252 01:11:33,953 --> 01:11:35,671 Yeah. I mean, most people... 1253 01:11:35,753 --> 01:11:38,267 This is what it means to make this kind of a film. 1254 01:11:38,353 --> 01:11:41,231 Because most guys would've run for cover and put their cameras away. 1255 01:11:41,313 --> 01:11:44,908 But our people got out in the mud and, as you know, there are later shots 1256 01:11:44,993 --> 01:11:47,382 where the cameraman actually slides with his camera, 1257 01:11:47,953 --> 01:11:49,432 point-of-view shots. 1258 01:11:49,513 --> 01:11:52,107 But that was the whole thing that I mean about participating. 1259 01:11:52,193 --> 01:11:55,868 There wasn't a separation between the people who were making the film 1260 01:11:55,953 --> 01:11:57,466 and the people who were in front of the cameras. 1261 01:11:57,553 --> 01:12:00,192 I mean, it was all a rapport situation. 1262 01:12:00,273 --> 01:12:02,070 You were very good about showing both sides, 1263 01:12:02,153 --> 01:12:04,303 but an amazing number of people in the community, 1264 01:12:04,393 --> 01:12:07,783 the people there pitched in when they found out 1265 01:12:07,873 --> 01:12:09,352 that kids were there and didn't have anything to eat. 1266 01:12:09,433 --> 01:12:10,991 They pitched in and brought food to the kids, 1267 01:12:11,073 --> 01:12:12,984 set up additional sanitation facilities. 1268 01:12:14,273 --> 01:12:17,424 The love-festival aspect of it and the spiritual aspect of it, 1269 01:12:17,513 --> 01:12:18,741 -I think, did come across. -WADLEIGH: And... 1270 01:12:18,833 --> 01:12:20,869 HEFNER: How much footage did you shoot? 1271 01:12:20,953 --> 01:12:23,103 We shot a quarter of a million feet, 1272 01:12:23,193 --> 01:12:24,182 (ALL GASP) 1273 01:12:24,273 --> 01:12:26,309 which is about 120 hours. 1274 01:12:26,393 --> 01:12:30,272 And then the film is three hours long, but with all the multiple images added up, 1275 01:12:30,353 --> 01:12:31,866 it's really eight hours long. 1276 01:12:31,953 --> 01:12:33,784 So, we used a lot of footage. 1277 01:12:34,913 --> 01:12:37,746 Well, the one thing that I alluded to at the beginning 1278 01:12:37,833 --> 01:12:40,347 that I wanna really say again is that I think that this, 1279 01:12:40,433 --> 01:12:42,742 not only is the most remarkable documentary 1280 01:12:42,833 --> 01:12:44,266 done on this particular subject 1281 01:12:45,233 --> 01:12:49,670 that I have ever seen, but I think it also sets a new precedent 1282 01:12:49,753 --> 01:12:53,302 in terms of what one can expect in the way of documentaries in the future 1283 01:12:53,393 --> 01:12:55,827 in terms of excellence of photography and sound. 1284 01:12:56,313 --> 01:12:58,747 -Thank you. -This is the first time that we've had 1285 01:12:59,233 --> 01:13:03,749 a chance to meet, and I want to thank you for coming this evening 1286 01:13:03,833 --> 01:13:06,666 and for bringing this film and allowing us to show it on the air. 1287 01:13:07,393 --> 01:13:08,667 Because I think that the kids enjoyed it here 1288 01:13:08,753 --> 01:13:10,823 and the folks at home enjoyed it. 1289 01:13:10,913 --> 01:13:16,351 And I want to personally recommend to everyone, young and old, 1290 01:13:16,473 --> 01:13:19,510 this film which I think is one of the most important motion pictures 1291 01:13:19,593 --> 01:13:21,151 you're going to see in quite a while. 1292 01:13:21,233 --> 01:13:25,624 One of the things that is most fortunate 1293 01:13:25,793 --> 01:13:32,187 is that that film exists that captured the real sense 1294 01:13:32,273 --> 01:13:35,470 of that remarkable weekend. 1295 01:13:36,993 --> 01:13:40,542 And it's a phenomenal documentary. 1296 01:14:01,436 --> 01:14:05,065 I think the two seminal events from 1969 1297 01:14:05,156 --> 01:14:08,193 were the moon landing and Woodstock, one could say. 1298 01:14:08,436 --> 01:14:11,906 And they were both such romantic, improbable, 1299 01:14:12,036 --> 01:14:14,630 glorious, innocent events in some sense. 1300 01:14:14,716 --> 01:14:16,115 We were in Bethel. 1301 01:14:16,676 --> 01:14:21,545 By that point, we took over a small motel for a while. 1302 01:14:21,636 --> 01:14:24,833 I got us a television so we could watch the moon landing. 1303 01:14:25,436 --> 01:14:27,267 WADLEIGH: I certainly remember where I was. 1304 01:14:27,356 --> 01:14:30,314 I was making a mountain-climbing film at the time, way out in the mountains, 1305 01:14:30,396 --> 01:14:31,465 and I came out of the mountains 1306 01:14:31,556 --> 01:14:34,514 just in time to see the guys landing on the moon. 1307 01:14:34,596 --> 01:14:38,509 And we were in a bar in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 1308 01:14:38,596 --> 01:14:41,633 And, God! We'd go out and look up at the real moon 1309 01:14:41,716 --> 01:14:44,389 and look at the TV and think, "Oh, my God! 1310 01:14:44,476 --> 01:14:46,148 "Isn't this just remarkable?" 1311 01:14:47,396 --> 01:14:49,671 NEIL ARMSTRONG ON RADIO: That's one small step for man, 1312 01:14:52,316 --> 01:14:54,989 one giant leap for mankind. 1313 01:14:56,436 --> 01:14:58,313 BUZZ ALDRIN ON RADIO: That looks beautiful from here, Neil. 1314 01:14:58,396 --> 01:15:02,435 STALLINGS: Being this group of conspiracy-theory, 1315 01:15:02,516 --> 01:15:06,065 counterculture, nothing-is-what-you-see people, 1316 01:15:06,636 --> 01:15:08,388 no one believed it was happening. 1317 01:15:08,476 --> 01:15:12,185 And I had gotten them the television to watch a thing that 1318 01:15:12,276 --> 01:15:14,506 they felt was being done in a sound studio. 1319 01:15:14,756 --> 01:15:16,474 But that was kind of wonderful, too. 1320 01:15:16,676 --> 01:15:18,268 WADLEIGH: And then just a little while later, 1321 01:15:18,356 --> 01:15:20,870 there I was, standing on the stage at Woodstock. 1322 01:15:20,956 --> 01:15:24,835 And I remember when each day the New York Times banner came in, 1323 01:15:24,916 --> 01:15:26,144 and we got the biggest... 1324 01:15:26,236 --> 01:15:29,990 We got as much width as the moon landing got, right. 1325 01:15:30,076 --> 01:15:33,068 And of course, it's a famous story that the New York Times 1326 01:15:33,156 --> 01:15:36,626 carefully analyzes whether you're worth the whole width or not. 1327 01:15:36,716 --> 01:15:39,992 Well, we got the whole width. 1328 01:15:40,076 --> 01:15:42,306 And I just remember, 1329 01:15:42,516 --> 01:15:45,155 for me, standing there looking at the moon and so on 1330 01:15:45,236 --> 01:15:47,830 and standing there looking at all those people 1331 01:15:47,916 --> 01:15:50,146 and those incredible musicians. 1332 01:15:50,236 --> 01:15:54,195 And isn't it interesting that, equally, we have not had another Woodstock 1333 01:15:54,316 --> 01:15:56,147 and we have not had another moon landing. 1334 01:15:56,236 --> 01:15:59,990 And maybe, again, the economics of it all and the dream 1335 01:16:00,076 --> 01:16:04,786 and the idealism and so on that drove both events, I would say, 1336 01:16:06,316 --> 01:16:09,672 maybe now with money being so much tighter 1337 01:16:09,756 --> 01:16:13,590 and with calculation being so much tighter, 1338 01:16:13,676 --> 01:16:18,704 it's harder to launch those kind of idealistic endeavors. 1339 01:16:18,796 --> 01:16:20,070 But, boy, were they great. 1340 01:16:35,233 --> 01:16:36,951 The Woodstock Festival was going to take place 1341 01:16:37,033 --> 01:16:39,831 in Woodstock, New York, till they were kicked out. 1342 01:16:39,993 --> 01:16:42,951 Well, there wasn't an original location until down the road. 1343 01:16:43,033 --> 01:16:44,182 I mean, we were looking for quite a while. 1344 01:16:44,273 --> 01:16:45,308 BELL: They had been moving around. 1345 01:16:45,393 --> 01:16:46,428 I mean, these festival guys, 1346 01:16:46,513 --> 01:16:49,710 you know, had had three prior locations 1347 01:16:49,793 --> 01:16:53,183 announced on the radio, starting in March of 1969. 1348 01:16:53,313 --> 01:16:57,465 We finally settled on Wallkill at the end of March, 1349 01:16:59,113 --> 01:17:00,671 out of desperation, really. 1350 01:17:00,753 --> 01:17:02,584 And it was a site that I always hated. 1351 01:17:02,673 --> 01:17:06,427 It had the virtue of being there and being available, so we went for it. 1352 01:17:06,513 --> 01:17:07,912 We lost Wallkill. 1353 01:17:07,993 --> 01:17:09,267 It was kind of miraculous the way that happened. 1354 01:17:09,353 --> 01:17:14,905 We lost Wallkill on the 14th or the 15th when the town council decided 1355 01:17:14,993 --> 01:17:17,791 that they were not going to approve our permit, 1356 01:17:17,873 --> 01:17:19,909 the permit they invented for this event. 1357 01:17:19,993 --> 01:17:24,748 And I found a better one on the 16th, a day later. 1358 01:17:24,833 --> 01:17:29,623 Well, we wound up there because somebody named Elliot Tiber called me 1359 01:17:29,713 --> 01:17:32,830 and said, "I have a site and a permit, and we want you." 1360 01:17:33,153 --> 01:17:36,190 Met Elliot at the El Monaco Motel 1361 01:17:37,033 --> 01:17:40,025 right in the middle of the town of White Lake. 1362 01:17:40,233 --> 01:17:44,988 And Elliot led us down to a field behind the motel 1363 01:17:45,073 --> 01:17:50,193 that he and his parents operated, which from the rim looked beautiful. 1364 01:17:50,273 --> 01:17:54,824 As we walked down into it, it began to get squishy, 1365 01:17:54,913 --> 01:17:57,632 (CHUCKLING) and then it got squishier, 1366 01:17:57,713 --> 01:18:00,671 and then we wound up in mud to our knees. 1367 01:18:00,753 --> 01:18:04,143 And Elliot had bugged out, Elliot had simply disappeared. 1368 01:18:04,313 --> 01:18:05,905 And that was the end of that site. 1369 01:18:06,073 --> 01:18:09,622 MEL LAWRENCE: I received a call through Elliot Tiber, 1370 01:18:09,713 --> 01:18:13,911 who said that there was this man, a fixer, 1371 01:18:14,273 --> 01:18:15,706 someone who's a go-between, 1372 01:18:15,793 --> 01:18:19,388 who puts this guy together with this guy and they make a deal. 1373 01:18:19,473 --> 01:18:21,589 And he knew a man who had a farm. 1374 01:18:22,033 --> 01:18:24,991 We got in this big Buick and we went driving through the countryside. 1375 01:18:25,153 --> 01:18:29,943 Michael and I drove up and we got there and we met Max. 1376 01:18:30,073 --> 01:18:34,828 And we drove out in two cars, the fixer and Max in one car, 1377 01:18:34,913 --> 01:18:37,063 Michael and I in the other, 1378 01:18:37,153 --> 01:18:41,192 and he took us to this enormous field, very flat but very big. 1379 01:18:41,313 --> 01:18:43,543 And there it is. 1380 01:18:43,833 --> 01:18:47,223 And, like, I looked at Michael and I said, "Boy, you know, it's big, 1381 01:18:47,313 --> 01:18:49,383 "but this would make a parking lot. 1382 01:18:49,473 --> 01:18:52,192 "We need some elevation, we need something, 1383 01:18:52,273 --> 01:18:54,503 "because people have got to see the stage." 1384 01:18:54,593 --> 01:19:00,225 And we said, "Do you have anything that has some roll to it, some contour?" 1385 01:19:00,313 --> 01:19:04,545 "I have a field, alfalfa." 1386 01:19:04,633 --> 01:19:07,067 And we go out and look at it. 1387 01:19:07,153 --> 01:19:11,908 So we drove out, and it was raining, drizzling, 1388 01:19:11,993 --> 01:19:15,542 and there was a mist everywhere, 1389 01:19:15,633 --> 01:19:19,706 and we were on the top of what is now this famous amphitheater, you know. 1390 01:19:19,793 --> 01:19:23,024 And the mist started to rise, and there was the lake, 1391 01:19:23,113 --> 01:19:26,264 and here was this perfect amphitheater. 1392 01:19:26,353 --> 01:19:29,823 LANG: There it was. We stopped the car. You know, "This is it." 1393 01:19:29,913 --> 01:19:32,507 Sort of we were congratulating each other, 1394 01:19:32,593 --> 01:19:34,982 and then Michael took Max to the side 1395 01:19:35,073 --> 01:19:39,032 and very quickly they made a deal. 1396 01:19:39,513 --> 01:19:41,105 And he'd heard what happened to us in Wallkill 1397 01:19:41,193 --> 01:19:43,229 and thought that we were railroaded. 1398 01:19:43,313 --> 01:19:46,385 And so he was politically, if you will, on our side. 1399 01:19:47,753 --> 01:19:50,472 ...and felt that we had been treated unfairly, 1400 01:19:50,553 --> 01:19:53,863 that a special case was being made, 1401 01:19:53,993 --> 01:19:57,906 and that he was gonna stand up for what was right. 1402 01:19:58,233 --> 01:20:01,862 Max and I went off into the field, 1403 01:20:01,953 --> 01:20:04,023 and I said, you know, "This is it. 1404 01:20:04,113 --> 01:20:08,470 "We really want your field. This is where we need to be." 1405 01:20:08,553 --> 01:20:10,305 And we made a deal, right there on the field. 1406 01:20:10,393 --> 01:20:16,343 GOLDSTEIN: Max was a Yankee in the very best meaning of the words 1407 01:20:16,433 --> 01:20:19,584 and a true believer in the American dream. 1408 01:20:20,313 --> 01:20:22,952 I'm a farmer. I don't know... 1409 01:20:23,033 --> 01:20:24,751 (AUDIENCE CHEERING) 1410 01:20:27,433 --> 01:20:32,587 I don't know how to speak to 20 people at one time, let alone a crowd like this, 1411 01:20:35,153 --> 01:20:39,192 but I think you people have proven something to the world. 1412 01:20:39,793 --> 01:20:43,547 Not only to the town of Bethel or Sullivan County or New York State, 1413 01:20:43,633 --> 01:20:45,863 you've proven something to the world. 1414 01:20:45,953 --> 01:20:49,423 The important thing that you've proven to the world 1415 01:20:49,513 --> 01:20:51,663 is that a half a million kids, 1416 01:20:51,753 --> 01:20:55,382 and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are, 1417 01:20:55,473 --> 01:20:58,749 a half a million young people can get together 1418 01:20:58,833 --> 01:21:04,032 and have three days of fun and music, and have nothing but fun and music, 1419 01:21:04,113 --> 01:21:06,024 and God bless you for it! 1420 01:21:09,713 --> 01:21:10,862 LANG: Max was an amazing guy. 1421 01:21:10,953 --> 01:21:15,708 Max was, you know, one of those sort of real American 1422 01:21:18,793 --> 01:21:20,670 wholegrain kinds of guys, 1423 01:21:21,513 --> 01:21:25,506 very straight, very honest, very conservative in a lot of ways, 1424 01:21:26,833 --> 01:21:28,824 but a real man of his word 1425 01:21:30,073 --> 01:21:35,705 and someone who thought that people had the right to do 1426 01:21:35,793 --> 01:21:36,782 whatever they wanted to do 1427 01:21:36,873 --> 01:21:40,149 as long as it was not adversely affecting the people around them. 1428 01:21:55,429 --> 01:21:58,785 I think that turning point was when, by Wednesday, I think, 1429 01:21:58,869 --> 01:22:01,906 we had 40,000 or 50,000 kids sitting in the field. 1430 01:22:01,989 --> 01:22:05,584 So, we'd sold 120,000 tickets in advance, 1431 01:22:05,669 --> 01:22:07,819 and if that's any indication of what's coming, 1432 01:22:07,909 --> 01:22:11,265 we knew we were well over the 200,000 we'd planned on. 1433 01:22:11,349 --> 01:22:13,101 I think the turning point, actually, 1434 01:22:13,189 --> 01:22:16,943 for the whole thing was when it got near to the festival, 1435 01:22:17,029 --> 01:22:20,305 and people then started to break down the fences that they'd put up, 1436 01:22:20,389 --> 01:22:22,539 and they had to declare it a free festival. 1437 01:22:22,629 --> 01:22:24,859 MONCK ON PA: It's a free concert from now on. 1438 01:22:24,949 --> 01:22:26,860 (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) 1439 01:22:28,949 --> 01:22:32,783 CHURCHILL: I think the first time I realized something was going on was, 1440 01:22:32,869 --> 01:22:34,985 you could only get in by helicopter. 1441 01:22:35,069 --> 01:22:38,061 And I suddenly thought, "What's this?" And then you flew over the audience. 1442 01:22:38,149 --> 01:22:39,582 It was just amazing to see. 1443 01:22:39,669 --> 01:22:42,820 Up until that point, it was just another gig, another festival. 1444 01:22:42,909 --> 01:22:45,503 Around this period, there were a lot of festivals going on, 1445 01:22:45,589 --> 01:22:49,264 and all the groups were traveling to these festivals, you know, 1446 01:22:49,349 --> 01:22:51,909 and you'd see everybody at all the festivals. 1447 01:22:51,989 --> 01:22:55,106 It was like a bunch of gypsies going around at the time, so, 1448 01:22:55,189 --> 01:22:56,668 actually, when Woodstock happened, 1449 01:22:56,749 --> 01:22:58,979 it was another festival that was going on. 1450 01:22:59,069 --> 01:23:00,627 Nobody knew that it would be 1451 01:23:00,709 --> 01:23:03,507 the size or the volume of people that it was. 1452 01:23:03,589 --> 01:23:04,658 They were all on pot. 1453 01:23:04,749 --> 01:23:06,501 -INTERVIEWER: Well, whatever it is... -It never should have happened. 1454 01:23:06,589 --> 01:23:09,183 If pot makes them happy and no trouble, maybe we ought to put 1455 01:23:09,269 --> 01:23:10,463 -all the adults on pot. -How about the morals? 1456 01:23:10,549 --> 01:23:13,063 You want a 15-year-old girl sleeping in the field in a tent? 1457 01:23:13,149 --> 01:23:15,185 What are you, out of your mind? It never should have happened. 1458 01:23:15,269 --> 01:23:18,545 Do you feel bad about the kids who were killed in Vietnam? 1459 01:23:18,629 --> 01:23:20,426 -This has nothing to do with Vietnam. -That's the same thing. 1460 01:23:20,509 --> 01:23:22,227 Nothing at all to do with it. There's no comparison. 1461 01:23:22,309 --> 01:23:25,858 I thought that this was going to sum up the generation, 1462 01:23:26,509 --> 01:23:28,625 that it had an opportunity to do that. 1463 01:23:28,709 --> 01:23:31,985 Even when it was only gonna be 50,000 or 100,000 people that came there, 1464 01:23:32,069 --> 01:23:33,422 I still thought, "Wow! 1465 01:23:33,509 --> 01:23:35,739 "Being on a farm, going back to land, 1466 01:23:35,829 --> 01:23:38,502 "Woodstock, you know, all this mix 1467 01:23:38,589 --> 01:23:42,787 "and these great musicians who were singing political songs, you know. " 1468 01:23:42,869 --> 01:23:45,429 Anyway, this is an organizing song, 1469 01:23:45,509 --> 01:23:46,942 and I was happy to find out 1470 01:23:47,029 --> 01:23:49,827 that after David had been in jail for two and a half weeks, 1471 01:23:49,909 --> 01:23:52,981 he already had a very, very good hunger strike going 1472 01:23:53,069 --> 01:23:56,948 with 42 federal prisoners, none of whom were draft people, so... 1473 01:23:57,029 --> 01:23:58,906 WADLEIGH: These were not just pop groups. 1474 01:23:58,989 --> 01:24:00,627 I'm very happy to say 1475 01:24:00,709 --> 01:24:03,542 we think the people of this country should be proud of these kids. 1476 01:24:03,629 --> 01:24:06,507 Notwithstanding the way they dress or the way they wear their hair, 1477 01:24:06,589 --> 01:24:08,261 that's their own personal business. 1478 01:24:08,349 --> 01:24:12,137 But their inner workings, their inner selves, 1479 01:24:12,229 --> 01:24:15,380 their self-demeanor cannot be questioned. 1480 01:24:15,469 --> 01:24:18,063 They can't be questioned as good American citizens. 1481 01:24:18,149 --> 01:24:20,868 That's kind of surprising coming from a cop. 1482 01:24:20,949 --> 01:24:23,144 I'm not a cop. I'm a Chief of Police. 1483 01:24:23,389 --> 01:24:25,949 Festivals happened and big shows happened 1484 01:24:27,029 --> 01:24:30,704 and corporate rock happened, but that was a special time. 1485 01:24:30,789 --> 01:24:34,065 Nobody got rich at Woodstock. Nobody. That's cool. 1486 01:24:46,208 --> 01:24:48,199 We had all agreed 1487 01:24:48,288 --> 01:24:52,247 that bringing over this new KEM, the KEM editing machine 1488 01:24:52,608 --> 01:24:54,564 from Frankfurt, Germany, 1489 01:24:54,648 --> 01:24:58,118 was an absolutely essential ingredient to the whole thing. 1490 01:24:58,208 --> 01:25:01,564 Yeah, that enabled the multiple images to be cut effectively 1491 01:25:01,648 --> 01:25:05,243 so you could preview them without going to an optical stage, 1492 01:25:05,328 --> 01:25:07,125 which none of us could afford to do. 1493 01:25:07,208 --> 01:25:09,039 At the time, we didn't have that much money, 1494 01:25:09,128 --> 01:25:12,245 and it was a lot of money for me to lay out. 1495 01:25:12,328 --> 01:25:13,602 I think it was 15 grand 1496 01:25:13,688 --> 01:25:14,803 -or something like that. -Yeah, 15 grand. 1497 01:25:14,888 --> 01:25:18,085 In those days, $15,000 was a great deal of money. 1498 01:25:18,168 --> 01:25:22,286 And I was really interested, intellectually, in multiple image work, 1499 01:25:22,368 --> 01:25:25,326 and also trying to figure out how to beat the bank, 1500 01:25:25,408 --> 01:25:30,277 how to do it simply and effectively and economically. 1501 01:25:30,368 --> 01:25:34,441 So I'd read about this company that had designed 1502 01:25:34,528 --> 01:25:36,484 this three-headed monster. 1503 01:25:36,568 --> 01:25:37,921 Three, I mean, you could put up 1504 01:25:38,008 --> 01:25:42,399 three images and one soundtrack, or two soundtracks and two images. 1505 01:25:42,488 --> 01:25:46,003 It was just a breakthrough for us, particularly for me 1506 01:25:46,088 --> 01:25:47,441 in the documentary footage, 1507 01:25:47,528 --> 01:25:50,486 it meant I could buzz through large quantities of footage. 1508 01:25:50,568 --> 01:25:53,765 I could have three images up all the time 1509 01:25:53,848 --> 01:25:57,318 and be looking for ways to intercut things. 1510 01:25:57,768 --> 01:26:00,043 It struck me as just a magnificent machine, 1511 01:26:00,128 --> 01:26:02,278 so we particularly went to the factory, 1512 01:26:02,368 --> 01:26:05,599 and we got the very first one that came to America. 1513 01:26:05,688 --> 01:26:08,202 -And... -I'm gonna tell that little story, 1514 01:26:08,288 --> 01:26:10,165 because it's really hilarious. 1515 01:26:10,248 --> 01:26:15,527 Francis was building, in San Francisco, American Zoetrope. 1516 01:26:15,608 --> 01:26:19,396 He had all of his dubbing machines in San Francisco at Zoetrope, 1517 01:26:19,488 --> 01:26:22,366 but he did not have any of the editing machines. 1518 01:26:22,448 --> 01:26:25,724 Peter Wolfert, at KEM in Frankfurt, 1519 01:26:25,808 --> 01:26:30,563 had said that one of his machines was going to land at JFK 1520 01:26:30,648 --> 01:26:33,685 on a pallet, you know, like tomorrow morning. 1521 01:26:33,768 --> 01:26:36,407 And I got on the phone with Francis 1522 01:26:36,488 --> 01:26:41,357 and said, "We would like to rent your KEM machine, 1523 01:26:41,448 --> 01:26:42,642 "because we understand it's in New York, 1524 01:26:42,728 --> 01:26:45,162 "and we're doing this film called Woodstock, and blah, blah, blah." 1525 01:26:45,248 --> 01:26:46,727 And he said, "No, you can't possibly." 1526 01:26:46,808 --> 01:26:49,163 I said, "Francis, Francis! " And I begged, begged. 1527 01:26:49,248 --> 01:26:52,763 We all begged Francis to let us have this one. 1528 01:26:52,848 --> 01:26:55,043 And we worked out a rental agreement, 1529 01:26:55,128 --> 01:26:58,643 and we got Peter Wolfert to send Francis a second one 1530 01:26:58,728 --> 01:27:00,400 almost immediately thereafter. 1531 01:27:00,488 --> 01:27:04,606 But the very first one that Francis wanted and was expecting 1532 01:27:04,688 --> 01:27:07,805 landed in our editing place. 1533 01:27:07,888 --> 01:27:10,243 WADLEIGH: But that machine was an absolute godsend. 1534 01:27:10,328 --> 01:27:12,364 They were everything we thought they were. 1535 01:27:12,448 --> 01:27:14,837 It was super German engineering. 1536 01:27:14,928 --> 01:27:15,917 They really worked, 1537 01:27:16,008 --> 01:27:19,045 they were wonderfully, wonderfully thought out. 1538 01:27:19,128 --> 01:27:23,599 It was a wonderful machine, quiet, beautifully designed, 1539 01:27:23,688 --> 01:27:25,280 and that's what I was working on, 1540 01:27:25,368 --> 01:27:27,723 originally, when we were cutting the Aretha Franklin footage 1541 01:27:27,808 --> 01:27:30,083 that inspired the idea of multiple images. 1542 01:27:30,168 --> 01:27:35,037 Then I aggressively went after multiple image ideas in film 1543 01:27:35,128 --> 01:27:38,643 to increase this kind of point of view potential. 1544 01:27:38,728 --> 01:27:41,037 Michael was showing me things as we went along. 1545 01:27:42,848 --> 01:27:46,158 One day, he said to me, "Fred, I'd like to do split-screen." 1546 01:27:46,248 --> 01:27:48,159 And I said, "Mike, I hate split-screen. 1547 01:27:48,248 --> 01:27:50,318 "If there's anything I hate, it's split-screen." 1548 01:27:50,408 --> 01:27:53,480 I said it usually never works. 1549 01:27:53,568 --> 01:27:55,559 He said, "Well, let me show you this, okay?" 1550 01:27:55,648 --> 01:28:00,278 And he showed me two 16mm cameras together, right, 1551 01:28:00,368 --> 01:28:04,646 and he showed me the section that he'd edited with them. 1552 01:28:05,128 --> 01:28:08,803 And it blew me away. It really got me so excited. 1553 01:28:09,288 --> 01:28:12,439 We were approached at the end of July of 1969 1554 01:28:12,528 --> 01:28:17,648 by David and Al Maysles and Porter Bibb, their producer, 1555 01:28:17,728 --> 01:28:21,607 who had heard that we had this technique, 1556 01:28:21,688 --> 01:28:25,158 and we brought them into a screening room, 1557 01:28:25,248 --> 01:28:29,844 and in the screening room, which was, maybe, 20 feet by 20 feet, 1558 01:28:29,928 --> 01:28:33,079 there were three projectors, Graflex projectors, 1559 01:28:33,168 --> 01:28:35,887 on three projector stands, 1560 01:28:35,968 --> 01:28:41,361 a three-image, two-track film 1561 01:28:41,448 --> 01:28:43,518 that was about 15 minutes in length. 1562 01:28:43,728 --> 01:28:46,003 Certainly, some of that footage proved to us 1563 01:28:46,088 --> 01:28:50,718 that if you had a great performer, and a great set of circumstances, 1564 01:28:50,808 --> 01:28:52,764 that this would add not just a gimmick, 1565 01:28:52,848 --> 01:28:56,158 but a real, new kind of way of perceiving events 1566 01:28:56,248 --> 01:28:59,365 and performances that enhanced it. 1567 01:28:59,448 --> 01:29:04,442 And this occurred, like, every time that we invited new people in. 1568 01:29:04,528 --> 01:29:08,726 We had so revolutionized Hollywood by importing 1569 01:29:08,808 --> 01:29:11,606 the first flatbed editing tables that they had ever seen. 1570 01:29:23,572 --> 01:29:27,770 The '60s generation is often called the Woodstock generation. 1571 01:29:27,852 --> 01:29:30,969 I don't think the decade had a name 1572 01:29:31,292 --> 01:29:33,169 before Woodstock happened, 1573 01:29:33,332 --> 01:29:38,725 but it enabled our media-driven society 1574 01:29:38,812 --> 01:29:43,328 to be able to put a symbol next to a feeling. 1575 01:29:43,412 --> 01:29:46,802 The '60s was a feeling among people. 1576 01:29:46,892 --> 01:29:50,328 At the time it felt like something that was just very important. 1577 01:29:50,412 --> 01:29:52,448 They were the first generation that really believed 1578 01:29:52,532 --> 01:29:55,251 that they could actually make a monumental difference. 1579 01:29:55,332 --> 01:29:58,608 And they were getting conflicting messages from the establishment. 1580 01:29:58,692 --> 01:30:00,489 "You gotta be this way. You've gotta do things." 1581 01:30:00,572 --> 01:30:03,564 And the establishment wasn't being this way 1582 01:30:03,652 --> 01:30:04,641 and wasn't doing these things. 1583 01:30:04,732 --> 01:30:07,485 My group wasn't buying that. 1584 01:30:07,572 --> 01:30:10,644 They weren't buying into the American dream, 1585 01:30:10,732 --> 01:30:12,370 as it had been presented. 1586 01:30:12,452 --> 01:30:13,726 We were more into changing things. 1587 01:30:13,812 --> 01:30:15,530 We were more into the revolution of changing. 1588 01:30:15,612 --> 01:30:17,807 We're not gonna do this, we're not gonna have jobs, 1589 01:30:17,892 --> 01:30:19,962 we don't wanna go to school, we don't wanna do any of those things. 1590 01:30:20,052 --> 01:30:24,967 I think we all meant to change it very, very, in a very peaceful way. 1591 01:30:29,252 --> 01:30:31,766 WADLEIGH: Well, of course, the ecology movement got started then. 1592 01:30:31,852 --> 01:30:34,241 The consciousness for what's happening to the planet 1593 01:30:34,332 --> 01:30:35,811 began during that era. 1594 01:30:35,892 --> 01:30:37,962 Anti-war, you know, here we are to Iraq, 1595 01:30:38,052 --> 01:30:39,610 well, it was Vietnam then. 1596 01:30:39,692 --> 01:30:42,684 This horrible war going on that nobody wanted any part of. 1597 01:30:42,772 --> 01:30:44,569 It was unpopular, but it was going on, 1598 01:30:44,652 --> 01:30:48,201 and everybody knew it was pretty much the wrong thing to be doing. 1599 01:30:48,612 --> 01:30:51,172 MONCK ON PA: The United States Army has lent us some medical teams 1600 01:30:53,732 --> 01:30:55,324 and giving us a hand. 1601 01:30:55,412 --> 01:30:56,606 (AUDIENCE CHEERING) 1602 01:30:56,692 --> 01:30:58,603 They're with us, man. They are not against us. 1603 01:30:58,692 --> 01:31:01,570 They are with us. They're here to give us all a hand and help us. 1604 01:31:01,652 --> 01:31:04,086 We, the youth of the time, 1605 01:31:04,932 --> 01:31:06,843 felt like we were sort of backed into a corner, 1606 01:31:06,932 --> 01:31:08,729 and at the same time, we were huge. 1607 01:31:10,212 --> 01:31:11,725 Woodstock showed to the world 1608 01:31:12,332 --> 01:31:15,005 all these people who had been against Vietnam, 1609 01:31:15,092 --> 01:31:17,447 against the new sexual mores, 1610 01:31:17,532 --> 01:31:19,887 all the things that were happening in the '60s 1611 01:31:19,972 --> 01:31:21,849 all came together at Woodstock. 1612 01:31:22,052 --> 01:31:25,169 It was not only anti-war, it was love in the broader sense. 1613 01:31:25,252 --> 01:31:30,690 It was a breakdown of racial boundaries, something that I very strongly feel. 1614 01:31:31,092 --> 01:31:32,605 I felt then, feel today. 1615 01:31:32,692 --> 01:31:38,608 Until 1965, you could go to a soda fountain in South Carolina 1616 01:31:38,692 --> 01:31:41,286 and not be allowed to sit next to someone who wasn't your color. 1617 01:31:41,492 --> 01:31:43,528 Also human rights, you know, gay rights, 1618 01:31:43,612 --> 01:31:46,172 women's rights, black rights, and so on, 1619 01:31:46,252 --> 01:31:48,766 that took off during that time. 1620 01:31:48,852 --> 01:31:51,889 It was a breaking down of of all the various boundaries 1621 01:31:51,972 --> 01:31:54,850 that separate men and nations. 1622 01:31:54,932 --> 01:31:59,926 That was a very rapid change, that had really affected everything 1623 01:32:00,012 --> 01:32:02,606 that was what we call the Woodstock generation. 1624 01:32:02,692 --> 01:32:07,322 All of those sort of things had a sort of mini-revolution. 1625 01:32:07,412 --> 01:32:09,289 And there it was for people to see, 1626 01:32:09,412 --> 01:32:11,721 and they could see these wonderful people, 1627 01:32:11,812 --> 01:32:14,565 and, you know, you'd been hearing about hippies and all the terrible... 1628 01:32:14,652 --> 01:32:18,440 And here they are, these wonderful, joyous people 1629 01:32:18,532 --> 01:32:20,170 having the greatest time of their life. 1630 01:32:20,252 --> 01:32:23,608 This was, you know, a show of force, 1631 01:32:25,772 --> 01:32:27,728 for everybody to say, "Okay, 1632 01:32:27,812 --> 01:32:31,043 "things are changing, and we're gonna change the world." 1633 01:32:31,132 --> 01:32:33,805 And you really felt at that time 1634 01:32:34,612 --> 01:32:36,284 that there was a difference being made here 1635 01:32:36,372 --> 01:32:38,647 just by the show of people. 1636 01:32:38,732 --> 01:32:43,010 I think that this event culminated that decade 1637 01:32:43,092 --> 01:32:45,526 and somewhat culminated that feeling. 1638 01:32:45,612 --> 01:32:48,649 Somebody was saying this was the second largest city in New York. 1639 01:32:48,732 --> 01:32:52,520 There's been no police. There's been no trouble. 1640 01:32:52,772 --> 01:32:56,003 INTERVIEWER: You said a moment ago that this wasn't the end of this festival, 1641 01:32:56,092 --> 01:32:58,606 that this was a beginning. What do you mean, a beginning? 1642 01:32:58,692 --> 01:33:01,047 ARTIE: (LAUGHS) Well, look at it. 1643 01:33:01,812 --> 01:33:03,165 MICHAEL: This is the beginning of this kind of thing. 1644 01:33:03,252 --> 01:33:04,605 ARTIE: Of this kind of thing? 1645 01:33:04,692 --> 01:33:08,287 Worldwide, I don't feel that anyone thinks that another generation, 1646 01:33:08,372 --> 01:33:09,885 even right up to now, 1647 01:33:09,972 --> 01:33:12,440 has even come close to starting a revolution 1648 01:33:12,532 --> 01:33:14,523 like the Woodstock generation did. 1649 01:33:14,612 --> 01:33:18,810 So, I'm sort of proud and excited to be part of it. 1650 01:33:19,612 --> 01:33:21,284 I'm very proud to be of that generation, 1651 01:33:21,372 --> 01:33:25,126 and I think we stopped the planet for a year or so. 1652 01:33:25,732 --> 01:33:28,644 Woodstock was like the... It was the wraparound that said, 1653 01:33:28,732 --> 01:33:31,371 "This is the Woodstock nation." 1654 01:33:31,932 --> 01:33:33,843 And because that weekend we could all cooperate, 1655 01:33:33,932 --> 01:33:37,322 there was a birth, a death, there was a cosmos there. 1656 01:33:37,412 --> 01:33:40,609 And we did, we all cooperated. I stayed out there for three nights. 1657 01:33:40,692 --> 01:33:44,446 Can't remember it all, but we were very much a part of it, 1658 01:33:45,092 --> 01:33:49,131 so it was an important cultural landmark. 1659 01:34:04,792 --> 01:34:06,589 MONCK: There were technical issues continuously. 1660 01:34:06,672 --> 01:34:09,232 The ineffective cabling on headsets 1661 01:34:09,312 --> 01:34:12,145 and trying to keep in touch with the crew, with the operators. 1662 01:34:12,232 --> 01:34:13,551 The roads got overcrowded 1663 01:34:13,632 --> 01:34:16,100 and the mechanical systems couldn't possibly work. 1664 01:34:16,192 --> 01:34:18,990 LANG: Constantly getting bands ready to get on stage, getting equipment, 1665 01:34:19,072 --> 01:34:21,540 getting everybody in one place at the right time 1666 01:34:21,632 --> 01:34:23,987 to be able to go on with the show was another... 1667 01:34:24,072 --> 01:34:27,303 GOLDSTEIN: The pump trucks for sanitation couldn't get out 1668 01:34:27,392 --> 01:34:28,871 and couldn't haul things away. 1669 01:34:29,232 --> 01:34:31,302 There were always these little things that kept coming up. 1670 01:34:31,392 --> 01:34:33,428 Things, which days before the show, 1671 01:34:33,512 --> 01:34:37,471 we were told we couldn't possibly do, was utterly illegal. 1672 01:34:37,552 --> 01:34:40,908 Mike, what's the worst part of running one of these things? 1673 01:34:40,992 --> 01:34:42,869 I don't know. I don't know. 1674 01:34:43,192 --> 01:34:44,261 It was continuous. It was... 1675 01:34:44,352 --> 01:34:48,106 As I said, there's no single incident that stands out that way. 1676 01:34:48,192 --> 01:34:50,262 It was just one after another after another. 1677 01:34:50,352 --> 01:34:54,425 EDDIE KRAMER: I remember seeing the sun coming up over the stage. 1678 01:34:54,512 --> 01:34:57,026 People were hammering and sawing and things were going on. 1679 01:34:57,112 --> 01:35:01,230 I mean, this was Friday morning and it started in about five hours. 1680 01:35:01,312 --> 01:35:03,064 And as I got closer to the stage, 1681 01:35:03,152 --> 01:35:06,622 I realized, "My God, how much work still has to be done. " 1682 01:35:06,832 --> 01:35:09,062 You know, we were kind of on the fly. 1683 01:35:09,152 --> 01:35:13,304 And the idea of the stage was a round stage cut in half, so to speak, 1684 01:35:13,392 --> 01:35:17,908 so that the first half would be the first band, 1685 01:35:17,992 --> 01:35:20,825 and then the back half would be the second band 1686 01:35:20,912 --> 01:35:22,311 with their gear ready to go. 1687 01:35:22,392 --> 01:35:24,269 And the idea would be, once the first band finished, 1688 01:35:24,352 --> 01:35:26,070 they would turn the platform, 1689 01:35:26,152 --> 01:35:29,428 and then the secondary band would be in position. 1690 01:35:29,512 --> 01:35:32,151 The whole thing was kind of jerry-rigged. 1691 01:35:32,432 --> 01:35:35,026 MONCK: There were so many people on stage 1692 01:35:35,112 --> 01:35:38,787 watching the existing act that was on and performing. 1693 01:35:38,872 --> 01:35:41,306 The problem was that they all stood on the turntable, 1694 01:35:41,392 --> 01:35:45,180 which was far more weight than they ever intended to support. 1695 01:35:45,472 --> 01:35:48,350 When I was there and something was wrong, 1696 01:35:48,432 --> 01:35:49,911 and someone said... 1697 01:35:50,072 --> 01:35:54,827 "Get off the turntable elevation because it's over loaded." 1698 01:35:55,152 --> 01:35:58,030 They attempted to turn this platform and all the wheels fell off. 1699 01:35:58,112 --> 01:35:59,227 (MIMICKING WHEELS DROPPING) 1700 01:35:59,312 --> 01:36:04,545 (LAUGHING) And it just sat like that for the entire three days. 1701 01:36:04,672 --> 01:36:07,311 MONCK: Yeah, I mean, Grace and Janis and everybody was standing on it, 1702 01:36:07,392 --> 01:36:10,782 and you know, you can't really just sweep them off with a broom, you know. 1703 01:36:10,872 --> 01:36:12,590 The best laid plans of mice and men. 1704 01:36:13,752 --> 01:36:15,310 MARCELLINO: I don't even know how they kept the power on, 1705 01:36:15,392 --> 01:36:18,031 because it really rained on Sunday. 1706 01:36:19,712 --> 01:36:21,862 MONCK ON PA: Please move away from the towers. 1707 01:36:21,952 --> 01:36:23,943 Please move away from the towers. 1708 01:36:24,032 --> 01:36:25,306 Because the ground was wet, 1709 01:36:25,392 --> 01:36:29,067 and because the cables did run into the audience to the towers... 1710 01:36:29,152 --> 01:36:33,350 Some people, at one point, thought that the power to the towers 1711 01:36:33,872 --> 01:36:37,069 was becoming exposed, the cables were becoming exposed, 1712 01:36:37,152 --> 01:36:40,508 and that because there was a field of wet people 1713 01:36:40,592 --> 01:36:43,152 that we were suddenly about to electrocute a half a million people. 1714 01:36:43,232 --> 01:36:47,942 I was frightened to death every second. I didn't want anyone to get hurt. 1715 01:36:48,352 --> 01:36:50,741 And then, to hear the stories of how the stage was sinking. 1716 01:36:50,832 --> 01:36:53,744 When we played, the stage was collapsing, 1717 01:36:53,832 --> 01:36:56,426 people screaming, "The stage is collapsing, the PA is out! " 1718 01:36:56,512 --> 01:36:57,991 Everybody was getting shocks. 1719 01:36:58,072 --> 01:37:00,905 It was not necessarily the safest place to be. 1720 01:37:00,992 --> 01:37:02,630 You know, things like that would come up, and you'd have to 1721 01:37:02,712 --> 01:37:04,543 sort of suss them out and see what the reality was, 1722 01:37:04,632 --> 01:37:06,350 and then go deal with it. 1723 01:37:06,712 --> 01:37:08,145 I think we can be very, very proud 1724 01:37:08,232 --> 01:37:11,907 of what we accomplished in the face of enormous obstacles. 1725 01:37:12,392 --> 01:37:14,906 There were so many things that could've been disastrous, 1726 01:37:14,992 --> 01:37:18,302 you know, but it all just made it, it all just made it. 1727 01:37:32,668 --> 01:37:35,307 I know I slept in a pile of velour under the stage at one time. 1728 01:37:35,388 --> 01:37:38,141 I had a trailer down at the lake 1729 01:37:38,988 --> 01:37:42,185 which was my lighting booth for Newport, about a 40-footer. 1730 01:37:42,428 --> 01:37:46,580 We slept in the back of the tractor trailer on the floor. 1731 01:37:47,588 --> 01:37:48,577 If you could call it sleeping, 1732 01:37:48,668 --> 01:37:50,898 it was a few hours, if that, every night. 1733 01:37:51,068 --> 01:37:53,138 Some of the guys in the band, I think, actually went back 1734 01:37:53,228 --> 01:37:57,221 to whatever facilities they had for performers to stay at. 1735 01:37:57,308 --> 01:38:02,098 But I figured, as long as I was there, I was gonna, you know, just sort of dive in. 1736 01:38:02,348 --> 01:38:06,421 (CHUCKLING) I might as well just stay dirty, and be part of it all, yeah. 1737 01:38:06,788 --> 01:38:09,177 When you see the brown acid announcement, 1738 01:38:09,268 --> 01:38:13,864 you can tell by my fingernails and the color of my hands that, you know, 1739 01:38:13,948 --> 01:38:16,621 we didn't get anywhere close to any water. 1740 01:38:17,068 --> 01:38:18,945 I did not, for the record, 1741 01:38:19,028 --> 01:38:22,259 I did not go and swim naked in the lake. Period. 1742 01:38:22,348 --> 01:38:26,899 I think skinny-dipping is just beautiful if you want to do it, if you can do it. 1743 01:38:26,988 --> 01:38:28,501 But some people can't 1744 01:38:28,588 --> 01:38:33,821 because their environment made them, you know, feel that it's wrong. 1745 01:38:36,908 --> 01:38:38,819 LISA LAW: We had discussions about 1746 01:38:38,908 --> 01:38:41,024 how we were gonna feed these people that were coming. 1747 01:38:41,108 --> 01:38:44,817 And we were out scrounging around some aluminum pots and this and that, 1748 01:38:44,908 --> 01:38:46,057 and I looked at the whole scene 1749 01:38:46,148 --> 01:38:49,299 and I said, "We don't need to scrounge." 1750 01:38:49,388 --> 01:38:53,347 The Hog Farm was able to get bushels and bushels of brown rice. 1751 01:38:53,428 --> 01:38:55,623 Now, that's what they served at the food booths. 1752 01:38:56,148 --> 01:39:00,380 I ended up buying 160,000 paper plates, forks, knives and spoons 1753 01:39:00,468 --> 01:39:03,460 and about 30,000 paper cups. 1754 01:39:03,548 --> 01:39:07,382 And it's a good thing I did, because they all went. 1755 01:39:07,468 --> 01:39:08,457 Everything went. 1756 01:39:08,548 --> 01:39:13,747 So that's how I figured that we fed between 160,000 to 190,000 people 1757 01:39:13,828 --> 01:39:15,546 at the Hog Farm free kitchen. 1758 01:39:15,628 --> 01:39:19,223 They would come up and we were frantically trying to keep things going, 1759 01:39:19,308 --> 01:39:21,378 and someone would just stick a hot dog in your mouth. 1760 01:39:21,468 --> 01:39:23,698 That was about, maybe one or two hot dogs 1761 01:39:23,788 --> 01:39:26,097 (CHUCKLING) was about what we ate that whole time. 1762 01:39:26,188 --> 01:39:29,942 But we didn't care, because we knew it was something fantastic. 1763 01:39:30,268 --> 01:39:33,783 LANG: At one point, the "Food for Love " guys, who were our concessionaires, 1764 01:39:33,868 --> 01:39:36,257 were running low on hamburgers. 1765 01:39:36,348 --> 01:39:38,987 So they raised the prices from a quarter to a dollar, 1766 01:39:39,588 --> 01:39:42,705 and that displeased a bunch of people, so they went up and burned them down. 1767 01:39:42,788 --> 01:39:45,939 Now, there's a guy up there, some hamburger guy, 1768 01:39:46,028 --> 01:39:48,781 that had his stand burned down last night, 1769 01:39:49,908 --> 01:39:52,183 but he's still got a little stuff left, 1770 01:39:52,268 --> 01:39:56,261 and for you people that still believe that capitalism isn't that weird, 1771 01:39:56,348 --> 01:39:58,782 you might help him out and buy a couple of hamburgers. 1772 01:39:59,108 --> 01:40:02,145 So I went around, making sure that there was enough food 1773 01:40:02,228 --> 01:40:03,866 for the cooks to use, 1774 01:40:03,948 --> 01:40:05,825 and then I would check on the medical tents. 1775 01:40:05,908 --> 01:40:08,297 I was trying to get some rest in that tent, 1776 01:40:08,388 --> 01:40:10,106 there was a couple of other people in there with me. 1777 01:40:10,188 --> 01:40:12,861 At which point, 1778 01:40:12,948 --> 01:40:15,781 one of the medical personnel came around. 1779 01:40:15,868 --> 01:40:19,019 The nurses came around and said, "Anybody want a shot?" "Okay." 1780 01:40:19,108 --> 01:40:22,544 So they gave us this really painful vitamin B shot 1781 01:40:22,628 --> 01:40:23,617 right in the ass. 1782 01:40:23,708 --> 01:40:25,300 And I tried to explain, "I can't, my arms..." 1783 01:40:25,388 --> 01:40:26,980 He just gave me a shot of B12. 1784 01:40:27,068 --> 01:40:29,104 Oh, Jesus, God, did that hurt! 1785 01:40:29,188 --> 01:40:30,860 But it helped, you know. 1786 01:40:30,948 --> 01:40:33,462 (LAUGHING) Don't know what it helped with, but it definitely helped something. 1787 01:40:33,548 --> 01:40:34,583 I felt great. 1788 01:40:34,668 --> 01:40:35,657 (LAUGHING) 1789 01:40:35,748 --> 01:40:37,261 There was a performers' pavilion. 1790 01:40:37,468 --> 01:40:39,345 Then, all of a sudden, all that went to hell, 1791 01:40:39,428 --> 01:40:41,658 because they needed it for emergency, you know. 1792 01:40:41,748 --> 01:40:47,459 I had to stand up to one of the older producers 1793 01:40:47,548 --> 01:40:50,858 and say that we had to have the crew tent, 1794 01:40:50,948 --> 01:40:52,984 which was where we were supposed to eat. 1795 01:40:53,068 --> 01:40:56,663 We had to convert it into a hospital, we had no choice. 1796 01:40:56,748 --> 01:40:59,467 A lot of kids in town didn't have anything to eat. 1797 01:40:59,548 --> 01:41:01,778 Word went out that everybody should contribute food. 1798 01:41:01,868 --> 01:41:04,177 We went over to the park 1799 01:41:04,268 --> 01:41:07,101 and the village permitted them to camp there. 1800 01:41:07,188 --> 01:41:11,101 A police car went up the street here with a loudspeaker 1801 01:41:11,188 --> 01:41:12,382 and told the kids to come up there. 1802 01:41:12,468 --> 01:41:15,187 We fed them Saturday night, all day Sunday. 1803 01:41:15,908 --> 01:41:18,342 MAN 1: If you got food, feed other people. 1804 01:41:19,068 --> 01:41:22,777 Bugsy, to the pink and white tent. Keep feeding each other... 1805 01:41:22,868 --> 01:41:25,336 Pretty soon, everybody was taking care of everybody else, 1806 01:41:25,428 --> 01:41:27,384 and that's what Woodstock was about. 1807 01:41:27,468 --> 01:41:30,585 ...and if you're too tired to chew, pass it on.