Detriot's Showcase Theatre:

Detroit's newly booming live music scene-in the middle of the New Depression, no less- has been made possible in large part by the opening (or reopening) of several nightclubs, bars, and halls which provide work for musicians, top entertainment for their audiences and a sense of hope for the cultural future of the area. The music is always happening as anyone into it knows, but it must have proper outlets in order to feed the musicians physically and spiritually. The rampant monopolization of music by the music industry over the past 5 years or so has made the big concert in the big arena has become de rigeur simply because more money can be made faster by less people that way and that's the name of the game in The Biz. Promoters who were once content to do shows in ballrooms and small arenas (less than 2,500 seats) have moved the same concerts as the audience has increased, leaving a void at the bottom end of the scale which has in turn grown larger each year. We will deal with this phenomenon in greater depth here over the next few months; our coverage in this issue of two of the most promising developments-Lowman's Westside Club and the Showcase Theater-is intended to simply introduce you to the issue, and to turn you on to two places we've enjoyed ourselves over the last couple months and which could certainly use your support.

DETROIT'S SHOWCASE THEATERS:

"PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS"

There was no one In the box office on a Tuesday evening and one of the lobby doors was unlocked, so we stepped into the gloom of the large foyer of the Showcase Tlieatre and blinked back at the darkness. John Salvador, barely visible, stretched out his hand and voiced, "Hey, c'mon in, the Average White Band is in there practicing and it's pretty nice in here today."

Sure enough. the young soul stirrers from Scotland were arrayed across the stage, rambling loosely through some new material, and the Showcase staff was busy making sure the band would get the most out of their stay. AWB had a day off from touring and wanted to spend it rehearsing before hitting the IMA in Flint on Wednesday. The Atlantic Records man had called Salvador, and presto, here they were, everything in order, grinding away on the choicest rehearsal stage in town.

The Showcase Theatre on Harper just off Van Dyke, is currently in its third recent incarnation as a music venue- it's been opened twice before- in 1969 and again in 1973, as the Eastown-and John Salvador is the person who's put together the Showcase trip. Having the AWB jamming on his stage in the middle of the afternoon fits right in with his plans, and the only question now seems to be how long it will take him to realize his aspirations for the place.

Salvador's had a lot of hard-luck trying to come up with a small concert hall, you see startng back in 1971 and continuing until, well, this past weekend, for example, when Toots & the Maytals canceled out the day before they were to mount the Showcase stage for theír first Detroit performance ever. Toots was sick, it appeared. but that didn't help cover the advertising that was already placed, the other bands already contracted, the potential audience's dreams of reggae glory blown up to proper proportion. But Salvador has had so many terrible experiences of this nature that one must simply admire his remarkable perseverance and his unshakeable commitment to provide the Detroit music community with a 2000-seat showcase theater environment.

The trip started in 1971. when Salvador and two partners began looking at the Tumbleweed Ballroom in Walled Lake as a means by which to begin to replace the ballroom scene of two and three years before. That didn't work out, and in 1972 they turned to the historic Grande Ballroom itself as the site of their rejuvenation concerts, Ted Nugent. the MC-5, Wishbone Ash. and other bands. mostly from the Detroit area, were presented in dance concerts at the Grande on a fairly sporadic basis, related directly to their ability to put bills together which would draw enough people to make them work.

As Salvador and his partners; Joe Peraino and Whitey Halberg grew more successful with their Grande gigs. the Ballroom's owner-Gabe Glantz got the familiar feeling that he would take all of the action himself. He set his son Steve up, according to Salvador, to hire the same bands tor the most desirable dales on the Grande's calendar, thus narrowing the trio's effective choices down to one: get out of the Grande. They did a couple of shows at the St. Clair Shores Civic Arena, including a very successful Bob Seger-Stooges-Catfish Hodge concert, and a hall party or two, while placing their hopes for a permanent facility in the hands of a realtor. The realtor came up with the Eastown Theatre. Harper & VanDyke, the building which gave Bob (Bamboo Productions) Bageris his start in 1969, which he and Gabe Glantz, his forced partner ran into the ground in 1971, and which was now sitting idle in the middle of a deteriorating neighborhood. Once a family theatre, Bageris had torn out the seats of the Eastown to increase his seating capacity, and the interior had gone straight down from that point. The typical Glantz trademarks-broken toilets. flaking paint. filth and gloom overall- came fully into play when the money-hungry attorney bogarted his way into Bageris' trip, and it was only a matter of time before city authorities closed the Eastown down in response to endless complaints from patrons, residents of the area, people's organizations. and assorted media.

Salvador, Peraino, and Halberg filed papers as "Eastown Productions," made a deal with the building's owner- Ed Detrich of Forrester-Hills Management- for the ballroom, gave the place a cleaning and started negotiating with booking agents and city agencies simultaneously, preparing to reopen as the Eastown Theatre. With talent secured for their opening show in July. 1973-Joe Walsh, R.E.O. Speedwagon, and Rusty Day's DETROIT-Eastown Productions began catching holy hell from every possible direction.

The city refused to grant the promised license, the neighbors began a renewed assault on what they viewed as an insensitive invasion of their community by dope fiends and degenerates, and the Detroit Free Press- in a rare demonstration of their concern for innocent concert-goers- slammed the Eastown repeatedly. But the biggest problem came from within when Eastown Productions retained Gabe Glantz as their attorney in the licensing hassle ("He said he already had a license to operate the Eastown." Salvador offered) and made the mistake of discussing their contingency plans with him.

"Our intention was, if we couldn't get the Eastown approved, to go into the Michigan Palace, downtown, where we had been talking with Dr. Leo Spears already," Salvador told us. "Glantz ran down to Spears with a $50,000 check and took a ten-year lease on the Palace. Then he appointed Steve Glantz to run the place the way we had intended to do it. We held them up for six months or so while we fought it, but we just couldn't get around the Glantzes."

It is here that our present story begins. Eastown Productions, having no further prospects to speak of, disbanded, with Peraino going eventually into business as Sterling Diversions and Halberg switching to work as a booking agent in the area. Salvador himself went to work for the owner of the Eastown property and his land-management company, and over the course of time, he convinced his boss to let him renovate the building's interior and make one more try at presenting concerts the right way this time.

That was two years ago, in late 1973. Now, after untold hours of work on the theatre and a terrible string of disasters relieved only by a near-perfect Bob Marley & the Wailers concert this summer, John Salvador has to his infinite credit one of the most comfortable, well run, attractively decked-out small concert halls in creation. His problems with the city are over "Alex Pollack, of the Mayor's Merchant Assistance Program, has helped us throughout the reconstruction process," says Salvador, "and the Young administration, in general, has made a world of difference"-and even the neighbors are feeling better about the Showcase. A police mini-station is now located directly across the street from the front doors of the theatre, ample guarded parking space is available behind the near-by Cunningham's drugstore, and the interior of the place has changed so much it's barely recognizable. (The new seats, incidentally, were bought from the Ford Auditorium when the Symphony's backers had it redone last year.)

An ambitious booking program, which would have been highlighted by a Steppenwolf/Canned Heat show on Sept. 20th (broken up by the Michigan Palace's raid of Steppenwolf) and the Toots & the Maytals concert this past weekend (canceled due to illness), has been put together by Salvador and his friend Rick Kay, head of Brass Ring Productions. In order to cover some of their unanticipated expenses and to push the Showcase's name into wider circles. they'll also be doing some programs at Masonic this fall and winter, beginning with George Carlin on Oct. I8th and the Detroit debut of the Tubes, Oct. 27th. Quicksilver, along with Frankie Miller's Highlife band will be at the theatre itself on the 25th, and hopefully, there'll be a lot more to follow. It's been a long hard road, as a popular Motor City ditty goes. but everything seems to be in order this time, and if the bookings can hold up for a while Detroiters should enjoy the presence of the Showcase Theatre for some time to come. Or as the Ching puts it, "Perseverance Furthers. Success!"